6kv Chapter 15 Intending to Seize the Divine Throne: Substitution
Chapter 15 Intending to Seize the Divine Throne: Substitution
late at night.
Lin Shi sat alone by the fire, his face casting flickering shadows in the leaping flames.
Shixi Village was completely silent.
The villagers were sound asleep, but I was wide awake.
Lin Shi killed Huang Xian three days ago, but he did not let his guard down.
"A mere weasel dares to test its strength!"
"What does this mean? It means that the faith and divine grace of Stone Creek Village are already quite evident in the perception of those things."
Lin Shi muttered to himself, his voice barely audible in the quiet night.
Lin Shi picked up a dry branch and threw it into the fire, watching it be quickly consumed by the flames with a crackling sound. His gaze passed over the flickering flames, as if he could see again the eerie green eyes of the Yellow Fairy and feel its cold, slippery, bewitching evil aura.
This time, it was the Weasel Immortal who came.
What about next time?
While the dragon's avatar was powerful and had an innate advantage against such spirits, it was still bound by chains, limiting its range of movement and its power was far from fully restored. As for himself, the "divine messenger," aside from a little bit of spiritual awareness and intellect, he was practically powerless.
Weasel spirits can drive away evil spirits, but what if they come from more ferocious mountain demons or wild monsters, or truly powerful demons, or other beings that also know how to use faith, or even have legitimate titles?
All around was pitch black, and further away, mountains stretched endlessly, lurking in the darkness and countless unknown dangers.
Lin Shi opened his palm, and with a thought, the dark Reverse Scale lay quietly in his palm under the firelight.
This is the seed of power, but also the source of crisis.
Lin Shi clenched his fist.
The appearance of the Weasel Spirit serves as a wake-up call, proving that this world is not safe. If a mere spirit with some cultivation dares to steal faith power, what if it attracts even more powerful beings in the future?
Our current strength is far from enough!
Lin Shi knew that he needed more faith power to nourish the dragon avatar more quickly, accelerate its healing, strengthen its power, and even help it break free of those damned chains sooner. Only in this way could the dragon's power more strongly reflect back to its identity, allowing this mortal body to possess at least the basic ability to protect itself and even fight.
The long night!
It's almost over!
Lin Shi stood up, stretched his numb hands and feet, and looked down. He looked up and saw the faint, continuous transmission of spiritual energy between the stone toad at the east end of the village and the Bibo Pool at the north end.
"what?"
"Why is this happening?!"
Lin Shi was stunned for a moment.
Just then, a villager finished his worship and left. The power of faith that rose from the villager, carrying the warmth of piety, flowed into the stone toad statue like a gentle stream.
However, this spiritual energy was not completely and directly transmitted to the dragon's clone at the bottom of the pool.
Roughly estimated, about 90% of the faith power, after flowing into the stone toad statue, seemed to be absorbed, stored, or consumed by the rough stone itself.
Lin Shi felt a chill run down his spine.
Previously, the focus was on verifying the existence and acquisition of information, paying attention to its presence and purity, but never quantifying the transmission process in such detail.
The problem was only discovered now.
This loss is too great!
"The stone toad statue is consuming our faith energy!"
Lin Shi frowned.
"Is it for maintaining some function? Is it a necessary consumption for the operation of the ancient suppression system? Or is the stone statue itself also nourished and changed by faith?"
The stone toad statue was erected to draw upon the thoughts of the people and transform their evil and malevolent nature.
Lin Shi recalled the secret he had seen in the dragon's memories not long ago.
Does this process of "transforming evil and malevolence" itself require a continuous depletion of faith?
Or perhaps, as part of a suppression system, the existence of this stone toad statue itself requires energy to sustain it?
In any case, the faith generated by the villagers' devout worship was mostly used to maintain a certain activity of the stone statue itself, amplifying the divine response and purifying the evil ancient array. Only about 10% of the remaining portion was truly transmitted to the dragon's avatar, nourishing and repairing its injuries and increasing its power.
The stone toad has gathered faith and power, but as a "transfer station," it has intercepted valuable power, causing huge waste. We must find a way to reduce the wear and tear on the stone toad statue.
Lin Shi had a flash of inspiration and came up with a crazy idea:
If the Jiaolong could directly absorb this spiritual energy, how much would its efficiency increase? How much would its repair speed increase? How much would its ability to cope with future threats be enhanced?
