Chapter 76: The Blessing of the God (End)

What has been mentioned so far are just a few items that the Lord of Justice directly changed. The final and most important part is the basic knowledge and perception methods regarding the Mechanical Realm. After all, if George truly wants to cultivate the abilities granted by the essence of the Mechanical Realm in the future, this is a necessary prerequisite. In the current situation, the Order Blessing granted by the Lord of Justice is a one-time deal. Unless George becomes a devout believer of the other, he should not even think about future upgrades or updates.

As for whether George might become a believer of the other? That is naturally impossible! In a certain sense, George can be said to be a pan-believer, or even an atheist. The reasons for this are often diverse, but overall, it is the fault of the extra lifetime of memories.

You should know that before George transmigrated, he was in a completely material civilization world. There, the materialist worldview, although not necessarily universal across the entire world, was truly the stronghold of materialism in the Tianchao where someone named Li Desheng lived at that time. Most crucially, that country, for some unknown purpose, systematically taught the worldview, methodology, and materialist dialectics that other countries usually hide until a Master of Laws can access them, during the middle school stage.

Under this environment, Li Desheng, if he had not loved Taoist studies since childhood and later became a home-cultivator, would probably not have been able to grow so quickly in this idealist world as he does now.

Of course, this is not without benefits. As the saying goes, ‘truth becomes clearer the more it is debated.’ Through mutual verification, George is extremely clear and firm about his future path. For someone like him, unless he has a faith before cultivation truly begins, it is unlikely that he will become a devout believer of a specific Deity. Even if the path he walks is the same as the Deity’s, his faith is often just that path, not the Deity itself.

So, among the true strong people in this world, the proportion of those with devout faith is probably about half and half. This includes the portion cultivated by the Church itself from childhood.

Just like weapon transactions between countries before transmigration, what one uses and what is sold abroad can never be exactly the same. The latter is basically cut down in various ways, only the degree of cutting depends on the closeness of the relationship between the buying and selling countries.

Whether the previous Order Blessing was not truly finished being studied or was cut down by the other is hard to say. Judging from George’s perspective, he is still willing to believe the former. After all, such an obvious lie might cause fluctuations in the Reverend’s status. Who else is the Lord of Justice! And the faith power required to calm such fluctuations is quite significant. It is not worth it for such a trivial matter.

In other words, relative to a Deity, George’s current status is too low, and there is nothing worth the other party paying such a huge price to scheme for. And the final knowledge, after all, is only basic. Although rare, it is not necessarily considered precious. The key is that it is not necessarily only available from the Lord of Justice. After all, there are many Mages in this world who can perform constant rituals. For George, it is just a matter of spending a bit more time, effort, and money. The Reverend would naturally be happy to do a favor.

So, if George wants to gain more power through this Order Blessing in the future, it all depends on his understanding and luck.

“Alright, I’ll say it, kid, now we are even. I was originally thinking of letting the people below give some benefits during the cooperation as compensation for the slight difference between the knowledge you provided and the blessing of this Ben. Now it seems this plan is no longer needed.” The voice from the void remained as calm as ever, as if nothing could make his emotions fluctuate.

‘Why does it feel like there is a slow malice in the Reverend’s words just now, or is he deliberately provoking my emotions? As a Deity, can he be so boring?’ George always felt that the Lord of Justice’s avatar had hidden meanings, but he still spoke frankly, “I still think this is the best. After all, those external things can never be as important as one’s own strength.”

“If you really thought that, why would you spend so much time considering these legal matters? Wouldn’t it be better to spend a little more time on cultivation?” Although the tone was still as dry as ever, George could still tell the teasing in the words.

“There is something called responsibility. Since I am in this position and have gained benefits from it, I should do what is supposed to be done in this position. Is it wrong for a Lord to plan for the development of his Territory? Is it not good for a Lord to let the people under his rule see hope for the future and live more abundantly? And how do you know, Reverend, that considering these things is not part of cultivation?”

This reply was different from before, with a slight pause in between: “Not every Lord is like you. Moreover, this Ben has observed your current situation. The path you are walking does not seem to be related to law. You should know that law is within my Divine Domain, and I cannot make a mistake in this regard.”

At this point, George boredly made a Zen koan: “The paths may differ, but they both bring benefits.”

“Heh! Heh! Your way of speaking is so similar to those bald men from The East. And looking at the path you are walking, there are traces of cultivators from the ‘Tao’ in Kalatu.” This was the first time the words from the void had changed.

‘Cultivators of the Tao? With this name and similarities to my cultivation, could there be Tao cultivators in this world as well?’ For the first time, George felt so excited. ‘Thank the Three Pure Ones, thank the similarity of the Multiverse. I didn’t expect to find comrades in this world. Perhaps there is a way to make up for the shortcomings in Dantian cultivation and form a Golden Core.’

Perhaps for the Lord of Justice’s avatar, this was just an unintentional remark, but for George, it was a huge gift. The latter asked stutteringly, “Is… is it… true?”

“Of course, there will be no mistake. But if you ever go to the Flying Dragon Empire in Kalatu one day, be careful. There, cultivators of the ‘Tao’ are considered heretics. The ‘Path of Realization’ of another school is the mainstream that controls faith.” Although the conversation felt like talking to a machine, the words should be a kind reminder.

