Chapter 374

On the other side of the Void, the Pope of the Suolipuxi was kneeling before a massive holy stone, devoutly offering his prayers before nightfall.

This was a tradition passed down through generations of the Suolipuxi.

Yet, to be honest, he actually believed in the power of gold more than in those ethereal deities. After all, in his memory, the church had never accomplished a single thing using mysterious powers, but it had achieved many, many things using money.

Although legend had it that the giant stone before him had once bestowed a bountiful harvest upon the ancestors who lived on this land, who had ever seen that true god with their own eyes?

Perhaps—

It was possible that the ancestors had simply been mistaken.

After all, the Suolipuxi were very skilled at farming.

They had many hands and could operate different tools simultaneously. They were clever enough to have invented many useful tools long ago.

As long as they were industrious, they would be the wealthiest beings on this land.

As for how they came to be in this world, or who created them, honestly... he didn't really care that much.

Of course, deep in his heart, there was not a lack of a sliver of longing—he wanted to see that Lord who existed only in legends.

Many prophets claimed to have seen Him, and even painted His likeness on the walls surrounding the holy stone: a smooth face without tentacles, with two eyes hanging lonely on a tube.

To be honest, he thought it was mediocre, even though many theologians regarded it as a treasure and even claimed to have grasped the true meaning of the universe from the true god's star-like, profound eyes!

But regardless, if that Lord truly existed, perhaps He would have a way to save the Suolipuxi, who were constantly sliding into the abyss of desire.

Their world was too narrow, no longer enough to feed their insatiable ambition, and sadly, they could find no way to leave this world.

Perhaps his piety was finally perceived by his "Lord."

Just as his faith was about to step completely into a void, and he was falling asleep during the long-winded prayer, a majestic yet unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out clearly in his mind—

"The time has come..."

"Who?!"

The Pope was startled, looking around in panic, only to find that the surroundings were empty, and he was the only one before the vast holy pool.

Because of the terror, all the tentacles on his body tightened instantly, twisting into a ball like a twist of dough.

He looked around in panic, but could not see the source of the voice. But soon, that bone-deep fear was replaced by an unparalleled ecstasy.

It was the Lord's voice!

Their Lord God had responded to their prayers for the first time in five hundred years!

From that mysterious whisper, he vaguely heard a blurred pronunciation, which seemed to be the true god's name—

It seemed to be Kelin?

"My Lord!" He wept with old tears, countless tentacles on his face trembling violently, "You... You have finally responded to your humble servant!"

What made him even more ecstatic was that this time, that divine gaze did not close because of his call, but instead opened its eyes wide!

He could feel that the great will still resided on the holy stone, watching his soul, humble as dust, with loving eyes!

He could even feel His heavy breathing!

He mustered his courage and tentatively asked the first question in his heart: "Kelin... is this your name, my Lord?"

The notes spat out from his mouth were converted into pure spiritual signals, which were transformed into frequencies that the mages of the Academy could understand through the resonance effect of Source Power.

This was a major pioneering study of the Source Magic school—

Although they could not understand the language of the people from the other world, they could hear the whispers that seemed to come from the depths of the soul, emitted by those with extraordinary inspiration!

Inside the Kelin Tower, sensing the spiritual signal fed back through the magic array, the corners of Luo Yan's mouth curled into a pleased smile.

Language did not seem to be a barrier to communication.

But that was normal.

They were not communicating with sound in the first place, but with a power closer to the root of the universe than extraordinary power—

That was the soul!

Through the magic array, he sent a concise and powerful response to that hotly beating soul.

"Yes."

"I permit you to address me by my true name."

After receiving the affirmative answer, the Pope's body trembled even more violently.

He immediately prostrated himself on the ground, pressing all his tentacles tightly against the cold floor, and began to repent for his sins.

"My Lord, the supreme true god, the respected Kelin, please forgive your servant's greed! As you can see, I have gathered gold in your name, but please allow me to defend my sins; everything I have done was not out of private desire!"

He paused for a moment and continued to repent without stopping.

"Everything I have done is because the church's power is expanding day by day, and it has run like a wild horse without reins in an endless wilderness. As the leader who manages secular authority on your behalf, I can only use this worldly wealth to fill the insatiable desires and ambitions of the believers! I implore you to forgive my sins, my most devout Lord, please give your lost servant guidance!"

Luo Yan did not ask him to do anything, nor did he make any judgment on his behavior, but like a kind and majestic father, he bestowed the grace of a god upon his child.

