Chapter 1008: The Battle Begins

"The Inner Weave serves as a convenient channel of faith for the gods. It looks like it's been converted to a public mode, so no wonder it doesn't reject my use of it. The entry threshold is a Demigod?"

A contemplative gleam shone in Leilin's eyes.

"And the innermost core of the Weave, along with that twelfth-level arcane spell—the Avatar of Karsus..."

When he considered how difficult it would be to liberate the wills of so many wizards, even Leilin couldn't help but blanch.

To free the wills of the fallen wizards, he would necessarily have to destroy the entire Weave—not just the Outer Weave that countless mages relied upon, but also the Inner Weave, the gods' very channel of faith. Nothing could remain.

Would the gods be willing to give up this convenient network?

Even with a deity's superhuman mental faculties, capable of instantly computing the total number of petitioners across an entire divine realm, what they stood to lose by abandoning the Inner Weave went far beyond mere processing power.

Transmitting divine spell slots through the Weave offered advantages in both cost and convenience that the gods had never possessed before.

Once they had grown accustomed to these benefits, could the gods truly bear to revert to the old ways?

"Destroying the entire Weave would mean making enemies of every god in the world..."

Leilin's expression was grim. "Not just the existing True Gods—every Demigod with access to the Inner Weave, and possibly even certain nature spirits and beings of divinity, would become my enemy in an instant..."

Only someone like Leilin, who had crossed over from another world entirely, could muster the audacity to wage war against an entire world.

Even so, before undertaking such a thing, he had to think carefully. By comparison, the Shadow of Distortion still had other residual wills lingering in the outside world, but the fact that it had failed to make any major moves in tens of thousands of years was perfectly understandable.

"That agreement with the Shadow of Distortion will probably have to be postponed..."

Leilin stroked his chin, having already made his decision.

After advancing to Demigod, his main body's injuries had fully healed. And once he conquered all of Bankes Island, his faith reserves would experience explosive growth—more than enough to support his ascension to True God.

In this situation, time was on his side.

The longer he waited, especially once both of his bodies reached even higher realms and fused in an instant, the more terrifying his power would become. That gave Leilin the confidence to challenge anything!

"After reaching Demigod, the next step toward True God is expanding one's faith, then guiding the faithful to condense a Divine Portfolio..."

Leilin now understood the relationship between faith, divine fire, divine power, and one's Divine Portfolio.

Divine power originated from faith. It required divine fire to convert—this was the fundamental principle of all deities. But even among different sources of faith power, there were subtle differences.

For instance, the soul energy released in a state of rage was entirely different from that released in a state of extreme terror.

For a Demigod, converting mixed and impure faith power into divine power required an enormous expenditure of effort.

The function of a Divine Portfolio was to provide advance guidance and organization for the soul energy released by one's faithful.

By purifying mixed faith power, the Divine Portfolio provided a more stable power source for the divine fire. If divine fire was the engine, then the Divine Portfolio was the mechanism that distinguished diesel from gasoline.

Although the total amount of soul energy one could absorb appeared to decrease after gaining a Divine Portfolio, the quality was far more refined, drastically reducing the burden on the deity—and in the end, the quantity of divine power actually produced could even increase.

After all, was it better for an engine to burn one type of fuel, or a mix of diesel and gasoline? Even an ordinary person would know which to choose.

"A Divine Portfolio... it's probably not just about sorting soul energy. It's a deepening of one's domain—one that can give rise to even more terrifying abilities..."

Leilin could already sense that, thanks to the fervent devotion of his many believers and the vast reservoir of soul energy, the divine fire within him had grown even more vigorous. Several Rule Runes had even begun to emerge faintly.

A deity's Divine Portfolio was, in essence, a crystallization of various Rules. The appearance of these Runes was the harbinger that a Divine Portfolio was about to condense!

And observing these incomplete golden Rule characters was immensely beneficial to Leilin's own understanding of the world of the gods.

"Interesting! Looking at the essence of these Runes, they lean toward Slaughter and Conquest, as well as Disease and Healing. My first Divine Portfolio is going to emerge from among these?"

A Chip's glow flickered through Leilin's eyes. "Chip! Can you record these Rule characters?"

The Rule characters manifesting within the divine fire were incomplete, yet carried a very particular quality. They were not even three-dimensional—they seemed to possess a hint of four-dimensional characteristics. An older version of the Chip might well have been powerless, but the upgraded version was another matter entirely. Leilin wanted to test just how far the Chip could push.

