Were there many powerful organizations in this world?
Yes, for example, the thousand-year empires, the Wizardry Association, the Knight Alliance, the Hunters Guild, and various others of the same nature all had a heritage that dated back a long time ago, accompanied with nearly overwhelming strength and numbers.
The matter between the Beast raceâs Meadow and the Holy Sanctuary had drawn the attention of these organizations before anyone else.
The fact that God was able to revive the Beast King was truly a miracle, a divine act.
But the Beast King and the Great Chieftain betrayed humanityâs God without even batting an eyelid.
Everyone had waited to see how God would react to this.
From the believable information, God had descended as a human male, but he was only 4 years old and had limited strength.
The results.
A terrifying âDivine Punishmentâ was delivered upon the Beast race.
The edge of what used to be the Meadow.
Two Cardinals of the Divine Church were currently leading a large number of followers to record the specifics of this Divine Punishment.
They lowered their heads with humble and calm expressions, their actions were the epitome of maturity. Whenever they ran into people from outside the Church, they even took the initiative to make way and prayed for them to be blessed by God.
Although the attitude of the Churchâs people had changed and become more down-to-earth, compared to the previous arrogance that they carried, this attitude of theirs was full of nothing but implications.
The representatives of the worldâs organizations stood outside the Meadow, silently watching as the people of the Church continued with their recording.
A white-haired wizard propped himself up with his staff and sighed.
âSir, why are you sighing?â
Next to him, a knight in full armor who wielded a greatsword asked.
âI couldnât help itâ the white-haired wizard replied.
The knight spoke to him teasingly: âBut you must control your emotions well. After all, your every gesture right now could be interpreted as the attitude of the Wizardry Association as a wholeâ
The white-haired wizard smiled bitterly: âI donât have a helmet as big as yours that can perfectly conceal my faceâ
A voice then emerged from behind them.
âWhat are the two of you talking about?â
A man in leather armor who wielded a longbow swiftly appeared next to them.
The Hunter Guildâs guild master was also here.
The white-haired wizard replied: âWeâre talking about how to control our expressions while viewing this Divine Punishmentâ
âAh, thatâs what it was. Indeed, it would be quite hard to achieve such a thingâ the Hunter Guildâs guild master agreed.
The three of them looked straight towards the Meadow and fell silent.
They were standing at the edge of solid ground, as the area in front of them was a seemingly endless and vast void of nothing.
They were standing on flat ground, but it felt as if they were actually standing on top of a bottomless cliff instead.
What used to be the Beast raceâs Meadow had been completely erased from existence by the Divine Punishment.
The Meadow was now a gigantic hole in the ground.
Rather than âholeâ, it was more appropriate to call it a circular ravine, one so wide that even a Professionist would feel tiny in front of it.
This ravine was also extremely deep, enough that no one would be able to observe the bottom at a glance, perhaps only recognizing the end after an entire day of gazing at it.
While the three people were lost in their silence, a middle-aged man rode a horse up to where they were.
He didnât dismount, only slightly nodded to greet the three people.
The three people responded in kind.
âWhat do you think?â the middle-aged man asked.
The knight and hunter looked towards the white-haired wizard at the same time.
Wizards were the ones that felt skeptical about the Churchâs Creationist theory the most, because wizards lived to study and probe the Laws of nature, searching for the truth of all things.
The white-haired wizard looked down at the ravine with a tired expression: âIn front of Godâs power, magic is truly too weak. I need time to rethink thisâ
The middle-aged man turned to the knight and hunter.
âIf it means that humanity can prosper and repel all evil from now on, I donât mind worshipping a Godâ the knight answered.
The hunter replied: âWe hunters also frequent the verge of life and death, so if thereâs a sanctuary for us to come to arrive at after death, I donât mind eitherâ
The middle-aged man nodded to express his understanding and started to ride away.
âWhat about you?â the hunter asked him from behind.
The middle-aged man turned back and told them: âTomorrow, I shall request the Pope to establish the first Cathedral within my empireâs capital. If you are willing to participate in the ceremony, please come find me at the capitalâ
He urged his horse and left.
The horse rode faster and faster until it thoroughly went out of sight.
The hunter and knight exchanged glances, then also vanished.
Only the white-haired wizard remained, staring blankly down the bottomless circular ravine.
...
At another location.
The Divine Churchâs Holy Sanctuary.
A certain garden.
Gu Qing Shan was having a nightâs chat with his mother.
âSince Iâm worried that you might be used to this place, Iâve brought all of our servants here. Everything should be the same as before if only a bit biggerâ
âI seeâ
âIf you ever feel homesick or wish to visit your own friends and family members, I can have them come visit you, or even return at your own discretion. You only need to tell my followersâ
âHm, dear, you truly are considerate, but I have a question that I really canât help but ask...â
âGo aheadâ
âAlan, are you really God?â his mother asked with a wary voice.
Gu Qing Shan held his motherâs hand and smiled: âWith my current abilities, I have already surpassed even the imagination of living beings, so I can indeed be hailed as a God, but without considering my abilities, I am still a normal personâ
âIs that true? Then, you mean you are still my child?â
âThatâs right, donât worry, fatherâs body had already been found and would be carried back to the Holy Sanctuary soonâ
âDo you mean...â
âI will revive himâ
...
Gu Qing Shan holed himself up in the Holy Sanctuary without ever setting foot outside.
In a flash, 10 years passed.
Besides the Wizardry Association, the majority of the organizations in this world assimilated into the Divine Church or became its dependents.
