Chapter 125: The Machine That Converts Faith

Chapter 125: The Machine That Converts Faith

After gathering the information he needed, Su Nan wasted no time in eliminating the remaining Spark Cult followers.

He left Yinlong and the dual-bladed spider outside to guard against the gray-robed man's potential return. Then, Su Nan entered the building.

At the end of the silent corridor, there was only one tightly sealed metal door.

As the Spark Cult follower had mentioned, the door and walls were forged from refined steel, far harder than blackstone iron.

Even a Second Circle Legendary Knight would struggle to break through in a short time.

But for Su Nan, it was no issue at all.

He walked straight to the metal door and looked down at the intricate lock. With a simple Unlock spell, he heard a distinct click as the lock opened.

The Unlock spell, though a Zero-Ring spell, was incredibly practical.

No matter how complex a lock, as long as it wasn't a secret or magical lock, a single Unlock spell would do the trick.

The secret room designed by the Spark Cult could only hinder knights and ordinary people; it was useless against a wizard's apprentice who knew the Unlock spell.

Pushing open the heavy metal door, Su Nan saw what lay inside.

The entire room was empty, devoid of any furniture, with cold, metallic floors, walls, and ceiling.

A lone figure lay in the center of the room.

It was a man in his forties, dressed in a luxurious star-patterned robe, lying motionless on the ground. Beside him was a crown encrusted with jewels and a gold staff.

This was the Pope of the Spark Cult?

Su Nan stood at the doorway, observing for a while, his expression gradually turning peculiar.

In his mental perception, the man's soul had completely dissipated, leaving no trace of spiritual energy.

Yet, strangely, he was not dead. His body still showed signs of life.

Like a living corpse!

This bizarre situation left Su Nan deeply puzzled.

He cast a Ray of Enfeeblement at the man, but the spell was negated by a strange force.

This force felt oddly familiar to him.

"Divine Favor!"

Su Nan's gaze sharpened. After a moment of hesitation, he remained on guard and cautiously approached the man.

Even as he drew near, the man showed no reaction.

Seeing this, Su Nan directly examined him.

After a moment, he confirmed that the Pope's soul had indeed completely dissipated.

The remaining body was being sustained solely by the Divine Favor within, preventing it from ceasing all life functions and decaying.

What surprised Su Nan was that, despite the minuscule rate, the Divine Favor within the man was indeed increasing, almost imperceptibly.

"Ah, I see."

After a moment's thought, Su Nan quickly understood.

The Pope of the Spark Cult had essentially become a machine capable of receiving faith and converting it into Divine Favor.

He had no will of his own and could not move, only existing to convert faith day after day in the secret room.

This explained why the Spark Cult rarely saw their Pope in public; he was, in fact, already dead, leaving behind only a body.

The one truly controlling the Spark Cult from behind the scenes was their High Priest, Ovij.

This also explained why Ovij could command so much Divine Favor.

It seemed that all the Divine Favor of the Spark Cult was under his control.

However, humans were not capable of converting faith into Divine Favor. There had to be another reason why the Pope could do this.

Recalling the divine remains mentioned by the gray-robed man, Su Nan had a hunch.

He carefully examined the Pope's body and soon found something unusual.

On the Pope's right hand, the ring finger was markedly different from the others, containing more Divine Favor.

Using his mental perception, Su Nan quickly determined that this ring finger did not belong to the Pope himself but had been grafted on later.

What was more, the strength of this finger was extraordinarily high.

Even when Su Nan used a blade formed from the core of a magic rune and cut with all his might, he couldn't leave a single scratch.

Even considering the protection from Divine Favor, the strength of this finger far exceeded that of a First Circle Legendary Knight.

This was clearly not a part of a normal human body.

It was obvious that this ring finger was the so-called divine remains.

"Fusing divine remains into your body, I don't know whether to call you bold or foolish."

Su Nan couldn't help but sigh.

The divine beings exist on a level far beyond that of humans, their essence far surpassing that of ordinary people.

