Chapter 306

As a religion with a history of over ten thousand years, the Light Church is filled with factions, and the relationships between some factions are like fire and water.

The term "heretic" once specifically referred to dissenters of different factions within the same religion, and often, heretics are more detestable than infidels.

After the Light Gods disappeared, outsiders saw the Light Church as united, cohesive, and firm in faith, but any sensitive insider could detect the undercurrents surging beneath the surface.

Even someone as simple as Xia Mala could detect that the gods had disappeared; could others not feel it? With so many saints in the Light Church, why did only Xia Mala stand up and shout, and what about the other saints?

After the Heavenly Kingdom became stuck, Holy Spirit Angels jumped out one after another to sacrifice themselves. Without Holy Spirits, how did the other saints summon Holy Spirits to possess them?

Xia Mala's Fallen Angel was created by her; were other people's angels also created by themselves? If not, where did these angels come from?

Anthony has a blockheaded Holy Spirit Angel in his hands, and the Silver Knights also have blockheaded angels; did Dyson and Guliani not have any?

If someone utilized their blockheaded nature to farm Holy Spirits on a large scale, could it be done?

Anthony split the church, yet the Church ignored it, unable to even come up with a proper solution, and there was almost no condemnation.

Everything, absolutely everything, indicated that the seemingly harmonious Light Church had long been filled with factions, and among them, the fire-thieves to which Dyson belonged were the most wicked branch.

When human nature loses the restraint of gods, inner greed gains the upper hand. The founder of the fire-thieves is untraceable; it was probably nine hundred years ago when someone discovered the gods' disappearance because new faith-fire was being spawned.

The fire-thief secretly hid this spark of faith-fire.

After a period of time, he discovered he had not been punished by the gods.

The fire-thief immediately grew bold and attempted to occupy this spark of faith-fire, making himself a new god.

However, this was not an easy thing to accomplish; even preserving this spark of faith-fire was a very difficult task, and it was very hard to do it relying on the fire-thief alone.

Thus, he pulled his subordinates into it.

From then on, the fire-thieves became an organization. They absorbed members from within the Light Church, and their common goal was to become gods.

With the existence of faith-fire, absorbing members was easy. The fire-thieves preferred quality over quantity and always maintained a relatively small number, but every member was a high-ranking official of the church.

However, igniting divine fire is not something so easily accomplished. Even with faith-fire, it is as difficult as ascending to heaven. Over nine hundred years later, the fire-thieves have reached Dyson's generation, and not even one true god has been born; there is only one false god who steals faith—the fire-thief.

But an organization has the benefits of an organization. The members of the fire-thieves are all high-ranking officials of the church, forming a small circle where everyone shares resources, advances together, and climbs the ladder step by step. It is somewhat similar in nature to a mutual aid brotherhood within a Thieves' Guild, so it has never disbanded.

By Dyson's generation, nine hundred years have passed. Over these nine hundred-plus years, the faith-fire collected is not just one or two; many have extinguished with the passage of time because they could not be ignited. There are five sparks remaining.

Becoming a god is a distant prospect, but with the example of a false god, everyone is still full of energy.

Having fiddled with faith-fire for many years, the fire-thieves developed some methods to utilize it, but most are impractical and useless. The only powerful one is god-slaying.

When a different source of divine power strikes one's body, even a god would have a headache. If it cannot be expelled, it will continuously cause damage. When the faith-fire grows to a sufficient degree, it can even incinerate a god.

However, the vision is beautiful, but reality is cruel; there are no gods left in the world.

So, the god-slaying fire has been researched for hundreds of years without a suitable target, until Harvey of the Fallen Land took a hit.

As an undead creature, Harvey could not expel the faith-fire, but for a small ghost possessing the same source of divine power, the faith-fire is a great supplement.

If Dyson knew his god-slaying fire had been easily expelled by someone, it is unknown what he would think.

He thought the fire-thieves were hidden deep enough, but now it seems that none of their actions had escaped Guliani's notice. Guliani not only knew everything about them like the back of his hand but even easily helped him ignite the divine fire. Is this not a miracle?

"Wh... why do this?" Dyson asked in confusion. Helping him ignite the divine fire, what benefit does it have for him?

"Didn't I say? You can make the trip yourself, but your strength is insufficient; I'm just helping you enhance your power a little. You have divine power now; can you bring back the corpses of those abyss wanderers for me?" Guliani asked.

"Really?" Dyson asked hesitantly: "Is there no need for an oath or something?"

"No need, no need. You are a god now; any oath you take would be a divine oath. How can one take divine oaths casually? Even if we have any agreements in the future, those would just be cooperative alliances; we will all become one of the Light Gods," Guliani said.

