Chapter 872: 771 Variables

A flash of light and flame, and a short person with fire-red hair stepped out from the teleportation array.

"Son of Fire, the Son of Fire is back!" Beside the flame teleportation array, many young people with the same hair were busy, and upon seeing the Son of Fire return, they happily greeted him one after another.

The Son of Fire nodded to them, then looked up and saw that the most authoritative Great Elder of the Fire Spirit Clan had also come over.

"Hui, you're back?"

The Son of Fire bowed in greeting; the Great Elder should not have been at the teleportation array, and his coming here was certainly not a coincidence, but rather out of concern for him.

It could not be said to be entirely concern for him, as a larger part was concern for the situation at the Qianxian.

The Great Elder exchanged a look with the Son of Fire, and the two smiled easily as they walked through the crowd of ordinary clansmen toward the Shenghuodi. Not until they had passed the gate of the Shengdi and the crowd thinned out did both of them let their faces fall.

"How is it?"

"Sigh, a complete mess." The Son of Fire shook his head. "After I received the order to retreat, relying on the protection of our God's power, I hid in a corner of Lianghe City to observe the situation. I watched as our Lingjie people were chased and beaten by the Human; they clearly held the advantage at the start, but in the blink of an eye, it was overturned. From Priest Wu down to the soldiers below, I watched as they were wiped out."

The Great Elder spat and said, "A disgrace! It was a sneak attack on others to begin with; since they didn't keep their word, they should have at least won, right? Now it seems they've lost both face and the battle. This bunch of mad..."

The Son of Fire hurriedly waved his hand to stop the Great Elder from speaking insolently. Although he was also very unhappy with Priest Wu's arrogant decision-making, that person was now a favorite of the Holy God, and he and his peers could not afford to offend them at will.

The two finally entered the great hall of the Shenghuodi. This Sheng Huo Dian had been renovated after that divine descent; it was very spacious and luxurious, dominated by gold and red tones, just like a large cluster of burning flames.

Entering the inner hall, it was empty, save for a few Cattail Mats, with only the holy fire burning fiercely. The two relaxed slightly—the fire was burning, which meant the God was protecting this place, and safety and secrecy could be guaranteed, so they could speak openly.

The Great Elder asked again, "Why did they lose? Were they unable to fight? Wasn't it said they had the protection of that one? How could they still lose?"

The Son of Fire shook his head and said, "Priest Wu is still very strong. Their troops were actually not weak at all, but the Human side was fully prepared, with three times the number of troops, and three Sword Immortals also came. With such a contrast, who could win?"

The Great Elder said, "How could they have known in advance? Could it be there was a traitor? Didn't you say that in your Training Class, some Lingjie people were truly attracted by the Human?"

The Son of Fire scoffed, "Who knows? Indeed, if some people in our class were seduced by the Human and became traitors, I wouldn't be surprised at all. But likewise, it wouldn't be strange if the Human used other methods to obtain the real intelligence here. I have studied for these two years and deeply feel that the Human truly have some formidable aspects. Especially that Rune Formula, complex and wise, it's as if..."

He said somewhat reluctantly, "It's as if they have truly already grasped the truth."

The Great Elder said, "The Human are naturally terrifying opponents. But they are also very despicable, actually seducing our young people! Looking at it this way, the Training Class they proposed is purely a conspiracy, meant to screen for those they can turn! These young people are ignorant and lack experience; staying in Human territory for a year or two, how could they resist the temptation of profit and beauty? They lost their footing in a daze and fell into their trap."

The Son of Fire's expression was strange as he said, "The terrifying part is not there. If it were just the temptation of money and beauty, that wouldn't be terrifying; at most, it could only seduce a few greedy fools, and the harm would be limited. Their financial resources are limited, and they can't buy everyone off. However, the atmosphere they created is that the other side is truly more enlightened and wise, with a better atmosphere that makes people yearn for it. If this Training Class has a scheme, it is not a conspiracy, but an open plot—displaying good things uprightly for people to see, which naturally attracts them."

He was truly somewhat frustrated and said, "The courses in this Training Class are half and half; mentors from both sides can teach the young people of both worlds. If our side were better, we should also be able to attract people from the Human side. But there is none at all. The mentors on our side are either arrogant or irritable; only the Shengnyu is a bit better, but she won't take the initiative to be close to people. There is also a follower of that God, who uses half the class time to praise the God and spread the God's will. Is that how proselytizing is done? Shouldn't one teach a good class first, display charm, and then gather people to explain the divine will slowly after class? Like him, even if there were ten parts of goodwill, it would be dragged down to three, let alone when there weren't even three to begin with."

