Yes, I became a god just by exercising.

Chapter 89 Unraveling the mystery, the first clues are obtained!
Damaged Mithril Symbol...

Smith...

Little Baldr was suddenly entangled by a snow demon...

Pompeii, the demigod...

The governor's wife has gone mad...

These clues, emerging from the chaotic flow of information in my mind, converged like fish leaping out of the water.

Xia Fa's mind raced, feeling that he was just a little bit missing a crucial piece of information to uncover the truth, or at least a part of it.

The only question now is whether Pompeii was actually a member of the Bald family.
And just how close is Major General Ellis's relationship with the Bald family?

If he remembered correctly, the first time his disguised entity appeared in the newspapers was because he had attended a dinner hosted by the Bald father and son for Major General Ellis.

But this still doesn't confirm anything. After all, it's quite normal for Major General Ellis to be currying favor with the Bald father and son as the governor of Rum City.

Perhaps the Bald family owns property in Rum City, and Major General Ellis would need to take good care of it.

But if Major General Ellis actually had a close relationship with the Bald father and son, then there are many truths worth exploring.

Xia Fa flipped through the files on Smith's other criminal records, but finding nothing useful, he took a deep breath and picked up the files on the Bald family.

Although the Bald family is a noble family in the Kingdom of Augu, no matter how great a noble family is, it is nothing in front of the Silver White Church, whose churches are spread throughout the universe, and in front of the Silver White Universe, one of the nine great gods.

Therefore, all the information about the Bald family was now laid out completely before Xia Fa.

Of course, it's impossible for this to involve any hidden past events, and it's even estimated that it won't record the Bald family's petty squabbles, but Xia Fa only needs to confirm one thing.

He turned to the first page of the file, which briefly described the rise of the Bald family.

The Bald family started out as a fisherman named Reidonck Bald.

But the life of Raedonck Baldr was not an inspirational story of accumulating wealth through fishing, starting a small business, and eventually becoming a millionaire. Instead, it started by becoming a superhuman!
That's right. More than three hundred years ago, around the year 295 of the Thermo-Month Calendar in the Kingdom of Augu, Redonk Bald suddenly transformed from a fisherman into a superhuman. He successfully passed the examination, joined the Church of Paradox, and began to worship the god "Paradox Clown".

After that, Reidonc de Bald made rapid progress, becoming a demigod more than sixty years later. He swore allegiance to the Selenes royal family, successfully obtained noble status, and changed his name to Reidonc de Bald.

This is roughly what is recorded on the first page of the file.

Xia Fa pondered it carefully. Come to think of it, it seems that among the nine righteous gods, [Paradox Clown] and [Silver Universe] have a grudge.

Moreover, becoming an extraordinary person to join the church, or joining the church to become an extraordinary person, and then, after becoming powerful, aligning oneself with a high-ranking noble or even royalty to completely achieve class leapfrogging and become a noble, seems to be the method for many people from the lower classes to rise up.

Of course, the prerequisite is having the potential and qualifications to become an extraordinary person.

To be honest, from the first page of this file alone, one cannot see anything wrong with the Bald family.

Aside from the fact that their ancestor, Rydonk, suddenly went from being a fisherman to a superhuman, it was rather strange.

Xia Fa had no choice but to turn to the second page of the file and continue reading.

But after reading just a few lines, his eyes narrowed slightly, and a sharp glint flashed in his dark, charcoal-like pupils.

"Finally found it..."

On the second page of the dossier, the family genealogy of the Bald family was clearly recorded.

Reidonke de Balde had two sons and one daughter.

But his eldest son and second daughter both died young, leaving only one son.

And the only son who survived was named Pompeii de Balde!
According to this page of the record, Pompeii's life was as short as a shooting star, and far less brilliant.

Pompeii was born when Reydonk was over two hundred years old. Reydonk adored his only son and doted on him immensely, perhaps because his two previous children had died young.

But Pompeii, unfortunately, failed to live up to expectations.

He joined the Church of Paradox after he came of age, but never achieved anything significant.

In particular, at that time, Redonk was also a nobleman of the Kingdom of Augu and a high deacon of the Church of Paradox's "Wandering Circus of the Secret Realm".

The Paradox Church's Secret Wandering Circus, like the Silver Church's Solar Prominence Nebula, is an organization within the church specifically responsible for handling supernatural events and carrying out missions.

