Chapter 98: Becoming Your God (I)

Previous Chapter ◊ Table of Content ◊ Next Chapter

Chapter 98: Becoming Your God (I)

【Additional Mission 2 completed—Analyze the components of the brain tonic and develop a drug capable of extending Covenantors’ lifespans.】

【Congratulations, Host. All three missions have been successfully completed. You will receive triple rewards. Constitution +7 (+1+2), Memory +10 (+4+3), Mental Power +10 (+5+5), Appearance +15 (+3+4), Lifespan +5 (+1+2). The values in parentheses are rewards from the Additional Missions.】

【You may also choose two additional skills to learn.】

This time, Shang Ke could not even be bothered to exchange “feelings” with the System. He went straight to choosing his skills. Opening the list, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that 【Magic】 had been unlocked. In addition, there was another extremely useful new skill: 【Forging】…

Without hesitation, Shang Ke selected both skills and plunged straight into the Hundred Training Space…

Training time always seemed to pass quickly. By the time Shang Ke finished his studies and returned, it was already time to begin his journey into another world.

Shang Ke already knew just how shamelessly the System could screw him over, yet somehow it always managed to discover a new low.

This time, Shang Ke transmigrated into a statue.

That’s right—a statue!

The impressive part was that he was a statue of a “god.”

The tragic part was that he was the statue of an utterly wicked evil god.

The humans of this world worshiped all kinds of deities, building statues and temples for them and making offerings year-round in exchange for divine protection. Every deity was originally created by humans. A metal statue would first be cast, then placed in the Soul-Refining Pool. After eighty-one days of tempering, any statue whose golden body remained intact would become a true divine idol.

Faith shapes the spirit, emotion shapes the soul, and desire shapes the body. Once a divine idol accumulated enough faith, emotion, and desire, it could take form as an embodied god. Skom Continent was filled with divine idols, but true embodied gods were rare. Becoming embodied marked the pinnacle of a god’s existence—and also meant that death was drawing near.

Embodied gods were born from humanity, and ultimately, humanity would also bring about their fall.

The idol Shang Ke had transmigrated into belonged to an evil god named Unos, created by a barbarian tribe that worshiped slaughter and curses. They had hoped to use the evil god’s power to conquer the surrounding peoples. Under Unos’s protection, the tribe truly did flourish for a time and dominate the region. Ultimately, however, their brutality brought destruction upon them, and they were annihilated by the Yi Clan, worshipers of the War God.

Although the barbarian tribe was wiped out, the idol of the evil god Unos could not be destroyed. Humans both feared and despised him, so they kept their distance from Mount Ateya, where his temple stood. From then on, no one came to worship him again.

The Evil God’s Temple remained abandoned for more than a thousand years. Gradually deteriorating into ruins, it became a solitary, forgotten shrine on Mount Ateya.

In theory, as long as a divine idol was not destroyed, the tiny spark of consciousness at its core would exist forever even without worshipers. But without power, that consciousness could not leave the temple grounds. It would remain imprisoned within that tiny patch of land for all eternity.

Shang Ke knew, however, that before long a group of displaced Shu clansmen would migrate here from afar. They had little education and knew nothing of the evil god’s legend. After discovering the ruined temple, they would mistakenly take the idol inside for a Mountain God and begin worshiping him.

After being imprisoned for so long, the evil god naturally had no intention of letting these new worshipers slip away. Once they settled there, he used his meager power to drive off wild beasts, dig channels and divert water, and ward off nightmares, allowing them to live in peace and prosperity. In return, their faith in him grew increasingly devout.

Several years later, the chief of the Shu Clan heard that the prince of the Yi Empire was preparing to select a consort and that unmarried princesses and young ladies from every clan were eligible to participate. The chief therefore decided to let his own daughter try as well.

The Yi Empire was the empire established by the Yi Clan. After a thousand years of growth and expansion, they had become the most powerful people on the Skom Continent. The evil god had never forgotten that these were the very people who had slaughtered every last one of his worshipers, reducing him from a lofty divine spirit to a forgotten relic, forced to endure more than a millennium of solitude within that tiny temple with only a shred of consciousness remaining.

Driven by that hatred, the evil god attached his consciousness to Tima, the Shu chief’s eldest daughter, and secretly cursed the other beautiful candidates to reduce her competition.

Tima was already exceptionally beautiful, and with the evil god’s assistance, she ultimately emerged victorious and became the prince’s fiancée. The entire Shu Clan rejoiced and decided to relocate to the Yi Empire’s royal capital.

But the Shu Clan did not abandon their god. They believed everything good in their lives had come from the “Mountain God” they worshiped, so they brought the Mountain God’s idol with them to the royal capital.

And that decision brought catastrophe to the Yi Empire.

The evil god’s fundamental powers were slaughter and curses. He could exploit human weakness, draw out people’s ugliest impulses, bring them misfortune, and incite war. As the Shu Clan prospered, his number of worshipers continued growing, and their devotion granted him ever greater power. Eventually, the Yi Empire descended into bloodshed—conflict, civil strife, battles for the throne… In merely ten years, the once-flourishing foremost royal capital became a place of chaos.

These upheavals eventually awakened the sleeping War God Saya. The Yi Clan had worshiped him for more than a thousand years, granting him tremendous divine power, but he had not yet become an embodied god because he had not accumulated sufficient emotion and desire. Eventually, he found the culprit—Unos—and ordered him to restrain himself and quietly remain the “Mountain God” worshiped by the Shu Clan.

