Goddess Kaleidoscope

Regardless, Aina has finally woken up. The various changes brought about by the rank breakthrough still need to be explored by Lude. But at least it is certain that the rank increase not only means that more divine power can be stored, but also that the characteristics of the divine position will change accordingly, and it may even evolve into a special divine art unique to her own family.

Thinking of all the benefits, Lude's gaze toward Aina grew increasingly fiery and bright, making the goddess feel a little uneasy, as if she were about to be licked all over by him.

"Master, your eyes look disgusting right now!"

Because Aina's appearance and figure had changed, Lude dared not let her appear in front of the public in the quarantine zone so rashly, lest it arouse unwarranted speculation from some people with ulterior motives.

Aina had been hiding for more than half a month and hadn't shown her face. Many people had expressed their concern about this, so Lude had to make up a reason, saying that Aina was helping him to prepare his exclusive secret medicine and that she had been busy in her room the whole time.

As a result, everyone didn't see this lively and lovely little girl for more than twenty days. So much so that when people praised Master Lu De for his benevolent medical skills, they couldn't help but criticize him a little, feeling that he was too strict with his disciples, making a little girl stay in her room working non-stop for more than twenty days without having time to come out for some fresh air.

Ludwig had no way to defend himself against these speculations and not-so-harsh accusations, and could only silently endure these unfounded criticisms.

Under Lud's guidance and instructions, Aina quickly gained a certain degree of mastery over her current abilities. Divine power transformed through faith is a feasible form of power, and the effects achieved by using it by the deity itself are completely different from those achieved by lending power to mortals.

In theory, as long as a god has enough divine power, he can do anything he can imagine, such as creating things out of thin air and altering the laws of physics.

So in a sense, when these gods boast to mortals that they are omnipotent and omniscient, it's not entirely bragging. It's just that their current divine power is not yet at the level they claim to be.

To give an example, imagine a white-collar worker earning 3,000 yuan a month. If he could work relentlessly for a hundred million years without eating or drinking, he could be richer than Jack Ma is now. That's roughly the idea!

As Lude instructed, Aina first tried using her divine power to change the size of her nun's habit, quickly making the previously tight-fitting clothes fit her again. However, perhaps because it was her first time using divine power in this way, Aina couldn't control her strength well, and as a result, the clothes became too tight, exhibiting a texture similar to a latex suit, making her look even more erotic than before!

Fortunately, after several attempts, Aina finally adjusted the clothes to a level that fit well without being indecent, and even added some cute decorations to them.

Aina was overjoyed to discover that she could change her clothes anytime, anywhere, and to her liking. After all, everyone has a desire to look beautiful, and Aina herself sometimes wanted to wear some brightly colored and pretty clothes, but Ludwig only gave her nun's clothes and forbade her to wear divine garments.

Now that she has this ability, Aina can change her clothes at will. Compared to this ability, the improvements in other aspects brought about by the breakthrough are not something she cares about much.

End of this chapter

"Aina, for the next few days you don't need to do anything else. Just focus on adapting to your new body after your breakthrough. I have a big show to perform in a while, and I will need your cooperation. If everything goes smoothly, I might even be able to feed you to your heart's content in your current state."

"Master, you've written a new script again?"

"Yes, a new script, a play that only needs to be performed once."

Under Lude's arrangement, Aina took a short walk in the afternoon, and then went back to her room to hide before anyone else noticed anything was wrong. Romian was relieved to see her senior sister was awake.

In the following days, everything was calm in the quarantine zone. The Church of the Four Seasons sent four priests and some supplies as promised. Evanlus also made a special trip to show up and put on a show with Lud for the public, which slightly salvaged the sect's reputation.

However, the harmony was only superficial. If it weren't for the current situation preventing him from acting rashly, Evanrus would have torn Lud to pieces. In the past few weeks, the health department he led had recruited more than 80,000 followers in the area using a promotional strategy derived from pyramid schemes, accounting for more than half of the city's population.

These newly baptized believers will then be distributed equally among the six denominations affiliated with the Health Bureau through a referral system. While major denominations like the Church of War and the Church of Light may not care about these 13,000 to 14,000 new additions, it represents a significant gain for smaller, second- and third-tier denominations.

In contrast, the Four Seasons Goddess Cult watched others feast while they themselves received nothing and continued to bleed. They originally had 30,000 followers in Oyster Harbor, but it's estimated that over 20% have left, either dying from illness or joining other sects out of disillusionment with the Four Seasons Goddess Cult.

The ordinary people at the bottom of society are very down-to-earth and do not have the awareness to sacrifice their lives to defend their beliefs.

This passive situation infuriated Evanlus, so when he met with Lud, he said "Take good care of yourself" but in his heart he was cursing Lud to work himself to death!

However, Evan Ruth and many others did not know that the seemingly ethereal Ruth was actually an 18-year-old boy with the soul of a 35-year-old, and his weak appearance was all an act.

Although the work is tiring every day, the body's recovery ability is also at its peak. No matter how tired you are the day before, you can still "stand tall" after a good night's sleep!

