Chapter 1592: Divine Manifestation

Several days later, a sudden beam of golden light erupted from the depths of the slums, shooting straight into the heavens. The surrounding space trembled like rippling water, and an ancient aura slowly seeped out from within...

The phenomenon immediately drew the attention of countless people.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Before long, the Temple of the Gods dispatched their forces to the scene. Not just them, many experts from various clans in the city also arrived. Suspended within the golden light was a tiny pagoda.

A tiny pagoda?

Everyone was puzzled.

At that moment, the pagoda released a burst of golden light, instantly absorbing all the nearby experts into it.

Once inside, those cultivators were utterly stunned.

Ten years inside the pagoda equals one day outside!

The moment they realized that, they were driven into a frenzy.

Moments later, the pagoda expelled them all back outside. Now standing outside, everyone's eyes turned red with desire.

There was no hiding the greed in anyone's eyes.

An artifact of such divine nature... even the so-called Legendary artifacts probably couldn't compare to it!

Right then, a middle-aged man descended from the skies. Dressed in a gray robe, tall and imposing, his gaze carried an unfathomable depth. With his arrival, an invisible pressure blanketed the entire area.

All the guards of the Temple of the Gods dropped to their knees at once.

"Greetings, Main God Mu."

Main God Mu!

The faces of the clan leaders changed dramatically, and they quickly bowed with utmost respect.

No one had expected a Main God to appear in person.

Main God Mu extended his palm, and the tiny pagoda turned into a golden stream of light, landing in his hand. As he examined it, his brow furrowed deeply, and a flicker of confusion passed through his eyes.

All around, no one dared make a sound.

This was a Main God, after all...

Just then, Main God Mu ordered, "Seal this place."

And with that, he turned and left.

The area was immediately locked down. However, news of the pagoda spread through the Temple of the Gods City like wildfire.

At first, everyone was confused. Why would such a treasure appear in the slums?

Soon, speculation surged—could this be a Divine Manifestation?

A Divine Manifestation!

Once that rumor spread, the Temple of the Gods erupted.

After all, throughout the entire Temple of the Gods Star System, there hadn't been a true Divine Manifestation for hundreds of millions of years. Not even the Central Gods Temple had seen one, let alone the South Gods Temple.

That was precisely why the five major Temples were under enormous pressure. The long absence of Divine Manifestations implied that the Divinity was probably displeased...

However, this pagoda could be a true Divine Manifestation! Shockingly, it appeared in the territory of the South Gods Temple.

If it truly was a divine manifestation, then for the South Gods Temple, this would be a supreme honor.

It would be a sign of the Divinity's favor!

In the Central Gods Temple, all seven Main Gods had gathered. Along with them were three others—Qu Jin, Ge Han, and Nan Xiao.

Qu Jin and Ge Han were candidates for the next Main God position, while Nan Xiao's status was a bit special.

Seated at the center was the Executive Main God, who remained silent as he stared at the tiny pagoda before him. Even his gaze betrayed deep unease. This divine object... he had never seen anything like it.

The eyes of the other Main Gods were also fixed on the pagoda; the majority of them were bewildered.

Finally, the Executive Main God said, "Let's hear your thoughts."

Qu Jin, Ge Han, and Nan Xiao all remained silent. This wasn't the kind of occasion where they could speak casually.

The Main God beside the Executive Main God said, "Its appearance is too strange. Either it's the a divine manifestation... or it's a trap."

A trap?!

The Main Gods frowned.

Main God Mu interjected, "If this is a trap, then whoever created this object..."

At that, the expressions of the gods grew grim. To produce such an artifact just to lure them in, what kind of terrifying scheme would that require? Was someone trying to overthrow the Temple of the Gods?

The Main God from earlier said, "Then, let us consider it a Divine Manifestation."

The others turned to him.

"Due to various reasons over the years, our South Gods Temple has fallen behind all the others. The once-in-a-millennium Pilgrimage is fast approaching, so if we still can't produce any noteworthy achievements, we get demoted... or worse."

Demotion!

The Main Gods fell silent.

And this wasn't some ordinary demotion. It meant the Divinity withdraw their favor from them, and they would lose their seat and artifacts.

Power and authority. Once possessed, who would willingly give them up?

The Main God from earlier said, "But if this is truly a Divine Manifestation, it would earn us huge merit during the Pilgrimage."

