Chapter 316: The Weight of History

When discussing the mysterious God Fox, Hao Miao Yi Meng showed evident awe and respect on his face as he spoke solemnly.

“Though we were given this opportunity, according to the Seven Hidden Stars, the probability of any ordinary entity, especially outsiders who are not native to the Ancient Spirit Realm, receiving a response from the God Fox is actually less than one percent.”

“At first, I merely thought I would try my luck by visiting the God Fox Temple, but unexpectedly… that deity actually responded to my prayers.”

“That truly is… an incredible and magnificent existence. Do you remember, Min Chen, how we have found remnants left by divinities in this world more than once and discussed what a true god really is?”

“But the deities of this continent have all departed; we cannot contact them, nor can we see them with our own eyes.”

“In the battle for the remains of the Serpent, we encountered the projections of members from the Twilight Council, and in the Illusory Realm, we faced the Lord of Flames and found traces of other elemental lords, but they were neither real nor complete gods…”

“The Ancient Spirit Realm is different; there are no restrictions on the existence of gods there. The strength of the God Fox far exceeds any existence I have ever seen, even making me reminisce about the World Will that guided us here.”

“I even suspect that He possesses the ability to personally descend into this world, but for some special reason, He has chosen not to.”

“That is the true, supreme God.”

“After making a request to that seemingly ethereal voice that lingers clearly around us, the God Fox granted me a key.”

“Of course, the key is just a metaphor; to be precise, it is a kind of secret art that allows one to sacrifice something of oneself in exchange for causality—a power beyond an ordinary person’s imagination.”

“Exchange… causality?”

In the air, the Priestess seemed surprised and confused, yet a glimmer of realization flickered in her voice, and Hao Miao Yi Meng’s light laughter followed.

“Ha ha, I bet you’re scratching your head trying to figure this out. It sounds very mysterious, but this secret art is actually not that complex.”

“Min Chen, if we were to describe time as an endless, formless river flowing forward, we, as ordinary beings, cannot observe or touch this River of Time because we are inherently part of it and can only be swept along.”

“But by using the secret art passed down by the God Fox, living beings can, like truly divine entities, leap out of the River of Time, observe, and even interfere with its past and future flow.”

“Of course, as I mentioned, it does come at a cost.”

“In order to cultivate this secret art and leap out of the River of Time, one must first abandon the concepts and constraints of causality—our true names, like my ‘Hao Miao Yi Meng’, or yours… cough…”

Hao Miao Yi Meng awkwardly rubbed his nose, preemptively cutting off the topic before a certain commoner youth’s face began to twitch, and hurriedly continued.

“Cough, in any case, this secret art operates on that principle. Once used, the true name granted to us by the world will be erased, and the greater the extent to which we interfere with the River of Time, the more traces of our existences will correspondingly diminish.”

“At this point, I’m sure you’ve understood, right? Yes, although the cost is immense, this secret art from the God Fox can theoretically ‘rewrite’ certain events that have previously occurred.”

“Initially, I thought the God Fox imparted this technique so that I could return to the past like in those comic novels and change the outcome of that battle in the Illusory Realm, but upon closer reflection, I realized that this secret art can change only the traces left in the River of Time, so-called history…”

“And truly happened events, the dead who have passed, cannot be reversed.”

“After all, we are mere mortals. We might cleverly leap outside of time, but we cannot shake the river itself. I suspect that even true gods would struggle to reverse time or completely overturn causality; otherwise, they would be truly omniscient and omnipotent.”

“History is an irreproducible and unsimulated past; pulling one string can affect the whole fabric—the power of the butterfly effect, its weight is far more serious than we imagine. It cannot, nor should it, be changed.”

“So, I began to ponder how to properly utilize this power to achieve my aim of rescuing Mofuman.”

“During this time, I perused many ancient books collected in the first floor of the Fairy Classic Pavilion and, by chance, came across a diagram recording a method called the Blood of the Cross.”

“Min Chen, can you believe it? It was an unbelievable method that converged the power of faith known as causality to condense the Divine Spark and create a true divinity!”

“I thought long and hard, combining the direction suggested by the Seven Hidden Stars, the secret art granted by the God Fox, and this ancient method, ultimately deciding to give it a try.”

“With the support of Lingyin, I brought Mofuman back to this continent, establishing an organization called the Lingyin Merchant Association. Under the guise of commerce, I built bases around the world, utilizing the support from Lingyin Fairy Island and pooling funds from my own collection, preparing a lot.”

“Originally, my plan was to use the secret art given by the God Fox to modify a part of history to create a virtual Divine Name and attract faith, leveraging the power of the Blood of the Cross to slowly facilitate Mofuman’s transformation into a god, thus achieving the effect of remolding his soul and body.”

“But soon I realized that this was far too slow. If there wasn’t a vast foundation of faith, meeting the conditions for the Blood of the Cross to condense the Divine Spark might take thousands or tens of thousands of years. How could Mofuman possibly wait that long!”

“However, at that moment, news came from the Holy Empire that demons were invading en masse yet again. The Saint of Bright Light and the incarnation of Corruption fell in battle, and the once mightily Holy Army was retreating under the pressure…”

“I did not want to waste time meddling, but suddenly realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“The Holy Empire’s Muguang Church is the largest faith group in the world, and the source of their faith, the Primordial Light, is a concept even more elusive than divinity, making it easy to guide and modify.”

“So, I decided to leverage the faith foundation of the Muguang Church to reshape Mofuman.”

“At that time, the Holy Empire, having lost the Saint of Bright Light, was in absolute decline in the war against the demons. I used this as an excuse to approach the Judging Saintess Losa Cecelia, claiming I could develop a new power to help them.”

“You know that girl; she usually seems quite clever, but when facing trusted individuals, she can be quite naive. Plus, I brought news about you, which attracted her attention, so she didn’t suspect much and decided to lend her full support.”

“This power system centered around the secret art Blood of the Cross, supplemented by my mechanical craftsmanship, after modification, I decided to call it the Divine Network.”

“And the power driven by the Divine Network…”

Hao Miao Yi Meng, in the video, rested his chin in thought for a moment, as if suddenly inspired, chuckled softly.

“Since it relies on the Power of Faith to activate, let’s call it Faith-based Magic. What do you think?”

   

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