Chapter 1209: Chapter 957 Believers and Faith
Elma secretly admonished himself, and at the same time, he warned Zulal with his eyes. After witnessing such a battle, Zulal didn’t dare to play any tricks; he had fully understood the power of an Ascender. Moreover, he had started to look forward to the Holy Temple that Long Yi had just described.
There was no need to dominate the three realms; being the supreme ruler of the entire Lower Plane was enough!
Once again, Long Yi was defeated, and this time personally by Elma! Soon, this news spread throughout the entire Ancient Mage Tower, and the previous gloom was swept away. Almost everyone’s face was beaming with joy. Unlike the last time the Ascender frightened Long Yi away, this time it was Elma, the lord of the Ancient Mage Tower, who personally drove Long Yi away!
Although everyone involved knew that this was not the reality, as at the time, Long Yi seemed to leave in despair because he was abandoned by his teacher. Elma had only mildly injured Long Yi, but when these two incidents were linked together, the story changed completely.
Elma’s defeat of Long Yi gave immense confidence to all the Mages of the Ancient Mage Tower. Almost everyone believed that the days of hiding and dodging were over, and it might not be long before they would be chasing and defeating Long Yi.
And among these people, Elma was the most excited.
You see, within the entire Ancient Mage Tower, Elma was the person who dealt with Long Yi the most. As for Long Yi’s strength, he had absolute authority to speak. Initially, when he and Solis vied for power, Solis controlled him with Crystal Poison, forcing him to hide in the agricultural district and disguise himself as an ordinary person. That’s when he met Long Yi, and from that moment on, he witnessed Long Yi’s miracles. Long Yi healed him, making him stronger, while Ai Lin gave him Rejuvenation magic, making him young again. He once thought he would forever possess Long Yi’s power. But as Long Yi uncovered Elma’s hidden secret, all that ended.
To prevent the magic placed on him by Long Yi from controlling him, Elma decisively decided to transform himself completely into a Crazy Demon. Honestly, he did not want to do so at that time, but it was the only choice he had. Because only in the state of a Crazy Demon could he ensure that every time he was killed by Long Yi, he could resurrect without any damage.
But now, things were different.
Long Yi’s teacher appeared! The miraculous Ascender could transform him from a Crazy Demon back into a human, and even a truly young body! This was not magic! It was a miracle from the Ascender! And Ascenders would never betray him because they don’t need anything from him! Everything about him was insignificant in their eyes!
Devoted, that was Elma’s state at the moment. Thus, he made a decision.
One day, just after training ended, Elma approached the Ascender, "Teacher, I want to establish the Ascender as the only belief of our Ancient Mage Tower. I hope everyone will believe in you and respect you from the bottom of their hearts!"
This was a decision Elma made after much thought, because the Ascender was so powerful that he didn’t need anything from within the Ancient Mage Tower at all. Elma couldn’t think of anything else he could offer in return, leaving him with only this option.
"There is no need for that," Long Yi smiled and said, "Belief must come from the heart, forcing faith is very inappropriate, and besides, I don’t really value such things."
At that moment, Elma’s heart was filled with inexplicable emotion and pride!
Yes, that’s my teacher! A true powerhouse!
You say Long Yi doesn’t care about this? How could that be! Right now, he would love for everyone in the Ancient Mage Tower to be his devoted followers, so he could do whatever he wanted. The reason he refused was simply because he didn’t want to appear too greedy.
Fortunately, Elma wasn’t the stubborn type. Although Long Yi refused his suggestion, he still took action. He personally declared that he had become a loyal follower of the Ascender and that he had obtained Ascension Power through his faith, which was how he had defeated Long Yi.
Yes, and then he said no more. After all, the actual person who blocked Long Yi in a direct fight and wounded and defeated him for the first time in a long while was a student of the Ascender.
By now, the benefits of believing in the Ascender were clear to everyone.
Suddenly, the followers of the Ascender surged.
As the followers of the Ascender increased dramatically, Long Yi suddenly discovered something inexplicable. His Divine Power was growing at a high speed!
Not long ago, when facing the Divine Envoy, Long Yi had expended a large amount of Divine Power in battle. Originally, Long Yi’s Divine Status was not very strong, and since he was not the rightful owner of the Divine Status, the speed at which his Divine Status restored Divine Power was naturally slow. But recently, he discovered that the rate of recovery of his Divine Power had significantly changed.
Because of this, he and Little Seven carefully investigated the matter. And after this investigation, he arrived at a shocking conclusion.
