Chapter 354: Daisilis Jolted Awake

"Japan, a multi-headed dragon-serpent... sounds somewhat like the Takamagahara lineage... and this country's system seems closer to the Heavenly Court system."

Daisilis, using the affinity granted by diplomatic magic to visit various places, was summarizing the intelligence in her hands.

Her alma mater belonged to the Asgard lineage; though she understood the Eastern Heavenly Court and Takamagahara systems, she still knew them far less than her own and the neighboring Olympus system.

"But regardless, I recall that the famous serpent deity of Takamagahara should have eight heads—why did the game world only show three? Was it because the divine office wasn't sufficient?"

Daisilis recalled her school lessons, her brow slightly furrowed.

The celestial realm’s power system was fundamentally similar to shamanistic institutions, but unlike modern shamans who borrowed or stole divine power, it required one to become a god.

In simple terms, one learned and practiced divine arts until one met the qualifications to bear a specific divine office, then created legends and achieved deeds to match the "god" rank, thereby ascending into divinity—in the Eastern Heavenly Court system, this process was called "becoming a saint in the flesh."

The strong could gather faith through their own experiences and ascend into new gods, while the weaker inherited the divine offices left by predecessors, becoming second- or third-generation gods...

But for this system to function, it required vast amounts of faith to sustain the existence of divine offices—this was why the divine realm needed so many subordinate worlds, and summoning heroes to slay demons was essentially a process of "creating legends" and "achieving great deeds."

If a hero was powerful enough to leave monumental achievements in his world, he would very likely become a deity worshipped by faith; after slaying the demon king, the hero would achieve his goal, and the celestial realm would grant him what he desired—most would be sent back to their original world, a few would remain in the current world, and a select few of exceptional merit would be absorbed by the celestial realm as one of the gods; no matter his choice, his experiences and legends would become divine offices, passed down within the celestial realm.

Inheriting a divine office was no simple matter; qualifying divine offices were not easily obtained, even with the celestial realm’s well-established training system.

After all, the easier divine offices to gather naturally attracted more aspirants, and the suitable divine offices had long been snapped up—even someone like her, a top student with three divine offices, struggled to find one still vacant.

But when she was in school, her tutor mentioned that before the Exile Lands system was established, there had once been massive gaps in war-related divine offices; back then, as long as one possessed a matching divine office—even if incomplete—one could assume the corresponding divine position, though this often resulted in the office’s power being only partially realized, and there had even been cases where inferior, fragmented divine offices split off.

Pulling up this knowledge—useless except for exams—from her mind, Daisilis suddenly felt she had understood something:

"Multi-headed serpents are common beast-god office types; thinking carefully, his behavior in the Exile Lands did resemble the process of gathering divine offices... meaning he likely intended to collect eight divine offices? Back then in the Exile Lands, because spiritual will was scarce and the world’s lore leaned Western, he ended up with a half-baked three-headed flying dragon. Now, by causing floods and absorbing dragon qi, he’s probably trying to complete his divine offices..."

Thinking of this, Daisilis grew restless, realizing that if she let Feng Xue continue like this, he would only become harder to handle.

The divine realm needed vast faith to sustain its countless divine offices—that was why they managed subordinate worlds. Demon kings could still be used to help heroes build resumes, but demon gods? They were literally stealing cake from the celestial realm’s plate!

"I’ve locked onto his aura, but for a demon god, the aura of his divine office weighs heavier than his physical form. And if he doesn’t reveal his full strength, his true power is weak—combined with his disguise techniques, tracking him individually is nearly impossible, let alone with that strange transdimensional ability. I must find a way—preferably one that traps him, forcing him to stand and fight."

Daisilis recalled numerous cases she had studied, pondering how to force a demon god to fight to the death—and she sadly realized all the cases she could find involved heroes being held hostage by demon kings.

"Ugh!" Daisilis activated her personal terminal, opened the database, and began searching for details—but the more she searched, the more confused she became.

Hostage situations required intelligence support, but Daisilis knew nothing about Feng Xue’s true name (uncertain if real), origin, or family background—she had nothing...

"No, no—there is something!"

A cold expression surfaced on Daisilis’s face:

"For a demon god, the most important thing is his foundation of faith. If I strike at his foundation of faith, I can force him to return and defend—then I’ll have a chance to kill or seal him!"

At this moment, she bore the resolve of success or death; for if she struck at the foundation of faith, the world’s belief system would inevitably collapse, and Takamagahara might suspect Asgard of stealing their base.

But Daisilis had no time to consider diplomatic consequences now—her concern was survival.

For her, being extradited to Takamagahara for imprisonment was almost a luxury—even if publicized as a timely damage-control case, she might not even serve time.

But if she let this demon god continue unchecked, Daisilis feared she would become the first in nearly a thousand years to be executed for the absurd crime of aiding a demon god!

"The standard combat power in this world isn’t high! 'Alaya' (humanity) is relatively fragmented—I’ll gamble on reaction time!"

At that moment, Daisilis decided to trust her colleagues’ laziness; she leapt into the air, unfurled golden wings, and flew straight toward Japan—she had realized now: the very place she first landed was Japan!

"No wonder the Hunter Office led me there—it wasn’t a dimensional misstep; I simply didn’t understand the deeper meaning of the divine office!"

Daisilis silently marveled, vowing inwardly to always trust her divine office from now on.

Yet Daisilis failed to notice that her intellect seemed to have declined.

What could she do? She had left so much divine power behind in the "Exile Lands."

For Melo, the only one capable of utilizing divine power, where else could such a vast amount of power possibly go?

(End of Chapter)