From God of Lies to Lord of All Worlds

Chapter 164: The Divine Fire Ignites!

Bai Yang's discovery of the problem with the Godhood actually began with his perception of the third Godhead Shard.

When the Divinity of Lies traversed the world's crystal barrier, the immense pressure sheared off three Godhead Shards.

The first ended up in Carolyn's hands, serving as the Holy Maiden's reliance for granting "Precepts." The second fell into Freya's possession, becoming the vessel for the Witch to communicate with the Gods. As for the third, Bai Yang had never been able to locate it due to a weak signal.

Precisely because he could not find it, he began to study his own Godhood. Theoretically, they were all one entity; such a flaw should not exist.

And then, he found the problem!

The Divinity of Lies in his hands was inherently incomplete. However, because he had mastered the authority of Lies using God Power, whether this Godhood was complete or not no longer mattered.

Seizing this opportunity, he conducted a series of specialized analyses and expansions on the concept of Godhood, ultimately uncovering the root of the issue.

The Godhood in the Dylan Continent did not appear out of thin air; it was derived from the physical manifestation of divine authority!

Divine fire, divine portfolio, Divine Nature, and God Power all converged within it. They formed a very real, tangible crystal, which was the Godhood itself.

The advantage of this object was, of course, the condensation of the Soul, self-completion, and even the cementing of a God's Divine Status. But the disadvantages were equally obvious. It caused the Divine Nature to stagnate and rigidly fixed a deity's domain. Barring a massive upheaval, its very manifestation meant a hard lock on one's upper limits.Because of this, the moment your Godhood condensed, your future was entirely set in stone.

That was exactly why the Divine War occurred. When those beings could no longer advance on their own, they resorted to devouring the Godhood of others to fuse and elevate their own power.

The deep-seated malice hidden within this system was precisely the definition of Godhood that Bai Yang had discovered. It was touted as the manifestation of universal laws and divine portfolios, supposedly a completely natural occurrence, yet it bore incredibly meticulous traces of artificial design. An entity with far more power than him, but with a nearly identical Divine Status, had engineered this entire system.

This design was inherently malicious. The creator had crudely forced their own understanding into the framework, resulting in some divine portfolios becoming overwhelmingly powerful while leaving others excessively weak.

Take Lies, for example. If it had not crossed into this world, freed from its restraints and truly brought to its full potential by Bai Yang, who knows what a pathetic state it would still be in!

"The God Above God!" Bai Yang broke into a wide grin. If his guess was correct, this designer was none other than the true creator of the Dylan Continent, the Creator God, the Father of Gods, the God Above God!

Unfortunately, the Godhood contained no further information about this entity. This was the absolute limit of what he could glean.

'Quite interesting. In a sense, does this count as a clash between two creators?' Bai Yang thought in amusement, before setting out to modify the system to Ascend to Godhood.

He did not want to use Godhood to hard-lock the development of his subordinates. His Divine Status was different, his position was higher, and his existence was more perfect. He needed a vastly superior execution method.

The Church didn't need any alterations. After all, the divine fire had just been ignited, and it would take an agonizingly long time for it to truly take shape.

Moreover, a monotheistic religion didn't require Godhood at all. Everyone was a Divine Servant, which actually made his operations much simpler.

The Native Americans didn't need any modifications either. Although they had appeared early on, their population was simply too small. They didn't even have the numbers to complete a deity's Ritual to Ascend to Godhood like the Norse side could.

So, the only ones left that required changing were the Gods of the Norse Pantheon!

Right on cue, he noticed Luowa exceeding his limits. The demigod was just about to Ascend to Godhood. Bai Yang could find a convenient excuse to lock him down while molding the ascension Ritual for the Aesir Gods.

Restricting his movements to prevent him from interfering with the world's development—this was what Luowa himself referred to as relocating!

At this moment, Bai Yang turned his attention to the outer Universe. There floated a product entirely manifested by the power of Lies after he had tricked Luowa into establishing the Pantheon—the unique Norse Divine Kingdom!

It was the magnum opus of Bai Yang's scamming expertise, the true display of the power of Lies, and the genuine anchor for the originally illusory Norse Pantheon!

Although it started as an illusion, the world had molded it into reality. It truly existed!

For Bai Yang, the line between truth and falsehood wasn't something he needed to dwell on. As long as he believed it to be true, it was true, because someone would always step up to turn those concepts into reality.

"Anchoring the world, locking down the Divine Seat, using Divine Faith as the foundation and Wish Power as the cornerstone to forge brand-new Gods... is this viable?"

Bai Yang muttered these words to himself, jotting the concepts down bit by bit in front of him before fleshing out the details.

"The specific grading of God Power will remain unchanged, but I won't bring up this grading myself. I can let Luowa be the one to propose it!" The Divine Pantheon that Bai Yang was designing was meant to far surpass that of the Dylan Continent. Naturally, he couldn't just adopt someone else's grading system; that would be a massive loss of prestige.

