Within the Temple of Gods.
The gods rarely ever held meetings like this. After all, they were all quite busy. What was the point of summoning them all here just to hold a pointless discussion?
Unfortunately, some meetings were simply impossible not to hold.
The Moon Goddess was once again sitting at the front of the hall, and she began the discussion. “Over the course of this past year, I have lost about five percent of my worshippers.”
The Mother Goddess added, “I as well.”
The Lord of the Dreamrealm said, “I lost ten percent.”
The Lord of the Dreamrealm had it worse than the rest of them.
This wasn’t because Frost was purposefully targeting him for revenge, but rather because the Shadowless Sky Church originated in Lionheart City, which was part of his territory. Bannister and the other bishops had utilized their connections with the people they knew there to enhance their numbers. This was also why he had been the first god to discover this issue.
After the three leaders spoke, the Barbarian God and the others also began to report how many worshippers they had lost in the past year.
Each god had lost around the same amount of worshippers — around five percent.
Their total losses, however, were roughly equivalent to the total number of worshippers of one of the three leaders.
This was inconceivable.
In Kun’s territory, conversion was a common occurrence. Sometimes, after a battle, an entire city could change their religious allegiance. The Twilight of the Gods was even rooted in this competition over a limited supply of faith.
After a large number of gods fell, the remaining gods had discovered that there was enough divine power to divide amongst themselves and at least ensure survival for them. This was also why they had eventually agreed to a treaty.
Of course, this treaty only applied to the gods. Their creatures were still free to do as they pleased, so wars would still occur from time to time. But as long as the gods were not affected, they would not interfere.
Under these circumstances, the loss of a few believers from time to time was quite normal, and it was normal for their numbers to fluctuate. Typically, they could be confident that what was lost would be regained with time. And since the Barrier was about to completely collapse, none of the gods had any interest in overly worrying about their worshippers.
The fact that each and every one of them had lost around five percent of their worshippers, however, made them feel like something was up. A loss of this scale over the course of a year was extremely abnormal.
More importantly, none of them seemed to have experienced a significant increase
In some sense, this meeting was unavoidable.
“Could it be that the world below is in chaos and that many people have died?”
“That is a possibility. The Barbarians appear to be invading human territory. Longue, keep a closer eye on your brood. Don’t let them keep stirring up trouble in this crucial time.”
“Silence. They are spreading my faith, so how could I possibly tell them to stop? Also, the Eternal Treaty has no provisions for this situation.”
“The Barbarians’ activity alone cannot explain this. Their invasion is not affecting my territory.”
The gods continued to converse amongst themselves, and the temple was soon filled with clamoring voices.
In the end, it was the Mother Goddess who silenced them all when she calmly asked, “How long has it been since you all last looked at what was going on in the world below?”
All of the gods simultaneously fell silent.
Even though descending was not an easy task, it wasn’t as if they had no other way of finding out what was going on in the world below.
Each god had a corresponding statue, upon which they could imprint a seal and hear the prayers of their believers.
In some sense, the gods were omniscient, because wherever their believers went, they could discover what was happening there.
Unfortunately, the truth was often disappointing.
The gods in fact did not choose to do so.
Most of the time, they weren’t even listening.
Why not?
Was that even a question that needed to be asked?
What could their worshippers possibly be praying about?
“God, please save my child.”
“God, I have been treated unfairly. What should I do?”
“God, why would they treat me like this? Why would you punish me like this?”
“God, give me strength.”
“God, give me wealth.”
“God, I want……”
“I want……”
“I want……”
Unceasing, and without end.
Almost all of their worshippers’ prayers were requests of this fashion.
If you were a god, what would you do when faced with this veritable sea of requests?
Would you grow impatient and think to yourself, Is this all they know how to do?
Would you feel hatred? They’re supposed to be supporting me, not the other way around.
Would you feel disgusted? They’re as annoying as a swarm of flies.
Would you ignore them? I haven’t paid them any attention for so long, but they still believe in me. If that’s the case, then why should I ever listen to them?
This was exactly how the gods saw their believers.
After growing sick of the countless requests that their worshippers made of them, and after realizing that their worshippers would still believe in them even if they ignored their requests, the gods began to tune out their pleas.
It was already considered caring for a god to listen to their believers’ prayers every ten years and respond once every hundred.
In any case, as long as nothing too pressing was taking place, the gods would just ignore their worshippers.
Unless their worshippers suddenly started disappearing, that is.
Only then would the gods begin to panic and wonder when they had last heard their worshippers’ prayers.
The Mother Goddess was specifically pointing this out.
The gods all glanced at each other before they realized that all of their worshippers seemed to be praying about a common subject.
“I will go and take a look.” In the end, it was the Moon Goddess who took the initiative to descend.
The prayers of the Moon Goddess Church’s followers were finally answered. The Archbishop was an old man who spoke with a slight lisp, and his manner of speaking was quite confusing.
The Moon Goddess had no patience and immediately asked, “What is happening down there?”