Is there really such a good thing? Dyson said: "Then I will go first; I will bring back the corpses of the abyss wanderers."

After speaking, Dyson walked toward the door step by step. Along the way, he raised his vigilance to the maximum, yet he left the Church safely and was teleported back to his territory without obstruction.

"Really let me go? Really ignited the divine fire?" Dyson opened his palm and looked at the divine power sizzling in his palm, still feeling it was incredible.

Why would Guliani do this? He's not his father; why would he help him ignite the divine fire? What is he after?

Letting him leave easily without any constraints—is he not afraid that he, now mastering divine power, would snatch the position of Pope?

Unable to figure it out, Dyson's head was about to explode, but he did not forget his mission. He summoned his adjutant and said: "Increase the intensity of intelligence gathering and prepare for war; we are going to wipe out those abyss wanderers."

"Ah? When?" the adjutant asked.

"Three, five, seven, eight, decades, maybe. Anyway, the posture must be made. As for when to start, we must wait for the opportunity," Dyson said.

This is also where he is confused. Guliani did not ask for his promise and did not give him any constraints, which would result in the initiative being entirely in Dyson's hands. He can act whenever he wants. If he prepares for a few decades, can he not outlive Guliani?

Unless Guliani has the confidence to restrain him. As for how to restrain him, Dyson does not know.

Please, my master, enlighten me. When Dyson called out to his master, a strange thing happened.

Several hundred wyvern corpses were transported back to the Abyss of Rest and stood upright on the ground like a dish called "Looking Up at the Stars."

Night fell, and the Wind of Rest blew, making a wailing sound. After one night, over a dozen corpses had their soul fire spawned, swaying as they tried to stand up.

However, the wyverns' bodies were too large, seven or eight meters long, and the souls spawned in one night were not enough to drive these bodies.

At this time, Ang needed to step in: inscribing soul imprints, connecting to the soul network, and burying them in the breathing soil. Ten-plus days later, twenty wyverns were able to sway and stand up.

After spawning twenty wyverns, Ang stopped. Kaba Da, this damn thing consumes too much soul energy.

If he were to drive all three hundred of these spirit wyverns, Ang wouldn't need to do anything else for the entire next year. Don't even think about using the Instant Death Aura, don't think about the Beauty God's Fist, let alone any Elemental Conversion.

"If you don't use it, you don't use it. You spend a whole year and get back three hundred undead wyverns; what else are you dissatisfied with?" Negris said with annoyance.

Don't look at how the wyverns were wiped out by Ang's shout; that was the Dragon God's prestige, not their true strength. If they really fought, the entire Beauty God City would likely be wiped out. Just throwing fierce fire oil from the air is enough to give people a headache.

Ang actually looks down on these wyverns now? Doesn't even want to spend a year's worth of soul energy?

Compared to soul energy, those living wyverns don't worry about food. The fish in the saltwater lake are enough to raise tens of thousands of wyverns. Driven to the lake island, they catch fish themselves every day and live freely.

Liu wants to raise dead wyverns, but there aren't enough dead ones to raise for the time being, so she was driven to the lake island to raise the living ones, and incidentally, she has to become an excellent veterinarian.

"Wyverns eat raw and cold things now, so it's easy for them to have stomach problems. You must pay attention to treating them; if you treat them to death, I'll deduct your money," Lisa instructed, incidentally teaching her the Cleansing Technique.

"Deduct it then; you haven't given me any money anyway. If they die, turn them into zombies and let me raise them again," Liu said indifferently.

That makes sense. Go ahead; if they die, it saves money.

With the goal of saving money, over a hundred wyverns were thrown to Liu, who had never had any farming experience. After a period of time, not only did no wyverns die, but quite a few of the female wyverns had laid eggs.

Unlike hens, which can lay eggs whether fertilized or not, what female wyverns lay must be fertilized eggs.

Around the lake island, rows of floating rubber boards were anchored on the water surface. Ang stood on the shore, quickly punching holes in a board, then sowing seeds. After processing, he pushed them into the water. After the boards accumulated to a certain number, he strung them together and dragged them to the distant water surface to anchor them.

After the whole process, the surroundings of the lake island were filled with endless floating rubber island boards rising and falling with the water surface.

Negris flew around Ang and said boredly: "Are we really not going to find out who ignited the divine fire? Another god has been added to the main plane."

Ang shook his head, not interested at all.

"Also, you yourself have ignited divine fire twice; there's nothing to be curious about. But you planting things day after day like this is too boring; why not find something new to play with?" Negris asked again.

Ang pointed to the floating rubber boards: "New."

