Chapter 596: True God

In the morning, Zhang Lisheng looked at Charlot’s old face that was hidden in the shadow of the robe and said with a smile, “Charlot, this is the second surprise of today. You actually took the initiative to offer me advice. Don’t worry, I know what I am doing.”

“Your Majesty, the roots of all countries in the Green Leaf Mainland are aristocratic families, even those countries that claim to be ‘Republic’ are no exception. For thousands of years, many lord families are the only soil that produced elites in this fertile soil. Scholars, knights, and the vast majority of spellcasters were rooted in this class. Now that you’re plundering the land and wealth of the nobility and distributing it to the poor who can’t even read, you can indeed get their faith very quickly, but if you keep doing so, even if you can conquer the entire mainland, it’ll still only destroy the civilization of the mainlander. In the end, what you’ll obtain is a huge enclosure that is used to feed livestock…” Charlot continued to advise him.

After hearing these words, Zhang Lisheng’s happy mood became unwittingly irritated, “I understand all of these things that you said but until now, in these more than ten countries that the Wizard Li have conquered, other than those quacks and swindlers who only want to gain advantage in this confusing situation, none of the real aristocrats are willing to yield to my ruling. These guys will do as I told when I tell them to draw a simple ‘L’-shaped human-headed snake figure on their chests before they talked in the public, they will go to the temple every morning to pray, and they would rather work hard in the field and be bullied by the former lowly people than taking back the rights and wealth from my hands. What can I do?”

“Your Majesty, you should know that if an aristocrat surrenders to the barbarians, it would mean that the brilliant achievements created by all their ancestors would be destroyed, and the whole family and future generations will always bear the nickname of ‘human traitors’…”

“Charlot, I’m a god, not a small barbarian spiritual monster,” The youth corrected him in great displeasure.

“This is the most important point of the matter,” Charlot said aloud. “Even I only found out that you’re actually a great newly born god recently after I’ve started to peek into all of the Wizard Li’s secrets. How can the other mainlander realize that you’re actually not like those other spiritual monsters in history who would claim to be gods to invade the mainland but a true god?”

The old man’s loud voice echoed on the streets where only footsteps and whispers could be heard. At once, he attracted a lot of attention.

“You’re too loud, Charlot,” The young man complained in a low voice and increased his pace. The old man could only shut up and follow carefully behind him. Both of them strode between the crowds and soon came to the city center square.

In the distance, the Wizard Li craftsman had transformed the Furoh Hall into a dome shape in the shape of a wheatear. The remaining pillars were also filled with walls, leaving only eight huge square doors in the direction of north, south, east, and west.

Bathed in the golden sun, the temple looked magnificent and sacred. However, when one walked into it and left the warm sunshine, the enormous bloody battle drawings on the walls of the hall, the rough black slab stone covered with shiny luster on the ground, and the human-headed snake god statue with cold eyes were looking at the people with its head held high, that was several dozens meters tall. These were all erected in the center of the temple, combined together, and gave off an unexplainable sinister, tyrannical feeling.

The morning prayer ritual worshipping the Wizard Li’s god was not complicated. There was no extra ceremony, and there was no need for any priest to preside at all. The believers only needed to kneel respectfully in the temple and shout the words, “Great Wizard Li Majesty, you’re the only belief in my heart. You’re the only overlord and support safeguarding my fate,” 100 times.

However, although it was said to be 100 times, in actual fact, after several dozens of times of repetition until their throats became parched, most of the false believers would already be eager to stand up and to leave the temple with their heads bowed down, so they could start a day of hard work.

Stepping into the noisy temple and watching the mainlanders who were leaving in a hurry, Charlot who was beside Zhang Lisheng sighed and muttered, “Your Majesty, a god’s statue should give off a feeling of holiness, purity, benevolence, and compassion, so it would be easier for your believers to accept you. Your temple is just too gloomy.”

After saying so, he gradually kneeled down.

“Charlot, what I need is not the acceptance from my believers but their full submission and reverence. Besides, how can you possibly understand the beauty of ‘brainwashing’?” The young man smiled and replied. When he was about to pretend to do the same thing to kneel down, his body suddenly froze as astonishment crept upon his face when he looked into the distance.

In a hundred meters away, a poverty-stricken old man, whose face that was covered in wrinkles kept twitching involuntarily, who had a dirty beard of more than one foot long tangled together under his chin and a body covered with soil, wearing a long robe that was so worn out that its original color could no longer be seen, was praying and worshipping the Wizard Li’s god statue.

Because of his dirtiness, there was a small open space around him in the crowded temple.

