Chapter 540: How Could the Second Time be Even More?

The metal hatch closed once more.

Cang Xu remained vigilant.

After all, this was only the second time the fishman youngster had performed such an act. Should memory confusion or similar issues arise, it wouldn't just be the Deep Sea Monster Fish that faced danger, more importantly, the youngster himself would be at risk.

“Though the Deep Sea Monster Fish is a gold level magic ship, compared to the commander, it's utterly insignificant!”

Cang Xu's greatest concern remained the fishman youngster.

Moments later.

The divine blessing manifested once more.

Cang Xu's eyes widened in astonishment. “What's happening?”

“The divine power fluctuations from this second prayer are even stronger than before.”

The metal hatch opened. The fishman youngster stepped out, his stride steady though his expression remained peculiar.

Cang Xu remained vigilant, exchanging the agreed-upon password with the youngster.

Satisfied the youngster was unharmed, the old necromancer sighed in relief. “Commander, this time...”

The fishman youngster cleared his throat. “This time... my clergy cultivation has advanced to silver level!”

Cang Xu was stunned.

As one of the three major transcendent branches, clergymen naturally possessed their own transcendent levels.

Like fighters and magicians, the lowest tier was bronze level, followed by iron level, silver level, and so on, ascending all the way to god level.

Cang Xu attempted to analyze: “This is actually understandable.”

“Though a clergyman's transcendent level isn't directly tied to their clerical position.”

“But generally speaking, in practical terms, higher clerical positions require higher transcendent levels.”

“For a cleric, pairing with a silver level transcendent level is perfectly normal.”

Since returning via the second teleportation, Cang Xu had drawn close to Zhou Zhang and other members of the Charming Blue Church, gathering much intelligence on their enemies from them.

Within the Charming Blue Church, monks were typically bronze level, while missionaries and clerics ranged between iron level and silver level. Priests and bishops, meanwhile, were generally gold level or saint level.

Monk, missionary, cleric, priest, bishop... these were job classifications in the church, also known as clerical positions.

The relationship between clergymen and these clerical positions was roughly analogous to that between magicians and titles such as alchemists, apothecaries, battle mages, and other such professions.

In contrast, fighters could serve as soldiers, knights, mercenaries, thieves, or assassins based on their battle skills and battle qi.

At this point, Cang Xu shifted his tone: “But, Commander, your second prayer yielded such remarkable results.”

“You must understand, despite my numerous prayers and attaining the position of missionary, I remain merely a bronze level clergyman.”

“Yet your single prayer propelled your clergy level straight from bronze to silver level.”

“This is truly...”

Most others might feel unfairness under such circumstances.

But Cang Xu was not like that.

He felt profound gratitude toward the fishman youngster and was willing to follow his lead. Learning of the youngster's immense gains filled him with delight and awe.

“Ahem,” the fishman youngster cleared his throat. “Actually, there's more than just these gains.”

“Could it be... you've also received more divine spells?” Cang Xu asked curiously.

“No, it's a divine statue,” the youngster replied without further delay.

Cang Xu then entered the ship's cabin and saw the divine statue the fishman youngster had mentioned.

It was an image of the Charming Blue Goddess, carved in the form of a mermaid.

Originally, it was quite ordinary.

Just one of the cabin's furnishings, deliberately placed, without a hint of supernatural elements.

A commonplace object.

But now, this statue radiated a silver level aura!

It had ascended.

Its transformation was even more extraordinary than that of the fishman youngster.

From an ordinary object, it had ascended into a silver level sacred artifact!

"I-Is this the power of the gods? The ability to transcend the mundane?!" Cang Xu was stunned.

He had knelt before this statue in prayer more than once.

He understood deeply that the statue was an ordinary item.

Yet now, it has become a silver level sacred artifact.

Sacred artifacts were transcendent items forged by divine power, naturally possessing corresponding transcendent levels.

Cang Xu's expression immediately turned grave: “Though I've only recently become a clergyman, I know this much.”

“Crafting sacred artifacts requires transcendent materials.”

“To forge something transcendent from ordinary materials... I've never heard of such a thing.”

The two exchanged glances, speechless for a moment.

Compared to the gods, they were still too small and weak, unable to comprehend or fathom many things.

After a moment of silence, the fishman youngster spoke first, his eyes gleaming faintly: “I know the purpose of the divine statue. It channels faith, accumulating and storing spirituality.”

“With a silver level sacred artifact statue, continuing my prayers will yield greater benefits.”

“But the statue isn't just a conduit for divine power or a reservoir for faith, it's also a monitoring device for the deity.”

Hearing his commander speak thus, Cang Xu felt his own worries and doubts ease somewhat.

This showed the fishman youngster lacked such profound devotion, retaining a strong sense of self.

Cang Xu remarked, “Something feels off about this.”

“Commander, the rewards from your second prayer surpassed the first.”

