The Birth of a…

"What's happening?!"

The voice of the woman shrieked, feeling space distort in the region.

Voidseye was shocked too, observing the golden pillar of light with great shock swelling in his heart. The sudden upheaval in space almost crippled his domain of control, the veins around his eyes split open and blood jutted out, the pain unbearable.

What's going on?!

Even as these thoughts raced in his head, the crisp voice echoed out from the unstable space all around. "Retreat now! Haha, what a stroke of fortune!"

The voice was also at a loss. However, she knew that after suffering from a backlash, Voidseye was helpless to struggle against the capture. The barbed whips twisted like snakes as they whirled and bound Voidseye, launching the man in the direction of the remaining three blood-ignition puppets.

The three blood-ignition puppets, despite being called trash so blatantly, didn't tarry one bit. Each of them tossed out a special chain that plunged into Voidseye's body before they turned, laughed, and shot away into the horizon at high speeds.

They hadn't expected to capture a test subject with innate spatial properties this easily!

Meanwhile, in the rainforest.

Pleas for mercy and cries of agony kept resounding from all around. By now, 15 minutes had already passed and players were starting to resurrect in random locations wearing simple robes and in a weakened state.

There weren't only players, but also natives with white indicators above their heads, as they were bestowed with neutral good alignment, and they held no ill feelings toward the players.

For example, a pair of siblings who huddled up in the stomach of a deep pit, the little sister resting limply on the chest of her big brother, both their breathings shallow and weak.

"Big brother, I don't want you to die…"

The little girl spoke weakly, tears streaming down her cheeks and mixing with the blood on her big brother's chest. She could feel his chest undulating infrequently, while the light in his eyes dimmed by the moment.

"Gods… please… save my big brother…"

This little girl merely voiced out her hopes out of desperation, however, she hadn't expected the skies to rumble and dark clouds to gather at this moment.

She was shocked, but more so, she deeply believed her prayers were answered. Thus, even as her pearly, translucent tears trickled in rivulets, she continued to pray with her nigh-inaudible voice.

Someone once said that only on their deathbed, would people remember the existence of God.

Only when looking death in the eye, do their hearts squeeze out whatever sincerity, devotion, and illusions they might have about God.

At these moments of death, they'd contribute anything borderline incomprehensible to the workings of miracles and machinations of the divine.

Tens, hundreds, and thousands of neutral good natives desperately prayed, be it verbally or in their hearts, and these prayers only intensified when they witnessed the curtain of dense, black clouds gathered in the sky, revolving around a thick golden pillar.

"Brother Frankenstein, look there!"

On a distant hill, a group of players had just respawned to witness this spectacle. One, in particular, tugged at the arm of another player while exclaiming animatedly.

"I know! I'm already streaming both on forums and on myTwitch!" Frankenstein flung the hand away, his eyes blazing. "I already have over 90,000 views on the latter!"

…

Vastpond Town was yet another newbie town under the jurisdiction of the Eight Directions Alliance. At the moment, Luke was going about in the town and actively seeking opportunities and quests to complete.

He habitually checked the forums for anything worthy of notice or gossip. However, most posts were about the discovered Crimson Nation and how deeply hidden and terrifying their power is.

A lot of the posts were hate speech about incognito players breaking into towns and cities, committing mass genocide, or performing blood sacrifices. Some players controlled humanoid puppets strong enough to level two or three-storey buildings, and they were borderline insane with their conduct.

Luke shook his head in disappointment, lamenting the fate of mankind. Suddenly, a new post caught his interest despite the low number of views, a mere few thousand.

He wasn't surprised by the low number since the active players in Themis' Holy Order Prefecture were the lowest of all seven prefectures, but what caught his attention was the title of the stream.

"Birth of a God?" Luke murmured to himself, found a nearby bench, and sat down to watch.

