Tome of Blood

  Chapter 338-188-The Secret of the Gods

   "The Web of Faith?"

   Seeing the new ability appearing on the Holy Tome of Blood, Charlotte froze for a moment.

  She closed her eyes to feel it, and then she was surprised to find that she seemed to have woven a huge "network" in the dark.

  In the depths of the conscious world, the starlight that symbolizes believers has changed, and a constellation-like network has appeared around the starlight, linking all the starlight together, and finally converging on Charlotte, who is like a core.

  The core of the core is Charlotte's heart, or more precisely, it is the crystal of the inner flame that seems real and illusory in the heart, just like the godhead and divine fire in Western fantasy stories.

  The network is anchored by the gods enshrined in the sub-human tribes, like a base station for mobile devices, and connected with many believers through the gods.

  Charlotte found that through this network, she could easily extend her power to every statue "into the network", and she could easily project power through the statue to the believers near each statue.

   It's like a mobile phone signal.

  Of course, this is just a simple and crude metaphor.

  In Charlotte's perception, every believer is actually a "base station", which can also receive and send her "signals", but there are strengths and weaknesses.

  Even if the signal is weaker, it is much more efficient than Charlotte's simple and rude way of contacting them through the starlight that symbolizes believers before, projecting power.

  Charlotte tried a little bit, and cast her eyes on the werewolf Luf, the elf Sebastian, and the blood-born Earl Urst through this new belief network.

   Then I was surprised to find that contacting them through the faith network hardly consumes the divine power of blood!

   To use an analogy, before she contacted believers and family members, it was like calling out from the air, and she needed to stretch her neck to shout, but now it is as if she has a mobile phone, and she only needs to talk in a normal tone.

   "This web of belief... has something!"

  Charlotte couldn't help but exclaim.

   And at this moment, a new line of text appeared in her field of vision—

  【The Holy Tome of Blood detected the belief network in use—】

  【Belief Network Belonging: Charlotte de Castel (Lord of the Holy Book)】

  【Current network status: semi-activated】

  【Is it fully activated? 】

   Fully activated?

  Charlotte was stunned again.

   After pondering for a moment, she tried to choose activation deep in her consciousness.

  The next moment, the web of faith in consciousness shimmered, and at the same time, Charlotte felt that the connection between herself and the believers was further strengthened.

  She showed curiosity and planned to study it carefully, but then, overwhelming voices flooded into her consciousness:

   "Praise you! Great True Ancestor of Blood, may you bless me to dig a few more mithril raw ore today!"

   "My Lord! Please listen to the voice of the humble believer and give me the possibility of awakening my blood!"

   "Great True Ancestor of Blood, I want to confess to you..."

   "O Almighty Lord, I..."

   "..."

  All kinds of prayers penetrated from all directions, drilled into Charlotte's mind, and she couldn't help but burst out "Oh shit", and then quickly adjusted the web of faith to a semi-activated state again.

   This time, the sound of prayers gradually disappeared, replaced by the twinkling stars in the web of faith.

  Every twinkling of the starlight means that someone is praying to her.

  Some are strong, some are weak.

   "Phew, it's much cleaner now."

  Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief.

  She wanted to see how much divine power she had just consumed by activating the web of faith, but when her consciousness penetrated into the holy tome of blood, she found that the divine power of blood accumulated in the holy tome had disappeared.

   "Huh? Why is there no divine power?"

  Charlotte frowned slightly.

  After thinking about it, Charlotte consciously mobilized the power of blood, and then she found that she could still mobilize the power.

   It's just that this power no longer comes from the divine power of blood stored in the Holy Tome of Blood, but comes from her heart!

   Or, to be more precise, the half-transparent crystal in her heart.

  Charlotte's heart moved, and she felt it carefully, and then found that the divine power in the Holy Tome of Blood did not disappear, but shifted.

  The divine power was transferred to the crystal of the inner golden flame, and combined with the divine power retained in the statue of the ancient temple, all concentrated in it, as if forming a divine power pool.

