Chapter 99: Becoming Your God (II)

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Chapter 99: Becoming Your God (II)

That night, most of the Shu Clan barely slept. Several dozen able-bodied young men took turns keeping watch in case wild beasts attacked.

Shang Ke’s divine consciousness remained in the camp as well, keeping watch alongside them. He drifted outside the tent of Tima, the chief’s daughter. The twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl lay in bed with her eyes closed, quietly praying and asking the gods to protect her people.

As she prayed, Shang Ke felt a stream of power slowly flow toward him. It was faint yet pure, like diluted honey.

Just then, several urgent warning whistles sounded from the edge of the camp, instantly jolting everyone from their shallow sleep. The able-bodied men grabbed their weapons and gathered amid the commotion, while the elderly, children, and women remained inside their tents, anxiously waiting for the danger to pass—or for death to arrive.

Unable to join the battle, they could only silently pray for their clansmen. As more and more people began praying, an increasing amount of power flowed into Shang Ke. His previously parched reservoir of divine power finally gathered its first trace of moisture.

“Awooo—!” A beastly roar shattered the silence of the night, brazenly announcing its—or their—arrival.

The Shu clansmen gripped their weapons and prepared themselves grimly. But when blood wolves began emerging one after another from the bushes, savage light gleaming in their eyes, every trace of color instantly drained from the clansmen’s faces.

More than twenty blood wolves stared excitedly at the prey before them with scarlet eyes.

The Shu Clan numbered only a little over two hundred people, nearly half of them elderly, children, or women. A fight to the death against more than twenty blood wolves might not wipe out the entire clan, but the price would undoubtedly be enormous.

Every Shu clansman wore a grave expression as they tightened their grips on their weapons and prepared for the brutal fight ahead. A wolf howl rang out, and the blood wolves arched their backs, poised to attack.

Just as the two sides were about to clash, a streak of light suddenly descended from the sky and condensed into a hazy humanoid figure in the open space between the blood wolves and the humans.

He had a powerful build, a ferocious mask over his face, and a massive hammer in his hand. His translucent short hair drifted gently in the air, while what looked like a cluster of ghostly blue flame burned around his waist, casting a fluorescent glow over everything nearby.

The previously vicious blood wolves immediately began growling uneasily at his appearance, pacing restlessly back and forth.

The Shu Clan, on the other hand, was both astonished and delighted. The apparition before them was clearly the manifestation of a divine spirit. Their own god had destroyed itself more than a hundred years ago, and recreating a divine idol was extraordinarily difficult. They had tried many times and failed every time. Even now, they still had no god of their own and were regarded as a god-abandoned clan, which was one reason other peoples had always refused to accept them.

The form of this divine spirit was also completely different from the god they had once worshiped. Such a “primitive,” uninhibited style had to date back at least a thousand years…

To manifest this time, Shang Ke had gambled every last bit of divine power he had accumulated over the past few days. He needed to bluff the wolves with an imposing display of divine might while also making a spectacular first appearance before his future worshipers. It was an all-or-nothing gamble—success was the only acceptable outcome!

Unfortunately, the blood wolves refused to cooperate with the script and continued growling at him stubbornly.

More than a thousand years ago, the evil god had been a terrifying existence capable of throwing the world into chaos. Now he could not even intimidate a handful of blood wolves.

A fallen god really was worse off than a dog!

Seeing the blood wolves growing increasingly restless, as though they intended to test his divine might themselves, Shang Ke gathered the last of his power, raised his hammer, and hurled it at them in an extravagantly dramatic pose.

The hammer shot into the pack with awe-inspiring force, whistling through the air before erupting among them in a dazzling burst of light.

The blood wolves were thoroughly frightened. After several panicked howls, they fled in disorder and vanished into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

The hammer might have looked ugly, but its intimidation factor was actually pretty good.

Cheers erupted behind him. Shang Ke was just about to turn around and strike a handsome pose for a historic first meeting with his future followers when, before he could move, his body shattered like broken glass, crumbling into countless fragments and disappearing from everyone’s sight.

The Shu clansmen were still cheering, completely unaware that the mighty, domineering divine spirit they had just witnessed had exhausted himself after throwing a single hammer.

Shang Ke’s divine consciousness was forcibly pulled back into his divine idol, once again leaving him desperately starved for divine power.

“What divine spirit was that just now?” Once the danger had passed, the Shu clansmen immediately began guessing Shang Ke’s identity.

“Haven’t we seen him somewhere before?”

“I thought he looked familiar too, especially that hammer.”

As everyone continued speculating, a girl spoke up. “He’s the divine spirit in that ruined temple on the mountaintop. His name is ‘Uno.’”

The name of Evil God Unos had been engraved on the hammer, but because the ancient script differed from the modern one, they misread it as “Uno.”

The girl who had spoken was Tima, the chief’s daughter. Several other children immediately chimed in, “It was God Uno!”

The chief looked puzzled. “We aren’t followers of God Uno. Why would he come to our aid?”

