Those time travelers that year

The golden combat techniques of Taurus and Gemini are actually simulated in the movement of false beams of light to create an anomaly that is infinitely close to the speed of light. In this way, the mass amplification effect at the speed of light is used to increase the inertial kinetic energy of an ordinary punch by dozens of times when it is thrown, resulting in huge inertial destructive power.

The rest are similar, only their underlying principles are quite different... So, reality tells us to trust science. Things like the Light Speed ​​Fist, the Holy Sword, and the Galactic Starburst—things with names that sound incredibly powerful—are essentially applications of science. Even the more bizarre Sekishiki (Collected Corpse Qi) can be considered a form of hallucinogenic hypnosis. Anyway, Xia Er doesn't believe that Cancer's Sekishiki can deal with those ghost immortals who unscientifically survived tribulations, while it's probably useless against those human immortals who have achieved spiritual and physical sanctification.

If you encounter a peerless martial artist like the Lone Sword Saint who knows the Heaven-Destroying and Earth-Severing Sword Twenty-Three, they can turn the tables and kill you with a single sword strike from their primordial spirit.

"Although it seems pretty useless..." Sitting in the chair, a golden nebula spun around Ciel. Since there were no zodiac constellations, Ciel didn't know any Gold Saint techniques. As for the Silver Saint techniques that the reincarnated Dark Silver Saints knew, sorry, Ciel couldn't see any use for those techniques that simply increased the power of one's own cosmos and added faster punching speed.

With this useless skill, you might as well just stop time and then cast a wide-range spell to wipe out the enemy.

"It doesn't work on the main body, but it can be used as a template for the clones! You can't give each clone a different thing, right? Let's do it this way: use the third method to create heroic spirit clones, and then load various templates onto these clones..."

Until the time synchronization problem is resolved, Xia Er doesn't plan to send his main body to other worlds. Coincidentally, after undergoing the induction—no, I mean induction training—from the evil god, Xia Er understands something. It's a strict rule that any clone of the evil god will return to the main body upon death. Regardless of which world the clone is in, once it dies, everything that clone experienced will be recorded and directly returned to the main body.

So this is why evil gods like to send out clones to cause trouble everywhere—they don't lose anything anyway. And if any fool tries to take advantage of the power of these clones, well… imprisoning an evil god's clone is possible, as is spying on the power they possess. Even extracting that power and converting it into one's own through some underhanded means is not out of the question.

This can be understood as each of the evil god's clones being a free 'gift package' if they have the ability.

However, once those unlucky souls have exhausted the power of the evil god's avatar, it remains to be seen whether he will become a puppet to guide the evil god's true form to descend...

311. A Reincarnator Who Wants to Cause Trouble

While the evil gods were preparing to raid the main god's instance, the unfortunate main god remained oblivious, as were his cannon fodder. Just like the remaining four reincarnation teams in this world, although they knew that the demon team, their biggest rival in the mission world, had inexplicably suffered a crushing defeat, no one knew exactly how.

At least one thing is certain: the members of the Demon Squad didn't die at the hands of the other Reincarnation Squads, because that would allow their scores to be added up instead of the Demon Squad constantly receiving negative reports. But precisely because of this, the remaining four Reincarnation Squads developed an immense fear of this world.

No one knows what kind of sinister things are lurking in the shadows of this modern world.

In an instant, the reincarnation teams, who had originally planned to cause trouble, all chose to go into hiding. While searching for things hidden in the shadows of this world, they also actively sought out the whereabouts of other teams.

The Demon Squad has been wiped out, meaning there's no longer any possibility of cooperation between the other squads. In other words, it's time for war. Of course, before the direct confrontation, there's usually a wave of espionage. These reincarnators are using all sorts of methods, planning to find the others' tracks first and then eliminate them.

However, if these reincarnators discover during this process that they have the ability to temporarily enhance their power, they will definitely not let this opportunity pass. For example, right now, in a certain church.