"With the world as the foundation, Godhood is no longer necessary, as everything will be anchored in the Divine Realm, or rather, within Yggdrasil. As for the Divine Seat, it can be bestowed through the Pantheon... He hasn't experienced it before anyway, so whatever I say this bestowment feels like is exactly what it will feel like!"

"Divine Faith and Wish Power are things that already exist. So, the only thing left to consider is the divine fire... I can keep this element, but I can also add a little flair to it, something to make the Aesir Pantheon look infinitely more majestic!"

Bai Yang chuckled, casually tossing a few extra features into the mix. After finalizing everything, he snapped his fingers, allowing the God Power he had sealed away to begin flowing once more.

This way, Luowa would feel that certain unseen barriers had vanished, and naturally, he would take the initiative to seek out ways to elevate himself and Ascend to Godhood!

"Alright then, the time has come for our Saint Luowa to willingly Ascend to Godhood!" Bai Yang declared with a sly smile.

Beside him, Alvin was diligently recording all of this. "Crown, he is the pioneer. Once he succeeds, everything will become the established convention!"

Bai Yang gave a light nod. This event could very well be called the true genesis of the Norse Pantheon!

……

Of course, Luowa was completely oblivious to all of this.

He simply communicated with a Valkyrie in charge of liaison duties and received a copy of the Aesir Ascension Guide. He heard it was adapted by some hopelessly bored God according to the rules of this world, making it quite trendy and up-to-date.

However, receiving this guide put Luowa at ease. The fact that they issued this book to him proved he was recognized and officially approved to Ascend to Godhood.

'Is this what it feels like to be part of an orthodox Divine Pantheon, having connections in high places?'

Epiphany struck Luowa. He had only been down here for a few days, right? This wasn't some grueling trial; it was the legendary process of going through the motions!

Now that the paperwork was effectively done, he had the hope of becoming a God. But before ending the communication, he still couldn't help but ask, "Then... regarding my divine portfolio and Divine Seat, will they be decided beforehand, or should we wait until I finish the ascension process?"

"Ah, about that! That's easy!" Acting much like an enthusiastic customer service rep, the Valkyrie spoke a few words into another communication channel before returning with an answer. "Chief God Thor said he'll go grab one for you right now!"

"Grab?" Luowa blanked out.

"Uh-huh, your divine portfolio is related to the cold, isn't it? He's going to find a Frost Giant and strip away the portfolio they occupy so that a vacancy opens up for you!" the Valkyrie explained. "Don't feel guilty. The Frost Giants have been incredibly rowdy lately, stirring up chaos in Jotunheim and leaving the world in unrest. Crown Thor heading down there this time can be considered a divine punishment!"

This time, Luowa understood perfectly. They weren't joking around; this was dead serious!

To secure a Divine Seat for him, they chose the simplest, most straightforward method available: going out and violently unseating someone else!

"Hiss..." Luowa drew in a sharp breath. He had done his homework on the Aesir Gods and knew this group was essentially a bunch of highly interesting berserkers, but he never expected them to be this completely unhinged!

"Alright, you can continue your process to Ascend to Godhood. After Igniting Divine Fire, it will take many years to synchronize with history, so this Divine Seat will probably be put on hold for a while!" the Valkyrie said in conclusion, cheering him on. "Keep at it, new God! If you actually pull it off, we'll throw a massive banquet in Valhalla for you!"

"Will do!" Luowa ended the communication, feeling as though something deep within his heart had just been set ablaze. It was the warmth of being genuinely valued. No wonder the Vikings placed such heavy emphasis on family in world mythology—there was a very real reason behind it all!

This Divine Pantheon gave off a wonderfully bizarre vibe, but the sense of belonging was incredibly strong. It was great!

Having sorted that out, Luowa stretched out his hand and extracted all the Wish Power he had accumulated over the past few days.

A full fifty thousand points of Wish Power! If he were still in the Dylan Continent, it would have taken him years to hoard this much. Yet here, a mere handful of days was all it took!

Fifty thousand points of Wish Power translated to exactly five points of God Power. This was the absolute minimum requirement of Weak Divinity needed for Igniting Divine Fire. Although this Divine Pantheon operated differently from the Dylan Continent, the ignition process was identical. The Wish Power acted as kindling, slowly catching flame within his grasp.

"I suppose this part isn't any different from the Dylan Continent..." Luowa remarked casually, only to immediately realize just how terribly wrong he was.

Because the flame before his eyes ignited, and it burned violently. With a deafening roar, the surging inferno completely engulfed his entire body!

Luowa was utterly dumbfounded. This was divine fire! The very flames meant to condense a Godhood! If the blaze was this massive, didn't that mean he was dead meat?

And then, he lost consciousness, leaving Bai Yang to slowly reveal his True Body beside him.

"The first person to experience this always needs a bit of ceremonial flair, don't you agree, Alvin?"

"Crown, you... doing this must surely have your reasons!" Alvin replied.