The Era of Gods - Chapter 382
Chapter 382: Chapter 382 Contacting Jin Sisi
This page is the most central page of The Book of Wisdom, depicting an angel wrapped in Light, holding a sphere of light with both hands, with shattered corpses lying beneath the angel’s feet. As Light bursts forth from the sphere and descends, the bodies are opening their eyes.
The Super Divine Technique of Resurrection!
Indeed, this page of The Book of Wisdom records the legendary Resurrection Technique, which mortals can use—one of the ultimate Divine Arts, no less, and it’s even a Mass Resurrection Spell.
With a face full of compassion for the suffering in the world, he reached out a finger and whispered:
“Life should not be silent; Death shall be reversed…”
As he spoke these words, The Book of Wisdom in his hands began to emit a milky white Light; the entire book lit up, and strands of white Light converged upon the opened tome.
“In the name of the God of Life and Wisdom, reverse life and death…”
His voice grew more and more sonorous. He was not speaking loudly, but as he began to cast the Resurrection Technique, he naturally resonated with the mysterious Rules of the universe, thereby undergoing a Transcendent transformation.
An endless Life Force converged, forming a gigantic Angel of Light in the Vault of Heaven. The angel gently fluttered its wings, and the extraordinarily rich Life Force converged into an immense column of Light that shot up into the sky, shining down an infinite Life Force that made the living feel as if a miracle was descending.
No, this was a miracle in itself; the Resurrection Technique itself was a miraculous Divine Art.
“Resurrect!”
A soul-stirring voice sounded, and the Angel of Light in the Vault of Heaven shattered, turning into streaks of flowing Light that fell down and infused into the bodies strewn across the ground. The Light of Life surged, submerging each corpse.
It made no distinction between friend and foe, enveloping both the just-slain enemies and the dead from the not too distant battlefield.
At that moment, all four of his subordinates knelt down, devoutly lowering their heads.
Influenced by this, the two nearby Knights and their men also knelt down, their faces a mix of shock and hope as they looked towards the bodies covered by the Light of Life.
In just under ten seconds, a body that should have been dead twitched, and everyone’s pupils dilated, their eyes filled with horror and disbelief.
“It’s really… alive!”
“My God, this is a miracle, a true miracle!”
Afonso looked up, his face full of shock as he watched the not yet fully dissipated phantom of the Light Angel, and then turned to watch enemy soldiers gradually coming back to life. The astonishment within him at that moment was indescribable.
At that moment, in his heart, a thought like none he had ever had before arose as he looked up at Lin Xiao, holding the Staff of Life in one hand and The Book of Wisdom in the other, devoutly lowering his own head as he silently invoked the name of the God of Life and Wisdom.
In that moment, he swiftly cast aside his previously lukewarm faith in the Holy God and converted to the God of Life and Wisdom whom he had only encountered briefly.
And his level of faith grew at an unprecedented rate. What had been merely a general belief in the Holy God in his lifetime now, from hearing the name of the God of Life and Wisdom to this moment, not even an hour later, his faith had rapidly transcended that of a True Believer, reaching the level of Devout Believers.
The instant the thread of faith connected, Lin Xiao sensed it, but he was not surprised; instead, he took it as a matter of course.
He had paid such a great price to cast this Mass Resurrection Spell not really because of pity and compassion, but his main target was this heir apparent of the Gibson Family, everyone else was incidental.
To swiftly change the situation, he needed the support of Nobles.
Not just the many serfs under a Lord but also the Lord’s military power and the status of the Lord to fend off oppression from the Holy Church.
In a world with a unified religion, where religious power is stronger than ever before, the struggle between ecclesiastic and royal power has never ceased. Aristocrats worship multiple gods but remain wary of the Church; no monarch or Aristocrat wants the Church to loom over their power.
Of course, this is a bit off topic, but one thing is certain: the relationship between the world’s Aristocrat Lords and the Holy Church isn’t so harmonious.
This provides them an opportunity.
Especially since the Holy Church has hardly ever displayed any miracles, and Priests do not know any serious Divine Arts.
Lin Xiao anticipated that even if it wasn’t him, other Descenders could also leverage their abilities to topple the Holy Church.
And among these, a church of the God of Life and Wisdom that can perform Divine Arts would undoubtedly reap the greatest benefits.
As for any future disputes between the new divine and royal powers after the Holy Church’s downfall, that would be a matter for later. For now, he’d focus on rising to the occasion.
In this contemplative moment, as the Life Force entered into and was integrated within each body, the dead slowly awoke, their expressions bewildered as they looked around.
Lin Xiao, holding the Scepter in one hand and The Book of Wisdom in the other, still bore the residual Life Force on his body, appearing to them as holy and inviolable as a saint descended to Earth, his voice also containing a heart-shaking Strength:
“The Lord of Life and Wisdom, in His mercy, bestows upon you new life!”
