Chapter 624: The Root

After completing his divine rank ascension, Li Mochen's main body and avatar secluded themselves in the top level of the Fate Township for nearly another month and a half.

Thanks to his electors and Bismarck, the 'Iron Chancellor,' Li Mochen was hardly distracted by trivial matters—'hardly' because he kept observing and tracking developments on all fronts, never completely letting go.

Then, half a month ago, Li Mochen specially condensed the divine offices of 'Strategy' and 'Politics' for Bismarck as a reward for this 'Prime Minister of the Divine Kingdom,' entrusting him with authority over part of the church and the Rising Sun Group.

Bismarck was not unqualified to become the god of 'Strategy' and 'Politics'; on the contrary, he had great advantages in these areas. The problem was that these paths had been blocked by old, powerful deities.

Li Mochen, however, had no such scruples, even if it offended another god-king-level deity, Athena.

Li Mochen also promised that after his temple was renovated, Bismarck's statue would have the chance to stand at his left-hand first position, provided that the divine army Bismarck assembled for him could play a certain role, earn sufficient merits, and help him organize the order of the divine court.

This Iron Chancellor of the Hohenzollern dynasty had won part of Li Mochen's trust over the past few months. During this time, Li Mochen truly felt his authority as 'God-King' growing and strengthening, as his control over the gods under him gradually intensified and rose step by step.

Bismarck did nothing special; he simply used his eloquence and tactics to continuously demand supplies and summon warriors from the various gods.

And in the process of forming this divine army, these gods were unknowingly bound to Li Mochen's chariot one by one, in a 'silent and subtle' manner.

But Li Mochen enjoyed peace for only about three and a half months around his divine rank ascension. By April of Light Calendar 3998, countless meteors suddenly fell from the sky of the Light World.

Li Mochen sensed it and immediately left the Fate Township magic tower to observe the place where the meteors landed. He saw the Middle East, in the region of Babylon and the Persian Republic, where a vast number of demons appeared on the surface. Their shapes varied: imps, dread demons, steel demons, blade demons, horned demons, and many fallen angels. All of them indiscriminately spread disaster and death around them. The falling stars pushed down from the sky by the gods cheered them on, making their advance unstoppable, as the burning hellfire spread and blazed toward the eastern border of the Asia Minor Peninsula.

In that brief moment, seven famous cities in the Middle East and Asia Minor began to turn into seas of fire.

"It's Lucifer's Hell Legion—"

Bismarck came to Li Mochen's side, gazing eastward with the latter's help, and let out a sigh: "He has finally made his move, at this most critical moment."

"This is not surprising at all. The former Morning Star Goddess Ishtar personally lifted the Lord of Light to the heavens. Though it was a necessity to counter the Zoroastrian god of light, Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Light making Him bow to Messiah was an unbearable humiliation for Him."

By now, many of Li Mochen's arms and assistants had arrived, including Consulius Wiltonstein, the newly ascended 'God of Silence and Electromagnetic Waves': "The only thing I didn't guess was that He would choose this location to launch his offensive. I thought He would attack the Old Continent first."

Li Mochen also knew the old story Consulius mentioned. The so-called 'Lucifer' was a mistranslation of the Hebrew word '@#@@#' by the followers of the Lord of Light in the Old Continent. The true meaning of this word is 'Bright Star, Son of the Morning.'

And at that time, the only one in Babylon and Israel worthy of this title was the goddess of the morning star and sky, 'Ishtar.'

This former Babylonian god-king, to counter Ahura Mazda and for revenge, converted to the Lord of Light and introduced Him to ancient Babylon.

Eventually, due to the Lord of Light's marginalization and coercion, she fell from the sky and became the demon king of hell. She even changed her gender to male, with strong will and military preparation, intending to wage war against the Heavenly Kingdom in some future.

At this moment, Lucifer's military strength was also formidable. Though not comparable to the Lord of Light's angelic legions, in terms of combat power and numbers, it far exceeded Li Mochen's forces in the Light World.

