Chapter 453: This question has no solution

Murphy had long expected Apollo's shock.

The other party naturally couldn't know that he actually didn't have any so-called divine office.

He wasn't a god at all.

His magic was still magic, not contaminated by faith to become "divine power." It was just that because he had absorbed a lot of divine power from gods like Pan and the three-headed god as provisions, the total amount looked vast, making him look somewhat similar to a god.

In fact, Murphy felt that although these gods were using divine power, they knew nothing about the essence of divine power.

The more basic and numerous the divine offices, the higher the quality of divine power. In Murphy's eyes, this characteristic is actually a manifestation of the magic payment effect.

So-called divine offices or faith are actually a set of philosophical methodologies and worldviews that explain the world.

When this methodology and worldview become more perfect and closer to the laws and phenomena of the real material world, the greater the changes in reality that divine power can cause, the stronger the divine power naturally becomes, and the higher the quality appears to be.

But Murphy's magic did not contain any "philosophical concepts" or "world rules."

That "universe" that belonged exclusively to Murphy in Apollo's eyes was not a "philosophical universe" or "spiritual universe" built by so-called "divine offices," "concepts," "imagery," or "laws," but another "material reality" that was exactly the same as the external real world.

This material reality is built on Murphy's precise perception of the microscopic world and his manipulation of magic.

Before time travel, he had already obtained atomic-level perception scale through various ultra-precise detection equipment such as electron tunneling microscopes, and obtained microscopic magic manipulation ability through ultra-precise magic probes. The quantum slash used when killing the three-headed god earlier was a manifestation of this level of magic control.

Now, he was just covering this control ability in the space around him.

And under this atomic-level magic manipulation ability, where his magic covers, the four fundamental forces can all be distorted, and the most basic and bottom-level rules of the universe can all be rewritten by him.

In a sense, this is indeed a "universe" that belongs exclusively to him.

Of course, even after familiarizing himself with it for this long, this operation of rewriting bottom-level material reality is still extremely difficult. He only gradually figured out some ways because he had a large amount of divine power to squander at will.

However, Murphy was not preparing to go to war with Apollo at this moment. Seeing that he had deterred the other party, he dispersed his control of magic.

Apollo felt as if a mountain had been moved from above his head and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"I just want divine power," Murphy said, "Just give me some of the divine power you currently possess. I have no use for your divine office."

For gods, divine power is just a consumable. As long as the divine office and faith are not lost, divine power will be endless. Therefore, most gods do not pay special attention to divine power. If the blue bar is empty, just rest for a while and it will naturally be replenished.

And other gods, even if they want to take someone else's divine power, it is only a one-time thing. Once used, it's gone, which is almost meaningless. Only the divine office is the foundation.

Therefore, when Apollo heard Murphy say he wanted divine power, he subconsciously thought Murphy wanted his divine office. Now that he understood, besides being puzzled, he also breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"So that's it, I misunderstood," Apollo was also open-minded, "But since you only want divine power, why should I be stingy?"

He said, raising his right hand, a group of light surged into his palm, forming a divine power light group that looked like a solid on his palm, and threw it to Murphy.

"This is half of my divine power, just take it as remuneration."

Murphy didn't refuse and accepted it happily.

Subsequently, the two discussed some specific details. Apollo promised to try his best to cover for Murphy in the divine realm and let Murphy act freely, while Murphy also promised to keep Apollo's affairs secret and try his best to spread the Nibelungen epic, digging a huge hole for Wotan and the Norse pantheon he created single-handedly.

The two sides had a conversation, and the host and guest were happy. Before leaving, Apollo gave Murphy a golden fur as a gift.

Murphy found it familiar, and even the magic remaining on it was somewhat familiar.

When asked about its origin, Apollo said: "There was once a minor god, unruly and rebellious, who had many conflicts with me. I killed him several times. This is his divine body from his previous life, but it also has some divine strangeness, capable of continuously producing gold. You want to spread legends in the mortal world, this might be useful to you."

Murphy thought for a moment and understood some things.

It was still before the AD era, the Christian God had not yet appeared, and Pan naturally had not died yet.

This fur, which is similar to it, most likely belongs to Pan's previous identity: the ram god Khnum of Egypt.

Thinking further, Khnum was killed by Amun of Thebes.

And Amun later merged with the Egyptian sun god Ra.

Murphy's expression became a bit subtle when looking at Apollo.

This god might not be as young and reckless as he appeared.

Since Zeus could create an incarnation of himself in the North to leave a way out for himself, couldn't other gods do such things?

Or rather, hadn't the gods of the past done so?

Apollo was so familiar with Zeus's routine, did he have another reason?

Apollo left, and Murphy put away Apollo's divine power and the golden fleece, leaving the cemetery.

He walked casually on a tree-lined path, thinking about his plan.

He originally intended to use the Nibelungen Ring as an experiment to test the method of using legends to guide and control gods.

Now, although the experiment had not been fully deployed, he had basically received the expected feedback.

Apollo's high regard for the story of the Nibelungen Ring already showed the influence of legends on gods; it could even change the fate of gods.

But Murphy felt it was still not enough; something was still missing.

Even if he could use the Nibelungen Ring to stir up the Twilight of the Gods, it would only shuffle the Norse pantheon. However, those gods might not necessarily die because of this. They might take advantage of such an opportunity to swallow other gods, change their identities, change their appearances, and reappear in other places in other guises.

Just like Zeus's incarnation, or the possible origins of Pan or Apollo.

In this way, his so-called "guidance" and "control" were actually just stirring up waves in vain, but making wedding clothes for the later gods. In terms of getting rid of the control of the gods as a whole, it had no meaning.

He seemed to have walked into a dead end again.

Known: Faith does not die, gods do not die.

Also known: The so-called containment between gods can only lead to one rising and another falling.

Question: How to weaken the gods as a whole, how to suppress them?

Murphy looked up.

A breeze blew, the tree shadows swayed, and the rustling sound was like whispers, like stealing giggles, as if the gods in the sky were laughing at his futile incompetence.

They said:

"This question has no solution."

But Murphy was still walking, his mind still searching for the line of opportunity that might have been ignored by himself.

"Although legends can influence gods, gods have self-consciousness and will not follow the established script. Therefore, they can use legends to achieve their own goals. This is the flaw of the legend-guidance route."

"However, this route is not without merit."

"The key lies in how to make the gods willingly participate in the script."

"The core of the problem lies in the information gap."

"Legends are transparent, all plots have been made public, I have no information gap with the gods, so naturally I cannot control them with this."

"But what if an information gap is created?"

"Deception..."

Gradually, a new train of thought formed in Murphy's mind.

"Yes, deception."

"Change a story, this time not to guide mortals, but to guide the gods to believe in one thing..."

"Making them kill each other is meaningless, the important thing is containment, restriction, blockade, isolation..."

"They fight for divine offices, but don't care about divine power..."

"But divine power is the foundation of influencing the real world..."

As if touching a certain important node, a thought was about to come out.

However, at this moment, the sky suddenly darkened, the wind stopped, and everything around was black and white, as if all colors had been taken away from the space, and the sunlight had no temperature. A feeling of coldness, death, and decay suddenly descended.

A man in a black robe appeared from a gust of gloomy wind, and a deep hole opened behind him, pitch black inside, as if leading to a boundless and deep abyss.

"Hades."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 454 =====