The solar prominence nebula also has high-ranking deacons, which can only be held by demigods or above.

With the help of his father, a high-ranking deacon, Pompeii's path to becoming a superhuman was initially smooth sailing.

However, after reaching the Eagle-level transcendent, he got stuck and couldn't understand the full contents of the third secret contract he had signed.

Decades passed in this way. Although Reidonk, a demigod, had a long lifespan, he eventually reached the end of his life and died of old age at the age of 250.

When he died of old age, Pompeii was still just a mere Eagle-level superhuman.

Not long after Reidonk died, Pompeii seemed to erupt in grief and indignation, suddenly comprehending the contents of the third secret contract he had signed, and successfully signing the fourth secret contract, becoming an Elephant-level transcendent.

But that was all. For the next twenty years, he made no further progress, except for having a son, who is now the head of the Bald family, Old Bald.

Then, Pompeii died peacefully in his seventies, and his body was placed in the cemetery in the northern part of Rum.

After the death of Rydonk, the Bald family rapidly declined because they no longer had a demigod and no particularly close ties with other nobles, not even through marriage.

Furthermore, since Pompeii and old Bald were only Elephant-level superhumans, the Bald family has now almost been kicked out of the ranks of the nobles of the Augu Kingdom.

Xia Fa quickly flipped through the subsequent files, which were all about the specific businesses of the Bald family, as well as some trivial matters.

For example, old Baldr liked to gamble and often lost money, while young Baldr liked music and had no interest in the path of the extraordinary, and so on.

But he was right. The Bald family did indeed have a significant presence in Rum City—the family owned two textile factories, a large orchard, and titles and deeds for an entire commercial street.

They even run a cemetery where, it is said, both Reytonk and Pompeii are buried.

Xia Fa closed the file, exhaled a soft breath, and his eyes flickered.

Without a doubt, Pompeii faked his death, and he must have become a demigod before or after faking it.

It can be said that it was hidden very well.

However, based solely on these files, it is still impossible to determine Major General Ellis's relationship with the Bald family.

However, at least Xia Fa can confirm one thing.

That is, there must be a great connection between Pompeii and the second outbreak of the Snow Demon incident!
Even if he wasn't the one who caused the Snow Demon to lose control a second time, he must have been involved in many parts of it!
only……

"What exactly was Pompeii's purpose? And where did he obtain the technology to make the Snow Demon lose control a second time?"

"What exactly does Dick Tudor need from Pompeii?" "And, that little girl who saved Smith..."

According to Ethan, Major General Ellis and his wife apparently never had any children.

But then a little girl saved Smith, and Smith was closely related to the damage to the Mithril Symbol.

Furthermore, are the Balde family now involved in this matter?
Xia Fa sat in a chair, his elbows propped on the table, his palms stacked in front of his chin, lost in thought for a long time.

Ultimately, he decided that he would find time to investigate any traces of activity in Pompeii!
Now that it's confirmed Pompeii isn't dead, there's no need to dig up his tomb to confirm it.

On the other hand, since Pompeii did not die, and is likely still active in Rum City, he must have left traces of his activities.

As for whether he changed his appearance, height, or body type, or impersonated someone else... Xia Fa wasn't afraid.

Having learned Pompeii's real name and obtained so much information about him from the dossier, he could certainly try divination!

After organizing his thoughts, Xia Fa pushed the dossier aside and picked up the book "Secret Texts and Divination" again, beginning to study it seriously.

……

Time flew by, and it was soon 2 p.m.

Xia Fa had been studying esoteric texts and divination knowledge the whole time, only going downstairs to the church hall for lunch.

Today's lunch is oyster omelet with meat patties, served with perilla soup. All clergy members of the church can enjoy a serving.

Because he still had a large amount of extraordinary power in his body from dissolving the bee eggs that he hadn't absorbed, Xia Fa was worried about losing control and didn't choose to randomly freeload meals.

I guess I don't need to go these next couple of days. Tomorrow is the Fog Carnival anyway, and I didn't have time anyway.

After turning the last page of the cryptic text and divination, Xia Fa left his office and walked into the church hall.

Ethan was idly sunbathing by the fountain in the backyard. He had just finished his training in the Ghost Realm yesterday, and he was entitled to enjoy a vacation for the next few days unless something urgent happened.

Xia Fa walked over and returned the book "Secret Texts and Divination" to him.

"You've read it all?" Ethan asked, somewhat surprised, as he took the book.