He had just finished speaking when Afonso Gibson, the eldest son of Baron Gibson, lifted his head in an inspired shout:
“You should have perished, but the great gods of Life and Wisdom took pity and performed a mighty miracle to resurrect you!”
Lin Xiao showed a hint of appreciation. This assist was well played.
This statement seemed to remind these bewildered warriors of the events that had just transpired. Their eyes quickly cleared, and almost in unison, they knelt down to worship:
“I remember now, it was the great gods of Life and Wisdom who resurrected me, saving me from the clutches of Death.”
“O great gods of Life and Wisdom above, please accept my humble but devout faith.”
Dozens of the resurrected knelt in worship. At that moment, more than twenty threads of faith connected with Lin Xiao’s spirit; all were Devout Believers.
“Very good, my great sacrifice was not in vain!”
He slowly put away The Book of Wisdom. Having just performed the Mass Resurrection Spell, he had exhausted all the stored energy within the book, and now he could no longer cast even the simplest Divine Arts.
But it was all worth it. Together, there were nearly thirty able-bodied troops, all full-time warriors. Considering the militia who had died in battle earlier, both sides had about fifty altogether, making a total of nearly ninety, plus the fourteen church knights he had previously trained, he could now mobilize over a hundred soldiers.
Among them, there were sixteen whose strength was equal to the knight rank of this world, thirty-two full-time professional warriors, and the remaining fifty or so were militia.
This strength was now comparable to some of the weaker Baron’s Territories, and with a bit more preparation, he could even directly confront any Baron’s Territory.
However, Lin Xiao had no such intentions. In fact, he did not plan to take all these people with him. He allowed the newly joined Afonso to take his men and leave for the castle while he took his newly subjugated followers back with him.
He no longer needed to search for the stone to carve the statues. Knowing his intentions, Afonso confidently ensured that he would handle the matter.
On the road, Lin Xiao sought information about the one called Gurda from the followers of Gurda. The head of the group, a robust man named Demon, hurriedly shared everything he knew when Lin Xiao asked, giving Lin Xiao a sense of relief.
According to Demon, they were originally wanderers or, to put it bluntly, bandits located near another Lord to the north of Baron Gibson’s Territory. About a month and a half ago, they encountered Gurda. Their original leader was killed by Gurda, and they were conquered by his formidable personal strength and acknowledged him as their new leader.
Once in charge, Gurda carried out sweeping reforms. Not only did he change their robbing ways but also officially took over a village to settle down. He then began extensive farming and gathered wanderers and bandits from everywhere, swiftly expanding his power.
The Armor they wore was provided by Gurda. Demon mentioned that Gurda only had forty such sets, under whom were these forty elite professional warriors.
This time, half was sent out to plunder the Gibson Family’s mines. Their goal was to continuously raid and weaken the Gibson Family’s strength. Once the family was sufficiently weakened, they planned to attack Gibson’s stronghold and plunder the Gibson Family’s wealth.
After that, they intended to offer the mine as tribute to the ruler of this land, Count Dyson, hoping to acquire an Aristocratic title.
Once they had an Aristocratic title, they would be eligible to engage in war with other Lords and Plunder territories.
In this world, unless you’re an Aristocrat, no matter how strong you are or how much land you seize, it won’t be recognized. Other Aristocratic Lords are entitled to attack you and take your territories.
But with an Aristocratic identity, you have a legitimate right. As long as you have the ability and what you’re doing is just, then everything you do is justified.
And what is this justice? Isn’t that just a matter of rhetoric? With legitimacy, why fear the lack of an excuse?
If Lin Xiao hadn’t intervened, Gurda’s plan might indeed have succeeded. After all, forty elite warriors with equipment far beyond the strength of this world, capable of not even being pierced by knights, could certainly take down an average Baron with determination.
But now, well, that’s rather unfortunate.
Gurda’s painstakingly brought to this plane forty sets of elite weapons and Armor had been taken away by half by Lin Xiao. Not only had their strength been greatly reduced, but Lin Xiao had already foreseen Gurda’s existence.
Of course, Lin Xiao was not about to run all the way there to deal with Gurda now. It was enough that he was aware of this opponent nearby. What was most important at the moment was his own development.
As long as he was strong enough, defeating the enemy would be a matter of minutes.
Back in Ful Village, the twenty or so militia he brought back were temporarily housed outside the village, working the fields alongside the villagers.
This was just a small village, and with the productivity of this world, it was impossible to support so many full-time warriors.
Typically, a small village could barely support about ten full-time soldiers at most, and that was the absolute limit. In reality, even ten was a struggle.
The Gibson Family owned one small town, eight villages, and an iron mine, yet could only afford to maintain just over forty full-time soldiers and five knights.
Luckily, he had the Summon Food Divine Technique that could support them, plus he could transfer food through the Creation Rubik’s Cube; otherwise, the elite warriors he’d brought back would have had to disarm and return to tilling the fields.
This was the limitation of this plane in this era; the productivity was too low, no matter how formidable a true