   At the same time, this pool of divine power is also connected to Charlotte's web of belief.

  Charlotte sensed that the accumulated divine power in the divine power pool was almost the same as the total divine power of the blood scriptures and ancient statues. It was about 2000 points, enough for her true ancestor to be liberated and squandered for more than half an hour.

   "So... is this illusory crystal really a godhead? And that flame is a divine fire?"

  Charlotte looked inexplicable.

   "Then what am I now? Blood race? The master of the Holy Tome of Blood? Or... am I already considered a 'god'?"

  She muttered a few words, felt her own strength, and found that if she didn't use her divine power, she would still be that little weak chicken whose strength is only Yinyue.

  Charlotte is a little confused about her current state.

what is this?

  Schrodinger's god?

Demi god?

   False God?

  Charlotte looked strange, but at this moment, she suddenly felt a move in her heart.

  In her perception, a star in the web of belief suddenly flickered, and Charlotte keenly sensed that a weak energy flowed into the pool of divine power in her heart along the web of faith.

Although it is very weak, it is so weak that it cannot be perceived without careful perception, and it is so weak that even if it is magnified ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, it may not be worth a little bit of divine power, but Charlotte can be sure that the divine power in her divine power pool Added a little bit.

  She suddenly regained her senses, realized a certain possibility, and then quickly sank into consciousness, tracing the source of that energy.

  Following the belief network, Charlotte easily traced back to the twinkling starlight, and when she projected her consciousness, her vision changed instantly.

  She "saw" a forest. In the forest, a ferocious monster had fallen to the ground, with a spear stuck in its body, and a werewolf with a rough face was standing on the corpse of the monster, panting violently.

  His body fluctuated, and his whole body seemed to exude a strong rhythm of extraordinary power. The granulation on the hideous wound on his body was wriggling, and it was actually slowly healing.

  I saw him pull out the spear forcefully, splashing a **** flower, then stretched out his other hand, crookedly drew a symbol of thorns and roses on his chest, and then said in a deep voice:

   "Praise the True Ancestor, grant me courage!"

   Sensing the breath of the werewolf, Charlotte suddenly realized what happened:

   "It's a werewolf believer who fights monsters in the forest. He just broke through to the stars in a crisis..."

   "So, the power collected by the web of faith just now is the extraordinary power that exploded at the moment he broke through to the stars?"

  Charlotte is sure that is not the power of faith.

   Or to be more precise, she didn't know what it was about the power of faith, and she had never heard of it after time travel.

  In this world, it is very likely that there is no such power of faith as in the Western fantasy novels she read in her previous life. The power just now is pure extraordinary power.

  Having some guesses in her mind, Charlotte carefully perceived the belief network again.

   And this perception really made her discover a lot.

  For example... Her belief network is actually connected to the blood and life of all believers, and it seems to be linked together through soul and body.

   And, the more devout believer, the stronger that connection.

  This connection is the passage of the web of faith. Charlotte can use this passage to give believers strength, and at the same time, through this passage, absorb the power of believers.

   At this time, the information about the Web of Faith in the Holy Tome of Blood continued to emerge, and it seemed that the verification and loading had finally been completed:

[Web of Faith: As a totem of blood, the Lord of the Holy Book has the ability to weave a web of faith. He can weave a web of faith through the belief of believers, build a belief anchor, use faith to anchor believers, and bestow divine blessings on believers, cultivate, Absorb extraordinary power, and recover the soul and grace after the believer dies. 】

  Cultivate and absorb extraordinary power?

  Recover soul and grace?

   Looking at the description of the new ability, Charlotte was slightly taken aback.

  She squinted her eyes, her expression was a little inexplicable:

   "So... the gods develop believers for the purpose of establishing a close relationship with believers, so that believers can help them practice together?"

   "And this... is the secret of the gods?"

  Charlotte almost instantly thought of some words that Nice once said:

  Gods are gods, and beliefs are beliefs. Master Cat once heard someone say that gods are just a group of selfish parasites dressed in hypocrisy.

