Several subordinate deities from the Temple of Pleasure cast astonished glances at the men sitting cross-legged beneath the thatched shelters, then hurried after Verus. These gods of the Pleasure Divine Pantheon could clearly sense that those men had merely opened their eyes, yet the aura they gave off was vastly, vastly stronger than their own—so strong that they could not even gauge the men's true strength.
They shared Verus's doubts—the Order of Penitent Knights was merely an enforcer organization established by the Divine System of Punishment among mortals, in the secular world, to safeguard the Church's rule there. Why, then, were these terrifying figures, also supposedly Penitent Knights, powerful enough to make even gods like them feel afraid?
Countless thatched shelters lined the way. Surrounding this lone peak was a forest spanning a hundred miles in every direction. Amid the dense woods—beneath great trees, on their branches, in the grass, inside earthen burrows—crude sheds and caves of every kind could be found everywhere. No one could say how many of the so-called elite members of the first generation Order of Penitent Knights were cultivating in seclusion here.
Following the lean, hardened man through the forest, Verus saw countless ragged men, their faces gaunt as corpses, sitting cross-legged within their respective territories. They made no movements, uttered no sounds, and did not even breathe. They were no different from actual corpses.
Curious, Verus even poured divine power into his eyes, intending to use the secret divine art of a High God he had only recently acquired to probe these men's true nature. Yet his divine power nearly roasted his eyeballs, and still he could not see how much strength these men possessed. He could not even tell whether they were alive or dead.
His eyes scorching hot and streaming uncontrollably with