The Era of Gods

Chapter 408: 408

First, he could now confirm that this anomaly wasn’t just an occasional elemental fluctuation; it was highly probable that the Plane Will was on the verge of awakening. Although he didn’t know why it started to awaken after their descent, it was indeed awakening slowly, and this was undeniable.

After all, he could already sense the prayers of his believers, which isn’t something that could be caused by an occasional fluctuation of elements.

But precisely because of this, he had to prepare early to resolve the imminent crisis.

This crisis was the awakening of the Plane Will and the impending arrival of the Element Tides. Put simply, it meant the revival of Spiritual Energy. When Spiritual Energy began to revive, the restrictions on Supernatural Powers would be lifted. Some things that were previously restricted, such as the Power of Faith, would lose their limitations.

As everyone knows, when any creature gains a large amount of the Power of Faith, it is possible for the Soul to assimilate this power and condense Divinity, becoming Divine Beings, Demigods, or even a True God.

With Supernatural Powers not apparent before, of course, there was no sensation.

But now, with the restriction on Supernatural Powers lifted, the Power of Faith that had been accumulating in him would gradually change the nature of his life. This was both a good thing and a potential crisis.

Because ordinary people can’t refine the Power of Faith.

To put it simply, beings below Legend can’t actively refine the Power of Faith into their own Strength; they can only passively absorb it.

Passive absorption has a major problem, though: assimilation.

While gaining the Power of Faith, one also receives numerous prayers from believers, similar to a myriad of mosquitos and flies buzzing around one’s ears. With the continuous absorption of the Power of Faith, a mortal also absorbs the diverse thoughts generated by the countless prayers of believers.

If there are ten thousand believers praying, it’s like ten thousand thoughts appearing in your mind.

If there are a million believers praying, it is as if a million believers’ thoughts appear in your mind, and crucially, each prayer counts as a thought. You can imagine how many thoughts accumulate in total.

If one is a Legend, their Soul has begun to grasp the rules and possesses sufficient strength to accommodate and understand these mixed thoughts. If the number of believers isn’t too high at first, as the Soul gradually undergoes Godification, its capacity and understanding will naturally grow stronger.

But if one is not a Legend, and the Soul’s strength is insufficient, it can’t accommodate too many mixed thoughts.

At that time, if these thoughts from the believers are not understood, they will accumulate more and more, eventually filling the entire Soul. This can lead to a very terrible consequence: assimilation.

Yes, this is the thing that those new to faith fear the most. If one’s own Soul can’t hold these thoughts, over time, one’s own Soul and will would be washed away by this myriad of thoughts, losing their sense of self and eventually being assimilated into a Puppet by the believers—a puppet of the believers.

The term ‘puppet of the believers’ doesn’t mean you’re physically gone; you’re still here, but your own will has disappeared, replaced by one that is manipulated by the thoughts of the believers.

For example, if believers think you are handsome, you will become handsome.

If believers think you are cruel, you will become cruel, even if your personality was good before, you will uncontrollably have your character forcibly changed.

This is the power of faith; it gives you strength that transcends the mundane but also harbors tremendous risks.

Lin Xiao felt somewhat lucky that he could use cheats, otherwise, even if he discovered the problem, he wouldn’t be able to solve it.

If he could detect this issue, other Descenders probably could too, but they wouldn’t be able to resolve it and would only be able to delay expanding their church and faith to grow slowly.

But he didn’t have to do that; he had a solution.

And the solution was simple. He didn’t even need his True Body to solve it now. All he had to do was adjust himself a bit and switch the connection that receives the believers’ prayers and the Power of Faith from himself to the Creation Magic Cube.

In other words, all the thoughts and the Power of Faith generated by the believers’ prayers would first enter the Creation Magic Cube. The Magic Cube would refine the miscellaneous thoughts attached to the Power of Faith into pure Power of Faith before absorption. This way, there would be no side effects, and he could fully absorb and transform the Power of Faith right from the beginning.

This was completely doable, after all, the Creation Magic Cube resides within his Soul’s Sea of Gods. The Power of Faith follows the line of faith to enter his mind’s Soul; he could intercept the Power of Faith before it entered his Soul.

This problem was easy to solve, but there was another issue that needed to be dealt with.

That was, if Spiritual Energy was revived, how should he face other competitors and the Holy God, or rather, the main crisis comes from the Holy God.

As the main aggregation of faith in this plane, the Holy Church has accumulated an unknown amount of the Power of Faith over so many years. Once the restrictions are lifted with the revival of Spiritual Energy, the Holy Church will quickly give birth to a large number of strong individuals. But what’s even more frightening is the birth of the Holy God.

As Transcendents couldn’t be born before, naturally there was no Holy God. Now that Transcendents can be born, the infinite Power of Faith converging will directly give birth to a Concept God—a pure entity formed by the Power of Faith and the thoughts of believers.