But how could the evil god possibly stop? By then, he had not only amassed tremendous divine power but had also accumulated enough hatred and murderous desire to become an embodied god. Taking human form, he stirred up even greater chaos throughout the royal capital.

When War God Saya saw that repeated warnings had accomplished nothing, he finally became angry. Using only about thirty percent of his divine power, he sealed Unos back inside his idol. Saya had not intended to exterminate him completely, but Unos had already become an embodied god. Once sealed away, his maddened hatred and desires had nowhere to vent, ultimately causing the idol to shatter and Unos to perish completely. The Shu Clan that worshiped him was dragged down with him, gradually declining beneath the evil god’s curse.

After receiving all this information, Shang Ke was thoroughly bewildered. He felt as though he had entered an utterly fantastical world where everything lay completely outside his previous understanding.

【Main Mission—Obtain the acknowledgment of War God Saya.】

If Shang Ke understood correctly, War God Saya and Evil God Unos were basically enemies! A thousand years ago, the War God’s followers had wiped out the evil god’s worshipers. A thousand years later, the evil god now had to cling to the War God’s thigh and grind up his favorability?

The evil god’s power came from slaughter and curses. Just how was Shang Ke supposed to convince the War God that a natural-born villain could turn over a new leaf?

Logic told him this was completely unscientific!

What happened to the promised easy world?

A world crawling with deities was supposed to count as easy?!

Wait, System. Who’s the protagonist of this world? The protagonist was his clue for finding his own man. He absolutely could not overlook that.

【Protagonist undetermined—War God Saya, Prince Yitamo, or Love God Neil.】

Shang Ke: …Want to add a few more while you’re at it? The War God and the prince I can understand, but where the hell did that Love God come from? Your background information never mentioned him at all, okay?! And what do you mean by “undetermined” ?

【The identity of the protagonist will depend on the development path chosen by the Host. This world is initially set to Easy difficulty, but if the Host insists on courting death, the difficulty may increase.】

Shang Ke was beyond furious. Wasn’t the whole damn point of the missions to make me court death?!

The System promptly vanished, leaving Shang Ke to face reality alone.

Shang Ke had arrived at exactly the time when the Shu Clan was about to migrate to Mount Ateya. Soon, they would begin worshiping him as a “Mountain God,” allowing him to accumulate divine power. Shang Ke saw no need to alter history during these first few years. He could simply follow Unos’s original path—drive away wild beasts, dig channels and divert water, ward off nightmares, and raise the Shu Clan’s favorability toward him as much as possible. Once Tima headed for the royal capital, he could follow along and move on to the next stage.

A divine spirit could not travel very far unless it attached itself to a worshiper—unless, of course, it had already reached the War God’s level of power.

Having made his decision, Shang Ke extended his divine consciousness and carefully examined the evil god’s idol. It wore a ferocious mask, its upper body bare, with a string of beast teeth hanging around its neck. An animal-hide skirt, strung together with a thin cord, covered its lower body. It sat in a Buddha-like posture and held a stone hammer in one hand.

This image was really quite… shabby.

Shang Ke had never expected people from more than a thousand years ago to possess particularly refined aesthetic taste. At least they had sculpted the evil god with an impressively muscular body and thoughtfully put a mask over its face, leaving future generations plenty of room for imagination.

While his thoughts wandered, a rustling sound came from outside the temple, followed by someone shouting, “Come look! There’s a temple here!”

Before long, five or six sturdy adult men entered the ruined temple.

The Shu Clan had finally arrived.

Over the next few days, the Shu Clan indeed set up camp nearby, though they did not appear to intend to settle permanently.

Their arrival nevertheless brought considerable life to the deserted temple. Occasionally, a few children would run inside and bow to him. Although their kneeling and worship were little more than playful imitation, Shang Ke actually gained a trace of divine power from it.

Shang Ke guessed that children probably had purer hearts, so even the smallest amount of genuine sincerity from them could provide him with some benefit.

Thanks to their occasional visits—and the wild mountain fruit they sometimes offered, even though they ultimately ate it themselves—Shang Ke finally accumulated enough power for his divine consciousness to leave the temple grounds and follow the children back toward their camp.

Before he even entered the camp, Shang Ke heard crying. Two corpses lay in an open space ahead, their wounds showing that both had been mauled by wild beasts.

Ever since the Shu Clan’s homeland was destroyed, they had wandered without a permanent home. Most cities were unwilling to accept outsiders, leaving them no choice but to struggle for survival in the wilderness while searching for some fertile, unclaimed land where they could finally settle.

But the wilderness was filled with ferocious beasts, venomous creatures, and all manner of strange divine spirits secretly causing trouble. By the time they reached this place, no one knew how many clansmen they had already lost along the way.

The chief sighed. “The beasts here are too fierce. It looks like we’ll have to search for somewhere else to settle.”

The other clansmen wore equally bitter expressions.

Shang Ke ( dramatically reaching out like Erkang ): No, don’t leave so quickly! I can protect you! I can make you rich, send your careers soaring, help you marry fair-skinned rich beauties, and carry you straight to the peak of life! All you have to do is bring me a few wild fruits every now and then and sweep away some dust! You literally cannot find a better deal than this!

Previous Chapter ◊ Table of Content ◊ Next Chapter