Cthulhu Gonfalon

Faith was a very serious matter. It was not just based on the words “I believe” or “I don’t believe.” Only the recognition from the heart could become faith.

To take an extreme example, Jose, Yan Xun’s subordinate, had once been a tribal chief of the barbarian race on the Northern Iceland. Now he had turned into a half-dragon man and continued to work hard to give birth to many descendants so they could form a tribe. He had really hated the Goddess of the Northern Snowfield and Blizzards but had faithfully believed in this goddess at the same time. Therefore, the strong belief and the strong hatred had merged into a deep curse.

This was faith. Even if they hated this god, they would still be able to believe in this god, and that didn’t conflict.

Similarly, although the believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest respected and appreciated Yan Xun because he had saved them and he was willing to give them an opportunity to be eternal again, it was still not enough to change their faith. The key to the problem was “recognition.”

Generally speaking, to recognize a god, people must understand the god’s doctrines and ideas first. And then, they would compare them with their own ideas. If they could find a matching point between each other, they could have faith in the god. The more matching points there were, the stronger the faith would get. If they believed that the god was correct about everything, and completely abandoned their own ideas, they would become the so-called sincere believers. And if they went further, they would believe that only their own god’s ideas were correct, and any other conflicting ideas were wrong. Then they would become crazy believers.

Of course, Yan Xun did not expect to convert the crazy believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest into his own believers. That was also actually impossible. The crazy believers were still gathering together every day and praying as if the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had not fallen. They knew that there was no hope, but they still did not give up. Seeing them, Yan Xun believed that they would never change their faith.

The Imagination that they would change their faith was both an insult to their piety and an insult to his own IQ.

Sincere believers were better than crazy believers. Although they had accepted the ideas of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, sincere believers could at least admit the fact that the Goddess of Bumper Harvest had fallen. In the face of the hopeless end, many people began to reflect, thinking about their own ideas to see whether they could be modified and improved.

Of course, most of them still stayed the same. They were either praying with the crazy believers or silently mourning, waiting quietly for the advent of death. Yan Xun did not intend to disturb their peace, so he just let them go.

Some people were willing to reflect and change. Therefore, they began to follow Yan Xun’s priests to learn the doctrines like ordinary believers. However, to be honest, the doctrines of Yan Xun were really not that good. The professionals began to put up their suggestions while learning, and many suggestions were actually very pertinent and valuable.

Yan Xun was so overjoyed that he held a special seminar. At the seminar, he personally introduced his own ideas of development and progress. He hoped that everyone would start from these two fundamentals and propose a complete set of feasible doctrines.

The seminar was held for almost two months. At the beginning, everyone was very gentle. The priests of Yan Xun were very polite when they spoke. The believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest were also somewhat restrained. Later, as the exchanges of opinions became more direct and in-depth, their voices got louder and louder, and the restraints got fewer and fewer. Finally, they even fought against each other.

If Yan Xun were not there to control them, the two sides might have already beat their brains out of their heads. No one would know how terrible it would be!

However, such intense exchanges were also very helpful for the advancement of the mind. Not only was it good for the improvement of the doctrines, but even Yan Xun himself felt that he had benefited a lot.

About the understanding and the grasp of this world, the believers of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest who had lived for thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years were at an extremely high level. Although their knowledge and talents were far worse than gods, who could form a luxury group of thousands of gods to help him discuss and perfect the doctrines? Even the Master of Order couldn’t do that!

With such a strong and unprecedentedly large discussion group, Yan Xun’s doctrines were quickly modified and improved. When the seminar was completed, and the new doctrines were compiled, not only were the two sides of the discussion satisfied but even Yan Xun himself was shocked.

“The 21st century is the century of talents… Damn! I didn’t understand this truth completely until now!”

Soon, these new doctrines were picked up and distributed. Everyone, from the God of Justice down to the students in the literacy class of Lanxiang Vocational School, praised them the new doctrines.

Well, some were unsatisfied with them. For example, an old black dragon who was hiding in an underground cave.

“All living beings in the world, regardless of their origins or forms, have a desire to make their lives consistent with their own preferences. If this desire can be achieved, they will be happy; and if not, they will be sad. The Progressive Philosophy of our lord is to make our world joyful for more and more living beings. Therefore, our lord is a natural, kind god and represents the most practical direction of goodness.”

“The old black dragon wrinkled his eyebrows that looked like two big pine trees. He muttered with dissatisfaction, “What the hell is ‘practical direction of goodness!?’ It actually means that ‘everything against me is evil!’”

He thought for a while, then said, sneering, “Well, I am always evil, so it doesn’t matter!”

“The resources in the world are infinite. However, in the same era, the resources that a society can control are limited. One of the most important root causes of all kinds of contradictions and conflicts is the fight for resources. Our lord believes that instead of trying to compete for resources, it is better to try to develop new resources or to increase the utilization of existing resources. This is the essence of the Developing Philosophy.”

“This seems very interesting… For me, instead of competing with others for underground caves, why not excavate one on my own?” The old black dragon pondered for a while, and then he said, shaking his head, “Too much trouble! If others have a ready-made cave, then I can grab it. That will be much easier!”

After that, he spurted out flames and burned the Doctrines of the Church of Void Mask to ashes. His body flashed, splitting out a half-human and half-dragon avatar, and then the avatar disappeared into the void.

…

After a while, a visitor appeared in a dark, quiet and cold world hidden in endless darkness.

“Welcome,” a tall, looming figure said. He was wearing heavy armor. Although he stood up to greet the guests, he did not reveal his true appearance; he was still a black shadow.

The avatar of the God of Underground Caves squeezed out a smile. He asked, “Is your master here? I have something important to discuss with him.”

“If it is about being an enemy of the Void Mask, then you don’t have to bother,” a small, old figure answered. He walked slowly, followed by shadow which was clearly approaching with no one feeling its existence.

“What do you mean?” the God of Underground Caves asked, frowning. “Do you intend to grab the power, King of Night?”

“No, this is what His Majesty means,” the figure wearing the heavy armor replied. “His Majesty believes that there is no substantive conflict between us and the Void Mask. On the contrary, there is room for cooperation. So he doesn’t want to participate in any actions against him.”

“Then, if I become an enemy of the Void Mask, you may help him instead of helping me?” the God of Underground Caves asked coldly.

“This is our secret,” the old figure said, smiling. It seemed that he agreed with what he had said indirectly.

The God of Underground Caves stormed out, and then a majestic figure appeared next to the three god followers.

“It seems that many people can’t wait,” he said. “Our old acquaintance makes a big move this time!”

“But his doctrines are very good. I think they have reference value,” the old figure said.

“Yes! If I could have met him before becoming a god, perhaps our Night God System would be much stronger than it is now!” the majestic figure said, smiling. “But it’s not too late. He has a good relationship with the Boy of Ceremony. Let’s use that relationship.”

He turned his head and looked at the tall figure. Then he said, “I’ll give the task to you. Can you do that?”

The tall figure seemed uncomfortable, but in the end, he lowered his head and accepted the order.