Book 7, Chapter 89: Distinguishing Immortality and Divinity (1/2)

In the blink of an eye, a year had passed

During these past few years, the outside world had been incredibly busy The kingdoms were still ehting a a sea of blood

The Barbarians had also made their e Barbarians to have suddenly unified into a single large kingdom

These Barbarians were both vicious and unified, and they posed a significant threat to the humans Some even proposed to put the internal conflicts on hold and deal with the outside invaders first Unfortunately, those nobles’ bloodthirst was insatiable, and they refused to back down

As for the Gods, that was even less likely The system of divine worshi+p that had been so clear in the past suddenly seemed muddled and unclear

First, the Moon Goddess Church had forcibly annexed the Winter God Church Even though they had seely done it for the proper reasons, it still incited quite a severe backlash, causing many people to worry about the Moon Goddess Church’s ambition

Next came the appearance of the Shadowless Sky Church, which also stunned quite a few people

What church were they supposed to be?

Where had they come from?

The Shadowless Sky God?

They had never heard of him before!

There were only supposed to be twenty-three Gods still re Where had this twenty-fourth suddenly appeared from?

If you claimed they were real, why had they never been heard of before?

But if you claimed they were fake, then what about the ? It see more than all of the other twenty-three Gods combined

Purely in terms of outward activity, the Shadowless Sky God appeared to be the only true God, and the other Gods were all fake

Naturally, the Shadowless Sky Church grew at an unprecedented rate

This groas also closely related to the way that the church had elected to expand The Shadowless Sky Church would not actively proselytize, nor would they try and make any moves on another church’s territory

But they needed o to a city and perfor on this tactic to capture the interest of many potential disciples Then, they would leave with those disciples By the tiht on, those disciples would be long gone Because they didn’t interfere in any way other than to heal the sick, theircommoners of low status As such, their societal inificant either, and many churches were happy to see this take place

Not long afterward, however, these churches discovered that a new gathering location had been built in the wilderness not far away fro their own city!

Based on what the civilians were saying, the Shadowless Sky God possessed an extraordinary power that could not only dispel pestilence but also confer life to inanis, and dispense food

The other churches were stunned The co the church, not the other way around When had the status quo been flipped?

To Frost, the church’s mission was not i was not iarner faith The more believers they had, the less faith would be supplied to the Gods, and the weaker they would beco their strength

Was it really that surprising that Frost illing to take care of the needs of the commoners?

Not only so, but he had done his best to limit the restrictions on the disciples’ behaviors For instance, he kept sermons short so that the disciples could more easily remember the important prayers; he kept the core tenets simple - follow the Shadowless Sky God and you will be blessed, or else suffer a curse; and he increased the repetitious nature of then the brainwashi+ng effect

Frost himself did not need belief, as it had no value to hirip on the hearts of those believers, he needed to establish a systeer faith On the other hand, if iy could devour divine power, could he try to absorb faith?

Frost spent quite a bit of ti this question

Actually, Su Chen had considered this issue even when he was back in the Origin Realuesses had reree less re to siphon faith away froain soy were actually two distinct kinds of energy One drew from the outside world, while the other drew from an individual themselves

And divine power’s faith requirements were actually a reflection of a need for consciousness energy

Faith was a kind of consciousness energy When disciples worshi+pped a certain target, their consciousness energy would be transh power, such as an innate comprehension of Method Power, they would be able to absorb that consciousness energy

And when enough faith was being supplied to any individual over a long period of time, the connection between the physical body and the consciousness would not only give the individual a powerful consciousness but would also begin to affect an individual’s vitality

In other words, offering sacrifices of faith supplied the Gods with both consciousness energy and vitality This would meet the Gods’ needs and allow them to live forever In other words, these creatures were perpetually offering up their lifeforce to sustain a God’s existence

The Gods relied on this y, on the other hand, was generated from within an individual That individual would possess a power that was not dependent on the environment

A philosophy that had once been quite prevalent in human society was the idea of the existence of torlds: one outside of an individual, and one within The path of cultivation primarily dealt with this inorld However, such a philosophy was a little too abstract and si one’s cultivation base with cultivation resources

Abstractions could never truradually faded froinal conceiver of the idea was

Su Chen’s discovery of iy, however, had confirh he had recognized it as a possibility in the past, only noas he beginning to understand it in a fuller way