Of course, it wasn't just Shen Mu who felt great; Zhang Caidong did too.
He was the first Blue Star Human in Shen Mu's faction to receive the spiritual realm mark inheritance, meaning that currently, besides Shen Mu, he was the foremost Blue Star Human.
How could he not feel excited?
Especially now, Zhang Caidong had closed his eyes, carefully experiencing the profound heritage of the powerful Lingjie Human Race faction behind Shen Mu.
At the same time, his heart was deeply shaken.
"That's right, the spiritual realm mark of the Gnoll that was originally in my body is now fading," Zhang Caidong said softly. "And the soul mark of the Gnoll is being assimilated by the spiritual realm mark of Lord Shen Mu."
His eyes were filled with even greater surprise at this moment.
Because this was what was happening in his mind: the white light belonging to Shen Mu, which was the mark of the Lingjie Human Race, was spreading into the Gnoll's soul mark in his mind.
It was as if it was devouring it.
Little by little, the grayish-brown soul mark of the Gnoll was completely transforming into the white mark of the Lingjie Human Race.
And when all of the grayish-brown soul mark of the Gnoll completely disappeared.
Only the white mark of the Lingjie Human Race remained.
'Buzz!'
And at this moment, Zhang Caidong also felt that deep within his soul, the soul contract he had originally signed with the Gnoll suddenly broke.
The direction of the soul anchor, the planar scene in the Star Realm, had also lost connection.
Even his soul, which had begun to transform into a Gnoll, was now being forcibly altered by the white light.
It was as if it had detected his soul's distortion and was performing a forced correction.
And the white light that appeared in his mind now began to refract back towards Shen Mu.
At this moment, Shen Mu's expression suddenly changed.
Because right before his eyes, a new dialogue box appeared.
And on his retina, the content of this dialogue box was about Zhang Caidong being able to continue upgrading, which greatly surprised him.
【Ding! Your 'Ten-Man Commander Zhang Caidong' has had some residual special energy successfully parsed by the system into corresponding Faith Power and adaptive experience points.】
【You have gained: 3452 Faith Power.】
【Zhang Caidong has gained: 300 adaptive experience points.】
【Currently, your Ten-Man Commander Zhang Caidong can be upgraded to a Tier 2 unit.】
【Tip: You can also choose not to upgrade. This depends on your set adaptive experience point quota and faith level quota.】
"My Ten-Man Commander Zhang Caidong can actually be upgraded to a Tier 2 unit now?" This was completely unexpected for Shen Mu.
A Tier 2 unit was a Swadian Militia.
A very important Tier 2 unit in the Swadia Kingdom faction, and one that could already be used as the main force for second-line garrison troops.
After all, Swadian Militia equipped with leather armor, long spears, large shields, and hunting crossbows could almost be said to be at a transformative level.
Now Zhang Caidong could be upgraded.
"And it's also because my Mount & Blade System parsed some special energy left in Zhang Caidong's body, which then parsed into 3452 Faith Power and 300 adaptive experience points."
Shen Mu reached out and stroked his chin.
He pondered thoughtfully: "It seems that the adaptive experience points and Faith Power are converted from the remaining part of Zhang Caidong's transformed soul after it was purified by the system."
The Mount & Blade System in his mind had already given him an explanation.
Zhang Caidong had completed 30% of the soul-level resonance with the Gnoll, meaning he basically possessed some of the Gnoll's abilities.
For example, a lean physique, agile movements, strong muscles, and a very keen perception during combat.
These all shared some commonalities with the Gnoll.
The reason he didn't undergo more changes or gradually transform into a Gnoll's appearance was because his soul-level resonance hadn't reached a high enough percentage.
After all, for Blue Star Humans, reaching 50% was generally required to have a slight resemblance to those Spiritual Realm creatures in appearance.
For example, the official employees of the Diesel Company only became corpulent, similar to Pig-Headed People, at 50% or more.
But even then, their faces weren't completely similar to Pig-Headed People.
Those high-level managers who reached over 80% soul resonance were at most similar to Pig-Headed People in physique, and their facial contours were somewhat similar to Pig-Headed People, nothing more.
