Foreign Land Reclamation By a Vegetable-growing Skeleton

“I don’t know whether they would believe or not, but your Gods of Light would instantly vaporize you.” Negris sneered, dismissing such a ludicrous and inane idea.

What is the Favored One of the God? It’s the one blessed by God, and the one always in God’s gaze. Anthony actually wants to impersonate the Favored One of the God? The first who would not let him off would be the Gods of Light.

Anthony hesitated for a moment. Looking guilty, he turned around and saw that Ange had run off. He was bringing a new bottle of Life Essence. The Angel Skeleton and the Little Zombie were following him on either side. Seeing something new, they hurried to drip it, then gathered to spectate.

“Holy moly, what a fuss. You’re not going to manage him. It’s Life Essence. The World Tree only produces so little in a year. Even with your close relations with the Elves, it is difficult to obtain. It’s too wasteful,” said Anthony, heartbroken.

Every time he was reincarnated, the hardest thing to get was Life Essence. Even after becoming the Archbishop with a high rank and power, he still needed luck. Often, he couldn’t get a sufficient amount for ten or fifteen years. Seeing Ange playing around with it, it really pained him.

A strange expression appeared on Negris’s face. He held back a few times before saying, “Hehe, that’s beyond my control. The Undead Godhood is with him. He’s in charge now.”

And he thought to himself: Even elves might not be able to get Life Essence in the future, possessing the Life Essence of the World Tree is one of the benefits of him asking the World Tree.

Meanwhile, in the Elf Kingdom in the Prime Material Plane, High Priest

Kailandel was examining the collected Life Essence and said worriedly: “The Life Essence of the World Tree has decreased by four-fifth. Is the God of Life already waning?

She asked about the condition of the World Tree, but got no response, so she could only attribute it to natural aging.

“I hope that day would not arrive too soon.” Kailandel reluctantly pressed her forehead against the rough bark of the World Tree.

Anthony turned his face away, out of sight, out of mind. He then lowered his voice and spoke to Negris, “I’ve always been suspecting something over the years. After seeing the Face Purification Technique, I’m even more doubtful.”

“What is it?” Negris became alert. Here was Resting Abyss, and everyone around was their people. The Resting Wind was blowing outside. And yet Anthony, the former Dark Knight Emperor and Cardinal, still deliberately lowered his voice to speak. The thing he was going to say must be important.

“I suspect that like his majesty, Gods of Light have also disappeared,” said Anthony, word by word.

“Impossible!” Negris let out a surprised cry. Seeing Anthony trying to cover his mouth, he realized and lowered his voice, “Last time you sent out some priests and paladins. Their Holy Light could still harm heretics. If the Gods have disappeared, why can you still use the Power of Holy Light?”

“Holy Light still exists, but the Gods who govern it might have disappeared,” said Anthony quietly.

“Holy Light and the Gods can be separated? If they were to disappear, they should disappear together,” Negris said.

Anthony pulled Negris down to crouch, “So I only dare to suspect. I can use divine power in my daily life, but Holy Light can be distinguished from the

Gods. You have said before that it’s the believers who created the Gods, not the

Gods who created life. If the Gods are not there, but the believers are still there. So is it possible that the Divine Aspect of Light still exists, but the one who controls it has disappeared, just like his majesty?”

Negris frowned and pondered for a long time before he said, “In theory, this is possible. The Undead Godhood also exists, but the believers are gone. You don’t know how terrible things were when Ange first came to the Undead Temple, and there was only one Silver Skeleton Priest. The first believer was exchanged for with food.

“I was just a little suspicious and didn’t dare to confirm it, so when they wanted to choose me as the Pope, I feigned death and ran away, fearing that the Gods of Light might see through me. But after seeing the Face Purification Technique, I had to face the possibility. For over a thousand years, the Church of Light has not had a new Divine Arts. No one can define the Sacred Light.” Negris’s expression turned solemn.

Defining the Sacred Light means creating new Divine Arts, and what is Divine Arts? It’s magic with the will of God.

Creating a new Divine Art isn’t easy, but it isn’t hard either. Creating a wholly new Divine Art is difficult as it requires an exceptionally high magic level and theoretical foundation, a flash of inspiration, and a deep understanding of God’s will.

