Chapter 378: Not a Loss

"What should we do about this?" Seeing Ange said, half relieved and half troubled: "We even showed a miracle for the Radiant Gods, when it was clearly our lord who performed the miracle."

Seeing Ange could convince those clergy, because they knew very well that among the gods there was none who could beautify or cure baldness, none who taught people to get rich, and certainly none who dispensed spirit beans.

But ordinary commoners didn't know that, and even if they did, they wouldn't care — they believed the gods they worshipped were omnipotent, and would only grow more steadfast in their faith.

In the City of Radiance there were six or seven hundred thousand people, of whom fewer than a hundred thousand were clergy; the rest were ordinary commoners, some believers, some merchants and craftsmen.

But regardless of their status, after this miracle the God of Radiance gained five or six hundred thousand fervent and devout believers.

A miracle of this scale, in breadth of reach and number of those who felt it, surpassed any miracle in recorded history.

The vast majority of believers had never in their entire lives had the chance to feel a miracle firsthand — they became believers only through word of mouth, hearsay, and long familiarity.

Such believers are called nominal believers; faith in their lives has become a habit, plain and bland, dispensable.

Some believers had experienced the effects of divine arts, seen pure holy water, been healed of minor aches and pains — but that was all.

In this world, extraordinary powers are countless — magic, battle qi, alchemy, enchanting, potion-making, forging, and so on and so forth — wondrous things are everywhere, hardly enough to shock anyone.

Only things especially wondrous and unbelievable can become miracles, but over the past thousand-plus years, the miracles the God of Radiance sent down could be counted on one hand, and many of those were faked.

Don't think faking is hard — with illusion magic, fake miracles are indistinguishable to ordinary believers.

But a miracle like the one in the City of Radiance, where several hundred thousand people all felt it personally — never once.

Let alone several hundred thousand — even several tens of thousands would be hard.

So these several hundred thousand people thoroughly became devout believers. Such believers, having personally felt a miracle, cannot help but grow fervent the moment they recall the scene of it happening — their conviction is incomparably firm.

Several hundred thousand believers like this are more precious than tens of millions of nominal believers, because they firmly believe in their god and will never be half-believing, half-doubting, wavering and fainthearted like nominal believers.

If among them another batch of fanatic believers is born, it could even rewrite the entire power hierarchy of the gods.

Just as Ock defined Light Barrier and Burning Gaze, and the castrato singer Sanlide defined Rebirth, one fanatic believer is worth more than tens of thousands of nominal believers.

Now, there are several hundred thousand more believers who have felt the miracle, and they firmly believe it was a miracle sent down by the God of Radiance.

What should we do about this — a headache.

Lord Nai Ge, however, was heartache-stricken: "A miracle on this scale — how much divine power did you burn through again? You didn't go bankrupt, did you? Your entire fortune wouldn't be enough to cover spending like that."

Lord Nai Ge knew the cost of divine arts all too well — whether growing hair, granting wealth, or conjuring spirit beans out of thin air, all consumed divine power; 'beautification' was even worse — if it required invoking the Beauty God's Fist, the divine power burned was in the tens of thousands, and one would have to rest for a month or two afterward.

A miracle touching several hundred thousand people — how much divine power must that have cost?

Seeing Ange shook his head: "Power of Radiance, devout, heal; not devout, don't heal, no loss."

Lord Nai Ge thought for a while before he understood what Seeing Ange meant: "You mean you used the power of the Radiant Divine Spark? Only the devout get healed? The power they devoted was more than what was spent, so the Radiant Divine Spark didn't lose either?"

Seeing Ange nodded.

"Oh ho, not bad — you've got a sense of cost now, you know you can't run at a loss." Lord Nai Ge couldn't help but sigh in admiration, then immediately realized something: "You can use the power of the Radiant Divine Spark?"

Seeing Ange scratched his head, not knowing how to explain.

In the consciousness space of the Radiant Divine Spark, all power belongs to the Spark, and the rules governing the power's operation also belong to the Radiant Divine Spark — he had merely manifested some divine beings into being.

Gods represent laws, and these laws conformed to the rules of the consciousness space, thus producing a miracle.

Saying he could use the power of the Radiant Divine Spark was both right and wrong — this kind of 'use' was indirect.

If he didn't have so many subordinate gods and sub-divine sparks, and didn't understand these laws, he couldn't have manifested them in the consciousness space. If those silhouettes of faith didn't conform, no miracle would have been produced either.

All this was knowledge from the Dragon God — Seeing Ange understood it himself, but how to explain it to others? Too hard.

Seeing him scratch his head, Lord Nai Ge knew what the situation was, and said helplessly: "Alright, alright, I won't ask anymore — careful your little brain doesn't burst. So can you still use the power of the Radiant Divine Spark in the future?"

Seeing Ange nodded, then spread his hands wide.

Only to see the Ring of the Balance appear behind him, with the Holy Cross of Equality extending from his arms, combining into a complete Balance.

"Huh? You've condensed the Balance Divine Spark?" Everyone swarmed over, aggressively crowding around to observe Seeing Ange's new divine spark.

"It really is the Holy Cross of Equality — that's a good thing. Back in the day, Your Majesty found it too disgusting, which is why he refused to bother with the Radiant Gods — otherwise, Your Majesty could've crushed them with one finger." The Grand Sage said.

It really was quite disgusting — even if the Undying Monarch could punch him apart with one fist, he'd blow himself up too; only a fool would willingly perish together with him.

Of course, it was only disgusting — if one truly wanted to deal with him, there were still ways, like sending over a clone. It's just that the Radiant Gods back then weren't enough to be a threat to the Undying Monarch, so the Monarch couldn't be bothered with them.

When the time finally came to clean up the gods, a single order went out, and the gods were swept away with barely any left.

Everyone was studying the Holy Cross of Equality when a red light somehow shone in from somewhere.

This was the very core of the Holy Celestial Kingdom, where the Tripartite Radiant Divine Spark was bound — how could any light possibly shine in?

They studied it for a long while, guessing it might be light from outside, so they collectively returned to the temple area. At this moment, the entire Holy Celestial Kingdom was already shrouded in a thin layer of red light, this radiance coming from the void outside.

Looking out through the transparent barrier of the Celestial Kingdom, they saw a red orb of light appear in the void, radiating a brilliant crimson glow that illuminated the entire void, and also illuminated the Holy Celestial Kingdom and that slender Eternal Road.

"Is it approaching? Why does it feel like it's getting brighter and brighter?" Duroken asked, frowning.

Lord Nai Ge nodded: "Yes, it's approaching at high speed, the red light is intensifying. This kind of red light has extremely strong penetrating power, which is why we can see it even inside the sealed core — ordinary people can't see this kind of red light. The goblins call it infrared."

"Why would such a red light suddenly appear?" the Grand Sage asked, puzzled.

Everyone racked their brains, when suddenly a flash of inspiration struck their souls: "Faithstorm?!"