   "Parasite... If the gods develop believers to absorb their extraordinary power, it is indeed a kind of parasitism."

  Charlotte said to herself.

  Of course, that being said, not all believers of the gods are superhumans, more of them are actually mortals.

   "Mortal...mortals, if they are devout believers, they will return to the Kingdom of God after death."

   "Hiss, so, for mortals, after they die, they reclaim their souls?"

   "Soul power is also a kind of extraordinary power, different people have strengths and weaknesses..."

   "Gods develop believers. Believers who possess extraordinary power will give feedback to the gods when they improve their extraordinary power. After the believers die, their souls will be taken back by the gods."

  At this moment, Charlotte finally figured out the secret of the gods:

   "No wonder, no wonder the gods want to develop believers. Although there is no such thing as the power of faith, developing believers is part of their own strength!"

   "It's like grazing. During the process of growing up, an extraordinary person absorbs the magic power scattered around him all the time, or in other words... extraordinary power, just like sheep eat grass and grow wool."

   "The gods who have established a belief network can absorb part of the energy in this process, similar to shearing sheep."

   "And when a believer dies, it's like a sheep that grows up and goes to the slaughter. The gods will recover the soul and the remaining extraordinary power."

   "This is also compatible with the need for funerals after the death of believers."

   "It is preached in various churches that after the funeral, the soul of the deceased can be calmed down, and the extraordinary power remaining in the corpse can also be purified..."

   "But in fact, I am afraid that the funeral ceremony can 'lead' the souls of believers back to the divine kingdom of the gods, and the extraordinary power can also be recovered with the help of the net of faith!"

   "Of course, this is a win-win for mortals and gods, because if the corpses of superhumans are not disposed of or recycled, there is a high probability that they will really evolve into undead."

   "The gods bestow divine grace and protection on believers, which are used to exchange believers' souls after death, as well as extraordinary power during life!"

  At this moment, Charlotte realized.

   Sure enough, if you want to fully understand a thing, the best way is to contact that thing yourself, or even become that thing.

  In the past, Charlotte always kept a close eye on the secrets of the gods and believers, making some guesses but not knowing them clearly.

   Now that I have the web of belief, everything is clear.

   "I am afraid that the method of strengthening the strength of the blood race myth is the same. The gods of the blood race seldom care about the spread of beliefs, but they are very concerned about the evolution of their offspring..."

   "The bloodline of the blood race is originally a web of belief in another sense. The power of the bloodlines of other blood races that I can swallow through the power of the blood scripture is a clear proof."

   "In other words, in the vampire, the role of the blood offspring is likely to replace the believer!"

  For a while, Charlotte thought of more.

  At the same time, she also understood why Nice said that it doesn't matter if the belief deteriorates, because the gods really don't worry about the deterioration of the belief.

  Gods only need believers to believe in them, and it is enough to establish a channel. Even if the faith has changed, as long as you still believe in the gods, the channel will still exist.

   While the channel is still there, the gods can continue to gain power from the believers.

Judging from the role of the web of belief, the status of gods and believers is not equal. Gods can completely control the life and death of believers. This also confirms the degeneration of those gods that Charlotte has seen before. Believers have gone crazy or directly death story.

   But then again, how can the strong and the weak be equal? ​​Mortals must pay a corresponding price if they want to obtain protection from the gods and obtain extraordinary power.

   "My current state should be one step closer to being a god. Although I am not a real god, I am afraid that I cannot be regarded as an ordinary life."

   "Gods, divine power, faith, the kingdom of God... If I really want to say, I don't have the kingdom of God yet, maybe... this is the essential difference between me and the real gods now?"

  Charlotte thought.

  For the gods, Charlotte still has many doubts that cannot be answered.

  However, there is one thing she can be sure of.

  That is, after the network of beliefs is established, the development of believers must also be put on the agenda.

  Although there is no evidence, Charlotte has a feeling that she is now on the road to becoming a god...

  (end of this chapter)