However, even though creating is hard, moving it should not be that difficult, right? For instance, Purification, which used to be an Arcane Magic to purify water and food. After being converted into a Divine Art, it became a basic Divine Art for purifying heretics.

Additionally, after conversion into Divine Art, the casting threshold would significantly decrease, eliminating the need for Mages, and Priests, or even some particularly devout believers, could use this kind of basic Divine Art.

This led the Church of Light to be unstoppable in its propagation.

In this era, regardless of the plane, the greatest enemies of life are various diseases and famines.

Clean water and food are the best measures to reduce diseases. Someone once calculated that between two villages of approximately equal population, one with clean water and food, the other without, the disease incidence rate in the two villages could differ by up to twenty times.

Even for injuries, wounds wrapped with purified cloth could recover more easily than those wrapped in unsterilised cloth.

Then, what would happen if a priest who knows the purification technique arrived at a village? The incidence rate of diseases could drop dramatically, tenfold or more. Isn’t this a miracle?

Creating a new Divine Art is difficult, but how about transforming magic into a new Divine Art? If it’s difficult, then why did Lisa create a new Divine Art as soon as she met Ange?

Even if it’s difficult, within a religion of several hundred million followers, with a several million clergies, and over thousands of years, if no new Divine Art could’ve emerged, then there would be serious problems with the deities.

Either it’s like the World Tree that is more ‘natural’, or there are other reasons, or it has disappeared.

After considering for a moment, Negris asked, “What do you plan to do?”

“Nikola must die because he dares to ambush me. But, I don’t want to kill him that simply. I want to get his most cherished thing and crush him with it. So, I plan to run for Pope. But before that, I need to become a Favored One of the God. At the same time, I need to verify if the Gods of Light are still around,” Anthony contemplated aloud.

“How are you going to verify?” Negris asked. Even though it is the God of Common Sense, it didn’t know how to verify if a deity is dead or not. This was not within the range of common knowledge.

Anthony glanced at Ange and asked softly, “Would Ange allow his followers to worship other deities?”

Negris thought for a moment then said uncertainly, “He should, uh, definitely, this guy….as long as you’re willing to exchange equivalent, it doesn’t matter how many deities you worship.”

Ange didn’t have the concept of followers. People were offering him Soul Flames, and he was returning (huan) other things equally. He didn’t care if you believed in him or not.

“However, the Gods of Light won’t. Those who do not believe are all lambs, needing salvation; those who believe in different gods are all heretics, needing rescue; the Undead and demons, all are heresies, needing to be eradicated. If I believe in another Undead, and if the Gods of Light burn me to death on the spot, then they have not disappeared.”

Having said that, Anthony quickly walked in front of Ange, knelt down in the most submissive posture, and said sincerely, “Master Ange, I am willing to offer the most devout faith, and I beg for your protection. Your will will become my direction forward —

A supreme die-hard believer, who has reincarnated dozens of times and each time climbed to the position of Cardinal in the Church of Light, his faith is not mere Soul Flame anymore.

A light shadow appeared from Anthony’s body, moved step by step towards Ange, stopped only when it was within reach of Angel s grasp, and meekly extended its palm upwards.

Ange tilted his head, curiously poking the palm of the light shadow. The light shadow immediately turned into a beam of light and disappeared into Angel s body.

Negris gasped for air, murmuring, “Lisa, come and see, this is the true Mystical Warrior.”

A true Divine Soul, after making a sacrifice to a god, becomes a warrior the god can command. The god grants it strength, and when the believer needs it, it directly descends. The limit of a Divine Soul’s combat power depends on the god and how much strength it grants, as well as how much strength the believer can handle.

Fun, Ange kept summoning the Divine Soul, inputting a Soul Flame, and watching the Divine Soul solidify a bit, then again inputting a Soul Flame, making Divine Soul solidify a little more.

Having completed the ritual, Anthony returned to Negris, his left hand released a Sacred Light, and his right hand released another Sacred Light. He applied the Sacred Light from his left hand to Negris, who showed no reaction. He muttered:

“Now let’s see if the Gods of Light will burn me to death on the spot. If they burn me, remember to let Lord Ange resurrect me.”

Having said that, he applied the Sacred Light from his right hand to Negris, sizzling, the extra damage against the Undead caused Negris to fry and spit oil.

Negris sprang up, swung his tail at Anthony, “Kvada, if you want to test, can’t you find a skeleton to test on!”