Chapter 69: After the Battle of Bitter Water Cunzi

"Sun Child... uh, it's just a title similar to an Agricultural God Warrior! Yes, that's exactly it."

Asmoru, a former Sun God Church Priest, explained somewhat nervously, but his words were immediately interrupted by the indignant middle-aged Agricultural God Priest beside him: "Don't listen to his sophistry! Warrior Jier, if you are still our Agricultural God Warrior, he did not explain in detail to you just now; in fact, a terrifying thing happened."

Jier put away the various terrifying aspects of his body at this moment; his body no longer emitted green light, his eyes returned to normal, the shield on his left hand reverted to its original metallic color, and the long sword in his right hand also lost its radiance and no longer carried a buzzing electric current.

The terrifying, pitch-black birds that had been flying all over the sky just a moment ago also vanished as if they were a hallucination, but only the vast stretches of burning monster corpse fragments on the village street ahead proved that the scene everyone had just witnessed was not fake.

Jier waved his hand to have his warriors mop up any other parasitic monsters that might still exist in the village, especially the houses where the other side definitely engaged in parasitic reproduction. That place had to be dealt with quickly.

Only then did Jier raise his hand to signal the Agricultural God Priests to tell him exactly what had happened just now.

"... So that's how it is."

Jier lifted the faceplate on his helmet, revealing a contemplative look.

He opened his right hand, and then golden-white divine power of the god appeared on his palm: "This is it? The Sun God's divine power?"

The surrounding priests looked at Jier's palm with varying expressions. Asmoru, who had already lost his divine power and faith, looked nostalgically at the Sun God divine power emerging in Jier's hand; that was his power, after all. From the time he was led by his teacher as a youth, kneeling and praying piously before the god's statue, and after much study and testing, he had officially received the priests' most important Divine Core under the gaze of the church members, followed by years of running about in the church, cultivating believers directly under him, and transforming the faith power of the believers into Sun God divine power while presiding over collective prayers.

So many years of accumulated divine power had now become power grasped in another person's palm.

And the young Sun God Church priests who were firmly guarding Asmoru looked at Jier with envy, because to them, being able to grasp Sun God divine power stronger than their own so conveniently without having to go through study and testing, and without having to deal with countless believers every day and conduct endless prayers, was truly enviable.

Although it was a pity that their former leader would no longer be a Sun God Priest in the future, and wouldn't even be able to be a Sun God believer, everyone hoped that such a situation—where others lose and they gain—would fall upon themselves.

"Warrior Jier, please do not be obsessed with this newly acquired power; that is not the crux of the matter. This 'Sun Child' is not a simple title, nor is it the status of an Agricultural God Warrior like you. When that fellow Asmoru transferred his Sun God divine power and core to you, he also transferred his reverence, trust, and even submission to the god along with it!"

This middle-aged Agricultural God Priest used a very heavy tone, and this word made Jier heighten his vigilance: "Submission? To whom? To whom am I submitting and pledging loyalty?"

The middle-aged Agricultural God Priest looked at Jier with regret: "Submission and loyalty to the Sun God, not to your liege noble."

Jier rolled his eyes; he was momentarily bluffed, and as his thoughts turned, he asked: "Is this a type of transformation based on the spirit and soul?"

Asmoru raised his voice to explain: "It is not a transformation! Noble Sun Child, my... the god's new subject, that is merely giving you my knowledge and emotions regarding the god and the church. This is an honor, not a mistake; there is no need to resist. Accept it smoothly, just as you smoothly grasped the divine power that originally belonged to me."

Asmoru was also creating a Sun Child in person for the first time outside of books, so although Jier did not appear as described in the books at this moment, he only felt that Jier's current performance was temporary; after all, knowledge and emotions are not as externalized as power, nor as easy to be accepted and mastered. But honestly, Jier, this Sun Child, was indeed formidable; he could easily and smoothly control a large amount of divine power that ordinary pastors could not successfully master.

Little did he know that Jier's body was currently filled with the power of various gods; it was fortunate that the Sun God divine power core chose Jier's head to fuse with, otherwise, if it had chosen any other part of the body, it would have immediately given the Sun God divine power core that wanted to move in a hard time! After all, the power of other gods could already be considered half-residents of Jier; the space was only so large, the house was only so big, and if it wanted to move in by force, it would have to fight a battle with the other divine powers.