"I absolve you of your sins, and I will also grant you the great power that transcends mortals, and you only need to do one thing for me."

The Pope was moved to tears, and the viscous liquid wetted his robe along the tentacles, laying a muddy swamp on the holy floor.

"What do you need me to do?"

Luo Yan said calmly.

"Nothing is needed, I only need you to write down a promise about the future in the new covenant reborn from the fire."

He would not say what he wanted.

He wanted them to guess.

Only in this way would they offer their most precious things in anxiety.

Hearing that the price of power did not need to be paid immediately, a hint of uncontrollable ecstasy appeared beneath the tentacle-covered face.

The Pope lowered his head and promised in an incomparably devout voice.

"I am willing!"

He dared not disobey.

And there was no reason to disobey.

Since a god could bestow grace, he could certainly bring down divine punishment.

He would also use the harshest language to write the doctrines of the new covenant, and use the most vicious deterrence to coerce his descendants to fulfill the doctrines.

Anyway—

That did not need to be paid by him.

The new covenant written by his own hands would become a new giant stone, deeply branded into the bones of every Suolipuxi!

Having completed the contract, Luo Yan stopped the conversation with the Pope and turned his gaze to Moke, who was standing by.

That teaching assistant lad was stunned; he had never imagined that the Void could be used this way!

And what he couldn't imagine even more was that this respected Prince Kelin was so skilled that he made the people from the other world willingly offer everything in just a few words!

Was this really his first time exploring the Void?!

"Moke, teach our first 'prophet' the most basic concepts of Source Magic, the parts about how to guide and release it, through spiritual resonance."

Moke suddenly came back to his senses and nodded excitedly.

"Understood! Mentor! That's the 'to take, one must first give,' right?"

Luo Yan was slightly stunned, then thought that he had taught this to him, so he smiled and said.

"That's right, go ahead."

Tafu, lying on his shoulder, did not move, holding her breath and staring, her eyes wide, as if she had not yet recovered from the shock before her.

She had also played the role of a god, but she didn't expect it could be played like this.

"You guy... are truly a demon." She whispered in Luo Yan's ear in the Dragon language, her voice rarely carrying a hint of fear.

If she had previously fantasized about finding a way home through the Void, now she was a bit afraid, even unable to help but pray in her heart, hoping this guy would never find her hometown.

She had no doubt that those naive people with high moral standards would definitely be fooled by this man who would stop at nothing!

Although the citizens of the Zeta Empire had high moral cultivation, who didn't have a little bit of unspeakable selfishness and desire in the bottom of their hearts?

For example—

He promised to let the Zeta people lay eggs.

Of course, saying this was not because she thought it was a good thing, and certainly not because she thought it was comfortable or exciting.

This was just an example!

"Thanks for the compliment."

Luo Yan smiled slightly and waited quietly for his teaching assistants to operate.

Talking to people from the other world was not a difficult thing for the mages of the Academy; the difficulty was only in "how to establish an effective dialogue mechanism" and "what to say during communication."

Coincidentally, the top students of the Demon King Academy were best at this, and for Luo Yan, who was an excellent graduate, it was even more professional.

The transmission of knowledge began quickly.

Or rather—

The whispers of the Ancient God Kelin began!

The mages in the hall first activated the Source Power in the magic array, causing the time flow of the two worlds to shift.

This was the basic operation of Void research.

The mages of the Source Magic school did not have to wait for the same story to repeat day after day behind the Void, but could actively drag the progress bar backward, making the time on the opposite side faster than the universe outside the "horizon."

Not too fast.

Thirty times was about enough.

Every night, Moke and the other teaching assistants would repeatedly broadcast the sound in the Suolipuxi Pope's head, instilling magic theories about Source Power.

Although these magic techniques were so primitive in the eyes of the Academy, they were just right for the Suolipuxi, whose spiritual world was a wasteland.

And for this Pope as well.

Although the whispers that reached the depths of his soul tortured him with insomnia night after night, that feeling of enlightenment made him feel unparalleled physical and mental pleasure.

He could use magic!

At first, it was just relighting extinguished candles; gradually, he could heal people's pain, and even bring down curses of illness upon his enemies.

Because the world over there had not given birth to a systematic magic theory and extraordinary beings cultivated by systematic theories, even some simple spells were enough to make this devout Pope the absolute authority in his civilization.

He didn't need to be very powerful.

Just being a little bit stronger than ordinary people was enough.

Without any accidents—

With the blessing of divine power, he soon became Kelin's "Chosen One," and as time passed, he grasped the knack of controlling extraordinary power.

