Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 795 "God Xin Lai Lai" [6.6k words]

Xin Lailai felt as if she were having a dream.

In his dream, he saw millions of people worshipping his statue and tens of millions of living beings praying to him.

Devout praises, filthy curses, hypocritical flattery... all sorts of sounds and images converged, overwhelming him like a tidal wave, swallowing his mouth and nose, obscuring his vision, like thousands of arms frantically pulling him, desperately dragging him into the depths of darkness.

Instead of experiencing emotional fluctuations because of all this, he seemed to be drawn by some inexplicable attraction, simply looking down at everything without joy or sorrow, like a celestial body hanging high in the sky, indifferently observing the scene on the earth.

Joy, anger, happiness, sorrow... In his dreams, he was like a true god, looking down on everything that happened to his believers, observing those beings bound by all kinds of emotions and distractions with absolute rationality and the attitude of an observer.

Gradually, his perspective began to rise higher and higher, from the ground-level view of life to the supreme being who looks down on and guides all beings from the clouds, from the birth, aging, sickness and death of believers to the operation and rhythm of the world...

When this perspective rises to the point where it can overlook the entire world, an indescribable longing begins to rise in his mind. It is a longing to merge with the world, with the laws, and with all things that transcend the mundane. It is a longing to completely abandon distracting thoughts, cast aside vulgar things, and shed the burdens called humanity.

Yes, he was longing for it.

Longing to escape the filthy mire of desires, longing to truly merge with the laws and rhythms of this world, longing to break free from the shackles of flesh and blood, to glimpse the truth of the rules, and to truly become 'He'.

Let him go.

Discard it.

Become Him.

In an instant, an indescribable, intense impulse arose in his mind, pulling his consciousness away uncontrollably.

In a daze, Xin Lailai felt her memories growing increasingly distant, her thoughts growing colder, and the scenes in her memories that should have touched her soul gradually sinking into an abyss of coldness, leaving only thoughts of absolute reason and order rising from the surface. And just as 'he' and 'He' were about to truly succumb to the latter...

"--wrong!!!"

boom--! ! !
An intense, unyielding will erupted, strong enough to overturn even divinity. In an instant, memories and emotions that should have been submerged surged back under the impossibly strong will.

That's right, this is not the path he wants to take.

Anger, joy, sorrow, relief... In an instant, the vast amount of emotions that had been abandoned by 'He' erupted from his mind, and the thousands of whispers that had faded away began to reappear.

This time, when faced with the figures in the picture seeking refuge from 'Him', Xin Lailai neither fled nor felt fear, but calmly closed her eyes and listened attentively.

That's right, neither 'it' nor 'He' is the path he wants to take.

What he wanted to become was neither a 'beast' driven by instinct nor a 'god' in harmony with the rules, but rather the person himself who had his own friends and family, his own joys and sorrows, who could get angry at things that made others unhappy, and who could laugh out loud at things that made others happy!
In an instant, an indescribable sense of enlightenment rose in Xin Lailai's mind. In the darkness, she felt the prayers and images constantly flowing in her mind. Her originally agitated thoughts began to calm down quickly, but it was not the absolute rationality of abandoning all emotions and desires that she had just experienced. Instead, it was a tranquil peace as calm as still water.

As her thoughts calmed, the girl's voice, which had been drowned out by a sea of ​​prayers, gradually became clearer:

"Lai Lai... Lai Lai! Can you hear me?"

Om-! !

In an instant, all the familiar feelings were retrieved, and the scene from the girl's side immediately appeared in his mind. He saw that the girl, just like him, was sitting cross-legged in the darkness, maintaining a meditative posture with her eyes closed, calling out to him in his mind.

"Yes, it was a bit dangerous, but we made it through."

In the darkness, Xin Lailai answered, and Zero, who was maintaining an assimilation state with her, breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing her voice, a sense of peace washing over him.

"Yeah! I knew you'd be fine, Lai Lai!"

As soon as the words fell, the two saw the scene before them again. In the dark space, millions of golden threads could be seen emerging from the distance, entering their bodies and transmitting all sorts of thoughts and ideas into their minds.

"Speaking of which, Lai Lai, our current state should be what's called 'divine vision,' right?"

"Well, although there are some differences, they should be roughly the same."

Xin Lailai nodded slightly in agreement. After breaking free from the state of 'divinity', he had already confirmed that this was not a real space, but rather a region more akin to 'consciousness' and 'thought'. Their current form, sitting cross-legged in the darkness, and the dark space itself, were merely images constructed from their thoughts.