Blood stained the church; the priests and clergy who stood guard within were all martyred. Even after their martyrdom, their souls could not ascend to the so-called heaven they had hoped for. Instead, within a circular transmutation circle crackling with crimson lightning, the souls of the priests and clergy within the church wailed as they transformed one by one into a blood-red crystal—the Philosopher's Stone.

And right there, the five members of the vanguard team appeared inside the church. The alchemical transmutation circle on the ground was undoubtedly set up by one of the team's AP members.

"It seems that the religious forces in this world are not simple, just as we guessed!" Standing inside the church, Lao Wu, the captain of the vanguard team, said to his team members, "In a simple little church in a remote city, there are priests equivalent to D-level, as well as some clergy who are comparable to the best soldiers in modern society... No wonder the background information says that the heretical forces were beaten to a pulp."

"I don't think this is a good idea," the team's ADC said casually, pulling the arrow from the dead clergyman's body and putting it back in his quiver. "This way, I think our reputation within the religious faction will probably be reduced to hatred..."

"We were just here to do some research, who knew these guys would suddenly use the slogan of 'heretics' to attack us?" Old Wang said. "...It seems these religious guys are used to being arrogant, but we can't just surrender and obediently raise our hands for their inspection just because they've made a move, can we?"

"Not to mention, if they find out what Zhao Hao is doing right now, they'll definitely fight us to the death..."

At that moment, in front of the cross in the church, Zhao Hao, fully armed and wearing Tyrael's armor, wielding the replica of the holy sword Edruin, was radiating a dazzling golden aura. Or rather, wisps of golden light were emanating from the cross, then converging into several streams that converged towards Zhao Hao.

If the dazzling golden light emanating from Zhao Hao at first could only be described as a candle flame, it had now become a light bulb. With each golden stream of light drawn from the cross, the radiance emanating from Zhao Hao grew brighter and brighter. Similarly, this paladin, codenamed "Sun Knight," began to exude an aura of supreme nobility, sacred and inviolable.

"To be honest, I didn't expect that Zhao Hao's God-Strike technique, which he had learned before, would actually be useful here..." AP put the Philosopher's Stone he had created into his pocket, glanced at Zhao Hao, who was standing in front of the cross and whose power was growing stronger with the passage of time, and said with envy, "He should be close to Rank B by now, right?"

"Divine Invocation," also known as "spirit possession," is a folk method of invoking spirits to possess a person, supposedly granting invulnerability to weapons and blades. It is said that one can even withstand the rigors of life, such as climbing mountains of knives or boiling oil. In modern society, this would be utter nonsense, but in the cycle of reincarnation, it is not a mere folk charlatan, but a genuine and authentic form of magic.

Stealing the faith power of a deity for one's own use through certain means is similar to the blasphemous priesthood in Western fantasy. The difference is that, in a sense, blaspheming a priest by stealing the faith power is tantamount to blaspheming the deity, and the deity's followers will never let such a person go unpunished.

In the Eastern fantasy system, those powerful figures don't care much about such matters. Even if someone isn't their follower, they don't mind using incense and other offerings through rituals of invoking deities. What they care about is attitude and face. If you believe in them, they might not care. However, when the mood strikes, these powerful figures might intervene in your fate to manipulate the power dynamics of the mortal realm.

Of course, in the Eastern fantasy system, there is also the concept of cause and effect. If you can use a part of the incense and faith power of that deity, then you will naturally bear a part of the cause and effect or fate. In short, Taoist priests or celestial masters who know how to use the great ritual of summoning gods should avoid using it if possible.

Otherwise, for a mere mortal to bear the karma of a powerful figure from the upper realm—this isn't how you die, is it? While you might not suffer great misfortune, you'll inevitably be implicated to some extent. The powerful figures from the upper realm won't care about you, but above them lies something called the Heavenly Dao. Those powerful figures don't care about a few incense offerings that are practically worthless, but the inanimate Heavenly Dao will definitely use that as leverage. What exactly will happen, or what the consequences will be, only heaven truly knows.

This is why deities avoid discussing this topic; human deities, such as the Earth God, City God, or Dragon King, pay more attention to such matters.

