MC's career as foreign lord

After taking the Elven Fruit, Hoakin didn't show any particular reaction, and unlike Corellon's crude crushing of the fruit, she simply conjured a faint golden shimmer in her hand, like the sound of gold coins clinking. Then, she absorbed all the fruit's energy into her body.

This goddess of wealth, radiant with golden light, finally revealed her countenance before Zhou Ren, also expressing her inherent superiority.

It's no wonder she was imprisoned for so long by the Dark Lord; this goddess truly possessed wealth that allowed her to look down upon everyone. Whether it was her outstanding appearance, her noble temperament, or even the pure gold ornaments she wore, there was nothing vulgar about her; instead, they were filled with beauty.

Zhou Ren smiled. "I originally thought Corellon's descent this time would involve discussing matters related to the divine realm, but I didn't expect to be chased here by you?"

He hadn't forgotten what your girlfriend had told him before, that because there were many things happening lately, after he finished dealing with the affairs of the Elven world, he would be directly invited to the Elven kingdom.

This time, the invitation was directly issued by Corellon, the Elven God, so it was quite formal. As a result, before he could even set off, the other party suddenly descended a clone from the Elven kingdom. It would be unreasonable to say there was no prior information.

"Corellon has always been this way. Trying to discuss serious matters with him never yields good results. I only wanted to obtain a promise, but I didn't expect him to bring me directly to you!"

It seemed the righteous gods were quite familiar with the Elven God's temperament. After the customary complaint, the goddess of wealth turned her gaze to Zhou Ren.

"We should be meeting for the second time, Lord Zhou Ren?" she said.

Zhou Ren nodded. Although he didn't know why the goddess of wealth's address was a bit strange, he still nodded affirmatively. "Last time, you came with Lord Lathander. We haven't had a separate meeting before."

"Yes, I also wanted to come and see you alone. I wanted to know what kind of legend it took to directly propel our Church of Wealth to a high position among the gods!" Waukeen said.

Her attitude was very humble. Even as a god, she treated a mortal who seemed to possess no power with such respect. After all, he held the key to her advancement to a top-tier god, and their cooperation had been relatively pleasant, so a falling out was unlikely.

"Now that you've seen me, do you feel a bit disappointed?" Zhou Ren said with a smile. The goddess of wealth's form had completely stabilized at this moment, and she stared at Zhou Ren with her beautiful eyes.

"I don't feel disappointed at all; on the contrary, I'm very happy!" Waukeen said. "I'd much prefer my partner to be a new human rather than a brand-new god!"

She said, "Corellon is a born god. His divinity is supreme, but because he's too fond of playing, he's still stuck at the tail end of the Greater Gods!"

"That's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, being happy is the most important thing; everything else is actually unimportant!" Zhou Ren said. Even as he reshaped this world, his own life was still quite good.

He was also a standard life-enjoyer like Corellon, just not as extreme. After a brief chat and banter, they finally entered the main topic, which was the first question Waukeen had come to ask so eagerly.

"Why are you so confident? It's as if you personally participated. Clearly, when we first heard this plan, we only felt it was a possibility," Waukeen asked.

The entire Church of Wealth had already joined in, but in reality, they still didn't quite understand how this method of mobilizing society with money could be done.

"But when I mentioned this concept, you felt your divine power growing, didn't you?" Zhou Ren said. "This is the manifestation of my influencing the world. This must be explained starting with the power of faith in your world. Why don't you first introduce to me what faith is?"

Faith is actually a very magical thing. Simply put, it's a tiny bit of power left behind when humans believe in gods. You gain the power of faith, and you can borrow power from the gods you believe in. Of course, you also lose this power when your god falls.

However, people in this world naturally have greater benefits from worshipping gods. They can learn various divine spells and become priests or paladins, divine warriors. Of course, they can also receive the protection of the church and naturally become members of a faction.

The downside is that once you worship a god, you can no longer become a god yourself, and it's even difficult to reach the legendary level. You can only become a devout believer by borrowing the power of the god and, after death, enter their divine kingdom.

This is already a great benefit for the people of this world because this world has a real underworld, with real demons existing. If you die and no god you worship rescues you, you will be plunged into endless hell and abyss, becoming a demon or devil there and starting all over again.

That's if you're lucky. If you're unlucky and someone discovers that you're actually a faithless person, you'll be directly nailed to the Wall of the Faithless, wailing there until your soul and aura are extinguished.

This is naturally the nightmare of all the faithless, and it's one of the real reasons why everyone must believe in a god.

Of course, this is actually just the transformation that the gods of faith accepted when they couldn't obtain their own situation. When they themselves had to rely on faith to survive, it was when the Overgod Ao modified the rules of the pantheon, making all the gods no longer high above, merely looking down upon the human race and setting down rules.

All gods must rely on believers to survive. Once the believers are annihilated, they lose the environment of faith and will fall into a deep sleep along with their divine kingdom until the believers recover or, after a long time, accumulate enough energy to return.

As for what faith is to the gods, it's a simple thing: it's the believers' devotion to the gods. They project their spirits into the divine kingdom and become the gods' power and wealth. Except for those ancient gods who rely on elements or the essence of the world, most gods need faith to survive.

