Demon Hunter: School of the Wolf.

Chapter 560 The Old Rules Left Behind by the "Girl"!
Erin gently opened his palm, revealing a stone the size of a baby's fist.

The stone is an irregular ellipsoid, grayish-white all over, pitted and uneven, with many light green spots.

It is no different from the gneiss that can be seen everywhere along the roads in the northern continent.

Gneiss is a type of rock that is often used by fishermen as a weight in their fishing nets because of its commonness and high density.

The stone in Erin's palm is not even remotely remarkable; it is the resurrected spirit of Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring.

"The resurrection of Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring... her divine essence?"

Meritelli stared at Erin's palm.

His expression was initially blank, as if he knew nothing about the resurrection of the divine soul, but then he tilted his head, as if he had heard something from the void, glanced at Erin in surprise, and then looked at the ordinary stone.

The sweet fragrance of the harvested wheat fields filled the air.

The pregnant woman gently stroked her bulging belly, not reaching out to touch the stone, and remained silent for a long time.

How to deal with Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring, was a question that He needed to carefully consider.

"I have never heard of reviving a spirit; that must be an ancient deity's method of averting disaster."

“If it were a hundred years ago, I would not hesitate to use divine power to destroy Him.”

"But now..."

The pregnant woman gently shook her cheeks, which were slightly fuller due to pregnancy:

"The people of the mountains are barely surviving and are destined to perish step by step. They can no longer be an obstacle to the continuation of humanity. No matter how many more gods there are, the outcome will not change."

"so……"

He paused, then looked up at Erin: "What do you think? Child of Miracles, what do you plan to do with Him?"

“What if I want to revive Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring?” Erin probed. “Since the Mountain People are no longer a threat, the knowledge possessed by the ancient gods may be very important to us and can be used to deal with the White Frost.”

"Okay." The pregnant woman nodded noncommittally.

"Then can you revive Him now?"

The pregnant woman gently shook her head: "Although I don't know how the Spring Daughter Gwendolia escaped the war and avoided death, one deity can never heal another."

Gods cannot heal gods… Erin was stunned for a moment.

This seems different from what he imagined.

In the creation myths of various regions in the past, each pantheon often had one or even several deities who could heal wounds of the same kind and cure diseases.

"Because we don't have human bodies, only a divine soul similar to a spirit," the pregnant woman continued without keeping everyone in suspense, "the filling of this divine soul is not the spiritual substance that constitutes the soul of intelligent life; it's something completely different..."

Seeing that Erin's eyes were becoming increasingly blank, and knowing that he couldn't understand, Meritelli paused:

"You can understand it as the fact that what constitutes a natural deity is neither material flesh and blood nor ethereal spiritual matter, but the faith of intelligent life and the belief of all beings."

"These are the essences of a born god, the reason why he was able to become a god."

"Secular people call it faith, a spiritual force that has been condensed and transformed by the clergy."

“When a deity is injured, it is essentially a sudden loss or disappearance of faith.”

"The beliefs among gods differ according to their divine roles and cannot be shared."

"The faith that constitutes me and the faith that constitutes Freya, even though they both contain the divine duties of fertility, love and harvest, are two completely different things that cannot communicate with each other and therefore cannot heal each other."

"That divine magic..." Erin asked tentatively.

“Divine magic is the influence that gods exert on the outside world through believers and divine artifacts,” the pregnant woman answered patiently. “Essentially, it is using divine power to drive the elements in the air, just as sorcerers use mental power and magic to drive the elements, or directly use divine power to change reality.”

"But divine power is also a concentrated spiritual force, an energy that has been highly distorted by the divine duties of the gods, and is essentially still faith."

Erin was starting to understand.

Two different gods are like two machines that use different fuels, such as a steam engine that uses coal and a diesel engine that uses diesel fuel.

Whether it's injury or decline, it's all just the fuel that's been burned away.

Although coal and diesel are essentially fossil fuels derived from solar energy (religion), they only differ in their form.

However, machines that use gasoline cannot use coal, and machines that use coal may even explode if they are switched to gasoline.

As for divine arts, they can perhaps be seen as the various different functions performed by steam engines and diesel engines.

But no matter how much work is done, it is all converted from heat energy, and is a "lower level" or "different from heat energy" form of energy.

The analogy may not be entirely accurate, but that's roughly the idea.