"Yes, it looks quite nice." Xia Fa nodded and returned the smile.

"Do you need anything else? I'll lend it to you. You can take it home and look at it. You can give it back to me anytime you want," Ethan said with a smile.

"No, I need to digest and apply what I learned today first," Xia Fa replied with a smile.

“Oh, right, come on, I’ll take you to get a set of divination ritual materials, just for you to practice with. Every superhuman in the church can get one.” Ethan suddenly thought of something.

Xia Fa was somewhat surprised. He had originally planned to go to the Extraordinary Market to buy some divination materials, especially citrine and live iron powder, which were essential for divination. The others were optional.

I never expected that I could receive it directly at the church!
Seeing that Ethan was about to lead him to the Gospel Room, Shafaldo asked a question.

"By the way, can we exchange other occult materials at the church?"

Ethan replied without hesitation:
"Many common occult materials are available. Which one do you want to exchange?"

Xia Fa smiled mysteriously, without giving a direct answer.

……

Xia Fa returned home at 2:30 p.m.

As usual, he first took out Benedict's training notes, but after flipping through them, he was surprised to find that there were no new records.

I reckon Beneath and the siren Cyril haven't arrived at the Forest of Bones yet?
Judging from the appearance, this place where the stars rise is quite large.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Fa went upstairs to his bedroom, drew the curtains, and closed the door.

He took a small wooden jar from his pocket and unsealed it.

Suddenly, a warm yet pungent smell wafted out, like the smell of coal slag from red-hot iron, swirling around him.

This wooden jar is filled with live iron powder, which would cost at least fifty gold pounds in the market.

However, as a newly joined clergyman of the Silver Church, he received this jar for free.

Iron powder is the foundation of many rituals, magic circles, and mystical ceremonies.

Besides being used in divination rituals, it can also be used in a ritual that almost every superhuman knows—the sealing ritual!
A sealing ritual, as the name suggests, can seal off a space, which under normal circumstances can prevent many powerful beings from spying on it.

Of course, if there really is a physical entity or an outer god trying to spy, the sealing ritual still cannot stop it.

But the real purpose of the sealing ritual is to make those unknown and powerful beings subconsciously ignore this space.

This is something Xia Fa learned today from the book "Secret Texts and Divination"—the sealing ritual is also a prerequisite for the divination ritual.

He reached into the wooden jar and grabbed a handful of live iron powder. This alchemical material, obtained by killing pig iron with alchemy techniques to awaken the soul of the metal, cannot be stored in metal jars because it would cause all sorts of strange reactions, so it can only be stored in wooden jars.

After silently channeling extraordinary power into the living iron powder in his palm, Xia Fa slightly opened his fingers and began to slowly scatter the living iron powder into the air.

As he spread the iron powder, it gradually formed a round shell around him, shimmering with a metallic light in the air, like a sky full of stars, and quite beautiful.

Xia Fa was in a thin circular space surrounded by living iron powder. He immediately felt that the wind in the space had stopped and the environment had become quiet.

Aside from that, he didn't feel anything else. After all, he could even understand the babbling of the Outer Gods, and he wasn't usually bothered by such things.

Then, Xia Fa took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and took out an ink bottle and a quill pen made of pure silver.

This is naturally the Holy Spirit Spring water needed to sign the secret pact, and the pure silver quill pen, which he obtained with his contribution points when he went to collect the divination materials today, and it only cost him one hundred contribution points.

Because he killed the whale-level Giant Jaw Beast King in the Ghost Realm and reported various information about the Ghost Realm's upgrade with his teammates, even after exchanging for the Ether Source Advanced Contract and the Star Spirit Compass, his contribution to the church was still more than two thousand points.

As for the spring water of the Holy Spirit Spring and the pure silver quill pen, these are among the most frequently traded mystical materials by the church's superhumans, so no one would care if he traded for one.

After all, every moment there are extraordinary individuals who understand the contents of the secret agreement and sign the next one.

Inside the room, amidst the shimmering metallic iron dust, Xia Fa gripped a pure silver quill pen tightly between his index finger and thumb, which was filled with water from the Holy Spirit Spring.

Then, he took out the wooden board from his pocket that contained the supreme-level secret agreement of the Silver Throne.

No matter how hard he tried to restrain himself, his emotions were stirred at that moment.

After all, this is a top-tier secret agreement.

And next, I... am about to sign it!

(End of this chapter)