I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Thousands of miles away, at the heart of the magnificent main temple of the Radiant Diocese.

On the cold ground paved purely with radiant divine gold, dripping dazzling golden divine blood, the once high and mighty Cardinal Herman now lay slumped like a lump of mud at the foot of the main statue.

He had lost his entire right arm, the broken channels of divine power flickering faintly at the break. Gone was his former arrogance and majesty; only extreme fear, shame, and collapse remained in Herman's eyes. He had fallen from a cardinal who once ruled over the fates of countless mortals into a utterly defeated sinner.

Before him, the divine oracle, whose eyes were covered by a white cloth, knelt on the ground, holding the damaged sacred relic—the Scales of Soul Locking—high in his hands.

A third of the platinum beam of the scales cracked, and a large number of holy runes went out, but at the core of the fracture, the fleeting dark gold faith path was still firmly imprinted.

Inside the main hall, the remaining dozen or so cardinals looked at the tattered relic and were all furious, but beneath their rage lay an indescribable terror.

To be able to turn a divinely bestowed soul-locking artifact into something so destructive is something no ordinary person could accomplish.

boom--!

Just as the archbishops were filled with doubt and uncertainty, the towering statue of the Radiant God, hundreds of feet tall, suddenly burst forth with a blinding light that pierced through the dome.

This time, it was no longer the vague anger of before, but the true descent of the will of the divine kingdom!

The indescribable, immense will of the Lord of Radiance descended directly into the hall through the statue. Ignoring Herman, who was convulsing in agony on the ground, He instantly focused His will on the damaged Scales of Soul Lock.

In just a brief encounter, a divine storm emanated from the statue, causing the entire main hall to tremble violently.

The Lord of Radiance sensed it.

The remaining dark gold traces were neither the resurrection of some ancient, buried wild god, nor a boundary probe by familiar, hostile pantheons. They were a completely foreign belief system, entirely outside the laws of the pantheon!

The other side isn't just stealing a few dozen lost sheep from the wasteland; they're forcibly rewriting the "flow of faith" from the very foundation of logic. It's like inserting a greedy straw into the lifeblood of the Kingdom of Radiant Light.

A deafening divine pronouncement emanated from the main statue:

"Seal off the western wasteland! Cut off all prayer routes between the surrounding villages and towns and the outside parishes! Forbid any mortals or believers from approaching the ruins of that false god!"

"Activate the 'Disconnection Tribunal.' Go and uproot those contaminated pipes."

The archbishops shuddered and buried their heads deeply in the ground.

They knew things had escalated completely. The Inquisition of Absolute Faith was no ordinary Purifying Knights; it was the most secretive and ruthless heretical extermination agency in the Radiant Diocese. Their leader, the "Chief Inquisitor of Absolute Faith," possessed the terrifying authority to sever the connection between mortals and their faith in other gods; the accompanying "Confessional Sisters" could reawaken the deepest fears in the souls of believers with chilling hymns.

Even more terrifying is that the Inquisition will carry another precious treasure of the diocese—the "Bell of Pure Faith." Whenever the bell rings, the prayers and faith of all lower believers in a region will be forcibly drawn away and redirected back to the Kingdom of Radiant God.

Their goal was not to fight the Dark Gold Temple, but to create an absolute isolation zone on both physical and spiritual levels, so that the wild temple, deprived of its worshippers' offerings, would starve to death in the wasteland.

……

Border wasteland, dark gold temple.

The rain had stopped, and the cold night wind swept through the dilapidated walls of the temple.

Eve planted the blood-stained broadsword in the ground and, by the dim light of the campfire, took stock of everything inside the temple.

The situation is terrible.

Although they survived and their followers grew to over a hundred, the temple's food supply consisted of only a few hardened loaves of bread, no medicine, and most of their weapons were dulled scraps of metal. Even worse, many of the newly converted slaves, after the suppression by the Scales of Souls, still huddled in corners, trembling with fear, their eyes still filled with a deep terror of the Old Gods' revenge.