Main God Mu asked, "And if it isn't?"

"Then so be it. What do we have to lose?"

Main God Mu paused and said, "If we claim it's a Divine Manifestation, we must offer a reasonable explanation. Why did it appear?"

"The slums," replied the Main God from earlier. Then, he glanced at the others and said solemnly, "A Divine Manifestation... to save all beings."

Silence.

They all knew about the slums, of course. However, they had always turned a blind eye, as fixing it would require massive funding.

And even if they spent that money, what then? How would the common people survive in the long run? It wasn't something money alone could solve. And frankly, the faith power those commoners offered was too weak to be of any real value.

A thankless task; none of them were willing to do it.

However, the Divine Manifestation had appeared there. Could it be that the Divinity was truly displeased with them? The thought weighed heavily on their hearts.

The reason they believed it was a Divine Manifestation was simple... the pagoda was simply too miraculous. If it were a scheme... then the schemer would already be powerful enough to destroy them. Why bother with a trap?

In other words, this was most likely a Divine Manifestation.

Main God Mu asked suddenly, "If the Divinity wanted us to fix the slums, why not contact the Temple God directly? Why manifest in such a way?"

The Main God from earlier replied, "Displeasure. If they weren't displeased, they would never bypass the Temple God."

There was silence once again.

If one intended to carry out orders, the standard protocol would be to inform the responsible official first. If that chain of command was bypassed, then it could only mean one thing—dissatisfaction.

This made their hearts grow even heavier.

The Executive Main God said at last, "Since a Divine Manifestation has appeared there, we can no longer ignore the slums. We must act."

He turned to the Seventh Main God, who was seated on his right. "You handle the treasury. How many True Spirit Crystals would it take?"

The seventh Main God calculated briefly and said, "There are thirty-seven million refugees there. To meet their basic needs would require at least ten billion True Spirit Crystals in the early phase and far more in the long term."

The Main Gods all fell silent.

Ten billion, perhaps even more... would be a massive sum for the South Gods Temple.

The seventh Main God continued, "If we spend our resources on this, we'll fall far behind the other temples when it comes to producing Divine Realm experts. In the next thousand years, we'll be overtaken, perhaps even absorbed."

A chilling possibility. The South Gods Temple being swallowed up was a very real problem. Though all Halls worshipped the Divine Will, they acted autonomously, and the competition between them was brutal.

The Seventh Main God hesitated. "What if... we make the people suffer a little longer?"

Everyone looked at him. He scowled. "Don't look at me like that. It's a dilemma: do we protect the top or the bottom? I'd love to pressure the top, but we don't have the strength to do that!"

Pressure the top?

Above the Temple of the Gods was the Temple of Divinity, their true overseer. Were they supposed to ask them for money? They were lucky that it wasn't the other way around!

The Seventh Main God continued, "Then shall we rob Peter to pay Paul? Let some other region suffer a bit, and solve the slums first?"

A Main God reminded, "We already have the highest taxes among all five temples."

The Seventh Main God sternly said, "The people will understand."

Everyone remained silent.

That was a lie no one believed.

The Seventh Main God glanced at the other silent Main Gods with some displeasure and said, "We can't make the ones above suffer, as we are too weak to withstand their wrath. We can't make ourselves suffer, as no one is willing to do that. In that case, we can only let the people below suffer.

"But don't worry too much, if the common folk grit their teeth and endure, it'll pass."

Just then, the silent Nan Xiao said, "I might have an idea..."

All the Main Gods turned their attention to Nan Xiao.

Nan Xiao stood up and bowed respectfully to the gathered Main Gods. "I-I'm not sure if it will work."

The Seventh Main God said, "Go ahead and tell us. Don't worry, no one will blame you."

Nan Xiao nodded. "Our treasury is currently empty. It really isn't wise to pull out more funds to handle this issue. As the Seventh Main God said, if we spend everything here, we'll be left behind in the future, and when that happens, we'll be at risk of being swallowed up.

"In other words, we'll need to find the money from somewhere else."

The Seventh Main God urged, "Speak! Say it all in one go!"

Nan Xiao took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then, he recalled Ye Guan's words as he said. "We can open several branches of the Divine Academy in the slums. To enroll, one must own a fixed asset in the slums, such as a house or a shop..."