Jier was noncommittal about Asmoru's rhetoric, but he clearly did not like this act of being forced to drink water by having his head pressed down. After all, this matter of changing his spirit and soul had not been agreed to by him at all beforehand.

"Didn't you agree? The situation was urgent at the time; I was still hesitating, but you urged me to make a quick decision," Asmoru defended.

Jier pursed his lips, wanting to open his mouth to say something or curse something, but he couldn't open his mouth; after all, the Agricultural God Priest had already made clear to him the price Asmoru had paid. To a priest who had grown up in the church since childhood, losing everything related to faith sounded like an extremely cruel price and punishment.

Furthermore, this price was irreversible; it wasn't as if he could re-enter the church in the future and start over as a basic Novice Priest. Asmoru would not even be able to pray to the Sun God in the future, let alone be an ordinary believer, let alone become a priest again.

And Jier had thus obtained Asmoru's priest abilities and a new identity as a Sun Child; if one set aside the fact that his consciousness was being influenced as the other party claimed, he had still gained quite a bit.

Although Jier did not need or like this power.

And he hadn't gained any knowledge about faith, or feelings of reverence for the Sun God, had he?

'The Sun God, that old thing—it's so hot this summer, isn't it all His fault! Although the Sun God is the Sun God, and the sun is the sun; they are two different things. One is a celestial entity, and the other is a divine entity in human religious spirit.'

Complaining in his heart, Jier didn't feel that he had any special thoughts or feelings toward the Sun God. He guessed that it might be that this thing didn't take effect so quickly, but was influencing him subtly in the days to come, slowly transforming him.

It was also possible that it was because he, an outsider, was somewhat special and was not affected by this kind of influence on the spirit and soul?

What Jier did not know was that both of his guesses were wrong.

The 【Sun Child】 method of consuming a priest to transform an outsider was an immediate, mandatory measure; the moment one was forcibly transformed, the person being transformed would mentally become someone pious toward the god.

But Jier did not understand that when he was in the Agricultural God parish of Montoka City, he had received the blessing ability of 【Call of the Heart Spirit Beast】 from the Agricultural God himself. Because he received a large amount of hidden knowledge about spirit beasts, he was incidentally reinforced by the Agricultural God in his spirit and soul. On one hand, this was to prevent the vast knowledge about spirit beasts from destroying the soul and consciousness of an ordinary human, and on the other hand, it incidentally strengthened him against being influenced by other gods on his spirit and soul.

In other words, Jier's soul had long been marked and protected by the Agricultural God, and he was therefore unable to be forcibly transformed in mind; even if he were to be transformed, it could only be done by the Agricultural God himself.

Because it was soul protection left by the Agricultural God in person, only another god appearing in person, and one with a higher divine status and strength than the Agricultural God, could change this. The Sun God himself had a higher divine status, but he obviously would not appear in person for such a small Sun Child like Jier; after all, the Sun God Church had not done well in this counterattack plan for Sasi County, and if it hadn't been for Jier receiving orders to come and support them today, their failure on this front would have been only a matter of time.

And the Elf Goddess, Lady Apofilina, also had a very high divine status and strength, but she did not pay much attention to this small sprout, Jier. Before Jier had sufficient strength, this lady probably wouldn't even remember that she had once laid out such a chess piece.

After all, the concept of time for elves and humans was vastly different; the life of an ordinary human was nothing more than a short afternoon nap to an Elf Goddess transformed from a primordial elf who had shed the limitations of lifespan.

"So, what now?"

Jier spread his hands, looking helpless.

Judging from the explanations of the two priests, it seemed he should fully pledge loyalty to the Sun God Church from now on and fight for the interests and glory of the Sun God as a Sun Child?

But he really didn't have such a thought in his heart at all, and he didn't like the Sun God Church one bit. After all, no matter who intends to forcibly brainwash you without your consent, it is a very offensive and even infringing act upon personal rights.

It was just that the otherworld itself was not a place that emphasized equality for all or personal rights. Or rather, only those with high status and strong power had personal rights to speak of, while the vast number of ordinary people were simply living.

"What else can we do? Of course, stay away from them. If possible, Warrior Jier, I hope to tell you more about the stories of the great Agricultural God over the next two days; this might help you, help you mentally resist those changes."

The middle-aged Agricultural God Priest immediately stepped forward, grabbed Jier's arm, and wanted to pull him away.

But Jier did not move; he looked toward the Sun God Church side: "What do you say?"

