Chapter 850

【 RECEIVING THE GODDESS DIVINE FAVOR 】

With Evé ascending to the public stage in her true identity as the World Tree, it naturally meant that the Oak Guardians, who had once served as her predecessor’s divine envoys, could finally venture outside the Garden of Eden and act without restraint.

As time passed, their numbers had long since grown far beyond the mere hundred or so they had once numbered.

Over the past few years, every increase in Evé’s strength, as well as every change in the amount of mana within the Elven Forest, had caused batches of trees to undergo evolution. Some of these evolved into powerful Oak Guardians, gradually expanding their ranks without Evé needing to intervene personally.

At this very moment, there were already more than five hundred Oak Guardians residing within Evé’s Divine Kingdom.

And that was despite the fact that she had never deliberately cultivated them.

In fact, with the players, who were cheaper to employ and possessed a much stronger desire to fight, around, the Oak Guardians no longer needed to serve as the main force of the Elven Legion. Compared with the endless stream of players who could repeatedly participate in battles without fear of death, these naturally powerful treefolk were far too valuable to be casually thrown onto the battlefield.

However, most Oak Guardians had peaceful personalities. They possessed tremendous strength and vigorous vitality, while also being fanatical believers of the Goddess. Therefore, although they were no longer needed as the main force of the faction, they remained extremely useful in many other areas.

For example, when it came to city construction, their immense strength allowed them to serve as excellent laborers, capable of moving heavy materials and carrying out tasks that would normally require numerous workers. In addition, they were loyal, reliable, and extremely resilient, making them excellent guardians for the cities and important facilities of the Elven Forest.

Not to mention that, as natural-born druids, they could also participate in the Elven Forest’s production efforts, contributing to crop cultivation, forest management, and the improvement of plant varieties.

They could even assist with maintaining the ecological balance of the surrounding forests, making them valuable not only as laborers and guardians, but also as caretakers of nature itself.

In short, they were practically jacks-of-all-trades, capable of contributing to almost every aspect of the Elven Forest’s development.

Therefore, when one Oak Guardian after another left Eden and descended into the Elven Forest, they were immediately met with eager recruitment and enthusiastic flattery from various player guilds. Before they knew what was happening, the Oak Guardians had somehow ended up getting dragged into the players’ schemes while looking completely bewildered.

From this day onward, whether in the construction of cities or agricultural production in the Elven Forest, these towering Treants would likely be seen everywhere.

Of course, that was a story for later.

As Evé stopped concealing her real identity, news of the World Tree’s revival also spread throughout Seigües and even across the entire universe.

Within just a few days, Evé was surprised to discover that the number of her believers had skyrocketed once again…

This time, however, the composition of her believers had become considerably more diverse.

Although a considerable portion were still elves and half-elves, numerous believers had also appeared among other races, including humans, dwarves, goblins, and even vampires…

Well, as the master of the Silver Era, even though the previous World Tree had never deliberately sought to expand her faith, the legacy she had left behind was still substantial.

After all, the influence of the World Tree had once spread across the entire Seigües World. Even after a thousand years, when Evé once again stepped onto the stage of history in the name of the World Tree, she was still able to benefit from the faith and influence accumulated by her predecessor.

Of course, having already learned of the Eternal Lord’s condition, Evé understood very well that faith ultimately carried certain risks and therefore could not be relied upon too heavily.

In Evé’s view, this might have something to do with the thoughts and emotions contained within each believer’s faith.

When the number of believers became sufficiently large, the collective consciousness of all living beings would accumulate the wills and thoughts of countless believers. For believers who frequently prayed to their respective patron deities, confessing their sins, expressing their fears, and pouring out their troubles were often the main purposes of their prayers.

In other words, a considerable portion of these thoughts were negative in nature. If they accumulated to a sufficiently enormous degree over a long period of time, they could very likely exceed the limits that a true god could withstand.

Once that happened, the negative thoughts and emotions carried by the power of faith could gradually influence the god who received them, potentially causing their consciousness and divine nature to become distorted.

