Chapter 68: 【The Sun Child】 and the Schemes Behind

"What is meant by a nominal sacrifice? I don't quite understand."

Jier looked at the hundreds of monsters drawing closer ahead, and said to the Sun God Priest who was still speaking in half-sentences: "Whatever method you have, you'd better be quick. They are coming right now."

The middle-aged priest leading the Sun God Priests saw this too, so he stopped hesitating and asking, and directly extended his right hand toward the sky. All the Sun God Priests watching him were startled, but surprised as they were, they still followed suit by extending their right hands toward the sky, gestured a sign, and everyone knelt on one knee, facing Jier.

The leader of the Sun God Priests pointed his left hand toward Jier and shouted: "O Eternal Light! Evil is right ahead, and the Sun Child destined to fight it is right before our eyes..."

The local Vice Dean of the Agricultural God Church was shocked the moment he heard the Sun God Priest recite this prayer, because this was a rare, last-resort method among all churches to forcibly transfer one's connection with a deity to another person in a moment of crisis.

The Agricultural God Church also had similar means; the lucky one who receives the power of a priest and the faith-based Divine Power System is generally called a 【Protector of Agriculture】, that is, someone who defends agricultural production for life.

This method requires a capable priest to voluntarily offer up everything they have regarding the deity and the church, transferring the level of attention and focus they have received from the deity over the years, their own Divine Core of faith, and all the Divine Power they possess to another person during a brief, irreversible ritual.

It is best if the other party has no strong resistance of faith, but it does not matter if they do; the special nature of this method lies in the fact that even if the other party has a different faith than the priest who voluntarily offers themselves, it does not hinder the other party from obtaining this transferred power and ability.

This method is rarely used by priests of any church because it is inherently anti-human. For every priest, the attention they receive from a deity, their own Divine Core of faith, and their own Divine Power are parts of their life that they have accumulated and built up since they were young; this concerns their identity, their social status, their position within the church, and to hand all these things over to another person irreversibly means they can never obtain the status of a priest again in this life.

This is because the prerequisite for performing this method is that the priest performing it admits they have committed a grave error and can no longer complete the tasks and work that their status and strength should fulfill.

In fact, the middle-aged priest leading the Sun God Church had indeed committed a grave error. He should not have proposed that the Sun God Church lead a team on their own, thereby taking a massive dump in front of everyone in Sasi County at this critical moment when the Sun God Church was supposed to demonstrate its strength.

He and his subordinate priests had botched this operation, and he had realized this since the first afternoon of the counterattack plan when they were harassed and blocked by the almost endless Parasitic Vine Monsters.

So, in order to salvage the defeat and the reputation of the Sun God Church in Sasi County, someone had to do something.

Just now, this middle-aged priest seemed to have heard the words of the great Sun God in the dark; the deity wanted him to turn the situation around, and the method was this—to offer up all his own strength, thereby transforming a reliable 【Sun Child】.

Knight Jier is young, has good strength, and looks like he still has great potential for the future. Although the other party has the identity of an Agricultural God Warrior, that is just perfect; once this method is used, the Sun God Church loses a priest who needs to be held accountable, the Agricultural God Church loses a promising Agricultural God Warrior, and the Sun God and the Sun God Church gain a powerful Sun Child!

"Asmoru! How dare you!!!"

The leading Vice Dean of the Agricultural God Church screamed sharply: "Warrior Jier is the warrior of our God!!! How can you let such despicable people take him away!"

He immediately spurred his horse and led his men to charge toward Asmoru, the Sun God Priest who was still chanting the prayer.

But the Sun God Priests were greater in number; they guarded the middle-aged leader named Asmoru with pained expressions, the Coal Stones at the tips of the Metal Long Staves in their hands radiating surging light and high heat, and relying on the equipment of the armed priests on their bodies, they tightly linked their defensive capabilities together.

At this moment, even if a formal Mage were to cast a powerful Magic, they would be unable to interrupt this process in a short time.

