Chapter 643: The Fruit-Holding Infants and the Numerous Spirit Beasts

Jier floated in the air, his whole person as if having lost the pull of gravity from the earth, swaying and bobbing; he swung his arms and kicked his legs, yet could not borrow any force to change his position.

He himself felt no panic, instead finding it interesting to strike a breaststroke pose in mid-air.

Not far away, at the entrance of the Central Ritual Field, Bata'er Jiaoshi covered his face with his hand, feeling that this young man Jier seemed to sway between being reliable and unreliable.

When he first saw him yesterday, he looked very ordinary; although he was the one he had been waiting for, he felt a hidden disappointment amidst his excitement. By this morning, when he saw Jier fully armed, his heart was filled with excitement; after all, the more capable Jier was, the greater the possibility of saving the villagers. At that time, he felt the arrangement given to him by the gods was truly reliable.

But now, in such a solemn situation, especially with the great Agricultural God personally present, Jier, who was receiving the ritual blessing, was actually making such silly, boring movements during the ceremony.

Bata'er Jiaoshi thought this way, not to mention the other observing Priests at the entrance.

One by one, they opened their mouths in silent astonishment, not expecting that the person who had the honor of personally experiencing the blessing ritual presided over by the god would be so unrefined, self-indulgent, and lacking in seriousness.

It was simply as if he did not hold the great Agricultural God in his eyes or in his heart.

But while they thought this, no one at the scene dared to speak up and disturb the ritual. After all, the god had not indicated anything.

Yet at the scene, the Vice Dean himself felt amused and curled the corners of his mouth.

Powerful, invisible Divine Power and pure Divine Power from the god surged around him, yet his own eyes glanced upward.

The god did not indicate anything.

Because the god was not a human with a limited lifespan; in the span of thousands of years, they had seen all kinds of humans. Facing Jier's floating in the air under the shroud of Divine Power and his amusing imitation of a frog swimming, the Agricultural God did not indicate anything.

The Agricultural God's Divine Power around Jier grew more and more abundant; the Divine Power was like a ball, or an unsprouted seed, wrapping Jier, a living person, within it.

Powerful and high-status energy also spontaneously produced some influence on the surrounding environment.

Among the green grass throughout the Central Ritual Field, clusters and bundles of illusory wheat seedlings grew rapidly, no one knew when.

These wheat seedlings quickly imagined themselves growing to maturity from the earth, and then, within ten breaths, a large amount of illusory, mature wheat 'grew' within the ritual field.

The golden wheat swayed without wind, forming waves.

Those who saw this scene, even if they knew those things were illusory, seemed to truly hear the rustling sound made by the wheat when the wind blew through it.

A fragrance mixed with the scent of the earth also lingered at everyone's nose tips.

No one knew when the sky became filled with green light, and infants holding giant fruits emerged from the green light of Divine Power.

They giggled, flying back and forth while holding various mature fruits; seeing people present, they boldly approached, their short, white, chubby hands generously holding up the fruits, wanting to give them to the people present.

One also flew in front of Jier.

This little one, holding an orange, had soft hair, clear and cute eyes, and a smile on its lips; it friendly raised the fruit in its hand, wanting to give it to Jier to taste.

Even though Jier was wrapped in a large amount of invisible Divine Power at this moment, all of this seemed to have no effect on this illusory fruit-holding infant.

Jier doubted whether this little one in front of him was a real thing, or just a phantom spontaneously produced wherever the Agricultural God's Divine Power reached?

The puzzled Jier subconsciously reached out his hand, and unexpectedly, with a few fingers of his right hand, pinched the orange the other had held up to give him.

"Giggle giggle~"

Seeming to notice that Jier had grabbed the fruit, the infant laughed, let go, and flew away happily on its own.

Jier, however, had a strange expression, subconsciously bringing the translucent orange in his hand to his mouth.

Before he could use his teeth to bite through the orange peel and eat the pulp inside, the illusory orange brought to his mouth directly turned into tangible yet formless energy and slid into his mouth.

It nourished his body.

A sense of satisfaction came from his stomach, as if he had eaten something good.

Not only was Jier, located at the center of the ritual, fed fruit by the illusory fruit-holding infants, but even the young Priests at the entrance observing the god's descent and the ritual had two or three fruit-holding infants fly toward them.

Not many went over, so these little ones were very troubled about which human present to give their fruits to.

A small girl squeezed out from among the Priests; she wore a clerical Robe, boldly stretched out a hand, opened it, and then waved her palm, seemingly signaling the fruit-holding infant to hurry up if it was going to give her a fruit.

Seeing such a 'landing spot', all three fruit-holding infants squeezed over together, all wanting to give their fruits to the girl who boldly asked for one.

But just as the three of them flew over, the girl took the initiative to grab a bunch of grapes from the hand of one of the fruit-holding infants with her palm.

With a pull of her hand, she caught both the fruit and the baby all at once.