Eve took a deep breath. She was no longer the desperate priestess who only knew revenge. Now that she had taken the mark of the Dao Lord, she had to think like a true First Priest: how to keep this temple, which could collapse at any moment, alive.

Just then, she noticed the veteran, Bart.

Bart's abdomen had been pierced by the escorting officer, the wound so deep that bone was visible. At this moment, he was leaning against the stone wall with flowing dark gold divine patterns, sweating profusely, his eyes closed, silently reciting the three lines of the dark gold covenant of voluntary conversion.

Eve clearly saw that each time Bart overcame his fear and turned his prayers to the Lord in despair, a wisp of extremely fine dark gold spiritual energy would float from the top of his head and merge into the divine patterns on the stone wall.

In response, a faint protective force descended from the divine runes. Bart's deep, bone-revealing wound stopped bleeding under this protection; the muscles on his face, which had been contorted in pain, gradually relaxed, and his soul, which had been struggling in the nightmare of the old gods, found a brief moment of peace; even the slave brand on his neck, which had disappeared but still ached faintly on rainy days, completely returned to calm.

A return of faith!

Eve's eyes lit up instantly.

She suddenly realized that her previous thinking had been too narrow. She didn't need to bring everyone back to the dilapidated temple. The temple's capacity was limited, and so was the food.

As long as more desperate mortals learn the Dark Gold Code, they won't need to immediately draw their swords in rebellion, nor will they need to escape the prison of the Radiant Diocese. As long as they are willing to direct their prayers towards the Lord amidst their pain and despair, this Dark Gold Temple will receive a continuous stream of offerings!

……

Beyond the multidimensional universe lies the Kunlun Heavenly Palace.

Gu Qing sat upright on the throne of the secondary Heavenly Dao, his vast divine sense following the "faith offering channel" captured from the damaged Soul Locking Scales, looking down at the underlying structure of the Radiant Divine Kingdom.

He was like a cold and patient top hacker, scrutinizing a vast but rigid ancient network protocol.

"Forcibly seizing believers will only invite a frenzied crackdown from the entire parish. The quietest form of theft is to let believers themselves open a crack in the prayers of the old gods."

Gu Qing's fingertips traced rapidly in the void, and the massive computing power of the Sub-Heavenly Dao Network operated at full speed.

He found an extremely hidden logical loophole in the lengthy and complex standard prayers of the Radiant Diocese. Using this loophole, Gu Qing forcibly compiled a short section of the Dark Gold rule, representing the highest authority of the Sub-Heavenly Dao, into an extremely short heretical prayer—the "Dark Gold Reverse Prayer."

This is not some kind of world-destroying divine attack.

This is just a virus parasitizing the old god system.

Mortals don't even need to proclaim it loudly. As long as they silently recite these few dark gold nodes in their hearts at the end of their prayers to the Lord of Light, the faith that should have flowed to the Kingdom of Light will be silently cut open by an extremely tiny crack in this huge blood vessel, diverting and intercepting a small portion of the faith power and directly injecting it into the Dark Gold Temple.

Gu Qing flicked her finger.

This "Dark Gold Reverse Prayer" followed the dimensional anchor point, transforming into an imperceptible divine oracle that directly entered Eve's mind in the border temple.

……

Inside the temple, Eve suddenly opened her eyes, the divine runes on the back of her left hand glowing hot.

She instantly understood the Dao Lord's will. This was not a direct confrontation with outward displays of strength, but an underground spread and viral invasion originating from the deepest quagmire, on a level of faith.

That night, Eve did not allow everyone to stay at the temple.

She selected a dozen or so of her most steadfast and alert believers, including veterans like Bart and Tieyan. They smeared mud on their faces, removed their newly acquired weapons, and donned tattered prison clothes, disguising themselves as runaway slaves lost in the wasteland. They then silently infiltrated the Radiant Seventh Black Stone Mine, located thirty miles from the temple.

This is the lowest level of faith exploitation in the Radiant Diocese. Thousands of mining slaves toil day and night like ants, digging for magic crystals. Not only do they have to endure heavy labor, but every morning and evening they are also driven by overseers with whips to perform forced prayers to the Lord of Radiant before the open-air statue in the mine.

