"Sigh, the power of faith in the Tianxuan Continent already has owners. This is all I can offer. You've come to the wrong place." Hearing Ye Xinglan's displeased tone, the Eternal Venerable could only sigh lightly and give a bitter smile.
On the Tianxuan Continent, the human race's faith now belongs to the Sea God and the Haotian Venerable. The beast race's faith belongs to the Sea God and the Sea Dragon Venerable. The elf race's faith belongs to the Sea God and the Eternal Venerable.
To help the Sea God Venerable and the Haotian Venerable become gods sooner, the Eternal Venerable had transferred all his power of faith to them.
Once the Sea God Venerable and Haotian Venerable become gods, the Eternal Venerable won't need to grant them his power of faith anymore. By then, they'll be the plane's masters and the core of life on Tianxuan Continent. The elf race will naturally worship them without the Eternal Venerable's intervention.
The 70% of faith that belongs to the Sea God is untouchable even after they become gods. What they can access is only the 30% of faith power from the Eternal Venerable.
By then, the Eternal Venerable will only have 10% of the elf race's faith left for himself.
Yet to retain Yali, he was still willing to try offering this final 10% of his faith power.
Although both Haotian Venerable and Sea Dragon Venerable are human, the Sea Dragon Venerable is nominally part of the sea demon tribe within the beast race.
Once the Sea God Venerable and Haotian Venerable ascend, both humans and beasts will have divine protectors behind them.
At that point, even if the demon plane is repelled, life will be extremely difficult for the elf race.
Elf boys and girls are coveted among both humans and beasts.
Due to the invasion of the demon plane, humans and beasts joined forces with the elves and cracked down hard on mercenaries who traded elves.
Now, the buying and selling of elves is rare. But once the demon plane is driven off, and with gods backing the humans and beasts, how will the elves survive? How will they continue to live on the Tianxuan Continent?
Yet the demon plane must be fought.
Now that someone like Yali has appeared, the Eternal Venerable is unwilling to give her up.
Yali has already come a long way on the path to godhood. If she ascends and holds her ground in the Eternal Forest, each of the three races will have a god, creating a balance of power. Even if conflicts arise, they won't escalate.
But the Eternal Venerable also knows that 10%—just one-tenth of the elf race's faith—is far too little.
Among the three races, the elf race is the smallest in number.
Convincing a powerful being like Yali is hard. To make her stay, he would need faith from at least 10% of the entire continent, not just the elf race.
Yet what he controls is only that 10% from the elves.
"I actually think this place isn't bad," Xia Yi said, eyes glittering.
"The faith power I can control is only this much," the Eternal Venerable said with helplessness in his tone.
"We never intended to take your meager share," Yali said with a smile and a shake of her head.
"If you're not taking mine, then whose?" the Eternal Venerable asked, slightly stunned.
"Whoever has the most, I'll take theirs," Yali replied, her eyes twinkling.
The Eternal Venerable paused, then asked after a moment, "Do you know how to collect faith power?"
"As long as you bring blessings to sentient beings, won't they start to worship you? That's what I call a win-win," Yali answered, as if it were obvious.
"It's not that simple. Let me explain," the Eternal Venerable said. "To collect faith power, the first step is making sure you don't touch the portion already belonging to gods. Then comes your so-called win-win. Even then, what you gain is split 30/70."
"Why only 70/30?" Xia Yi asked.
"Seventy percent belongs to others! Getting 30% still depends on their mood," the Eternal Venerable explained.
"Whose mood?" Xia Yi asked.
"The Divine Realm, of course," the Eternal Venerable replied, looking at Xia Yi. "You don't know much about the Divine Realm, so you don't understand. On the Tianxuan Continent, 70% of faith goes to the Sea God, and we get 30%. But even that 30%—we must give 70% of it to the Divine Realm. And it's not given to any particular deity, but to the central hub of the Divine Realm. The hub stores it for future needs, such as expanding the realm. Not even the gods themselves are exempt—I've heard even the Sea God has to hand over a portion."