This was what was commonly referred to as “corruption of faith.”

The Eternal Lord had hundreds of millions of believers, perhaps even more. From this perspective, it was difficult to avoid being influenced by them.

Fortunately, Evé possessed the key to the [New World] universe, namely, the green sphere of light that had granted her the [Absorption] ability.

With this key, Evé could obtain the power of faith while simultaneously using [Absorption] to convert that power of faith into pure divine power, one that was unaffected by the thoughts contained within faith.

Moreover, Evé was an Ancient God, and faith was not the foundation of her power. As a result, she possessed a much stronger resistance to the assimilation of those thoughts.

Therefore, Evé was quite welcoming toward these newly acquired believer of hers.

With the number of her new believers continuing to increase, the quality of faith provided by her existing believers had also improved significantly.

The elves of the Elven Forest were especially valuable. To begin with, the quality of faith provided by the elves had always been exceptionally high, and not only was their faith more potent, but compared with that of other races—particularly humans—it was also considerably much purer.

Although elves accounted for less than one-twentieth of Evé’s nearly twenty million believers, the faith they provided accounted for roughly one-third of her total faith.

That was an astonishing proportion.

The amount of faith provided by the elves alone was already sufficient enough to support a true god who had just entered the ranks of Higher Divine Power. This was enough to demonstrate just how extraordinary the quality of elven faith was.

The proportion of faith they provided also suddenly made Evé understand why the Eternal Lord had targeted the elves.

When the number of elven believers became sufficiently large, a qualitative transformation would occur.

If the Eternal Lord had truly left them alone for a thousand years, then perhaps… the elves really could have resurrected the previous World Tree through the power of faith alone.

Free of distracting thoughts, pure, and innocent… The nature of the elves gave them extraordinarily high-quality faith. Their faith was not only abundant, but also remarkably pure, with far fewer negative thoughts and desires mixed into it.

This even made Evé wonder whether the previous World Tree had created the elvenkind for more than merely managing the World of Seigües.

Perhaps… she had deeper considerations in mind.

Half a month after Evé revealed her identity, the war in the underground region also came to a complete end.

With the Lord of Darkness and Shadows having fallen, the outcome of the war had long since become certain. As the Dark Dwarves and the elven coalition advanced, the Dark City-State Alliance was completely defeated across the entire front before long, becoming a thing of the past.

The overall faith within the underground was also finally unified under the single banner of the Church of Death.

It was worth mentioning that after signing their alliance treaty, Evé also obtained the right to spread her faith in the underground.

Or rather, after ascending to Higher Divine Power and becoming the incarnation of Death and the master of the Netherworld, Hela was no longer particularly interested in the power of faith.

Strictly speaking, she was not a faith-based true god either. She was an existence similar to an Ancient God, except that, like Evé, she had become a god through inheritance.

Overall, the war in the underground proceeded smoothly. Meanwhile, in the southern regions of the Holy Maniya Empire, with the demigod Kelez and numerous player guilds joining the battle, the demons entrenched in the southern territories also began to retreat steadily…

The territories that had once fallen under demonic control were gradually reclaimed, one after another, steadily driving the demons back toward their remaining strongholds.

However, reclaiming the land was only the first step. The corruption of the Abyss had already seeped deep into the conquered territories, leaving behind permanent scars that could not simply be erased with the demons’ defeat.

And those scars would require considerable time to cleanse.

The land would need to be purified, the lingering Abyssal influence removed, and the damaged regions gradually restored to their former state. Even after the demons were completely eliminated, the aftermath of their invasion would likely remain for years to come.

If nothing unexpected happened, within another month, the players would be able to break through the strongholds built by the demons, allowing the demons occupying the continent to be completely eradicated.

By then, the southern territories would finally be freed from the demons’ grasp, and the war that had ravaged the region for so long would draw to a close.

As for beyond the World of Seigües, the demons in the Wasteland of Desolation, which had become one of the players’ training grounds, had also been almost completely cleared out.

