Chapter 412: Let Us Celebrate! (Part 4)

The hesitation of the God of Strength could be seen and felt by everyone present. Although the Dwarf who had suddenly run out to say something to the God of Strength had spoken in the Dwarven Language, no one in the crowd could understand it.

But the crowd was not stupid; just by looking at the hesitant, motionless state of the God of Strength, they knew that the Dwarf certainly hadn't said anything good!

"Oh God of Strength, I submit to you, please grant me your power!"

Someone shouted urgently because of this.

"Please do not listen to those slanderous words, we are truly thirsting for power! We beg you!"

Others pointed their fingers in indignation at the Wild Priest Dwarf who had run out, but the funny thing was, what would they think if they knew that this Dwarf they were pointing at had become a priest precisely because of his spontaneous faith in the God of Strength?

"Hmph! My power can only be possessed and its beauty displayed by those who are truly worthy. I have decided: you three shall receive my power immediately. Step forward!"

After the bronze-colored fire giants above the campfires finished speaking these words, they reached out one after another to point at the crowd, seeing and pointing only at three people.

The crowd was in chaos, with everyone trying to determine if they were the one who had received the favor of the deity.

But then, the three people pointed at by the fire giants actually began to emit a faint, shimmering bronze glow.

Those three people had vastly different expressions and attitudes.

One of them was a certain Armed Squad Captain who was half-kneeling on the ground, striking his Shield with his Long Sword to display his valor. When this man saw that he was emitting a bronze glow and saw several fire giants in the campfires looking at him and pointing directly at him, he was stunned.

Thus, this Armed Squad Captain no longer doubted and shouted loudly: "I offer you my loyalty and faith! Great God of Strength, Lord of Strength, my Lord."

After shouting, he stood up. Without needing to push through others, the people around him spontaneously made a path for him with strange expressions, allowing him to walk directly to the side of the fire giant in the campfire.

As soon as he approached the huge, several-meter-tall fire giant, one of them opened its huge palm and swung it toward the approaching Human Warrior.

The Armed Squad Captain immediately looked terrified; anyone would be afraid to have a giant flaming palm approach them. But before he could dodge, he was pressed by the huge palm onto the top of his head.

The fire was, after all, a phantom of Divine Power; even the heat radiated by the fire giant was actually just a false simulation created by Divine Power. As the huge palm pressed down, it did not crush the Human Warrior, nor did it scorch him; instead, the moment it touched his body, it transformed from fire into a torrent of bronze Divine Power, rushing directly into the warrior's entire body.

After only a few seconds, the fire giant withdrew its palm, and the Human Warrior who had received the power radiated a burst of bronze Divine Power light, which gradually faded into his body. The warrior himself remained standing in place, panting heavily with his eyes tightly shut, as if feeling the new, magical power that had suddenly appeared in his body, or perhaps listening to the words of the deity.

The second of the three chosen was one of the Dwarves, a Dwarf Soldier Captain.

When the bronze glow appeared on his body, he was stunned at first, then ecstatic. The two Dwarf Strength God Believers beside him, who used Two-handed Axes, showed looks of extreme envy and slight indignation.

It wasn't that they looked down on their Dwarf Soldier Captain; in fact, everyone had seen the combat achievements and hard work of this Dwarf Soldier Captain over the years. Admitting they were inferior to him, the two acknowledged that it was appropriate and fitting for the Soldier Captain to have this honor.

But the two of them were believers in the God of Strength, while the Dwarf Soldier Captain did not believe in the God of Strength—at least, he had never explicitly expressed any faith. Bestowing a blessing upon an outsider who did not believe in the God of Strength while ignoring their own people who did made the two warriors feel slightly dissatisfied.

Of course, they would not truly express dissatisfaction toward their deity; the decisions made by a deity have their own reasons and deep meanings.

That was not something mortals were qualified to judge.

The Wild Priest of the God of Strength scanned the scene and saw that one was a Human Warrior and one was their Dwarf Soldier Captain, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief. His deity had finally not spread Divine Power widely, bringing all the dozens of humans thirsting for power into the faith. Otherwise, he would really have to stay in human territory with these new human believers.