In fact, even Blue Star Humans who reached 100% soul resonance could not completely transform into Spiritual Realm creatures.
It could only be described as a hybrid.
They would indeed look like the soul creature, but if one looked closely, they could still discern some outlines of a Blue Star Human.
Soul-level resonance could not completely determine or change one's appearance.
Of course, this point might change if the rules of the fantasy-side crystal wall system fully descended upon the Blue Star World, and the native rules of Blue Star were completely crushed and integrated into the spirit world rules.
But these were all side notes.
What concerned Shen Mu more now was that his Ten-Man Commander Zhang Caidong could already be upgraded to a Tier 2 unit.
"And while he can be upgraded, it also brings me some extra Faith Power."
Shen Mu's lips curved into a slight smile; this was indeed a very good thing.
At this moment, his thoughts stirred, and he once again communicated with the system.
"Start setting the experience points required for upgrade!" Shen Mu gave his command to the system, and the retina display immediately refreshed.
【Ding! You can now set the experience points required for your appointed Ten-Man Commander to upgrade!】
【Normal upgrade experience required:】
【Swadian Recruit: 30 experience points. (Pseudo-Believer Level)】
【Swadian Militia: 50 experience points. (General Believer Level)】
【Swadian Light Infantry / Skirmisher: 100 experience points. (True Believer Level)】
【Swadian Infantry / Crossbowman / Heavy Cavalry: 300 experience points. (Deep Believer Level)】
【Swadian Sergeant / Veteran Crossbowman / Knight: 500 experience points. (Pious Believer Level)】
【Tip: You can choose to collect more adaptive experience points produced by Blue Star Humans as your experience point reserve. When your soldiers upgrade, adaptive experience points can be used to fill the requirement, allowing your soldiers to upgrade faster.】
The dialogue box displayed the experience points in normal mode, and Shen Mu had already made his decision.
After all, at the very end, the Mount & Blade System had already hinted at the reason for him to set the upgrade experience points himself.
It was so that he could act as a middleman to collect the adaptive experience points that the Blue Star Humans worked hard to obtain, and then use them as his own adaptive experience point reserve. Once he acquired Mount & Blade Soldiers, he wouldn't need to make his Mount & Blade Soldiers fight extra battles; he could directly upgrade them.
This meant that the more followers he had, the faster his Mount & Blade Soldiers, even those at the Tier 1 Recruit level, could upgrade by filling them with adaptive experience points.
It was like a fish in water.
"In that case, increase everything by 10 times." Shen Mu immediately made a decision and changed the content in the dialogue box on his retina.
And the moment he confirmed, the Mount & Blade System had already refreshed the content of the dialogue box on his retina.
The new content was also refreshed.
【Ding! The experience required for your Ten-Man Commander's upgrade has changed:】
【Swadian Recruit: 300 experience points. (Pseudo-Believer Level)】
【Swadian Militia: 500 experience points. (General Believer Level)】
【Swadian Light Infantry / Skirmisher: 1000 experience points. (True Believer Level)】
【Swadian Infantry / Crossbowman / Heavy Cavalry: 3000 experience points. (Deep Believer Level)】
【Swadian Sergeant / Veteran Crossbowman / Knight: 5000 experience points. (Pious Believer Level)】
"Perfect." Shen Mu nodded with satisfaction.
After all, in the current world, there were too many enemies.
Countless enemies were waiting for them; as long as they were willing to put in the effort, there would be a continuous stream of enemies waiting for them to defeat, bringing back more adaptive experience points for Shen Mu.
In this way, Shen Mu would be like sitting at home counting money, completely eliminating the need to personally lead troops to grind for upgrades.
"However, regarding the faith level of followers, some special methods are indeed needed." Shen Mu looked at the parenthesized content of the follower levels at the end of the dialogue box.
This follower level was the special module Shen Mu obtained after completing the mission this time.
The Follower Module.
As if sensing Shen Mu's doubts, the Mount & Blade System displayed the content of this module on his retina.