"... 'Saltwater' soilless rice? Does this count as new? You could plant some fruits or something, that could be called new... Ah, ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, I meant other things you haven't done, not asking you to plant new crops!" Looking at Ang taking out some fruit seeds, Negris slapped its own claw and hurriedly changed its words.

Ang looked at the fruit seeds in his hand. Are 'saltwater' fruits not new?

Regardless of whether it's new or not, plant it.

Ang squatted down and began to study the technology of saltwater fruit planting and soilless cultivation.

Negris wished it could tie its neck into a knot and then pull it hard to strangle itself. Why did it bring this up for no reason?

Now it's fine; Ang has found something fun, and he definitely won't move for ten-plus days, but Negris is so bored.

Awoo~ A loud dragon roar sounded. All the wyverns, whether flying in the sky or perched on the trees, all climbed up or descended at the same time and looked toward the direction the sound came from.

But... dragon roars don't sound like that!!! Negris was between laughter and tears.

But is this important? Anyway, these wyverns have already gotten used to this kind of sound; to them, awoo-awoo-awoo is a dragon roar.

A silver light streaked over at high speed. Lisa didn't wait for Bai Hou to land steadily before jumping off the dragon's back impatiently, urgently saying to Ang: "My lord, my lord, it's bad, they've started fighting, the countries have started fighting."

Famine, plague, and war are the legendary disasters of the end times. They almost never appear alone; they are often accompanied by each other. Famine triggers war, war leads to plague, and plague leads to famine.

When the famine began, everyone anticipated that war would eventually come. Not every leader is like Anthony, exerting all his efforts to provide disaster relief.

The poor have no food or clothing and were driven out of their homes by lords and nobles because they could not pay the taxes required for this year.

The landlord's lackeys snatched the last bag of grain from the farmers. The farmers said: "Please have mercy, this is our family's last grain. If you take it, we will starve to death."

The landlord said: "What does it matter to me if you starve to death? You farm, I collect taxes; that is the sacred right bestowed upon me by the gods."

The number of landless farmers and starving poor is increasing. They wander everywhere and become refugees.

City-states keep their gates tightly closed, refusing their entry. They wander to villages and towns, eating everything edible in the villages and towns. The people in the villages and towns who could originally hold out for a while can no longer hold out and have to join the ranks of refugees, continuing to eat their way to other places.

Regarding the changes in the continent's situation, Anthony is the clearest. The bored-to-death Negris immediately suggested pulling Anthony in to ask.

"Originally, as long as these disaster victims were relieved and prevented from affecting other places, the situation would not have expanded. But the high-level officials of the Uss Duchy are clearly fueling the fire, allowing this situation to deteriorate. Now they have started driving the disaster victims to pour into the neighboring Rosa Duchy to the west."

Anthony said in a tone of knowing everything: "It is clear that the Uss Duchy is artificially creating disaster victims and then driving them into the Rosa Duchy."

Negris asked in shock: "Are they crazy? Creating disaster victims in their own country and then driving them to another country? What is the benefit of this?"

"Heh, there are too many benefits. It can reduce population pressure, free up more land, and the lords and nobles can get rich together. A large number of disaster victims are cheap labor. In order to survive, many people will definitely sell their children, sell their daughters, and sell themselves, becoming slaves of the nobles."

"Secondly, a large number of disaster victims pouring into the Rosa Duchy increases the burden on the Rosa Duchy and drags the other side down. Some spies are planted among the disaster victims to provoke, incite, and create incidents."

"If the Rosa Duchy seriously provides disaster relief, these things will make them exhausted. If the Rosa Duchy does not provide disaster relief and just pens up the disaster victims and ignores them, as long as a portion of the people starve to death, the Uss Duchy will have an excuse to invade Rosa, and even the Church will find it inconvenient to mediate."

Negris listened, dumbfounded: "Why? Why do this? Are the lives of these disaster victims not lives? Even if life can be ignored, population also has value, right? Is it necessary to actively kill them?"

Anthony said helplessly: "To those lords and landlords who crave land, population has no value because there are too many people. As long as there is land, they can find people to farm next year, or even cheaper slaves."

Speaking of this, Anthony suddenly slapped something and said bitterly: "This is the dereliction of duty of the Western Diocese. They should have restrained those greedy guys; damn it."

The church is often not bad because they can restrain things worse than them from appearing.

"The ruler of the Rosa Duchy is essentially kinder and should accept those disaster victims, but now it is a disaster year, and there is not enough food, so the Rosa Duchy can't do anything. Oh, by the way, Lisa seems to be the princess of the Rosa Duchy; before becoming a saint, she was the first heir."