That would be too terrible.

After all, he had family, friends, and a hometown, and he wanted to go home too.

More importantly, after returning to the land of the Dwarves, it would obviously be easier to promote the faith of the God of Strength and achieve results than in human territory, and he himself would be formally incorporated into the Church Priest system of the God of Strength.

He did not want to spend his whole life in the territory of an alien race, dealing with alien humans.

Just as the Dwarf Soldier Captain was striding toward the fire giant in the campfire to receive the blessing of the God of Strength, the third person chosen by the God of Strength caused much surprise among many.

Because that person was dressed in casual clothes and stood in place; he neither bowed humbly to express gratitude nor stepped forward to approach the fire giant to receive the blessing. Instead, he stood with his hands on his hips, squinting his eyes, and disrespectfully staring back at the fire giants who were glaring at him.

The surrounding crowd watched this scene quietly, then whispered to each other.

Many of the commoners who were thirsting for power from the God of Strength looked at the last chosen guy with indescribable expressions. Many looked on in disbelief, many even cast resentful glances at the fire giant phantom of the God of Strength, and many laughed at themselves, secretly shrinking back into the crowd, trying to resume their usual appearance.

That's right, one of the three people chosen by the God of Strength, deemed to have the qualification to receive His favor and power among those present, was Jier.

"Step forward!"

The huge fire giant announced loudly once again, the volume even greater than before.

But Jier did not move his feet. He even scratched his hair awkwardly, sighed, and shrugged at the old Dwarf beside him: "Can I refuse this?"

The old Dwarf was also left between laughter and tears. He had not expected that their Dwarven deity would choose a Human Knight—especially a young knight deeply entangled with the Human God Church—to bestow the Divine Power of the God of Strength upon and try to incorporate him into the faith.

He had no choice but to bow slightly to the God of Strength and say to Jier: "What the deity bestows must have a reason; you should accept it with a grateful heart."

This was a pedantic answer in Human Common Language.

Jier sighed again and looked up at the fire giant image of the God of Strength: "What exactly do you see in me? There are so many people here thirsting for power begging you, yet you choose me, who is disrespectful to you and does not need extra power?"

While the fire giants had one of their number bestow the power of Divine Power upon the Soldier Captain, they spoke in unison: "Step forward!!"

Jier did not step forward: "Can I refuse?"

The power system within his body was already complicated enough: he had the Old Ring of the Elf Goddess, part of the power of the Great Bird deity, a large amount of residual sealed Magic Power from Magic Beasts he was unaware of, the Divine Power Seed planted in his body by the Agricultural God Church—which was later strengthened by the Agricultural God and connected to the two powerful Divine Arts on his body—as well as his own Life Energy accumulated after he stepped onto the path of a Knight.

There were already five types, the kind where if they all got together for a meal and drinks, it wouldn't seem like a small group.

At this moment, the alien God of Strength of the Dwarves had taken a fancy to him and wanted to add a new type of Divine Power to his body.

Jier was truly somewhat unwilling.

But the God of Strength's only reply was: "Step forward!!!"

The words already contained a sense of urging and reprimand.

But Jier did not move his feet. At this moment, Bata'er Jiaoshi pushed through the crowded commoners in front of him, stood out, and said loudly: "Alien God of Strength, the warrior Qiao-Jier is a warrior recognized by our Human Agricultural God Church! The great Agricultural God has long favored him and bestowed Divine Power upon him; please do not force him to convert to your faith."

But the God of Strength did not even look at Bata'er Jiaoshi, only asking one last time: "You, do, not, step, forward?"

Jier hesitated for a moment, then slowly spread his legs and squatted slightly. Although his hands were empty, Jier's right hand was already reaching out toward his carriage from a distance.

He was prepared to fight at any moment.