Right now, what Zhao Hao is doing is using a divine summoning technique from a fantasy system to steal the faith power of the leader of the One God Cult in this world. That's an A-level boss; if they're not careful, they'll all be doomed. Of course, compared to the clandestine methods of blasphemous priests, the divine summoning technique is much more aboveboard, only it uses self-hypnosis and self-suggestion to conceal it.

Generally speaking, as long as the god isn't paying too much attention, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Not long after, the golden light on the cross disappeared, and the entire cross suddenly cracked with a snap, then crumbled into rubble and fell to the ground.

At that moment, a dazzling golden light suddenly emanated from Zhao Hao, who had been standing quietly in front.

312. An Ambitious Reincarnator

The dazzling golden light emanated a warm and holy aura, instantly transforming this church, which had recently witnessed a massacre, into a paradise on earth. Hymns, seemingly from nowhere, echoed throughout, and countless sincere prayers resounded. In mid-air, pure white and sacred feathers drifted down from nothingness and vanished upon the ground.

Everywhere here was tinged with the golden hue of glazed glass, and as the source of all these strange phenomena, the paladin codenamed "Sun Knight" was surrounded by sixteen different auras of spiritual energy that vied for attention. The replica Tyrael armor he wore now appeared sacred and filled with boundless majesty, and the sixteen flowing white streaks behind him stretched several times their original length.

The holy sword Edruin in his hand did not look like a replica at all; on the contrary, it shone slowly, giving one the feeling of boundless faith gathering on the blade.

The sound, light, and special effects were all absolutely amazing. Coupled with the sacred and inviolable aura emanating from Zhao Hao at this moment, those unaware of the situation might have thought that Tyrael, the angel of justice from the High Heavens, had truly descended to earth.

"...My God!?" Upon seeing this, Old Wang exclaimed, "Did they wander onto the wrong movie set?"

"The Invocation of Gods Technique is that powerful?" Old Wu's eyes widened, and he said incredulously, "...Holy crap, I think we're losing out big time if we don't all have a copy of the Invocation of Gods Technique!"

The AP and ADC standing to the side also looked on with agreement.

"It's not that good!" Zhao Hao, who had produced the sound and light effects, turned around with a wry smile. "...This is the power of faith accumulated in this church over hundreds of years, but even so, it only barely pushed me to about B-."

"Damn it..." Old Wu complained, "A B-rank is enough to beat us all up! If you can fully grasp this buff and even upgrade to B-rank, a single B-rank could wipe us out..."

“But the problem is that it has a time limit!” Zhao Hao shook his head and replied, “…Although I can improve my combat power to B- level through the faith power of this church, I can only last for three minutes if I engage in a burst of combat without restraint.”

"But no matter what, he's still a wild Ultraman."

"It's just..."

"This is truly a giant of light!"

"If you extract more faith power, wouldn't you just ascend to immortality?!"

……

The vanguard team members started chatting and joking around, which made Zhao Hao, who was standing to the side, both amused and exasperated. After rambling on for a while and relieving some of the pressure from the past few days, the vanguard team members finally put away their playful expressions and started discussing things together.

The reason was that Zhao Hao discovered some uncertainties while using the Summoning God Technique. After connecting to the world's faith network through the technique, Zhao Hao was extremely worried about being discovered by the Lord while drawing upon the faith power stored in the church, and then being struck down by divine punishment.

However, during his time in contact with the faith network, there were absolutely no disturbances. He couldn't even find or detect the will of the gods within it. This slightly unexpected situation meant that Zhao Hao, unlike other Taoist priests and exorcists who used invocation techniques, couldn't wield the unique power of the deity. In other words, although he had seized the power of faith, he couldn't obtain divine arts from it like in blasphemous rituals.

"You mean these powers of faith are all ownerless?" Old Wu stared wide-eyed at Zhao Hao in disbelief, as did the other team members.

“It’s not ownerless…” Zhao Hao shook his head and explained, “If it really wasn’t, then these powers of faith wouldn’t be able to gather together at all. The power of faith of a rootless plant couldn’t possibly have lasted for such a long time and still be able to remain in this small church.”

