Chapter 1069: Strengthening Swallow Village

Chapter 1069: Chapter 1069: Strengthening Swallow Village

After a moment of deathly silence, the greatly benefitted Village Chief Wang Tie was the first to react. He stepped forward unsteadily and made a grand salute, "I, Wang Tie, loyal believer under the seat of our God, greet the Grand Elder and worship our God!"

"Greetings to the Grand Elder..."

With someone leading, everyone else, regardless of their inner thoughts, had to step forward and pay their respects at this moment.

Meanwhile, Qian Gui and other disciples who had been stripped of all divine power collapsed like a pile of mud and were quickly dragged out of the divine palace.

Then, Shen Mo had Guo Yun, Wang Qiuyue, and more than forty other ordinary disciples from Wang Village summoned to the divine palace. Before the eyes of all, he "bestowed" divine power upon them. Twenty-seven reached the standard of elite disciples and received the corresponding status, while the remaining had insufficient accumulation and retained their identity as ordinary disciples. However, the divine power in them was five times more robust than before, which drove them somewhat mad with joy, and they all felt immensely grateful to Shen Mo, harboring a desire to repay him.

Regardless of whether they were senior disciples, elite disciples, or ordinary disciples, everyone else was envious beyond words, wishing they could immediately offer loyalty and faith so the newly appointed Grand Elder could wield the authority of the Long Eared God and grant them more divine power!

However, Shen Mo could not easily satisfy their wishes.

If he granted divine power equally to all, they might be immensely grateful for a short time, but it wouldn’t equate to loyalty. Only by wielding both kindness and authority, and ruling by dividing them, can one achieve the purpose of winning people’s hearts, making them serve; moreover, both the Long Eared God and the "Self God" require a lot of divine power. If they were to give more than they receive over a long period, their power would significantly weaken, and they could be visited by other fake god disciples or contracted cultivators intending to kill them!

After establishing his own authority, Shen Mo issued a series of tasks, such as building houses, hunting beasts in the forest, collecting wood and mineral resources compatible with divine power, crafting divinely gifted armors and weapons, gathering worshipers scattered throughout Qing Country, and investigating the Ear Wisdom God and other fake gods’ intelligence, etc.

Currently, the strength of Swallow Village is too weak. Including Guo Yun and Wang Qiuyue, there are only about a hundred elite disciples, over five hundred ordinary disciples with average strength, and six senior disciples including Wang Tie, all of whom are old and frail; moreover, they lack divinely gifted armor and weapons, unlike martial fake god worshipers who are skilled in martial arts...

In this situation, if they were to fight against the Ear Wisdom God’s camp, the thousand or so people in Swallow Village could be slaughtered entirely in less than a month.

These tasks released by Shen Mo, on one hand, could strengthen the overall strength of Swallow Village, and on the other hand, could seize the opportunity to select talented individuals, grant them more divine power, and gradually cultivate them into powerful figures on the God Path!

...

"Yun, are the Grand Elder and others really descendants of the Tiger Cavalry high command? How did you first get to know them?"

On a remote dirt road within Qing Country’s borders, an exotic beast known as the Flood Horse galloped like lightning, its hooves kicking up dust while carrying Guo Yun and Wang Qiuyue on its back.

It’s been more than two months since the Divine Birth Celebration. As members of the "Grand Elder’s direct line," they were granted a large amount of divine power within the divine palace, and under the envious stares of others, they were abruptly promoted to elite disciples. After their initial disbelief and ecstasy, their perception of Shen Mo became increasingly complex, filled with reverence, admiration, gratitude, and a hint of inexplicable fear!

However, they kept this favor in their hearts. After Shen Mo issued a series of tasks, they accepted one of the most dangerous and challenging tasks, which was to bring back the adherents of the Long Eared God scattered across Qing Country to the wild forest.

Though officially, all deity camps had ceased fighting to deal with the Catastrophe of Godfall, old animosities accumulated over many years could not be quickly pacified. If they fell into the hands of the Ear Wisdom God’s disciples, their outcome was predictable; aside from the Ear Wisdom God’s disciples, another danger could not be ignored, which was the increasingly frequent activities of Outer Zone Evil Demons since the catastrophe began...

Just venturing out of the wild forest to seek the Long Eared God’s worshipers was fraught with various dangers, let alone escorting them safely back into the forest. Guo Yun and Wang Qiuyue spent over two months, managing to gather more than thirty worshipers.

Fortunately, few of the scattered worshipers were sick and weak; most had some divine power and were quite devout. Upon learning that the "Divine Decree" was issued through the Grand Elder on behalf of the Long Eared God, they followed without much persuasion, selling their family assets to head to Swallow Village with them, reducing much of their trouble!

To better complete the task, Wang Qiuyue asked her father, Wang Tie, for money to purchase a Flood Horse exotic beast, saving considerable time and effort on the road.

They were now heading to a village named "Changli Village," where information provided by Shen Mo indicated more than forty worshipers resided. If they successfully brought them back to Swallow Village, almost all of the over three hundred scattered throughout Qing Country would be gathered.

Facing Wang Qiuyue’s inquiry, Guo Yun seemed a bit troubled.

He vaguely felt that the true identities and backgrounds of Shen Mo and the others were far from simple as they claimed.

Several years ago, he was fortunate enough to witness princes and nobles hunting in the wild forest, and their demeanor was far inferior to the Grand Elder and others, like clouds in the sky compared to mud on the ground; moreover, it’s been over sixty years since the "rebellion" of Ji Country’s Tiger Cavalry took place. How could descendants of high-ranking officers possibly have such fine armors and weapons?

He didn’t want to deceive Wang Qiuyue, nor dared to disclose his suspicions, so he pretended not to have heard her question due to the wind blowing too loudly.

Annoyed, Wang Qiuyue punched him several times on the back, knowing full well that as disciples under the Long Eared God’s seat, their hearing was exceptional, so how could they not hear the talk right beside them? He should find a better excuse if he wanted to fool her!

"Neigh~~~"

Guo Yun suddenly tugged tightly on the Flood Horse’s reins, causing the creature to rear up on its hind legs, nearly throwing Wang Qiuyue to the ground.

"Yun, what’s wrong?" Wang Qiuyue asked urgently, clinging tightly to Guo Yun’s waist.

Before Guo Yun could answer, she perked up her ears slightly, already hearing the commotion ten miles away, where Qing Country’s troops had set up a roadblock, checking the identity tokens and travel permits of passersby.

Under the long-standing suppression by the Ear Wisdom God, the Long Eared God had fallen to the rank of an evil god, and Guo Yun and the others, hiding in the barren regions for so long, couldn’t possibly have any tokens or permits. To avoid trouble, they immediately decided to detour around the area.

However, about ten mounted soldiers stationed at the roadblock some ten miles away seemed to perceive their movements and soon gave chase on horseback after they turned around.

Not long after, a small cavalry team caught up with them, the leader’s sharp gaze sweeping over their earlobes as he shouted sternly, "Followers of the Long Eared Evil God, kill them!"

It was then that Guo Yun and Wang Qiuyue understood why their movements were detected even from ten miles away...including the leader, the entire cavalry team consisted of disciples under the Ear Wisdom God’s seat, whose god path methods in recognizing sounds and hearing intelligence were far superior to the Long Eared God.