Chapter 42: The Statue of the Seven and Faith Power
Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows of the Church of the Water God's great hall, casting dappled patterns of color across the bluestone floor. In a side-chamber training room, Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged, faint blue fluctuations of soul power coiling around his frame. Ever since returning to the church, he had poured nearly every waking moment into cultivation, even taking his meals in rushed, perfunctory haste.
"Three more ranks to go..." The youth's eyes were clenched shut, fine beads of sweat pearling at his temples. He could feel, with crystalline clarity, his soul power surging forward at an astonishing pace. This was owed not only to his training in the Mysterious Heaven Technique, but even more to the elixirs Furina had bestowed upon him.
Thinking of that Pope who seemed like a water nymph stepped out of legend, the corner of Huo Yuhao's lips curved upward unbidden. It was Furina who had taken him in when he was at his lowest, who had given him new hope. This debt of kindness—he would repay it, and more.
"Once I reach rank twenty, Brother Tianmeng can help me obtain my second martial soul," Huo Yuhao murmured inwardly, his soul power circulation quickening yet further. Though the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm had remained tight-lipped about the specifics of that second martial soul, the mysterious, weighted tone in its voice told him it would be no ordinary thing.
Within Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea, a vast, silver world unfurled in slow, ceaseless motion. The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm drifted lazily at its center, but as it sensed the soaring ascent of its host's soul power, its plump, rotund body began to wriggle with irrepressible excitement.
"This kid... he's practically throwing his life into this..." The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm swept its spiritual perception across Huo Yuhao's meridians and couldn't help clicking its tongue in wonder. In the span of mere days, Huo Yuhao's soul power had charged all the way from rank fourteen to rank seventeen—such speed could draw gasps of astonishment even from a creature as widely experienced as itself.
At this pace, half a month at most, and Huo Yuhao would break through to rank twenty. At the thought, a gleam of eager anticipation flickered in the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's tiny eyes.
"Ice, just wait a little longer. We'll see each other again soon..." It murmured to itself, and in its mind surfaced the emerald-green silhouette that haunted its every dream.
One of the three great Heavenly Kings of the Far North—the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion. The Ice Emperor. An existence that had once regarded it as nothing more than food. And yet, from the very first moment they'd met, it had fallen utterly and hopelessly. This feeling might be absurd, might be laughable—but it simply could not pull itself free.
More crucially, the Ice Emperor had now lived to the age of three hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred years. She had less than a single century before the heavenly tribulation of four hundred thousand years descended upon her. And in her current state, she had no hope whatsoever of surviving that tribulation. When it came, what awaited her was the complete annihilation of both body and soul.
"But it's alright. I have a plan." The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm murmured the words like a quiet prayer. Its God-Creation Plan was precisely this: to make the Ice Emperor Huo Yuhao's second martial soul, and at the same time let her be reborn in the form of a spirit soul. In this way, she would not only evade the heavenly tribulation, but could also walk the road to godhood alongside it.
At this thought, the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm unconsciously cast a glance toward a certain corner of the spiritual sea. There, suspended in stillness, was an unremarkable gray orb of light. Ever since entering Huo Yuhao's body, it had remained utterly dormant.
"This fellow... why still no sign of waking..." A thread of disquiet laced the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice. Though it would much prefer this mysterious visitor to remain in eternal slumber, its instincts told it that what was fated to come would come, sooner or later. If the being woke and harbored ill intent toward Huo Yuhao—in its current state, it was far from certain it could fend it off.
As it sank into these troubled musings, a strange and peculiar aura suddenly seized its attention.
"This is..." The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm snapped instantly alert. Its formidable spiritual power flared outward, meticulously probing the source of that aura. "Divinity? It's faint—very faint—but it's unmistakably the essence of divinity... Can it be that someone's about to ascend to godhood again?"
It focused its perception and swiftly pinpointed the source. "Right here, inside the Church of the Water God? That young lady Furina who calls herself the Water God—what in the world is she up to? How could she possess a treasure of this order? Could she truly be the reincarnation of a god?"
This discovery left the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm both startled and secretly delighted. If Furina truly had some connection to the divine, then having Huo Yuhao stay by her side would be an immense boon for its God-Creation Plan. After all, judging from the way she regarded Huo Yuhao, she placed great value on his potential and harbored no ill intentions whatsoever.
At that very moment, inside the Church of the Water God's main hall, an exquisitely crafted Statue of the Seven had already been installed upon the central altar. The statue was carved from a unique, specially chosen blue crystal, and it shimmered with a soft, gentle halo beneath the sunlight. Though its facial features didn't perfectly mirror Furina's own, that aura of transcendent, otherworldly grace was identical.
Furina stood before the statue, watching with quiet satisfaction as believers spontaneously gathered in worship. She had issued not a single command, yet these devout followers seemed to have grasped the meaning of this statue by pure instinct.
"Our Church of the Water God indeed deserves a statue worthy of its name," an elderly believer murmured to himself, bowing in deep reverence.
A few water-element soul masters were even more pleasantly astonished to discover that when meditating near the statue, their soul power circulation accelerated noticeably, and their sensitivity to the water element sharpened to an extraordinary degree.
"This must be Lady Furina's blessing!" one young soul master exclaimed excitedly, drawing fervent nods from everyone around him.
"Curse it all! Why couldn't my martial soul be water-element?!"
Yet Furina, standing at the statue's side, was far from as serene as she appeared on the surface. She fixed her eyes on the Faith Power slowly accumulating within the system interface, her brow furrowing faintly.
"The conversion efficiency is far too low..." She silently mulled the problem over. The speed at which faith was being collected was passable enough, but when it came to refining that faith into usable Faith Power, the process was agonizingly slow. Worse, the conversion ratio was a pathetic one percent. At this rate, she had no idea how many months or years it would take to accumulate a meaningful amount.
What vexed her even more was this: although the system shop had unlocked the purchase authorization for additional Statues of the Seven, each statue carried the astronomical price tag of fifty thousand points—a figure that made her recoil.
"You black-hearted swindler!" Furina cursed in the depths of her heart. Even her entire savings, including the ten thousand points she'd just received as a mission reward, was barely enough to buy two statues.
She let out a soft sigh, her gaze sweeping across the believers praying in earnest reverence within the hall. To accelerate the accumulation of Faith Power, beyond simply increasing the number of statues, she would likely need to expand the Church of the Water God's influence and draw in even more followers.
"It seems I'll have to hasten my pace. Here's hoping our city lords can bring in more believers and help the church grow further..." Furina murmured under her breath, a flash of steely resolve glinting in her eyes.
Whether it was to counter the various crises that might emerge in the future, or to realize that grand, sweeping ambition of unifying the continent—she had to raise her strength as swiftly as possible.
Far off in the side-chamber, Huo Yuhao, deep in his cultivation, suddenly felt a strange tremor in his heart, as if something of great significance was unfolding. He opened his eyes and gazed toward the direction of the main hall, faintly sensing a warm, sacred presence coalescing there.
"Sister Furina..." He whispered the name softly, then closed his eyes once more and threw himself back into his cultivation with even fiercer focus.
He had to grow strong, and fast. Strong enough to protect this hard-won warmth that had come into his life.