Chapter 701: The Basis of Belief is Acknowledgement
“Grand God Mist, ruler of the ocean and the fish.”
“Your divine power enveloped myriad fish and turns the vast seas.”
“Your mercy and power exceed imagination.”
“We are incomparably grateful for Your grace, because You brought us back from the misery of death. In our darkest moment, You gave us hope and strength.”
“Our fighters were resurrected because of Your power, now, they bravely stand before Your glory.”
“They will remain forever dedicating their loyalty and faith to You for their entire lives.”
…
“Grand God Mist, allow us to sense Your almightiness, and never be disconnected from Your favor and mercy.”
“We worship You and ask that You acknowledge our believers who fought for You.”
“Please admit them under Your banner, continue to show Your energy and strength to them. Let the resurrected continue to cross obstacles within Your grace and transcend our enemies.”
…
“In our prayers, we call out to You and hope You can hear our soft prayers.”
“We deem You the pillar that will never waver, because You seek to comfort us in our prayers, You are our sole hope we appeal to when plights grow wild.”
…
“Ocean God Mist, Fish God, we hope You will continue to protect us, give us the power and vision to get through storms, and point our way through the darkness. Thank You for your grace and blessings, we pray for Your blessings and that You will eternally navigate our journey forward.”
“We hope Your radiant light bathes the entire world and allows Your power and love to fill it!”
…
This was quite the verbose communal prayer.
The dragonman youngster was worthy of being a leader.
He first said a sentence, then everyone repeated after him. The ambience became solemn, respectful, and dignified, then in the wake of the dragonman youngster’s voice, his posture and expression became majestic and fanatical.
In this world, there were few nonbelievers, the vast majority of people had their own faith.
Many of them were not monotheistic, rather they believed in many gods. Therefore, general believers made up most of the population.
These people’s old faiths quickly swayed, even collapsing from the foundation.
A large-scale conversion was happening.
As a divine emissary in a divine domain, the fishman youngster’s perception abilities were at their apex, and could keenly and clearly sense everyone’s Charming Blue faith was sprouting, growing quickly, and constantly strengthening.
To him, this was both familiar and unfamiliar.
It was familiar due to the large amount of clerical experience he had obtained through divine blessings. Thus, although this was the first time the dragonman youngster officially evangelized, he had done so in an organized and well-trodden manner.
It was unfamiliar because this was the first time he had done it in real life, personally experiencing it was a layer different than experiencing it through divine gifts.
This would undoubtedly deepen the dragonman youngster’s understanding of it.
The dragonman youngster observed everyone’s hearts like a god was gazing at them.
They were experiencing the same thing Dao Hen once did when he was gazed upon.
It was as if they were insects looking up at a high mountain, realizing how grand the heavens and earth were, and how insignificant they themselves were.
This increased the reverence in everyone’s hearts, and they knelt to the ground, bent their waists, and hung their heads lower.
“Are we feeling God’s gaze upon us?”
“God is looking at us!”
“Heavens, it’s so great, so boundless…”
Of everyone present, the one preaching, the dragonman youngster, was actually the most tranquil.
His train of thought was even a bit unorganized as he mentally made other connections.
“Charming Blue Goddess’ main body is sleeping; I am actually drawing from the Godhead’s power.”
“Charming Blue Godhead, Dueling Godhead…”
“If I gain the Dueling Godhead in the future, will I also be able to pretend to be a god and conduct ministries?”
The dragonman youngster led everyone in prayer as he slowly turned around to look at the three gold levels.
His expression was flat, but the three gold level experts could sense that it seemed heaven and earth was suppressing them.
Divine spell – Deterrence!
This divine spell imitated divine prestige, strongly awing a target.
The fishman youngster once used this divine spell to easily intimidate Snow Bird Harbor City Lord. It was actually more appropriate to use it while preaching.
The first Deterrence spell was actually to help his preach.
From a certain point of view, almost all divine spells were bestowed by the gods for the purpose of evangelizing. Even healing divine spells, which could assert a god’s mighty power and benevolence, attracting believers to their religion.
Thump.
Under Deterrence, Cong Mang’s knees knocked against the ground in a kneel.
He had been beaten by the fishman youngster the hardest, was also a pirate, amenable to circumstances, and had a gangster temperament, so he bowed his head and began to recite the litanies.
Hun Tong glanced at Cong Mang, the depths of his eyes hiding bitterness. A gold level like him had kneeled too quickly, and now the pressure was concentrating on the other two.
“Oh dear!” Hun Tong sighed to himself, his mood heavy.
He had been subdued by the dragonman youngster already, and despite having his own faith that he deeply identified with joy, he also knew he couldn’t pull away from the powerful.
