Chapter 287: Ascending to Divinity
Chapter 287: Ascending to Divinity (Please subscribe, favorite, and vote)
Since a bit of Liam's soul was used in creating the Rose Crystal, she was easily pulled into the Spirit Realm by him. Once inside the Spirit Realm, Rose Crystal flew up into the air and began searching around. Soon, she discovered something unusual.
"Big Brother, I see a huge light at the Town Center."
"A huge light?" Liam couldn't think of anything in this low-magic world that could emit light in the Spirit Realm, "Could it be a Dragon Egg or Valyrian Steel?" After all, the only things in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire that could be connected to the extraordinary were these two items.
With that thought, Liam had Rose Crystal fly down and perch on his shoulder, then they hurried toward the Town Center. As they approached, Liam gradually felt that something at the Town Center was indeed emitting energy.
When they rounded a few houses and reached the Town Center plaza, they were surprised to find that the white light was coming from the small Temple in the plaza. On the Temple's platform, the statue of the Supreme Shepherd was radiating a white glow.
"Does this world have gods?" Liam asked in amazement. He had assumed that such a low-magic world wouldn't have any deities, but now it seemed otherwise.
"Stupid Big Brother", Rose Crystal tugged on Liam's hair until he yelped in pain, then let go. "When you were learning Alchemy from Teacher Luo Zhen, I read a lot of books outside, including ones about gods." She raised her little face, looking expectantly as if to say, "Come on, ask me."
"It feels like this little one is becoming more and more human", Liam's lips twitched, then he asked in a tone of seeking guidance, "So, my dear sister, can you tell me what you discovered?"
"It's simple. For a deity, Faith Power is extremely important. If this were really a god, it wouldn't waste so much Faith Power on a statue, especially one carved from ordinary wood and rather crudely made. I think the World Consciousness of this world is likely still in chaos, with no deities. Even so-called miracles are probably just the world's response to a sufficient amount of Faith Power."
With that, Rose Crystal flew straight into the Temple and let out a sudden exclamation.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Liam called out.
"Big Brother, we've hit the jackpot", Rose Crystal said, pulling Liam into the Temple and pointing to a pool of Silver Liquid in a recess beneath the statue, "Look, this is the treasure."
"Heavenly Silver!" Liam exclaimed after a few seconds of careful observation. He had only read about this substance in the Maoshan Daoist Techniques but had never seen it in person.
For cultivators, the most important currency isn't the spirit stones mentioned in some novels, but rather the Incense Offering condensed from divine faith. After these Incense Offerings are repeatedly refined and compressed, they form the Heavenly Silver seen here. Heavenly Silver is a rare substance that can directly replenish mana without any side effects and is also highly valuable in alchemy and potion-making. According to Liam, Uncle Kiu's World was slowly recovering, so Mount Mao Hall had also resumed producing Heavenly Silver. Unfortunately, the yield was very low, and even Uncle Kiu only had about seven or eight drops.
After hearing Liam's explanation, Rose Crystal said, "Heavenly Silver? It might just be a different name. In Teacher Luo Zhen's books, this substance is called Pure Divine Power. Seeing this confirms that this world has no gods, not even any powerful supernatural beings. Otherwise, they wouldn't have abandoned such a treasure."
This Heavenly Silver was likely the excess Faith Power that the statue couldn't hold, transformed over time by the world's magic into Pure Divine Power. After dividing the Heavenly Silver equally, Rose Crystal suddenly said, looking at the large amount of attribute-infused divine power still attached to the statue, "Big Brother, do you plan to develop here in this world?"
"Of course." Liam nodded. "This world has the extraordinary, but the power of the extraordinary is quite weak. I believe I can gain a lot of benefits from such a world."
"If that's the case, how about I become the Supreme Shepherd? This way, I can help Big Brother." Rose Crystal suddenly said something that left Liam utterly astonished.
After a quick explanation from Rose Crystal, Liam realized that becoming a deity in this world wasn't as difficult as he had imagined, but only she could do it.
The Deity here was not a predestined deity representing the world's rules but an Artificial Deity formed by the faith of intelligent beings.
Liam's Maoshan Daoist Techniques included a method to become an Artificial Deity, but he had never considered it because a human ascending to divinity would inevitably suffer from the erosion of incense poison, eventually forcing them to abandon their physical body and ascend as ectoplasm, becoming part of the World Consciousness. What was the point of becoming a god if it meant losing one's physical form?
The Western method of becoming an Artificial Deity was similar. According to the books Rose Crystal had read from Rogen, once one ascended to divinity, they had to abandon their mortal body and reconstruct their divine body using divine power. From then on, the deity would become a slave to faith, their consciousness gradually influenced by the subconscious of believers, until they lost their self and became a mere collection of the world's will.
Liam could not accept the idea of losing himself in the process of becoming a deity, let alone the numerous conditions and restrictions. This was why, despite discovering the opportunity to ascend to divinity in this world, he chose to abandon it. Moreover, the power of a deity was heavily influenced by the world they were in, and given the low level of supernatural power in this world, even with the home-field advantage, he would likely be no match for Rogen.
However, Rose Crystal's situation was different. She was a Puppet with an independent life, but her soul and consciousness were completely under Liam's control. Therefore, she could not be tainted by faith's poison or constrained by the World Consciousness. Of course, her opportunity to ascend to divinity also relied on the fact that this world had no deities and supernatural power was at a low ebb. Otherwise, her level of power would not have been enough to replace an existing faith.
With the decision made, Rose Crystal began to communicate with the World Consciousness and integrate with the concept of the Supreme Shepherd. Liam could feel a vague consciousness sweep over him, and then the World Consciousness readily provided what they required.
"Wasn't it supposed to be very difficult to gain the qualification to ascend to divinity? Why is the World Consciousness so cooperative?" Liam was taken aback by the World Consciousness's willingness.
"Big Brother, you're such a fool. Look at all the World Consciousness Approval you've gained from saving other worlds. In this situation, the World Consciousness is bound to be very cooperative."
It seems that saving more worlds does have its benefits, Liam thought. At this moment, Rose Crystal began to convert the faith power she had accumulated over the years into the Supreme Shepherd's power. As a Puppet, she did not need divine power to create a divine body or maintain faith, so she wastefully combined large amounts of faith power containing faith's poison, allowing them to mutually neutralize. Only the purest, flawless strand of faith power could be channeled through the clear connection of heaven and earth to serve as fuel to help Rose Crystal ignite her divine flame.
Of course, this method was incredibly wasteful, with only one part of pure faith power extracted from every thirty parts. However, for perfection, this waste was worth it. Besides, this world still had a large amount of unclaimed faith as a backup.
(End of Chapter)
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