Cthulhu Gonfalon

“I’ve never understood why so many wise people can’t overcome this step involving a struggle of ideologies. Clearly, everyone could have sought common ground and reserved their differences on various issues, then we could progress towards development together. Why must the problem always magnify to such an extent where it will always end up with the use of force?”

Sui Xiong was looking at the territorial waters where enemies were banging away at one another. Bullets and sparks flew up into the air together, and the fighter planes became the color of the black smoke.

Thoughtfully, he said, “Now, I kind of understand.”

Crick smiled and said, “In fact, these were truths that you should have long understood. But understanding and ‘knowing’ are two different things, if you have not experienced something for yourself, in the end, your knowledge can never truly become your understanding.”

“Yes! From knowing to understanding, how difficult it is!” Sui Xiong sighed. He waved his tentacles, then turned and flew away.

A while later, he arrived at the meeting room of his God’s Kingdom.

The Void God System and many allies who had clones permanently were residing here. When they saw him entering the room, the God of Pleasure, Javier, asked hurriedly, “Auscar, why did you issue that divination so suddenly?”

Sui Xiong was momentarily taken aback, then he responded by asking, “Is there any problem with that divination?”

“Of course, there’s a problem!” Javier said as he took a deep breath. Then he added, “Do you know, in general, when would a god issue out such a divination?”

“Ah, eh? Wouldn’t other people would also do the same thing?” Sui Xiong asked in surprise.

“Of course! This is a trial that gods must pass. Only after passing this trial, can they be considered to have formally stepped into the world of ‘real gods,’ and truly possess ‘eternal’ qualifications.”

Sui Xiong’s eyes widened—the eyes of a jellyfish were originally big, and at that moment, the front of his body was practically occupied by his pair of eyes. This made for a very vivid interpretation of what the word “shock” meant.

“Why didn’t you all tell me about this!”

“Who would have started doing such a thing so early!?” Javier asked with a sigh. “Generally speaking, after becoming a sealed god, when almost the first 100 years or so has passed, a god will need to reflect on whether there is a deviation of the guiding principles of his church’s teachings from his own teachings. He needs to start thinking whether he should adjust his teachings to suit the situation, or whether he should rectify the church’s teachings instead. But look at you, yet to be an officially sealed god, and you have actually started to get busy with this…”

“This is the difference!” said a figure that was practically considered to be boss of the Half-Orc race and the desolated wild beasts. Steel Lion, Morani, who had recently conquered another few demigods, lamented, “I spent almost 300 years figuring out this problem before I set things right in the church and boosted those in my Desolation God System up from where they were… You only took a mere 50 years!”

“He didn’t even take 50 years,” said Yorgaardman, the God of Justice. “It was about 40 years ago when the Church of the Void Mask truly started developing. Before that, this ‘church’ was nothing more than a messy group of individuals put together like an organization of mercenaries.”

“Mainly because you are developing too fast!” Morani said. “Within a short period of a few decades, your church has already become a very influential major organization on the Main Plane. Your number of followers could be as many as hundreds of thousands, and you even have the entire Republic of Northwest as your foundation—and now, you have unquestionably reached the stage of ‘conversely being influenced by one’s own belief.’”

Speaking of this, they could not help shaking their heads. They were all feeling depressed from the realization gained from their afterthoughts.

But Sui Xiong did not feel that they had made any mistakes, and this made him even more puzzled.

Unlike the other gods, he did not absorb the power of belief. Instead, he transformed it into Divine Power, which he fed back to his followers, including his priests, pontifex, and Sacred Warriors so that they could use it for divine spells. Within a God’s Kingdom, there was a special divine altar that was entrusted with this job. The accumulation of a massive amount of Divine Power had even given rise to a dazzling crystal. If Sui Xiong had not especially obscured its radiance, most probably, it would be as glaring as the sun that had fallen to the ground.

Since he had never absorbed the power of belief, why would he be influenced by the power of belief?

This was just like a vegetarian who believed in Buddha. When his neighbor ate meat, was that any of his business?

Unless he believed in those cults with a “work yourself to death if you don’t believe in me” style, otherwise, no matter what, the right thing that should be observed was that he should not be under any influence.

He hesitated for a while, and eventually, he told his story.

The gods were surprised—since he did not absorb the power of belief, then naturally, he should not be influenced by it. But given Sui Xiong’s current situation, clearly, there were some signs of him being influenced by the power of belief. Why was that so?

They discussed for a long time, and in the end, the God of War, Wenner, came up with a speculation that was more convincing.

He felt that although Sui Xiong did not absorb the power of belief, he still accepted and responded to the prayers of his followers. In this process, Sui Xiong was continuously in contact with the will of his followers, so he could feel their joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. Unknowingly, he could have been brought under the influence of their power of belief.

This influence was not like “pollution” that would distort his will. Rather, it reduced the divinity of his soul so that he would gradually move closer to the “human” perspective and slowly lose the transcendental attitude that gods should have.

Fortunately, because Sui Xiong was never actually polluted by the power of belief, the moment he realized that he had made a mistake, he could rectify it immediately without any bit of struggle or hesitation.

“On the overall, you do have a very good idea, that goes without saying. The only downside is that the capital required is too costly,” Wenner finally concluded as such. “The power of belief is one of the main sources of our Divine Power, but you are not absorbing any of it at all. This will cause your usual accumulation of Divine Power to be much slower than the other gods.”

“From his looks, I really can’t see exactly where the ‘slow’ part is…” Javier muttered to himself. “If he is considered ‘slow,’ then wouldn’t I be like a snail…”

“How could a genius be seen with such mortal standards!” Wenner snorted and said. “From past to present, an extraordinary genius such as our lord, our alliance master, is a rare sight. If he had not refused to absorb the power of belief, he would definitely be much stronger than he is now!”

“Alright, alright. I am already powerful enough. There’s no need to be ‘much more powerful,’” Sui Xiong hurriedly advised when he saw how a quarrel was about to start. “Since the matter has been determined, we should now consider the follow-up action… What do you all say, should I take this as an opportunity to set things in order within my church and unify everyone’s mindsets?”

The gods looked at one another, and eventually, it was still Wenner, the God of War, who had the largest church among all the gods present, speaking up, “This matter that you speak of… isn’t it a little too far off?”

“Far off?

“Within a church, there are all kinds of people with all kinds of ideas, thus giving rise to all kinds of factions,” Wenner said. “Perhaps, you feel that this would hinder the efficiency of the church, which might possibly cause a meaningless internal consumption or might even have an unpleasant influence on what you do. But has it ever occurred to you that different ideas and tendencies might also contain some hidden value? Perhaps now, it feels like the wrong idea, but in the future, there might come a time where it might be the right thing to do… If you reject them all now, while the present allows your church to become purer and stronger, in the future, it might reduce the possibility for an all-rounded development and also, its ability to resist risk and transformation.”

After hearing what Wenner said, Sui Xiong fell silent.

This was Wenner’s heartfelt advice. If it was not for the deep relationship they shared, no one would ever expect to hear such advice from him. This was based on all the life experiences of his predecessors; this advice was more precious than any other valuable treasures.

But… did he really want to follow Wenner’s advice and make his church into one that was “tolerant to diversity like how an ocean accommodated the hundreds of small rivers”?

He considered it for a very long time, but in the end, Sui Xiong still shook his head.

“Perhaps that might be very good, but that’s not what I want.”