Moreover, to maintain their own status, they will not hesitate to modify the rules in the pantheon and change them to be more compatible with themselves.

That's why the followers of good gods are almost all good people, while the followers of evil gods are almost all evil people.

Only by aligning with one's own deity can one more easily and conveniently acquire their power, while also more readily fulfilling the deity's teachings and adhering to their conduct.

Therefore, the followers of the God of Thieves are mostly thieves or wanderers, while the followers of the God of Nobility, besides nobles, are only a few mages and higher races.

Gods delineate regions, gods drive believers, and believers shape gods.

Unfortunately, all of this happened tens of thousands of years ago. In these tens of thousands of years, the entire world has been like a stagnant pool, without any movement. Everyone wants to revitalize it, but their actions only cause slight ripples in the stagnant water, and then it falls into a bottleneck, gradually freezing over.

However, Zhou Ren is researching how to re-inject life into this pool of water.

Since the faith of mortals is the power of the gods, can mere pan-believers achieve this? After all, ordinary pan-believers don't need too much power; they only need a slight spiritual sustenance.

Under these conditions, he designed the wealth system, a system that allows everyone to re-evaluate money, as if the world doesn't value wealth. After all, in his heart, as long as you have power, what does money matter?

But they have never experienced a society purely built on money, where money is everything, capable of acquiring all goods. In their world, money is still a very simple symbol. They trust bartering more, trust material exchange between races more than monetary transactions.

The system he is now building is specifically designed for this purpose. Once the gold coins he invents can circulate between worlds and gain recognition from all races, then the name engraved on the gold coins and the power behind it will automatically generate pan-believers every time they are used.

"The use of money knows no boundaries. As long as everyone is using it, your power will continuously accumulate and grow with the increase in the number of people, eventually reaching the level of Greater God!"

Zhou Ren said. Of course, he also gave a reminder, after all, this design is not without loopholes; on the contrary, it is full of traps.

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"The premise is that you must control this power, control this force that can change the world's situation, instead of letting them drift with the wind, free to develop!" Zhou Ren said.

The power manifested by the coins issued by the Church of the Goddess of Wealth is much greater than the power manifested by issuing coins through other kingdoms. And now, you only need to cooperate with me to obtain everything in these powers. Have you thought about it?

Zhou Ren asked rhetorically. He could feel that after this commodity currency began to circulate in his territory, his own faith had even been improved to a certain extent. Presumably, this goddess whose main goal is wealth should not be unaware of this, right?

"I roughly understand what you mean. It's really an amazing design!" Waukeen said, golden flames spewing from her hand. "This is a thank-you gift from the Church of the Goddess of Wealth!"

She clearly looked much more energetic than when they first met. As her spirit gradually invigorated, her actual power also gradually increased at this moment. This goddess, who had once reached the level of Intermediate Power, finally put down her decadence and began to gradually grow.

"This is the Lord of a Pantheon I have in mind," Zhou Ren said. "Lady Waukeen, are you ready to become a Greater God?"

Neither of them mentioned things like costs. If the position of a Greater God cannot make the Goddess of Wealth support him, then Zhou Ren would be too much of a failure.

Moreover, this is not all of his cards, not even 1/3 of the cards in his hand. Even if this person betrays him, so what? He can always play more cards, and this person who betrays him will naturally have to pay a price.

"Now we can discuss how the Church of Wealth should support your actions!" she said. "The Dragon Clan and the Elves have all joined. Some human kingdoms are still watching, but the Church of Dawn has also received the news and will give us the greatest convenience. At least, there will be no problems in establishing Churches of Wealth in these areas, or the virtual world exchange points you mentioned!"

She was a little curious, "What exactly is that so-called virtual world you created? Why are you so confident, even to the point of building the Tree of Life?"

"That's not just something, but the prototype of a brand-new profit point. Everyone will gain a completely different position in this brand-new world system. They will survive, develop, and obtain everything they want in this world, and thoroughly improve it through the vast conduction system we establish!"

Zhou Ren smiled, "I don't want to bind wealth and the virtual world together, but I need the right to issue currency in the virtual world, the power of a virtual currency recognized by the entire wealth system!"

The ambition in his eyes was almost undisguised, but the other party listened patiently as he continued, "After all the Trees of Life are connected, they will form a vast life network. People who have network permissions in this life network will receive the power supply of all Trees of Life. In this way, even if a god descends, they may not be able to contend with it!"

"At that time, whether it is the Elven race, the Church of Wealth, or the Church of Dawn, they will all receive considerable growth and progress!" Zhou Ren said. "Coupled with some special props, it can even achieve seamless shuttle at every point!"

A look of joy appeared on his face. He had finally waited for good things. After continuous conversations with the two gods, a series of brand-new modules had appeared in front of him.

"Then I and the Church of Wealth will wait and see, hoping that Your Excellency can give us a more satisfactory answer!" Waukeen said, her graceful figure quietly disappearing at this moment, leaving only a little bit of residual light and shadow, as if brushing across Zhou Ren's face.

"From now on, you are the true Grand Pope of the Church of Wealth. All the Vatican personnel will help you. Your orders are my orders!" she said, the illusory light and shadow even gently brushed across Zhou Ren's face when passing by, as if giving him a kiss.

"You are my knight, the knight of the gods!"