Chapter 58: The Power of Faith

Ten days later,

Inside the capital of the Sun and Moon Empire.

"I say, Uncle Xu, isn't this a bit too extravagant?"

"Not at all, not at all, this is the only way to better promote Brother Zhou's merits~"

The two people speaking were none other than Zhou Yi and the Emperor of the Sun Moon Imperial Dynasty, Xu Ming; naturally, Zhu Zhuqing and Jin Ling were also following by Zhou Yi's side.

And in the center of the square directly in front of them stood a massive statue.

It was over twenty meters tall in total. The person depicted in the statue held a battle flag in his left hand, planted on the ground, while his right hand gripped a magnificent long sword slung behind his back. His entire demeanor looked gentle and scholarly, yet he possessed a domineering aura that looked down upon the world.

And beneath the stone base were carved eight large characters:

"Righteous spirit, enduring in the world!"

That's right, the person depicted in the statue was Zhou Yi.

In truth, he was also puzzled; why was this dog of an emperor idling away his time building a statue of him? Wasn't he afraid that he would influence his rule?

"Uncle, you didn't just build a statue for me, did you?" Zhou Yi looked at this middle-aged uncle with suspicious eyes.

Come to think of it, this Emperor of the Sun Moon Imperial Dynasty actually looked quite kind-hearted. If you threw him into a crowd, you might suddenly think he was just some farmer who had come out of the fields; no one would ever guess that such a person could unify the Continent.

"Ahem, how could that be? Follow me~"

As he spoke, he led Zhou Yi and Zhu Zhuqing to the very center of the Imperial City.

There, a statue also stood prominently; it was none other than Xu Ming. This statue was also vivid, truly carving Xu Ming to look mighty and domineering, with an aura as if he could sweep across the eight wildernesses.

And most importantly, this statue was a full thirty-plus meters tall, five or six meters taller than Zhou Yi's.

Good grief, he was truly impressed; he looked at Xu Ming with a speechless expression.

"How about it? There are only two statues in the entire Imperial City, one of you and one of me. Brother Zhou, aren't you very moved?"

"Oh—I am truly so moved—"

Zhou Yi looked at the thick-skinned Xu Ming and cooperated with his performance with a blank expression.

Regarding what he said, Zhou Yi could only say that he didn't believe a word of it.

Now he finally understood why Xu Ming would build a statue for him; it was clearly to divide his achievements. In this way, the common people who didn't know the truth would think that the relationship between Zhou Yi and Xu Ming was extremely close, which would also make them more accepting of his rule, and some might even think that what Zhou Yi did had the support of Xu Ming.

As expected of an emperor, his heart is truly dirty.

Some might ask, regarding this matter, does Zhou Yi support it or not?

He could only say that he had to support it. Perhaps Xu Ming didn't know, but this statue actually had a significant effect on Zhou Yi. He could now feel the Faith Power within his body continuously increasing; although it was little, it had the advantage of being constant and unending.

Come to think of it, both the Angel God and the Sea God became gods by relying on Faith Power, only their Faith Power had accumulated for over a thousand years, while Zhou Yi's had only been accumulating for half a year. But once the Sun and Moon Empire was completely stable, if it continued for a few hundred years, Zhou Yi could also rely on this Faith Power to become a second or third-tier god. The common people had even arranged a title for him: "Martial God".

Of course, for the current Zhou Yi, this half-year of Faith Power could be said to have a minimal effect, but he could feed it to the Dragon Pearl. Half a year ago, the Dragon Pearl had already developed a bit of intelligence, and after Zhou Yi fed it the Faith Power of this Continent for half a year, it was even able to engage in simple communication. Although it couldn't make a sound, it could form words in Zhou Yi's mind to converse with him.

Moreover, with this move by Xu Ming, he would never lack Faith Power in the future. Although he might not know how much benefit this would bring to Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi didn't want to accept such a great favor for nothing, so he handed a book to Xu Ming.

"Keep this thing; consider it a founding gift from me. Inside, there is a Divine Ability and my understanding of Arrays. The martial soul strength of your Continent cannot compare to the other Continent, so let me give you an extra direction for development."

Seeing Zhou Yi's indifferent expression, the thick-skinned Xu Ming quickly took the book, fearing that Zhou Yi would regret it the next second.

"Hehe~ Then I won't be polite~"

However, after he opened it, only half of the pages had text, while the other half were completely blank. He looked at Zhou Yi in confusion and asked:

"Brother Zhou, does this blank part require some method to unlock, just like a Secret Realm inheritance, where only those with good talent can see it?"

Zhou Yi was also stunned for a moment by Xu Ming's wild imagination. As expected of a smart person, he associated so much all at once. Unfortunately, the truth was not as he guessed.

"This blank part records a Divine Ability, but I promised someone that I would not let it appear in the world within ten years. Now that more than a year has passed, you just need to wait about nine years, and the content on the blank part of this book will naturally appear."

Hearing this, Xu Ming summoned his Secret Guard and gave them extremely serious instructions to keep it safe, then continued to lead Zhou Yi and the others toward the Imperial Palace to await the arrival of the banquet.

However, neither Zhou Yi nor Xu Ming would have imagined at this moment that this book would later lead to the emergence of a new profession on the Sun-Moon Continent: Soul Master. Moreover, the number of Soul Masters would grow explosively because of this, even causing the strength of the Sun-Moon Continent to once surpass the Douluo Continent.

