Chapter 222 Approaching The Divine (Forty-Four)
"What's going on?" Yan Xueshi exclaimed in shock. "How did Liu Sheng's Power Of Faith plummet to rock bottom?"
They had all been watching the peculiar phenomenon on Wen Xuanning's side and hadn't paid any attention to the leaderboard.
It wasn't until they saw Liu Sheng's mirage that they realized the inverted city was Liu Sheng's Xuan Thirty-Nine City.
They had been wondering how she achieved it, but then they saw Liu Sheng's Power Of Faith drop to zero on the leaderboard and suddenly understood something.
Li Shangshu was the most knowledgeable among them regarding the illusion set up by the Supreme God, as the Ministry of Rites would bear a heavy responsibility next. Therefore, he immediately recognized that Liu Sheng had used a god-bestowed skill.
Only a god-bestowed skill could have such a miraculous effect. Of course, a skill with such a spatial-transcending effect was unimaginable, and they would only know more by asking Liu Sheng in detail later.
Li Shangshu guessed that many skills must have been bestowed in this illusion, but only a few actually required the consumption of Power Of Faith.
After all, Power Of Faith was the key to winning the final ranking; who would use it lightly?
Unless it was someone like Wen Xuanning, who possessed a vast amount of Power Of Faith and would occasionally use some.
Wen Xuanning now also wanted to use his skills, as he had so much Power Of Faith to consume, but looking at the skills he had, none could deal with a situation where a city was pressing down from the sky.
Skill One:
【Name: Divine Authority】
【Type: Active Skill】
【Quality: Epic】
【Effect: Enemies within range feel oppressed, their morale drops, and their attack and defense capabilities decrease; friendly forces within range obey the wielder of authority, and their combat will and defense increase.】
【Consumption: Each cast consumes 100 Power Of Faith.】
Skill Two:
【Name: Divine Cavalry】
【Type: Active Skill】
【Quality: Epic】
【Effect: Summons well-equipped, well-trained Divine Cavalry capable of using divine weapons.】
【Consumption: Each cavalry summoned consumes 50 Power Of Faith.】
Skill One was an area-of-effect divine skill that helped him through his probationary period, allowing him to successfully wield his authority to "persuade" many people, including that stubborn county magistrate.
Skill Two was a reward from his first battle of faith. With this skill, he was virtually invincible and swept all before him on this "examination" chessboard.
But he could neither wield his authority to influence the people in the city above nor throw his Divine Cavalry into the sky to fight. He could only watch silently as the city pressed down little by little until he could clearly see the bustling figures throughout the city, and a slightly familiar figure "hanging upside down" on a rooftop, surrounded by people.
Looking at the brilliant smile the woman gave him, he was momentarily dazed, then tried to recall where he had seen this woman before.
Unfortunately, he was old, and although he had a young mind, the memories from his old age were still in his aging brain, somewhat blurry.
Wait, so it was her... the person he had met at that time?
It seemed... she was a good friend of his granddaughter, named Liu Sheng.
He had seen her on the night he succeeded!
At the time, it seemed she couldn't cultivate, so he thought it was a pity for such a clever and intelligent young girl and considered recruiting her, but she refused without hesitation.
Rarely being refused, he still had some impression of this little girl.
Unexpectedly...
She could suddenly cultivate again?
And even participate in the imperial examination?
And live until the last day of the illusion?
Even use such an unimaginable ultimate move to ride over him?
He suddenly remembered that while "conquering all sides" in the illusion, he had passed by a "Xuan Thirty-Nine City," but the craftsmen he sent quickly lost contact. When he sent them again, it was the same, which made him realize something was wrong, guessing that they probably had some protective divine skill.
Moreover, he had checked the list at the time, and Xuan Thirty-Nine City belonged to an unknown examinee. Although the name was somewhat familiar, it wasn't within his scope of attention.
Thus, there was no need for him to stubbornly insist, so he decided to go around.
So he took out the list again and, upon seeing it, it was indeed so.
The list clearly stated: Xuan Thirty-Nine City, Liu Sheng.
His eyes gradually narrowed, his gaze chilling.
Although he had noticed something special about this little girl at the time, it now seemed he had underestimated her.
...
"What exactly is going on with this Power Of Faith consumption?" Hanshan Jun couldn't understand why someone would exhaust the Power Of Faith of an entire city just to make such a gamble.
"Power Of Faith, did it just disappear like that?"
Yan Xueshi, who specialized in spiritual energy, found this "Power Of Faith" quite unfamiliar and couldn't help but seriously ponder its mechanism.
"If Power Of Faith is consumed, do the people no longer believe?" She kept thinking about this question, and the more she thought, the more something felt wrong.
"Look at the leaderboard," Mei Yuanzheng, knowing his subordinate's serious nature, reminded her to look up.
So, everyone looked at the leaderboard in unison, their eyes widening.
Liu Sheng's Power Of Faith, behind her name, actually started from zero and soared again, quickly rising to the value of "one thousand three hundred and twenty-four."
Although she was fifth again, she was no longer tied.
...
"This is?" The Princess was too shocked to speak.
She had been secretly angry at Liu Sheng for being so audacious as to use such a move against Wen Xuanning, but then found it truly laughable, thinking it was just a futile effort, simply exhausting her own Power Of Faith for nothing.
Who would have thought that the Power Of Faith would return!
The Emperor nodded and said, "This is the power of Power Of Faith. Each temple is equivalent to a pool of faith. Even if it's consumed, as long as the faith is stable enough and the believers' lives are safe, it can continuously regenerate."
"This is also why the Supreme God hopes to restart faith."
...
This was also why Liu Sheng was confident in completing the "Nail Plan."
After some experimentation, Liu Sheng and the world generally understood the regenerative nature of Power Of Faith. However, whether it could regenerate and its regeneration speed were highly correlated with the stability of the faith.
For example, those believers who were forcibly converted by Liu Sheng from the sky had no way to regenerate Power Of Faith for Liu Sheng.
But the residents of the local city, their faith in Earth Mother was already as solid as a rock, so the Power Of Faith was continuous and inexhaustible. It was just a pity that the temple's pool was fixed, so it couldn't store more.
The only unknown was how much Power Of Faith would be needed to "staple" the two cities together using the cracked version of "Binding."
She could only trust what the world said: the power of the entire city.
Therefore, when all the people of the city saw the Grand Divine Official working hard to bring the two cities closer, they felt something in their hearts and, as one, placed their hands on their left chests, praying for Earth Mother to grant them strength.
When everyone was praying to Earth Mother, Liu Sheng felt a sacred power once again fill her entire body.
The Power Of Faith had returned!
Liu Sheng no longer hesitated, her thoughts swirling, her hands exerting force, truly binding "Heavenly Eighteen City" and "Xuan Thirty-Nine City" together!
The god's face spanning between the two cities was thus annihilated!
She went all out!!!