Chapter 30 Part 1

The beings of the mortal realm might still have many considerations, perhaps harboring doubts, unwilling to give up until they hit a wall. But the gods, dull yet sensitive, examined themselves and quickly noticed something amiss, each one polishing their weapons.

This war might unfold differently from the history within the game. It wouldn’t be the mortal realm that suffered first, but would instead begin within the Divine Domain.

No matter what preparations the gods made, in this era where the Divine Domain and the mortal world were severed, most mortal beings could not yet feel any changes.

Even if evil god cults were wanted, to ordinary people, it was like seeing other heinous criminals being hunted, not something they would link to their own lives.

Under these surging undercurrents, while the surface remained utterly calm, the crops Xia Xifeng had planted matured.

Crops that would normally take three or four months to half a year to mature, in Xia Xifeng’s hands, could be harvested in as little as one month. If they were precious crops, the growth time would be slightly longer, but not more than a single quarter.

In any case, crops planted on the first day of the quarter were guaranteed to mature within that quarter.

It figured; this was very much a farming game. Change the season and they’d wither, right?

The Dream World had many spells and potions that could accelerate plant growth. Xia Xifeng accelerated the growth of more crops than usual, but it wasn’t too conspicuous.

Only Xia Xifeng himself knew that his Farming Skill was absolutely not something ordinary plant-type spells could compare to.

The Halflings joined the Knight’s Domain. Xia Xifeng appointed Perila as Director of the Plant Research Institute, concurrently serving as Chief Steward of Agriculture, responsible for researching superior seeds, farming tools, and potions, striving to create cheap agricultural machinery that ordinary people could use.

Machinery entirely reliant on Mana Network energy, even with a Mana Network Stabilizer, would be prone to malfunction when the Apocalypse arrived.

Could the power principles of Magic Conduit Devices be applied, replacing mana with other power sources? Even human or animal power?

Xia Xifeng didn’t know how to manufacture the agricultural machinery of his homeland, but he could propose the requirements and let Perila ponder them.

He even coaxed Perila: “Although the legendary path you’ve chosen is exploring the secrets of the gods, I think farming is also good. Take on another direction as well; you might just find another path onto the legendary road.”

Though Perila thought ascending to godhood through farming was absurd, he greatly enjoyed farming and so, half-reluctantly, agreed.

Perila sighed: “The Divine War might be about to begin. I wonder if more evil gods will appear, creating more wicked, intelligent beings.”

Xia Xifeng was tidying the spoils of war Qin Lang had carelessly tossed into his backpack—Qin Lang and Leo had gone into the forest to cleanse divine power pollution sources, grinding monsters for levels on the side. He answered casually: “If this is this world, then unless the rules have already been twisted by Outer Gods, evil gods won’t appear first, followed by corresponding wicked, intelligent beings.”

Perila asked, curious: “Gods can’t influence intelligent beings? Is that true? We Halflings are kind and just precisely because our Ancestor God is a benevolent deity.”

Xia Xifeng dragged the sorted monster corpses out, “gathered” them one by one, and categorized the materials: “Where did you hear that fallacy? Aren’t you a God’s Favored? Didn’t the gods tell you that intelligent beings appear first, and then the gods related to those intelligent beings appear?”

Perila replied with confusion: “Is… is that so? Leo and I can only receive vague instructions from the gods; we can’t communicate with them directly. Ah, did you just speak some important secret? Mr. Suer specifically instructed me not to ask too many questions.”

Perila became anxious, worried that he had inadvertently pried into Xia Xifeng’s secrets.

Xia Xifeng moved his stiff shoulders, continuing to repeat the “Gather” skill: “How is this any important secret? Isn’t this common knowledge? I recall many libraries have books studying the origin of the gods.”

In the game, what he said was indeed common knowledge, and it was indeed knowledge seen in books excavated from library ruins.

How could knowledge contained in books placed in libraries for anyone to read be considered a secret?

Perila was astonished: “Really? Why haven’t I seen them?”

Xia Xifeng was even more astonished than Perila: “Impossible. The Green Sand City Library has this book; it’s called 《Origin of the Gods》.”

Perila sent a message to Damon, asking him to help find this book: “Our Halfling Ancestor God also appeared after the Halflings were born? Then how did Halflings appear? Could we be born without gods?”

Xia Xifeng finally finished processing the monster corpses, then dealt with the flowers and grasses Qin Lang had tossed into his backpack.

Although Qin Lang couldn’t use the Gather skill, gathering actions in reality could still harvest materials, just potentially causing material loss, requiring strict adherence to real-world gathering procedures.

Qin Lang took the lazy way out, basically tossing the flowers, grasses, and soil all together into his backpack for Xia Xifeng to gather himself.

“How strange. Don’t you study history? It’s written in history. The appearance of intelligent beings and other creatures is all the result of natural evolution.” While scolding Qin Lang within the system for being a huge lazybones, Xia Xifeng continued to ramble casually with Perila, “The Creator God created this world; various elements collided, spontaneously evolving into various substances.”

Perila carefully recalled whether he had ever heard this kind of theory.

Could he truly be of shallow experience, having read too few books?

Xia Xifeng said, “Gods who need to rely on the faith of intelligent beings to accumulate divine power after the intelligent beings appear are all called Postnatal Gods. From this definition, one can deduce that Postnatal Gods appear after the emergence of intelligent beings.”

Perila continued to ponder: Was the Sun God an Innate God or a Postnatal God? An Innate God, surely?