How can it be done?
Before I transmigrated, I was an expert in this field!
This is simple!
Why are toads absorbing and gathering information now?
That's a stone toad displayed in the niche!
Once the stone niche contains a stone dragon statue, it will be the dragon, not the toad, that absorbs and gathers spiritual energy!
Is it feasible to do this?
Is there any danger?
Have!
Definitely!
This is a world we don't know!
By doing this, he was engaging in a classic case of deception. That ancient cultivator might appear out of thin air and blow a breath that would annihilate his soul and spirit, or he might trigger an ancient formation that would destroy him.
But risk and opportunity are always two sides of the same coin.
Rather than waiting for other, more ferocious mountain demons, or truly powerful monsters, or other beings that also know how to use faith or even have legitimate titles to come knocking on our door—these things won't be polite to us—it's better to take a gamble now.
The fire is gradually dying down!
The sun rises in the east.
A new day begins with new challenges.
Lin Shi's gaze was sharp and resolute.
By praying for rain and killing the Yellow Immortal, he had accumulated great prestige. This was the best time for the Flood Dragon to replace the Stone Toad. If he missed this opportunity, he didn't know when he would get another chance. He had to seize the opportunity.
Lin Shi carefully considered the entire plan, found no problems, and strode away to find Sun Ming.
"Chieftain."
"To be honest, ever since I killed Huang Xian, strange images have often appeared in my mind."
Lin Shi cut to the chase, saying what he had prepared beforehand.
"In a daze, I saw that the deep blue pool was not dead still, but was filled with divine light."
"A colossal figure, with prominent horns and covered in scales, exuding holiness and majesty, lurked in the shadows."
"Strangely, its energy is closely connected to the stone toad statue at the village entrance, as if they are of the same origin. With the slightest thought, that figure can manipulate the pool water to transform into shackles, and with a low murmur, it can cleanse the world of evil."
Lin Shi frowned slightly, seemingly trying to recall as he spoke.
Sun Ming's hand holding the pipe trembled violently, almost causing sparks to fly out of the pipe. His wrinkled face twitched slightly with excitement, and his breathing became heavy. The faint, inhuman roar of the churning pool water during the rain prayer, the dragon-like water that swept across the pool when punishing Wang Hu, and the thunder and fire and dragon roar that refined Huang Xian all surged into his mind at once.
Sun Ming's eyes widened suddenly, and a startling thought, like a long-suppressed volcano, erupted in his mind.
"Could it be?"
"The stone toad we worship isn't its true form?! The one in the pool is?"
Sun Ming's voice was hoarse, his withered fingers gripping Lin Shi's arm tightly, and his eyes blazing with disbelief.
"Ancient texts record that the true form of a deity manifests according to circumstances. In my view, and in conjunction with the teachings of our ancestors, that stone toad statue may very well be a compassionate incarnation of the Great Dragon God, playing among mortals and testing our character!"
"The shape of the stone toad symbolizes divine grace rooted in the land, silently protecting it; while the true form of the dragon hidden in the green pool demonstrates supreme divine power to control clouds and rain, wield thunder and lightning, and subdue demons!"
"In the past, our hearts were not steadfast, so the deity only appeared in a compassionate form; now that our sincerity has been seen, and we have withstood the tests of timely rain and evil spirits, the deity no longer conceals himself when the village is in danger, revealing his true form and displaying his thunderous power to protect this area!"
Lin Shi met Sun Ming's burning and eager gaze, nodded solemnly and slowly, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
Sun Ming was so excited that he trembled all over.
These words were like a sudden awakening, or a thunderclap. In an instant, all the fragmented clues, all the doubts and shocks in my heart, whether they were things I had heard as a child, secrets passed down by the old clan elders, or things that had happened in the village recently, all of them had a supreme and ancient explanation.
"So that's how it is! By the grace of the Supreme Flood Dragon God! We were so foolish as to have failed to recognize your holy countenance sooner!"
Tears streamed down Sun Ming's face as he muttered to himself. An unprecedented sense of holiness and belonging filled his chest as he struggled to bow down towards the Bibo Pool.
Lin Shi reached out to support him.
With the limited knowledge and experience of this world's body, it would be impossible for him to say such things, but the person who transmigrated here has spent his whole life studying folk customs, and these things are already deeply ingrained in his mind.
The effect is very good.
Sun Ming believed it without a doubt.