...

"The next time Sun Church comes," they will probably summon the True Body of the Sun Monarch."

Lin Yue glanced at the murky shadow of the long saber in his hand, which then dissipated without a trace.

He sat down and picked up the teacup beside him, drinking it all in one gulp.

His originally pale face also rapidly recovered.

Just now, he had summoned the shadow of his Lifebound Divine Artifact Battle Saber by sacrificing some blood, managing to sever the descending Divine Hand.

Even though the Nine Death Selfless Divine Ability had been suppressed to a Mortal level, such minor damage could quickly heal completely.

Summoning the power of the True Body was too draining, but summoning just the shadow of the Lifebound Divine Artifact Battle Saber consumed much less.

"Such a third-tier Divine like the Sun Monarch really has mediocre strength."

Lin Yue was quite calm.

Although he did not understand the differences in strength between different tiers of Divine in the Ancient World, he roughly understood that third-tier Divines were generally the most ordinary Proving beings.

Even though it was only a hand, it was still a part of the True Body, yet it was too weak.

"I wonder how much a Black Moon would turn red if I killed a third-tier Divine like the Sun Monarch."

Lin Yue pondered to himself, "But killing one or two third-tier Divines definitely won't be enough, or the Yanfu Master wouldn't have gone through the trouble to prepare a Physical Body for me and make promises..."

His thoughts stirred and half a strand of hair disappeared; he immediately borrowed a tremendous Divine Thought from his True Body, which spread instantly.

Tens of miles away, the retreating envoys of the Sun Church also entered his mind clearly.

"Hmm..."

Lin Yue pondered for a moment, then suddenly smiled, "I'll spare you for now. Otherwise, without an Archbishop and a few Bishops, summoning the True Body of the Sun Monarch would be troublesome."

...

Thus, the envoy of the Sun Church withdrew back to State City.

Governor Chi had already been preparing his troops to take over Yihai City but did not expect Archbishop Gulis, who had been so confident before the departure, to fail.

Archbishop Gulis stated only that the time was not right and waited for the arrival of the Pope, offering no further explanations.

Governor Chi tactfully did not inquire further and could only announce a delay in deploying troops.

It was only after sending people to investigate that they understood what had happened, shocked and finding the situation exceedingly thorny.

Compared to these Church Contractors who could communicate with the Divine, even hundreds of thousands of troops could have a very limited effect.

If the Sun Church, under the leadership of the Pope, was willing to spare no expense in repeatedly summoning the Divine Power of the Sun Monarch or directly requesting the Sun Monarch to descend in his True Body, as long as there was an astonishing amount of gold to support the consumption of the Sun Monarch, even hundreds of thousands of troops would not be enough to withstand it.

Of course, using such power also came with tremendous resource consumption, much more than waging war.

Unless absolutely necessary, they would not request the Divine to act.

Meanwhile, the news that there was a powerful Contractor in Yihai City who could even withstand the Archbishop of the Sun Church quietly spread.

"Lin Yue? No idea which Divine he worships?"

"There's no need to care, such an insignificant unknown Divine, who knows how long it will take to gather followers, and that's its limit."

"Indeed, relying on one's own strength alone, it is forever impossible for the Divine to descend in their True Body, impossible to become a major religious sect."

"The Divine he worships might be stronger than ordinary Divines, but that's about it..."

"It's indeed talent, but the Sun Church is unlikely to let him go."

Those well-known religious sects supporting the warlords received the news but mostly did not care much.

After all…

Whether in the East Continent or the West Continent, all the major religious sects understood one thing—

Merely relying on individual Contractors, it is impossible to make a Divine descend in their True Body. It's only like the Pope of the Sun Church, showing a minor part of the Divine's True Body in the world.

Merely with a part of the True Body, unless it's the Starry Sky Mother God of the West Continent or the Mother of No Birth of the East Continent, the Great Free Heaven, and such Divines, there is no significant threat to the major religious sects.

Three days later.

...

