Chapter 376: Light of Extinction

In a certain gutter of the City of Light, a desperate woman sat slumped, her eyes hollow, a frail little body laid across her lap.

A little girl of only seven or eight years old hung her head, blood streaming from her nose and mouth, barely clinging to life.

Her chest had caved in, as though something had stomped on it; an injury this severe would be hard to save in time unless a Bishop of Light appeared on the spot.

But what sort of person was a Bishop? A lofty, exalted figure who normally couldn't be bothered to spare a glance at commoners like them — how could he possibly come to heal them?

Without several hundred gold coins, they couldn't even step through the church's doors.

The city had already plunged into chaos and disorder; everyone was acting as if mad, either brawling with one another or shrieking wildly, scurrying about like headless flies. The little girl had been trampled by the panicked crowd, which was how she'd ended up like this.

Beyond waiting for death in despair, what else could the woman do? Pray?

This was the City of Light, the place closest to the gods — yet her prayers received no answer at all. Watching her daughter's breath grow weaker and weaker, was there anything she could do besides stare on in despair?

"Mama… mama… my chest hurts…" The little girl suddenly rallied a little, struggling to get the words out.

Tears streaming down her face, the woman lowered her guilty head and kissed the girl's cheek: "It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt. Bear with it a little longer. Once you reach the Heavenly Kingdom, there will never be any pain again."

In her final moments, the woman could only pin her hopes on the Heavenly Kingdom the Church described — that holy realm flowing with milk and honey, where there was never any hunger or pain.

"The… Heavenly… Kingdom…? I don't… want to… leave… Mama… Mama…" The little girl's breath grew weaker and weaker, her voice broken and halting, as though she could barely draw air.

The woman's heart felt as though it were being cut by a knife.

In the end, the little girl's hand dropped limply.

"Wuu… wuu…" The woman sobbed, her crying choked with despair, agony, bewilderment, and a trace of numbness.

This scene felt hauntingly familiar — at the neighbors', at her brothers', at her relatives', which household hadn't lost one or two children young? Perhaps this was simply the fate of the poor.

Just then, the little girl's drooping hand suddenly rose, startling the woman. Then a holy light glowed from the girl's body, and the caved-in chest slowly began to rise and fall with her breathing.

Yes — breathing. The little girl, who had been on the brink of death, had resumed normal breathing.

Was this… a miracle?

The woman, who had been sunk in despair, seemed to glimpse a new hope. She clasped her hands and murmured devoutly: "Light protect us, Light protect us, please let my child get well, let her get well. I am willing to offer up everything I have."

It truly was a miracle. The little girl groggily opened her eyes, dazed at first, then gradually coming to her senses, and said in disbelief: "Mama, I saw the Goddess of Redemption — she hit me with a hammer."

The woman laughed through her tears, held the little girl tight, and said: "Thank the Goddess of Redemption, hurry, thank the Goddess of Redemption — she's saving you, she's saving you."

No words could describe the woman's shock and emotion at that moment. If this wasn't a miracle, what was?

Similar miracles were occurring in every corner of the City of Light.

Several burly men were tearing at each other. Some of them were in tattered clothes — clearly penniless wretches; some had shiny, bald pates but were fat-headed and big-eared; some were cross-eyed and buck-toothed, ugly in the most specific way.

But at this moment, none of them were divided by wealth or looks. They were beating each other up with great enthusiasm — I grab your hair, he bites your forehead, you tear his clothes — locked in a tangled, inseparable brawl.

Every face wore an expression of terror; some were weeping bitterly, some were hysterical, all wishing the other would just die.

Just as they were locked in their inseparable fight, a wave of holy light shone out from their bodies, and the people who had been driven mad suddenly came to their senses.

They stopped, bewildered, the hands that had been pulling at each other, at a loss, releasing their grip, utterly lost.

Why? Why had everyone been fighting each other? Why had they been so terrified? Why had they wanted the other dead?

Something had been driven away by the holy light, and once they calmed down, they immediately realized something was wrong.

The wounds on their faces and bodies slowly healed. The man with the shiny pate suddenly felt his scalp itch; he reached up to touch it and, to his astonishment, felt short bristles of new hair.