His Divine Status had grown stronger!
Although not by much, his Divine Status had definitely grown stronger! And the previously confined Divine Status felt as if it truly wanted to fuse with his soul.
Of course, it was just a desire, without taking any actual steps yet.
What was going on? Could it be because of the previous battles? But in that battle, Long Yi gained no benefits, as the Divine Status and Divine Power were obtained by Little Zi.
Thus, Long Yi and Little Seven spent quite some time studying what exactly had happened. When the final results came out, Long Yi himself was terrified.
Because of faith.
Faith itself is a form of spiritual activity, and when this spiritual activity is intense enough and sufficiently unified, it will give rise to a peculiar form of resonance. When this resonance combines with energy, it forms a very special, time-transcending catalytic effect. This catalytic effect will directly enable Divine Status to grow, and the growth of Divine Status will accelerate the recovery speed of Divine Power.
All this is predicated on the presence of Divine Status.
Those believers, living relatively isolated lives within the Ancient Mage Tower from birth to death and subjected to doctrines of compliance, thus find it very easy to cultivate extremely firm beliefs. Especially when these beliefs bring practical benefits, the belief will become even more steadfast. Long Yi had originally planned to just mimic one of Earth’s major faith-based stories and play around with it, pulling together a group for himself. However, he hadn’t expected to accidentally hit the mark!
Hold on! If mere faith could accomplish that, did the entire three major planes’ reverence for the Giant count as faith? If every species, every race regarded the Giant with reverence, how terrifyingly powerful could the Giant become?
Thinking this, Long Yi shuddered.
If I were a god, could I tolerate this kind of thing?
If I were a god and the life I created tried to share faith with me... Even though the Giant lacked Divine Status and theoretically got nothing, this trend had already appeared!
Moreover, given the Giant’s inexplicably strong level of technology, could they possibly create a Divine Status on their own?
Long Yi felt his mind suddenly open, thinking a bit too much.
"I think, regarding whether the Giant angered the gods because of this, we can consider that later. After all, the gods are already dead, let’s first study these followers of yours," Little Seven said, waving her hand in front of Long Yi, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"That makes sense," Long Yi replied, smiling as he awoke.
Now, Long Yi was in his room, which was at the top of the Ancient Mage Tower, a spot also capable of viewing the cosmic sky. The room wasn’t large but it was far from other areas, quiet enough. Long Yi had chosen this place, ostensibly so that nobody would disturb his meditation, but of course, in reality, it was so that he could get up to some mischief without anyone knowing.
At this moment, Little Seven shaped her spiritual power into a hemisphere that surrounded Long Yi. Her whole body emitted a strong light, which was due to the complete release of the Cosmic Stone energy that made up her body. For that reason, he had to temporarily close the skylight to prevent the light from drawing attention from others.
Little Seven was currently carefully distinguishing the spiritual powers around her.
"You might not believe this, Brother Long, but did you know, every one of your follower’s spiritual powers is linked to you!" Little Seven said.
"Is that so? Why can’t I feel it?" After trying to sense it, Long Yi still felt nothing.
"That’s because under the influence of Divine Status, their spiritual power isn’t within the range of your usual spiritual power magic. Probably only a Female Demon as powerful as me could truly sense it!"
As she spoke, Little Seven’s energy boosted once again, and this time, Long Yi could see hundreds of incredibly fine lines converging toward him. These lines were very inconspicuous; even with Long Yi’s eyesight, he nearly lost sight of them.
"This is already my spiritual power lines enhanced tens of thousands of times," Little Seven explained.
"Are all these from my followers?" Long Yi was somewhat surprised, and following Little Seven’s spell, he adjusted his own spiritual power range and indeed, he immediately sensed those spiritual powers.
"Yes, if one must describe it, these should probably be what’s called faith," Little Seven guessed.
"Then, what can I do?" Long Yi asked while observing the spiritual power lines, some of which were bright and others dim.
"Maybe you could try, resonating your own spiritual power with one of the lines," Little Seven, a professional when it came to playing with spiritual power, suggested to Long Yi.
"Good idea, let’s give it a try," Long Yi said.
Long Yi also extended a strand of his spiritual power, finding the brightest spiritual power line and making contact with it. Immediately, a flood of chaotic information surged in; Long Yi only heard some noise, and everything before his eyes was wildly distorted, making nothing clear.
"Hold on, I’ll help you adjust it!" Little Seven said hurriedly.
Soon, the noise gradually turned into human voices, and the imagery before them also became clearer.