At the start, some people were worried that after the Church would become the monopolizing force, they would destroy other forces, manipulate the countries, and use that to amass wealth.
But none of that happened.
Besides expanding their missionary efforts, the Church didnât interfere with the autonomy of any other organization.
Even the Wizardry Association never faced any pressure from the Church for their lack of cooperation.
Regarding this, God only made a single statement.
This statement went on to become the commandment that the world followed as gospel.
âEverything in the mortal realm is meaningless, as all living beings will eventually face their deaths. Only the life after death is eternal, you must trust in God and do good deeds to accrue Merit, as this is the only thing you can do in your single short life that you are able to achieve and that would affect how you fare after deathâ
Wars and crimes soon decreased.
Just as God had said, their lives were too short, why should they waste it on committing crimes for meaningless illusory things?
The world heeded an age of prosperity.
Following this, under the order of God, the Church did only one thing in particular.
ââ-creating an information collection network all over the world.
After 10 years of development and with the peopleâs faith in the Church and God, this information collection network held a perfect grasp over any abnormal events and occurrences in this entire world.
Gu Qing Shan only developed his forces in the mortal realm to this point and stopped.
He used the rest of the time he had to cultivate himself while silently taking notice of the worldâs changes.
The will of the world gave him 100 years for this trial.
This meant that the process of the worldâs collapse and destruction was a relatively long process.
The only thing Gu Qing Shan had to do right now was to silently wait for the destruction to begin.
In this manner, another 11 years passed.
Until finally, that day had arrived.
As soon as the event transpired, it caused a great disturbance in the Southern part of the world.
The worldwide information network strictly followed Godâs orders and soon reported this matter to the Holy Sanctuary.
At this point, Gu Qing Shan had just left his personal training room.
He was completely soaked in sweat as he accepted a towel from Shannu.
âIs everything going well?â Shannu asked with concern.
âHm, Iâm getting used to the 1st stage of the dance more and more, it probably wonât be long until I can learn and perform the 2nd stage of the Living Being Sacrificial Danceâ Gu Qing Shan replied.
Shannu teased him: âItâs fortunate that gongzi created this personal training room, otherwise, if those people see their God dancing like that, their faith would probably vanish without a traceâ
âLetâs not talk about that, right, whereâs Luo Bing Li?â
âSheâs going shoppingââ gongzi, both she and I love this world a lotâ
Gu Qing Shan smiled and didnât give a reply.
Thatâs right.
Unlimited money.
Undisputable authority.
Who else wouldnât like that?
Not to mention, because this was a Magic-type world, there were many things that even he found to be eye-opening.
Since Shannu and Luo Bing Li had already traveled and gone through a lot of hardship with him so far, Gu Qing Shan also wanted to take the chance in this illusion to allow them to relax and loosen up.
The Chao Yin sword was also playing around in the grand lake just outside the Holy Sanctuary.
As for the Earth sword, it still couldnât manifest a spirit form, most likely because it was damaged almost right away after it was forged.
It simply stayed by Gu Qing Shanâs side without leaving.
A Cardinal then came in, knelt on the ground, and presented a sealed envelope to Gu Qing Shan.
âMy Lord, this is a strange occurrence that transpired at the Southern region of our worldâ
âWell doneâ
The envelope flew into Gu Qing Shanâs hand.
The Cardinal bowed, didnât dare to look up at Shannu before retreating without a sound.
Gu Qing Shan opened the envelope and seriously read through it.
His eyebrows furrowed.
âGongzi, whatâs the matter?â Shannu asked.
âUndoubtedly, this is very strange, itâs giving me an odd yet familiar feeling that I canât explainâ
Saying so, Gu Qing Shan handed Shannu the letter.
Shannu read it to find that the letter detailed something that happened in a faraway mountain village.
A bizarre sacrificial ritual was performed in the village.
All the villagers were dead, their flesh completely vanished, leaving only bare gloomy bones all over the place.
According to the merchants who had just left the village, they first saw a black light engulf the village followed by countless desperate and harrowing screams.
The entire process was very sudden and only lasted for a few breathsâ worth of time before everyone was dead.
Only a shepherd child who wasnât in the village at the time managed to survive.
When he was discovered, he was found to be sleeping in a bush on top of the mountain.
âSacrifice?â
Shannu muttered in surprise.
Ever since Gu Qing Shan descended on this world as a God, he had strictly forbidden the use of this ancient worshipping method.
The Beast race who preferred to use this method was already extinct.
The fact that someone did something God had forbade in a world with God was indeed a strange occurrence.
Then, who was the one that did this?
Gu Qing Shan shook his head and issued his order.
He spoke into the void of space: âThe Southern Empire is to search for remaining traces of anything that might be related to this matterâ
âThe Holy Knights are to be fully mobilized to the South where the event transpiredâ
âThe Grand Cardinal will stay behind to look after the Holy Sanctuary, all other Cardinals will move together with the Pope to confirm the situationâ
Immediately, the entirety of the Holy Sanctuary was mobilized.
Shannu couldnât help but asked: âGongzi, you seem to be very concerned with this matterâ
Gu Qing Shan nodded and admitted: âItâs fortunate that I have a perfect grasp over this world. Since no oddities can escape my view and all the worldâs forces are mine to use, I can quickly deal with this matterâ
He appeared absolutely serious.
âGongzi, you mean...â
Gu Qing Shanâs voice slowly became low: âThatâs right, I have a feeling that this worldâs destruction will soon beginâ