King Yama's cut was rather steep.
Out of every hundred, he took ninety-five.
After all, concealing the other uses of the power of faith involved far too much.
But Xu Qingjia always repaid kindness with kindness. He remembered everyone who treated him well, and he remembered his enemies just as firmly.
Elder Shen was not surprised by Xu Qingjia's intentions. His fingertips tapped the sandalwood tabletop as he asked in a low voice, "Is there an upper limit to how much this life-extending ability can achieve?"
Xu Qingjia said, "In theory, it can keep extending someone's life indefinitely. But the more years a person gains, the more power of faith it consumes."
In theory, eternal life was possible.
That was indeed true in practice as well.
At those words, Elder Shen slid a finger across the tabletop. A virtual projection appeared before grandfather and grandson, and as he continued operating it, the projection became a map of the Sun Moon Federation.
"As I recall, your religious order's influence is currently concentrated along the Federation's eastern coast. Most of those places are small cities, with the largest being the second-tier Eastsea City."
Eastsea City had a permanent population of over three million.
Xu Qingjia sighed softly, a trace of helplessness in his voice. "The population in this region isn't exactly small, but barely a handful out of every hundred people believe in religion."
"The Federation has always been strict with religious orders. Then there are those 'sewer rats' lurking in the shadows-human trafficking, organ trading, brainwashing. So many filthy dealings wear the cloak of a church. With evil cults running rampant, ordinary people have long since come to fear religious orders and can't get away from them fast enough."
Back then, Sea God Tang San had interfered with the Sun Moon Empire's unification of the continent and ordered it to adopt the name Heaven Dou. The humiliation of those decades had been passed down from generation to generation, leaving today's Sun Moon Federation deeply hostile toward gods as well.
With the atrocities of Evil Soul Masters and those sewer rats as precedents, ordinary people, now better informed, were no longer as easy to fool as they had been in ancient times. Unless a True God descended and performed a world-shaking miracle, empty words alone could never shake people's entrenched beliefs.
These days, only eggs could bring faith.
Only tangible benefits that people could see and touch would do.
Elder Shen's fingertips drummed rhythmically on the table.
"The area of influence needs to expand."
"And each region needs more believers."
Expand their territory, and increase the faith they could gather from each place as much as possible.
"Qingjia," Elder Shen suddenly asked, "can you control how much you extend someone's life each time?"
"Yes." Xu Qingjia nodded. "I just need to control the amount of power of faith I use each time."
"Did you establish this religious order solely for the power of faith?"
"Yes."
"Good." Elder Shen smiled. "I'll bring that boy from the Yu Family over later."
"Uncle Yu Guanzhi?"
Divine Brush Douluo, commander of the Central Legion, deputy master of the War God Temple, a Limit Douluo, and one of the military's three giants. The Yu Family behind him was also one of the military's most powerful families.
"That's him," Elder Shen said. He was preparing to pull off something big.
"Preaching in a few small places is ultimately just playing in the shallows. How long would it take to gather enough faith for the two of us to cultivate and extend our lives?"
"We'll bring the religious order into the spotlight and establish it as the Federation's state religion. With the credibility of the entire federal government as its foundation, its influence can quickly spread throughout the Federation."
He had read the order's doctrines: good would be rewarded, and evil would be punished. They were indeed well suited to being brought into the spotlight, or even integrated with certain federal departments, such as the Enforcement Bureau and Tribunal found in every city. Official endorsement would further cement its credibility.
"But that would require the approval of at least several of the Federation's highest authorities," Xu Qingjia said. "Grandfather, are you planning to win people over with my ability to use the power of faith to extend their lives?"
After all, today's Sun Moon Federation was no longer the Sun Moon Empire of old, where the Xu Family could blot out the sky with one hand. The Shen and Xu families alone could never accomplish this.
Elder Shen said, "Interests determine whether others are friends or enemies."
"If we want to make this pie bigger, we have to let other people share it."