[Beep! Task established! Initiating scan...]

The Chip reported faithfully, streams of blue data flowing before Leilin's eyes.

[Beep! Target scanned! High-energy field detected—attempting breakthrough! Breakthrough successful! Beginning interpretation of Rule characters, recording... Beep! Target exhibits four-dimensional characteristics—spacetime interference radiation detected, partial information loss...]

[Beep! Characters scanned, 67.66% recorded! Partial information loss!]

A large block of status information appeared before Leilin, and several flashes of joy crossed his face.

Although it still seemed to lack some details compared to what appeared in his divine fire, it had captured some of the original's unique qualities.

Before the upgrade, the Chip would have inevitably concluded that scanning was impossible. But now, it had managed to forcibly imprint a portion—something that greatly surprised and delighted Leilin.

"If these Rule characters could be fully understood, even a native could increase their chance of igniting divine fire and obtaining a Divine Portfolio by fifty percent..."

Leilin nodded in satisfaction, then turned his attention to the Chip's interpretation of the Rule characters.

"Slaughter and Conquest, as well as Disease and Healing?"

The Chip's preliminary analysis matched Leilin's own assessment exactly.

He had to admit—on Bankes Island, this was precisely the image he had presented to the ordinary natives.

The selection of a Divine Portfolio was highly prone to triggering divine wars, and as Leilin studied the Chip's conclusions, a contemplative expression surfaced on his face.

"Judging from the analysis of the Rule characters, Slaughter and Disease generate the most faith power and are the most viable paths to godhood. Conquest comes in slightly lower—the natives don't have strong concepts of race or civilization, and there's plenty of fighting between tribes. And Healing generates the least faith of all?"

Pure faith could not lie. All Leilin could do was smile bitterly.

It seemed that even though his temples had distributed holy water and helped countless natives throw off their illnesses, in their hearts, he still represented Slaughter and Disease—the very embodiment of death.

"Faith born of awe will always be more steadfast than faith born of devotion..."

The smile on Leilin's face widened further. "It seems I'm destined to have nothing to do with the good-aligned path..."

Walking the path of Slaughter was something Leilin had already decided upon. Moreover, the power he personally wielded could never be classified as good-aligned anyway.

"Solely in terms of faith power, Slaughter and Disease are also the more reliable options..."

Leilin had made his decision. Between Disease and Slaughter, he naturally placed greater value on the Portfolio of Slaughter.

And at present, there were few deities who held the Portfolio of Slaughter—only Malar and Cyric, to name a few.

Cyric was already a Greater Deity, but he had long since gone half-mad and had recently been virtually absent from worldly church affairs, leaving the priests of the God of Murder in constant distress.

The deities who held the Portfolios of Disease and Plague, however, were far more troublesome. Leilin would rather face a madman or a beast than provoke a clear-minded Goddess of Pestilence. He had no desire to see plagues ravaging his territory at random intervals.

"And besides... Cyric, was it?"

Leilin lowered his eyelids, letting out a soundless, mocking laugh...

...

Through the eyes of a deity, everything on Bankes Island was laid bare.

"Holy Maiden, our vanguard has already seized Ado City and Dula City, two of the imperial guard cities. Once we take Dule City, the empire's capital will be completely exposed to us!"

Across the vast expanse of land, an army from Hope Fortress advanced in orderly formation.

Barbara, the Holy Maiden appointed by Leilin, had just completed her routine prayers and was listening to the military report delivered by the native officer.

A touch of golden divine light gleamed upon her pale forehead, bathing Barbara in a halo of sacred radiance.

Aya and her younger brother stood respectfully at her side, serving as page and handmaiden. Out of gratitude toward their savior, and out of the practical need to survive, the two siblings had pledged themselves to Barbara. And the Holy Maiden, clearly admiring their resilience and the bond between them, had kept them at her side.

"The capital?" Aya's eyes brightened for a moment, as if something had come to mind, but the light faded just as quickly.

"Aya! You're from around the capital too, aren't you?" Barbara asked casually, as though the thought had just occurred to her.

"Yes! Aya used to belong to the Jinaia tribe of Ado City. When the plague demon struck, I fled with the rest of my tribe..."

Aya spoke slowly, and her brother lowered his head beside her, obviously recalling some tragic memory.

In truth, the majority of the natives who had fled with them had died along the way. Plague and famine had always been the two greatest enemies of common people.

Of those who had actually crossed mountains and rivers to reach Hope Fortress, not even one in ten had survived!