Inside his carriage, the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe leaning against the carriage wall was trembling slightly, clearly having received Jier's will to summon it. But the several monster marks on the blue axe blade all showed expressions of fear, unease, and excitement; even the soul image of the spider-type Magic Beast that served as their leader was trembling, not knowing if it was out of excitement or fear.

These monsters were also facing a deity for the first time. Even if it was only a phantom projected by a portion of the deity's power, they were both terrified of their own possible destruction and excited to be able to strike at a deity.

The atmosphere at the scene was exceptionally frozen. The commoners felt uneasy, and some knowledgeable people were moving their feet backward slightly, their faces pleading for the two not to fight. They were praying that Knight Jier would best honestly accept the deity's power rather than provoke the alien deity.

The old Dwarf also saw that the situation was not right and was about to speak to mediate or give the God of Strength or Jier a way out. But before he could speak, the fire giant phantom of the God of Strength made a move.

They rose up with a 'whoosh', becoming even more massive—no, it was because they rose and elongated their overall image. Then, these fire giants stretched and clung to each other in mid-air, making the fused, singular fire giant image even larger and longer.

And it reached out directly in mid-air toward Jier, who was not far away.

It held a palm high and dropped it straight down from above, looking as if it were determined to forcibly 'bestow' power upon the Human Knight opposite it today.

Having chosen you, you have no possibility of refusal; you must accept it.

This is the style of the God of Strength.

This is strength.

Jier certainly could not sit and wait for death—er, it seemed he would not die, but he also did not want to add any more trouble to his body, so he leaped fiercely to the side, dodging out several meters.

When he jumped, he specifically avoided the surrounding crowd; otherwise, with a powered-up jump, it would have been impossible for him to jump only a few meters.

At the same time, while leaping sideways, Jier shouted urgently: "Moon-Water Axe! Assist me!"

The wall of the carriage burst open in an instant, and an axe with a blue blade spun through the air, flying straight up and landing accurately into Jier's hand in mid-air. The blue light on the axe blade surged, and every monster head image bound upon it began to stir; the spider-type Magic Beast even shook its head and wagged its tail, joining the other monsters in driving the power of the axe.

"Do not act!" the old Dwarf said, pale with fright, exclaiming aloud.

"Warrior, stay calm!" Bata'er Jiaoshi was also so shocked that his face was drained of all blood, and he shouted to dissuade him. He truly had not expected that the Dwarf's God of Strength would be so overbearing, and that Warrior Jier would be so rebellious as to dare to use a weapon to fight a god.

Regardless of whether it was a god of a different race, it was still a god.

"You dare to defy my god!" the Wild Priest said with a face full of anger, holding the Metal Box high, intending to use all his Divine Power to turn it into a Divine Power Impact to kill this Human Knight who had offended the god.

But at this moment, the most unexpected thing was the God of Strength, who had lunged and missed.

He retracted the giant flame palm that had grabbed at nothing, and the elongated flame giant figure swayed in the air, actually laughing out loud: "Truly the one I have chosen; I bestow strength upon you, and you shall surely display the powerful beauty of strength in the future!"

After speaking, the image of the flame giant changed drastically; the giant body, which had previously looked like it was composed of campfire flames, transformed rapidly into a giant of Bronze Divine Power.

It no longer released the heat of the flames simulated by Divine Power, directly revealing its true essence.

The image of the Bronze Divine Power giant was even more overbearing; he no longer used one hand to grab the escaping Jier, but instead used both left and right hands simultaneously, reaching out to grab the retreating Human Knight.

Jier's plan was very simple: since the God of Strength and the previous bird god both relied on the flames of the campfire to manifest, he would just stay far away from the campfire.

You god, you surely can't have your lower body connected to the campfire at the center of the Yingdi while your upper body stretches out a hundred or several hundred meters to 'bestow' strength upon me, right?

Jier thought well, but he did not expect the speed of pure Divine Power to be so fast; before he had retreated even a few meters, the Divine Power palms from the left and right had already closed in to grab him.

He immediately landed and jumped to one side, avoiding one hand and making it grab at empty air, then took advantage of the momentum in mid-air to turn and swing the axe in his hand.