Xia Xifeng said: “But actually, Innate Gods and Postnatal Gods are essentially the same.”

Perila grew even more confused: “The same? But they’re different, aren’t they? Innate Gods don’t need the faith of intelligent beings.”

Xia Xifeng shook his head: “You need to see the essence beyond the surface. The birth of gods is all about representing a certain ‘concept.’ The difference between Innate and Postnatal Gods is merely the time of their birth. Before intelligent beings were born, all concepts in the world were unrelated to intelligent beings, hence Innate Gods aren’t closely linked to intelligent beings; after intelligent beings were born, they influenced everything in the world, so the concepts that were born naturally had to be influenced by them.”

Xia Xifeng sorted grass stems: “So they are essentially the same: the ‘concept’ comes first, then the corresponding god is born. This is the most basic rule the Creator set for this world.”

Perila’s face was filled with terror: “Are you sure what you’re saying isn’t an important secret?”

Xia Xifeng shook his head: “Everything I’ve said is from books. Those books are casually placed on library shelves, available for anyone to borrow.”

Though the books players read were all excavated from library ruins or found in various churches, noble basements, and private libraries—not borrowed through normal means—the books indeed existed.

When Xia Xifeng was searching for books in the Green Sand City Library, he had seen several familiar “world-setting” books.

Perila wore a dazed expression: “Is that so? So I’ve just read too few books?”

Xia Xifeng said: “You want to understand the history of the gods’ birth; I’ll give you a book list. Go look for them in the Green Sand City Library. For books not found in the Green Sand City Library, the libraries of the major churches should have them. The Sun and Silver Moon are major churches with very complete collections. You are the Sun’s God’s Favored; borrowing books should be easy.”

Perila grasped Xia Xifeng’s hands: “Thank you, much obliged!”

Xia Xifeng laughed: “What trouble is this? Oh, if you really want to repay me, come help me sort!”

Perila looked at the pile of mud-covered herbs in front of Xia Xifeng: “Are Leo and Lang being a little too much? They brought back the dirt too?”

Xia Xifeng rolled his eyes hard.

Perila held back a smile: “Perhaps this dirt is really useful. Next time, we should go with them.”

Leo hadn’t been this perfunctory before. He truly had learned bad habits from Lang.

Thanks to Perila’s soothing, Xia Xifeng didn’t put laxatives in Qin Lang’s food.

Though he really wanted to go gather materials himself, Xia Xifeng was too busy harvesting and processing grain to leave the Knight’s Domain for the time being.

He sternly warned Qin Lang: if he continued to treat the gathering tasks he assigned so perfunctorily, he would draw turtles on Qin Lang’s face at night.

Qin Lang was utterly speechless at Xia Xifeng’s threat.

Leo exaggeratedly held his stomach laughing, earning a kick from Perila.

Over the next few days, Qin Lang and Leo continued clearing divine power pollution sources, preparing for the expansion of the Knight’s Domain.

Xia Xifeng led the Halflings in storing the harvested grain.

Seeing that he wasn’t too busy today, Perila took the book list Xia Xifeng provided and went to borrow books from Mr. Amuruo and Mr. Suer.

Mr. Suer happened to be in the library reading.

Mr. Amuruo was sitting beside Mr. Suer, dozing off over the table.

Perila handed the book list to Mr. Suer, ashamed: “I thought I had been studying the secrets of the gods for a long time, but I haven’t even read the most basic books recording the origin of the gods, which are common knowledge.”

“Common knowledge, huh…” Suer scanned the book list. Without needing to search the library catalog, he directly stated the shelf numbers where the books were located and had the Alchemical Golems fetch them.

Seeing that the books on the list given by Xia Xifeng were all present in the City Lord’s collection, Perila felt even more ashamed.

He had thought himself studious, yet he hadn’t even read “books introducing common knowledge about the gods”!

Halflings are naturally somewhat slow with text, preferring images and sounds, so most Halflings dislike reading.

Perila had thought himself an exception.

But now he realized, he too was an “illiterate who read too little.”

Watching the deeply ashamed Perila leave with a large pile of books, Suer sighed and repeated, “Common knowledge, huh.”

Amuruo, slouched over the table, turned his neck to look sideways at Suer: “What’s wrong with those books?”

Suer said: “Nothing’s wrong. The recorded information about gods in the books is all correct.”

Amuruo yawned, saying lazily: “Then why are you sighing?”

Suer curled his finger and flicked Amuruo’s forehead: “Do you truly not understand, or are you too lazy to think?”

Amuruo said: “Too lazy to think.”

Suer: “…”

He reflected again on whether his education had gone wrong.

Suer said: “The divine knowledge recorded in the books is indeed correct, but they are just unremarkable books among the vast sea of records about godly legends, with unknown authors and origins.”

He hinted at Amuruo with his eyes, implying that if Amuruo didn’t think about it, he would get angry.

Amuruo yawned again: “Oh, I get it now. True knowledge is hidden within false legends, just like a medicinal herb that looks almost identical to all the other weeds in a field. Though anyone might read it, it is not ‘common knowledge.’ Yet Feng firmly believes it is ‘common knowledge.'”

Suer nodded in satisfaction.

Amuruo’s mind was still very sharp; it hadn’t grown dull from excessive laziness.

“Although Feng is a Prophet like me, the scenes he foresees seem different from mine.” Suer said, “What a Prophet foresees is a world without the Prophet, so as long as they know the future, they can change it. But judging from the information revealed by Feng’s actions, some of the scenes he foresaw seem to include his and Lang’s presence.”