From God of Lies to Lord of All Worlds

Chapter 438: Giving the Nations a Sweetener

Humanity paid no attention to where the "Monsters" went after the duels concluded.

Their eyes were fixed solely on the River Thames. After the series of brutal battles finally ceased, the victors picked up the black bones before them and waded out of the riverbed.

Many more, having pushed past their fleeting cowardice, mustered their courage and stepped down into the water to seek out their own opponents.

Spurred on by the encouragement of their predecessors or the burning desire for Transcendent power, this riverbed transformed into an Asura's battleground of desire in the blink of an eye!

Those who survived walked out as candidates for Transcendent status. Those who died dragged their desires straight down to Hell with them. In this rare era of "fairness," such an outcome seemed incredibly just.

Meanwhile, the newly recruited man stood before the cameras, rapidly sharing his own insights:

"To those who gave up, I urge you not to go back down and try again just because of a momentary flare of desire. Courage can never be equated with greed!"

"Yelling and screaming isn't courage, and neither is bullying the weak. True courage is the strength to face Death head-on, even when you know it's right in front of you!"

"The moment you chose to give up the first time, your heart had already surrendered to fear. When that happens, the trial of courage is no longer meant for you."

"Every single person I saw leave and come back ended up dead. There were no exceptions!"Hearing these words, some who had been contemplating a return slumped in defeat and lowered their hands.

Yes, perhaps the man was right. When fear had already taken root in their hearts, where would they find the courage to continue?

They didn't want to return because their bravery had miraculously recovered. They simply felt there was a loophole they could exploit!

But if mere mortals could figure this out, would the Gods be blind to it? The rising death toll was the ultimate fate of The Greedy.

"But, they have to die just because of a single word from the Gods? Is there really no chance to back out?" someone at the scene asked aloud. Immediately, the surrounding crowd stared at him as if he were a monster.

"You're facing the Gods who rule and destroy the world! They aren't your teachers, and they certainly aren't your Family Members," someone openly mocked. "You don't even get a chance to back out of a shift at work, yet you expect a Transcendent Being to give you a second chance?"

"For the Deities, merely granting you Death is already the most merciful grace imaginable!"

This was exactly why, despite the constant stream of death, hardly anyone voiced any objections.

The Celtic Gods had previously intended to annihilate this country entirely. If that had happened, it wouldn't have been a mere handful of casualties; it would have been the burial of tens of millions.

Now, it was just a royal selection. With only this many deaths, it truly could be considered the Gods' mercy.

True, malicious destruction would not stop at such a meager death toll.

Following this exchange, many fell silent and went back to watching the trial. The dying continued. Not everyone had a clear understanding of their own limits; in fact, the vast majority were wildly overconfident.

Consequently, the spectators witnessed people dropping to their knees to kowtow halfway through a fight. They saw individuals abandoning all resistance out of sheer agony after being struck. But they also saw those who, despite clinging to their last breath, chose to fight tooth and nail and ultimately survived.

Naturally, there were even more participants who, after witnessing the gruesome deaths of so many, silently chose to walk away.

When faced with the irresistible temptation of Transcendent power, being able to follow your heart and walk away was commendable in its own right. At the very least, it meant you understood yourself.

Out of the three million chosen candidates, after two days and one night of grueling selection, a full one hundred thousand people waded out of the River Thames.

Left behind in their wake were the corpses and Souls of over three hundred thousand people. Yet, hardly anyone spoke of this grim reality. After all, they had all chosen their own path to Death.

"Crown... the results are absolutely flawless! They actually don't suspect a thing!" Alvin was astounded. He truly hadn't expected that, even after harvesting the lives and Souls of these people and reaping an astronomical amount of Wish Power from the entire world, it wouldn't incite any hatred whatsoever.

In fact, the deaths of three hundred thousand people on the Dylan Continent could easily cause the fall of a deity with Medium Divine Power. After all, the resentment generated by a Slaughter of this magnitude would be utterly terrifying!

It would trigger a tidal wave of Wish Power from the entire human race, a backlash potent enough to make even a being of Powerful Divine Power drop in Divine Rank.

Yet, under Bai Yang's masterful design, this didn't happen. Although three hundred thousand had perished, their deaths caused scarcely a ripple. The world's nations showed no emotional backlash, and global public opinion remained unusually subdued.

To Alvin, this revelation was nothing short of earth-shattering.

"Surprising, isn't it? But in reality, this has nothing to do with me. This is simply the fortress of public opinion built by the entire world working together!" Bai Yang saw the situation with perfect clarity and explained it effortlessly. "Whenever people die, someone has to take the blame. So, they all exerted their influence to evenly distribute the responsibility among themselves!"

