Since the matter had been settled, Fira prepared to set off. But Sui Xiong advised him against rushing and told him that he should at least settle his personal matters at home first.

  “Though theoretically, you should be keeping a tight rein on time. Because before the washed powder salt technique is fully spread, if we are able to cognitively produce our belief and consolidate the state of divine creatures before the World’s Origin gives back, the difficulty of becoming a sealed god will be greatly reduced. Otherwise, you might have to spend a lot more time and energy……” Sui Xiong advised. “But currently, this technique is still kept hidden in our research laboratory. When to promote it to the mass is completely up to us to decide, we can delay as long as we want to. So there is no need to worry at all.

  “Even if everything does well for this trip to my God Kingdom, it may still take you around a year or so before you are able to thoroughly stabilize and consolidate your new state. If things don’t go well, maybe it will take even longer…… it will be a long trip, and your family will be worried. Besides, you’re not young anymore. There must be certain things that need to be taken care of at home. So don’t make haste. Settle these things first.”

  Of course, Fira would not reject Sui Xiong’s suggestions. From his point of view, these were the orders given to him by a god and had to be completed to the T.

  He was about to take his leave when Palin called out to him again. “Mr. Kenji, I have a suggestion. Don’t tell anyone the real reason for this departure…… Just tell them that I’ve arranged a retreat for you. If your luck is good, then maybe you’ll be able to step into the Legendary realm.”

  Fira was also considered an experienced and knowledgeable man who had traveled far and wide. It only took him a moment of deliberation for him to understand Palin’s intention. He nodded and became a stream of green light and vanished without a trace.

  For an advanced mage like him, rushing off elsewhere via transmission magic was a piece of cake.

  After he left, Sui Xiong asked with some degree of curiosity, “What’s wrong about telling people about this matter?”

  “Over the years, Your Majesty may have constantly been bestowing kindness to us, but you have never asked us to do anything much for you. To tell you the truth, all of us feel somewhat unsettled about it—though the help we can provide you is indeed so insignificant, yet to do nothing at all would make us feel that we’re simply unimportant. And it has not only been once that I even heard things like ‘What should we do if His Majesty were to get tired of us one fine day……”

  “Am I such a person?” Sui Xiong asked and frowned.

  \r \r \r

  “You’re not that kind of person, but people don’t understand you.”

  Sui Xiong understood his meaning and sighed silently.

  The people who understood Sui Xiong would naturally get that Sui Xiong would never give up on them. But to those who did not understand him, the way they felt about him would always be dictated by their sense of interest in what he had done for the people of the Republic. This was why occasionally, they would get so skeptical—what if there came the day where Sui Xiong’s interest changed?

  The other gods demanded faith, or their churches consistently recruited manpower, expanded in scale, or even demanded to be enshrined and worshipped. But the Church of the Void Mask did not ask for anything from the people. Although they often propagated the greatness of their god and the glory of their belief, they would never refuse to help anyone who did not believe in Sui Xiong. Neither would they ever reject—for his followers, especially the clergymen, Sui Xiong always demanded that “goodness” had to come before “belief.” It did not bother him whether other people believed in him or not, but he was very concerned about whether they were kind or not.

  And this made the image of the Church of the Void Mask even stranger—they were a group of people who walked about in long robes. They also carried out preaching, but they preferred to be engaged in chivalric acts or policing to maintain peace and order. There are mainly two kinds of impressions that the citizens of the Republic had of them. The first impression was that they could be found patrolling every big and small street, gathering opinions and suggestions from the people with regards to the government. They would also help those in need and punish the troublemakers. The second impression was that they managed the game consoles in the temple and often quarreled or even fought with each other over the contents of the games.

  This was a group with no sense of solemnity—upholders of justice, as well as deep game addicts.

  It was difficult to make the public feel that such a church was “needed.” They would always feel that they were like charity cases purely living on the alms given by the church. They were constantly gaining and taking but could not give anything. Over time, such unease gradually spread to the grassroots of the Republic of Northwest.

  Sui Xiong was silent for a moment. Then he connected to the mainframe computer in his God Kingdom and started to review the prayers of his followers.

  His way of handling his followers’ prayers was through the mainframe computer. The specific process was like this: first, he sorted the prayers into categories. Prayers that purely consisted of worship and praise or prayers for the lamentation of life would be ignored and kept off the records. Only prayers of needs were recorded. The next was to further categorize the kinds of needs. Those that were harmless to people and did not require a large consumption would be added into the list of “ready to implement.” Those that were harmless to people but required a larger consumption would have to be declared to Sui Xiong. For those that were harmful to people, clergymen or Oracles would be sent to secretly verify, without any exception, before deciding what would be done in response.

  As for those needs that did not carry any practical significance, they were generally just sealed up while waiting to be sorted out later.

  Now, Sui Xiong was checking those needs that had been sealed.

  Just as he expected, he found a great number of prayers like “please don’t abandon me,””please give me directions” and “please let me work for you” among them.

  Of course, Sui Xiong would not abandon them. But he really did not need them to do anything for him either. This was why these prayers were sealed and had never been found out, until now.

  “I think I can see why now,” Sui Xiong said with a sigh. “The situation is indeed, a little serious.”

  Palin smiled and said, “Actually, we can’t really use serious to describe it. The foundation of this country is you. With you around, there is nothing too serious. But if you are not around, there will be nothing, serious or not serious, to consider. The main reason I asked him not to leak information was to prevent causing a riot.”

  “Riot? Why would it cause a riot?”

  “Because this is the first time you’ve specifically put forward a ‘need’ to someone,” Pain explained. “You may not have sensed that throughout the Republic, everyone wants to do something for you. They would want to get you what you need, and this desire has almost reached the point of fanaticism. So long as you give the order, even if they had to spend a lot of time and energy crossing mountains and oceans, even if they have to risk their lives to brave countless dangers, no one will have the slightest hesitation. The moment this news about Fira spreads, people will find out that—you do have needs from us. But only a very small number of people can have this honor, so I’m worried that this fanaticism will prompt them to do something irrational……”

  Sui Xiong frowned. He did not quite understand this way of thinking.

  As an artist, he had excellent sensibility. So he could understand the emotion that Palin described. But why would this possibly lead to fanatical, irrational behavior when this emotion met with an opportunity?

  He did not understand.

  However, it did not matter if he did not understand. He chose to believe Palin.

  As the top leader of the scientific research department under Sui Xiong’s command, he was well-deserving to be regarded as a great scientist—not only in this world. Even on Earth, at the same level of civilization, he was also worthy enough to be called a scientist. Sui Xiong was a man who respected talents, so he believed in the judgment of a scientist.

  Since that was what Palin said, it should be true.

  “So…… do you have any good ideas, Palin?” he asked.

  Palin thought for a moment, then said, “If you are asking for a good idea…… I think you can hold a big event and let the people feel that you still have needs to demand from them. This will work out fine.”