Chapter 1171 - This Cannot Be Called a Betrayal (2/2)
Although the Machinery Faith supported complete freedom in beliefs, ordinary believers who were completely unaffected were still the minority. Therefore, Zax, who publicly changed his belief, was the most conspicuous where he lived. Although the neighbors would not do anything, they would definitely not be friendly to him.
This was especially clear when it came to his good friend Modir, who was a loyal believer of the Mechanic Emperor. After Zax changed to worship Black Star, Modir came to persuade him many times, which always ended in intense debates. The topic of the debate was the authenticity of that tied battle, which Zax felt was reliable while Modir insisted it was fake and just a method to make the Mechanic Emperor look bad.
They could not convince each other, and gradually, they stopped seeing each other. It had been many days since they spoke.
While pondering, Zax followed the crowd to the temple square while maintaining a faithful mindset. He took the festival items from the priest and then walked to the Black Star Temple. Every Mechanical Deity had their own sub-temple.
While on the way, Zax noticed the difference. In the past, there were hardly any Black Star believers. Although the numbers did increase after the Intelligent Plague incident, there were still very few, at most one-tenth of the number of believers the Mechanic Emperor had. The other sub-temples were always quiet, far from the festivity of the Mechanic Emperor Temple.
This time, however, he was pleasantly surprised to realize that there were many times more believers who were heading toward the Black Star Temple.
“More and more people are agreeing with me. I knew my choice was right. Black Star is more worth worshipping than the Mechanic Emperor.”
He walked into the Black Star Temple filled with happiness. The inside was extremely boisterous. Many times more believers gathered compared to before, so much so that people might mistake this for the Mechanic Emperor Temple.
Very soon, Zax completed a full set of festival procedures. As he was just about to step aside for the person behind him, he suddenly caught a glance of someone familiar.
“Hmm? Modir? Why are you here?”
Hearing someone call him, Modir turned around. When he realized that it was Zax, his expression turned unnatural. He quickly covered his face with his hand and walked away.
Seeing this, Zax instantly caught up to him, grabbed his arm, and refused to let him get away.
“What a coincidence, I didn’t expect to see you here.” Zax’s expression was filled with mockery.
“Hehe, it’s coincidental indeed. I wanted to go to the Mechanic Emperor Temple initially, but silly me, I got lost.” Modir’s smile was stiff.
“The Mechanic Emperor Temple is in the opposite direction. How did you get lost? Did you just follow the crowd, and because there are many people here, you went the wrong way?” Zax said mockingly.
“Yes, yes, that’s right.” Modir quickly agreed.
“Then… what’s this!” Zax suddenly reached into Modir’s pocket and took out a mechanical item. It was a statue of Black Star that was made to be placed inside homes for worshipping. He looked at the distressed Modir and chuckled. “Don’t tell me you bought the wrong one. You’d have to be blind to do so. Tell me the truth, did you also betray the Mechanic Emperor and change to worship Black Star?”
“Nonsense! Betray what?” Modir’s face was blushing fully as he tried his best to justify himself. “Can this really be considered a betrayal when it comes to believers?”
Zax chuckled with derision and did not speak.
Being stared at by an old friend, Modir quickly became less confident. He softly murmured, “Don’t laugh, alright. I admit it. I’ve started to worship Black Star.”
“Yo, now you admit. Why were you still quibbling earlier?”
“Misunderstanding… It’s all a misunderstanding…” Modir’s face was burning red.
The two of them had debated the topic dozens of times. He had insisted that Black Star was inferior to the Mechanic Emperor. However, the recordings of Black Star cutting the Mechanic Emperor’s avatar into pieces a few days ago slapped his face so hard it was swollen. Hence, he secretly scolded the Mechanic Emperor and changed his belief. He was afraid of getting laughed at, so he hid the fact that he had changed his beliefs, which was why he was avoiding his old friend.
Seeing him like this, Zax shook his head with dissatisfaction. “You have clearly only just started worshipping Black Star. A complete newbie, you don’t understand the essence of it at all.”
“The essence?” Modir was very interested but was too embarrassed to ask further.
Zax placed his hands on his waist and said confidently, “Humph, look at you, getting awkward and embarrassed in the face of something so trivial. Shameful, what part of that looks like us Black Star believers? As believers of Black Star, you cannot have other things, but your skin must be thick!”
“That’s a saying?” Modir’s eyes opened wide.
“Of course! This is the attitude to life that Black Star has taught us. Often, you feel like you’ve embarrassed yourself, you feel awkward, but… who cares about how you feel? Don’t be so narcissistic!”
“Huh?” Modir opened his mouth wide, wanting to say something but stopping himself.
“Shut up. Don’t ask so many questions and let me tell you the doctrine.” Zax stared at him.
“… But I haven’t asked anything‽”
“Ahem, anyway, as believers, we have to learn the incredible parts of our idol. Black Star’s thick skin is known throughout the universe. Look at me. I didn’t even move house. I don’t care what they say. If they dare come and debate with me, I’ll take it as teaching them a lesson. Look at you, you’re already worshipping Black Star, yet you’re afraid of letting others know. Unqualified!”
“Sounds sensible… Is there anything else I should be aware of?” Modir humbly asked.
“Of course. Black Star told us that a qualified Mechanic should train his body every day and get a strong physique!” Zax folded his sleeves and showed his large biceps.
Doctrines and rules were all set by people. The believers would pick out the specialties of their idols and see them as the creed of their religion. As for the specialties of Black Star, they showed a new world to quite a number of believers and broke the old concepts.
It turned out that a real Mechanic should measure himself with the standard of a Pugilist.
As long as you have a strong physique, you can make up for your weakness, use yourself as a trap, and lure the enemy to get close!
Black Star had already proved through actual battles that this was a more advanced combat strategy!
The news of Manison being defeated by Black Star for the first time caused the Mechanic Emperor to lose a ton of believers. Many changed to worship Black Star instead. Suddenly, the popularity of bodybuilding swept through the Machinery Faith. Bodybuilding equipment was always sold out. The same thing was happening in many different residential areas of the Machinery Faith.
…
“Black Star is becoming stronger and stronger…”
In the Limitless Financial Group subdivision, Sorokin looked at the news with a grave expression.
Even with his harsh standards, the Mechanic Emperor was very powerful. Black Star had gotten quite a beating from Manison just a decade prior, yet now he could make Manison lose head-on, twice even.
As someone who might know who Sorokin really was, Black Star being this strong was not good news for him.
“With Black Star’s current strength, if I want to eliminate him, I’ll have to take back all the Soul Seeds and regain my full strength. But if I do that, this body won’t be able to hold it and will basically be destroyed. I’ll have to change my identity again…”
Sorokin walked back and forth, annoyed.
Among the many Beyond Grade As, some wanted fame, some wanted power, some wanted strength, some had no desire… while he just wanted to make money.
Throughout the years, in order to achieve all kinds of plans, Sorokin had changed his identity time after time. This time, however, he could not let go of the identity of the leader of the Limitless Financial Group. He had spent way too much effort to obtain this large sum of money.
…
Meanwhile, in the returning fleet of the Black Star Army, after Han Xiao had finished dealing with the chores and had the free time, he finally remembered about testing the Soul Swapper. Hence, he called Feidin over and temporarily took back the Soul Swapper.
His fingers caressed the mirror and tried to press in but could not at all. No matter how much strength he used, the Soul Swapper did not give in. It was the complete opposite of how it actively tried to suck Feidin in.
“Since only some are qualified to use you, let me see what on earth you are…”
Han Xiao activated [Bold Explorer].