"With the Government, the civilians, and the Gods all shouldering the blame together, everything naturally appears calm and peaceful!" "The most crucial point is that they volunteered. Humanity is inherently free; without coercion, there is naturally no rebellion."

"Ordinary people only know that they died because of the trials of the Gods. No one forced them to take the trial, and no one forced them to show up. Therefore, even if they marched straight into Death, no one would utter a word of complaint."

"When you choose your own path, even if it leads to your demise, it can still be considered a worthy end!"

He knew full well that wanton Slaughter would taint one with karma or rather, it shouldn't be called karma, but rather Wish Power.

But no matter what it was called, nothing could stand against the unified consensus of billions of humans on Earth. That concentrated Wish Power was more than enough to crush beings possessing Powerful Divine Power.

However, through his meticulous design and the almost tacit understanding of global public signaling from various nations, this massive casualty event didn't trigger any Wish Power crisis. Instead, it permanently engraved the Celtic Divine Pantheon into the hearts of every single person.

In fact, Bai Yang was already considering having the other Divine Pantheons host similar trials.

An experiment that painlessly harvested Wish Power, Souls, and boosted the widespread influence of a Divine Pantheon? He naturally wanted to repeat it a few more times.

"However, it's not like these nations are completely oblivious either..." The information Bai Yang gleaned from the higher-dimensional data streams left him feeling slightly wary.

Within the think tanks and advisory boards of many nations, a few clever minds had already deduced the Gods' reliance on Divine Faith.

Consequently, this audacious group had begun developing countermeasures against the faith of the Gods. After all, for organizations on the level of a nation-state, completely trusting the Transcendent was an absolute impossibility. They would inevitably exhaust every possible method to combat Transcendent forces.

This was the very nature of a state, a fact Bai Yang understood perfectly well.

Yet, their methods were truly difficult for him to stomach. Because they recognized how vital Divine Faith was to the Gods, they decided that if they ever fell out with the deities, they would manipulate the majority of the population into worshipping bizarre, heretical concepts.

For instance, they would propagate rumors that a certain Deity was actually female and a radical feminist, or smear a Deity by claiming they delighted in receiving sacrifices in filthy, corrupted places. They even planned to distort certain sacred rituals into insulting gestures, like raising a middle finger...

By polluting the sacrifices and the very essence of the Deities, they aimed to manipulate the actions of certain Divine Pantheons. This would, in turn, influence the pantheons' decisions and even alter the fundamental makeup of the Deities themselves.

Naturally, this wouldn't affect Bai Yang in the slightest, but he still didn't want these people pulling any mutually destructive stunts.

After all, it was like watching a colony of ants flinging feces at you. You knew it couldn't actually hurt you, but that didn't stop it from being incredibly disgusting.

This was exactly how Bai Yang felt at the moment.

"No, I need to find something to keep them occupied, otherwise they'll keep coming up with these nauseating schemes to gross me out!" Bai Yang clicked his tongue. He glanced back down at the spirited trial survivors, and an idea suddenly sparked in his mind.

"Alvin, how are our various worlds faring right now?"

Hearing this, Alvin hastily looked up and reported, "The worlds are all developing steadily and favorably. The initial Underworld is currently expanding across Pluto. Heaven and its subordinate realms are continuing to provide virtual Wish Power. The Nine Realms and the World Tree are traversing the space between Earth and the Moon. Meanwhile, the Underworld of the Gods of the Americas and their specialized worlds are also being sculpted piece by piece. Why do you ask, Crown?"

"Tell me, do you think we could place the new trial world on a completely new planet?" Bai Yang asked softly. "After the trial of courage, the brand-new trial will unfold in a new world. And this first batch of trial survivors will serve as the Key to reach it!"

"Aren't these nations sitting around with too much free time, constantly dreaming up ways to disgust me? Then I'll simply toss them a brand-new planet to keep them busy. Wouldn't that solve everything?"

Alvin ran a quick calculation. "Crown, it's completely viable! If these people pour their Wish Power into the new world, it will be far more efficient than us doing it ourselves. Furthermore, it will drastically accelerate the formation of these worlds!"

The example of the previous planet was right in front of them. With human presence, their Wish Power would naturally allow a world to take shape rapidly. This was a tremendous advantage.

Bai Yang smiled. "That's not all. A completely public world also serves as a special kind of incentive! An incentive for every nation on the globe! After all, the Age of Discovery is right around the corner, and Otherworlds represent a wealth beyond imagination!"

He could already picture the grand spectacle: the birth of a new world, with nations across the globe scrambling madly to stake their claim!

This move? This was what they called a win-win situation!