Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 295 Divine Draw
When Rean woke up again, he was still a little dazed.

He opened his eyes as if blind. The scene of the starry sky being destroyed in his memory will probably be etched into his mind for a long time.

He no longer doubted whether he could really kill someone in his dreams.
"The influence of the soul is more deadly than that of the body; only when the soul dies is it truly dead. In that case, I don't think I need to worry about dying in my dreams."

Rean vaguely sensed that if the Thousand-Faced Dragon really had anything special about it, it was probably its soul, which remained untarnished despite countless reincarnations.

"It's finally over."

This line of heroic spirit inheritance is probably the earliest, even earlier than Kuku.

But the experience seems to be the worst. The excessive entanglement with the real world has caused Rean too much trouble.

Unlike other heroic spirits, Lex is somewhat too "ordinary" in terms of personal charm and character.

He gave Rean the most difficult cause and effect to deal with, but he also gave Rean the greatest possible help.

【Heroic Spirit Card (Type locked)】

This Heroic Spirit Card is locked and will only be randomly selected from one type of "Lee Eun-suk".

"Hopefully, some normal people will come."

But Rean thought about it and realized that considering the type he had targeted, it was unlikely to be a normal person, and even a normal god would be in trouble.

[Locked type: Deity.]

Yes, it is a god, which is what Rean lacks most right now, but which cannot be made up for under normal circumstances.

Rean's biggest asset right now is the dock area. The knights there, those sworn knight recruits who were once slave warriors, are Rean's entire fighting force.

For him before, that was enough. It was a reliable fighting force lurking in the shadows, and even if it was a little weak, it could be cultivated slowly.

But when Rean already had a front-line town, a dock area, and a small independent kingdom within a kingdom, and when these knights took on the responsibility of maintaining order and began to step onto the political stage of the kingdom, it was clearly not enough.

"Wealth and land without the backing of power will only become a disaster."

Before, you weren't considered respectable or influential, so others only saw you as an "outstanding classical paladin," and they would maintain basic respect for you as an individual.

But once you enter this pool, get into the game of competing for interests, and start competing with other forces, all that respect vanishes. They will only resent that there is yet another person trying to get on the stage and eat the meat.

For such "younger generations," it's almost certain to try to remove them in advance.
"That's right, our biggest hypothetical enemy is the Church of Benevolent God."

Although it's frustrating, when everyone shares the same niche, it's natural for the weak to be swallowed up by the strong. Rean must grow up quickly to prove that he is qualified to be independent.

In this environment, the Rean forces, such as the Knights of the Weavers, will be at a decisive disadvantage in competition with other Churches of Goodness, as their growth rates are simply not on the same level.

Classical covenant paladins are good; they are trustworthy. But being a classical covenant paladin is truly inhuman.

This is not only a path of pure goodness, but also one of extremely slow progress. It can be said that every step requires arduous training and the slaying of demons and monsters to improve. The harsh, even self-torturing, vows are the foundation of their progress.

However, even the highest level of asceticism and oaths cannot match the average growth rate of an ordinary holy knight.

After all, divine power is inexhaustible in a sense, and giving a portion of it to a paladin would allow them to grow rapidly.

"Although I hate to admit it, this was indeed an age of faith and deities."

Rean doesn't have faith, but most people in this world have some to some extent, at least a basic respect and longing for gods.

Basically, divine authority and royal authority coexisted. A territory might not have a de facto lord, but it would generally have its own god.

In essence, a pastor or so-called shepherd is simply a "person" who shepherds "people" on behalf of God.

Rean has the Holy Knights, but he lacks his own faith. In an era where ordinary people yearn for faith, this is tantamount to opening his defenses and leaving his soft power vulnerable to being eroded by other churches.

“I may trust God to some extent, but I have absolutely no trust in the Church of God.”

Solving this problem is actually quite simple: just find a benevolent deity to pledge allegiance to. No god in the ancient covenant of the Paladin Order could refuse such a magnificent and rare "treasure." And their pious and pure hearts are essentially starting with the advanced Paladin class, and they've already persevered through one or two ranks. If they were to transform into ordinary sub-divine Paladins, their progress would be rapid.

But Rean had no interest in becoming someone else's pawn, a bargaining chip that could be exchanged or sacrificed.

“Even if it’s just to annex our Holy Knights Order, those churches will still do it.”

Although it's frustrating, that's reality. Once a real conflict breaks out, the other side has a true god and a priestly group behind them, while our side only has a few dozen new recruits who have been stuck in the first or second tier for a long time. There's really no comparison.

In a sense, Rean's strength and influence are not enough to "establish a flag," but the current environment and the ever-regressing Doomsday Clock force him to act independently, naturally leaving him lacking sufficient confidence.

"If only we had a god, a god who wouldn't interfere with our faith, but only provide divine power and magical support, a floating god-corpse server."

Rean's idea was blasphemous, but it had lingered in his mind ever since it came to him.

Believe it or not, after thinking about it carefully, it really is a possibility.

"God, what happens after death?"

Gods are actually a kind of "high-dimensional" existence. They are in the state of incarnation or sainthood and cannot directly interfere with the mortal world. In addition to normal death, their death is also a kind of "death from weakness".

Most of the gods in this world are believers in God. Their faith in God is the source of their sustenance and divine power, which is also the root cause of their frequent interference in the world.

If a god loses its followers, is forgotten, or suffers a severe blow, it will enter a state of "long slumber".

At this time, they often drifted into a special plane called the "Astral Plane" and became all the "Floating God Corpses".

Unable to answer the prayers of mortals, unable to awaken reason, neither truly dead nor truly alive, this is arguably the worst and most common end for a god—sleeping until the end of the world. The previous goddess of law probably met the same fate.

Although in theory they could be reawakened if there were enough believers, this has rarely happened in history.

Even if it happens by chance, many people still suspect that the "He" who has been awakened is a completely different person.

"If I had a Starbound Corpse, I might be able to handle all of Lee Eun-suk by myself. Isn't there even one who has become a god?"

Rean estimated that there must be a "god" among them, and probably more than one.

But His final fate, barring any unforeseen circumstances, is that His soul will continue to reincarnate, while His "corpse" will still float in the astral plane.

If I could extract a "god" myself, even if I borrowed the weakest divine power, as long as I possessed that part of the authority, nothing else would be a problem.

Anyway, the "heroic spirits" will come and go (after all, they don't have real souls). Even if the gods awaken for a while and then fall into another long slumber, as long as the church is built and the banner is raised, their expectations will still be met.

"Come, may it be a benevolent deity."

Looking at the Heroic Soul Card that had its "type" locked, Rean had to thank Rex for his sacrifice.

God cards are definitely a minority among the heroes. Perhaps you can draw them later, but by then it will be meaningless.

Rean desperately needs the support of God and the Church, whether he has it or not is another matter entirely.
"Draw it."

As Rean watched the patterns on the flashing card change continuously, his heart pounded wildly.

He underestimated Li Ensu; there seemed to be more than one or two deities involved.

This time, it's probably a truly miraculous draw!

"A benevolent god, a benevolent god, at least a god who was made by a good person." There's no way around it. The "good alignment" is almost a necessity for paladins. Although some neutral gods and even "orderly evil" gods have their own paladins, they are already too incompatible with the pure good classical paladins on Rean's side.

When the pattern finally locked in, Rean was completely numb.

"Don't even mention being a good person, these two six-armed wooden bodies aren't even human!"

(End of this chapter)