I Admire the God of Light

Aierde looked at the red dragon Wentesi's twelve-meter-long wings and seven-meter-long body;

and at his scarlet scales and claws, his dragon horns and tail. He could not help growing even more devout in his faith in the God of Light.

Even a red dragon, the most powerful, evil, vicious, and warlike of the five chromatic dragons, could be taken in by the God of Light as one of his divinely favored people.

What did that mean?

It meant the God of Light's charisma and divine might could cross the boundaries between factions and conquer all.

After all, even the most evil red dragon could be won over and enlightened. One could imagine how great the God of Light was.

One had to know that red dragons were the pride of the five chromatic dragons.

Whether blue dragons, green dragons, black dragons, or the most useless white dragons, none could match the red dragons' prestige and status.

Red dragons were the Five-Headed Dragon Queen's favorite offspring.

The Five-Headed Dragon Queen often showed them great favoritism. No matter how many times the red dragons rebelled and defied her, she could tolerate them.

If it were another kind of dragon, what did one suppose the Five-Headed Dragon Queen's reaction would be?

If a white dragon dared rebel, the Five-Headed Dragon Queen might slap it dead.

Among the metallic dragons, only gold dragons could compare with red dragons in prestige.

Both stood at the head of their respective dragon factions, with extraordinary status, and both were the favorites of their respective dragon gods.

Of course, relatively speaking, gold dragons were still slightly stronger than red dragons.

If word got out that a red dragon had been enlightened and tamed by the God of Light, and even chosen as one of the divinely favored...

If it even reached the Five-Headed Dragon Queen's ears, she would surely fly into a rage.

It was practically like abducting someone else's most outstanding child!

Perhaps Wentesi would even spark a small-scale divine war between the two gods.

But that was ultimately a matter for the gods, and had nothing to do with a mortal like Aierde.

Now, as Aierde looked at Wentesi's fiercely menacing dragon head and enormous body, the more he looked, the more he liked him.

He came to a conclusion.

The God of Light must have his reasons for choosing this red dragon as one of the divinely favored. I need not think too much about it.

The gods could not be fathomed!

He must want Wentesi to carry out some special and secret task.

If Aierde reported this matter to the Church of Light, the traitors and spies hiding within might leak it.

That would disrupt the God of Light's plans, and that would truly be a sin.

At the thought of the undercurrents surging within the church, Aierde's eyes darkened. In fact, this was also one of the reasons he had chosen to leave and pursue ascetic cultivation.

Wentesi was still keeping up his proud posture, his outstretched neck growing a little stiff.

Watching the Light ascetic's expression shift from delight to silence, then between happiness and gloom, Wentesi felt somewhat puzzled.

What's this undying old human geezer thinking? Why does he look like he's been poisoned?

Come on, say something already. Let me see if there's anything in it for me.

Wentesi kept grumbling inwardly.

But he still did not speak first. He held his neck high and looked down at Aierde.

If he was going to put on an act, he would see it through.

As man and dragon faced each other in silence, the scene fell still.

Aierde finally came back to himself from his grand narrative and smiled as he broke the stalemate.

Pointing at the many [Hairy Head Sun] spirit seeds in the growing area, Aierde said with a smile:

"Your Excellency, Red Dragon Wentesi, you've done a fine job farming at home."

Wentesi remained silent and merely raised his head slightly in acknowledgment.

"These magic plants contain so much light energy. If they were in our Church of Light, they would all be treasures.

"They would surely fetch a high price, and who knows how many people would scramble to get them? I'm afraid even exchanging for one plant would cost quite a few contribution points."

Wentesi's proudly raised neck dropped in an instant, and his molten-gold vertical pupils gleamed.

He had heard the key words.

"Treasures? Scramble to get them? A high price?"

Wentesi leaned his dragon head forward and asked, his gaze burning:

"Old man Kan, are you saying that if I sell the crops in my field to your Church of Light, I can exchange them for lots of gold coins?"

Aierde was somewhat taken aback.

Sell them to the Church of Light?

In Aierde's view, since Wentesi was divinely favored, he ought to be one of the Church of Light's own.

Why talk about "buying and selling"? That was far too distant.

Shouldn't he offer them up unconditionally?

They were brothers who worshipped the God of Light together!

But when his gaze fell on the red dragon Wentesi's fiercely menacing head and enormous body, he soon came to terms with it.

He's a red dragon, after all, not a human.

As the bards' songs went:

No matter how well a werewolf disguised himself, beneath the full moon, his true form would always be revealed~

Even with the God of Light's divine favor, the greed for wealth engraved in a red dragon's bloodline could not be changed.

Perhaps even if the God of Light came in person, he could do nothing to erase that greedy nature.

After reflecting for a moment, Aierde nodded and replied:

"They can indeed be exchanged for quite a bit of wealth.

"It's just that what circulates within our church isn't worldly currency like gold and silver coins, but special internal contribution points. Transactions are also settled using contribution points."

"Contribution points?"

Wentesi frowned slightly. "What can contribution points be exchanged for?"

In a red dragon's system of valuing things, contribution points, merit, and honor were the least likely to retain their value.

They could be called the trash of trash.

After all, it often took no more than a word from someone in power to wipe out the entire value of contribution points and merit.

If one wanted to raise their value again, that was easy to do too.

It's outright fraud.

Wentesi grumbled inwardly.

Weighty treasures like actual gold and silver were more reliable.

Aierde felt he could not explain it in a few words, so he reached inside his robes and took out a white badge.

A patterned gold border was inlaid around the white badge, and two miniature magic arrays, one for cleaning and one for purification, were set symmetrically on either side.

At its very center was a sun emblem.

Clearly, this was probably an identity badge reserved for clergy of the Church of Light.

Aierde drew on the Holy Light within him and infused it into the badge. A translucent magical projection immediately appeared before him.

The magical projection displayed Aierde's personal information:

Bishop: Aierde

Rank: Sanctuary-level Oath Light Knight

Current mission: practice asceticism and follow the path, purge evil

Contribution points: four

Aierde swiped a hand gently across the screen of light, and its interface changed at once.

In an instant, it became a shopping interface.

A dazzling array of goods was listed on the screen.

At the very top was Light holy water, marked at zero contribution points.

A note followed: "Limited to thirty bottles per month."

Clearly, it was a benefit for members of the Church of Light.

Farther down, there were more items. Wentesi stretched out his dragon neck as he looked, his fierce dragon head drawing closer and closer to the interface.

There were even Magic Guardians on it!

These were a kind of magic puppet created by a High Antiquity archmage.

The most powerful magic puppets possessed extremely high intelligence and combat strength. Under an archmage's control, they could even reach a level matching that of a demigod.

There were quite a few kinds of Magic Guardians, from low, intermediate, and high tiers all the way up to Sanctuary.

Their prices rose from two hundred contribution points to four thousand, and all the way to a hundred thousand.

As for Sanctuary-level Magic Guardians, their prices had far too many digits, with more zeros at the end than one could count.

Even the screen of light could not display them.

What treasures!

Wentesi had almost buried his entire head in the screen.

He wanted every one of them!

Wentesi's eyes gradually reddened, and he involuntarily opened his mouth and began panting with excitement.

Just then, Aierde, who was about to be splattered with Wentesi's drool, hurriedly reminded him:

"Wentesi, calm down. You're about to eat me."