"What I mean is that these powers of faith do not bear the imprint of that deity... You must understand that the imprint of faith is what signifies a person's mastery of that power. Whether it's blasphemous worship or Taoist priests and exorcists, the first issue when using the power of faith is the imprint of the deity within it."

"The latter either involves performing rituals or using some kind of magical artifact to counteract the effects. After all, in Eastern fantasy, those who can afford to perform the ritual of summoning gods are basically people with connections. But the former is in a tough spot! Because in Western fantasy, apart from those naturally born gods, other deities take this aspect very seriously."

“The blasphemous priest must personally remove the divine imprints from the stolen faith power, but the more he does this, the easier it is for the gods whose faith power has been stolen to notice something amiss.”

"...So you mean these powers of faith aren't rootless, but their owners haven't managed them, right?" Old Wu rubbed his chin and asked, "What does this situation mean?"

"This means that this deity, the master worshipped by this religion, doesn't have the time or energy to manage these matters..." Zhao Hao said uncertainly. "This situation either indicates the end of the Dharma era, a time of great upheaval where the divine realm and the mortal world have become insurmountable due to a cataclysmic change in the universe. As a result, those deities either perish in the great calamity of the Dharma era or close off their divine kingdoms, waiting for the calamity to pass to avoid being entangled in karmic consequences during this process..."

"...That's Eastern fantasy, right? Do you think this would exist in a Western fantasy setting?" Old Wang interjected. "If it did, the only possibility would be Ragnarok!"

“There is another possibility…” Zhao Hao said with a strange expression, “This deity entered an endless slumber due to some accident, but the faith in him in the mortal world has not been severed.”

"Isn't this practically the same as falling from grace?"

“There is no difference…” Zhao Hao said. “Just like the gods in D&D, even if they go to the astral plane to lie dead, as long as the faith has not been completely severed and some artifacts or altars and temples have been left behind, then it means that these gods still have the possibility of returning.”

"...So, all that means you can now draw unlimited amounts of faith power from this god who has no time to spare!" AP declared definitively. "That means, given time, you can at least increase your power indefinitely until you reach the prerequisite level for A-rank?"

"No! I'm afraid it's not just like that..." Old Wu seemed to remember something, a look of horror appearing on his face. He looked up and scrutinized Zhao Hao intently, as if looking at a madman. After a moment of hesitation, he said, "...Little Zhao, what you're trying to say is that you can absorb these unmarked faith powers, and if given the chance, you might even be able to take their place, is that right?"

“That’s right! That’s how it is!” Zhao Hao’s answer was like a bomb, exploding in the hearts of the vanguard team members.

"I have a City God talisman and a special City God seal that I brought out from the world of A Chinese Ghost Story last time. It's not impossible..."

313. Transition (Part 1)

Although most reincarnators have no religious beliefs or faith, whether they blaspheme or slander, they ultimately only see everyone in the mission world, whether ordinary people or beings with extraordinary powers, as NPCs, dispensable or 'prey' to be hunted at will.

This is why 'Gods' are even more unpopular than evil gods. At worst, the latter might only intend to destroy the world; at least they still value life, even though most lives are considered lowly trash by evil gods. However, those reincarnators don't care about such things, because in the ideology deliberately instilled by Gods, they believe that Gods are supreme, and those mission worlds are merely plot worlds created casually by Gods.

Even though these reincarnators all harbored thoughts of rebelling against the main god, in their strange way of thinking, they considered themselves to be only inferior to the main god's great sphere of light, but superior to all life in the mission world.

That makes sense—the bold get rich, the timid starve.

For the reincarnators, this was the absolute truth. Moreover, within the mission worlds, the reincarnators believed these were simply worlds created by the Supreme God. Everyone was an NPC, which meant that in worlds without a storyline, these reincarnators would act even more recklessly.

Therefore, while the vanguard members were extremely surprised and incredulous about what their accomplice Zhao Hao was planning to do, they didn't find anything wrong with it. After all, they were 'high and mighty' reincarnators, while the natives of this world, whether ordinary people or high and mighty gods, were all just NPCs.

The only thing that could make them hesitate was the chances of success.