The Xu Family had paid a considerable price just to secure an area for preaching on the eastern coast. But if they continued like that, even if the Shen and Xu families smashed their pots and sold the iron, they could never spread the order's influence across a third of the Federation. Such unusual activity would also inevitably arouse suspicion among other families and factions. Without a clear explanation, everyone would grow suspicious, then seize opportunities to trip them up.
Unless a True God appeared who could beat everyone who objected into submission.
Until they possessed the strength to crush everything, cooperation was the only path to mutual benefit.
Shrek Academy was a textbook cautionary example.
In the original story, Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect only realized something was wrong after two rank-twelve Godslayer fixed Soul Guidance bombs had been transported into Shrek City and begun detonating. Yet deploying rank-twelve Godslayer fixed Soul Guidance bombs was certainly no easy feat. Shrek boasted every day that its students were scattered across the world like peach and plum blossoms, but it had received not a whisper about something this enormous.
That alone showed just how friendless Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect were within the Federation. They really were surrounded entirely by enemies, with not a single person wanting them to survive.
Shrek Academy's Golden Tree was also a first-rate treasure for extending life. In principle, they could easily have used it to win over a few organizations. After all, no one would expect to use the Golden Tree for free; everyone could replenish the energy it consumed. But Shrek Academy would not even give outsiders a chance.
And now, Xu Qingjia had become the Federation's "Golden Tree."
Want to extend your life?
Sure. Then everyone could work together to make the Netherworld Judgment Order bigger and stronger!
"Would they agree?" Xu Qingjia still sounded somewhat doubtful.
Elder Shen nodded with absolute certainty. "Who would choose death when they could live?"
As an old man himself, he knew how desperately the other old men would crave something like this. And those old men just happened to be the most powerful people in the entire Federation.
Only the world's future belonged to the young.
After all, their goal was to obtain power of faith to extend their lives, not to truly worship the Yanluo Heavenly Son. To them, this religious order was merely a tool for prolonging life. No one would imagine that the Yanluo Heavenly Son, who existed only in its background lore, was actually real.
"This has its advantages and disadvantages," Elder Shen continued.
"The advantage is that you can obtain a truly vast amount of power of faith, and the order's influence will spread throughout the Federation in one stroke. Besides getting others to do the work, you can also collect other benefits from them, such as spirit fruits and Soul Bones. The disadvantage is that the order will no longer belong to you alone. Everyone will control it together."
Xu Qingjia nodded.
Doing everything he could to suppress the corners of his mouth from curling upward, he said, "I have no objections."
What, the order won't belong to me alone?
Go tell that to my future self, after I've become a God King.
In any case, all he needed now was power of faith to become the true Yama.
With strength, why would I worry about lacking authority?
I'm here to be emperor. Since you aren't my loyal subjects, you can only be my detestable enemies.
Grandfather and grandson discussed the matter.
They successfully established the Netherworld Order's Elder Hall.
Entry requirements: combat strength comparable to a Limit Douluo, the backing of a top-tier faction, and affiliation with or support for the Federation. All three conditions were mandatory.
Current members: Grand Elder-Elder Shen; Holy Son-Xu Qingjia.
Only members of the Elder Hall would be permitted to know that Holy Son Xu Qingjia possessed the ability to use power of faith to extend others' lives.
This was also one of the measures to protect Xu Qingjia.
It was clear that the Holy Son would one day become the Holy Son of the entire Federation.
Moreover, the forces behind Xu Qingjia were fully capable of preventing him from becoming a puppet. His authority and influence would surpass those of the Spirit Hall's Holy Sons and Saintesses of old.
If anyone dared harm the Holy Son, it would mean they wanted to deny life to a group of old men whose strength rivaled Limit Douluos and who controlled the entire Federation.
"Grandfather, you can discuss everything else with my parents. But when it comes to choosing allies, the Qian Gu Family and people of thoroughly rotten character must not be allowed to join."
Those who colluded with the Holy Spirit Cult, for instance.
Every towering behemoth cast shadows beneath it, and the Federation was no exception. The world had never been simply black and white. But if one day he became the sole supreme power, free to do whatever he wished, then the entire world ought to run as he envisioned.