The Son of Fire accused indignantly. The Great Elder originally felt he was being excessive, fearing he would boost others' morale and dampen his own, but once he started complaining about the Holy God's follower, the Great Elder could not help it either, saying:

"Exactly! That follower of the God is just that unscrupulous. Now that they are the dominant force, they put on some airs, but back when they were few in number, they used every possible means to recruit believers! They even forcibly abducted teenagers and children of various clans, forcing them to convert! Not to mention other clans, even our Fire Spirit Clan had several snatched away."

This happened while the Son of Fire was away for training, and he did not know about it, so he could not help but be greatly shocked: "There is such a thing? Were they rescued?"

The Great Elder said, "I joined with elders of other tribes to save them, and they were rescued, but several had already converted. It is very difficult to convert them back, because once you convert them back, it is like snatching food from a tiger's mouth, and you will offend that God. We can only allow them to exist; isn't that equivalent to having a nail driven into the clan? Fortunately, our children are very firm, because our God is merciful and generous, with deep divine grace; how could they betray him?"

The Son of Fire listened in silence, and after a while, he sighed: "Although it feels a bit wrong to them to say this, shouldn't we be cautious with the children who returned? Try not to cultivate them for core positions."

The Great Elder was speechless. The Son of Fire was right; the fear was that they were acting on orders from that side to feign loyalty. This was the principle that one must guard against others, yet those children had actually done nothing wrong, only to have their futures ruined for no reason—this was also a sin.

The Son of Fire said, "When I was in the Training Class, I heard that the Lingjie has changed; has that one reached the point of covering the sky with one hand?"

The Great Elder said, "Although slightly exaggerated, it is not far off. Nowadays, the highest place in the Wanshendian has been set with that one's statue. Its archbishop in the Lingjie is the Songtian High Priest, who is already on equal footing with Haotian; in fact, there has been no news of Haotian for several months. They say he has retreated into seclusion, but... who knows? Now, the believers of the ten thousand gods easily convert, while it is impossible to convert back from that side. Except for a few high-level gods, the followers of other gods are beaten or killed by the Holy God's followers whenever they please. Seeing the good things of other believers, they just snatch them away, and no god comes to uphold justice. Seeing them act as they please, the less firm believers want to join."

The Son of Fire shook his head and sighed: "Fortunately, we have our God, we have our God's protection..."

He did not say the second half of the sentence; he actually wanted to say that if it weren't for our God, he too would yearn for the Human World.

The Great Elder did not know how rebellious the second half of his sentence was, but his expression became worried, and he said: "Our God has indeed always protected us and is very generous; the younger generation is growing very fast. But who will protect him?"

The Son of Fire was startled and said, "What do you mean? What protection does our God need?"

The Great Elder said, "That one is no longer satisfied with small-scale antics at the level of believers. It wants to organize a 'Grand Assembly of Ten Thousand Gods', letting the gods of all clans go to gather, saying it is to deal with the matter of starting a war with the Human World, and to concentrate the power of the Lingjie. But I see it as wanting to establish a real, solid status. And the invitation to our God's assembly has already been delivered to the Shenghuodi."

His expression was gloomy as he recalled the face of the apostle who delivered the invitation at the time, whose words meant: "I don't know what kind of minor god your God is; I could have ignored you, but my Lord is magnanimous and still gave your God a spot, so don't be ungrateful."

The Son of Fire shuddered. Although the Spirit Realm did not have the allusion of the "Hongmen Banquet", the logic was often the same. He immediately thought that the Holy God was ill-intentioned; could it be that it wanted to take advantage of this assembly to kill all the other gods and unify the God Realm?

No, it should not have that ability yet. But perhaps it would kill a few Lesser Gods to intimidate the majority of gods, and then do something big, such as establishing a new god organization different from the Wanshendian.

A god without a backer like this would easily become a sacrificial lamb, right?

"Then... is our God going?" he asked a question of mediocre quality.

The Great Elder shook his head and said, "I have already reported it up, but there has been no response yet."

Even the Son of Fire felt guilty; could he have confidence? He was the one who knew the bottom line of their "God" best.

He had seen with his own eyes that Human Sword Immortal come out of the fire pile, and after some trading and pushing, he tacitly allowed that person to pose as a God. Fortunately, the cooperation over these two years had been pleasant, so there was no need to expose it, and he even actively maintained it. The Great Elder felt in his heart that this one was not even comparable to the lowest-ranking god.

Moreover, that was a fake; it was one thing to fool his own people behind closed doors, but how could he make a fool of himself in front of so many True Gods?

He even thought in his heart: This "God" has not responded; could it be that he is afraid to go and has run away?

If that were the case, he would still have to make up Alie to stall the clansmen and give an account to the Holy God's side...

However, at this moment, the holy fire suddenly flared up!

A figure slowly appeared from the flames.

The Great Elder and the Son of Fire hurriedly bowed respectfully to listen to the divine oracle.

After a long while, the flames returned to their original state.

The two priests who had received the divine oracle looked at each other.

"Our God... agreed?!"

"He is going!"