Chapter 177: I am God x Preaching to the Dark Continent
He immediately tucked his tail between his legs and raised his guard.
First, he was certain this was a dream... Second, he hadn't dreamed since retiring from the guild due to injury ten years ago. The moment he thought of "coming out of retirement," he was inexplicably pulled into this strange dream space. With Old Kohler's knowledge of "Nen" and "bizarre events," when things go wrong, there must be a demon involved!
"Your Excellency, what do you want?"
Old Kohler observed Roy calmly, occasionally sparing a glance to keep his distance from the "Humanoid Snake Monster" beside him... Vanessa coiled her snake tail to support her body, accentuating her impressive figure. Like Old Kohler, she calmly observed him and Roy, raising her guard.
"Woof woof..." Hearing Old Kohler's "dog language" question... Roy's face was obscured by mist. In his ears, prompted by the appearance of Old Kohler and Vanessa, the panel notification sounded...
[Notification: Magical Beast Encyclopedia... Unfolding...]
[1. Kobold: D-Rank Intelligent Magical Beast. (Note: Intelligent Species: A general term for humanoid magical beasts, rare beasts, or phantom beasts possessing intelligence comparable to humans)]
[Rank: D]
[Aura Output: D (5415/10000)]
[Potential Aura: C- (5470/100000)]
[Current Status: Old and frail, suffering from old internal injuries, strength less than one-tenth of peak]
[2. Siren Naga: D-Rank Intelligent "Rare Beast".]
[Rank: C → D]
[Aura Output: D (1415/10000)]
[Potential Aura: C (84211/100000)]
[Current Status: Sickly body. Accumulated too much "pollution" without timely purging, severely eroded by nature, one foot on the brink of losing control...]
So, one "old" and one "crippled"?
Roy's eyes flickered thoughtfully... Although the [Generalized Dream Gate] possessed broad "randomness," it still had to follow the [Law of Equivalent Exchange]. The dream targets selected were limited by his own strength, so their rank generally wouldn't be very high.
"Your Excellency?" Old Kohler frowned, waiting for a response.
Vanessa flicked her tail slightly, uneasy.
Roy glanced expressionlessly at the two of them. With a thought, he summoned Taiichi.
From the white mist, another person emerged. He had a gentle face and a smiling mouth. As soon as he arrived in front of Roy, he immediately bowed his head and prostrated himself on the ground, saying devoutly, "My Lord, you have finally awakened."
As Taiichi spoke, perhaps due to excessive "emotion," he accidentally released his Ren!
Then, BOOM!
A majestic aura wreathed in [Searing Essence] exploded in an instant. Amplified by Roy's absolute control over his "Self-Dream," it instantly ignited the white dream space, turning it into a scorching inferno!
"Woof woof... What strong Ren!"
"What did he call that person... My Lord?"
Old Kohler's heart pounded wildly. He jumped three feet in the air, using Ten to protect his body from the flames, while shouting at Roy, "Your Excellency, no offense intended! I don't know why I'm here either!"
"Not unintentional. Perhaps for some special reason... we've met a [God]!" Vanessa Siren also used Ten to protect herself. Unlike Old Kohler, her Ten shimmered like water, making resisting the "fire" much easier.
The girl suddenly remembered the words she had seen under the towering statue of the [Great Siren] when visiting the Tidal Church with her parents as a child—[Behind all unknowns, there is a [God] watching...]
Moved by the thought, she mimicked Taiichi, curling her tail, lowering her body, and prostrating on the ground. She said respectfully, "Vanessa Siren of the 'City of Purification' pays respects to the Great One."
Suddenly, the fire burning toward the girl turned, sweeping past her...
"Woof?" Old Kohler's dog mouth gaped. He froze for a moment, then quickly followed suit, throwing himself down like Vanessa, facing Roy, chanting the name of the "Great One" and stating his own name.
At that moment, two notifications appeared in Roy's mind...
[Notification: Detected "Potential Believers" Vanessa Siren... Kohler Spencer... Awaiting development...]
[Note: "Awaiting development": Has not seen miracles, doubts God. Host can increase "Potential Believer" loyalty through "Gifts"...]