‘So there is such a situation? In the future, I will ask the people at the Foreign Goods Shop to inquire more.’ George made up his mind to run to the Foreign Goods Shop more often during his time in Karada to see if he could get any useful information.

At the same time, George thought of when High Priest Virginia introduced a recipient of the blessing earlier, using uncertain words and tone. George then tried to ask, “I mean, do I need to tell your believers about the content of the blessing later?”

After all, no one wants their abilities to become common knowledge. If someone with bad intentions targets them specifically, even the strongest power might have loopholes.

“This is up to you. You can say it, you can not say it, or you can not say it all. Alright, let’s cut the nonsense. Quickly decide on the scheme to strengthen your qualifications. It has been too long, and most of those people below are probably impatient.” Although this was a hurry, it did not make anyone feel unhappy at all.

‘I need to think about this carefully. Judging from my current physical condition, the strongest part should be perception. After all, the attributes after digitization will not lie. Logically, the higher the attribute, the harder it will be to improve in the future. Moreover, how can you have understanding without perception? Besides, perception is already my strong suit. The stronger the strong suit, the more truth there is. What should I strengthen next? Right, from birth to now, all other attributes have improved, but intelligence has hardly changed. If I can really become smarter, it might also be a great help to understanding. Next should be constitution and strength. Let’s choose constitution. No matter when, being alive is always the most important.’ After a while, George finally made his decision.

He spoke up, “From front to back, they are perception, intelligence, constitution, and strength, these four items.”

“What a strange scheme, but since you have made such a choice, let it be.” Even the avatar of a Deity found George’s idea strange. At the same time, he also specially reminded George of other matters to pay attention to, “Because for this first strengthening, it will take about a month to achieve full effects. As for the future, with the Order Blessing and your long-term immersion, you will naturally gain strengthening when you reach a Rank. You need to keep this in mind and not feel confused or think there is little change after the blessing.”

“I understand this point.” Although George still had many questions he wanted to ask the Lord of Justice, he understood the principle of knowing when to stop. Sometimes, going too far and making the superior unhappy is a very foolish behavior.

“Then the blessing begins.”

As these words fell, George fell into a deep sleep. At the same time, the pagoda deep within his soul was undergoing earth-shattering changes. Outside the pagoda, the dark space seemed to appear with many cracks. These cracks grew larger and larger, with a faint blue light glowing within the gaps. It was as if a “click” sound was heard, and the cracks were completely torn open. Several blue light ribbons flew toward the pagoda. The light ribbons seemed like the thinnest silk fluttering with a shine, or like misty silver that was hazy and unclear. Soon, these light ribbons wrapped around the pagoda layer by layer. In the blink of an eye, the pagoda turned into a cocoon wrapped in blue silk threads. Except for the constant flickering changes on the light ribbons, there was truly no difference at all.

Slowly, the light ribbons outside the pagoda changed from blue to green and began to dissolve from the inside out. It looked like a cocoon constantly shrinking, but the shadows inside the cocoon kept becoming more prominent. By the end, the pagoda seemed to be shrouded in pale blue mist, hazy and possessing a strange beauty. When the mist dispersed, one would find that the entire pagoda had undergone real changes. The most obvious was that the top floor of the pagoda actually appeared with four dials, paired with a large bell on top that seemed a bit out of place. This clearly turned into a Chinese-style pagoda clock tower. If one looked closely, they would find that many decorations made of propellers, gears, pistons, bearings, rivets, screws, etc., had been added to the outer perimeter of the pagoda. It was full of steam-punk style, making the original mixed style of the pagoda even more eerie.

At the same time, the System that was one with George was constantly sending out prompt messages. However, George, who was in a deep sleep, could not hear any of them at all.

“Beep—Foreign energy intrusion detected…”

“Non-malicious energy identified, access allowed…”

“Human body energy framework established, soul contact started…”

“Soul structure external link completed, Plane comrades opened…”

“Plane identification—Source of Order, Mechanical Realm, Plane collaboration started…”

“Plane energy import, second energy cycle system establishment started…”

“Energy cycle establishment completed, information flow import…”

“Basic information database preliminary establishment, energy comrade solidification started…”

“System establishment completed, protection against chaos barrier started to take effect…”

At this time, the figure in the void suddenly made a strange question: “A permanent chaos protection barrier has actually appeared. This does not match my original design. It seems I need to check this properly. Otherwise, if there are problems in other aspects, and this little one comes to ask about it in the future, it would not be good. After all, the reputation I have built over a long time cannot be ruined on this.”

But after the Lord of Justice’s avatar checked George’s situation up and down, inside and out, he found that except for the added chaos protection barrier, everything else was within his original design. He could not help but make such a comment: “It seems that the little one’s past behavior has made him receive the favor of Order. This is why, just after accepting the blessing, he received the reward of the Mechanical Realm’s essence.”

The Lord of Justice quickly came to his own conclusion, but who knows what the truth really is?

When the radiance descending from the divine statue faded, the phenomena appearing inside and outside the Temple immediately disappeared. For the Gods, saving a little divine power was better than wasting it. At least half of the people who did not know how to budget properly were floating corpses in the Astral Plane.

When they saw the divine radiance recede, the Clergy present also stopped their chanting and got up one by one. After all, they had just knelt before the power of the God they believed in. When the power receded, at least in front of George, an outsider, they had to maintain their image.