Within State City, thousands of Western Continent foreigners solemnly and sacredly crossed the streets cleared by troops, as if they were on a pilgrimage. A luxurious throne was carried by twelve strong believers, and seated upon the throne was an elderly Western Continent man dressed in a golden robe.

"Pope."

Inside the Governor Mansion, Governor Chi also respectfully bowed, and even though he wielded control over hundreds of thousands of troops, he dared not show any arrogance in front of the Pope of the Sun Church, who was closest to the Divine.

"Mr. Chi."

The Pope floated down from his throne, a faint smile on his face, "I hear you have important news to deliver to me personally?"

"Yes," Governor Chi nodded, "would the Pope grant me a moment to speak privately?"

"There's no need for secrecy."

The Pope smiled, "All present are my Lord's most devout followers, Mr. Chi may speak openly."

Governor Chi glanced around, then waved his adjutants away and after a moment's thought, he cautiously said, "Does the Pope know, the action you prepared against Lin Yue has been known by many sects in East Continent?"

"Since Gulis failed, it is natural," The Pope calmly replied. "Whatever it is, Mr. Chi can say it directly."

"Alright," said Governor Chi, "since that is the case, I'll speak frankly... Although your sect is from the West Continent, while the East Continent's battle situation is chaotic, there are still many sects that stand united in enmity, quite opposed to the West Continent Church, and they plan to help Lin Yue."

"It's not surprising since the number of sects in East Continent far exceeds those in West Continent."

The Pope calmly nodded, "It's nothing to bother about. Today, the true major sects are all supporting various warlords. It's unlikely for them to fight a life and death battle with my church over a person worshiping an unnamed God. Unless my church invites the divine presence of the Sun Sovereign in his true form, could those smaller East Continent sects even invite their divine beings to descend in their true forms?"

Governor Chi was momentarily taken aback.

Inviting a divine being to descend in its true form not only represented the power and faith of the sects' contractors but also showed how many resources they possessed.

For example, the Sun Church required gold. Every time they invited the Sun Sovereign to bestow his power, a large amount of gold had to be sacrificed.

This was essentially a competition of wealth and resources.

The Sun Church, as a vast organization, easily collected gold and wealth—but what about those smaller sects?

East Continent had too many deities, naturally dispersing resources. Many East Continent sects were also quite obscure, with many being the only transmission line—how could they compete with the divinely sanctioned West Continent Church?

The required offerings were either invaluable gold, silver, and jewels, or a significant amount of human lives or even souls.

Both required substantial influence to gather.

Smaller sects with little influence might not even have a contractor, not only having few followers but also little money.

How could such sects even manage to invite a divine being to bestow a little power using all their meager resources, let alone invite a divine true body?

In the end...

Even the seemingly mystical and transcendent sects of various God-worshiping factions still competed based on resources and manpower.

"However, there are two sects we should be wary of."

Governor Chi continued, "One is the rather mysterious Sect of Killing in the Southwest, worshiping the Buddha Mother of Killing, and the other is the relatively renowned Holy Blood Sect in the north, worshiping the Nine Spirits Blood Saint. Although these two sects are not large, if they ally with the warlord of Yihai City and obtain enough resources, the situation may change."

The Pope listened quietly, but then he smiled.

"Mr. Chi need not worry."

The Pope said softly, "Everything is under the watchful eyes of my Lord. During the divine battles of ancient times, my Lord also had divine beings as allies."

...

Yihai City.

This day, Lin Yue was sitting in the courtyard with boxes of gold placed in front of him.

He casually picked up pieces of gold from the box, marking them with his divine thought so that he could sacrifice them at any moment to transform them into power.

Actually, he didn't specifically need gold; silver, gems, or anything valuable, as well as human lives, souls, and flesh, would also work—it was just that gold was more common, and silver required too much and was more troublesome during sacrifices.

All this gold was collected by Yihai City and Marshal Chen, and they had also plundered quite a bit from the largest warlord in the former Southwest.

Fortunately, Yihai City was wealthy enough; otherwise, gathering sufficient offerings would have been troublesome.

"Are you Lin Yue?"

Suddenly, a cold voice came from the doorway.