To be specific, it's probably an abstract description of 'in the mind,' just like how they subconsciously imagine the shape of the pages when imagining the content of a book. Their current consciousness is probably at such a mysterious level.

"If I use a more formal term, if I remember correctly, it's called the information layer of consciousness?"

Xin Lailai spoke, signifying that the information she wanted to describe surged in the dark space and was transmitted to the Zero, who was maintaining an assimilation state with her.

The concrete manifestation of the information layer.

This is their current state. In essence, everything they perceive at this moment is merely a manifestation of information in their minds, including the millions of golden threads before them. They are, in fact, a manifestation of the information contained in the power of faith in their minds.

And this is precisely the true mystery of the power of faith—

That is the information itself.

Yes, this is how academic sects describe the nature of the power of faith:
'The so-called power of faith is nothing more than quantum information itself, capable of being transmitted regardless of spatial and temporal distance.'

As for the others, whether it's the spirit realm or the material realm, the power of faith seen on those levels is essentially just a 'projection' of the power of faith onto those two levels.

This is why, although both are extraordinary energies, the power of faith can travel across millions of worlds to reach its intended target, while magic and other extraordinary energies have immense difficulty even traveling across a single world, because they are fundamentally different things.

The former is merely a projection of information onto different regions, while the latter is real energy from the spiritual realm. The difference between the two is like the difference between what is in a book and what is outside of it.

For those outside the book, knowing the fate of a character might only require turning to the end, but for the characters within the book, to reach their own end, they must actually experience all the years depicted in the book.

The so-called "miracle power" of faith is also because it can accomplish so many things that are almost "idealistic" and "I think" because it does not follow the rules of the material and spiritual realms in essence, but intervenes in the material and spiritual realms according to the logic of the information realm.

Using the example of "inside and outside the book" mentioned earlier, it's like how a character in a book must experience a crisis that leads to their death from their perspective to face it, while outside the book, all it takes is to add a sentence like "XX died at XX" after the paragraph. This is the origin of the "I think" characteristic of the power of faith.

"From this perspective, although it is somewhat subtle, it must be admitted that, in terms of the level of life, there is indeed an insurmountable gap between divine life and flesh-and-blood life."

As Xin Lailai sensed the information emanating from the strands of faith around her and listened to the prayers emanating from them, a hint of emotion appeared in her eyes.

Although there are many beings in the astral plane that surpass the gods in terms of combat power, in terms of life level, there seem to be very few species in the entire astral plane that are truly higher than the gods.

At the same level of supreme power, the strongest beings of humans and other races generally reach the end of their lifespan after living for a few epochs. On the other hand, in the divine system, even the weakest lower gods, as long as they survive well, can generally live until the end of a great epoch or until some great catastrophe affecting the entire star realm arrives. There is no problem of not having enough lifespan.

Of course, the premise is that it is a true 'deity' that genuinely resists the assimilation of the rules by relying on its own will and forges its own soul, rather than a 'deity system' that inherits the soul of a predecessor. Although the two are similar in power, their actual potential and difficulty are worlds apart.

Looking at their experience just now makes it clear. You have to know that what they used this time was only a fourth-order level divine essence, and it was a subordinate deity belonging to the Lai Lai Divine Cult, the kind that doesn't even have its own powers. Yet even so, they almost couldn't resist the divinity's devouring of humanity.

One can imagine the terrifying 'divine devouring' they would suffer if their goal were changed to a position of supreme divinity with extremely grand concepts such as light, darkness, justice, or elements. This is why most of the divine systems in the astral plane would rather inherit the divine souls left by their predecessors than face the divine devouring themselves and forge their own divine souls.

The former might just be a weakling who can't even fully unleash his spiritual power in his entire life, but the latter might accidentally become a puppet of rules with no self and only absolute rationality.

At least according to the information Xin Lailai has, in the entire Holy Land Paradise, it seems that only the God of Justice of the Church of Justice has forged his divine soul through his own will and successfully reached the supreme level without losing himself.

Others are either like the Heavenly Gods and Elemental Gods of the Three Thousand Gods Cult and the Elemental God Cult, who are innate gods born directly from the rules of nature and have no concept of 'humanity' from the beginning; or they are like the gods of the Destiny Cult and the Sun God Cult, who become second-generation or even Nth-generation gods by inheriting the divine souls of others. In that case, although there is no risk of divine devouring, because the divine soul is not their own, their strength and upper limit are relatively low.

As for the rest, although there are some miscellaneous self-deification paths, they are all essentially the same.