The Agricultural God Priests rode their horses into the protective barriers on the Sun God Priests; they also had Divine Power protection on their own bodies, so no one was injured, but the horses they were riding all fell to the ground one by one.

This sudden turn of events left the surrounding villagers of Bitter Water Village completely bewildered, not knowing what the priest masters of the two sides were doing. Don't they see that this is a very critical moment? Why are they fighting each other? Can't they wait until after they defeat the monsters and take back the village for them, and then fight wherever and however long they want?

Jier naturally heard the brief argument between the priests behind him, but he was currently activating the Agricultural God Blessing ability 【Grass and Wood Source】 on his body, and using his infinite energy to mobilize all the Life Energy within his body to adjust his physical capabilities to their peak state.

Not only that, because the Long Sword Hunting held in his right hand was imbued with the Sun God Church's Battle Divine Art 【Radiant Weapon】, Jier gathered a large amount of shadow power onto the Knight Shield in his left hand.

The Hartna Knight's exclusive shield, originally metallic in color with a smooth surface and elegant curves, was now, after Jier imbued it with the shadow power of the Shadow Bird, pitch-black like ink, and the shield as a whole was like a black hole, devouring the surrounding light. Furthermore, crow heads with red eyes emerged from the front of the shield; they poked out of the shield as if they were residing in the shadows on the shield itself.

At the same time, Jier activated the Magic Amplification Bracer on his left arm, raising his strength by another level. The Electric Shock Ring on his right finger was also connected by him to the mysterious seal within his body, using the Magic Beast Magic sealed inside his body to provide energy; after activating the Electric Shock Ring, Jier's right hand erupted with bursts of electric light. These arcs of electricity that pierced the air traveled along Jier's right hand, spread to the blade of the Long Sword Hunting, and then emerged from the tip of the sword, piercing the air and emitting a dull buzzing sound.

At this very moment, Jier's whole body was emitting the cyan light of the Agricultural God's Divine Power from the 【Grass and Wood Source】 ability, both his eyes were projecting terrifying power in cyan and black, the shield on his left arm held terrifying and ominous power, and the long sword held high in his right hand was not only wrapped in the golden-white light of 【Radiant Weapon】, but also carried terrifying electric light.

His appearance at this moment was simply like a different person compared to the Knight Jier from just a moment ago.

Even for Jier's subordinates, many of them were seeing Jier like this for the first time; most were filled with awe mixed with fear, only Weier, who turned his body and tilted his head to look at Jier's current state, his breathing rapid, his eyes unblinking.

Sipulu, who was usually not one for many words, bumped Weier with his shoulder: "Don't envy him, there will be a day like that."

But although Weier heard him, he still kept looking at Jier's current state; this looked extremely powerful, and he estimated that Jier alone could easily defeat the hundred-plus monsters ahead, and even the dozen or so flowering monsters.

You have to know, he himself, plus Aoni, Bawei, and Sipulu, these four young, strong, and capable warriors, only possessed high-defense Armor, shields, and weapons thanks to Jier's funding, and even then, they could only tangle with one flowering monster for a long time before defeating it.

But Jier at this moment looked just like the hero protagonist in a Bard's story; he estimated that it would only take one sword strike to kill a flowering monster.

This gap in strength made Weier feel so bad it gave him a stomachache, because the family enemies he needed to deal with for his revenge had no idea how many young knights like Jier they had as subordinates.

Thinking of this, he didn't know if his path of revenge could ever be completed?

"... As stated above, I voluntarily offer everything I have, merely so that my God may add another noble Sun Child, one who can defend the dignity and divine might of my God, a nascent light that brings dawn to the world."

"You cannot do this! Warrior Jier is an Agricultural God Warrior! He believes in the Agricultural God! You are insulting the Agricultural God faith!"

"May the world forever enjoy the light, and may the new Sun Child turn around my mistakes, O great Sun God! This is my final prayer; from now on, prayers can only resound in my heart, but my heart will forever be filled with light. May the light shine upon the world, may humanity prosper, and may humanity be immortal."