The girl 'Qingtian' blinked her eyes with a smile, and used her left hand to tug at the face of the translucent, seemingly illusory infant; the chubby, bouncy little face was kneaded into several shapes.

This frightened the infant so much that it didn't even want the bunch of grapes it was still holding in its hand; it kicked its little fleshy feet hard in the air and immediately flew away, escaping from 'Qingtian's' 'clutches'.

This scene also frightened the other two fruit-holding infants; they hurriedly threw the fruits in their hands toward the crowd, not caring who they gave them to, and rushed to catch up with the one that had escaped, flying back together into the sky filled with the god's green light above the Central Ritual Field.

They disappeared from sight.

The two thrown fruits were caught by two lucky young Priests; all the Priests understood what these were, so they all brought the illusory fruits to their mouths, and with a 'whoosh', they turned into nourishing Divine Power and were sent into their stomachs.

The girl Qingtian was different; she broke the grapes in her hand off one by one and distributed them to the other Priests present.

First were the Old Priests who followed the Vice Dean, each receiving one of the plumpest grapes, then the young male and female Priests who were on good terms with her, and finally, the smaller grapes were distributed to the Priests who were in the same diocese but whom she did not know very well.

She herself waved the empty grape stem left and right, then tentatively brought it to her mouth; unexpectedly, this illusory stem also turned into nourishing Divine Power, entered her mouth, and nourished her stomach.

Everyone had received a portion of the fruit, so they all became exceptionally respectful toward 'Qingtian', the foster daughter of the diocese dean.

Only the two young Priests who had shared an entire fruit alone had their faces flushed red at this moment, and they lowered their heads in shame. But everyone did not say anything about this; in another situation, if it were themselves who had received a fruit from a fruit-holding infant, they might have had the same performance.

Not long after Jier swallowed the fruit, some of the fruit-holding infants flying around had given their fruits away, while others had not found anyone, so they gave up the act of giving fruits to people and let go of the translucent fruits, letting them fall to the ground.

As soon as the fruits touched the ground, they nourished the lawn and the large patch of equally translucent and illusory wheat on the ground.

Without the fruits, the infants flying in the air quickly circled around Jier.

Afterward, they flew into the sky and dived into the green light of Divine Power; when they appeared again, they were holding tiny animal dolls that were as cute as plush toys.

Each was no larger than an adult's palm, including the strong and mighty Lion, the slippery and cold Poisonous Snake, the robust and galloping Handsome Horse, the tough and enduring Stubborn Donkey, the pitch-black and noisy Black-eyed Crow, the secretive Mysterious Black Cat, the clever and greedy Fat Rat, the vigorous and powerful Plowing Ox, the jumping Agile Hare, the tail-wagging Giant River Fish, the soaring Fierce Griffin, the strange-looking Multi-legged Chameleon, the thirst- and hunger-resistant Tall Dromedary Camel, the honest and majestic Giant Brown Bear, the gluttonous and base Greedy Seagull, the agile-climbing Big-tailed Squirrel, the long-distance hunting Grey Wolf, the alert and leaping Forest Short-horned Deer, the trap-weaving Shadow Spider, the cooperative Industrious Ant, the sky-dominating Dangerous Dragon, the fast-flying Swift Flying Dragon, the sharp-eyed Sky Hunting Falcon, the heavy-shelled Steady Turtle, the docile and cold-resistant Long-wooled Sheep, the cliff-climbing Cliff-climbing Goat, the fighting-spirited Horned Fighting Sheep, the responsive Responsive Hunting Cat, the scent-tracking Loyal Hunting Dog, the commanding Shepherd Dog, the multi-voiced Mimic Parrot, the upright-postured Tall Two-legged Bird, the long-tongued swimming Swamp Giant Frog, the blood-sucking and invisible Terrifying Flying Mosquito, the hundred-fold-strength Elephant-nosed Beetle, the hidden-hunting Water Pool Giant Crocodile, the foul-smelling and sticky Acid Slime Monster, the rare-changing Mimic Shapeshifter, the forest-roaring Fatal Fierce Tiger, the honest and lucky Stupid Raccoon Cat, the extremely clever and cunning Cunning Red Fox, the massive Mountain-sized Giant Elephant, the wise-walking Giant-nosed Moose, and the cold-breathing Cold-breathing Polar Bear, and so on.

These fruit-holding infants held these various Spirit beast dolls and flew in the air, circling and flying around the Divine Power surrounding Jier.

Under Jier's curious gaze, they flew faster and faster, faster and faster.

Soon, one could no longer see what dolls they were holding, as it became so fast that only a trail of afterimages remained.

Afterward, these trails of afterimages with various flight paths gradually merged together; perhaps the fruit-holding infants themselves were products of illusory Divine Power, so they were neither bound by the laws of reality in the world nor by the considerations of ordinary human perception, spinning at high speed and gradually merging into a single rotating orbit during the high speed.

Right in front of Jier, that palm-sized orbit, changing with seven-colored flickering light and shadow, seemed to gradually slow down after merging.