For example, the Ancient God path of the Ancient God faction is essentially no different from that of the innate gods. From the moment they choose to become Ancient Gods, humanity and self become fragile illusions that can be easily shattered. However, due to the Ancient Gods' special nature of being true to their instincts and desires, their human shell often lasts for an extremely long time before breaking.

The same applies to the "Incense to Godhood Path" of the Three Thousand Gods Sect. Although it does require one to forge a god with a celestial soul in the early, middle, and late stages, in the very late stage it becomes about entrusting one's divine soul to the "Investiture of the Gods List," taking the path of actively abandoning one's upper limit and severing oneself to become a god after birth in order to preserve one's humanity. Although in terms of strength at the same level it is definitely much better than those "second-generation gods" who rely entirely on inheriting divine souls, considering that the upper limit is locked below the extreme strength, it is really hard to say which is better or worse.

Of course, no matter how you calculate it, the result is definitely better than following the path of self-improvement to reach the ultimate strength, and then watching helplessly as one's humanity is completely devoured by divinity.

After all, while self-forging into a god is powerful, the divine devouring it brings in the later stages is no joke. To maintain one's sanity and original mind amidst the prayers of countless beings requires a level of will and temperament that is far beyond what a normal person can achieve.

At least in Xin Lailai's memory, if she really wanted to find another monster who could reach the pinnacle of power through the path of the divine soul without succumbing to its power, then it was highly likely that only Yan Yi could satisfy that requirement. Or rather, the path that Yan Yi took, which was to replace the will of heaven with his own heart, was a superior product of self-forging godhood.

As for the rest, even they themselves, according to Xin Lailai's estimation, once they reach the ultimate level, they will still have to obediently disperse or sever their divine souls, allowing them to return to normal divinity or become a soul in a state of being without a master.

Otherwise, given the terrifying power of divine devouring, they would most likely end up like those geniuses in history who were confident they could control the power of the gods, only to become puppets of the rules, leaving behind only fragments of their divine souls as proof of their existence.

Ultimately, everything in the world has its own laws. If one wants to master the power of the gods while retaining humanity and self, then one must inevitably bear the price commensurate with this 'greed'.

Of course, this is still a long way off for them now. Considering their willpower of over 150 points and the fact that they are only minor gods without any power, they don't really need to worry too much about the risk of being devoured by divinity for a considerable period of time.

Especially when what they use to forge their divine soul is not their own soul body, but merely a soul shell.

As souls that have evolved from physical bodies, their birth and death can be said to exist in the blink of an eye. And normally, as long as they do not actively inhabit their souls, they don't need to worry about being affected by their souls.

This is why so many faith-based and deity-based contractors, when forging their divine souls, would rather sacrifice a small portion of their strength in favor of using things like soul clones to forge their divine souls. After all, most people can distinguish between the difference between only being devoured by divinity when using it and being devoured by divinity at all times.

"Speaking of which, Lai Lai, what should we do with all this faith power?"

"We can just store the harvested crops normally. As for those prayers... we'll deal with them after we have Xiaobai create a smart AI to handle them, and then expand the corresponding functions using the brand quota."

In the ocean of consciousness, Xin Lailai answered, "looking" at the golden threads manifested by the power of faith, and with a thought, she collected them all and manipulated them to converge towards the "altar" beneath them.

After breaking free from the devouring of divinity, they had already mastered how to manipulate these powers of faith. Or rather, for the gods, manipulating and using the power of faith was as simple and natural as eating and drinking, requiring no extra learning whatsoever.

Once they mastered the method of manipulating the power of faith, having already acquired divine souls, they actually had two choices. The first was to simply collect this power of faith, as they were doing now, to prevent it from continuing to affect them. The second was to appropriately utilize this power of faith, just as they had learned about the duties of the gods in the past, to respond to and handle the prayers of some believers, thereby consolidating their own faith and divine position.

This is the daily life that a proper deity faces: believers pray to generate faith power, and the deity harvests and uses the faith power generated by believers to consolidate its own faith, expand the number of believers, and thus obtain more faith power.

Incidentally, the most difficult part is how to rationally utilize and allocate the power of faith.

Although the power of faith originates from the prayers of believers, not every prayer that generates the power of faith needs to be answered. For example, the messages they are receiving from the power of faith are mostly just the daily prayers of those who follow them, not genuine requests for protection from some major problem.

Therefore, the first challenge a qualified deity must face is to discern from these prayers those who will continue to use the power of faith to help others.

Helping the wrong person is unacceptable, helping too much is unacceptable, helping too early is unacceptable, helping too late is unacceptable... As a compulsory course for every deity when they enter the profession, it can be said that just the ability to identify and handle the needs of believers is enough to scare away 99% of contractors from entering the profession.