"The first time, your magician level advanced from iron to silver. The second time, your clergyman cultivation ascended from bronze to silver level."

"The first time, you gained the clerical position and 28 divine spells. The second time, you obtained a silver level sacred artifact, a divine statue!"

Cang Xu couldn't fathom it.

He couldn't help but speculate: “Could it be that this Surging Wave fishman bloodline holds significant importance to the Charming Blue Goddess?”

“Even if its concentration is only 11%?”

The fishman youngster pondered, “Perhaps the Charming Blue Goddess is in a dire state. She urgently needs a crucial element to break the stalemate. A god level bloodline represents hope for her.”

“Just as She accepted your prayers when you prayed as a necromancer.”

Cang Xu pondered relentlessly, yet no other explanation came to mind in the short term.

He tried to follow the fishman youngster's line of reasoning: “If that's the case, and it truly is because of the Surging Wave fishman bloodline, then Commander, your top priority moving forward must be to increase its bloodline concentration!”

The fishman youngster nodded.

He had already made this decision long ago.

All along, he had actively sought out bloodlines, steadily accumulating them.

Through his efforts, his previous Flame Dragon King bloodline had already reached 34%. The reason the Surging Wave bloodline showed no signs of activity was purely because he had no way to proceed.

Now that he understood it was the Surging Wave bloodline, he could identify downstream lifeforms from the bloodline spectrum and pinpoint targets.

“Given the current situation, we could have Zhou Zhang and her team select specific sea beast groups to teleport in for my absorption,” the fishman youngster suggested.

Cang Xu nodded. “That's a sound approach.”

“Given Zhou Zhang's group's strength and the beast tide from the White Hair Trench, they'll surely provide you with ample bloodline targets, my lord.”

Outside the Ocean Mother Nest, Zhou Zhang stood silently awaiting on the golden altar, unaware that she, a mighty saint level being, had been reduced to a mere tool.

The fishman youngster sighed. “The higher the bloodline concentration, the greater the favor I receive.”

“However, the Surging Wave fishman bloodline concentration must reach around 60% to ascend to the saint level.”

“If reaching a qualitative breakthrough is necessary to earn the gods' attention and greater regard, then careful selection is required.”

Cang Xu nodded in agreement.

Research on bloodlines revealed that the cultivation ceiling for different life forms is determined by varying bloodline concentrations.

In practical terms, this meant that among lower races like fishmen, high level transcendents were rare. Their transcendents were predominantly concentrated in the mid-to-low levels.

Specifically, regarding bloodline concentration, even with relatively low transcendent bloodline purity, fishmen could often cultivate to iron or silver level.

The youngster only had 11% Surging Wave bloodline, but the god level quality allowed him to cultivate to gold level. However, reaching the saint level demands a steeply increased bloodline concentration requirement.

Cang Xu stated, “Commander, you need to accumulate both bloodline and divine favor.”

“Either path will yield greater benefits for you.”

“I cannot compare to you in any way. From this day forward, I will dedicate myself entirely to supporting you!”

The fishman youngster's potential gains prompted Cang Xu to voluntarily step back, willingly ceding the primary role.

“We've prayed twice consecutively, yet haven't tested divine favor.”

“Since you now hold the clerical position of cleric and possess numerous divine spells, why not first aid others in conversion to earn divine favor for use in prayer?”

“Let's see what benefits we gain by praying with divine favor this time!”

The fishman youngster nodded, and the comparative experiment continued.

Earning divine favor proved surprisingly easy.

They effortlessly retrieved a Charming Blue believer from the Mother Nest.

The octopus saint beast remained utterly unaware under the Deceptive Disguise spell.

The fishman youngster cast a divine spell for the first time. His strongest impression was how effortlessly it was released and its remarkably high success rate.

The set of conversion spells was quite unique, but since the fishman youngster had already practiced numerous undead spells before, it posed no problem at all.

After casting the entire set, the dragonman youngster instantly earned 10 divine favor points.

This was because the subject he helped convert was merely a bronze level fishman.

Cang Xu was more concerned with another matter: “Commander, when you used the Spiritual Navigation spell, what did you see?”

“As per Zhou Zhang's guidance, this spell directly locates the deity, channeling the believer's faith straight to the divine entity itself.”

“Therefore, the image you saw was the divine entity's embodiment as perceived within your heart.”

The fishman youngster grasped Cang Xu's meaning: “I see.”

“So you're saying we can reverse-engineer the caster's own closeness to the deity, or rather, their level of faith, from this image?”

Cang Xu nodded. “Exactly. You could also call it their level of understanding.”

"I saw the Charming Blue Goddess statue first, then the gold level altar used for blood sacrifices. This signifies I'm drawing ever closer to the Charming Blue Goddess."

“What did you see?”

The fishman youngster wore a puzzled expression: “I only saw an ocean. Strangely, this ocean kept spinning, forming a massive whirlpool.”