"Gifts"?
To receive, one must first give?
Roy thought of giving porridge to the poor, treating the sick, giving eggs to the elderly... He gradually realized... To gain others' Nen power through [Faith] for his own use also required "giving," and the more he "gave," the greater the "gain."
"Taiichi, behave yourself..."
A faint voice rang out like a great bell in this boundless dream world...
The fire extinguished, the heat receded... Vanessa and Old Kohler lay prostrate, letting out a sigh of relief. Stealing a glance... they were shaken!
Roy laughed at himself. "Just a simple nap, but upon waking, the world has changed, and people are no longer the same..."
Like one who has weathered the storms of the world, seen all its beauty and filth, lamenting the passage of time as his former divine domain turned to white mist. He slowly raised his right hand and whispered, "Return."
RUMBLE!
The white dreamscape shook violently. As the boy's voice fell...
Wind rose, clouds gathered. A great sun rose brightly into the sky. Following it, World Trees, tall beyond sight, erupted from the ground, acting as pillars to support a cathedral... Majestic, towering, radiating an aura of ancient times, dazzling the eyes. As if it should have been so, eternally so, only temporarily submerged. Now reappearing, it was bound to shock the world!
"Woof!" Old Kohler had lived many years but never seen such a spectacle. His dog head crane so high he almost fell over backward, completely dumbstruck!
Beside him, Vanessa tried her best to maintain her devout expression. Looking up at the majestic temple woven from hundreds of World Trees... compared to the Tidal Church built by the Great Siren years ago, this towering temple with a sun suspended at its peak was undoubtedly far superior!
"The temple is divine power. The more majestic, the more powerful..." Vanessa recalled the [Toadmen] she had seen off last night boasting about how great the [God of the Swamp] they worshipped was, how the temple He built with his own hands stretched for nearly ten thousand miles across the swamp... Like an ant, looking up...
From the top of the unimaginably high temple, beneath that red sun radiating sunlight, a throne drifted down. As the boy with the obscured face took a step and sat upon it... She and the dumbstruck kobold beside her rose on clouds, straight into the sky. Looking up again... she saw a gentle smile...
"You are blessed." Taiichi stood below the throne, looking down at the snake and dog kneeling on the clouds. He said warmly, "The Lord says, since it is fate, he grants you each a gift. Why do you not give thanks?"
Vanessa and Old Kohler prostrated themselves, exchanging a glance out of the corners of their eyes, and quickly kowtowed. "Thank you, Lord, for the gift!"
As their hearts wavered... their minds opened, and Roy easily captured their inner voices through En. Both were for their families!
Old Kohler was old and frail, hoping to return to his peak and rejoin the guild to earn milk money for his unborn child... Vanessa ran a bathhouse, making a living by dispelling "filth" for customers. She hoped to obtain something called "Qin Pearls" to dispel the "pollution" accumulated in her body, continue serving customers, and prevent the bathhouse from being downgraded...
Roy took a closer look at Vanessa. The so-called "Qin Pearls" were actually "Anchors." They were "Melody Crystals" formed by the Great Siren's deep love for a bard who loved to compose music, allowing her to escape the erosion of nature...
These "Melody Crystals" could be a good song. As long as it could move the Great Siren, one could find the reason lost in nature's erosion through "Love Anchoring"...
Indeed, the Dark Continent is full of wonders, truly eye-opening!
Roy sighed, an idea instantly forming... One: imitate Muzan, feed his believers divine blood to help them rapidly improve their strength... Two: conjure some famous piano pieces from his past life in his cognitive world and gift them to Vanessa, helping her dispel the "filth" accumulated in her body...
With a plan in mind, before killing Muzan, Roy temporarily granted a scroll of "Water Breathing" to Old Kohler. Then, through "Nen" and imagination, he conjured piano pieces composed by famous pianists like Chopin, Beethoven, and Liszt from his cognition, bundled them into two balls of light, and pointed them at Old Kohler and Vanessa respectively...
The light balls flew, instantly drilling into their foreheads...
