Chapter 348: The Coming Crisis
A divine kingdom! It’s actually a divine kingdom!
But the master isn’t a true god, nor even a demi-god—how could he possibly possess ownership of a divine kingdom?
Could it be a ruined divine kingdom left behind by a fallen true god?
Since Donald was waiting for an answer, O’Neill quickly suppressed his surprise and began to explain, “The great Aisenxian is indeed as the legends say. At first, it wasn’t a true god but rather the central brain of all our Heart-Thief Demons, the entity that controls the power of all Soul-Drinking Races!”
“However, as some members of our race developed a natural reverence for Aisenxian and gradually learned about the existence of true gods in the outside world, Aisenxian acquired methods to steal faith power. Relying on the faith of all races, it gained divinity! From then on, the great supreme brain no longer appeared before ordinary members of the race, instead seeking shortcuts to strengthen its divinity and ignite the divine flame in its secret base!”
Through O’Neill’s explanation, Donald learned the true nature of the Heart-Thief Demon society.
The brain was the center of the entire Soul-Drinking Monster society. It served as the supreme leader, judge, arbitrator, ruler, mother, and library of the Soul-Drinking Monster city, connecting all its individuals.
It resided at the bottom of a saltwater-filled brain pool—a giant brain with consciousness but no physical body.
The brain’s nerve trunks were composed of brain tissue from deceased Heart-Thief Demons separated from their bodies. Thus, the brain could be considered an aggregate consciousness formed from the fusion and assimilation of the wills of the Soul-Drinking Monsters. Every Soul-Drinking Monster had the right and duty to become part of the brain’s great will one day, guiding and governing the race they once belonged to. Although most Soul-Drinking Monsters believed their personalities would survive this transformation, in reality, it was merely the brain manipulating those independent selves to merge into part of its chaotic, massive fibrous organization as part of its unified will.
As a one-in-a-million mutated humanoid soul-devourer, O’Neill had been cultivated by his race’s brain as the next generation of brain long ago, so he knew many secrets that only circulated among the brains themselves.
As the most powerful brain in this world, Aisenxian already possessed legendary strength on par with that of a demi-god even before it gained divinity. It could only not move freely due to limitations of its physical form!
And once it attained divinity, it possessed strength far beyond that of an ordinary demigod. Thus, it moved itself from the Abyssal Plane to a hidden place beneath the main world. There were too many powerful entities in the Abyss, while the main world had rules that prevented it from accommodating forces beyond the level of demigods. Therefore, staying in the main world was undoubtedly safer until it successfully formed its divine essence and ascended to the throne.
Donald could understand why the Lord of Dawn wanted information about Aesontheon! A powerful demigod who had ignited divine fire and begun to forge divine domains was an excellent prey for any true god. Not to mention the rumors that Aesontheon also mastered powerful divine domains such as charm, evil, knowledge, law, psychic power, and tyranny. Aside from evil, the others were laws that the Lord of Dawn greatly lacked. Even seemingly less favorable domains like charm and tyranny could be transformed into more positive ones such as charisma, monarchy, and royal power! Although these domains might not be fully developed yet, once they were, the target would become a true god. This stage was thus perfect for the gods to intervene. Those imperfect beginnings of divine domains, in the hands of true gods, could easily develop into full divine domains given enough time and divine power. Moreover, although a demigod’s divine essence wasn’t of much use to true gods themselves, it could be used to craft divine artifacts or add another demigod deity to their ranks. After all, a demigod was still an existence that entered the realm of gods, possessing genuine divine artifacts. Honestly, even Donald was quite tempted after hearing this news, especially since he now had the Soul Devourer in his hands—no secret was hidden from him anymore!
However, he admitted he lacked the strength and influence of the Lord of Dawn to deal with a top-tier demigod like the Abyssal Colossus Octepus. Even with all his own strength and the help of another demigod, the Abyssal Alchemist Ampus, he wasn’t even 10% sure of success! Unless he himself rose to legendary status and reached its peak, unlocking greater power from the Book of Truth, with the aid of Carlisle and Ampus, he might only have a 50% chance. Acting rashly would only be suicide!
Putting aside this tempting thought for now, Donald began to ask O’Neill about the secret Inquisition prison of the Church of the Lord of Dawn.
