Chapter 658 (2/2)
So throughout the entire journey, he pondered and deliberated on how he could perfect his plan.
Finally, he came up with a plan, which was none other than this.
Judging from the effect after the actual implementation, this plan should be considered a success. The higher-ups of Mill City had a brief discussion and decided on several strategies like the “invitation to the Church of the Void Mask to come and preach,” the “establishment of a temple for the Void God System,” the “strengthening of communication with the Republic of Northwest,” and the “effort to promote a mutual friendship.”
Although this was a little inferior to the ideal result, such an outcome was more than enough for him to report to the Void Mask on his mission.
And… in fact, such a result might be for the best, as it was something everyone could accept. He also did not need to worry about triggering the Federation’s higher-ups, and in particular, he did not need to worry that his teacher would suddenly fly into a great rage and make an appearance to expel him from his school of disciples. His Majesty, the Void Mask could also smoothly pave a way for his church to enter Mill City and the surrounding area.
As for what would happen in the future to the gods who had eternal life, so long as there was a good beginning, what remained to be done would be nothing more than a meticulous job.
Time was something the gods never lacked.
In fact, Sui Xiong also thought so. When he first received Hailaer’s report and knew about the result of the meeting among the higher-ups of Mill City, he sang high praises of Hailaer.
“Very well, this is a beginning that I’m satisfied with,” said a voice that seemed to be spoken with a smile, as the shadow of a jellyfish floated before Hailaer. “Don’t worry, we’ll just let it slowly develop like that. So long as the end result is something good, I’m not bothered about how much time is spent.”
This was exactly in line with Hailaer’s speculation, so he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and put his heart to rest.
And after Sui Xiong ended contact with Hailaer, Hailaer started to think about something else.
With his ability, he could totally strive for the development of his church by helping those aged lords to continue living. He believed that when faced with the temptation of being able to live another few more years, such a thing as preaching was insignificant. It should probably be considered as nothing much at all.
At least for a majority of the lords, it was nothing much to them.
There were also people in this world, of course, who attached immeasurable importance to belief and who would rather die than make any compromise in this aspect. But among the aristocrats, such a group of people should be relatively few. Among the aged aristocrats, the number would be even smaller.
On one hand, the moral standards of the aristocratic community were generally a little low. But on the other hand, it was often not easy for such honest and stubborn people to live long…
Such a situation where bad money forced good money out of circulation was by no means a good thing for territorial land. It was harmful to the entire aristocratic community. But to Sui Xiong, who wanted to carry out his preaching on a massive scale, this situation was certainly beneficial.
So long as he lowered his expectation on the terms of exchange by a slight degree, most of the aristocrats would presumably be willing to make this deal.
The only problem was… was helping these aristocrats to extend their lives on such a massive scale really a good thing?
This was the problem Sui Xiong was most worried about.
This problem was neither big nor small. Though he would not easily help people to enter the Legendary Realm, helping so many people to continue living for a long time was something that would affect the order of the entire society.
It would also affect the attitude of the gods.
Among them all, the one most likely to show a violent reaction was of course the Grim Reaper.
The teachings of the Grim Reaper said that death was nothing scary; just like birth, it was an inevitable destination afterlife. From birth to death, this would be a complete cycle. So the Grim Reaper and his followers found spells like “Raising the Dead” and “Creating Soul-Binding Corpses” extremely revolting. They had always been trying hard to fight the necromancers.
Previously, when Sui Xiong had trusted Tu Ya’an with an important position on dealing with the matter of skeleton labor, the Grim Reaper showed the most aggressive objection.
At that time, he was very worried about whether the Grim Reaper would wage a war of gods against him—that master of the underworld might not strike frequently, but he was extremely powerful. He was himself a great Divine Power, and though he had no god followers under his command, he had a large number of dead souls at the demigod level. Especially when the underworld was connected to countless worlds, how many masters had been bred? What kind of profound inside information was there? No one really knew.
Don’t you see? Even the God of Glory, who had led the humans in defeating several races, had never gotten into any conflicts with the Grim Reaper.
Also, even back when the Master of War, who had a belligerent nature and relished in combats, wanted to recruit followers of god with the priesthood of death, he had hesitated repeatedly. He had even made a trip to the underworld personally and made that decision only after he had a detailed discussion with the Grim Reaper.
Therefore, it was apparent that the Grim Reaper was a strong deterrent force with strong power!
Sui Xiong truly did not want to have any conflict with the Grim Reaper. They already had a huge one before. If there was a next time, he was afraid they would really go to battle!
And… previously when he had a conflict with the Master of Mystery, it had already led to his spellcasting ability being locked. If it was not for the Master of Mystery who softened his attitude later, up till now, he might still be a primitive who was incapable of casting spells.
If both were to get into a conflict with the absolute control over “death,” what would the Grim Reaper do to him?
Sui Xiong could not recall for the time being, but he also did not want to delve into this problem. He truly and absolutely, no matter what, was determined not to ever stir up unnecessary trouble again!
Now that his place was getting bigger and bigger, every move he made concerned the lives of countless people. If he created trouble and brought in devilish demons, even if he was able to win every single battle, he would not be able to guarantee that the people under his command would be safe.
For instance, in a certain war of gods, a god’s casual strike on a certain village or town in the Republic of Northwest…
Especially when the Grim Reaper was no ordinary god. In this world, the souls of the vast majority of people who have died would head for the underworld. Even with all the gods put together, the number of souls they could salvage was only two-thirds of the total, the remaining 30 to 20 percent of souls would eventually have to enter the Grim Reaper’s sphere of influence.
If Sui Xiong made the Grim Reaper angry, the Grim Reaper might not even need to come fight him. Any slight tweak to the treatment the civilians of the Republic of Northwest would be subjected to after death was more than enough to make Sui Xiong grimace in pain with a splitting headache.
This was what it meant to not be afraid of the county magistrate, but to be fearful of the current official-in-charge!
He, the mighty Xiong, would never grow old and die, but the civilians of the Republic of Northwest eventually would!
This was just like the famous saying, “I’d rather offend the one who kills, but I’ll never offending the one who saves.” The one who killed people might not necessarily succeed in killing you, but the one who saved people who most probably be able to save your life.
Before traversing worlds, Sui Xiong had actually witnessed such an incident: One of his secondary school classmates went up to a technical secondary school after graduating from junior high school and then majored in nursing. Five years later, he graduated and became a nurse. He worked in a small hospital that was near Sui Xiong’s house. On a certain day, there was medical trouble in that hospital that stirred up the entire hospital and threw everyone off their feet. It was unknown how many people had suffered from the trouble that bastard caused. At that time, everyone merely put up with the situation, but they were all secretly muttering, “You disdainful prick, you better not fall at the mercy of my hands.”
Later on, that crackpot really fell at the mercy of their hands when he himself also fell sick. It was quite a troublesome illness too.
Talking about the follow-up events of that incident truly made no difference at all. In short, Sui Xiong learned two very profound lessons:
Firstly, never offend a doctor, not even a nurse should be offended. Secondly, if one really offended a doctor or nurse, it was best to move to another place.
But in this world, if he really offended the Grim Reaper, it would be useless regardless of where he moved to! So after repeated deliberation, he finally made up his mind and set off for the underworld.
He might possibly make the Grim Reaper angry, or he might even have to suffer a loss, but if he wanted to say anything, he should just directly do so without thinking too much. To help such a big group of people extend their life was something so massive, if he did not even mention a word about it…
Haha, it was still better to go and ask to be certain.