……

At the banquet,

Xu Ming, who was drunk, put his arm around Zhou Yi and whispered meaningfully:

"Brother Zhou, I don't believe that the thing you gave me is purely because of some blessing. My family's Title Douluo senior said that this book could directly create a top-tier faction. Tell me, are you going to get some benefit that I don't know about?"

"Heh~ Old fox, your skin is truly thick. That's enough, why do you want to pry into everything?"

"Pfft, if you don't want to say it, then don't. It's not like I necessarily care. But since you gave me such a big gift, I won't be vague either. In the future, your merits will appear in the history books of the Sun-Moon Continent and be passed down to future generations forever."

"Hmph! At least you have a bit of a conscience."

The two of them just sat there staring at each other, whispering secretly.

Zhu Zhuqing, who was on the side, frowned as she watched. She didn't know what these two were secretly discussing, but she just hoped this stinky old man wouldn't lead Zhou Yi astray. After all, this old man's harem was truly a collection of beauties, with every type of beauty imaginable, and none of them were the same, although none of them could compare to her in appearance. However, she also subconsciously resisted Zhou Yi's association with him.

………

A few days later,

Zhou Yi, Zhu Zhuqing, and Jin Ling returned to the Qiankun Sun Moon Valley.

Yingxue also came here specifically to see them off.

Zhou Yi looked at Yingxue and said with a smile:

"Bye-bye, Yingxue. Since you said we still have a chance to meet, then wait for me to come see you again next time~"

"Wait a moment~"

As she spoke, Yingxue reached out her slender palm and stroked Zhou Yi's dantian area. Before long, Zhou Yi felt an extra mass of nine-colored auspicious power within his dantian.

Zhu Zhuqing, who was beside them, saw this skin-to-skin contact between Yingxue and Zhou Yi, which made her eyelids twitch, but in the end, she didn't say anything.

"I believe this power will help you one day~"

"Is that so~ Then I'll thank you in advance. Zhuqing and I are leaving now, see you next time."

After saying goodbye to Yingxue, Zhou Yi walked toward the vicinity of the Sun God Statue as if facing a formidable enemy, and while looking at it, he instructed Zhuqing and Jin Ling behind him.

"Zhuqing, Jin Ling, you must hold onto me tightly later. This time, I presume we will be teleported to some unknown place again, and you two were not supposed to be included in this teleportation, so if you don't hold onto me tightly, we will have the risk of being separated."

In fact, this matter was also the result Zhou Yi obtained after asking the Dragon Pearl, though it did not know where the destination was either.

"Good!"

"Ying!"

"Right, Zhuqing, activate your Moon God Head Bone Skill, then Jin Ling and I will use other means to maintain our mental state; last time we were caught off guard and fell unconscious in the teleportation tunnel, luckily it was Yingxue who found us.

But this time, we don't know if there are enemies at the destination, so we must keep a clear consciousness at all times."

After speaking, Zhu Zhuqing interlocked her fingers with Zhou Yi's, and Jin Ling also grabbed his shoulder firmly.

Then, Zhu Zhuqing activated her soul bone skill, and Zhou Yi also utilized the power of the Dragon Pearl.

After everything was ready, Zhou Yi touched the Sun God Statue with his free hand.

Swish—

The Sun God Statue shot a golden ray toward Zhou Yi's forehead, but a similar scene happened again; the golden ray seemed to encounter some obstruction and had no choice but to shoot into his right eye.

In an instant, a mysterious Sun God Mark also appeared in the pupil of Zhou Yi's right eye.

Immediately following, a massive pillar of light enveloped Zhou Yi, and the next second, the figures of Zhou Yi, Zhu Zhuqing, and Jin Ling all disappeared.

Inside the teleportation tunnel,

the voice of the Moon God also rang out in Zhou Yi's mind.

"Zhou Yi, the fourth trial of the Taiyin Six Trials is complete, reward: third stage of the Taiyin Pupil."

However, he had no time to care about these things now, as he continued to urge the Dragon Pearl to protect his and Jin Ling's minds.

Just like that,

not knowing how much time had passed, Zhou Yi and the others finally felt they were nearing the end.

Just at this moment,

suddenly, the Moon Divine Pattern on Zhu Zhuqing's forehead emitted light, and before Zhou Yi could react, a branch path instantly appeared in the teleportation tunnel, and Zhu Zhuqing was sucked away directly.

And the Moon God would never let her successor be in danger, so the reason she did this was obvious: there was a problem with the destination of this teleportation tunnel!

Having figured this out, Zhou Yi directly greeted the Moon God's relatives.

"Damn it!!! Moon God, you were indeed plotting against me!!!"

Zhou Yi only had time to curse this one sentence before he and Jin Ling were thrown out of the teleportation tunnel together.

Clearly, they had reached the destination.

"Boom—"

Zhou Yi and Jin Ling fell to the ground.

He hurriedly got up and scanned his surroundings vigilantly.

It was just that the place he was teleported to this time seemed to be an enclosed environment; the vast hall was filled with magnificent golden decorations everywhere, and in front of him, a white-haired old man in entirely golden attire was staring at him, dumbfounded.

Looking behind him, the huge golden Angel Statue had its hands pressed together, and Zhou Yi finally understood what place this was.

He cursed the Moon God's relatives fiercely in his heart once more, then scratched his head and gave the white-haired old man an awkward, simple-minded smile:

"... Uh, hello, old grandpa, would you believe me if I said I took a wrong turn?"