This was the twenty-eighth day since the pledge was made. The second batch of two thousand recovered patients were approved to leave the quarantine area and return to normal life. A significant portion of them were farmers from surrounding villages and towns. At the send-off ceremony, Lu De specially gave each of them a bag of "Golden Fertilizer" as a parting gift, so they could take it back and try it out during the spring planting season.

After seeing the group off, Ludwig turned to return to his office; he still had a report to finish. Just yesterday evening, the second batch of aid supplies from Earl Ramley's territory arrived in Oyster Harbor, accompanied by his old acquaintance, Captain Jegan, who had come to relieve Sharo of her duties and let the young lady go home.

In addition, Jegan brought Ludger a personal letter from the Earl, who had heard about his exploits in Oyster Harbor and greatly admired Ludger's ability to turn the tide and control the epidemic. At the same time, he asked Ludger for advice on preventive measures in a very humble tone.

Just a few days ago, similar cases of infection were discovered within the Earl's territory. Fortunately, the number was small and the cases were discovered in a timely manner, all located in villages near the border, and had not yet threatened the core areas of the Earl's territory. Therefore, in order to be prepared, the Earl intends to take preventative measures in advance within his territory and needs the advice of Lude, a professional expert.

When people came to him for advice, Lu De was naturally happy to help. He worked through the night to draft a report, sharing all the preventative measures and his experience accumulated from his work in treating patients in Oyster Harbor.

However, when Ludwig leisurely returned to his office, there were two unexpected people in the room. One was Hume, who had been gone for half a year and who knows where he had gone off to fool around. The other was a young woman with blue hair, wearing a monocle with a gold rim, sitting behind her desk and examining the report that Ludwig had not yet finished writing. She gave off the aloof feeling of an intellectual beauty.

"Hey! The busy man is back!"

"I was just wondering where you've been all these past six months! And who is this gentleman?"

Ludwig glared fiercely at Hume first, then tilted his head and asked who the blue-haired woman sitting there was. Since she had managed to sneak into the quarantine zone without a sound alongside Hume, and had even caused a strange tremor in the primal fire within Ludwig, she was clearly no ordinary mortal.

At this moment, the blue-haired woman spoke up without even looking up.

“I’ll do it myself! My name is Kumirad. Mortals have many honorifics for me: I am the embodiment of wisdom, the progenitor of mischief, the hand of God, and the witch of intrigue. Just as you’re probably guessing right now, I am also a self-proclaimed god… a fraudster!”

In a rather sophisticated manner, the blue-haired woman introduced herself as an orthodox and ancient local deity, the only deity in the world who voluntarily disbanded her sect but did not disappear.

Compared to other stingy gods, the goddess of wisdom, Kumirad, is a very generous one. Over the past thousand years, she has created hundreds and thousands of artifacts of various types and given them away free of charge to those she deems destined to be with. As a result, even without missionaries specifically singing her myths, mortals would actively spread stories about her.

However, after learning about her various legends, Rudd discovered that she was not a generous and benevolent goddess at all, but rather a complete "pleasure-seeker." Her actions truly lived up to her nickname, "the witch of intrigue"!

This threatening figure, whose deeds alone would make Ludwig completely unwilling to associate with him, was now sitting less than three meters away, smiling and introducing himself to him. Ludwig's eyes as he looked at Hume were full of silent accusation.

"So you're the one who led the Japanese devils in!?"

Hume, glared at by Ludwig, shrugged innocently and silently pointed to his hands, which were covered in snakeskin gloves. It seemed that he had not provoked Ludwig, but rather that Ludwig had found him and forced him, who had lost his divine power, to come and "visit" Ludwig.

And indeed, this is true. Compared to other gods, Kumirad pays more attention to the mortal realm and has more sophisticated methods of surveillance. Therefore, she discovered Rud and the little cutie he created long ago, this interesting mortal, and successfully piqued her interest.

End of this chapter

After introducing himself, "God of Pleasure" Kumirad observed Rudd with great interest, looking him over from head to toe again and again, nodding thoughtfully from time to time, and then suddenly said to Hume.

“Little Xiuxiu, this kid is much more interesting than his master.”

"Little Rest?"

Upon hearing Kumirard's nickname for Hume, this time it was Ludwig's turn to give the timid-looking Miss Thief a strange look. The policeman's intuition told him that there was probably some unspeakable relationship between the two goddesses.

Moreover, it's not hard to tell from the fact that she mentioned "her own master" that she also knows about old astrologers.

Hume was in a very awkward situation. She had gone to the capital on business, but she had messed things up. It was only thanks to Kumirard's sudden appearance and help that the situation was salvaged. However, the price she paid was that he stuck to her and insisted on coming along to see that "interesting little guy."

"Little guy, I already learned some of your story from Xiao Xiuxiu on the way here. I thought your master was already an extraordinary genius, but you, as his apprentice, have managed to surpass him. To be honest, that's remarkable, but I have a slight doubt. You've only just turned eighteen this year. Even with the Primal Flame and the research notes left by your master, you shouldn't be able to achieve what you've done, right?"

