Morm was an old soldier.
He had once served as a knight's squire. After retiring due to injury, he had not chosen to stay in the city and find some easy job. Instead, he returned to the perilous village, teaching the children to read and write and cultivate Battle Qi.
The village was too poor.
It stood alone at the edge of Elk Forest, surviving by clearing land for farming, hunting, and gathering.
Yet while the forest had many deer, it had even more wolves, tigers, leopards, and other beasts.
Starving beasts often rushed out from the forest's edge and attacked Farmers working the fields.
In the village, practically every household had suffered beast attacks, and more than half the families had relatives who had died in the jaws of wild beasts.
Morm had personally witnessed over a hundred such incidents, seeing two or three of them every year on average!
Not to mention last month, when another Black-Spotted Wolf attacked the village.
Poor Old Tom had only managed to retrieve one shoe. His son had been bitten by the Black-Spotted Wolf as well and likely would not be able to work the fields for ten days or half a month.
Morm had rushed out of the village at the time, only to watch helplessly as Old Tom was dragged into the Forest, powerless to do anything.
He hated it—hated his own helplessness, hated his poor talent!
He hated even more that he had been greedy for play and drink in his youth, never earning enough money to buy a better Battle Qi cultivation method.
Now, he could only practice the lowest-grade cultivation method, and the children he taught could only waste their talents on low-grade methods. It truly broke his heart.
If he had a better cultivation method, the village children could become stronger.
Whether they left or stayed, they could all live a little better.
Sometimes, he often wondered: didn't the Evil Gods of legend love tempting humans into trading their souls for power?
Why had none come to tempt him?
If one truly came, he would absolutely be willing to trade his soul for power, slaughter all the wild beasts nearby, and protect the village.
Sadly, no Evil God had come to tempt him.
Perhaps even gods favored the rich and despised the poor, looking down on his aging soul?
Yet all of that had changed the day before yesterday.
A village hunter had pulled a Mithril Ring from a beast's stomach and brought it to him to identify.
When he focused his mind and examined it closely, activating the Mithril Ring, an immense shock swept through his body and soul!
He still remembered how tears had streamed down his face as he shouted excitedly!
Quite a few villagers had thought he was possessed and nearly tried to force-feed him dung juice to wake him up!
He had not waited for an Evil God. Instead, he had waited for a benevolent deity—the God of the Internet.
Through the miraculous Internet Divine Art, he had actually placed all cultivation knowledge on the Internet for people to study. Though advanced knowledge required special methods to unlock.
But the free portion alone was enough to benefit him and his village beyond measure.
For the past two days, he had been busy using the basic Magic recorded there to test the children in the village.
Very fortunately, one frail child in the village actually possessed talent for Magic.
After only one day of study, she had used Soul Power to inscribe the Fireball Art Magic Rune and summoned a Small Fireball on the spot.
When that weak little fireball appeared out of thin air, the entire village was shaken!
Morm wept tears of joy.
He knew the village finally had hope for the future!
Today, he had specially slaughtered pigs and sheep, bringing out the village's finest offerings and, following what he had seen and learned in his youth, presenting them to the God of the Internet and swearing loyalty.
He reported to the god that he would gather all the village's wealth and commission a batch of Mithril Rings inscribed with the Internet Divine Art. The literate villagers would wear them, spreading the god's radiance so that everyone could cultivate.
After the ritual, Morm had people guard the offerings to keep greedy children from stealing them. Only then did he leave and return to organizing the knowledge in the Internet Library.
He planned to copy all of it down as a backup.
Although he could currently copy only the free knowledge, even that was still of immeasurable value to their village!
Not to mention the beginner cultivation methods of various cultivation systems, the freely available knowledge of herbs, formulas, metals and minerals, wild vegetables... and other miscellaneous subjects alone could raise the village's quality of life to a new level.
After returning home, Morm spread out his precious white paper, picked up the Glass Spiral Pen brimming with ink, and activated the Internet Divine Art.
Clang!
The glass pen suddenly slipped from Morm's fingertips, splattering drops of ink across the white paper.
But Morm paid no attention whatsoever to the precious glass pen.
He stared wide-eyed at the Phantom Scroll, and his vision suddenly blurred.
