Chapter 1210 - 958 Are You Determined?

"Oh great Ascender, this is my last prayer before sleep. My faith is unwavering, and I have no doubts about all that pertains to you. Your words and deeds guide my actions, so please grant me your power! I will use my life to protect the glory of the Ascenders!"

The man was frail, and Long Yi could sense from his spiritual force that everything he said was true, that he believed in himself with no reservations at all.

"Well, I have heard your prayer. If I were a god, I should be able to respond to you, right? Too bad I’m not, and even that Ascension Power had to be sneakily manufactured," Long Yi said with a smile.

"Wait! Maybe, just maybe I could try?" Long Yi’s expression suddenly changed, as he felt the Divine Power seemed to be restless!

The power of the Ascension was a fabricated force, but Divine Power wasn’t! And Divine Power was an omnipotent force!

Long Yi tried to channel the Divine Power along the spiritual force lines, and to his surprise, it went through as if piercing through the barriers of time and space, directly entering the body of that believer!

Now! Transform!

Transforming Divine Power into a transforming elixir was simply too easy. Almost instantly, the man who was praying felt his eyes heat up. He hurried to a mirror and saw that his eyes were emitting a red light - the hallmark of the Ascension Power!

"My devotion has actually been rewarded! I have received Ascension Power! I will not fail this power!" The man was overjoyed.

Long Yi had never thought that it could be so simple: listen to prayers, respond to faith, and then use a little Divine Power to transform.

My goodness, this is so convenient!

Long Yi immediately ceased the risky and potentially detectable method of transformation. By responding to prayers, Long Yi was actually able to choose who the truly devoted believers were!

This is the rhythm to attain Divine Status! Long Yi laughed aloud.

Clearly, these spiritual force lines had other uses; however, Long Yi had no intention of forcibly exploring them for now. After all, it wasn’t within the normal realm of spiritual force, especially since even Little Seven felt quite awkward about it, so for now, having this use was good enough.

As the number of people obtaining Ascension Power gradually increased, the number of believers also began to explode. In no time, almost everyone in Ancient Mage Tower, save for some stubborn individuals, were followers of the Ascender.

Some people acquired the Ascension Power and began to see themselves as elite believers, while others who didn’t receive it were filled with envy and jealousy. Differences even broke out into conflicts, but Long Yi turned a deaf ear to it all. Through the spiritual force lines, he could monitor the state of every believer, the degree of their faith. He didn’t need to reveal himself at all and was able to solve all problems.

However, even if some believers had attained Ascension Power, not all of them were steadfast. Because, in the beginning, Long Yi selected believers rather randomly, simply transforming those he found somewhat pleasing to the eye, consequently allowing some who were not that firm in their faith to gain power.

Ah Lei was just such a person.

From the start, he was merely intrigued. Fond of idleness, he evaded much work through this means, which made him like praying. Then one day, surprisingly, he obtained Ascension Power, which truly delighted him for a while and made him pray earnestly for some time. But before long, his laziness kicked in again. Instead of praying conscientiously, he started hanging out with a bunch of friends, drifting through Ancient Mage Tower every day under the guise of spreading the faith.

"So you see, Big Bro has real skills, lazing around while still holding firm faith!" A young man flattered Ah Lei.

"Haha, of course, how else could the great Ascender have favored me?" Ah Lei laughed, his vanity greatly satisfied.

At this moment, Ah Lei and his friends were in a restaurant. It wasn’t mealtime, so there weren’t many people, and aside from them, there was just another group of four at a different table, whispering, occasionally glancing this way.

"Eh? I thought who it was, isn’t this Gu Di, who often acts like a big brother in front of me?" Ah Lei looked at the people at the nearby table and laughed loudly. Then he stood up, and the group went over.

"Gu Di, Big Bro, how’re you doing? I heard you guys recently started a Believer’s Mutual Aid Society to help each other strengthen your faith. How is it, surely you’ve gained quite a bit of Ascension Power, right?" Ah Lei said with a grin, deliberately widening his eyes to make the red glow in them more brilliant.

"Ah Lei, you idle your days away, never praying devoutly; can you really justify your faith like this? Do you truly deserve the Ascension Power that the Ascender has bestowed upon you?" Gu Di said, furrowing his brows.

"Hahaha! I may address you as Big Bro, but do you really take yourself for one? The Ascender himself said that this Ascension Power doesn’t truly come from him, but from faith. Clearly, my faith is more steadfast than yours, so I have Ascension Power! And you don’t! Disagree? Then come fight me!" Ah Lei laughed wildly as Ascension Power boiled within him, drawing cheers from his clique of friends.

"Let’s see if you’re still so brazen after you lose your Ascension Power," Gu Di said unflinchingly, with neither anger nor fear in his voice.

"Lose Ascension Power? Are you joking? Since the Ascension Power doesn’t come from the Ascender, naturally no one can take it back!"

Boom!

A burst of red light exploded and Gu Di along with his three friends were blown away, their table shattering into pieces.