"It's over!"

The Agricultural God Vice Dean desperately pried at the young Sun God priest in front of him with the Metal Long Staff in his hand, but the young priests faced outward, arms linked, firmly guarding the middle-aged priest Asmoru, who had just finished the prayer.

No, with the conclusion of this prayer, Asmoru was no longer a novice Priest of the Sun God Church; he was not even a believer of the Sun God anymore, because for the rest of his life, he would be unable to accept Sun God Divine Power, unable to offer faith like ordinary people.

At the same moment, intense light erupted from Asmoru's body, and he roared in pain, his eyes even filled with tears; it was unknown whether it was because of the pain or because he was crying for his future self.

For a priest of a deity's church, the cruelest thing is to be stripped of everything regarding their faith in the deity, and to be unable to recover it ever again.

On the right hand he held high, a bright Divine Core the size of a fingernail tore through the skin of his palm and emerged; this thing was like a newborn jellyfish, and outside the high-brightness body of the core were glowing ribbons like jellyfish tentacles.

After this thing broke through Asmoru's palm, it gently stroked the damaged palm with its glowing ribbon tentacles, instantly healing the wound.

Afterward, Asmoru pointed his finger at Jier in the front row; without a word, this glowing, jellyfish-like thing instantly shot toward Jier.

Jier felt something, and he looked back; his glowing eyes startled many people around him, but that thing was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it rushed into Jier's forehead and drilled directly into Jier's brain.

Jier did not feel any discomfort, far less painful than Asmoru; he didn't even know what had happened behind him just now.

It was just that Jier looked at his right hand, at the Long Sword Hunting he was holding; the 【Radiant Weapon】 that had been imbued by others was good-looking and practical, especially against Parasitic Vine Monsters, but it still seemed superficial—light was light, and the weapon was the weapon.

But now, Jier keenly felt that he and his spiritual weapon 【Hunting】 seemed to have established an energetic connection.

A new kind of power from his body passed through his palm and provided it to his weapon, allowing the imbued 【Radiant Weapon】 to be maintained as long as he wanted to maintain it.

Moreover, the Sun God Church's blessing ability 【Divine Power Flash】 that was originally embedded in the Long Sword Hunting also seemed to have developed a connection with this new power of his, and it could be directly powered by Jier himself, without the need for the Long Sword Hunting to be exposed to sunlight every day to recover its power.

And Jier keenly perceived that compared to the Sun God's power accumulated on the Long Sword Hunting, this new power that had appeared in his body was like the difference between a water basin and a pond.

Jier was a bit surprised; what was going on? He had only been concentrating on mobilizing his own strength, so how did a new power appear in the blink of an eye?

And he didn't see any signs of the deity themselves being summoned like last time, did he?

Furthermore, Jier twisted his body with quite a bit of disgust; he increasingly felt that his body was like a public Toilet, where anyone's power could come in to take a big dump and leave something behind to prove they had been there.

"What a disgusting feeling, ugh..."

Jier complained, but there was no time for him to complain more; the flowering monsters ahead were already more than twenty meters away, and this distance was already the dangerous distance to launch a battle.

"Everyone! Let us crush the enemies before us!"

Jier shouted loudly, then stomped on the ground, the entire ground shook, and he himself instantly disappeared from where he stood, charging straight into the group of monsters.

The Warriors were stunned for a moment, but then they reacted, roaring as they charged forward.

But they only ran a few steps before they scattered and stopped.

Everyone had a look of horror on their face; some Villagers were so scared they collapsed where they stood, and urine began to flow from their pant legs.

Because before them, the blurred figure of Knight Jier was whipping up a whirlwind of slaughter, carrying terrifying intense light and high heat, tearing the surrounding parasitic Monsters into pieces.

There was also buzzing electricity emerging from Jier's blurred figure as he moved at high speed, crackling as it electrocuted the Monsters one by one as they approached him, after which they were torn to shreds.

