Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 796 A First Glimpse of the Divine
Om-! !

As Xin Lailai opened her eyes, a massive amount of information flashed before her. She spent several minutes browsing through the dozen or so pages of information before finally focusing her attention on the final content of the divine contract.

"The notarized identity of the Temple of the Gods... and the incomplete power of luck?"

Gazing at the quietly floating contents of the contract before her, Xin Lailai's eyes flickered slightly, finally shifting her gaze from the contract to the newly unlocked information permissions:
[Personal Interface (Deities)]

……

Real name: Xin Lailai/Lingyuzi

Alternative name: (To be determined)

Honorific Name: (To be determined)

Divine Power: Luck (incomplete)
Divine Origin Rank: Fourth Tier

Spirit Energy: 5000/5000 points

Faith Power Reserves: 1.33 ounces
Skill 1, Divine Origin (Divine - Passive, LV.30): A unique origin that carries the great power of the gods, granting one incredible strength. It can filter and refine the power of faith, transforming it into pure divine energy or strengthening one's own divine origin. Divine energy cap +5000 points.

Skill 2, Power of Luck (Deity - Passive, Cannot be Upgraded): As a deity, you are carrying an incomplete power of luck. Your current fortune is permanently increased by 300 points, and your luck is permanently increased by 3 points.

*Note: This bonus will be permanently removed when "Power/Luck" is lost.

Skill 3, Divine Art: Descent (God - Passive, LV.30): As a god who carries the power of faith, you can consume 10-500 points of divine energy and 0.1-10 ounces of faith power to construct a "God Avatar" at the source of faith power. The duration of the God Avatar is determined by the amount of divine energy consumed in its construction, and the physical attributes are determined by the amount of faith power consumed in its construction. Furthermore, the God Avatar can inherit your own techniques and spell passives in a certain proportion based on the actual strength of the avatar.

*Note: The current maximum strength of the avatar that can be constructed is within 90 points of the true attribute.

*Note: This "divine spell" can be expanded to include corresponding "miracles". You need to go to the "Hall of Gods" to unlock the details.

Skill 4, Divine Art - Blessing (Deity - Active, LV.1): As a deity who wields the power of luck, you have a deeper understanding of the concept of luck. You can consume 100 points of divine energy to bless a designated target, temporarily increasing their fortune by 10 points and temporarily increasing their luck attribute by (100 / target's fortune amount) points for 10 minutes.

*Note: This "divine spell" can be expanded to include corresponding "miracles" and "prayer". You need to go to the "Hall of Gods" to unlock the details.

……

Incomplete luck power + divine essence at just the fourth tier + only 1.33 ounces of faith power reserves.

This is their current situation: a demigod who doesn't even qualify as a 'demigod' in the realm of gods, at best a nobody roadside god.

Of course, that's just talk. In reality, their starting point is already higher than that of more than 90% of the god-type contractors in the paradise.

It's important to know that the vast majority of the deities in the Paradise started from the lowest-tier first-order deity origin with only 100 points of divine energy. Unlike them, they didn't receive a portion of the power shared by the deities of their own cult from the very beginning. Their ability list was practically empty except for a 'divine descent' technique, and they didn't have any foundation of faith power. In the early stages, they basically had to make a living by working for the cult and other deities.

From this perspective, their conditions are actually quite good among novice god-type contractors. At least they have a stable source of faith power and their own divine authority, which are things that most god-type contractors simply cannot achieve when they first start out.

Putting everything else aside, this incomplete lucky power alone adds a full 300 points to their luck and 3 points to their luck attribute, and this is not a temporary increase, but a permanent benefit.

Although these bonuses will still be stripped away when they lose their powers, at least in terms of the depth of judgment, the luck attribute added to them by the divine powers can be actually calculated on the base value of the luck attribute. This means that if they can use the divine powers to stack their base luck to 20 points in the future, they can directly trigger the barrier reward of 20 points of luck attribute.

Of course, as the price for the significant increase in their fortune, the luck bonuses provided by the Book of the World and the Pale Oath were reduced from 8 points and 3 points to 4 points and 1 point respectively, and the luck value provided by the Blood of Destiny was reduced to a pitiful 0.75 points.