Under the call of destiny, he walked into the cities and countryside of the Suolipuxi with the enthusiasm of preaching, promoting the grace of the true god Kelin in the industrial areas full of chimneys.

His words were like fire, easily igniting the people's longing for the grace bestowed by the true god of the past, and guiding them to miss the days when they were favored by the true god, and to miss the "good old days" when farmland and pastures had not yet been swallowed by factories.

Regardless of whether the past was truly good, at least the current pain was visible to them.

Especially his "magic," which was an irrefutable miracle, making countless believers prostrate at his feet, shouting his name and praying.

An organization called the "Holy Light Society," like a prairie fire, rose from the lowest workshops and the poorest alleys, and then swept toward the magnificent streets.

New fire was burning in the ashes!

Just when the Pope was doing his best to spread the gospel of the true god, Luo Yan, standing on the other side of the Void, did not stop his steps.

In order to quickly observe the long-term effects of this intervention, he continued to give his second instruction to Moke and his team—increase the output power of the magic array, shift the time axis on both sides of the Void channel more significantly, and further accelerate the time flow behind the Void!

Usually, a thirty-fold time flow was already very fast. In order to avoid missing important details and to avoid exhausting the precious communication time of the two worlds in advance, the mages of the Academy usually would not use a higher speed to drag the "progress bar" of the Void world.

The two worlds could not always intersect in the void that was more vast than the universe; perhaps in tens of millions of years, there were only one or two glances that could happen to meet.

No one knew how much of the progress bar was left for the two civilizations; perhaps if they missed it this time, they would never meet again.

But Luo Yan was not worried at all, not only because this Void was something he got for free, but also because he had enough confidence in his research decisions!

When the mages of the Academy studied the Void, their perspective was either on a windmill, or on a rotten stone, or on some lord's crown.

But he was different.

He planted the "perspective" of his research directly into the depths of the Suolipuxi's souls!

From the moment Kelin's name became the symbol of the ancient god, he firmly grasped the soul of this civilization!

As long as the Suolipuxi and their history did not disappear in the long river of time, they would definitely meet again in the future!

At most, it would just be a change of person.

Under Luo Yan's command, the entire research team devoted themselves to their work with unprecedented enthusiasm.

They continuously injected surging magic power into the magic array, and the picture in the Void lens began to flow rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The alternation of the sun and moon, the cycle of the four seasons, seemed to be compressed into an instant!

The thirty-fold speed was accelerated to three hundred times!

They no longer focused on those trivial details, and no longer coveted those seemingly tempting but useless tributes, but focused their energy on places more worthy of attention—

They wanted to play the role of the god of creation!

Let the Suolipuxi, who were already accelerating, continue to run at a faster speed!

The first year passed quickly, and time came to the second year.

This torrent gathered by pure faith had overflowed the dilapidated and desolate streets and alleys, and officially launched an impact on those greedy old priests!

The rulers of the past were shocked that their Pope had taken the lead in launching this sweeping reform, but it was already too late to stop him.

What's more, this time even the gods stood by his side, supporting him in bringing down divine punishment for the order dominated by the old covenant!

The temple built on gold and lies soon collapsed.

It was not blown down by roaring siege cannons, but destroyed by the cries of truth from the believers who embraced the holy light.

The old priestly class was knocked to the ground, and the "Holy Light Society" logically became the new ruler of the whole world.

They clarified the name of the ancient god who "bestowed the miracle of abundance when the Suolipuxi were in trouble, and brought down divine punishment when they were arrogant," and rewrote the new doctrines.

In the third year, the new order was completely established.

The Suolipuxi created a new calendar, taking the "Day of the Miracle's Arrival" as the first year of the new era.

The rune symbolizing "Kelin" was branded on every new steam engine, hung on the lintel of every newly built factory, and engraved on the dome of every new holy temple.

The entire civilization began a brand-new evolution around this great deity and moved toward a brand-new historical cycle.

From this beginning, the true god "Kelin" was no longer just a religious symbol, but was passed down forever as a cultural symbol.

Also passed down were the "New Covenant" doctrines after the reform.

That Pope fulfilled his promise, writing the commitment to the true god in the most conspicuous position of the New Covenant, and emphasized it three times repeatedly.

At this moment, his mission was finally completed.

Perhaps he realized his destiny in this process, and after completing everything, he quietly retreated behind the scenes with his disciples, returning the secular world to the people.

They did not disappear.