After some discussion, everyone agreed that this might be a viable option! If the ruler of this world was indeed in a deep slumber as speculated, this would certainly be a great opportunity. If it were the seasoned veterans of Faerûn, upon discovering such a rare opportunity, they would either directly use their trump cards to kill the sleeping god and then dissect it for research, or secretly orchestrate its destruction and then impersonate it.

However, there weren't any seasoned veterans among the vanguard. But that didn't matter, they possessed a 'divine weapon'.

This story comes from the previous world I experienced – A Chinese Ghost Story. It's a world where humanity has collapsed, and the capital of a nation is controlled by a thousand-year-old centipede demon. Heaven and the underworld have vanished without a trace. Otherwise, how could a mere tree demon dare to imprison so many souls? Aren't you afraid the underworld will come knocking on your door and slaughter your entire family? Not everyone has the ridiculously powerful backing of Sun Wukong.

Furthermore, a thousand-year-old centipede demon dares to interfere with the human court? Aren't you afraid of being violated by 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals descending to earth?!

That is to say, there was something wrong with that world itself, which allowed these demons and monsters to be so arrogant and overbearing. It was because of this that Zhao Hao of the vanguard team, by chance, obtained two things that could be called 'divine artifacts' from that world—the City God Talisman and the City God Seal.

This is a genuine 'divine artifact'. The former represents the authority and path of a god of faith among human deities, while the latter proves the area that a city god can control. In Western fantasy terms, the former represents the divine status of a god, and the latter is equivalent to a divine kingdom.

That's why we say the masters of Eastern mythology or fantasy are good at it! Because these two things, in any world, would have many experts fighting to the death for them—they're actually mass-produced…

Mass production is ordered by the celestial beings, and after being approved by the people of the mortal realm, a newly minted City God can take office. In an Eastern mythological or fantasy setting, unless there is a major calamity or upheaval, like the world of A Chinese Ghost Story that the vanguard team experienced, the Heavenly Court and the Underworld can completely suppress all dissent!

Whether it's those bastards, the main gods, or those shameless evil gods, they all have to steer clear. Those who don't believe in this will meet a predictable end. For example, a certain Yellow-Clad King was one of those who didn't believe in this. In a certain mythological world, one of his clones was killed and dragged away to be refined into pills. Then, still not believing in this, he moved to another world, though with the same background. But soon, he was defeated again. If his previous defeat was at the hands of a powerful figure in the mythological world, it was somewhat understandable. This time, a mere Taoist priest who hadn't even reached the Tribulation stage managed to kill him… and then his clone was dragged away to be refined into pills again.

So much so that the silver-haired guy burst out laughing again.

Anyway, after some discussion, the vanguard team realized this seemed feasible! Both the City God's Talisman and the City God's Seal were genuine divine artifacts, though without their use, they were less valuable than ordinary swords. But with enough energy to activate them, even the weakest City God would be at least B-level, with stronger ones reaching A or A+. This seemed like a viable option!

Although it doesn't seem to be a systematic thing, that doesn't matter; having this function is enough. Moreover, once successful, their team will be 'invincible' in this world. At that point, no matter what kind of 'danger' it is, or what other reincarnation teams are involved, they'll all be nothing but trash. And this world will become their 'private world.' Just think about it—the future is limitless!

There seemed to be some possibility that could work, so the five of them discussed it and decided to give it a try. They tidied up, cleaned up all traces of themselves left behind, and began to leave the church, which was now completely worthless.

——————————Divider Line——————————

The horrific tragedy that occurred in a church in a small town went unnoticed immediately. It wasn't until several days later, when some worshippers came for services, that they discovered the devastation in the church. This event immediately caused a stir…

All the clergy and even the pastor in a church were brutally murdered, and the cross in the church was deliberately smashed into a pile of rubble. It looks like something that was done on purpose by some cultists...

The local government is in a real bind, especially the city's mayor. This is a very, very serious political issue; if things go wrong, he could be forced to replace someone else.

Once the church and sanctuary fully learned of this matter, unsurprisingly, they were furious...