BOOM!
The four balls of light behind Chu Kuang blazed with golden light. At this moment, the earth shuddered. Even the people outside the formation felt like the earth was shaking.
Golden light then exploded around Chu Kuang, gushing out in every direction. A terrifying god energy radiated from him, and it created forceful astral winds that made the hole they were in even larger.
“God energy! Has Chu Kuang left his Dao doctrine in the lower plane and begun gathering faith energy?!”
“He hasn’t ignited his divine flame yet! How can he gather faith energy?!”
“It’s not necessarily impossible. Some ancient families have secret arts that can implant divine seeds in some immortal sprouts’ bodies. As long as the lower world’s Dao doctrine is planted into Chu Kuang’s spiritual mark, then those people won’t know that when they worship the divine statue, the faith energy will go to Chu Kuang. The question is whether or not Chu Kuang’s Spiritual Strength can endure the impact of that power.”
For a moment, people could only wonder in amazement at just how much effort the Chu family had put into raising Chu Kuang. They had even prepared his path for faith energy so early.
In the academy, the main reason for the God Institute and the Immortal Institute’s divide was because the Immortal Institute’s disciples looked down on this kind of cultivation method.
Divine statues that were worshiped by others would create faith energy. It could then be used to cultivate or for battle. The more followers, the greater the faith energy.
Some god cultivators would use their faith energy to help their believers walk proper cultivation paths. However, such people were rare. The majority of them were like bloodsucking leeches. They absorbed that faith energy only for their own use and imparted extreme beliefs onto their believers, ordering them to increase the number of believers no matter what in order to maximize the amount of faith energy they could absorb.
For example, amongst the many god inheritances that Long Chen had come into contact with, there were those like the Wealth God and the Wine God whose main directive was not to spread their own beliefs, but to guide people to the correct cultivation path.
However, the majority were like the Corrupt God, the Killing God, Lord Brahma, Fallen Daynight, and the like. They only wished to spread and make demands on their believers, taking their faith energy, essentially treating them as fools.
As for immortal cultivators, they sought to comprehend the Heavenly Daos. Using the heavens as a mirror and the Dao as the base, they measured heaven and earth, seeking the mysteries of the Daos in the world. They relied on their own power to raise their cultivation base, unlike gods.
Thus, to the immortal cultivators, god cultivators were contemptible tricksters. One relied on their own efforts, while the other relied on conning others. This naturally resulted in the immortal cultivators looking down on god cultivators.
For god cultivators to obtain greater faith energy, they needed greater backgrounds to carve out their own territories. They would pass their power through the wall of ascension to imprint their marks on divine statues of the lower world.
It sounded simple, but such a thing actually cost a ridiculous amount of resources. To put it frankly, god cultivators were people with money. Without money, they would have no choice but to choose the path of immortal cultivation.
While the immortal cultivators looked down on god cultivators, god cultivators also looked down on immortal cultivators, mocking them for being poor. Thus, it was rare for any faction to have friendly relations between the immortal cultivators and the god cultivators.
Of course, there were those who walked both paths of cultivation. This required both money and comprehension skills. Not only did they need to train in divine abilities and secret arts, but they were also required to use immortal arts to comprehend the Heavenly Daos. A person simply didn’t have enough time and energy to train in both paths, so most people who started on this path gave up and chose only one to continue.
Training in both paths naturally made a person stronger, but with such a slow rate of progression, who would give you time to grow in this world full of strife and danger? Such people were picked off while they were still weak.
Thus, the first rule of cultivation was to first choose one path to guarantee that you wouldn’t be crushed by others. While it was possible to train as both a god and immortal, only a few people chose that option.
The Immortal Institute’s disciples felt scorn for Chu Kuang when they saw that he was already gathering faith energy, but they were also envious. It could be said that Chu Kuang was created out of money.
At this moment, divine energy exploded out of Chu Kuang, forcing Long Chen back. Their bodies resurfaced. Chu Kuang was surrounded by divine flames, seemingly possessing endless power.
Seeing this, Luo Ning clenched her fists and her teeth. “Chu Kuang’s path has long since been paved for him. Everyone was tricked. He has hidden himself far too deeply.”
Through this battle, Luo Ning understood what a true schemer was. Before the battle in the lava cave, they had all believed that Chu Kuang’s power was only slightly greater than theirs.
After that battle, both Luo Ning and Luo Bing learned that the difference was actually far larger. But then Long Chen’s medicinal pills had allowed their bloodlines to undergo spiritual awakening, causing them to grow far stronger. With their confidence raised, they had thought that they would be able to fight him evenly at the very least.
However, Long Chen was now forcing one trump card after another out of Chu Kuang. Every single one of those trump cards was shocking, and even this faith energy was used. Only now did both sisters realize just how foolish they had been.
“Not everyone was tricked. Long Chen was able to see through him. Whether it is in terms of power, vision, methods, or scheming, there’s no way for us to compare to him,” sighed Luo Bing.
When the battle first began, she was worried about Long Chen. But as the battle progressed, she saw that his expression remained as calm as ever. It was an expression of victory already being in grasp.
Even now that Chu Kuang was displaying even more shocking trump cards, she no longer felt as much shock as before. Instead, she was admiring Long Chen even more. This fellow that was even younger than her could only be called a monster.
“Big sis, you should consider having him marry into the Luo family,” whispered Luo Ning into Luo Bing’s ear.
Luo Bing instantly blushed and glared at her before continuing to watch the battle.
Chu Kuang’s aura continued to force Long Chen further and further back. He then smiled sinisterly. “Long Chen, I have one hundred and ninety-one mortal worlds with my Dao doctrine in them. I have five thousand seven hundred and sixty-three divine statues, as well as countless followers. Their faith energy is the source of my power, making my power endless. What will you use to fight me?”
At that moment, he seemed to have become a heavenly god, an unrivaled existence.
“Are all liars so proud of themselves? Will they just openly flaunt their ability to trick others? What will I use to fight you? What a joke. External power is external. What is there to be proud of? Today, I’ll show you that only the power that belongs to you is your actual power.”
As Long Chen formed hand seals, the 108,000 stars in his star diagram blazed with light. Their power poured into him. Chu Kuang’s body, which was slowly rising, was suddenly smashed back into the earth.
BOOM!
With this one stamp of his foot, Long Chen left a bottomless hole in the ground.
