The Great God of Space-Time

Ramsden surrendered outright. The Noble Church had even had its own archbishop captured. Edward tried to slip away, only to be strung up from a tree by an Undead Mage.

All the Priests from every temple in Salar combined might not even have numbered ten thousand. Yet the Space-Time Temple had casually sent out around ten thousand bishop-level Priests. The number of Priests signified a God's rank. Faced with such a powerful deity, no one in Salar dared speak up again.

The Noble Temple directly dispatched a Legendary Knight. The moment he appeared, he was stopped by William, who had somehow advanced to Legendary.

In every nation on this continent, the capital had a Supreme God Temple guarded by two Legendaries. The other Legendaries remained on Divine Mountain as guards. Divine Mountain was where the Gods had originally raised their Divine Thrones, their foundation upon the land.

The God of Nobles had been a God for tens of thousands of years. Even a Legendary would need a month to travel from His Divine Mountain to Salar. Unless the God of Nobles or the Goddess of Art and Love used all their divine power to teleport directly, by the time they reached Salar, they would only be able to attend William's coronation celebration.

These two Gods were not without enemies. They would never dare do such a thing.

William was destined to become king.

Once William became Legendary, all of Salar would fall at his knees, cheering in celebration. A Legendary king who could live to eight hundred years old—no one would resist his rule anymore.

Unless the God of Space-Time summoned William to His Divine Kingdom, thirty-year-old William would rule Salar for a very long time.

Hill sensed the message Falan had sent. William was the key.

He had to remind Falan that the movements of the Undead were what truly mattered.

Falan seemed to think the God of Space-Time would ascend the Divine Throne in Salar, but Hill did not agree.

Once He officially became a God, He would have to leave this continent. Divine power would no longer be as easy to convert as it was now. He had gone through so much trouble to break the boundaries of space-time and summon Players. He would never stop here.

Hill himself could also prepare to welcome the Players, who were everywhere and slipped through every crack.

After a brief rest, William's army set out for the capital of Salar.

Before officially departing, William publicly declared that from this day onward, Salar would no longer welcome the Noble Temple or the Temple of Art.

He hoped the two temples would preserve their last shred of dignity and withdraw from Salar before his army reached the capital.

The Noble Temple withdrew decisively, but the Love Goddess's temple was much more troublesome. Only female Priests existed in that temple, and they had always relied on Knights who had sworn loyalty to them for protection.

But those Salar Knights could not possibly abandon their homes and country for so-called love.

Love was celebrated in every world precisely because it was precious and rare.

Even though most of the temple's female Priests came from Salar Noble families, that could not prevent them from being abandoned.

Being abandoned by both their lovers and families drove the temple into collapse.

William's final act of mercy was to send several of his Great Knight cousins with a Knight legion to escort them to Hephasaldo.

The people from the Noble Temple should also be guarding the border between the two nations. They would take them in eventually.

Hill wondered whether the Goddess of Art and Love would be furious when she saw those followers of hers whom the Noble Temple had abandoned without hesitation.

This Goddess had been born dependent on the God of Nobles and continued to exist under His protection. Even after tens of thousands of years, She had been unable to survive independently. Her status was obvious from the Noble Temple's behavior.

The saying that even mountains would fall when relied upon existed in every world.

Hill only became more determined to pursue the Legendary realm. Only personal strength could grant freedom in this world.

William slowly marched toward the capital, building churches for the God of Space-Time along the way.

He also publicly announced this God's name and divine authority:

O great God Kronos, born from illusory space-time!

He governed the workings of time and space, freely traveling through all things in the universe!

The sorrowful prayers of pitiful people reached His ears!

His benevolent gaze finally turned toward the mortal world, blessing pitiful people with peace and joy!

He promised to bring fairness and justice to His followers!

Praise His name, and He would grant those who spread His name the chance to receive an education!

William declared that every Space-Time Church would establish a literacy class. Anyone could learn two hundred characters there. All they needed to do was praise the name of Space-Time before studying. Everything else was completely free.

The Space-Time Church was also willing to seek justice for followers who suffered unfair treatment.

Furthermore, commoners would no longer need to worry about being deceived by Nobles and wealthy merchants. Every Space-Time Church had an avatar of the Divine Artifact Divine Scale. Both parties could place their goods upon it for weighing, and only trade once the scale balanced. The scale stood outside the church, and anyone could use it, whether they were followers or not.

These were transactions witnessed by a God. Violators would be punished by the temple.

The God of Space-Time did not extend His hand into the signing of contracts, leaving the Justice God a way out.

The Temple of Justice did not react either. Falan believed that God still intended to wait until the end.

The Justice God had once been filled with passion, yet in the end could only become a God who ensured fairness in contracts. After tens of thousands of years, He had still failed to advance to Greater Divine Power. It was easy to imagine how deep the waters ran.