"Then how do I revive Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring?" Erin asked.

"Why do we need a human to revive?" the old woman asked curiously. "Doesn't Gwendolyn have priests?"

Erin paused for a few seconds: "His priests were killed, and I obtained this resurrected divine soul by accident."

The old woman nodded and did not ask any further questions.

“First, you need to find a priest for Him and gather at least a hundred believers who sincerely worship Him, and then…” Meritelli, now an old woman, pointed to the stone in his palm with her withered fingers and said in a hoarse voice, “awaken her during the sacrificial ceremony of the Daughter of Spring.”

Erin felt a chill run down his spine; they needed to find a priest and a hundred followers.

The priest might be able to get Ida Emin to help, but a hundred followers...

The believers that Meritelli mentioned certainly can't just be any random person, but if it's about genuine faith...

How long will this take?!
Moreover, it's fine if Ada Emin is involved, but if she's asked to search among the free elves for those hundred followers, the problem will become quite complicated.

At that time, Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring, might have a bigger problem in terms of dominance.

Erin couldn't help but frown.

But it's impossible not to revive Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring.

Controlling a deity is an incredibly tempting prospect, as it's tantamount to directly accessing a path to transcendence.

Moreover, considering Gwendolyn, the daughter of spring, holds a position among the mountain people that is only below the "chief gods" of the sun and moon, she is at least a "higher god".

Judging from the prosperity of the mountain people back then, Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring, was perhaps even stronger than Meritelli is now.

What's more...

Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring, is also the oldest deity of the Northern Continent, possessing countless secrets, especially those concerning the Wild Hunt and the White Frost.

These secrets are especially important to Arryn, who is destined to face the Wild Hunt and the White Frost.

"As for how to awaken her..." the old woman paused, then said, "The Daughter of Spring is a deity of the natural realm, and at least a druid who has traveled far enough in the ways of nature needs to preside over the sacrificial ceremony..."

Druid... Arryn grasped the key point.

He frowned, suddenly recalling the last part of Thomas Maurice's memory.

Jerón's mother, Lydia, was an elf with a silver ornament on her chest, surrounded by a forest with an exceptionally rich natural atmosphere.

"When Thomas Morlu found Lydia, was she preparing for the resurrection of Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring?"

"Or perhaps she was already close to finishing at that time, so she had no time to take care of her child, Geron Mollus..."

Erin pondered to himself.

In this way, perhaps the followers of Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring, would not be starting from scratch and having to be painstakingly cultivated from the beginning; all that would be needed is for them to accept her.

The difficulty has been reduced significantly.

The only question is, where is that forest? And which Druid Circle is it?
“However…” the old woman’s wise golden eyes narrowed as she gazed at Erin, “you might want to try it yourself…”

Arlin paused, pulling himself out of his thoughts: "Try what?" "Try being the druid who presides over the ceremony," the old woman said. "It would be very good for you."

“But I…” Erin paused, recalling the forest she had entered after using the element of the stag spirit.

“It seems you already know what to do,” the old woman nodded slightly. “Is there anything else you want to ask?”

Erin thought for a moment and then shook his head.

Convergence of the Celestial Spheres, Wild Hunt, White Frost, Gwendolyn, Daughter of Spring, The Essence of the Gods...

Of course, there are endless questions, but they are either trivial and meaningless to ask now, or like the resurgence of Gwendolyn, the Daughter of Spring, we need to enter the next stage before we know what questions to ask.

Moreover, the lines outlining the ritual circle of Meritelli's concealment ritual have almost completely faded, leaving only a tiny bit, which is not enough to elaborate further.

However, for some reason, after shaking his head, he felt as if he had forgotten something very important.

until……

"and many more!"

Just before the old woman's right foot stepped into the ceremonial circle, Erin called her back again.

"Goddess, if you find any contradictions regarding the fall of the mountain people's gods, don't dwell on them," he said solemnly.

The old woman remained silent for a few seconds before stepping into the ceremony circle.

In an instant.

The light that illuminated the cave of the old spearhead, like the golden light of a divine kingdom, suddenly went out.

"Understood, my holy son."

The pregnant woman's loving voice trailed off, and the cave returned to darkness.

……

It wasn't that he had forgotten; he was just unsure whether he should bring it up.

After all, humans tend to have a habit of remembering things they should forget the most.