It was precisely about follower levels.
【Follower Module:】
【Pseudo-Believer: They have learned of your faith and developed Faith Power out of awe. However, it is absolutely not because of your great power that they became believers. It is merely out of respect for the concept of a deity.】
【General Believer: They have witnessed your miracles, or received your grace, and learned of your doctrines, and so, out of curiosity and reverence, they are willing to pray to you. However, due to various reasons, they may change their faith at any time.】
【True Believer: These are true believers who have joined your sect, pray to you devoutly every day, and will not easily betray or leave the sect unless it is a matter of life and death or a major psychological fluctuation.】
【Deep Believer: They deeply believe in you, taking your doctrines and revelations as the tenets of their daily life and existence. Only extremely special events would make them betray their faith. But usually, they would rather die than easily betray.】
【Pious Believer: These believers are often ascetics within a sect, devout believers willing to sacrifice and make various contributions for the sect. Death to them is an act of returning to your embrace. They will absolutely not apostatize or betray their faith.】
【Fanatic Believer: Extremely rare fanatic believers. Their entire lives are spent in fervent prayer to you and following your will. If they die, their pure souls will immediately transform into "Supplicants," singing praises to you in your "Divine Realm."】
【Tip: You are missing the "Deity" related module. Please keep up the good work...】
However, Shen Mu's brows furrowed slightly as he looked at the very bottom of the dialogue box content.
"Missing a related module, and still need to keep working hard?" Shen Mu especially looked at the two most important words, his eyes filled with a bit more shock: "Deity."
These two words were truly too shocking.
He hadn't expected that after obtaining the related special module this time, the Mount & Blade System would actually proactively bring up the word "Deity."
And thinking back to the treasure he had obtained from Sun Zhiru earlier, it was a broken statue of a god.
"Could it be that because this statue belongs to a deity's statue from the fantasy-side crystal wall system, it contained rules about deities, and was thus absorbed by the Mount & Blade System?"
Shen Mu pondered thoughtfully at this moment.
He then looked at the various follower names in the dialogue box above.
There were a total of 6 types.
Most of them described how these followers prayed to a certain existence and produced Faith Power.
And thinking about that certain existence now, it was indeed only a Deity who could bear the concept of that existence.
"But it's fine, at least it's a help to me." Shen Mu didn't care whether he was a Deity or not.
But for him, as long as he now controlled the Mount & Blade System, and then through the Mount & Blade System controlled these special modules, he would be able to become stronger.
"Then now, let's upgrade Zhang Caidong."
Shen Mu's thoughts once again communicated with the system.
After all, for Zhang Caidong, he had already reached the General Believer level, which indicated that this guy actually had a certain reverence for his Dragon Flag faith and was willing to accept this faith.
This was also what Shen Mu had actively promoted among Blue Star Humans before: the faith of the Dragon Flag.
The core faith of the Dragon Flag in the Mount & Blade World.
In this way, it was effectively the faith that Shen Mu controlled, because no matter what, the Mount & Blade World had Mount & Blade Rules, and Mount & Blade Rules were actually controlled by the Mount & Blade System.
And Shen Mu was the sole supreme existence controlling the Mount & Blade System.
This formed a logical closed loop.
And as Shen Mu confirmed, the dialogue box popped up again.
【Ding! Your 'Swadian Recruit (Zhang Caidong)' can now be upgraded. Upgrading to a Tier 2 unit, Swadian Militia, will require 300 adaptive experience points, reaching the General Believer level, and also consuming 30 dinar.】
"It also requires 30 dinar? That's normal, the cost to upgrade from Tier 1 to Tier 2." Shen Mu nodded and immediately confirmed the upgrade.
And this time, a new white light reappeared.
The target was Zhang Caidong, who was still pondering, still carefully thinking, and still subtly sensing the changes occurring within him.
And under the astonished gaze of the other 16 people in the conference room, the new white light once again enveloped Zhang Caidong.
And new changes began to appear on Zhang Caidong's body.
This made the other 16 people present even more shocked.
"Can there be a second transformation?"