"The web of faith?"
Charlotte was stunned when she saw the new abilities appearing on the Blood Book.
She closed her eyes and sensed it for a while, and then was surprised to find that she seemed to have really woven a huge "network" in the dark.
Deep in the world of consciousness, the starlight that symbolizes the believers has changed. A constellation-like network has appeared around the starlight, connecting all the starlights and finally converging on Charlotte, who is like the core.
The core of the core is Charlotte's heart, or more precisely, the crystal of the endogenous flame in the heart that seems real and illusory, like the godhood and divine fire in Western fantasy stories.
The network is anchored by the statues worshipped by the subhuman tribes, just like a base station for mobile devices, and is connected to numerous believers through the statues.
Charlotte discovered that through this network, she could easily extend her power to every statue that was "in the network", and through the statues she could easily project her power to every believer near the statue.
It's like a cell phone signal.
Of course, this is just a crude metaphor.
In Charlotte's perception, every believer is actually a "base station" that can also receive and send her "signals", but the strength of the signals varies.
Even the weakest signal was much more efficient than Charlotte's previous simple and crude method of contacting them through the starlight that symbolized the believers and projecting power.
Charlotte tried a little, and through this newly emerged network of faith, she turned her attention to the werewolf Luf, the elf Sebastian, and the blood-born Count Yust.
Then he was surprised to find that contacting them through the faith network hardly consumed any blood power!
To put it in an analogy, before, contacting believers and scroll members was like shouting from a distance, and she had to stretch her neck and shout, but now it is like having a mobile phone, and she only needs to speak in a normal tone.
“This web of faith… is something!”
Charlotte couldn't help but exclaim.
And at this moment, a new line of text appeared in her vision—
The Blood Codex has detected a Faith Network in use—
Faith Network Affiliation: Charlotte de Castel (Lord of the Canon)
Current network status: Semi-activated
Fully activated
Fully activated
Charlotte was stunned again.
After pondering for a moment, she tried to activate it in the depths of her consciousness.
The next moment, the web of faith in her consciousness glowed faintly, and at the same time, Charlotte felt that the connection between herself and her believers was further strengthened.
She showed curiosity and planned to study it carefully, but then, an overwhelming voice flooded into her consciousness:
"Praise you! Great Blood True Ancestor, may you bless me to dig more Mithril Ore today!"
"My Lord! Please listen to the voice of my humble believer and grant me the possibility of awakening my bloodline!"
"Great Blood Ancestor, I want to confess my sins to you..."
"O Lord, I..."
"… "
All kinds of prayers came from all directions and penetrated into Charlotte's mind, making her couldn't help but exclaim "Oh shit", and then quickly adjusted the web of faith to a semi-activated state again.
This time, the sound of prayers gradually disappeared, and was replaced by the twinkling starlight in the web of faith.
Every twinkle of the starlight meant someone was praying to her.
Some are strong, some are weak.
"Phew, it's much quieter now."
Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief.
She wanted to see how much divine power she had consumed in activating the Web of Faith, but when her consciousness penetrated deeper into the Holy Book of Blood, she discovered that all the divine power of blood accumulated in the Holy Book had disappeared.
"Huh? Why is the divine power gone?"
Charlotte frowned slightly.
After thinking about it, Charlotte consciously mobilized the power of blood, and then she found that she could still mobilize the power.
However, this power no longer came from the divine power of blood stored in the Holy Book of Blood, but actually came from her heart!
Or to be more precise, it was the translucent crystal in her heart that seemed real and illusory.
Charlotte's heart moved, and she sensed it carefully, and then she found that the divine power in the Holy Book of Blood did not disappear, but was transferred.
The divine power was transferred into the crystal with the inherent golden flame, and merged with the divine power retained in the statue in the Temple of Ancients. All of it was concentrated inside, forming a pool of divine power.
At the same time, this pool of divine power is also connected to Charlotte's web of faith.
Charlotte sensed that the accumulated divine power in the divine power pool was almost the total amount of divine power from the Holy Blood Book and the ancient statue, about 2,000 points, enough for her True Ancestor to be released and squandered for more than half an hour.
"So... could this illusory crystal really be a godhead? And that flame is the divine fire?"
Charlotte looked puzzled.
"So what am I now? A vampire? The master of the Holy Book of Blood? Or... am I already a 'god'?"
She muttered a few words, sensed her own strength, and then found that if she didn't use her divine power, she would still be a weakling with only Yin Yue's strength.
Charlotte was a little confused about her current situation.
what is this
Schrödinger's God
Demi god
False God
Charlotte looked strange, and at this moment, she suddenly had an idea.
In her perception, a star in the Web of Faith suddenly flickered, and Charlotte keenly felt that a weak energy flowed along the Web of Faith into the pool of divine power in her heart.
Although it was very weak, so weak that it could not be felt without careful perception, and so weak that even if it was magnified ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, it might not be as strong as a bit of divine power, but Charlotte was sure that the divine power in her divine power pool had increased a little bit.
She suddenly perked up, realizing a possibility, and then quickly sank into consciousness to trace the source of that energy.
Following the network of faith, Charlotte easily traced back to the twinkling star, and when she projected her consciousness, her vision changed instantly.
She "saw" a forest. In the forest, a ferocious monster had fallen to the ground with a spear stuck in its body. A rough-faced werewolf was standing on the monster's corpse, gasping for breath.
His breath was rising and falling, and his whole body seemed to radiate a strong rhythm of supernatural power. The hideous wounds on his body were wriggling, and were actually slowly healing.
He pulled out the spear with all his strength, splashing a streak of blood, and then stretched out his other hand and crookedly drew a thorn rose symbol on his chest, and then said in a deep voice:
"Praise the True Ancestor, and grant me courage!"