Only after completing the prayers and allowing the idol to absorb enough "fear and obedience" could the miners receive a piece of moldy bread and half a mouthful of murky water.

Eve, Bart, and the others were treated as escaped slaves and, after being whipped, were thrown into the depths of a dark and damp mine.

She was like a drop of water merging into a black ocean.

In the pitch-black mine, in a corner where the overseers couldn't hear, Eve endured hunger and pain while secretly spreading the "Dark Gold Reverse Prayer" to the lifeless miners around her in this stinking, despairing place.

No grand doctrines are needed, no strict precepts are required. In the face of utter despair, any straw that might bring about change will be clung to tightly.

Moreover, this minor change doesn't require them to risk their lives by rebelling.

That evening in the open-air plaza.

Under the barbed whips of the overseers, thousands of miners knelt in unison in the cold mud, their hands clasped together, and loudly recited the praise prayers they had memorized since childhood and which were ingrained in their very bones before the radiant idol.

"Merciful Lord of Radiance, Source of All Light, we offer our utmost humility..."

A vast and pure stream of golden faith gathered above the square, preparing to soar into the sky.

But among the dark mass of people, a dozen or so miners who had heard Eve's whispers, amidst fear and hesitation, still finished reciting the Radiant Prayer. But in the final moment after their prayer ended, they gritted their teeth and silently added that awkward "dark gold reverse prayer" in their hearts.

hum.

In the higher dimensions of faith, invisible to the naked eye, the once incredibly thick golden river of faith, which led directly to the Kingdom of Radiant God, suddenly developed more than a dozen extremely tiny vortices at its source.

The prayers of these dozen or so miners, carrying their yearning for survival and their resentment towards the overseers, were quietly severed by the dark golden virus node a second before they flowed into the long river. They transformed into a thin but pure dark golden reverse current, which crossed the wasteland and flowed directly into the dilapidated dark golden temple!

In the long river of faith of the Kingdom of Radiant Light, a small backsliding has appeared, not interrupted by external battles, but caused by the pollution of internal prayers!

The theft of faith has begun.

……

At the same time.

The deepest part of the Radiant Kingdom.

The Lord of Radiance, who had just issued the sealing oracle, suddenly emitted an unbelievable shockwave of divine power.

His immense will clearly perceived that the gap in faith in the Western Wasteland was not sealed off by the deployment of the Purification Team. Instead, like a plague, hundreds and thousands of tiny, irreparable cracks began to appear in the underground mines and slums surrounding the wasteland!

That sinister force that steals His lamb is corrupting His channels of nourishment from within.

Meanwhile, outside the Seventh Blackstone Mine.

A group of Inquisition members, clad in greyish-white robes and wielding scepters of severance, descended like ghosts on the outskirts of the mine. Several gaunt-faced penitent nuns followed behind, and in their center, eight strongmen carried a huge, heavy platinum bell, its surface engraved with twisted holy symbols.

Broken Letter Tribunal.

The judge leading the group, with his eyes closed, spoke in a tone colder than the dead: "Right here in this mine. There is heresy, corrupting the prayers of the Lord God."

"Strike the bell clean. Forcibly pull all heretical minds back into the embrace of the Lord God; those who resist, their souls will be annihilated."

Boom-!

The first chime echoed through the mine.

A colossal, illusory platinum bell seemed to fall from the sky, instantly enveloping the entire Seventh Blackstone Mine.

The grand and eerie bell tolled, striking straight to the soul. At the same time, all the miners in the mine let out a piercing scream, feeling as if their souls had been struck by some terrifying giant hammer, shattering and forcibly cleansing all thoughts of resistance from their minds.

The existence of the Dark Gold Reverse Prayer seems about to be completely exposed under this violent and forced cleansing.

In the crowd, Eve, disguised as a miner, gritted her teeth, enduring the tremors in her soul. She struggled to raise her head and look at the enormous platinum bell in the sky.

On the back of her mud-covered left hand, the hidden Dao Lord divine rune began to heat up and burn under the stimulation of the bell, emitting a faint, dark golden light.