"See that, Gu Di? This is my power! This is the power Long Yi fears the most! Maybe one day when Long Yi invades, it could be I who lands the final blow to kill him! I shall become the savior who rescues the entirety of Ancient Mage Tower!"

Ah Lei’s bravado reached the skies, the red glow in his eyes flickering rapidly.

But!

At the very next moment, after an inexplicable sense of palpitations, the red light in Ah Lei’s eyes dimmed! The abundant power within his body gradually vanished!

"What’s happening? What exactly is happening? Where has my power gone? Why has my Ascension Power disappeared!?" Ah Lei’s expression was one of utter horror.

"Big brother, look! Look at Gu Di!" one of Ah Lei’s friends shouted loudly.

At this time, Gu Di, who had been lying on the ground, was slowly getting up, with a red light shining in his eyes, becoming brighter and even more intense than the light in Ah Lei’s eyes just moments ago!

Ah Lei took several steps back and ended up tripping over a plate he had overturned earlier, falling to the ground.

"Look, Ah Lei! This is your fate! Your power has finally been taken away! Given to a true believer!" Gu Di said from above, looking down at Ah Lei, his Ascension Power burning at its peak!

In the end, Gu Di did not take his revenge on Ah Lei, and without his powers, Ah Lei never recovered, fading from people’s sight. What started as a minor conflict spread like wildfire, and to everyone’s amazement, they discovered that the Ascension Power could actually disappear!

Ascension Power belongs directly to the true believers.

This phrase spread quickly, and every day people were stripped of Ascension Power, while others gained it. As a result, the faith of the firm believers strengthened, and those who were not so steadfast in their beliefs began to firm up their faith as well.

However, Long Yi didn’t care about these people’s faith. What he really cared about was Elma’s faith.

He found the strand of spiritual force that belonged to Elma, but it was exceptionally weak. This indicated that at this time, Elma felt more trust in the Ascender than actual faith. This was not good news. Long Yi hoped that, like the other believers, Elma would eventually reach a point of blind faith in him.

Only then would Long Yi dare to reach into that hidden place in Elma’s memory. And now, if Long Yi were to touch that spot, Elma would immediately become alert and, if unlucky, all of Long Yi’s carefully designed plans could be rendered useless, and he would revert to being that cunning and mature Elma again.

This was absolutely impermissible.

It must be said that faith can be addictive, especially since the rate of increase in Divine Power had given Long Yi a great deal of confidence. Now, Long Yi spent a lot of time considering how to increase the number of his followers.

Clearly, within the Ancient Mage Tower, ordinary human followers no longer satisfied Long Yi. He gradually turned his attention to those Semi-Crazy Demons. These beings, half-man half-mad, had limited intellect and could be described as blindly obedient. If they could be made believers, the impact would be astonishing.

Of course, there was no need to tell Lyd Jon directly, a slight nudge in public opinion was enough. The followers naturally began to spread the message: "Even Crazy Demons need faith."

Although Lyd Jon didn’t know where this message originated, he understood that it must be useful to Long Yi.

"Since Ascension Power can harm Long Yi, why shouldn’t we let our army also obtain it?" Lyd Jon suggested during a meeting.

"Commander, have you lost your mind? These are Crazy Demons! Mere blunt-headed tools, what faith can they have?" one of the lower-ranking commanders argued.

In the previous battles, Lyd Jon’s solo actions against Long Yi had won him the respect of many. But the way these pirates showed respect was peculiar—not with flattery or sweet talk, but by speaking their minds.

"Look, they’re not Crazy Demons; they’re Semi-Crazy Demons. Since they’re ’semi,’ naturally there’s a half that isn’t mad, and since it isn’t mad, we certainly have a chance to figure out if they can meet the criteria." Lyd Jon said.

"Alright, alright. Since it’s your wish, we have no reason to object. After all, there’s no harm in trying, and even if it fails, no one will laugh at us." the lower-ranking commander said.

So the order was given: one hundred thousand Semi-Crazy Demons, all to worship the Ascender uniformly.

Faith is a delicate sensation. Long Yi certainly had his own things to believe in—whether it was his family, friends, or his nation, these constituted the belief system of a warrior. But if you asked him how exactly to practice faith, even Long Yi himself couldn’t fully answer.

However, when the faith of a hundred thousand Crazy Demons flooded in, Long Yi was genuinely taken aback.

The faith of the Crazy Demons was clean and pure. They held no extraneous thoughts and offered themselves completely and without reservation to the Ascender. Under the nourishment of such faith, the growth rate of Long Yi’s Divine Status accelerated!

In return, Long Yi decided to share ’Ascension Power’ with those Semi-Crazy Demons. Of course, unlike the Ascension Power given to ordinary followers, these Semi-Crazy Demons had only one red eye, and the power they received was much weaker than that of ordinary followers.

But regardless, the fact that the Semi-Crazy Demons managed to obtain Ascension Power was a success!

At this moment, Long Yi suddenly felt an illusion of having the entire Ancient Mage Tower within his grasp. Fortunately, he was still lucid enough to quickly shake off this delusion.

"Well, next up, it’s Elma’s turn." Long Yi said. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it with a recommendation ticket or a monthly ticket at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)