Within the Moon Goddess Church.
The archbishop was in the middle of praying when a voice suddenly resonated in his heart, shocking him so badly that he fell back onto his butt. Suddenly, he realized what had happened, and he kowtowed as he cried out, “My Lord, you have finally heard my prayers!”
“Why have the number of my worshippers decreased?” the Moon Goddess said with little patience.
The archbishop hurriedly replied, “A new god has appeared and has gained many new converts. Did my Lord not know about this?”
“A new god?”
All of the gods in the hall were stunned by this revelation.
They had considered countless possibilities, but the only one that they hadn’t accounted for was this one.
How could a new god appear in Kun’s territory? What was this all about?
It wasn’t until the archbishop explained the situation that the gods finally somewhat recovered from their shock.
“The Shadowless Sky God? Who is that? Does anyone know him?”
“No. Could he be one of the true ancient gods?”
“Impossible. Every god was present during the Twilight. How could a new one suddenly appear out of nowhere?”
“Then could he be a newborn one?”
“Given the current state of Kun’s territory, I’d say that that’s basically impossible.”
“Has that damned bastard finally shown himself?”
“Is he trying to get himself killed?”
“Or maybe he is growing anxious because of the Barrier’s imminent destruction.”
“Then he should take some lessons from that other spy who managed to sneak in and kill people instead of trying to entice our worshippers away.”
“Who knows. Maybe he has some trick up his sleeves.”
The gods all began to discuss this amongst themselves animatedly. Interestingly enough, the focus of all their discussion was the Human Ancestor.
No one even considered the possibility of Frost being involved.
A mere pawn that had managed to sneak through from the Origin Realm would never be able to stir up such a commotion.
But of course, since the gods were getting involved now, it was only natural that they would investigate the situation further before making a decision.
Near Wild Red Hills.
This place had once been completely desolate, but after the establishment of the Shadowless Sky Church, traces of human activity could be seen all throughout the region.
At the center of an enormous new city was an imposing new church.
A giant Shadowless Sky God statue had been erected there to be worshipped by the church’s followers. Standing at the very front was the church’s archbishop, Frost.
At that moment, golden light suddenly descended upon them, illuminating the entire church.
Frost was momentarily taken aback before he realized what was happening and muttered to himself, “They’re here.”
A powerful, majestic will surged forwards, filling the church’s main hall. Even though there were countless disciples present, only Frost could hear a voice speaking to him. The other disciples remained in place as if they were frozen.
“Whom do you serve?”
Frost’s eyebrow arched up. “My Lord calls himself the Shadowless Sky God. As the God of Light, he is responsible for illuminating the darkness that has filled the human realm.”
“The God of Light fell during the Twilight of the Gods.”
“That’s why my Lord has chosen to call himself the Shadowless Sky God,” Frost replied.
The gods were stunned by Frost’s words.
Was this archbishop saying that the Shadowless Sky God was the successor of the God of Light, who had fallen a long time ago?
The gods had been born as a result of the will of the Heavens. It was not strange for one of them to die and then be reborn again. This had actually happened quite a few times during the Twilight of the Gods, but it was the first time any of them had seen this happen in the last ten thousand years.
One of the gods then asked, “Where does your Lord reside? Since he has been born, why has he not come to meet us yet?”
Frost lowered his head and demurely replied, “May I ask which god I am speaking to?”
“You have the attention of the full pantheon of the gods.”
Frost knelt and said, “Elon of the Shadowless Church greets the gods.”
“Speak. Where is he?”
Frost lifted his head as his body began to glow with holy light. “My Lord resides within the Barrier!”
“The Barrier!” All of the gods were stunned by his words.
“Yes, the Barrier!” A fervent gaze appeared in Su Chen’s eyes. “My Lord was born in and resides in the Barrier. His birth is the Barrier’s will!”
The gods were all stunned when they heard this.
Frost was basically saying that the Shadowless Sky God hadn’t appeared not because he couldn’t but rather because he had merged with the Barrier of the Gods.
Was that even possible?
It was, at least in theory.
The gods were born from Method Power, which meant that any kind of Method Power could birth a god.
The Barrier had existed for tens of thousands of years, so it also contained its own Method Power. And given how many gods had died during the Twilight of the Gods and left behind vengeful thoughts and strands of will, it was not inconceivable for a new god to appear.
A new god that contained traces of the old gods.
And this god would naturally be the most suited to bypass the restrictions of Kun’s territory. The gods had theorized all this a long time ago, but theory was not always representative of reality.
Of course, because this god was supposedly born in the Barrier, he was trapped, making it impossible for him to return to their side.
And he was only appearing now because the Barrier itself was weakening. Theoretically, this would have increased his range of motion quite significantly.
Even though it was nothing more than a lie, it was at least a very logical one.
Unsurprisingly, this was a lie that the Human Ancestor had helped him construct. At the very least, the logic behind it would hold up even under intense scrutiny.
Now, the question was how he could convince the other party to actually believe him.
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