"Uh……"

Within five minutes of meeting, Kumirad threw out a very pointed question: the vast amount of knowledge and experience that Lud currently possessed was clearly not something a boy of humble origins could have. This wasn't a matter of genius; it was completely beyond the realm of common sense.

Outsiders didn't find it strange because Ludd always had the face of a Gandalf with white hair and beard, looking every bit the seasoned elder. When he spoke of unheard-of experiences and unprecedented knowledge, people would only think he had seen a lot, and then sincerely exclaim "Awesome!"

Even for those who know his background, even the naive and innocent Aina would occasionally have a question pop into her mind.

How could a young mortal like Master know so much?

Hume also harbored this same doubt, but she chose to ignore it, never wanting to pry into Ludd's secrets that he was unwilling to reveal, in order to maintain a close working relationship.

But Kumirard clearly had no such concerns. This pleasure-seeker was simply trying to satisfy his curiosity, which had never waned over thousands of years, and immediately wanted to find out what interested him most.

Lud pondered for a moment, then looked up at Kumirad, whose face was full of expectation.

“I’m sorry, Miss Kumirard.”

"Hey! No way! You're making me even more curious now. How about this? I'll give you one of the magical artifacts I made, no! I'll give you two! Let Xiao Xiuxiu go outside and just tell me one of them, is that not even okay?"

"No, there's no room for negotiation! Even if you're a goddess and your strength is far beyond what I can currently match, I'll still say no!"

"why?"

"Because... even if you ask me to explain now, I can't explain it clearly."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, I'm not really sure where all this knowledge and these ideas in my head came from. Three years ago, I had a near-drowning experience while on the run. I'm pretty sure I did die once, but I miraculously came back to life, and that's when all these things came into my head."

While not telling the whole truth, he did reveal the facts from three years ago. Lude was unsure of Kumirad's personality, and her strength was far beyond his current capabilities. Therefore, he adopted a compromise: to find a way to appease her first.

After listening to Lud's story, Kumirad remained silent and stared at him for a long time before slowly speaking.

So...you've died once before?

"Probably, I completely lost consciousness at the time."

"Alright! I believe you. There are indeed many things in this world that even we so-called gods cannot know. Perhaps something beyond divine intervention really happened to you. But since that's the case..."

As Kumirad spoke, a glint of light suddenly flashed in his eyes that made Lud extremely uneasy.

"...Then I'll have to bother you for a while longer."

"Huh!?" x2

Upon hearing Kumirad's words, Ludwig was taken aback, while Hume jumped up and pointed at him, shouting urgently.

"Hey! This isn't what we agreed on! You only said you were coming to check it out, how come you've changed your mind now!?"

"Little Xiuxiu, do you really not want to stay with me? If we really look into it, I'm your 'birth mother'! How can you be so unfilial!"

"Wait a minute, you two! That last sentence contained a lot of information, I need to sort it out a bit."

"Hey! Don't listen to her nonsense! I don't have a mother!"

In order to prevent Ludwig from believing Kumirard's fabrications, Hume reacted somewhat hastily and took the initiative to explain.

It turns out that Kumirad did indeed "help" with the birth of the God of Thieves. In order to verify how a god is born, she took the initiative to intervene in the birth process of the God of Thieves, using her as a test subject. This included guiding believers, establishing her image, and so on. The contents recorded by the old astrologer in his notes had already been personally verified by Kumirad thousands of years ago.

If we use this as a basis for judgment, then Kumirard can indeed be called Hume's "biological mother." Although, in terms of appearance alone, Hume is obviously older and has a taller and fuller figure, if he were to call Kumirard "Mom," not only would she feel awkward, but others would also find it very incongruous.

It is worth mentioning that the information about the existence of the primordial fire at the Earth's core was actually provided to Hume by Kumirard. Hume then followed the clues and found the old astrologer Perseus, who had no respect for the gods, and successfully brought out a spark of fire from it.

In Kumirad's own words, the world after the war of the gods made her feel very bored. Most of the surviving gods were terrified and, in order to achieve their own eternal reign and be able to gain faith by lying down for eternity, they wanted to completely stifle the thoughts of mortals and turn them into faith-worshipping leeks who only knew how to worship the gods, forever ignorant and foolish, until the end of the world.

Therefore, Kumirard hopes that a "variable" will emerge so that the world can become "interesting" again and return to its original, vibrant and colorful state.

End of this chapter

273. Don't assume you've won.

No matter how much Ludd and Hume tried to persuade her, Kumirad was determined to follow them. In her own words, she had been watching for centuries, and it was rare to see such a troublemaker appear in the stagnant mortal world. It was clear that "interesting things" were going to happen, and it would be a waste not to grab a first-class seat in advance.

Lude felt a huge headache coming on, after all, Kumirad was a god who had broken through at least five times, and his strength was above average. Lude's group of newbies were no match for him.

So, even if they were unwilling, Ludd and Hume could only smile and let this old man stick around.

Later that day, Ludwig took the opportunity to introduce Hume and Kumirard to the rest of the support team. Many of them had seen Hume before and knew that the dark-skinned elf was one of the temple's gatekeepers.