The players had already accumulated considerable experience fighting the demons there, and after repeated campaigns, the once-perilous wasteland had become far more manageable. The remaining demonic forces were no longer enough to pose a serious threat.

Perhaps it would not be long before Evé could personally intervene and pull the entire world out of the Abyss.

Evé was quite looking forward to it.

After all, the Wasteland of Desolation was not merely another battlefield. Before sinking into the Abyss, the Wasteland of Desolation should have been a fairly decent world and possessed considerable potential.

If the method of ascending to Greater Divine Power was truly as Evé suspected, first merging with the World of Seigües as her core foundation and then merging with one world after another, then the Wasteland of Desolation would also be a rather good choice…

In any case, after Evé revealed her real identity, her influence once again entered a period of rapid development. The balance of power among the various factions inhabiting Seigües was changing at an astonishing rate.

At the same time, Evé became busy once again.

She was once again facing a wave of visits from various mythical beings.

Most of them were independent Ancient Gods and some faith-based true gods.

Even the God of Dwarves and Forging came to pay her a visit.

Moreover, he personally descended in the form of an incarnation, and his words seemed to carry even greater familiarity with Evé than before.

Evé naturally welcomed these visitors warmly.

She had no conflicts of interest with them. At most, her plan to merge with the World of Seigües might affect the interests of some mythical beings.

However, as a Higher Divine Power and one who intended to ascend to Greater Divine Power, such conflicts could all be resolved through negotiation.

The Seigües Universe was no longer the same universe it had been a thousand years ago. The dependence of the Gods of Faith on Seigües had also changed long ago.

In this era, which true god did not have one or two realms or demirealms serving as their own private backyard for their faith?

And if there really was resistance, Evé would simply have to fight against it.

However, as a Higher Divine Power, surely no one other than the gods of faith would dare to oppose her…

Not to mention that once Evé finished secretly merging with the world’s core origin, the deed would already be done.

To be honest, such behavior was somewhat underhanded, but it was also Evé’s only choice.

If she wanted to oppose the Eternal Lord and compete for the position of Greater Divine Power, merging with the World of Seigües was an absolute necessity.

And to prevent Etriōu, who governed the Pantheon, from stopping her, this matter could only be carried out in secret.

As for the mythical beings affected by it, Evé could only apologize to them.

At worst, she could compensate them in the future.

Moreover, even if she merged with Seigües, according to Evé’s calculations, it would essentially amount to “devouring” the World of Seigües and making it part of herself.

And as long as the other mythical beings obtained Evé’s permission, they could still enter and leave Seigües, live there, and even spread their faith.

Of course, by then, they would certainly have to take Evé’s wishes into account.

While receiving the mythical beings who came to visit one after another, Evé continued secretly merging with the core origin of the Seigües World.

At the same time, she did not relax her surveillance of the various human kingdoms on the continent.

The Eternal Church was restless and constantly making small moves and most likely, waging war against them was probably not far away.

But Evé had no intention of being the one to initiate it.

Time was on her side. As the mana continued to recover across the land, more and more problems within these various human kingdoms were being exposed, and social conflicts were becoming increasingly prevalent.

In contrast, the longer this dragged on, the stronger Evé’s faction would become, and the greater her influence would grow. The players would continue expanding like a snowball rolling downhill, making the unification of the continent increasingly easy…

This was the greater trend.

This trend had already begun from the moment Evé summoned the players and began spreading her faith.

Of course, during this process, Evé had not forgotten to add another spark of conflict to these various human kingdoms…

༺⟐༻

Here is a slightly extrapolated version, keeping the dialogue and religious conversion arc intact while adding a little more atmosphere and character development:

Maple Moon Free State, the capital city of Zelouan.

In front of the Temple of Life, where the number of visiting believers had been steadily increasing, a figure slowly walked out of the temple.

The person wore a simple white robe, with a badge resembling the Scepter of Life pinned to his chest, and carried a copy of the Codex of Life in his hand. His appearance was still plain and unremarkable, but there was a noticeable change in his demeanor. His eyes were clearer and more resolute than before, carrying a faint sense of devotion that had not been there in the past.