If we round it up, including the 3 points of luck boost, his and Lingyu's luck attributes have now dropped to around 16 and 19 points respectively. Wearing the "Lucky Blessing" title, which also reduces the bonus by 4 points, their luck attributes are 20 and 23 points respectively, which is still within a perfectly adequate range.

"However, speaking of which, what's the direction of our fortunes..."

"Pfft, Lai Lai's completely obsessed with money!"

Inside the room, Xin Lailai, who had gained a more accurate insight and understanding of fortune due to her mastery of certain lucky powers, sensed their fortunes. Her expression twitched slightly, and her reaction was noticeably subtle. Meanwhile, Ling Yuzi quipped in his mind, revealing the truth.

He had been wondering before why their luck attribute, which was also high, was hardly reflected in battle. But now that he could perceive the direction of their fortune, Xin Lailai realized that their fortune was not ineffective in battle, it was just... in the opposite direction.

Yes, that's right. With a fortune score of 450 and luck scores of 16 and 19 respectively, their luck in 'enemy luck' is... damn negative!
It's not just their "enemy luck"; if you were to analyze all their fortunes, you'd find that their luck in areas like "enemy luck," "romantic luck," and "unexpected luck" is consistently negative. In contrast, their "financial luck" is exceptionally high.

"No wonder when we asked the expert about the eyebrows, he just sent us ellipses..."

Xin Lailai sensed his fortune, his face twitching slightly. He had previously inquired about their fortunes when he had a spare moment, only to receive a reply consisting of ellipses and a vague statement that when one's will is too strong, it can also have a certain impact on the direction of one's fortune.

At the time, he thought there was something wrong with their luck, but now it seems that the other party was simply speechless at their greed.

"Pfft! Lai Lai, if we were to describe this using a divination method, wouldn't it be a classic divination of 'wanting money over life'?"

"..." Zero's cheerful laughter echoed in her mind, while Xin Lailai, who didn't know how to speak, expressionlessly flipped through her newly unlocked divine information interface, fixing her gaze on the last two divine spells.

Arrival and blessing.

This is considered the most basic divine art of every deity who possesses power. The former is the most classic core ability of the divine system, while the latter is the most basic extension of power.

However, compared to the descriptions of their skill effects, the two lines of instructions below these two skills are actually the most crucial and important points—

"Miracles and prayers..."

Standing before the branded interface, Xin Lailai gazed at the information before her, her eyes flickering slightly, a hint of contemplation and curiosity flashing across them.

Miracles and prayers.

This is something that every faith-based contractor must come into contact with. The former is a powerful skill that only believers can activate and can only be used successfully when they can contact a god, while the latter is a universal skill that can be used by both gods and believers, and whose power varies from person to person.

The origins of those miracles and prayers, as described in the prompts before them, actually evolved from the 'divine arts' mastered by the gods themselves.

For example, the most classic "divine incarnation" and various "divine summoning" techniques in the belief system are actually a kind of "miracle" developed by the gods based on their own "divine magic - descent". Their function is to allow believers to pay a lot of faith power on their behalf so that the gods can descend to the vicinity of the believers in the form of consciousness or incarnation, thereby fulfilling the believers' wishes.

Skills like 'Sunlight Gun', 'Justice Judgment', and 'Sun Protection' are all developed by the gods according to their own divine arts. They are "prayer" born from the power of faith and can be mastered and used by believers. Their status is equivalent to 'spells' in the faith system, and they are considered the cornerstone of the entire gods and faith system.

Incidentally, the key difference between "divine magic" and "miracles/prayer" lies in the energy used.

The former is a legitimate divine ability that can only be used through "divine energy" and whose effects are only related to the divine power and ability itself. Although powerful, its effects are often relatively singular and limited.

The latter is based on "the power of faith," which is like a weakened version of "divine magic." Although it is not as effective as "divine magic," it is much more widely applicable and has a lower barrier to entry. Most importantly, it can be learned and used by any intelligent being that can understand the existence of gods and generate the power of faith. It is an extremely important part of the gods' efforts to consolidate their faith.

