Chapter 14: Soul Network

A greenish-faced Minotaur aunt was picking at moss; she had three children at home, every one of them a big eater, and they ate her into poverty without any trouble. Fortunately, they were Minotaurs and could eat grass, so even poor enough to eat grass they wouldn't starve.

But this world didn't even have grass, and the moss had a rotten stench. If she truly had no other choice, the Minotaur aunt would absolutely never have chosen to eat this stuff; the whole family ate until their faces were sallow and their bodies gaunt, and if one of them happened to get a hernia, that would be real trouble.

So when someone tossed a sack of grain in front of her and asked if she believed in "Undying," the Minotaur aunt dropped to her knees with a thud, clutched the grain sack tight and wouldn't let go, and said excitedly, "Believe, believe, believe! I believe in 'Undying'—any position is fine!"

Any position is fine? Then keep kneeling.

He led the Minotaur aunt before the altar: "With devout faith, the King bestows upon you grain."

Thud thud thud, the Minotaur aunt kowtowed so hard the heavens shook; the stone bricks in front of the altar were even knocked loose, and the Bonfire of the Dead leapt and crackled straight upward. A person starved year-round, in the face of grain, is more devout than any believer.

By the time she had kowtowed fifteen times, a wisp of pale-blue flame drifted out from the Minotaur aunt's body and plunged into the Bonfire of the Dead.

The instant the pale-blue flame entered the Bonfire of the Dead, Seeing Ange felt a strange sensation—in that single moment, the Minotaur aunt, the Bonfire of the Dead, himself, and the little zombie were linked into a single net. Was this the Soul Network?

"Yes, the Soul Network. You're cheating—you're buying people's hearts!" Lord Nai Ge Li Si, currently in the form of a lizard, said indignantly. He had been waiting for news the whole time and hadn't left; the rule about only one question per day had long since been tossed aside by him.

Seeing Ange pointed uncomprehendingly at the Minotaur aunt and said, "Devout."

Wasn't it said that devout faith alone was enough?

Lord Nai Ge Li Si was left so choked he couldn't catch his breath. Indeed, when spreading faith, small favors could achieve twice the result with half the effort—even he, a god of knowledge, had handed out some badges when spreading faith, things like first, second, and third prizes in knowledge competitions.

But Seeing Ange tossing down a whole sack of grain like this was no longer in the realm of small favors. Even if he could buy people's hearts for the moment…

Thinking of this, Lord Nai Ge Li Si suddenly realized that Seeing Ange really only needed to buy people's hearts "for the moment," and that was enough—he had no concept of spreading faith at all, nor any such intention.

He was merely following Lord Nai Ge Li Si's suggestion to verify something he hadn't been able to confirm before.

And hadn't it now been verified?

"Fine, you have a point. The Soul Network really did shift onto you. But the problem is, you're not a monarch, and you don't have a divine spark—how did you steal the Soul Network?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si racked his brains and still couldn't figure it out.

Things Lord Nai Ge Li Si couldn't figure out, Seeing Ange was even less likely to think about. After giving the grain to the Minotaur aunt, Seeing Ange wanted to leave.

"Hey, hey, hey, just leaving like that? Not going to consolidate? Not going to develop? Isn't that too much of a waste?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked rapidly. The Bonfire of the Dead had been lit, the Soul Network had been inherited, and a devout believer had even been successfully bought—just turn around and leave like that?

Too bad he was sealed. Otherwise, with conditions like Seeing Ange's, Lord Nai Ge Li Si would be very willing to reshape another divine spark.

"Grain, can't take it out." Seeing Ange said he had just taken a soul crystal from Philin, which could transfer five sacks of grain; one sack had already been used, and with the remaining four sacks, any kind of development was going to be terribly difficult.

"Now that you have faith, are you still afraid of having no soul energy? Once you have enough believers, I guarantee you won't be able to use up your soul crystals." Lord Nai Ge Li Si tempted him—he truly didn't want to give up such a good opportunity.

"Won't be able to use up?" Seeing Ange tilted his head and asked, "Huang Tong Book, how much?"

Seeing Ange meant: to transfer the Huang Tong Tome out, how many soul crystals would it take?

This question startled Lord Nai Ge Li Si: "You've even set your sights on me? Wait until you possess divine power as strong as mine, and it should be possible."

The Huang Tong Tome was the divine artifact that sealed Lord Nai Ge Li Si. To master it was to master the divine power of the god of knowledge. In this world, the one who could control a deity was called a God-Tamer.

A wooden-headed fellow like Seeing Ange actually had such grand ambitions?

But soon he realized Seeing Ange had simply grabbed a random point of reference, and that he himself was that point of reference: "Your divine power equals how many soul crystals?"

"……"

Lured by the promise of soul crystals "as many as you want," Seeing Ange agreed to Lord Nai Ge Li Si's proposal and continued developing believers.

The method was simple: find the Minotaur aunt and repeat Lord Nai Ge Li Si's words: "The Undying King has sensed the disaster and ordered me to save you. Those who believe in the Undying shall eat their fill. Tell your children, your husbands, your kin. Those whose faith is devout shall eat their fill."

Good lord—Seeing Ange still gave a whole sack of grain, and Lord Nai Ge Li Si directly cut it down to only eating their fill.

After that he specifically instructed the Minotaur aunt: "Those who guide others may eat more." Meaning, those who brought people in could get a bigger share.

These obscure and hard-to-understand words gave the Minotaur aunt such a headache, yet she somehow felt they sounded very impressive.

Once she figured out the meaning, the Minotaur aunt's eyes lit up, bulging nearly as big as copper bells.

All three children at home were big eaters, usually going hungry one meal and stuffed the next. Now believing in the Undying meant eating their fill?

Believe, definitely believe. Don't believe? Just try not believing and see whether Aunt Cow breaks their legs.

No need to break legs at all—the three little Minotaurs, hearing they could eat their fill, went red-eyed and charged over at the speed of stampeding bulls. Thud thud thud, they kowtowed so hard the heavens shook, and the Bonfire of the Dead they stoked leapt straight upward, burning a good deal fiercer than the Minotaur aunt's had.

Sure enough, for half-grown lads, the faith of a full stomach was even more devout.

But Lord Nai Ge Li Si soon regretted it, because he had promised them full bellies but had forgotten the other party were Minotaurs. One little Minotaur ate more than a sack of grain. Of the five sacks exchanged for one soul crystal, apart from the one sack for the Minotaur aunt, the remaining four sacks were all eaten up by the three little Minotaurs.

One soul crystal, five sacks of grain, four devout gluttons bought. Hard to say if that was a loss or a gain—probably a gain. Each Minotaur contributed at least one Soul Flame, equivalent to the amount of four soul crystals.

But this energy required a very complicated process to convert it into soul energy and extract it out.

"You, Bonfire of the Dead, Chuk, Soul Network, flow, right right, the energy in the Bonfire of the Dead, control it, let it flow into you. Come, try to strengthen your own soul. Do you feel it? Feel it getting stronger?"

"Are you even a skeleton? How can you be so skilled? Did you practice this before? This is a very complicated process—even if you know how to do it, it takes long practice to master. Why is it that the moment I say it, you do it? Are you the skeleton of the Goddess of Luck?"

When the process Lord Nai Ge Li Si considered very complicated was completed by Seeing Ange in a single pass, all the energy in the Bonfire of the Dead was extracted out.

"Wind, flow." Seeing Ange pointed at the top of his head. This complicated process was about the same as when he reached his hand out in the cavern and drew that cold, gloomy current from the Wind of Rest.

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