Just one of Lucifer's seven demon princes, 'Belial,' had 3,333 demon war groups, each composed of 6,666 fallen angels, led by fallen angels of Saint Angel (legendary) rank and demon viscounts.

This 'Slothful' demon king once lent his legions to King Solomon, taking Solomon's soul after death as payment, which was the origin of the so-called 72 Pillar Demons. Among them, the top four pillars possessed strength comparable to powerful gods.

"I have always thought that side was the Lord of Light's greatest weakness. Although it is where His control is strongest, it is also Lucifer's homeland, where the power of the former Morning Star Goddess still exists."

The God of Strategy, Garcia Feren, sneered: "The Lord of Light's faith in the Middle East has long been uniquely dominant. The billions of people from Istanbul to Kandahar are His devout followers, and this is His largest source of faith. Correspondingly, if this land can be plunged into chaos and its population heavily reduced, it would undoubtedly be a major blow to the Lord of Light."

"To some extent, He brought it upon Himself. Overly devout faith, a civilization and society stuck a thousand years ago, have rendered their government and military extremely weak. What use are many believers? Times have changed. The growth of technology and industry can yield far greater benefits than the power of faith—"

Before Garcia Feren could finish, the figure of the Sea Goddess Thetis manifested near Li Mochen.

"Damn Lucifer! I understand His hatred, but doing this only gives the foreign pantheons an opportunity."

The goddess not only had displeasure in her eyes, but her expression was also extremely grim: "Your Majesty, the Heavenly Kingdom's legion defenses will collapse. The Olympian and Aesir legions will swarm into this world."

"Will it be that serious?" The God of Strategy, Garcia Feren, was startled, his eyes disbelieving.

He knew that although the Lord of Light's angelic legions numbered only nine, His foundation was unmatched. Even excluding the contaminated divine power, He could summon six to nine legions in the Heavenly Kingdom at any time and increase the number of Archangels to over eighteen.

"Far more serious than you imagine."

Thetis sighed: "I can now confirm that the Lord of Light has yet to fully control Uriel's Flame Legion and Anael's Star Legion. Nearly a thousand of His imams and grand imams in the Truth Church have also been corrupted and fallen."

No one present was surprised. For the hellish army to stir up such a commotion from the start and launch attacks on seven ancient cities with great success, it would be impossible without internal cooperation.

As for the two former Archangels Uriel and Anael, they had been declared 'evil' and 'traitors' by the current Pope over half a year ago, expelled from the angelic ranks, and their whereabouts remain unknown.

For the Lord of Light to eliminate the influence of these two Archangels in a short time was a daunting task.

"There are also problems in the Abyss. You should all know about this, right? At least twelve Abyss Lords, led by Baal, have rebelled, intending to overthrow Satan from the throne. This means that for the next month or two, Lucifer can unrestrainedly send His hell legions into the material plane to fight."

Li Mochen frowned again, a look of surprise in his eyes. Before this, he had been striving to elevate and strengthen the divine authority of 'War' to the ultimate level—meaning ultimate without external aid. He was almost there, needing only about five or six more days of study.

So in the past two days, Li Mochen had rarely withdrawn all his divine thoughts, focusing entirely on enhancing this divine authority.

But judging by the expressions of those present, they were clearly all aware of this matter.

The origin of the Abyss Lord 'Satan' is unknown. Some say He is also a fallen angel, while others believe His true form is an ancient serpent.

Li Mochen had so far read nearly ninety percent of the world's mystical histories and texts, yet he could not determine Satan's true identity. He only confirmed that there must be some cooperative relationship between Him and the Lord of Light.

Just from the content of the Light Scripture, one can see that evil, sinful souls are sent to the Abyss Purgatory after judgment until their sins are cleansed.

The unending war between the Abyss and Hell is also questionable.