If we take into account all the subsequent issues such as the allocation and planning of faith power, it's no wonder that the Sun God Cult's flyers are constantly recruiting contractors willing to become Sun God Cult deities, and that books like "Three Years of Simulation, Five Years of Godhood" remain on the bestseller list in Paradise.

Without resorting to slacking off, brainwashing, or deceiving people, the difficulty of becoming a deity skilled in management, beloved by believers, and with a stable return on the power of faith is no less than managing a super-large force or even a country, and may even be greater.

It's fortunate that they have Xiaobai, a top-notch mechanic, as their backer; otherwise, just purchasing a reliable AI specifically for gods would probably have cost them a fortune.

As for why we must use AI instead of relying on our own brains? Well… well, let’s just say that if any god is so confident that they can handle the prayers of thousands or even trillions of believers without the aid of tools, then we should truly admire their work ethic.

In reality, even if they did choose to give up, it wouldn't really be a big problem.

To put it bluntly, they merely treat the divine soul as a means to deal with the erosion of faith power, and do not develop it as their core system. Therefore, even if they do not respond to the prayers of believers, it will most likely not have any impact on them in the end, and may even reduce the output of faith power and relieve the pressure on their side.

But for Sin-Lay personally, from the moment they decided to exploit the faith of those who worshipped them as gods, he could no longer stand idly by.

Since they have used the power of faith generated by believers, they must take this identity seriously, respond to believers properly, and fulfill the responsibilities that a deity should have.

Given their current capabilities, the best way to accomplish this efficiently is clearly to rely on external aids such as artificial intelligence and branding features.

As for saying that it's enough to just put on a show, he wouldn't stoop to doing something like pretending to help someone out of a hole when he clearly knows there's a ladder available.

His consistent principle is to either not do something at all, or to do it to the best of his ability.

"That should be enough for now. Lingyu, let's go, it's time to 'wake up'!" "Okay!"

A few minutes later, within the sea of ​​consciousness, Xin Lailai gazed at the completely harvested power of faith and the now golden altar beneath her, nodded in satisfaction, and with a thought, her consciousness, along with Ling Yuzi's, swiftly withdrew from this sea of ​​information, slowly opening her eyes in the darkness.

[Note: A "Divine Soul" has been detected in the Pioneer. The "Divine Unit" identity will be added to the Pioneer's initial identity!]

[Note: Because the Pioneer has already obtained the "Divine Unit" identity, the permissions for "Power of Faith" and "Divine Energy" have been automatically unlocked in the current imprint information.]

[Hint: Based on the Pioneer's current Charisma stat and past behavior, the Pioneer has been determined to be a "Friendly" divine unit!]

[Note: Due to the pioneer's "Friendly Faction" deity status, the "Void Tree's" reputation has increased by 1000 points.]

[Note: Due to the Pioneer's current identity, upon entering a world where there is a belief in gods, the Pioneer's initial status will be "super-hugely" boosted!]

[Note: Due to your current identity as a Pioneer, the initial affinity between you and the "Evil Faction" deities will be...]

【…】

【…】

[Note: Because the Pioneer's current identity has changed to "Divine Unit" and a "Divine Contract" has been signed, the Pioneer's current cult position has changed to "LaiLai Cult - Divine"]

[Note: Access to the "Luck (Incomplete)" power (including the list of divine spells, miracles, prayers, etc.) has been unlocked]

……

【Divine Contract: The Cult of Lai Lai (Order/Contract)】

Contracting Party: Sanctuary Paradise - Cult of Lai Lai
Contracting Parties: Sanctuary Paradise · Xin Lailai/Lingyuzi

Contract Type: Order Contract

Contract Content 1: According to the contract, when a pioneer acquires the identity of a "divine unit", his identity will be automatically notarized as a subordinate divine unit belonging to the Fate Faction·Lailai Cult. At the same time, this identity will be automatically notarized by the "Hall of Gods", and the relevant notarization fees will be directly borne by the "Lailai Cult".

Contract Content 2: According to the contract, when the pioneer acquires the identity of "Divine Unit", he will directly obtain the right to use the "Luck (Incomplete)" power. This power is a notarized power of the "Hall of Gods". After acquiring it, the relevant "ability list" will be unlocked directly. However, each time the relevant content of this power is used, an additional 25% of pure faith power must be submitted (the object of this faith power collection is "Fate Faction · Lai Lai Cult · Main Divine Unit · Lai Lai").

……

(End of this chapter)