Chapter 230: Link the Fire? (1/2)

Most of the time, Xi Wei only has a murky perception towards all that existed outside his divine kingdom, and he could only feel it when an enemy touches its barriers.

Like a person hiding themselves in a house, they wouldn’t notice someone passing by if they didn’t look up deliberately—logically speaking.

Still, that was logically speaking.

Should some illogical situation occurred, such as a Godzilla passing by outside, crumbling sky and ground with every step and leaving the world trembling, even a blind man hiding in the house would know what was happening…

And that situation was a little similar to what was occurring right now.

Something unknown was slowly passing by outside, but Xi Wei’s whole ball form stiffened from the horrific presence alone.

“Don’t worry,” Flintman whispered when he sensed Xi Wei’s confusion. “Your divine kingdom is remote and hard to find—we won’t get caught so easily. And I also did place a little something outside your divine kingdom to make it harder for that fella to find this place.

Xi Wei: “…”

So, you’re the one who led that devilry here, brat!

Still, Xi Wei finally realized that the cuckolded God of Flames was the one passing by at the void outside thanks to Flintman’s explanation, which also made him profoundly understand the gap between a greater god and a noob god like himself.

Xi Wei had felt a little bloated because of his successes in defeating Rotten Bones, temporarily clearing the trial of the Ocean Goddess and successfully convincing most gods of the Invisible Pantheon to partner with his own church. His perception that there was all there was to these native gods gradually took hold.

His little tricks were simply peanuts compared to absolute power. Even if his silver tongue could fool the other guy for a moment, he wouldn’t have the time to try another round of persuasion before he got instakilled once they realized what had happened.

Indeed, those tales where words alone had resolved various crises and even claimed victory are glorified throughout the ages mostly because they couldn’t be replicated, and because everything could go wrong because of the most minor unexpected occurrence!

There might those who sneer at such notions, believing that smartness alone was enough to have the powerful run in circles while they revel in immeasurable self-satisfaction. That was only because they had no idea what ‘absolute power’ meant!

The so-called powerful in folktales bound by various circumstances basically wouldn’t count as ‘absolute power’.

When one is really facing ‘absolute power’, the tiniest error or even some uncontrollable variable (such as the powerful having a bad mood on that particular day) would leave every effort thus far to waste, regardless of whether the clever one had set up some elaborate scheme and stunning strategy to direct the actions of the powerful.

The clever one might even pay for it with their lives!

It was true that Xi Wei had diligently nurtured his mortal Players in ability and influence after transmigrating to this world. With his ability that was almost a bug in itself, the Players were growing just as he envisioned (despite their constant trouble-seeking behavior).

On the other hand, the growth of Xi Wei’s individual wasn’t obvious aside from the two occasions where he consumed divinities, since most of his power was used to strengthen his Players and develop their abilities.

But after feeling the horrific presence of the God of Flames, the thought of becoming powerful once again wormed into Xi Wei’s head, even applying pressure and threat upon him.

All at once, Xi Wei resolved himself despite initially hesitating whether he should have the Players fight the zombie dragons and undead orks.

The deviant divine power that could be extracted from Nightcry’s body might not be much, but he might be able to study the origins of that divine power if more could be gained by slaying the zombie dragons and undead orks.

He might even go further to find a safe measure of absorbing that divine power.

Given that the deviant divine power was highly infectious and might have the potential of wiping out all life on a continent, its concentrated mass is not something to be underestimated by a newbie god like Xi Wei.

If he could collect them all, he might be able to gather divine power that could match what he could gather from the Ocean Goddess’s Sea Sapphires!

And if he really could safely absorb the deviant divine power, Xi Wei had a feeling that he could surpass the limits of being a third-rate god and truly ascend as a lesser deity—and one of the top lesser deities at that.

But even as a myriad of ideas swirled in Xi Wei’s head, either because his divine kingdom really was too remote and too small or because Flintman’s ‘little something’ worked, the God of Flames seemed to take no notice of Xi Wei’s divine kingdom.

That frightening energy hence slowly moved away from his divine kingdom and into the void.

“Phew! That surprised me. I didn’t think that he would react so quickly…”

Flintman looked relieved. “But there’s no guarantee that the fella would not turn around. I have to get away soon.”

“Eh? Leaving so soon?” Xi Wei was rather surprised.

“Are you for real? It might be dark now, but what I face is a fire that burns without end like the sun.” Flintman smiled smugly, pointing at the fireball hovering above his shoulder.

A small flame wafted out of the fireball then, which Flintman handed to Xi Wei with a rather pained look. “I told you I won’t freeload, so here’s the First Flame—it’s the primordial fire of this world which I stole from the God of Flames. Though I can’t give you the whole thing, giving you a strand is not a problem!”

“…”