Chapter 332

“I know what you want.”

“I can give it to you.”

“But you lack the ability to take it.”

This meeting, Fiestrion did not waste time—he directly voiced Li En’s thoughts.

Li En was startled; he never expected the other to lay his cards on the table so bluntly.

Originally, he thought they would probe each other for some time.

“I’m busy. I don’t have time to play with children.”

The Master of the Three Phases' personality rejected the system's reconnection request while directly confronting "himself."

Li En saw this as a battle of wits and strategy, but for Fiestrion, it was truly just amusing a child—winning was expected, losing was impossible; the gap between them was too vast.

Simply wasting time playing with a child was already embarrassing for him; an adult with too much work to do, abandoning duties to play games with nephews, nieces, or grandchildren, was simply indefensible.

“I need deities, need divine magic and faith support—at least one church as cover.”

“Agreed. I can let you use one divine power server, requiring only minimal faith maintenance. You can gather some of my believers—though few in number, they do exist.”

“Uh, I’ll revise your doctrine.”

The Lord of Drama and Pleasure had a relatively decent reputation, but it didn’t match Li En’s style—he needed something harder, more forceful.

Most of those believers were actors and bards, of little use to Li En now.

“Agreed. I can forge a virtual divine core for you—don’t expect much strength, just a pseudo-deity tier, but it can provide certain divine arts. As for domains—choose two from Sun, Hero, War, Life, Art, Nature.”

Li En fell silent. After dropping the act, he realized he had still underestimated the man before him.

What was a virtual divine core? What was a pseudo-deity? And why were there so many domains?

Li En knew basic theology: if a deity could grant corresponding domain abilities, it meant He held the corresponding divine office.

The Lord of Drama and Pleasure clearly should have been a weak deity with only the “Art” domain.

But the domains the other now offered were all famously powerful—meaning this deity’s true divine office was absurdly immense.

Powerful domains usually meant fierce competition, even divine wars; surviving proved strength.

“Uh… can I pick all of them?”

“You can—if you want to be besieged by countless churches tomorrow. This is a virtual divine core, a fabricated pseudo-deity; granting low-tier abilities is its limit.”

Since it’s a false god, it can be omnipotent? Nonsense—this made no sense at all.

“Actually, it’s common. Many true deities have ‘masks’—some use chosen champions, others incarnate themselves. Shall I tell you which benevolent gods have evil incarnations?”

“No, thank you.”

Li En felt numb. Were these secrets even meant for him to know?

Fiestrion briefly explained: deities weren’t eternal or fixed in stance—sometimes, to compete for parishes or divine artifacts, they donned masks, acting under the names of obscure deities, quasi-deities, or divine beings.

If such incarnations successfully ascended to godhood, the original deity naturally became a dual-faced entity, indirectly expanding its domain.

Some powerful divine offices were originally stitched together from others.

Some new deities were once fragments of older ones, growing independently to fill gaps in the old god’s domains—then merging, forming pantheons with incarnations, or playing duets—all normal.

Of course, some went too far—there were several cases where incarnations became mortal enemies of their true selves.

“During wartime, the God of Art accidentally got wiped out—hiding a few incarnations and switching roles was perfectly normal,” Fiestrion seemed to have accidentally revealed something huge.

Fiestrion said this; whether Li En believed him was another matter entirely.

And Li En’s gaze toward the other grew strangely nuanced—merely the existence of these domains suggested the other was not the so-called weakest deity, but among the strongest.

Perhaps the Lord of Drama and Pleasure was merely this elder’s “incarnation.”

Li En shook his head. No matter how powerful he was, he was already of the past; what mattered now was always the future.

“These domains…”

Domain power was the greatest leverage to attract divine servants; a priest’s power system consisted of two parts: one, standard priestly abilities (divine spell list), with minor differences; the other, the domain granted by the divine office.