“Despite living in such reduced circumstances and kinda neurotic circumstances, it looks like his eyes are not stupid and ignorant at all. He should at least be literate. Forget it, as the saying goes, pick the best person available. A mad scholar is still better than a docile fool. Now, the most important thing is that I need an example” Zhang Lisheng looked at the dirty old man for a while and muttered to himself with a wry smile as he gently pinched his fingers.

While his fingers rubbed against each other, the statue in the temple suddenly ignited into three bright fire of red, blue, and yellow. The fire added an ounce of spirituality and Majesty on the icon that was already vivid. At once, it looked like a real god had really descended.

When the tens of thousands of mainlanders who were kneeling while worshipping, be it sham or real, saw this strange scene, their jaws dropped in horror. Some of them fell to the ground, some praised in awe, while more fled out in alarm.

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A riot in an extremely crowded temple would result in a tragedy of mutual trampling. However, there seemed to have a suction force on the temple floor as it forced everyone’s feet to firmly stick on it.

Amid cries of alarm, the head of the statue in the middle of the temple slowly lowered. It then turned its gaze to the dirty old man who was still on the ground but was at a loss of what to do.

In the twinkling of an eye, a streak of fire with scarlet, khaki, and azure blue color fired out of the god’s eyes and shot directly onto the old man, igniting his entire body.

“My god, my god…” When some weak women and children saw this scene, they could not help but scream in panic, slamming their mouths hard with their palms, not daring to make any sound. It was clear that they thought that the god was punishing the old man.

However, as time went by, the dirty old man did not turn into ashes. On the contrary, his face deep in flames had an enjoyable look, even the deep wrinkles on his face eased away.

After a few minutes, his dusty robe gradually weathered. The dirt covering his body that was so skinny that only bones remained dropped onto the ground. His dry and yellow hair was gently caressed by a stream of water that emerged from the air and became soft as it draped over his shoulders. When the flames dissipated, he was so clean that he looked like he was reborn.

“He’s not dead! That tomb thief Afandila is not burned to death! I thought he had been punished by the god…”

“There’s actually flames of red, yellow, and blue in this world? Not to mention that it’s actually harmless too! This is really bizarre…”

“I feel like Afandila seems to have become different from before. He appears to be intelligent now. No wonder he’s called a ‘scholar’ last time…”

Looking at how the old man was still alive in the fire, many people began to discuss in a whisper.

This time, a group of Wizard Li warriors who were riding the ferocious earth dragon broke into the temple and drove away from the crowds before coming to the old man.

In the silent temple, a two-feathered chief among the Wizard Li warriors leaped down from the dragon’s back and stared at the old man for a moment before slowly bowing and stiffly spoke in the mainland language, “Dear respected elder, because of your devout faith towards His Majesty Wizard Li, you have obtained a high favor from the god and become a distinguished high priest. Please come with me, I’ll bring you to see chief priest Milus. He’ll identify your priest rank and give you everything that is according to your identity.”

“I-I don’t want anything. I just want to fill my stomach a-and then get some materials to study…” The old man lost his senses for a long time before muttering in stutter and incoherence.

“From now on, you can fill our stomach with dragon meat every day. As for research, you can study anything convenient to you. Please follow me,” in the face of the weak attitude of the mainlander, the Wizard Li chief warrior showed a slight contempt in his eyes, but he did not show any rudeness. Instead, he pressed on the matter hastily.

“Y-Yes, can you give me a piece of clothing? The way I am now i-is…”

“Dear respected elder, His Majesty Wizard Li’s high priests will not lose their dignity as long as they’re stepping on the land. The god has long bestowed you what you wanted. You only need to concentrate on thinking about it to obtain it.”

“B-But I want clothes, how can I possibly get it by just thinking—eh?” The old man was stunned in shock. Muttering in a low voice, he showed a contemplating look, and a few seconds later, he raised his hands and waved gently. He actually whipped up the moisture in the air and condensed it into a dark blue gauze.

“Spellcaster power! The ability to turn something out of nothing is the power of a spellcaster! To think that Afandila actually obtained the power to cast spells…”

“It’s not an illusion? My goodness! Don’t tell me that this tomb thief has turned out to become a god’s high priest. T-That also means that the one we’re praying to is really a God…”

“Isn’t this guy that infamous Afandila? Everyone knows that he’s stealing from tombs, but nobody has managed to obtain any evidence that he was doing so! Ah! H-He is actually flying! Oh my god! A despicable tomb thief can actually have such a day too?”

Upon seeing that the old man inexplicably grabbed a piece of blue cloth to wrap around his body and condensing clouds below his feet to fly up to the sky, the crowds forgot their fear towards the Wizard Li warriors and began to bury their heads to discuss.

After a long time of living together, the fallen mainlanders had already learned that the barbarian warriors would not kill them without any reason if they were willing to obey.