Chapter 312: Rewards and the Conclusion of the Twin City Cup

The Twin City Cup only concluded following a grand final rematch after the battle against Aojo, with Mufasa formally defeating monk Alfonso of the Brilliant White Church to come out on top as champion.

In a cheery mood, Xi Wei directly gifted him a Fushigiri, Legendary weapon exclusive to the Swordmaster class-it was a blade that dealt special damage on all undead creatures, nullified rebirth or any other undead effects beneath Rule-level.

While its attack stats were no different from normal swords, Fushigiri had several times better durability in comparison. That alone made it much useful for Kengyoku Players who often use their weapons for parrying and deflection, pitting steel against steel-after all, no one would enjoy having their swords breaking halfway through a parry, because it was as uncool as it was lethal. Mufasa seemed to like it very much too, and had been hugging Fushigiri to sleep over the last two days.

At the same time, while Aojo appeared to have been killed by the Players, its core which was broken by Jessica’s elven holy lance and parts of its body were sent to Xi Wei’s divine kingdom, where he could study it further.

But even after he had done his research, Xi Wei couldn’t find any clue that traces back to the mastermind

It appeared that the very existence of Aojo was no more than a normal human who had intercepted divine energy with a certain method before mutating into a monster.

The core that was sent as an offering was indeed the part where it had stored divine energy, having mutated into a crystalline structure. If there was no appropriate handling, the structure itself would have expanded without end and turn Aojo into a crystal, since divine energy wasn’t something normal beings could sully.

Moreover, the divine energy stored in the core was simply impure and couldn’t be absorbed with normal methods—Xi Wei had the feeling that he would definitely get an upset stomach even if he would gulp it down his gullet.

Therefore, he summoned the First Flame to burn the core, extracting pure divine energy.

The First Flame was a good measure to extract divine energy with, but it was a pity that it takes a heavy toll and burnt off seventy percent of the divine energy in the core, and the remaining thirty percent was better than none.

In comparison, Xi Wei had gained a lot more divine energy from another channel. With the conclusion of the Twin City Cup, the Players who had performed impressively in the tourney had gained some reputation amongst the citizens as believers of the God of Games. That in turn greatly increased the value of Xi Wei’s stocks, just as more converts joined the Church of Games.

The divine energy from his new believers naturally was the best for any god because it was easily digestible and absorbed.

As tons of genuine divine energy streamed into Xi Wei’s body, he broke through the gate where he had been stuck all along, hence ascending from a lesser deity to an intermediate god!

The terrific gains were certainly leaving Xi Wei in awe: hype once and you get fed for a day, hype all the time and you eat for a lifetime… Having become an intermediate god and rising from third-rate to second-rate, Xi Wei finally gained some confidence too.

That said, he still couldn’t defeat the Ocean Goddess just like before, and if his trick before was exposed, she was definitely stringing him up for target practice.

Be that as it may, he now had the foundation with which he could face the Skull God, a second-rate deity in a direct confrontation.

Moreover, becoming an intermediate god meant that he had also shaken off his label as a cannon fodder, and even if a divine war really begins, he now had the right to join in as a pawn even if he wasn’t.

Naturally, any benefits come with their own shortcomings. He was becoming known to many other gods after he had ascended thanks to the major event that was the Twin City Cup, and he was no longer able to develop himself discreetly like before.

He could even tell that some unruly god would definitely command their believers to make things hard for Xi Wei in the near future.

“Still, it’s not like I can prevent such a thing even if I want to. At best I could just keep an eye out for it.”

Not to mention that there was other good news for Xi Wei—there was progress with the investigation he entrusted the Great Lion with.

That being said, it did not really count as an investigation as Aslan did react to the name Finnia before. However, whether he was afraid of their conversation being spied upon or he needed to compile some data beforehand, he didn’t immediately inform Xi Wei about what he knew, and visited Xi Wei’s divine kingdom directly instead.

“I remember it well. It was in a flowering season in the Third Age, when the Trinity had yet to confine every other god into their respective divine kingdoms…”

“Are you going into a narrative the moment you enter?” Xi Wei asked helplessly, watching as the Great Lion face turned nostalgic. “You’re even using first-person perspective.”

“Should I perform a vanishing trick for you as the fee for your investigation?”

“Fair enough. Keep telling your story, I’ll make you something to drink.”Xi Wei rolled his eyes, before extending his tentacles to whip out a cocktail shaker and began to jiggle it.

Aslan naturally didn’t nitpick with Xi Wei and continued his story.

“The world is no different from a high-precision machine built by the Trinity, with everything within operating under principles and rules. Even so, even the best machines would develop errors as time passes.”

“And in that flowering season, a special child was born unto the Prime Material Plane. She is human, and was no different from any other human aside from one little fact… She couldn’t believe in any god.”

At that, Aslan’s voice turned quiet. “It did not matter how devoted she was—her prayers would never reach the gods, her sadness never tugging the heartstrings of the divine. In fact, us gods could hardly observe her even if we tried to do so with purpose. That was why she was taken to be faithless, with nations and churches torment her as she wandered aimlessly for her whole life, ultimately dying in isolation and despair.”

Aslan paused then. “And yet, that’s only the beginning of the tragedy.” Xi Wei opened the shaker and poured a clump of jiggling jelly, which had a slit over it that resembling a mouth as if saying, “Hurry the heck up! No cliffhangers please!” The Great Lion merely slammed his paw down and squished it before continuing. “And since she wasn’t taken in by any god, evil gods couldn’t find her either… not to mention that the Prince of Darkness was still playing mud at who knows which hellhole… either way, death was not the end of her despair—tormented eternally and caught in perpetual isolation without any chance of peace, her mind was lost to madness.”

“Her mad spirit hence drew other despairing souls to herself, eventually becoming a crucible of hopelessness and suffering that mutated frighteningly… it was too late when us gods finally noticed. She had been corrupted utterly, reborn as a new evil god of despair…”

“Divine Injustice, Pain Eternal.”