Even a fragment of a divine being's remains is a terrifying source of corruption for mortals.

Even official wizards dare not fuse divine remains into their bodies, so for a mere Legendary Knight to attempt it is no different from courting death.

The Pope's soul was likely destroyed by the shock of fusing with the divine remains, his consciousness and thoughts completely erased. His body was gradually transformed by the remains into a tool for absorbing faith and converting it into Divine Favor.

This body is constantly being reshaped by Divine Favor, evolving into a form more akin to the divine remains.

Given enough time, if the Spark Cult grows and the faith increases by several dozen times, and this process continues for thousands of years, this body might fully transform into a divine form.

At that point, the true Star God would be reborn from this divine body!

This is the true terror of divine beings. Even if most of their divine form is destroyed, leaving only a small part, they can still recover with enough faith and time.

Moreover, divine beings can gradually warp the will and perception of any creature that comes into contact with their remains, turning them into devoted followers who strive to bring about the divine being's resurrection.

In this sense, all divine beings can be considered evil gods.

"Such a dark and twisted thing."

"I wonder what the Eternal Life Society's wizard apprentices want with this?"

"Do they have a method to purify divine energy?"

After pondering for a moment without reaching a conclusion, Su Nan shook his head and refocused his attention on the body before him.

He grasped the divine finger and gently pulled. Immediately, he felt the Divine Favor within the Pope's body surge, gathering rapidly in the ring finger as if it had a life of its own.

Seizing the opportunity, Su Nan conjured a silver knife and decisively cut through the connection between the divine finger and the Pope's body, successfully separating the two.

The divine finger was now in his possession!

Su Nan concentrated and sensed that the Divine Favor within the ring finger was not abundant, perhaps because Ovij had already extracted some of it.

Even so, it contained more than ten times the amount of Divine Favor in the Book of Stars, which would likely boost his mental power by two to three points.

Regaining his composure from the excitement, Su Nan stored the finger in his synthesis cube.

Though it had a life force, it lacked autonomous consciousness, so the cube could contain it.

As the divine finger was removed, the Pope's body rapidly decayed before his eyes, the flesh turning pale and bones becoming visible. Eventually, the body disintegrated into a pile of ashes.

"Done," Su Nan murmured.

Without the tool to convert faith, the Spark Cult, even if some members survive, will no longer be able to create holy relics or divine blood.

Without a means to rapidly enhance their power, the cult will soon fragment and cease to pose a threat.

After today, the Spark Cult will be nothing more than a memory.

Having completed this, Su Nan left the secret room and headed to the warehouse and Ovij's residence, both locations he had obtained from interrogating the Spark Cult members.

If there were any valuable items left in the Spark Cult's headquarters, they would likely be in these two places.

Sure enough, in the warehouse, Su Nan found a large amount of gold and jewelry, with an estimated value of at least 50,000 gold coins.

It wasn't a huge sum, but for a church in its development phase, having this much liquid capital was quite impressive.

"Enough to create two or three Second Circle Legendary dual-bladed spiders."

Unfortunately, Ovij's residence yielded no significant finds, only some secret documents.

Su Nan had hoped to find one or two holy relics.

Having finished everything, Su Nan left Giant Nan City without delay.

With the Spark Cult eradicated, his mission was essentially complete.

Next, he needed to return and properly handle the divine remains.

In the Red Leaf Province, in the city of Starlight, deep within the palace, Duke Starlight walked down a silent, empty corridor, his expression weary. His silver hair, streaked with gray, made him look even more aged and haggard.

The bad news from the front lines was piling up.

The royal army, dispatched to defeat the White Tower Marquis's forces, was bogged down in a stalemate.

Meanwhile, the rebels were making rapid progress on the battlefield in the Bamboo Province, advancing like a storm.

The Bamboo Marquis's pleas for aid were relentless, but the royal army had no spare troops to send.

If things continued this way, the Bamboo Province would likely fall to the rebels within a month.

The situation had deteriorated to an extremely dire state!

