Chapter 974

When Anthony’s divine soul first emerged, the Grand Councilor nearly laughed out loud: “That’s it?”

The individual's Divine Fist and Purification techniques were not high in energy level, so their strength hadn't been apparent before—but if this is the extent of Divine Bounty, then this god is pathetically weak.

After a while, Anthony’s divine soul grew slightly stronger, and the Grand Councilor murmured thoughtfully: “He’s converting new believers’ faith? That makes sense—he’s traveled this far, so his original followers are gone; converting locals on the spot is logical. This divine technique must work well against the Light Plague. I was worried he couldn’t complete the task.”

This plane alone has four hundred million people. The Alliance has eleven other main material planes with over a hundred million inhabitants each, plus inhabited Abyssal realms—altogether, the Divine Light Alliance has at least three billion sentient beings.

But the Light Plague doesn’t just affect sentient beings—all plants and animals are impacted. Over time, nature’s balance will collapse.

What is nature’s balance? Long ago, the Lord of Life told the Grand Councilor: if all the insects in the forest die, the frogs and snakes that eat them will starve; then the eagles that eat frogs and snakes will starve; eventually, all life dies. That’s nature’s balance.

The Grand Councilor had asked then: “What if the frogs and snakes switch to eating fruit?”

“They could,” said the Lord of Nature slowly. “But that would require frogs and snakes that eat fruit. So the more diverse a world’s life, the more stable its natural balance.”

So the Grand Councilor hoped to resolve the Light Plague quickly, to save as many lives as possible—especially to preserve nature’s balance. Whether humans or elves died in large numbers didn’t matter to him, as long as they didn’t go extinct.

As Anthony’s divine soul grew stronger, a mournful wind suddenly howled across the entire sky—so piercing it made the people in the square uneasy.

The Grand Councilor looked up in confusion: “Huh? Why has the death aura become so thick? Can Divine Bounty even stir up death aura?”

Beneath Zhuoshan, thick layers of Exhale Soil had accumulated, but ordinary winds couldn’t move it, and death aura rising halfway always settled back down—yet now the wind was lifting the death aura, along with countless vengeful spirits, wailing in the wind turned to death dust.

The Grand Councilor stomped hard, his soul shuddered—BOOM! A silent soul shockwave erupted from him, sweeping all the vengeful spirits from the wind. The wind still blew, but the wailing vanished.

He silently praised himself for his coolness—but when the ritual ended and he returned to the pit beneath Zhuoshan, seeing one layer of Exhale Soil gone, he was baffled: “Where did my Exhale Soil go?”

The next day, when Anthony wanted to hold the ritual again on Zhuoshan’s plaza, the Grand Councilor flatly refused: “Go away, go hold your ritual somewhere else. By the way, first go to other planes and eliminate the Light Plague before anything else. Healing can wait—prevent the Plague from worsening first.”

Anthony smiled: “Actually, it’s not me who eliminates the Light Plague—it’s the Lord of Life. Since this is his original homeland, why don’t you just ask him to eliminate it?”

The Grand Councilor said: “The Lord of Life has fled to the Fier Empire. Where am I supposed to find him? You call him out?”

Anthony scratched his nose, his gaze shifting, looking embarrassed: “Grand Councilor, you must’ve noticed—I’m a follower of the Lord of Radiance. I’m not close to the Lord of Life.”

“If you’re not close to him, how did you trigger the Whispering Forest?” the Grand Councilor asked curiously. He’d noticed, of course—but as long as Anthony could resolve the Light Plague, he didn’t care who summoned the Lord of Life.

Anthony rubbed his nose: “It’s because this place happens to be the Lord of Life’s homeland. The one who triggered the Whispering Forest is my companion—he’s a priest of the Lord of Life.”

“I don’t care about that. You’ve accepted the task. How you solve it is your problem. If you fail, I’ll sacrifice all of you into zombies,” said the Grand Councilor.

“No, no, I’m not saying we can’t solve it. I mean—the Light Plague is solved by the Lord of Life. So if we scatter his seeds across all planes, we can eliminate the Light Plague.” After some buildup, Anthony finally revealed his true intent.

“Are you dreaming? If the Lord of Life’s seeds were this easy to grow, wouldn’t every plane have a World Tree already? Why didn’t I do this years ago if it’s so simple? Was it because I didn’t have the Lord of Life’s seeds?”

Anthony smiled: “Hehe, so even you can’t grow the World Tree. But no matter—it’s already found a way to sprout the seeds in the Fier Empire. Here are its seedlings.”

Anthony waved his hand; the airship flew over, its deck lined with pots of World Tree seedlings.

Watching the Tienya Administrator’s men carry away all the seedlings and teleport them to plant across the planes, Negril couldn’t help asking: “What’s your real plan? Why go through all this trouble?”

Anthony whispered: “Trust. You think he’ll believe the Lord of Life, who’s been here for a hundred thousand years—or strangers like us, fleeing refugees and their gods?”

“Oh, I get it. Damn, you’ve basically tricked him into planting World Trees for us, handing over every plane to us without a single guard.”

So ruthless. Using the Lord of Life’s name to win the Grand Councilor’s trust, making him willingly plant World Trees for them—and the worst part? These seedlings are genuinely sprouted from the Lord of Life’s branches. Theoretically, they are his direct offshoots.

Impressed. Negril asked: “Has the Grand Councilor been suspicious of us all along?”

“I don’t know. But whether he’s suspicious or not doesn’t stop me from doing everything I can to earn his trust,” Anthony declared firmly.

Negril was speechless. If anyone heard this, they’d think Anthony was utterly loyal to the Grand Councilor—yet he was secretly manipulating him without leaving a single trace. Damn divine conman.

In the following days, Anthony focused on displaying divine miracles and spreading divine grace, gaining wave after wave of new believers. The little seedlings also chirped “ya-ya-ya” every day, signaling more offshoots had taken root.

When the task was complete, the Grand Councilor came to visit: “Good. I’m satisfied with your work. As a reward, I officially authorize you to spread your faith within the Divine Light Alliance’s territory.”

Such good fortune? Hearing this, Silver Coin, Gale, and the others all perked up—but Anthony calmly declined: “No thanks. Spread our faith, then get slaughtered by the Godkillers again.”

“On my territory, no one dares kill gods. Don’t worry,” the Grand Councilor assured them grandly.

“No thanks. We’re not familiar with the Spirits. Their god-killing methods are strange—what if we get caught again?”

Everyone finally understood. Without a word, they quietly turned away and went about their own business.

“What do you mean unfamiliar? Ask me—I know Spirits inside and out. I guarantee, on my land, Spirit Warriors can’t harm you. Go ahead, boldly spread your faith!”

“No thanks.”

“You must!”

The Grand Councilor urged again, and Anthony finally relented: “Unless… unless you give me one Spirit, let me study it—the kind that releases starlight from afar to trigger a Faith Storm and wipe out all gods.”

“There’s such a Spirit?”