Chapter 6 Regained Faith

In the Natural Temple on the main trunk of the World Tree.

Natural Saintess Alice and Old Priest Samir knelt before the statue, somewhat uneasily.

They bowed their heads, their faces brimming with boundless joy and deep shame...

At this moment, Alice seemed to have undergone some inexplicable transformation, emanating a sense of sanctity and holiness.

The Old Priest, having regained his composure, also seemed to have experienced a subtle change.

Berserker Basa stood to the side, his expression stern and fervent, like a statue...

"Did I perhaps overdo the persuasion?"

Inside the Divine Space, Eve swallowed nervously as she looked at the "Believer Numbers" section in her information frame.

[Believer Numbers: 3 (Saint 1, Zealot 2, Devout Believer 0, Lay Believer 0)]

The operation carried out by Eve had a much greater effect than She had imagined.

Initially, She had thought that providing timely help might better rekindle their faith, but She hadn't expected such an intense reaction!

Previously a Devout Believer, Saintess Alice not only rediscovered her faith after this tumult but even surpassed the level of Zealot to become a Saint, a rare occurrence listed in the records!

And the Old Priest, whose life was saved, has become a Zealot just like the Oak Guardian!

Eve would never forget the scene where the Old Priest, realizing what had happened, flung himself to the ground, slapping himself while weeping uncontrollably like a child.

The infinite expectation followed by ultimate despair, and now the emergence of hope, brought about an extraordinary shock and effect.

"No wonder gods let their believers suffer hardships; offering a date after the bitterness makes the effect stronger... hmm, could this be the so-called Stockholm syndrome? Uh... that's not quite appropriate to say, but it does seem similar."

Eve reflected for a moment and then checked her Divine Power value.

[Divine Power Value: 20/500]

Increasing the number of believers could provide Her with a steady stream of faith, which could then be converted into Divine Power values, something She had anticipated early on.

Yet, the amount of faith brought by high-level believers still surprised Her.

She had only 10 points of Divine Power left, and the treatment of the two elves had cost another point, but when the two recovered their faith, they actually provided a full 6 points of Divine Power!

This... was too exaggerated.

To think that awakening Berserker Basa had cost only 5 points of Divine Power.

However, Eve soon discovered that Alice and the others seemed to be endowed with some inexplicable force that burst forth as their faith was restored, resulting in the surge in Divine Power...

This force was somewhat similar to the power of wishes.

Besides...

The Oak Guardian Berserker Basa, having killed more than twenty Half-Beasts, had surprisingly provided Her with 5 points of Divine Power!

Eve felt quite odd in Her heart.

If the changes in Alice and Samir were surprising to Her, then the situation with the Oak Guardian Basa was downright shocking.

Although Basa had sacrificed all of the Half-Beasts' life force to Her, no matter how you looked at it, the life force of more than twenty Half-Beasts of average Black Iron Middle Rank couldn't possibly be worth 5 points of Divine Power.

Let alone 5 points, even 1 point would be a stretch.

However, the recent 5 points of Divine Power didn't seem to be all converted from the life force of the Half-Beasts; there appeared to be something else...

This force was very similar to the one Alice and the others possessed.

After reviewing the heritage records of the World Tree, Eve came to a certain conjecture.

These Half-Beasts, perennial hunters of elves, bore the accumulated resentment of countless elves. As the Elf Main God, exterminating them satisfied the wishes of those lost souls.

The stronger and more intelligent the creature, the stronger its resentment after death.

And elves, being long-lived and intelligent creatures innately aligned with magic, the resentment produced by the deaths of countless elves over millennia was no small sum.

Resentment is also a form of spiritual energy; akin yet distinct from the power of faith, the ownerless resentment and souls would fall into the Netherworld with the death of creatures.

In killing these hunters, Eve was fulfilling the duty of the "Elf Main God," and so the accumulation of years of resentment transformed into gratitude, rising as the power of faith and eventually crossing the void to reimburse Eve's Divine Power.

Not only that, even within the power of faith provided by the two priests, there was a trace of elven resentment!

This... brought a great surprise to Eve.

"That is to say, apart from growing my faith, I can also eliminate the enemies of the elves, restore the glory of the Elf Race, gain the recognition of lost souls, and thereby swiftly recover my strength! Not only that, the skill of war sacrifice seems to have great potential as well, indirectly providing me with power..."

Eve reached such a conclusion.

However, She soon felt it was somewhat futile...

"The enemies of elves that I can deal with... to speak directly, most should belong to the hunting squads, and in reality, the number of these squads is limited. Even if I were to wipe them out entirely, I likely couldn't recover much vitality. As for the indirect ones, and the true culprits, I am powerless to confront them now..."