The blue axe carved a semi-circular blue light trail in mid-air, colliding exactly with the other palm of the grabbing Divine Power giant.

Sss—

The two intersected briefly, and neither could do anything to the other. The blue light on the axe face dimmed, and the god's Divine Power palm also had half of it broken open. But in the next instant, the Divine Power on the giant's palm fused together, mending the broken opening, and the giant itself remained completely unaffected.

Clearly, in terms of Jier's own ability, compared to a true god, it was far inferior.

"Damn it!"

Jier cursed, and after landing from his jump, he crashed his whole body into the simple tent nearby; in the next instant, the two palms of the Divine Power giant grabbed the entire tent fabric and pulled left and right.

With a ripping sound, the simple tent, which was quite tall and occupied a fair amount of space, capable of sleeping a dozen people, was pulled apart by the Divine Power giant with such ease.

And revealed from the dismantled tent was Jier, who stood with his legs planted in the middle of the tent, gathering strength, and swinging the blue axe in his hand with all his might.

"Go!"

He shouted, and the Moon-Water Axe, emitting blue light, was thrown out with all his might; the force and speed were rapid, and the blue light on the entire axe face was the brightest it had been since the axe was born.

Every monster head imprint on the axe face was now making howling and biting motions; clearly, being able to battle a god also made them incredibly excited.

Even if they were no match for the god, and even if they could not cause much damage to the god, they still wanted to fiercely bite off a portion of power, a piece of 'flesh and blood', from the god's Divine Power body.

But the giant composed of Bronze Divine Power, which was the God of Strength, was no pushover either; he might have already anticipated the resistance of the tiny human, so when he tore the tent apart and saw the human in the tent throwing the axe at him with all his might, the god just laughed.

The next moment, on the giant's chest, which was the part aimed at by the axe, a new palm 'extended' abruptly from the front of the chest; this palm was thicker and sturdier, and the Bronze Divine Power condensed within it was even more refined and restrained, looking even more formidable at a glance.

This palm clenched directly into a fist, emerging from the front of the chest, and struck the incoming blue axe head-on.

Clang—

Sss-sss-sss-sss—

The fist condensed from Divine Power blocked the Moon-Water Axe; no, or rather, the blade of the Moon-Water Axe had cleaved half a meter deep into the Divine Power fist before its force was exhausted, and it became stuck in the Divine Power fist.

Seeing that it was no use, Jier leaped backward with all his might; as long as he jumped a few more times, he could escape the range of the Yingdi. At that point, unless this God of Strength disregarded everything and stretched his Divine Power body like a pulled rubber band, he would have to shrink back to the campfire, either leaving in anger because of the loss of face, or choosing someone else to receive his blessing of strength.

By then, although Jier would be on bad terms with the few Dwarfs who believed in the God of Strength, they were already opponents to begin with, and having had a fierce fight, having another one later would not be a problem.

He could not beat the god, he was no match, but dealing with you few would be as easy as pie.

But Jier thought well, yet he underestimated the flexibility and ability of the god's methods.

When the God of Strength had a new fist emerge from his chest to deal with the axe Jier threw, his two Divine Power palms were not idle either; after discarding the torn tent, they again closed in on Jier, the human, from the left and right mid-air.

And when Jier jumped up again to dodge, his two palms suddenly changed; every finger on the palms grew rapidly once more, and each finger weirdly transformed into a new, smaller-sized palm.

In just an instant, Jier went from being surrounded by the two large Divine Power giant palms to being surrounded in mid-air by ten small Divine Power giant palms from the left, right, above, and below.

He could not dodge!

No matter how Jier punched and kicked in mid-air, in the next instant, he was firmly grabbed in mid-air by the ten palms of the God of Strength.

Truly firmly grabbed!

His hands and feet were each grabbed by a Divine Power palm, his thighs and Upper Arm Armor were grabbed by four Divine Power palms, and his waist was grabbed by the two Divine Power palms on the left and right. At this very moment, only his head and neck could move.

"Let me go! I don't accept it; you're forcing strength on me, aren't you?"