Unable to believe it, he felt his head a couple more times, confirmed he was feeling bristles, and excitedly showed his scalp to the men he'd just been brawling with, asking: "Is hair growing? Is hair growing?"

The tattered-clothed commoner he'd been fighting stared for a moment, then said: "Give me one copper coin and I'll tell you why."

The shiny-pated man didn't hesitate for a second — he fished out a gold coin and stuffed it into the commoner's hand.

The commoner took the gold coin and said in disbelief: "This is a miracle, this is a miracle! I heard a voice in my head telling me how to make money. Look — I've made a gold coin. This is a miracle, the gods are answering us. Was your wish to grow hair?"

The shiny-pated… now-hair-growing man nodded frantically: "Yes, yes! My wish was to grow hair. I heard Meishencheng has a divine technique for growing hair, and I almost went, but I'm a devotee of the Light — I didn't want to bow my head to a heretical god, so I didn't go."

The commoner saw straight through the rich man's hypocrisy and said with a curl of his lip: "You're just broke, aren't you? I heard the Beauty Goddess's hair-growth package is expensive."

The rich man's oily face turned red.

Another ugly man couldn't hold back his tears: "The gods answered you, why not me? Nothing changed for me — not even the teeth I had knocked out grew back. Your wounds healed, but I'm a devout follower of the Light too."

The rich man and the commoner exchanged a glance and said: "The gods already answered you — after losing those teeth, you got way better-looking."

The ugly man hesitated, then walked over to a stinking ditch nearby to take a look. Huh — it seemed he really did look better?

"Quick, quick, quick — pray, pray! A miracle, a miracle! The gods are showing a miracle! This is the gods' blessing — quick, quick, quick!"

Faced with such an unbelievable miracle — and a mass-scale one at that — everyone's heart was filled with awe. Without a second thought they dropped to their knees and, with a sincerity they'd never shown since the day they were born, prayed devoutly and offered themselves up in true devotion.

Those who were skin-and-bones, starving, were just sighing over why no miracle had befallen them, when they felt something extra in their palms.

It was a bean — a fragrant bean — the mere smell of which gave one an irresistible urge to eat it. Sure enough, many couldn't hold back and swallowed it on the spot. Immediately they felt a warm, powerful current flood their whole body, and their hunger vanished in an instant.

Some well-informed folk recognized it at once — wasn't this a Spirit Bean? And its effect was even stronger than a Spirit Bean's; at the very least, that "filled with power" feeling was something a Spirit Bean couldn't deliver.

The starving people, too, became devout. The entire City of Light turned into an ocean of believers, a scene of prayer; waves of prayer rose to the heavens, carrying for miles, audible even from far outside the city walls.

The surging, torrential faith-essence streamed toward the far ends of the faith network.

In the consciousness space, the God of Arbitration let out a desperate howl: "Impossible! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

As he howled, the entire orb of light blazed to life, and one after another holy figures of light rose up from its surface — the materialized convictions of a vast host of believers.

The God of Arbitration grew excited: "Hahaha, a tide of faith, a tide of faith! Do you see it, heretical gods? This is the tide of faith from hundreds of millions of believers! Come, come to me! Light of Extinction!"

Boundless light poured from the giant of light-figures, flooding the entire consciousness space, drowning all darkness and color, leaving behind nothing but endless white light.

Yet after the white light faded, the pile of things Seeing Ange had materialized looked at each other — every single one of them was completely unharmed.

"How is it possible? How is it possible? Why is my attack ineffective against you? The Light of Extinction is the power of a tide of faith, not the power of a Main Divine Spark — why is it ineffective?" The God of Arbitration looked on the verge of losing his mind.

The Dragon God explained: "Because the tide of faith was triggered by us."

The God of Arbitration felt like spitting blood. He was clearly the strongest among the gods of Light — why did these heretical gods opposite him seem more like the true-born children?

Did this not mean that, within a Main God's consciousness space, he could not possibly defeat the enemies before him?

Just as he had resolved to withdraw from the consciousness space and destroy these enemies physically, Seeing Ange suddenly spread his arms wide.