The colorful beam of light seemed to have fused all the previous Spirit beast doll images, and even those fruit-holding infants seemed to have merged from dozens into one.

After the band of light finally stopped, an infant holding a constantly shifting ball of light appeared before Jier.

The Divine Power around Jier's body seemed to have a destination, surging madly toward the infant and the shifting ball of light it held.

The speed was rapid; in just over ten breaths, all of the powerful Divine Power around Jier, save for a small amount maintaining his levitation, had entered the tiny infant holding the ball before him.

Subsequently, this little one, emitting a faint green glow, became flat, looking as if it had been pressed down or had voluntarily transformed into a two-dimensional image.

This image approached Jier while shrinking in size, finally pressing against Jier's abdomen over his stomach, sticking to Jier's body.

Boom—Jier lost consciousness.

Because countless messages surged toward his brain from the blessing pattern stuck to his body.

But whether it was the intervention of the god or not, the information surged in all at once, then retreated all at once, leaving only a small amount of information on how to use this powerful blessing imprinted in Jier's mind.

Other information regarding various Spirits was locked inside the blessing and was not truly shared or opened to Jier.

Therefore, even if Jier uses it later, he cannot be entirely clear about the blessing and must explore it himself. Every Spirit is unknown to him; perhaps some Spirits that seem cute or foolish also possess some extraordinary abilities.

Jier's body gradually descended to the ground, and when his boots touched the lawn, Jier's whole body went limp, and he fell backward into the lawn and the illusory wheat field.

A hint of a smile appeared on the face of the Statue of the God, which then turned back into a Baishi Stone Statue.

The pillar of light vanished, and the God of Agriculture departed.

"Respectfully send off my Lord, the great God of Agriculture—Oupuluoqindidini, may you watch over all the tillers upon the earth."

The Priests, regardless of who they were, knelt and prostrated toward the Statue of the God, respectfully sending off the departure of the God of Agriculture.

The scene of the illusory wheat field on the Central Ritual Field did not dissipate, and they swayed without wind, emitting a rustling sound as the wheat ears collided.

It tickled the ears, yet gave one a sense of solid satisfaction.

The grass and wood outer garment on the Vice Dean receded, the grass leaves shrinking back into the lawn on the ground, while the tree branches and tender leaves retracted into the Knotted Wood Staff he had been holding high.

He walked toward Jier, and after arriving at Jier's side, he bent down and wiped Jier's face, and Jier woke up from his coma.

"Vice Dean, Excellency, was the ritual a success?"

The luster in Jier's eyes gradually recovered as he asked the Vice Dean.

The other party nodded and pointed a finger at Jier's stomach: "See for yourself, it is very interesting. This ritual blessing is one I have heard of, seen, and participated in for the first time; the knowledge of the God of Agriculture is like an boundless field, vast and endless, forever cultivated and inexhaustible."

Jier lifted his body slightly and looked at his stomach; it was truly magical, as the pattern of this blessing was still constantly changing on the skin of his stomach.

It was a pattern of an infant smiling while holding a ball of light, the whole thing emitting a faint glow; if one did not look closely, no one could predict how much powerful Divine Power was hidden within this inconspicuous blessing pattern.

Images of various Spirits constantly changed within the ball of light, and it changed once every time Jier breathed. When Jier's fingers lightly brushed the pattern, the Spirit images in the ball of light slowed their transformation.

The method of using the blessing and some other, lesser information cycled through his mind.

The small amount of this information somewhat exceeded Jier's expectations.

After all, the information for the previous 'Grass and Wood Source' blessing was more than this 'Summon Spirit in the Heart', yet he did not faint from the previous blessing, while he fainted from this one, yet the information was exceptionally sparse.

Regarding how many Spirits there were, and what the abilities and appearances of each Spirit were, he did not know a single bit.

This discovery made Jier scratch his head.

"Excellency, I do not know the information about the Spirits summoned by this blessing?"

When there is a problem, ask someone who knows; Jier directly opened his mouth to ask his doubt.

The Vice Dean reached out to pull Jier up; the strength in his withered arm within the sleeve of his gorgeous Robe far exceeded Jier's imagination, and the young Warrior was easily pulled up by the old man with one hand.

"Perhaps the god wants you to explore the information of these Spirits yourself? After all, it is a powerful ritual blessing I have never seen before; it perhaps exceeded the limits of what you could bear, so the god slightly modified the final result."

This answer made Jier feel at ease.

He looked around; although the lawn of the Central Ritual Field was still there, it was blocked layer by layer by the illusory wheat field. And outside the gate, dozens of Priests of the God of Agriculture wearing various Robes had gathered.

There were men and women, old and young, and the female Priest named 'Qingtian' whom he had met once before was also looking at him curiously.

Being stared at by so many people, Jier did not feel anything; he waved his hand generously toward these people, smiled, and Jier nodded to the Vice Dean, thanking him again.

Subsequently, he went to the place where he had previously placed his weapons and equipment, searched for his weapons and equipment among the illusory wheat, and put the equipment on one by one.