Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon
Chapter 330 - 329: A Bigger Stall

Chapter 330: Chapter 329: A Bigger Stall

"Is it for this reason that I can’t use the believer’s imprint?"

After Lanqi left, Xue Quan asked with some concern.

When Chaoyang showed him the first sample, he was skeptical—because no matter how one looked at it, it was just a polished stone. And no matter what he did, he could not achieve the effect of distant communication. It wasn’t until more and more people started to converse through the believer’s imprint that he had to acknowledge that this kind of stone had exceeded the bounds of common understanding.

"Who knows?"

Chaoyang replied noncommittally.

In fact, determining whether one could use the believer’s imprint was simple—it was to see whether there was a thread of wishing power above the person’s head. He couldn’t forcefully bestow the qualification to use the believer’s imprint on someone, even Xue Quan, who had contributed a lot to Paradise, couldn’t use this piece of jade.

What was even more incomprehensible was that it wasn’t something he himself had fiddled into existence.

When he greeted all the believers with that "Welcome to Paradise," the jade imprint appeared in his hand. There was no doubt that it was created by The Divine Country to fulfill his requirement for "interconnectivity."

The Divine Country’s statistical interface has now completely separated from the Lingxi vision and has become a distinct ability. When Chaoyang switched to this vision, he could not only see a count of the number of people connected to The Divine Country but also see the count of believer’s imprints, including both those in possession and unallocated ones.

Indeed, this thing increases by about two hundred every day, and only Chaoyang can materialize them. The distribution work did not require his direct involvement; moreover, it would recognize on its own whether the holder was a believer. If not, it was merely a piece of plump, lustrous jade.

As to why it had the quality of jade, that too was decided by The Divine Country—Chaoyang guessed that it probably had to do with his own life experiences.

"Can I take one back to the control center for research?" Xue Quan asked again.

"What do you say?" Chaoyang didn’t immediately answer but quietly consulted in his mind.

The one he was consulting was, of course, Shi Yin.

Slime might seem unreliable, and indeed be unreliable, but that was before it got to see the actual item. Maybe as it said, the God of Causality held all the secrets of the world; it’s just that due to the difference in ways of thinking, humans can’t comprehend its thoughts and ideas.

"It doesn’t matter. It’s a product of the rules of The Divine Country; it’s meaningless outside of The Divine Country. You should understand now what it means for The Divine Country to operate relatively independently, right?"

Chaoyang couldn’t deny it.

Without experiencing it firsthand, he could hardly imagine how something born from his will could exist independently of it.

"This is also my dilemma. I am aware of the knowledge of the stars, but until you’ve seen it with your own eyes, I can’t find a bridge for communication—" Even though it claimed it was a dilemma, the other party’s tone was filled with irrepressible pride.

"Alright, alright, enough with your self-praise. I’m going to get calluses in my ears from listening to you." Chaoyang interrupted it abruptly, then "changed" out a jade imprint to give to Xue Quan, "No problem, remember to send me a copy of the research results, although I’ll bet you won’t figure anything out."

"Although I can’t use it either, but from Mr. Zhao’s words, it can evolve along with the growth of Paradise in the future?" Professor Wang asked curiously.

"Yes, the organization is in full swing developing new functionalities for it. In a sense, its final form will be an all-capable personal terminal."

Chaoyang confirmed and bluffed in equal measure.

How could he plan an improvement roadmap for something whose principles he didn’t understand and didn’t know how to make? But he wasn’t purely spouting nonsense, since the core of The Divine Country was interconnectivity, and mere conversation between the two sides certainly didn’t wholly encapsulate the concept. Moreover, The Divine Country’s power has nothing to do with the awakening of Demons; it continuously draws in wishing power, expanding from a small, greyish-white circle to the huge expanse now covering the city. This suggests that as long as wishing power accumulates, it will continue to enhance itself.

"What if one day, Paradise Sect no longer exists?" Professor Wang asked again.

Chaoyang paused slightly.

He had never considered this question before.

"I guess it can’t be used anymore?"

"It’s not that simple. If The Divine Country can’t draw in wishing power, it will drain every bit of wishing power from you until ultimately, The Divine Country collapses and the divinities fall," Shi Yin was not shy about adding drama to the situation, "If you hadn’t set the core of The Divine Country before, it would have been fine to leave it at the foundation stage, but now you have no way back."

Chaoyang was shocked, "Why didn’t you say so earlier!?"

"You didn’t ask me." The other climbed out from behind and coiled on his shoulder, yawning, "Besides, would you have given up ascending to divinity if you knew the consequences? That’s an opportunity countless people dream of, something they can’t obtain even if they exchange their lives for it. Even the ancients knew that it’s acceptable ’to hear the Way in the morning and die in the evening,’ so stop complaining about this trivial cost."

Now he was really in trouble. He had just thought he had achieved freedom of wishing power, only to find himself saddled with a bigger burden.

The soul query of the green-skinned orc was indeed universally applicable.

Seeing Chaoyang deep in thought and not speaking, Shi Yin added another sentence,

"In conclusion, the benefits it gives you are much greater than the cost. Take the believer’s mark, for example; such a miraculous thing is basically a wishing power harvesting machine. People will spontaneously believe in you for the convenience it provides, which is much faster than going around fulfilling wishes in exchange for contracts."

"When you expand The Divine Country to encompass the entire world, wishing power will become an inexhaustible force for you."

"It’s such a pity if that’s the case," Professor Wang thought he was contemplating the consequence of the believer’s mark becoming ineffective, "Once people have enjoyed the convenience of the telephone, they’ll probably never be able to go back to the era of letters."

"Let the next one in," Xue Quan ordered the nun standing at the door.

She nodded and stepped out, opening the door.

Suddenly, a discordant clamor came from outside.

"Wait... who is this woman?"

"Hey, stop right there!"

"Sorry, I’m cutting in."

The one who walked in was not Kash, the sawmill owner, but a tall woman. Chaoyang lifted his head and was momentarily stunned.

"Shandela?"

"I wanted to give you a surprise, so I didn’t notify you in advance..." As soon as Shandela saw Chaoyang, she visibly relaxed, "I didn’t scare you, did I?"

"Miss Sandeila, how did you get here?" Xue Quan also stood up warmly, "We have black tea, green tea, and coffee here, which would you like?"

"I—cough, cough, cough!" In the midst of speaking, Shandela suddenly covered her mouth and began to cough violently. When she removed her hand, there were traces of blood at the corner of her mouth.

Only then did Chaoyang notice that she looked quite unwell, with dangerously red cheeks; she was gasping for air from the moment she entered.

"What’s wrong with you?" He left his seat, walked around the long table towards Shandela, wanting to check her condition up close. But just as he approached her, Shandela could no longer maintain her stance and fell toward him.

Chaoyang hurriedly caught her, then hissed in pain; on her back were two broken arrows, the blood soaking through her outer leather armor. Although he couldn’t see how deep the arrowheads had penetrated, her bloody coughs indicated that her lungs had been affected.

What was worse, the blood was blackish in color, and parts of it had coagulated, suggesting that this incident didn’t just happen. She had been carrying those arrow wounds for at least two days!

With such severe injuries coupled with a deep infection in the lungs, for the people of this era, it was almost a death sentence.