A Concept God relies entirely on the believers’ hopes. When the vast majority of beings in a plane believe there is a Holy God, the endless Power of Faith combined with thoughts could forcibly create a True God from nothing, a Holy God that exists as the believers perceive, a pure Concept God.

Of course, when Spiritual Energy just revives and the restriction on Transcendents has just been lifted, the newly born Holy God won’t be that powerful, but would definitely be stronger than them.

Most importantly, with the birth of the Holy God, the Holy Church will have a real Deity, directly consolidating all the believers of the Holy God across the plane. This behemoth will transform into a Giant Beast beyond imagination, and it won’t be easy for these Descenders.

Not only the expansion of strength but also the difficulties of proselytizing will become increasingly challenging.

Therefore, before the birth of the Holy God, Lin Xiao must expand his territory as much as possible and secure a basic foothold first to qualify for a coalition with other Descenders or the native Church to confront the Holy Church.

“Before the Holy God takes shape, we must unify at least two provinces at the minimum!”

Estimating the speed of the spiritual energy resurgence, Lin Xiao made such plans.

Of course, the more territories and believers, the better; but wishes and reality are often different. Let’s secure as much territory and population now. If time permits, we’ll grab more later.

Having made up his mind, Lin Xiao immediately set to work. He placed his soul under the protection of the Creation Rubik’s Cube and also took the opportunity to write a lengthy note with his speculations to send to his True Body, to see if it had any good suggestions.

When the True Body received this note, Lin Xiao fell silent for a long time.

An Incarnation only sees what’s directly in front of them, thinking that this is just a non-magic plane with a Plane Will about to wake from its slumber; but the True Body sees something else.

“This is an enormous opportunity!”

The awakening of the Will of a non-magic plane, the beginning surges of Element Tides—this is the start of a grand era for this plane. The Plane Will’s favor will naturally give birth to numerous Children of Plane.

These Children of Plane are born with destiny on their side, all qualified to grow into True Gods; but depending on the size and strength of the plane, only a few True Gods may emerge—maybe just one or a couple, unlikely to be more.

To them, this represents an opportunity, one that’s considered enormous because of their identities as Descenders.

If, if Lin Xiao’s Incarnation can become a True God or a Totem King comparable to a True God in that plane, then he could leverage the strength of the Element Tides while they are still active. With the power of a True God, he could force the Element Tides to become stronger and cover a wider range, and then use the power of this greater Element Tide to forcefully communicate with the True Body—just like establishing a Gaia Node in the Nightmare World the last time.

The most critical aspect in this process is that his Incarnation must become the Totem King before the Element Tides dwindle. Yes, it has to be the Totem King, not a True God.

Because the mainstream power system in the Crystal Wall Universe is that of Totem Masters, not a pantheon of deities. If he tries to gather the Power of Faith to achieve Divine Enthronement, he will immediately draw the attention of the Crystal Wall Will, and by then, forcing a communication with the True Body to establish a Gaia Node would be a daydream.

Only by becoming a Totem King, even though such powerful beings will also attract the scrutiny of the Crystal Wall Will, this scrutiny differs vastly from that for a True God.

One is vigilance, and the other is favor; the treatments are completely different.

By then, with the strength of a Totem King, he would be able to use the power of the Element Tides to forcibly break through the blockade of the Crystal Wall Universe’s Will and communicate with the Gaia Will, working together internally and externally to establish a Gaia Node.

There is no Gaia Node yet in this Crystal Wall Universe; if he can successfully establish one first, the feedback of origin strength from the Gaia Will could burst him…

Cough, rather it should say he could enjoy as much as he wants, for Gaia Will is never stingy with rewards of origin strength. The True Body can swiftly ascend to a Demigod, one with the strongest potential, and also gain recognition from the Gaia Will to become an Elite Child of the Divine Realm. Given his current favor with the Gaia Will, he has a great chance to attain the status of Son of Gaia.

Just thinking about the rewards of success excites Lin Xiao, yet the thought of the difficulty of this operation makes his scalp tingle. Most critical of all, the resources in his True Body’s hands are nearly depleted; the resources he had prepared were almost used up, and he needed more.

“Perhaps it’s time to reveal some of my cards.”

With that, he opened communication and contacted Jin Sisi:

“I have some important news that you might need to come over in person for.”

“Wait for me.”

The response took less than three seconds. Twinkling stars converged in his room, forming into the graceful figure of Jin Sisi, who asked immediately upon forming:

“What’s the important news?”

He ceased scanning her curvaceous figure with his eyes and said solemnly:

“There’s something I need to tell you—I possess a Different Treasure that can contact all of my Incarnations.”

Jin Sisi’s face did not show much surprise upon hearing this; while such treasures are rare, they are not unheard of. She simply asked:

“What then? What important news have you received?”

“My current Incarnation has already become a Totem Master Apprentice. The School I’m with has begun descending upon extra-dimensional planes and I’ve descended with the School to…”

He shared the situation of his current Incarnation with the mentor, Jin Sisi’s expression remaining usual at first. But when she learned of his sensation of the plane’s Will awakening soon, the Ele-