Things that others have told me not to think about too much, I find myself going over and over again, unable to resist thinking about them.

What if Meritelli, who had been successfully diverted from the topic, suddenly remembers it again after being reminded?

It's likely that tomorrow, Meritelli will once again cut off the divine oracle, the day after tomorrow there will be a solar eclipse, and the day after that, High Priestess Ianna will die suddenly...

But think about it carefully.

Meritelli is a god, not a human being, and as He Himself said, He is essentially devoid of human emotions.

If we don't give her a serious reminder now, and she unconsciously recalls it in the Kingdom of God, then big problems will arise.

"Damn it!"

Ailin, who was wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, suddenly froze.

"I forgot to ask the goddess Meritelli for a bountiful harvest!!!"

He slapped his forehead, his face full of regret.

I hesitated for a long time, wondering whether to remind the goddess Meritelli, and ended up forgetting the most important thing.

"Luckily, I prepared two copies of the Melitelli concealment ritual..."

Erin took out chalk, sulfur, magic dust, and mercury solution from his pouch and walked toward the ritual that had already "extinguished."

"The previous concealment ritual of Meritelli has already been consumed by the descent of the goddess."

"It's perfectly normal to make another arrangement to avoid being noticed by the Wild Hunt and to complete the celestial conjunction as instructed by the goddess..."

"I just wonder if the goddess will descend again this time... hmm?"

"what is this?"

Just as Erin lit the torch beside the ceremony, he was talking to himself when he suddenly paused.

He bent down and picked up a wooden plaque from the center of the ritual circle representing the girl, one of the three ritual circles in Meritelli's concealment ritual.

"Buzz~"

The wolf emblem hummed softly.

The wooden plaque was made of ordinary oak, with an image of Meritelli carved on it.

Strangely, this is not a normal temple amulet featuring a girl, a pregnant woman, and an old woman in three phases. Instead, it features only a carefree girl with a tulip wreath on her head and long, flowing hair.

After wiping away the dust, a rich divine aura surged through the wood grain, even faintly exuding the fragrance of tulips mixed with grass and wheat.

As he waited in anticipation, Erin had a sudden thought.

【Title: The Girl's Promise (Same as always)】

[Type: Ritual Items]

[Function: Holding the amulet and reciting "Praise be to the Mother of all things, Goddess of fertility, harvest, and childbirth, Guardian of the eternal maiden, mother, and old woman..." activates a Great Harvest Blessing.]

[Note: Why does one amulet have two names? Because the name in parentheses is a name deliberately changed by an entity whose true name cannot be revealed.]

"A bountiful harvest brings blessings (great)?"

"Is this emphasis intentional because the previous harvest blessing was a harvest blessing (small) or (medium)?"

"How many gold coins can this open?!"

"An unspeakable true name?"

"Isn't this even a detailed description of that 'being's' prayer? Could there be a more precise location than this?"

"And there's 'The Girl's Promise,' they even openly wrote which aspect it was in the title. What else is there to hide?"

Looking at the note, Erin was both amused and exasperated.

The Demon Hunter's Notes, of course, did not respond to his self-talk, remaining silent as always.

Often, the highly emotional notes in the Witcher's Journal made Erin feel extremely conflicted.

The Demon Hunter's Notes had never communicated with him, remaining like an inanimate object. However, the witty remarks in the notes subtly hinted that the Demon Hunter's Notes was full of rich and complex emotions, like a frivolous yet knowledgeable old man...

The note on the amulet even gave him a strong sense of déjà vu.

The Demon Hunter's Diary was forced to change its name by the "girl" in a cowardly manner, and after the "girl" left, it secretly gossiped about it.

So did Meritelli really communicate with the Witcher's Diary?

In addition...

Does Merrittie, who is so considerate and has such a strong presence, really lack human emotions?
"Forget it, I'll just ignore it."

Unable to figure it out or get an answer from asking, Erin sighed softly.

My gaze fell on the "Girl's Promise (Same as always)" amulet panel, specifically the "Blessing of Harvest (Large)" function.

"Then the question comes..."

The Witcher gently stroked the warm, smooth amulet with his right hand.

"Is it the convergence of the congenital spheres?"

"Should we open those nearly one hundred treasure chests that have been dormant in our inventory for months first?"

(End of this chapter)