After all, as a Soul Devourer who had been imprisoned in the Forbidden Prison for a long time and managed to escape, O’Neill was the best source of information Donald could get about the prison. O’Neill truly lived up to being a powerful Mind Thief skilled at manipulating the minds of intelligent beings—he not only understood the general situation of the Forbidden Prison through his own observations but also obtained many accurate internal details from the minds of the guards under his control. After learning about the prison, Donald couldn’t help but view this demon with new respect! The fact that he could escape from the most secure prison under the Church of the Three Radiant Gods showed that Mind Thieves had mastered mental powers to a level beyond human reach. The more so, the more dangerous such creatures became. Donald himself had the Book of Truth to protect his mind from attacks, but he couldn’t guarantee that his subordinates wouldn’t have their minds corrupted—this ability was insidious, and even Gold-Rank warriors could fall victim if careless, especially since this guy was a Gold Mind Thief. Thus, this master-slave contract was a necessary protective measure! At the same time, Donald also felt a sense of crisis regarding the formidable strength of the Church of Dawn. As he had guessed, Bloody Hawk was one of the four supreme leaders, second only to the warden in charge of the Forbidden Prison. Since all four supreme leaders were of such legendary strength, couldn’t the warden, who held a higher status and greater power, possess near-divine abilities? And this was just one secret organization under the Church of Dawn—let alone their other overt and covert strengths, as well as the other two alliance churches! Losing one legend, two Gold-Rank warriors, and nine Silver-Rank warriors at once would cause severe pain even to the Church of the Dawn God, and they surely wouldn’t give up easily. Moreover, with such an important artifact lost to their true god, it was likely that the forces under the Church of the Three Radiant Gods, especially those of the Church of Dawn, would soon become extremely panicked! However, since the enemy operated in secret, it was impossible to confront them openly, leaving only the option of continuing to send agents to investigate secretly.
His main forces are all in Celt, a forbidden zone where the powers of the gods reside—powers beyond even those of the Golden-tier forces of the Church of the Three Glorious Gods cannot reach it. So there’s no need to worry about that area. Thus, the newly conquered territory of Swordhorn Bay Peninsula becomes the only place where the enemy can retaliate. Donald doesn’t want to give up on this place. “Fortunately, though the Church of the God of Dawn is powerful, it’s not yet at the point of acting recklessly on the continent. I doubt they’ll ignore Gadré’s and the Sirens’ stance. After all, the Sirens are nominally a vassal principality of Gadré. If the Church of the God of Dawn doesn’t want to provoke war between the two nations, they probably won’t go too far!”
However, Donald isn’t the kind of person who just passively endures attacks and relies on powerful forces to protect himself.
“It seems we need to speed up the construction of the mage tower. With its protection, as long as the enemy doesn’t send any demigod-level strongmen, my foothold on the western coast of the continent will be safe!”
After sorting out his thoughts, Donald transferred Oniel, the soul-devouring monster, into the demi-plane. He ordered it to use its innate abilities as a psychic sorcerer to gradually brainwash these native believers, turning them into his most devout followers.
Due to the power of the contract, this soul-devouring monster has become a loyal subordinate on par with summons like Clinton and Uther. So Donald is quite confident and doesn’t worry that Oniel might pull any tricks!
Although this method takes more time, it’s undoubtedly much faster than developing followers through normal means!
Moreover, though these natives are generally not very devout, due to the environment of the Totem Continent, they’re already accustomed to the existence of gods and can easily accept being ruled by them.
Right now, Donald isn’t even close to being a demigod, let alone having any religious roles or doctrines. So he simply needs the faith and reverence of these native humans from the Totem Continent!
With their large numbers, the amount of faith power accumulated each day is quite substantial. It can be said that Donald now gains as much faith power per day as some established demigods!
In the otherwise empty demi-plane, aside from the area planned by Donald, these native humans have nothing but fixed labor and prayer, with creating humans being their only form of leisure!
Within a decade, the population of the demi-plane could more than double. When the next generation of these captive humans reaches around ten years old, they will be able to provide a significant amount of pure faith power!
Don’t say Donald is heartless and uncaring or ignores human rights—didn’t these people live just the same way on the Totem Continent every day? Moreover, under the oppression of certain totem gods, their lives were even worse than in the half-plane, where things were relatively easier. What’s the point of talking about human rights in a slave society? If someone who’s been brainwashed by books were to travel to the Totem Continent, they’d struggle to survive themselves, let alone demand human rights from those powerful totem gods and incite the natives to rebel against tyranny. Likely, fewer than a handful would respond to their call, and those totem gods and natives would surely show them what true lack of human rights means! That’s why Donald wouldn’t bother doing such a thankless and foolish thing as treating these natives like people in modern Earth society!