If not for clues about 'Satan' found in the Light Church and some ancient mystical histories, Li Mochen would even suspect that this Abyss Lord was actually the Lord of Light's evil incarnation, like the opposition between Ahura Mazda and His evil counterpart Angra Mainyu.

"Actually, these are not the problem. The key is that the Lord of Light is already a hollow shell. His followers may be ten times yours, and His devout and fanatical followers are beyond compare, enough for Him to create another twenty angelic legions and twenty Archangels. But over the years, He has poured too much divine power into the Root, leaving little reserve. The previous contamination also consumed much of His strength."

Li Mochen turned to look at Thetis: "The Root? For Gaia?"

"Gaia!"

Thetis nodded: "As early as the Greek era, I heard from several foreign gods that this world's Root is powerful, far beyond other worlds. Yet even so, there is only one chance for a peak god-king to enter the sequence of Divine Rank 21, the 'God Above Gods.' Originally, Mother Gaia had taken the lead, even representing the Root itself at one stage. But after the Lord of Light rose, He used His followers, who occupied nearly half the world, to repeatedly tug-of-war with Mother Gaia. His mother, Isis, the so-called 'Holy Mother' of the Light Church, also helped Him. He almost succeeded."

Li Mochen could sense her strong dissatisfaction with Lucifer.

Even though Mother Gaia was her source of bloodline, and even though the Lord of Light would unify the world's faith without mercy after seizing the Root, this Sea Goddess clearly preferred not to see the Olympian pantheon re-enter the Light World.

Li Mochen was also very annoyed. He even somewhat regretted handing over the Venus divine rank belonging to the Feathered Serpent Kukulkan to Lucifer. Large-scale war and population loss did not help increase his divine power. A war engulfing the entire world would also weaken his strength.

Moreover, he couldn't help but wonder if he himself had a chance to reach the top.

The so-called 'Chief God' of the Western world roughly corresponds to the Golden Immortal of the East. The god-king rank roughly equates to 'Great Luo Golden Immortal.'

And Divine Rank 21, the so-called God Above Gods, Supreme God of the West, can be compared to the Eastern Daoist 'Hunyuan Great Luo Golden Immortal' and 'Sage,' that is, 'Taishang Wuji Hunyuan Cult Leader'!

Though it was only the Supreme God of this Light World, as long as he could successfully push open that door, he could naturally spread and project His power and existence to all heavens and realms, step by step solidifying his foundation as 'God Above Gods.'

"But the gods will certainly not sit idly by and watch Him succeed. The path to the Root and God Above Gods is gradually opening; now is the time for harvest."

Bismarck also let out a sigh: "Prepare for battle, everyone! Chaos is inevitable; this world is about to become a battlefield for the gods."

...

Thetis's purpose in rushing to the Fate Township was to persuade Li Mochen to intervene in the foreign or Middle Eastern war. Either direction would relieve pressure on the Lord of Light.

Li Mochen, however, decisively rejected it in his heart. He was not unsympathetic to the humans about to die under demon blades, and he was willing to provide力所能及的 help.

But he was not kind or generous enough to drag his friends and family, along with his already meager assets, into war to fight and die for the Lord of Light or for people he didn't know, plunging the Fate Church, established less than a year, into the flames of war—even if the Lord of Light offered equivalent benefits.

Li Mochen did not outright refuse, of course. He merely showed a hesitant and uncertain expression, which then met with Bismarck's stern劝阻. This 'Iron Chancellor' used clever rhetoric to ultimately dispel Thetis's unrealistic ideas.

But after this, Li Mochen knew that the peace of this world had come to an end.

As Bismarck said, he must be ready to fight at any time.

From that day on, he continued his secluded cultivation and study with his main body, while releasing his avatar to monitor the war situation in the Middle East and foreign lands, and to focus on integrating his forces, including his divine army, private army, biological armor, magical power armor, and of course, the mythical armaments promised by Anthony.