Power of the God?

"The first believer in New Thought seemed to have been born," Janna said.

"A believer in New Thought? You mean... not a follower of your original doctrine, but a companion who shares our ideals?" Li Wei was utterly stunned.

He had merely spent one night soldering circuit boards, done nothing else, and somehow soldered together a follower?

They had not even officially begun spreading the word. How had a faithful follower suddenly appeared?

"But he does exist."

"And that person is very special." Janna continued softly, "His spiritual power is extraordinary by nature. The Faith Power he contributes alone is stronger than that of a hundred ordinary people."

"I think... he must be suited to becoming a mage."

"This..." Li Wei was even more unable to understand.

When had he ever met such an exceptional person, let alone somehow recruited him?

The more he thought about it, the more questions he had, and the more confused he became.

But the fat Aubrey was not about to give him time to think.

He only thought Li Wei's dodge just now had been an accident, that Li Wei had barely avoided him through sheer luck.

But whatever the reason, Li Wei's nimble dodge had made him look clumsy and pathetic. The onlookers' gazes seemed to stab into him again, secretly laughing at this piece of trash.

"Bastard." Shimmer was like gasoline poured over the flames in Aubrey's heart. "Die!"

He stomped the ground with an elephantine leg, his swollen body crashing toward Li Wei like a rumbling truck.

He raised an arm as thick as a tree trunk and threw another earth-shattering punch.

"Forget it. No time to think about it." Li Wei had no time to ponder where that unknown companion had come from.

He calmed himself and, guided by Janna's thoughts, carefully sensed the extra power within his body.

It was a warm, gentle power, like a hot spring, like a fresh breeze, silently soaking into every inch of his body.

It was still very weak and had not made Li Wei much stronger. At least physically, he was still no match for the Shimmer-pumped fat man before him.

But this power was Janna's divine power. Its mysteries were far beyond the brute strength stimulated by Shimmer.

Besides strengthening Li Wei's body, it had also granted him a special divine ability—

The power to feel the wind and command it.

As for commanding the wind, he could not do that yet. This divine power was not strong enough; it could not yet use his mind to control matter, nor could it support even a single wind-controlling spell.

But it was enough to feel the wind.

"The airflow... seems to be speaking to me."

Li Wei unconsciously entered a wondrous state.

He could hear the wind's "voice" and sense the disturbance of every thread of airflow, no matter how faint.

Thus, before Aubrey's punch even arrived, Li Wei could sense the ripples in the air torn apart by that heavy blow and predict the space his fist would sweep through.

The divine power of sensing the wind and the battle instincts the original Li Wei had honed while struggling to survive in Zaun soon produced a marvelous chemical reaction within him.

"Go with the Wind!"

Following the sea breeze blowing naturally past him, Li Wei's body drifted lightly.

Though he was only dodging, he moved so lightly that it seemed as if he were flying.

With nothing more than a slight step, he made Aubrey's heavy punch miss completely.

Like a wild boar that had charged madly forward only to hit nothing, he lumbered far into an empty patch of ground before finally staggering to a stop.

"Wh-what happened?"

Aubrey vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

But the Shimmer steadily flooding his system was affecting his reason, making him more irritable and volatile. Gradually, what little sense he possessed slipped out of control.

"Damn it... you... why the hell are you such a slippery little bastard?!" Aubrey quickly turned in rage and charged at him.

This time, he did not use fists that could easily be dodged. Instead, he spread his arms and rushed forward with all his strength, trying to use his size to cast a wide net and crush Li Wei in a lethal bear hug.

His size and momentum were indeed as terrifying as a bear's, but—

"Too cumbersome."

With a light tap of his toes, Li Wei dodged past him again.

He moved as lightly as the wind, a pleasing sight to behold.

"Damn it!!" Aubrey's attack missed again, and his rage spiraled further out of control. He forcibly halted himself with brute strength, twisted around, and swung a punch, trying to catch this absurdly agile opponent with a return blow.

But Li Wei seemed to have eyes in the back of his head.

Without even looking, he merely lowered his head slightly and calmly slipped beneath the punch sweeping at him from behind.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!!"

"How could I lose to a filthy worker?!"

Aubrey felt as though he were fighting the air, fighting a gust of wind.

Yet Li Wei was clearly a person.

Nothing more than a lowly Zaunite Apprentice.

"No, I can't possibly lose to him!!"

One punch. Li Wei turned his head and dodged it.

"I'm not trash! I'm not!!"

Another punch. Li Wei sidestepped it, then caught the arm Aubrey had thrown out and gave it a gentle push forward.

Aubrey immediately crashed into the floor like a stone colossus that had missed its ultimate, charging with tiger-like force.

"Arghhh—" He smashed himself bloody, and the pain only fueled his rage further.

Shimmer's side effects worsened.

Blinded by fury and intoxicated by the drug, Aubrey finally lost what remained of his mind.

He quickly scrambled up and charged at Li Wei like a madman, like a tank barreling straight at him.

But Li Wei was no longer in the mood to play with him.

A tank in a game could endure a beating for a while even if it could not win. But a "tank" in reality had vital points.

"You lost."

The melody reached its climax.

The sea breeze happened to sweep past.

Li Wei flashed with the wind, shifting past Aubrey, and then—

He raised his hand, flattening it into a blade, and borrowed the momentum of Aubrey's high-speed charge to slash straight at his throat.

Precise and elegant, a single strike aimed directly at the opening.

At last, amid a sudden gale, the two passed each other.

"Urghh!!" Aubrey's body trembled, and he dropped to his knees, clutching his throat in agony.

Li Wei, covered in blood, remained standing.

The music stopped.

Li Wei paid no attention to the defeated enemy. Still immersed in the thrilling afterglow of the battle, he stared intently at his fist.

He had actually done it. He had defeated such a monster.

"So this is the Power of the God."

Li Wei murmured to himself.

It was his first time being a superhero. He could not help feeling a little carried away.

The sensation of standing above ordinary people truly felt good.

But Janna, a true god standing on his shoulder, firmly shook her head.

"No, this is not the Power of the God."

Janna had once believed this was the Power of the God—her power.

But she no longer thought so.

She raised her head and looked once more toward the distant sky. Then she shared her "vision" with Li Wei.

And so Li Wei sensed it as well.

High in the sky was a faint, indistinct "thread," continuously sending them a weak yet steadfast power.

This was Faith Power.

It came from human faith. Someone was silently supporting them.

"Mr. Summoner, this is not the Power of the God, nor is it your power or mine—it is the power of the people."