After all, these days, even when playing a game and changing jobs, you have to spend a long time looking at which cool and awesome moves you can unlock in the future, let alone deciding on a god to worship, which can affect your entire life.

Imagine if a contractor excitedly joined in, only to find out from the feedback that the other party was a third-rate deity whose prayers hadn't even expanded much. How much interest would the contractor have left in continuing to believe?

Therefore, for deities, the number of prayers and miracles they develop is actually an important standard for judging their level of ability, and even constitutes a considerable part of the content of "Three Years of Simulation and Five Years of Deity".

Although this has nothing to do with them for the time being, the development of prayer and miracles requires sufficient faith power, and the total faith power they currently possess is only 1.33 ounces. This is the result of a recent harvest. With this amount of faith power, let alone developing prayer and miracles, it is probably not even enough to replenish the divine energy they consume.

"Phew... Alright, Lingyu, let's go ask Xiaobai and the others about AI first."

"Ah."

Inside the room, Xin Lailai, having browsed through most of the information, spoke in her mind. Ling Yuzi responded briefly and, without hesitation, broke free from the elven assimilation state with her. In a fleeting wave of divine soul energy, they withdrew their consciousness, their vision returning from their divine souls to their bodies.

Om-! !

Waves of divine energy swept by, and in mid-air, as their consciousness was withdrawn, the divine souls that should have been floating there, bearing the physical features of both of them, became like soulless puppets, their eyes suddenly becoming empty.

As for Xin Lailai, the moment her consciousness returned to her body, an intense destructive urge and desire to vent arose uncontrollably, causing her to stagger and her aura to briefly go out of control. Fortunately, she quickly regained her senses and regained control in the next second, suppressing the physical instincts that had surged dozens of times.

Without the suppression of divinity, the instinctive bestiality will expand uncontrollably. This is the defect of constructing a divine soul by splitting the soul into multiple parts. Although there is no longer any need to worry about the endless devouring of divinity, one must face the omnipresent domination of bestiality.

However, suppressing one's animalistic nature is actually much simpler than suppressing one's divinity.

Especially for them, who are both mages and magic users, maintaining calm thinking at all times is practically a required course.

It can be said that unless one's willpower is ridiculously weak, even if the beastly instincts within them are dozens of times stronger, most mages and spellcasters are still unlikely to be dominated by their own beastly instincts at this stage, let alone those with a willpower as high as 152... oh, it's already 154 points.

"Hmm... Just as I guessed, if we don't enter the spirit assimilation state, then it's true that we can only exert extremely limited control over the soul on our own?"

Inside the room, Xin Lailai, suppressing the burgeoning instinctive desires within her, let out a long sigh. Then, she looked at the divine soul floating there before her, briefly tried to manipulate it, and then narrowed her eyes, confirming her conjecture.

Just as their assimilated soul bodies cannot be manipulated by a single person, the same is true of the divine soul symbolizing their dual-state state. As the price for almost perfectly isolating their divinity, when he and Zero were in a non-elf assimilated state, he could hardly manipulate the divine soul in front of him to complete any overly complex commands. At most, he could only control its opening and closing, and rigidly cast a couple of divine spells.

Sure enough, they still need an intelligent AI that can manipulate their souls for them. At the very least, their souls need to have the ability to respond to prayers and harvest the power of faith. Otherwise, even if they can manipulate their souls individually, they would probably waste a lot of time on these tedious matters.

Thus, having once again confirmed the importance of 'technological management' for the newly emerging deities, Xin Lailai returned her divine soul to her soul space, looked at the portal on the wall, nodded decisively, and stepped towards it.

They've already gotten a general understanding of the situation with the gods, so now... it's time for their 'Super God Crab Master' to put his skills to use!
What era are we living in? Surely there really are geniuses who have to use their own computing power to calculate the amount of faith power?
It's not like we can use some kind of technique that we can handle with our cerebellum. If we don't rely on technology at a time like this, are we going to wait until we're exhausted to use it?

……

(End of this chapter)