It was none other than Old John, who had followed Demacia’s advice and traveled from Luke City to the Maple Moon Territory.

After so many days, he had already embraced the faith of the Church of Life and transformed into a true believer of the Goddess of Life.

If someone used the skill [Eye of Faith] to examine his faith, they would be even more surprised to discover that he had actually gone from being an unbeliever to becoming a fanatical one!

The dense radiance of his faith was so intense that even an elf would feel respect upon seeing it.

Only those who had experienced misfortune could understand how hard-won happiness truly was.

Only after witnessing the corruption of the human kingdoms and seeing the decay of the Eternal Church could one truly realize how radiant and vibrant the Church of Life was…

“John, have you really made up your mind? You really don’t plan to stay here in Zelouan? I heard that you obtained a token from Amway Group, and you’ve also awakened the NPC Task System. If you join Amway, you can become a Senior Steward!”

“Do you know what a Senior Steward is? At Amway Group, even if you do nothing but issue tasks to the Chosen Ones, you can earn fifty gold coins a month!”

“Gods, that’s fifty gold coins! I can’t even earn that much in a year!”

The soldier Jason spoke excitedly in front of Old John.

He clearly found it difficult to understand why his old friend would willingly give up such an excellent opportunity. From his perspective, becoming a Senior Steward at Amway Group was practically a chance to change one’s fate.

However, upon hearing his old friend’s words, Old John merely shook his head and said fervently:

“No. I’ve already made up my mind. I intend to return to the Empire and spread the faith of Her Grace the Goddess of Life…”

“Have you gone mad?! Things are extremely chaotic over there right now! You’re not even an Expert!”

Jason shook his head repeatedly, clearly unable to understand Old John’s decision.

“But… someone has to do it.”

Old John spoke with a solemn expression.

There was a hint of holiness in his eyes, and his voice carried a determination that Jason had never heard from him before.

“The common people of the Empire are still struggling in dire circumstances. They have no future and no hope. They need someone to bring them hope…”

“I have already witnessed too much misfortune. The people need to awaken. The people need a new faith. And I… am willing to become the torch that lights the way to hope.”

After hearing Old John’s words, Jason opened his mouth, but for a moment, he was speechless.

Looking at his old friend, who seemed like an entirely different person, his expression became complicated.

“John… you’ve changed.”

“Of course. I finally understand what you told me back then. The Church of Life truly is the hope of the future. The development of the Maple Moon Territory has already proven everything.”

Old John spoke solemnly.

The changes taking place in the territory had allowed him to personally witness what the faith of the Goddess could accomplish. The prosperity of the cities, the vitality of the people, and the order that had gradually emerged from what had once been a chaotic land had all left a deep impression on him.

At that moment, a gentle voice came from behind him.

“Are you ready, Sir John?”

It was none other than one of the top players who had already become a high-ranking priest, Caesar.

As it happened, Caesar had also been doing some tasks here in Zelouan and had taught Old John about the Goddess’s faith.

Old John regarded him as his mentor, and it was largely because of Caesar’s guidance that he had gradually found a new direction for his life.

“Of course, Lord Caesar. I have already made up my mind to devote the rest of my life to the great Goddess and to the Church of Life.”

Old John respectfully bowed to him.

Caesar smiled slightly. With a flash of light in his hand, a set of priest robes appeared.

“May the Goddess of Life bless you. May Life and Nature be with you! Sir John, you are now one of us.”

At the sight of the priestly robes, Old John’s expression immediately became excited.

For him, this was more than simply receiving a set of robes. It represented the beginning of a completely new life.

He extended both hands and reverently accepted them, saying excitedly:

“Thank you for your trust! Lord Caesar, I swear here and now that I will spread the faith of Her Grace the Goddess to every corner of the Empire!”

As soon as his words fell, golden radiance burst forth from his body, and a vast, sacred aura slowly descended, bestowing John the Goddess’s divine favor.

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