“Because we make offerings to him,” one child said proudly. “Whenever we pick wild fruit, we always bring a few to God Uno.”

Everyone stared in surprise. Just because a few children had worshiped him and brought him several worthless pieces of wild fruit, that divine spirit had been willing to intervene on their behalf? When they first saw the dilapidated temple, they had assumed its god was too weak to protect his worshipers and had therefore been abandoned in the wilderness.

But judging from what they had just witnessed, that did not appear to be the case. A divine spirit capable of easily driving away wild beasts had to meet at least the standard of a mid-tier god, and this one clearly possessed genuine combat ability.

Divine spirits varied in both strength and attributes. Some possessed no combat ability at all, such as the God of Harvest, God of Cooking, and God of Art. On a continent plagued by conflict, combat-related gods were naturally the most sought after. They were powerful, courageous, and aggressive in expansion, capable of granting their worshipers enough strength to gradually develop and prosper. The Yi Clan, worshipers of the War God, was the best example.

How could a combat god willing to expend divine power protecting them merely because a few children had made offerings possibly have been abandoned by his own worshipers? There was only one explanation: all of his followers must have perished in some terrible disaster or war.

At that thought, the Shu clansmen felt a deep sense of sorrow. They had lost their god, while this god had lost his worshipers.

Their meeting suddenly seemed like a strange twist of fate.

It took almost no discussion at all for the Shu Clan to decide that God Uno would become the deity they worshiped from then on.

Early the next morning, the chief brought the clansmen to the ruined temple and began cleaning and repairing it. Several of the strongest young men in the clan were assigned to wash the divine idol.

Shang Ke was extremely satisfied with this development. Being rubbed all over by several men, however, felt a little strange. Especially when they cleaned beneath his animal-hide skirt—whether deliberately or not, those bastards were being exceptionally thorough down there.

One of them remarked, “A battle god’s manhood is said to be especially magnificent. Seeing it in person today, it really is extraordinary.”

As he spoke, he even ran his hand over it a few times, tracing its shape.

Shang Ke: Take your damn paw off me right now, or I’m going to stop being polite.

That was the problem with wearing an animal-hide skirt: it did absolutely nothing to cover his manhood, leaving him vulnerable to being groped by ignorant mortals at any moment.

Before the first hand had even withdrawn, another one reached over.

“Let me feel it too!”

Feel my ass! If you keep groping something this magnificent, aren’t you little caterpillars going to develop an inferiority complex?!

“Nanmu! Qiu Xiao! What the hell are you two doing?” The chief glared furiously at the two young men molesting the divine idol. “Show some respect! How dare you profane a god?”

Nanmu and Qiu Xiao exchanged a glance, hunched their shoulders, and finally stopped fooling around, returning obediently to washing the statue.

Unfortunately, it was already too late. After being shamelessly felt up for free, Shang Ke decided to retaliate. The evil god was, after all, the God of Curses and Slaughter. With his current strength, he might not possess much combat power, but placing a tiny curse was still well within his ability.

For example, he could make them trip or bash their heads into something.

Several cries of pain rang out. One of the two—Nanmu and Qiu Xiao—fell off the altar table, while the other accidentally smacked into the wall behind the idol.

Everyone else burst out laughing at the sight.

The chief scolded them. “That was the god warning you! Let’s see if you dare disrespect him again!”

Everyone instinctively turned toward the divine idol.

Then they all froze, and their laughter gradually faded away.

Upon the stone platform sat God Uno, the mask over his face both ferocious and imposing. His hammer rested upside down beside him, one hand laid upon its wooden handle while the other rested casually on his thigh. The differently shaped beast fangs hanging around his neck represented their owner’s valor, while his powerful yet beautifully proportioned body seemed to embody strength itself.

“God Uno, I am Shu Wu, chief of the Shu Clan. I lead all my people in asking for your protection.” The chief knelt first and performed a solemn act of worship before the divine idol.

The others knelt one after another, their expressions solemn.

“From this day forward, the Shu Clan will become your faithful worshipers and offer you our most devout faith.”

As the Shu Clan pledged their faith to him, Shang Ke felt a rich, pure power once again fill his sea of consciousness, almost as though he had been reborn.

Following the ancient rites, the Shu Clan kowtowed before him. With every bow, the light around the idol grew brighter. When they completed all seven kowtows, the ancient divine idol that had gathered dust for more than a thousand years finally revealed its splendor to the world once more. A golden-bronze radiance, like the light of early morning, enveloped everyone inside the temple.

Inside this dilapidated temple, a group of weary, dust-covered people entered into a covenant with an ancient evil god.

From that moment onward, they would depend upon one another and share both glory and disgrace.

In the days that followed, Shang Ke received small amounts of divine power from the Shu Clan almost every day. It was not much, but it was exceptionally pure. To live up to their worship, Shang Ke faithfully protected his followers as well, keeping wild beasts away and allowing them to settle there safely and peacefully.

At the same time, he steadily accumulated divine power so that he would be prepared for whatever unpredictable dangers awaited in the future.

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