The young priests had no ideas and all looked at Asmoru, who was no longer a priest. This middle-aged man spread his hands and performed a priest's greeting: "We will await your return, Sun Child; you will surely return and join us."

When the other young priests saw this, they also imitated Asmoru's movements and performed a greeting toward Jier: "Welcome to the day the Sun Child returns."

Jier curled his lip; clearly, the Sun God Church felt they had him in their grasp: "Let's go."

He no longer stayed where he was but allowed the Agricultural God Priest to take him away.

They didn't go far, finding a spacious village house in the center of the village, where a few of them rested and discussed.

Because a large number of parasitic monsters had been wiped out in Jier's whirlwind-like slaughter just now, the villagers of Bitter Water Cunzi quickly reoccupied the entire village. Many people were exhausted, but they couldn't lie down just yet.

More than a kilometer outside the village, there was still a large amount of the villagers' luggage and supplies left behind during the previous attack, which required the armed civilians and town guards to make multiple trips to retrieve.

At the same time, the village needed to inspect every house, guarding against one or two stray parasitic monsters or their Human Face Core bodies attacking everyone from the shadows.

The village walls needed reinforcement, the places on fire needed to be extinguished, the two village gates that had been blasted open needed personnel stationed to defend them, and the guards and hired thugs who were still looting in the villagers' homes needed to be invited out.

After all, during the previous battle, one could say the village was occupied by parasitic monsters and those belongings of the villagers were still in a state controlled by monsters. But now the entire village had been recovered, and these rude and unscrupulous fellows should stop.

If they didn't stop, the villagers wouldn't mind using some tougher methods.

Don't look at how these caravan guards and shop thugs brought by Knight Jier had also made contributions in the previous battle; one thing was one thing, and another was another.

The two sides eventually had a small conflict, and Aoni came over to ask what to do.

Jier was just taking off his armor and equipment, leaning on a wooden chair, listening to the Agricultural God Priests tell stories of the Agricultural God Church, attempting to hedge against the faith of the Sun God Church that would likely influence him.

"You take some men and separate them. Those guards and thugs should have also scavenged some property; let them have some gains, but not too much. They are like hungry crocodiles; when their bellies are empty, they can fight, but when they are full, they will be lazy and won't move at all, only knowing how to bask in the sun."

Jier waved his hand and explained to Aoni.

But Aoni scratched his head and asked a question that Jier could not hold back from: "My lord, what is a crocodile?"

The place where Aoni had lived before never had crocodiles; after all, the Southern Province was not the swamp-ridden Central Province. Although there were many mountains and waters here, there were no crocodiles in the rivers.

It was normal for Aoni, who had never left his hometown before, to not know what a crocodile was.

After Jier explained to him what a crocodile was, Aoni walked away quickly to lead people to deal with those guards and thugs, gathering them together so they would no longer be allowed to rummage through Bitter Water Cunzi.

"Where were we just now?" Jier sighed, rubbed his head, and began listening again to the Priests of the Agricultural God recount the long and tedious history and stories of the Agricultural God Church.

Although the trainee Priestess leading the Sun God Church team this time had lost all her Divine Power and status because of the 【Sun Child】, this did not mean that Asmoru could not command the young Priests under him before they returned to Yemei Town to formally remove the other party from her position.

After all, everyone had known each other for many years, and the young Sun God Priests still trusted their former leader. Although everyone had messed up the counterattack plan this time, Asmoru, as the team leader, had already paid the price he deserved for it.

Not to mention that the other party's 'punishment' had also brought a powerful Sun Child to the Sun God Church!

Thus, the Sun God Priests breathed a sigh of relief and focused on handling the various affairs of Bitter Water Cunzi before them.

They did not expect to gain any more merit from this counterattack plan; as long as they could defend this place by relying on the buildings of Bitter Water Cunzi, that would be enough. As for the rest, let Young Master Bell and Knight Jier handle it.

Several young Priests even ran to the village house where Jier was staying, under the suggestion of Asmoru, to express their desire to join Jier's counterattack team.

However, Jier did not walk out of the house to see them; he only told them to first go and treat the injured Villagers, and that he would take them along when they set out later.

That afternoon, when the sun was not as intense, Jier's team left Bitter Water Cunzi again and headed to attack a Cunzi on the east side of Bitter Water Cunzi. Jier decided to continue following the route of the counterattack plan, and before new orders from Bell arrived, he would try to capture as many surrounding Villages as possible to reduce the overall number of Monster parasites in the vicinity.

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