Sensing the werewolf's aura, Charlotte immediately realized what was happening:
"He is a werewolf follower who fights monsters in the forest. He just broke through to the stars in the midst of crisis..."
“So, the power that the Web of Faith just collected was the extraordinary power that erupted the moment he broke through to the stars?”
Charlotte was sure that it wasn't the power of faith.
Or to be more precise, she had no idea what the power of faith was, and had never heard of it since she traveled through time.
It is very likely that there is no power of faith in this world like the power in the Western fantasy novels she read in her previous life. The power just now was pure supernatural power, the power that exploded when the energy surged at the moment of the supernatural person's breakthrough.
With some guesses in mind, Charlotte began to carefully sense the network of faith.
And this perception actually allowed her to discover a lot of things.
For example... her faith network is actually connected to the blood and life of all believers, as if they are connected through the soul and body.
Moreover, the more devout the believer, the closer the connection is.
This connection is the channel of the web of faith. Charlotte can use this channel to bestow power on believers, and at the same time, she can also absorb the power of believers through this channel.
At this time, the information about the Web of Faith in the Holy Book of Blood continued to emerge, as if the verification and loading had finally been completed:
Web of Faith: As the Totem of Blood, the Lord of the Holy Scripture possesses the ability to weave a web of faith. He can weave a network of faith through the faith of believers, construct faith anchors, anchor believers with the help of faith, grant believers divine blessings, cultivate and absorb extraordinary powers, and reclaim believers' souls and divine grace after their death.
Cultivate and absorb extraordinary powers
Reclaiming souls and divine grace
Charlotte was slightly startled when she saw the description of the new ability.
She narrowed her eyes, with an inexplicable look on her face:
"So... the purpose of the gods developing believers is to establish a close relationship with them and let the believers help them practice together?"
"And this... is the secret of the gods?"
Charlotte almost instantly thought of some words that Nice had said:
Gods are gods, and faith is faith. I once heard someone say that gods are nothing but a group of selfish parasites dressed in hypocritical cloaks.
"A parasite? If the gods really develop believers in order to absorb their extraordinary powers, then it is indeed a kind of parasitism."
Charlotte muttered to herself.
Of course, having said that, not all of God’s believers are extraordinary beings, most of them are actually mortals.
"Mortals...if they are devout believers, they will return to the kingdom of God after death."
"Hiss, so, for mortals, their souls are recycled after they die?"
"Soul power is also a kind of supernatural power. Different people have different strengths..."
"The gods develop believers. Believers who have mastered extraordinary powers will give feedback to the gods when their extraordinary powers are improved. After the believers die, their souls will be taken back by the gods."
At this moment, Charlotte finally figured out the secret of the gods:
"No wonder, no wonder the gods want to develop believers. Although there is no such thing as the power of faith, developing believers is part of their way of increasing their own strength!"
"It's like herding. As a transcendent grows, he absorbs the magic power around him all the time. Or... transcendent power is like a sheep eating grass and growing wool."
"The gods who have established a network of faith can absorb some of the energy in this process, similar to shearing sheep."
"When a believer dies, just like a sheep growing up and being released from the flock, the gods will reclaim their souls and any remaining supernatural powers."
"This is consistent with the need for funeral ceremonies after the death of believers."
"Every church preaches that after the funeral, the soul of the deceased can be at peace, and the remaining supernatural power in the body can be purified..."
"But in reality, I'm afraid that funeral ceremonies can 'guide' the souls of believers back to the kingdom of God, and supernatural powers can also be recovered with the help of the network of faith!"
"Of course, this is a win-win situation for mortals and gods, because if the bodies of extraordinary people are not processed and recycled, they will most likely turn into undead spirits."
"The gods grant believers divine grace and protection in exchange for their souls after death and their extraordinary powers during their lifetime!"
At this moment, Charlotte realized.
Sure enough, if you want to fully understand something, the best way is to get in touch with that thing yourself, or even become that thing.
In the past, Charlotte had always been confused about the secrets of gods and believers. She had some guesses but did not understand them clearly.
Now that I have the network of faith, everything becomes clear.
"The method used by the Blood Clan to increase their power is probably the same. The Blood Clan gods rarely care about the spread of faith, but they care very much about the evolution of their offspring..."
"The blood of the vampires is actually a network of faith in another sense. The fact that I can devour the blood power of other vampires through the power of the Holy Book of Blood is proof of this."
"In other words, in the blood clan, the role of blood descendants may very well replace the believers!"
Suddenly, Charlotte thought of more.
At the same time, she also understood why Nice said that it didn't matter if faith deteriorated, because the gods really didn't worry about faith deteriorating.
The gods only need believers to believe in them and be able to establish a channel. Even if the faith has changed, as long as there is still belief in the gods, the channel will still be there.
As long as the channel remains, the gods can continue to gain power from their believers.
Judging from the role of the web of faith, the status of gods and believers is unequal. Gods can completely hold the life and death of believers in their hands. This also confirms the stories Charlotte has seen about gods falling and believers going crazy or dying directly.
But then again, how can the strong and the weak be equal? If mortals want to obtain protection from the gods and gain extraordinary powers, they must pay a corresponding price.
"My current state should be one step closer to becoming a god. Although I am not a true god, I am afraid I cannot be regarded as an ordinary life."
"God, divine power, faith, kingdom of God... To be honest, I don't have a kingdom of God yet. Perhaps... this is the essential difference between me and a true god now?"
Charlotte pondered.
Charlotte still has many questions about God that cannot be answered.
However, there was one thing she was sure of.
That is, after having the network of faith, developing believers must also be put on the agenda.
Although there is no evidence, Charlotte has a feeling that she has actually embarked on the true path to becoming a god...