Yet He had firmly upheld the fairness of contracts. Even Gods could not violate them.

After the God of Space-Time publicly declared His divine authority, Falan had sighed to Hill, "I hope this one can accomplish what Lord Justice has failed to do for tens of thousands of years!"

Falan was certain that as long as the God of Space-Time could uphold fairness and justice, the Justice God would join His side without hesitation.

For tens of thousands of years, the Justice God's divine power had never changed.

As for the Knowledge God, after confirming that education would only bring more knowledge, He made no move. Raising literacy rates would only bring a greater thirst for knowledge, which would instead make the Knowledge God's divine power even stronger.

Adrian told Hill, "The Nobles are still being idiots! No one in my family understands. They actually asked me whether charging for literacy was not a major source of income for the Temple of Knowledge, so why had the temple not objected? Does teaching commoners to read affect knowledge? It affects the Nobles! If they still want to throw their weight around and impose taxes for no reason, they can just wait for Space-Time and Justice to deal with them together!"

Smart people had long seen where this would end. Had the Justice God and Knowledge God been unable to do it before because They did not want to?

It was because They had no manpower!

But the God of Space-Time had at least a hundred thousand Players.

William distributed groups of Players among the newly built churches. Those Players who had accepted teaching quests would remain in the churches and start literacy classes.

Hill was astonished when he heard Adrian say, "Those Undead really have no pride as professionals at all! They actually fight over a job teaching commoners to read!"

Hill thought, It must be an incredibly lucrative quest. Maybe finishing it would be enough to advance a rank! I want to fight for it too!

Falan told Hill, "William has already issued the order. A Knight Guild and Swordsman Guild will be established in the capital. He will assign people to guard those two Mage towers without Magi stationed there. Everyone else will withdraw and leave the place to the Undead."

Hill thought, A system class-change location!

Hill felt a chill. With such thorough preparations, was Salar going to become a beginner village?

This feeling of preparing for a great war—was William planning to go to war with Hephasaldo?

So when Falan asked Hill whether he wanted to attend William's coronation ceremony, Hill decided to go without hesitation!

William had built churches all along the way, yet he had never mentioned where he intended to build the Supreme God Temple.

Nor did William show any sign of wanting to hold a large-scale sacrificial ceremony.

Normally, if Salar were to become the place where the God of Space-Time raised His Divine Throne, William should already be courteously seeing the Priests of other temples out of the country. Yet he had only expelled the hostile temples.

What exactly was the God of Space-Time behind William planning? Where would He go in the future? When and where would He raise His Divine Throne?

These questions were practically driving the watching people mad.

But the various temples suffered even more.

From this day onward, Salar was a tasteless scrap to all the Gods. The Space-Time Temple would claim the overwhelming majority of future newborns.

Yet all the Gods remained silent and issued no divine decrees, so as followers, they could not flee without a fight.

The major temples of Salar were all withdrawing their people back to the capital, amusingly using their preparations to attend the king's coronation ceremony as an excuse.

Hill genuinely wanted to watch this spectacle. In a capital where storms were gathering, with the major temples on edge, the Nobles trembling in fear, and lawless Players thrown into the mix, there would surely be plenty to entertain him.

Besides, among all the information Falan had provided during this period, Count Perast had never been mentioned.

But since he belonged to Edward's faction, he could not possibly have met a good end.

If he had merely been dragged down and suffered bad luck, Adrian would have long come to gloat to Hill. Yet neither of them had mentioned anything. Hill felt that something difficult to speak of must have happened.

But it probably was not utterly tragic either, or Falan would definitely have told him.

Perhaps Count Perast had been imprisoned, which was why Falan and Adrian had not told him. But what would knowing change? Would Hill go save him?

Hill felt that he had always appeared indifferent toward the Perast family. He did not know why Falan and Adrian always thought he would soften his heart.

But Hill could not exactly take the initiative to tell Falan that he did not care about anything involving Count Perast.

Perhaps he paid even less attention to Perast than Falan and Adrian did.

So be it. By the time he reached the capital, he would know. In any case, whatever Count Perast encountered would be what he deserved.

Hill went straight outside the valley to handle matters in the village. Though he did not know when those Players would arrive, he still decided to prepare all kinds of goods first.

Most importantly, he had to debug the Magic Arrow Towers. Who knew whether those Players would kite the village guards?

The village guards Hill had sent out were only there to open and close the village gates. At eight every night, the gates would be locked, and the Magic Arrow Towers would automatically activate, indiscriminately attacking every living thing that approached the village at night.

Hopefully, the Players would know to follow the rules when the time came. Hill's arrow towers could even kill Sky Knights.

Actually, it was nothing. They would understand after dying enough times.

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