Strengthening the Power of Faith

His Mu Ri were furrowed, but the books shone brightly.

His consciousness began to rise, his perspective expanded to cover most of the continent, and he realized something was wrong.

From the cracks in the earth, a black, viscous substance, like both liquid and gas, oozed out.

From those things, one hideous monster after another crawled out.

Some of them resemble wolves, but are larger than cows; some resemble bears, but are covered in scales; some are completely unrecognizable, just a writhing mass of flesh covered in eyes.

The monsters poured out of the cracks and Diffusion in all directions. Wherever they passed, the grass and trees withered, the wild beasts fled, and even the air became heavy.

"Mana Converter... Basic Spells..." Mu Ri muttered to himself, recalling the quest rewards displayed on the panel earlier.

He raised his head and looked into the distance again.

The number of monsters is increasing, and they are Diffusion in all directions. A large portion of them are heading towards the Suguang Civilization.

Mu Ri closed the book, held it in his hand, and then walked down the city wall towards the open space in the center of the city.

There, Steam roared to life, and workers were busy forging weapons, assembling machinery, and producing ammunition.

But now, those things might not be enough.

Mu Ri stood in the open space, watching the busy people, and waited for a while.

Finally, he spoke:

"Stop all regular production."

The workers were stunned, stopped what they were doing, and looked at him.

"From now on," Mu Ri said, "Focus all your efforts on creating what I'm about to teach you."

He held up the book in his hand, and the sunlight fell on the pages, reflecting a dazzling light.

A new era is dawning.

If you save people but lose land, you can save both people and land; if you save land but lose people, you can lose both people and land.

Profound truths.

Over the past thirty years, Mu Ri has come to recognize the importance of population.

And this time, the Suguang Civilization did not react as it had to the Meteor Shower before.

Meteor Showers are natural disasters, like fire falling from the sky; if you can avoid them, you live, if you can't, you die.

This time, we can fight, and we can run.

"Regardless of the gain or loss of a single city or territory, the priority is to preserve our manpower and eliminate the enemy..."

Mu Ri muttered to himself about the military strategy book he had bought on the panel, feeling that it made perfect sense.

The first magical beast appeared thirty miles east of Changhe City.

It was a giant wolf covered in black scales, over two zhang tall at the shoulder. With each step it took, the ground trembled. It crawled out of the crack in the ground, smelled the scent of humans, and ran straight towards Changhe City.

I went there Mu Ri, and standing in front of that monster, I looked as tiny as a little blob.

The monster lowered its head, opened its massive maw, and a stench assaulted the senses.

Then Mu Ri moved, took a step forward, and punched the monster in the jaw.

The giant beast suddenly flew up, tumbled twice in mid-air, and crashed onto the ground thirty feet away.

Its jaws burst open, scales shattered, and black blood gushed from the wound, mixed with some pale blue light spots—a form of Mana dissipating from its body.

Mu Ri slowly withdrew his fist and looked down at his hand. His Fist was stained with black blood and some small fragments of scales.

He raised his head and looked at the Silver-White Book surrounding him.

The pages turned with a soft rustling sound, and the ancient Runes glowed, a golden light that flickered, like a living thing breathing.

He gradually realized:

"How to use the Power of Faith... enhancement..."

Three days later, the first "Fixed Cannon" was set up on the city wall of Changhe City.

It was a giant crossbow powered by Steam, with the barrel forged from fine steel and the bowstring made of dozens of twisted ox sinews.

It doesn't shoot arrows, but three-meter-long steel crossbows with a special quenching process at the tip, enough to pierce through thick iron plates.

The workers connected it to Steam using gears and connecting rods. The Steam roared to life, driving the winch to draw the bowstring inch by inch. Once the crossbow was loaded, the gunner only needed to pull a lever.

"Bang!"

The steel spear pierced the air and pinned a monster to the ground hundreds of meters away.

The monster twitched a few times and then remained still.

A cheer erupted from the city wall.

During those days, twenty Fixed Cannons were erected on the walls of Changhe City. They roared day and night, shooting down the monsters that approached the walls one by one.

Those that flew, those that burrowed underground, and those that lived in water were all dealt with by Mu Ri.

But that's not enough.

There were too many monsters. They poured out of the cracks in the ground, an endless stream, as if they could never be killed. And the speed at which they poured out was increasing, more and more, faster and faster.

The Fixed Cannon's rate of fire is too slow. Reloading takes time, while a monster's charge only takes a few breaths.

On the seventh day, a monster charged to the foot of the city wall.

It was a giant bear, its body covered in bone spurs. Every time it swung its claws, it could leave a deep trench in the city wall. The soldiers on the city wall fired muskets at it, but the bullets only left a few white spots on its body.

Mu Ri made their move.

The Silver-White Book in his hand reappeared out of thin air, and a flame appeared out of nowhere.

That was no ordinary flame; it had a strange golden hue and an astonishingly high temperature. The flame condensed into a pillar of fire in the air, while frantically drawing Mana from the surrounding environment.

The pillar of fire grew brighter and hotter.

Then, it descended upon the giant bear with extreme heat.

A dozen seconds later, the giant beast vanished into thin air, turning into a cloud of ashes that scattered on the ground.

On the city wall, the soldiers exchanged glances. In those eyes were fear, awe, and something else that was hard to describe.

The common people in the city cheered with joy.

Mu Ri left Jingjing, for he still had many things to do.

Three days later.

Mu Ri's residence, a corpse lay on the ground.

It was a middle-aged man in military uniform, his face still bearing the terrified expression of someone on the verge of death. There was a Fist- sized hole in his chest, running from his front to his back, a bloody mess.

Mu Ri stood beside the corpse, his hands still wet with blood. He coldly watched his subordinates who were slow to arrive at the door.

Tell me, what happened?

The subordinate was a man in his early thirties, an intelligence officer personally promoted by Mu Ri. He didn't say a word, not even glancing at the corpse on the ground, and spoke directly:

Currently, there are two opposing views regarding you among officials and in the military.

"One faction believes you are God Incarnation Faction. You have frequently displayed God power, and combined with the fact that other civilizations have reported God guidance, they believe you are an incarnation of God walking among humans."

"The other faction, the Stealing Faction, observed that you used a silver-white divine book when you wielded powers beyond human comprehension, and therefore believed you had stolen the Authority of the Gods."

Mu Ri nodded expressionlessly and pointed to the corpse on the ground.

"So the person who sneaked into my house in the middle of the night was a member of the Stealing Faction?"

That's incredibly stupid! Didn't you see the Silver-White Book came out of his body? You actually tried to steal Silver-White Book?