Several flowering Monsters swung the giant clubs in their hands with all their might, wanting to use brute force to swat away this terrifying fellow, Jier.

But Jier charged straight at them with his Shield raised; in the blink of an eye, a large number of pitch-black crows emerged from the Shield, tearing apart the giant wooden clubs that were attacking, then swarming onto the bodies of those flowering Monsters, pecking and tearing at the surfaces of their bodies, ripping their disguises of human skin to shreds to reveal their true forms.

But before everyone could see the original appearance of those flowering Monsters clearly, Jier raised his Shield and smashed through one flowering Monster, and in an instant, swung his sword over a dozen times, hacking a nearby flowering Monster into pieces.

Afterward, in short, rapid movements that appeared blurred to everyone, Jier moved quickly within a small area, fighting with his sword; the strong wind brought about by his body's movement gathered into a whirlwind, sucking the surrounding Monsters that wanted to escape into place.

And in the time of a single breath, he slaughtered more than a dozen nearby Monsters.

Ordinary parasitic Monsters were ignited by the power of the 【Radiant Weapon】 on his weapon even just by getting close to Jier; only the flowering Monsters could trade a blow with him before being killed.

Everyone was dumbfounded, and quite a few were so fearful they wanted to follow their instincts and flee the place, terrified that Knight Jier, whose danger level was off the charts, would kill them too after he finished off the Monsters.

Countless pitch-black crows continued to emerge from Jier's Shield; these fellows, who looked terrifying, did not disappear after killing an enemy, but instead flew into the sky, circling above the Cunzi, then dove downward to intercept the parasitic Monsters that saw the situation was bad and wanted to escape.

These pitch-black birds dove straight into the mouths of the Monsters, then moved from the inside toward the Monsters' torsos. Because hundreds and thousands of pitch-black crows emerged from the Shield in just over ten seconds, the Monsters attacked by the birds first had their bellies burst open by the pitch-black birds that had burrowed into their bodies, naturally destroying their Human Face Cores along with them.

By this time, Jier had already killed the hundreds of parasitic Monsters on the street and was charging into the surrounding Villagers' courtyards, hunting down the Monsters that were fleeing in all directions.

But the Monsters' flight was useless; they still had to run on foot, while Jier moved so fast his movements could not be seen, instantly smashing through the Fences and earthen walls of the farm courtyards.

After the rumbling sounds of battle gradually faded into the distance, among the crowd who were foolishly stunned in place, someone finally cried out in fear.

The middle-aged Priest of the Agriculture God roared angrily at Asmoru, who was still being protected: "Look at what you have done!"

At this moment, Asmoru, whose Priest equipment and the Statue of the God of the Sun had actively detached from his body, looked regretfully at his own things moving away from him, and said to the others in a desolate tone: "Me? It would be better to say it was you—your promise completely unleashed the terrifying side of Jier, this Sun Child."

He clenched his fist, but there was not a shred of Sun God Divine Power left in his body; Asmoru sighed regretfully: "He might be this terrifying by nature, haha. But that is fine; such a terrifying young Knight will, in the future, become a Sun Child and serve my, my... God."

When he said "my God," he seemed to be obstructed by something, struggling quite a bit.

"I am somewhat sorry to you all, but Knight Jier will be a Sun Child of the Sun God Church in the future."

"Oh, what is a Sun Child?"

A strong wind blew past the crowd; they looked closely and saw that just now, Jier, who had killed all the parasitic Monsters, had instantly returned to their side and was asking curiously.

Asmoru's expression changed; he was puzzled. Logically speaking, he had transferred everything the deity had bestowed upon him to Jier, and Jier should have instantly gained much of his knowledge and reverence regarding the Sun God.

How could he not know such basic knowledge as what a Sun Child is?

The Agriculture God expressed that He did not know; He had only taken the first step to leave the knowledge of abilities and His own divine mark in Jier's brain, and had not done anything more regarding defensive measures for Faith, really!

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