"Why has it come to this?"

Duke Starlight sighed wearily, recalling the wizard named Su Nan whom the Spark Cult had mentioned.

He knew more about wizards than most people, as the royal family had once had a wizard in its service. However, that wizard, while powerful, was not skilled in crafting golems or puppets, let alone building a formidable army like the Golem Legion or the Blackstone Cavalry.

It was unheard of for a single wizard to influence the course of a large-scale war to such an extent!

This miscalculation had led to the current dire situation.

As he pondered, Duke Starlight arrived at the door of a secret chamber at the end of the corridor. He paused, straightened his attire, and gently knocked, speaking respectfully, "Uncle Grandfather."

Silence followed. After a long moment, a deep voice came from behind the door. "Enter."

Duke Starlight let out a slight sigh of relief, pushed open the door, and stepped inside.

The chamber was sparsely decorated, containing only a bed, a table, and a chair. There were no paintings or other embellishments.

A plain-faced man, who appeared to be in his forties and dressed modestly, sat in the chair, his gaze calm as he looked over.

Seeing the familiar face that had remained unchanged for decades, Duke Starlight's heart trembled with a surge of jealousy.

The man regarded Duke Starlight with a complex expression, sighed, and said, "You shouldn't have allied with the Spark Cult."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch, and the so-called gods are not benevolent beings. Using divine favor to gain immortality comes at a great cost. Even if you manage to extend your life, you might end up as a puppet to those fanatics."

"This is your mistake."

Duke Starlight's face twisted into a bitter smile. "Uncle Grandfather, it's all my fault. Greed clouded my judgment."

"But now the Spark Cult has been destroyed, and the rebels are advancing rapidly. They'll be here soon, and I have no other options. I can only come to you for help."

The man asked calmly, "What do you want me to do?"

Duke Starlight quickly replied, "I beg you, Uncle Grandfather, to kill Su Nan. If Su Nan is dead, I still have a chance to defeat the rebels!"

The man remained silent for a long time before asking, "If Su Nan is dead, do you have a hundred percent certainty that you can suppress the rebels?"

Duke Starlight hesitated, then gritted his teeth and said, "Even if I can't win, I will fight to the death and never bring shame to the Kessler family!"

The man fell silent again, this time for even longer.

Just as Duke Starlight was feeling uneasy, the man finally spoke. "Very well, I will go after Su Nan."

"Thank you, Uncle Grandfather!"

Duke Starlight's face lit up with joy. His uncle had already been a Third Circle Legendary Knight fifty years ago, and with his help, the chances of eliminating Su Nan were high.

If not for the damned Spark Cult tempting him with immortality, he would never have considered their threat or allied with them in the first place.

Who would have thought the Spark Cult, with their haughty and condescending demeanor, would be so weak? They crumbled before Su Nan even had a chance to face them!

It was truly contemptible.

Regardless, with his uncle's help, there was hope of resolving this crisis.

Noticing his uncle's dismissive gesture, Duke Starlight tactfully took his leave. However, he didn't see the meaningful look his uncle gave him as he turned to go.

---

In the year 1254 of the Starlight Calendar, during the Month of Autumn's Veil (October):

The Spark Army conquered the Purple Bamboo Province, fully incorporating it into their territory. They then marched north, joining forces with Baron Stally's army and capturing the entire Lake Blue Province within a month.

By this point, four of the seven provinces of the Starlight Duchy were under the control of the Spark Domain. Another province, the White Tower Province, was an ally of the Spark Domain.

The royal family now only held the Red Leaf Province and the Frost Touched Province. The Frost Touched Province was still recovering and had negligible military strength, leaving the Red Leaf Province as the only province with a fighting chance.

At this stage of the war, even the most optimistic could no longer believe the royal family could turn the tide.

In the year 1254 of the Starlight Calendar, during the Month of Frost's Descent (November):

The Spark Army and the White Tower Army gathered at the border of the Red Leaf Province, with the war on the verge of erupting.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end