"I want to know how you transfer faith power to the Divine Realm's hub," Xia Yi said, growing more curious. The Divine Realm has long vanished—how could it still draw faith from Tianxuan?
"We are a subsidiary plane of the Divine Realm. As long as faith is produced, the Divine Hub automatically extracts 70%," the Eternal Venerable said.
"Even now?" Xia Yi asked.
"Yes! It's a power of rules. Unless the Divine Realm is destroyed—or another Divine Realm interferes—this rule won't change," the Eternal Venerable affirmed.
"Have you ever felt it?" Xia Yi turned to look at Yali. Yali held pure faith power within her.
Douluo Plane is also a subsidiary of the Divine Realm.
If that's the case, she should feel something too.
"I don't even know how many people in the Douluo Plane worship me, or how much faith I'm owed, or whether the Divine Realm has taken any. So I really don't know," Yali said with an awkward smile. In the Douluo Continent, everything she did was from the heart—not to gain faith—so she'd never paid attention to who worshipped her or how much power she was due.
"The Divine Realm needs faith to function—that's just how it is. As for how much they draw, it varies by time and plane. For Douluo, the draw is about 30%," said the Goddess of Life, her voice sounding in Yali's spiritual world, tinged with regret.
Faith power is one of the strangest energies in existence.
As long as someone worships you, even across the vast universe, you can receive it.
The Douluo and Tianxuan planes are okay—for now, even though the Sea God's faith has collapsed, the Divine Realm can still extract some power.
But for those planes taken over by soul beasts, once Gu Yue builds an Ascension Path to the Source of Creation, the Divine Realm won't get a single drop of faith.
Right now, with the Douluo Divine Realm trapped in a time-space storm, it urgently needs faith to replenish itself and its deities.
Yet Xia Yi, with humans and soul beasts, is slowly dismantling the Divine Realm's faith network.
This is a deadly blow to the Divine Realm.
"Is there a way to block the Divine Realm from extracting faith?" Yali asked tentatively.
"There is a way…"
"Enough. All you need to know is that your faith power can't be extracted by the Divine Realm," the God of Destruction interrupted the Goddess of Life. He knew she admired Yali and was afraid she'd reveal Divine Realm secrets.
"Why only mine can't be extracted?" Yali grew more curious.
"Once you reach the Divine King level, the Divine Hub can no longer extract your faith power. You have to offer it willingly. But you're different. You could be extracted from—until you cultivated the so-called Huangdi Neijing. Since then, the Divine Hub can't touch you," explained the Goddess of Life.
"So that means Sister Yaozhu's faith can't be extracted either," Yali breathed a sigh of relief.
After the collapse of the Sea God's faith, Yali is now the main source of belief on the Douluo Plane, followed by the diligent Leng Yaozhu.
Most commoners worship Yali—her image and deeds fulfill their ideal of a soul master.
Soul masters and government officials, however, revere Leng Yaozhu more: she's powerful, responsible, and strategic—traits Yali can never match.
But even with their reverence, the officials and soul masters can't compete in number with the vast common populace.
Aside from Yali and Leng Yaozhu, others like the Forgemaster Mu Xi receive a portion of faith from blacksmiths, and some idolize Xia Yi—but these groups are tiny compared to Yali and Leng Yaozhu's faith bases.
Of course, some still fanatically worship Tang San, the Sea God, but they're fewer than those who worship Huo Yuhao, the God of Emotion.
"Your Sister Yaozhu has understood the Huangdi Neijing even more deeply than you. If the Divine Realm can't extract yours, it definitely can't take hers," said the Goddess of Life with a tone of admiration. She admired Yali, but she respected Leng Yaozhu even more.
If the Divine Realm still existed, she would spare no effort to bring Yali and Leng Yaozhu into the Divine Realm and cultivate them fully.
But even if she did, could she match their current growth speed?
Even if she gave up her divine seat, the best she could offer was a Divine King position.
Yet now, she increasingly believed that the first being to surpass the Divine King realm in the known universe would come from among Xia Yi's women.