At the upper-left corner of the Phantom Scroll, beside his Soul Mark, a thousand additional Points had somehow appeared.
Morm knew that the God of the Internet had noticed him.
Without even wiping away his tears, he prostrated himself on the ground in awe and gratitude, praying aloud.
Seeing this, Yu Sheng'an ended Divine Perspective, and an indescribable emotion rose in his heart.
Is this the Self-Actualization Feeling?
It felt... pretty good!
Lucia also looked at Yu Sheng'an in astonishment. She finally understood why the Internet Divine Art could spread so explosively in such a short time.
Because it fulfilled what people desired. Because it stood with the vastest number of poor commoners!
Yu Sheng'an took a light breath and looked at Lucia. "You saw it, right? Many users of the Internet Divine Art are Farmers who have never left their Mountain Hollow in their entire lives. The reason I called you here this time is actually related to this."
"Master, please give your orders!" Lucia nodded.
"I hope you can set aside some time every day to watch the Forum. Whenever someone asks about cultivation knowledge, answer them as thoroughly as possible so long as you know the answer."
Yu Sheng'an added, "Of course, things besides cultivation knowledge are fine too. As long as you know it and are willing to answer, you may answer. Also, if there is anything you want to know, you can make a post on the Forum and ask. However, you must not reveal anything about the Divine Palace to the outside world. Understood?"
"Yes! Lucia understands."
"Go on!"
Lucia bowed, preparing to turn and leave with a humble attitude.
But just as she turned around, she somehow gathered the courage to ask, "Master, may Lucia ask you a question?"
"You may."
"May I ask... who is Sadako?"
"Hm? A very famous Wraith." Yu Sheng'an froze for a moment before answering instinctively. After thinking about it, he added, "But she's very beautiful."
Lucia froze... Was Master praising her beauty?
Why did it feel as though a little deer was jumping wildly in her chest?
"Thank you, Master!" Lucia replied, then drifted away with somewhat flustered steps.
Only after leaving the Alchemy Room and going quite a distance away did she finally let out a breath. Biting her lower lip lightly, she wondered why Master had added that explanation.
Was he praising that Sadako?
Or implying something else?
Lucia could not figure it out. She only felt that the scenery of Divine Palace Castle had suddenly become far more vivid and bright. Even the Magic Golems inscribed on the walls no longer looked ferocious, but instead had a few hints of silly cuteness!
After returning to her residence, she eagerly activated the Internet Divine Art and began making posts under orders.
In fact, even before this, she had desperately wanted to reply to posts.
Especially that thing called an "airplane." She clearly knew every character, so why could she not understand them when put together?
Before, she had been afraid Master would blame her, so she had only dared to watch silently.
Now things were different. She had been ordered to make posts—she was so happy!
Sometimes she answered other people's questions;
Sometimes she watched other people's stories;
Sometimes she made posts herself, asking about the doubts in her heart;
And sometimes... she even argued with people.
—Someone had actually questioned her explanation of a certain spell. Other matters were one thing, but when it came to Magic, Lucia had studied under her former master Thorne. She was absolutely confident in that area.
That argument lasted more than half a day.
The thread rose over a thousand replies, drawing countless spectators.
Only when someone verified that Lucia was correct and helped her denounce the other side did they finally quiet down. The other side may have tested it themselves as well, which was why they finally gave up.
That whole argument had left Lucia feeling utterly exhilarated.
From being questioned at first, to anger, to rebutting them with sound reasoning, to receiving support from fellow Forum users, and finally to the other side admitting defeat.
The feeling was simply amazing!
Lucia even reread the entire argument two or three times. As she silently reflected on it, she wished she could do it all over again!
She was sure that if she got another chance, she would absolutely argue with the bearing expected of a Contract—oh no, the God of the Internet's Maidservant!
Only after quite a while did Lucia reluctantly exit the thread.
The moment she did, her eyes suddenly widened into perfect circles, looking just like those of a feline beast!
At the top of the Forum, two special posts had appeared at some point.
Before the first post were two bold tags: "Pinned" and "Highlighted."
The post title was:
Forum Rules Guide—Highlighted Post 10 Points Reward!
And the second post was precisely the one where she had argued with someone. At the very beginning of its title was a tag—Highlighted.
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