Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 883: Vol V Chapter 243

"Your situation looks terrible," Sui Xiong said with a frown as he looked at the Goddess of Wealth.

As a God of Wealth, Manissy was a member of the great Divine Powers. She did not belong to the category of gods who were skillful in battle, and perhaps she might not even be able to defeat some of the mid-level Divine Powers who were especially good at fighting. But her power was still unquestionable.

This was like making donations without any sacrifices when the Motherland was in need. It was absolutely not considered as morally low. It was just that the selected object of reference was far too superior.

If every mid-level Divine Power could fight as well as the God of Strategy, Augmentin, or the God of Half-Orcs, Morani, would not the world directly fall into a complete mess?

So "600 million citizens could all be Yao and Shun" was merely a beautiful ideal after all.

Manissy's power was arguably said to be ranked among the ones who were the top of the gods. She should have a strong Divine Power and abundant divinity, and from this, she would develop her elegant disposition, as well as a majestic light that made it impossible for mortals to look directly at her. But now, her face was pale. Dark eye circles and eye bags were obvious at first glance, and the majestic light around her body had become very dim. Just as what Sui Xiong said, she looked terrible.

Manissy gave a bitter laugh, shook her head and sat down in her usual seat. Then she sighed deeply.

After a while, she said, "Of all my priesthoods, there are four most important ones. I'm sure you all know, right?"

The gods nodded.

Among all the priesthoods of the Goddess of Wealth, Manissy, wealth, merchants, commercial practices and the Commonwealth of Gold Coins were the four core priesthoods. Though the priesthood "wealth" encompassed luxury, generosity and class, the amount of divinity it could really provide was not much. It belonged to the category of things that served the purpose of outlining and summarizing. The priesthood of "merchant" was something he started, while the "Commonwealth of Gold Coins" was the key for his stepping up from weak Divine Power to mid-level Divine Power. With Sui Xiong's help, the priesthood "commercial practices" was composed by incorporating a series of policies together. Although it was only in a nascent state, it was already starting to exhibit enormous value.

For the moment, these were the four most important priesthoods. They were like four pillars of support that held up the great Divine Power of whoever was called the "God of Wealth." Perhaps a differentiation of the more superior to less superior of these four priesthoods could be derived through a more thorough division of the four priesthoods. But if one was missing, no matter which one it was, it would cause her to incur a great loss. It would not be surprising if she would directly fall from the ranks of great Divine Power back to the ranks of mid-level Divine Powers.

Morani already understood and asked, "The Commonwealth of Gold Coins… Is it really done for?"

Manissy sighed and nodded.

"Not even a formal unity is possible?" asked the God of War, Wenner.

Manissy sighed and nodded again.

"Then you're in trouble!" said the God of Justice, Yorgaardman, as he shook his head. "Your divinity is definitely going to decrease."

Manissy sighed deeply and nodded with a grimace.

As one of her four fundamental priesthoods, the priesthood "Commonwealth of Gold Coins" was derived from the worship and belief that the entire Commonwealth of Gold Coins placed in her. As the state religion of this country, she had gained great benefits from this belief and thus accumulated an astronomical amount of Divine Power.

However, interests and responsibilities, together with risks, had always come together hand-in-hand.

Now this country, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, was already on the verge of collapsing. It would not be long before it utterly collapsed to become two, or even more states. The Church of the Goddess of Wealth would still be very powerful. But it was unlikely for her to hold on to her status as the state religion in all territories, as she once did.

That was to say, this priesthood of hers was on the verge of collapse, and also, it was beyond repair.

If she were to lose this priesthood, though she could still make up for it by using the beliefs of the other small, divided nations, the effect would not possibly be the same as before. This was why the divinity of the Goddess of Wealth was definitely on the decline this time.

The only question now was, how much lower would her divinity be? As well as… when could she make up for this loss?

Amidst the silence, Sui Xiong suddenly opened his mouth and said, "Actually, this is also an opportunity for you."

"Opportunity?" Manissy paused for a moment after asking. Then she looked at him and waited for him to finish.

"In this world, no country is eternal. Even the Kingdom of Eagle would already be destroyed if not for the God of Knights' intervention, right?" Sui Xiong asked.

Manissy nodded.

"If that's the case, why should you bind yourself to the kingdom of mortals?" Sui Xiong asked. Then he laughed and said, "How about you take this opportunity to separate your priesthood from those mortal dynasties that are fated to be short-lived? Let's not seek any status like a state religion."

Manissy nodded again. Of course, she felt that Sui Xiong's words made sense. But then, she raised her brows and asked, "If I completely separate my priesthood from the earthly kingdoms, does that mean that the loss incurred from this "Commonwealth of Gold Coins" will be irrecoverable? Isn't that too big a loss to make?"

"Well, naturally you win some, and you lose some. Of course, there is a price to pay if you want to liberate yourself from the rise and fall of Earth and become a carefree spectator," Sui Xiong said. He held his tentacles out and went on to say, "Where can you find such a thing as the best of both worlds in this world? It's just a matter of choosing the better side."

Manissy frowned and fell into deep thought.

Sui Xiong's suggestion was very tempting. She could prevent herself from being influenced by the rise and fall of the dynasties and become a transcendent god. This was undoubtedly, very good for her. But in doing so, she would have to face a huge loss, and that also made her very worried.

She was not like Sui Xiong, who was an invincible super master. The moment she suffered a huge loss, her divinity would fall to the mid-level Divine Power. And she was always fearful that there would be someone openly or secretly looking to stir up trouble for her.

Thinking of this, she could not help but sigh deeply again.

Just then, Wenner said, "Manissy, what on earth is going through your mind? This is so obvious!"

His voice carried a sonorous tone, like the clanging of metals. In an extremely penetrating and persuasive voice, he said, "The earthly dynasties will ultimately come to an end. Even if you barely manage to let it drag on this time, what about the next time? There will always be times when you just can't pull through, isn't that so?"

"It'd still be nice if I could let this drag on for a little while longer…"

"Please don't ever tell anyone that you're a member of our Void Alliance in the future. It's simply too disgraceful!" Wenner snorted coldly. Then in a peevish tone, he said, "It's just a matter of lowering your divinity, that's all. You have "commercial practices," the priesthood that is continuously gaining strength, to fall back on. Your overall divinity is very stable, what's there to worry about?"

"But… I still have so many enemies…"

The moment she said this, Wenner burst out laughing.

"Are you a fool? What on earth gave you the illusion of 'I'm a great Divine Power, my enemies will not dare to do anything to me'?"

He looked at the bewildered Manissy with an extremely mean and stern face, then angrily, he said, "Your enemies don't dare to do anything to you not because you are a great Divine Power, but because you have us as your allies!

"A good-for-nothing who can't fight should honestly just stand back and help with the logistics. Don't always think of yourself as some hero who is able to outdo all corners!" he said. Then he laughed and patted Yorgaardman, who was next to him, on the shoulder. "Such a thing like fighting should be left to us from the fighting party. That is what we are good at!"

It was only then that Manissy came to her senses. Her gaze lingered on Wenner and Yorgaardman momentarily before falling upon Sui Xiong.

Sui Xiong smiled and nodded.

Then she burst out laughing. All signs of dejection were swept away, and she was in high spirits, refreshed and brimming with energy.

"Alright!" she said with great energy. "Then I shall take this opportunity to sort out my priesthoods. Thereafter, I shall bid farewell to the rise and fall of the earthly dynasties and be a carefree god!