They just no longer appeared in front of people as rulers, but hid in the shadows of history as mysterious researchers.

An organization called the "Shadow Association" was born.

This Pope gradually realized that the whispers from the mysterious void were actually not a good thing, and His schemes might be even more terrifying than he imagined.

The price of the contract was likely something his descendants could not pay.

He was powerless to resist His will, and the Suolipuxi could not bear the price of resisting Him, but he could bury the seeds of resistance for future counterattacks at the moment the transaction was completed.

The Pope, who once thought "after I die, let the flood come," finally did not leave everything for his descendants, who knew nothing, to face.

He decided to use the rest of his life to do this last thing—

To figure out what those whispers from the mysterious void really were!

The world behind the Void had undergone earth-shaking changes, while on the side of the Os Continent, only three days had passed!

Just when Moke and the team were excited about this miraculous research progress and were preparing to record more data, an accident happened again—

That Void picture, which had been extremely stable, suddenly rippled violently, like a lake surface wrinkled by the wind.

Everything was just like the accident a few days ago, and the azure light blooming on the mirror surface disappeared into invisibility again.

The connection... was interrupted again.

But this time, no one was depressed, and no one was desperate; instead, every face was engraved with an excited expression.

"Mentor!" Moke walked quickly to Kelin's side and suggested excitedly, "This is definitely a groundbreaking discovery! We... we have found a way to stably interfere with and guide the evolution of civilization within the Void! I suggest you immediately publish this achievement in the "Sage's Report" within the Academy! I bet this achievement is definitely enough to shock the entire Tower of the Great Sage!"

Luo Yan smiled and readily agreed to this proposal.

He patted Moke on the shoulder and said, "Very good, this idea is good. As for the specific writing of the paper, I will leave it entirely to you, Moke."

Preaching, teaching, and solving puzzles could all harvest faith power; of course, he would not refuse such a thing.

This was definitely not for showing off.

"Leave it to me?!" Moke was flattered and almost jumped up with excitement.

He could almost foresee that this paper, led by His Highness the Prince and attached with his own name, would become the most important resume in his academic career!

Especially considering the academic achievements they were about to display, he had no doubt that this paper was enough to make his future academic path smooth!

"That's right, leave it to you, do you have the confidence to complete it?" Looking at Moke, who was excited to the point of forgetting himself, Luo Yan smiled and teased.

"Yes! Must have!" Moke nodded excitedly and swore a poisonous oath, "I am willing to swear to Saint Xisi! I will definitely do my best to complete the task you gave me!"

Luo Yan nodded to show he understood and left the matter to him.

According to convention, as his mentor, his name would be the first on the paper's signature, and he didn't need to worry about these trivial matters himself.

The smart people in the Academy were best at these things.

After the excitement passed, Moke quickly asked the question he was most curious about.

"By the way, Mentor, you haven't told me yet, how exactly did you bestow the harvest upon the Suolipuxi? I never thought Source Power could be used this way, your spells... seem to be even more useful than the magic of the Life school."

Hearing this, Luo Yan's expression showed a subtle change.

Of course, he couldn't explain the existence of "Godhood," and that using faith power was as easy as breathing for him.

He pondered for a moment and answered in an unfathomable tone.

"This... I'm actually still in the exploration stage. Let's wait until I've thought about how to express it with theory before publishing it. Is this important?"

"Not really, it's not very important!"

Moke immediately shook his head like a rattle, fearing that this Prince would not publish the paper this time due to academic rigor.

Prince Kelin might not care about being in the limelight, but he really needed this opportunity for progress!

He paused and said with a chuckle.

"Compared to this, our research results on the evolution of the Void itself are already amazing enough! I'm just worried that other professors will be curious about this point. Writing it in the paper can save us the time of replying one by one..."

"I see, then let them be curious for now," Luo Yan smiled faintly and said casually, "As for the part about the use of Source Power, I'll talk about it when I've thought about it. You just publish the research results on the evolution of the Void first."

He paused and stated his true purpose.

"Also, remember to sign the name of my laboratory—'Magical Science Laboratory'—on the paper's collaborating units as well. Can you do it?"

For the "Science" school he had just founded not long ago, this was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to stand out in front of the entire Academy.

Regardless of whether this had anything to do with science, he said it did, so it must.

Anyway, the final interpretation right belonged to him alone.

How could Moke not understand his mentor's intention? He nodded diligently, a sunny and bright smile blooming on his face.

"No problem! Just leave this little thing to me, you can rest assured, I understand everything!"

(End of chapter)