…

Ye Qing was now experiencing the metamorphosis of his evolution path's beginning. In the pillar of golden light, as he floated in the fetus position, a pair of soft white wings sprouted from his shoulder bones.

As the wings grew in size, Ye Qing's hair adopted a golden luster, albeit it didn't extend in length or thickness like the earlier transformation. In fact, Ye Qing didn't feel much of an increase in power despite the minute change in appearance.

As he closed his eyes to feel out the metamorphosis, the runes and inscriptions for the lesser healing talismans, fireball talismans, and defensive talismans flowed in his mind, as natural as breathing.

Even as he began to inspect his skills tree and the passive skill, Book of Imprints, indistinct whispers tickled his ears and consciousness.

Were these prayers? Ye Qing was confused. He subconsciously had this feeling that tens, hundreds, and thousands of voices were reaching out to him, begging for help, salvation, and mercy.

From the evolution path's name, Ye Qing already knew that his progress would be inextricably linked to accumulating universal forces both internal and external, not to forget the faith energy. So far, he was wondering how to go about collecting faith energy to grow his skills tree, Book of Changes.

Ye Qing mulled over the development. "I guess this makes sense… As for a medium of worship— that's most likely a title or a name, right? Well, I'll just go with Divine Venerate, I guess…"

There was no way Ye Qing would go about using his name, be it the one in real life or the one used in the game as a medium of worship. No matter how abysmal the chances are, he wouldn't take the risk of exposing himself.

…

"Seriously, Frank? You tilted your stream 'The Birth of a God', in all seriousness?"

"What do you know? Look at all these people! They're obviously praying in worship!"

"Frank, you know how humans function— they're prone to do anything… literally anything for a new lease on life. Forget kowtowing and praying, they'd even turn into mindless slaves."

"Yeah? Well, can you explain to me then, why does that person bathed in golden light have a golden indicator above his head? Don't you dare say it's the effect from the golden pillar, this game's interface isn't that trashy!"

The player was about to respond when Frankenstein slapped him on the back of the head. "Look! The golden question marks are changing… It says… It says… Divine Venerate?"

Frankenstien gasped, a rush of excitement turning his eyes bloodshot even as the chat on his Twitch exploded. That wasn't a name but a title, and listening carefully, the natives all around began to chant and pray in unison, as though the title had mysteriously appeared in their heads.

They weren't players and they couldn't see stats, hence, the fact they would start addressing the person as Divine Venerate simultaneously proved many things!

"I told you! You simply wouldn't listen to my gamer instincts! I've been streaming these games ever since you learned how to drink breast milk, kid! Don't play with me!"

Frankenstien felt proud and gratified, laughing even as he instructed his friends not to steal his thunder and start streaming. He wanted to monopolize the glory.

It was just wishful thinking, though, as countless players in the region who didn't choose to respawn and instead patiently waited, were streaming live at the moment.

"It's not like he bothered answering their prayers anyway…" That player felt unresigned and thus, tossed out this comment unwittingly. Alas, just as he spoke, the golden pillar of light intensified and expanded in diameter, to the point where all they could see was gold.

…

"Yes!"

Ye Qing answered without hesitation, even if this would leave him depleted of energy and in a weakened state for the rest of his gaming session for the day. Although he could accumulate the faith energy from these people in their moments of desperation, this decision would weigh heavily on his conscience in the future.

Even if most of these people would later forget about this favor and grace, Ye Qing wouldn't regret it.

Ye Qing observed the skill tree as its roots which represented internal force, external force, and faith energy respectively began to wither very quickly.

In seconds, the skill try was gray once again, and the golden light slowly dissipated. As for Ye Qing, his golden hair reverted back to black, his wings receded, and the incognito robes appeared on his person.

By the time he landed on the scorched ground, everything returned to normal…

"Thank you, Divine Venerate… Thank you…"

Ye Qing suddenly turned around to find a little girl kneeling in the stomach of a deep pit, tears drenching her round face while she held both hands toward the sky.