Therefore, he had no choice but to try to convert and followed the dragonman youngster in whispered recitation of the litanies.
This left just Da Dou.
After a few seconds, Da Dou was sweating profusely, and his expression was distorting as he struggled.
Although the young man was not in his fishman form and didn’t have the Surging Wave fishman bloodline’s formidable empowerment, it didn’t matter, this was the Charming Blue divine domain.
In the Charming Blue Divine Domain, Charming Blue divine spells would increase massively in power, far exceeding what the Surging Wave fishman bloodline could increase them by in the outside world!
The few seconds the young man was looking at him seemed like endless centuries to Da Dou.
After incessant suffering, he finally kneeled and hung his head, but his back still remained straight.
He tightly closed his lips and never opened his mouth to follow along with the dragonman youngster’s prayers.
On his body, the flame totems’ lines appeared, and faint fiery sparks spilled out.
Of the three gold levels, Da Dou had the most unflinching will.
His faith was very firm and singular, he had the haughtiness of the giants and did not want to believe in the god of a different race. He wasn’t willing to even try to pray along with the others.
In this extraordinary world, reciting another god’s prayers was not as superficial or simple as playing along with circumstances, it had genuine effects.
Da Dou did not want to “contaminate” his faith.
The dragonman youngster didn’t continue to force him into doing so.
After seeing Da Dou kneel, he shifted his gaze.
Faith could not be forced.
Being stubbornly tough would have the opposite effect. With this bit of knowledge and large amounts of clergy experience, the dragonman youngster knew this clearly.
Evangelizing to people like Da Dou should be done slowly.
The dragonman youngster was not in the least bit worried.
Because he did not believe in Mist, let alone Charming Blue Goddess!
He wouldn’t force everyone to believe in the God Mist. He had multiple goals in this evangelization.
As time passed, everyone’s convictions would change less and trend towards being fixed.
The dragonman youngster felt astonished, “Most people converted, but there are only four pious believers, and not a single fanatical believer?”
This outcome was quite unexpected.
In his original expectations, this group of people should be extremely grateful after they were brought back from the dead. Most of them should be at least pious level, while there should be at least two or three fanatical believers.
“Why was this conversion result so small?” The dragonman youngster asked himself.
Although he had received much experience from divine blessings, not much of it was on the Resurrection spell.
After all, Resurrection had always been seldomly used.
These limited experiences pertaining to Resurrection were all about singular resurrections of important figures of the Charming Blue Church.
After they were resurrected, their faith was substantially elevated.
It was precisely these experiences that gave the dragonman youngster great hopes for this preaching.
But reality did not answer his expectations.
“Faith…”
“It is not something that can be gained through immense benefits or compelled through fear or awe.”
“True faith comes from one acknowledging with their innermost being.”
“Therefore, believers nurtured from childhood have the strongest and most stable faith.”
The dragonman youngster thought of Xiong Ju at this time.
At the time, when he and Xiong Ju were publicly dueling, Xiong Ju would rather crush the Evil Eye than use it to gain an advantage in the duel.
This was Xiong Ju’s firm belief.
Xiong Ju’s deference to duels came from his innermost acknowledgement of it at the most fundamental level.
This conviction was firm and truly significant.
“Truly reliable faith cannot be spoken in general terms.”
“True faith does not need one to tell themselves to believe in it, but rather that they themselves believe in it.”
“Although these people have converted, they don’t acknowledge the God Mist. In fact, what do they know currently? From the prayers, they can only guess at the God Mist’s abilities or that he is the god of another race?”
“A lack of understanding will naturally lower acknowledgement. Even if the God Mist saved them.”
“In the end, people are unable to deceive their heart. A momentarily strong feeling can only nudge and catalyze, it is not the main source of faith.”
Practice and mental experiences were integrated together at this moment, giving the dragonman youngster penetrating insight into evangelization!
He subconsciously looked at the big guy.
The big guy was also kneeling, but his head was held high, and his chest was out as he impatiently gazed at the dragonman youngster.
The dragonman youngster laughed, “Xiao Guai is my fanatical believer.”
The young man once again realized how precious the big guy was.
He hadn’t met a fanatical believer of Charming Blue Goddess yet, while on the contrary, he had one of his own.
Adding on the big guy’s inherently exceptional bloodline, the dragonman youngster was more determined to focus on the latter’s cultivation.
The rate of faith change in everyone had already become imperceivable.
It could be said the outcome was visible.
This preaching ended up being a bit disappointing.
“Calculating it, my first public preaching was a devastating loss.” The dragonman youngster sighed.
His divine power investment was massive.
Almost all of his divine power had been spent to revive a few silver levels.