Jier struggled with all his might, but even if he exerted his entire Life Energy, it was simply no match for the force of the God of Strength's Divine Power giant body.

He was trapped.

"Hahahaha, I am a god, you are a mortal; you should gratefully accept my strength. Why must you refuse?"

The God of Strength had grabbed this Human Knight who did not give him face, and was clearly in a great mood; the giant opened his big mouth and laughed heartily. At the same time, the Divine Power giant body that had stretched dozens of meters from the campfire at the center of the Yingdi also rapidly shrank back to its original position.

And the giant's hands were still clutching his 'trophy'.

The people on the ground had seen everything that happened in the short time just now clearly; seeing Knight Jier defeated and captured, many of the people who had always taken Knight Jier as their psychological reliance were now feeling exceptionally agitated.

"Let go of Lord Jier!"

"Knight Jier, run!"

The people shouted with all their might, but some were also shouting strange things: "Let me replace Knight Jier! Let him go! Let me take his place!"

Hearing the shouts of the people on the ground, Jier was first gratified, then speechless as he rolled his eyes.

Bata'er Jiaoshi knew that the alien God of Strength held no malice, only a bit of arrogance and tyranny, but Jier was already a church warrior favored by the Agricultural God; how could he be forcibly bestowed with power by an alien deity right in front of so many Nongshen Believers?

How would the believers view this? How would the other commoners view this? How would the Agricultural God view this?

Therefore, he walked up quickly, ignoring the two fellows to the side who had already accepted the bestowal of power from the God of Strength and were standing there blankly with their eyes closed, and shouted loudly to the nearly ten-meter-tall giant of Bronze Divine Power before him: "Please consider this, Warrior Jier is a warrior of our Agricultural God Church, and he has already received a Divine Art personally bestowed by the great Agricultural God in the Montoka City Agricultural God parish."

Hearing this, the God of Strength let out a "Hmm" sound; this time, He widened His huge eyes and carefully examined the Human Knight in His palm.

"You should take a good look, haha, I don't even know if there is any room for your Power of the God of Strength inside my tiny body?" Jier was not very afraid; he had just been afraid of trouble earlier, but now that he was completely caught, he decided to just let things be, smiling and joking at the God of Strength's massive Divine Power giant form.

"Hmph, so it turns out to be a piece of scrap metal smelted with too many impurities..."

After looking carefully for a while, the God of Strength said disdainfully.

But He looked at Jier carefully again, and His expression changed slightly: "And to think you actually have a token of the 'Dream Drunkard', tiny Human, what is your relationship with that lady?"

Jier's expression changed; this was in front of a large crowd, could you, a deity, not have a filter on your mouth? Is this something that can be asked in public?

His expression shifted, and he finally stiffened his neck and stubbornly said: "Didn't you say you were going to bestow power upon me? What, are you afraid now? Unwilling? Then you should put me down."

"Hmph, I suppose I misjudged you; the various powers within your body are mixed and chaotic, yet you are still able to live perfectly well. It seems your luck is truly very good."

As the God of Strength said this, He lowered Jier toward the ground and casually shoved the Yueshui Skull Two-Handed Axe, which had been stuck all this time, into Jier's hand, just about to give up on this bestowal of Power of the God of Strength.

But just at this moment, from the many campfires that had been supporting His appearance and existence, what emerged from their burning flames was no longer the Bronze Divine Power of the God of Strength, but a thick Cyan Divine Power mixed with countless tiny, miscellaneous colors.

The God of Strength's expression changed.

And Jier, seeing this, had a strange expression: "Who has come now?"

Bata'er Jiaoshi, watching the familiar Cyan Divine Power light emerging from the campfires, opened his mouth and shouted: "It is the great Agricultural God! It is the great Agricultural God personally arriving! The great Agricultural God has personally arrived!"

The more troubled he had been before, the happier he was now!

The Human Mind of the many people that had been disturbed by the alien God of Strength was finally going to be completely stabilized with the arrival of the Agricultural God.

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(End of this chapter)