"In addition, while the resentment of these undead seems abundant, it's actually quite limited. I estimate it might be abundant only in the early stages to feed back into me. Relying solely on the resentment of the undead, I'm afraid at most it would just allow me to escape death's brink."

"To restore the Elf Race's glory, I must have many helpers—that is to say, I must gather the remaining Elves. Moreover, to indirectly obtain strength through the sacrificial rites of war by my believers, this too requires a substantial number of followers to accumulate..."

"This number, I'm afraid, has to be counted in tens of thousands, and possibly could be tens or even hundreds of millions..."

"But how many Elves are there that currently exist?"

Having "overheard" the conversation between Alice and Samir, Eve has gained a considerable understanding of the current state of the Elf Clan.

To sum it up, when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter; not even one in ten survived, and the remaining Elves are all hiding, with their once-glorious civilization almost completely disrupted...

"If I really had enough time to gather my people, my divine belief would be nearly restored, so in this case...it doesn't seem to be a shortcut at all..."

"And if I want to rebuild Elf civilization, that's even more difficult, as the population base needed for a civilization is quite substantial."

The more I think about it, the more disappointed I become.

"I'm still too weak. If it were the World Tree in its heyday, I wouldn't have to worry about the population issue; I could have directly used Divine Power to create Primordial Elves."

The Primordial Elves were the original generation of the Elf Race, the first group of Elves to be born from the World Tree.

"But on the other hand, if I really had the power to create Primordial Elves, I wouldn't need to rely on rebuilding Elf civilization to restore my strength. This is essentially a dead end!"

Thinking of this, Eve feels utterly helpless.

Creating Primordial Elves is too costly in terms of Divine Power for the current Eve.

More precisely, to bring forth the souls that Primordial Elves possess is too great a drain on the ailing World Tree.

Eve has the divine domain of "Life" and theoretically possesses the ability to create souls.

But in the current state, Her ability to birth souls is nearly lost, and the Divine Power consumption would be much greater when forced than under normal conditions.

To put it in perspective, if the cost of creating a single soul in the prime era is 1, then the weakened state might require close to 10 times that...

Forget about creating souls; even the "enlightenment" of Berserker's soul has consumed 5 points of Her Divine Power!

That's right, "enlightenment" of souls.

Enlightening Berserker was an instance where Eve forced her abilities.

And of the consumed 5 points of Divine Power, the majority was used on the soul, the energy spent on giving life to the Oak Guardian and the silver strength was actually very, very minimal...

With Eve's current condition, the creation of a Primordial Elf's soul from nothing would be even more costly.

If She were just creating the body, the cost would not be so high.

But if She doesn't bestow a soul, then the created beings are nothing more than empty vessels, utterly useless.

Of course, as Eve's strength recovers, the cost of creating souls will gradually decrease... until finally returning to the normal state of birthing Primordial Elves.

At that time, birthing souls would not even cost 1 point of Divine Power!

But that is too far away, Eve can't wait.

This is, in fact, a matter of time and efficiency.

"Could it be that I can only slowly gather my people and restore faith to enhance my strength? If so... it may take several decades or even centuries?"

Too long!

And Eve doesn't lack for adversaries; inheriting the World Tree, Eve has also inherited the enemies of the previous World Tree, and those old beings are True Gods!

The body of the previous World Tree was secure for a thousand years because the previous World Tree, in the last moments of the divine war, exerted all of its strength to cast a Cursing Witchcraft on its own body.

Under this Divine Arts, except for Natural believers, no one beneath True God status can touch the body of the World Tree.

After the divine war, the Magic Power in Segis World became increasingly scarce, the channels between the Heavenly Realm and the secular plane closed, and True Gods from the Heavenly Realm could no longer descend in their true form, while True Gods of the secular world fell into slumber...

In such circumstances, the World Tree was able to be preserved.

But when Eve inherited the legacy, this Divine Arts had already broken.

If Eve doesn't have enough strength and is still on death's door, even the arrival of enemies with Legendary Power might not be something She could withstand.

"If there was a way to find a large quantity of souls, that'd be great. Come to think of it, if I had souls, I could just worry about the bodies, being able to create Elves cunningly... With that solved, and by continuing to gather the remaining clan members and strengthen faith, with both aspects taken care of, I could gradually rise..."

But... where can I find souls? Due to the presence of belief, almost all the souls in this world are claimed! And Eve can't enter the Netherworld...

Moreover, even if She found usable souls, they must also be willing to be commanded by Her.

"This is too difficult."

Eve, thoroughly bored, surfs the internet in the Divine Space, lamenting...

"Wait a minute..."

Suddenly, as if struck by an association, Her consciousness quivers, thoughtfully staring at the network channel of Blue Star:

"There might actually be a way..."