Then, before they could recover, Roy felt his dream domain beginning to collapse due to the intense consumption of "Nen." With a wave of his hand, he severed the two misty threads connecting Vanessa and Old Kohler...
Sending them back to their respective worlds through the [Generalized Dream Gate].
Creeak~ The Dream Gate closed.
Dark Continent, Northern Frontier.
Kobold Tribe Settlement, Howling Moon Wolf King Territory, Broken Bone City, River Valley Town, Yellow Village.
Deep at night, Old Kohler woke with a start, hugging his pregnant wife. His back was sticky with cold sweat.
Beside him, his wife slept, and next to her was his three-year-old son...
Old Kohler's dog eyes widened, staring blankly at the rafters, savoring everything he had just experienced in the dream. He swallowed and said, "What a bizarre dream..."
Humans... Snake people... Gods... Divine servants... Temples... Gifts... Images played like a film in his small dog brain... Old Kohler never thought he would have such a realistic dream. So real that...
The light ball granted by the [God] in the dream still lingered in his consciousness, feeling so real it brought a hazy, illusory sensation!
Old Kohler exhaled after a long while. He got out of bed quietly, tucked his wife and son in, and left the bedroom. He went to the basement, took the morningstar that had been gathering dust for nearly a decade...
He went out into the courtyard, facing the bright moon, and opened the light ball. A stream of information instantly flooded his mind...
Named "Water Breathing!"
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash... Second Form: Water Wheel... Third Form: Flowing Dance..."
Old Kohler moved the morningstar in his hand, dancing along with the information... His dog eyes went from suspicion to shock to excitement. With the final move, "Tenth Form: Constant Flux..."
The dance ended. He leaned on the morningstar, panting clumsily, his emotions surging like waves. He suddenly realized... this was a very useful Breathing Style. It could instantly boost his combat power, delivering an unexpected blow to an opponent!
So... the gift was real, the dream was real... then...
Old Kohler thought of the Lord sitting high on the throne, shouldering the sun... His knees went weak, and he prostrated himself again, banging his head on the ground devoutly. "Thank you for your gift!"
Suddenly, a wind rose, carrying a wisp of spiritual light and a bond, drifting far into the night sky...
Countless miles away from the Howling Moon Wolf King's territory, in the Kingdom of Bathhouses, Valentia West Suburbs, Shuilangfang 7th Street, Bathhouse No. 54-09.
On a large, ornate bed where white and green snake tails were entwined...
Vanessa, unsurprisingly, had her face covered in her sister Laura's drool again.
She woke from the dream, slowly opening her eyes. Her golden vertical pupils reflected the ceiling as she stared in a daze for a long, long time...
She pulled a tissue from the bedside to wipe her face, uncoiled her snake tail, slid down the window frame, and came to the window. Carefully savoring the dream she had just had... The girl looked at the night sky, letting the moonlight wash over her, draping her in a lunar veil. With a mix of anxiety, anticipation, and fear of disappointment, she opened the light ball in her mind, the one gifted by the God of Dreams. Just then...
A melodious piano tune exploded in her mind. It traveled down, piercing her soul through her consciousness, hitting her heart, making her whole body stiffen. When she came to...
She felt all her fatigue and "filth" vanish. She felt transparent and light, as if reborn!
"Such beautiful tunes, such passionate tunes, such soothing tunes..."
Song after song unfolded... "Fresh scores" Vanessa had never heard before. She couldn't judge how they compared to the songs the bard had written for Lord Siren back then, but at least...
The girl showed a look of devotion. Lifting the corner of her nightgown, she curtsied. "Thank the Lord for his gift..."
Her thoughts and the moonlight flew into the high heavens...
A moment later, Roy, having just exited the dream and unable to maintain the [Generalized Dream Gate], heard the corner clock chime. Opening his eyes, he immediately received the panel notification...
[Notification: Faith Power +1... from "Potential Believer" Kohler Spencer... Please conduct the ordination ceremony as soon as possible to convert...]
[Notification: Faith Power +1... from "Potential Believer" Vanessa Siren... Please conduct the ordination ceremony as soon as possible to convert...]
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