Chapter 253 | Paladin Class: Awakening the Strongest Demon System

“They've probably given up on this planet.”

Lothar stood before the map, his finger tapping the locations marked with red crosses in the north.

“With all fifteen of them wiped out, even if the Demon God sends more people, it will take at least a month or two. This is more than enough time.”

Mavis leaned against the window, playing with a dark red crystal seized from the black-robed men.

“Doesn't that mean we can spread our faith however we want now?”

“Pretty much.”

Jiang Lin re-marked the locations of the circles on the map.

“What comes next is simple. Go to these cities, erect statues, spread the faith, and wait for the nodes to activate.”

He made it sound easy, but the actual execution was far from simple.

The cities on Planet Caeous were scattered far and wide, separated mostly by wilderness and rolling hills without any proper roads.

Traveling between the two farthest cities took three full days, with no supply points along the way.

Fortunately, without any interference from the Demon God Apostles, the remaining work was purely physical labor.

Thanks to Jiang Lin's spatial magic, the group's travel speed was quite fast.

The annihilation of those ten Demon God Apostles seemed to have ripped the backbone out of the resistance in Caeous's northern hemisphere.

In the days that followed, Jiang Lin and his teammates encountered almost no significant resistance.

Occasionally, scattered Demon God Believers would emerge from remote corners, attempting to erect black statues in some village.

However, before they could even establish a foothold, they would be spotted by the local natives, who immediately reported them to the nearest Temple outpost.

By the time the apostles arrived, those isolated Demon God Believers had either fled long ago or were shivering in ruined temples, unable to mount any proper resistance.

“It's like sweeping away fallen leaves,” Good said, crouching beside a newly erected statue of the God of Holy Light. He rubbed his thick fingers over the freshly carved runes on the pedestal and grinned. “If I knew it would be this easy, we should have wiped out all ten of them from the very start.”

“It's only easy because of the groundwork we laid beforehand.”

Lothar stood beside him, his gaze sweeping over the town of about three thousand people.

The townsfolk were lining up to bow and pray before the statue, the golden light casting a warm halo over their faces.

“Once the faith is established, the natives themselves become our eyes and ears. Even if those Demon God Apostles return, they won't even be able to get past the city gates.”

Jiang Lin did not join in their conversation.

He sat cross-legged on the stone steps at the edge of the town square, holding the rune-covered crystal shard in his hand. With his golden eyes half-closed, his mind sank into his Apostle Brand.

【Anchors of the God of Holy Light: 23】

【Total Faith Value: 18,720/10,000】

【Activated Nodes: 1/10】

The first node had been activated seven days ago.

...

It was raining lightly that day, and fine, slightly acidic droplets drifted down from Caeous's overcast, gray sky.

Jiang Lin was spreading the faith in a new city.

Suddenly, he felt a warm current surge from the pedestal of the statue into his body, flowing through his meridians.

The current was not large, but it was purer and more condensed than any previous faith dividend.

Like a drop of essence concentrated a hundredfold, it slowly swirled once in his dantian before merging into his holy light magic essence, causing his total magic essence to spike significantly.

He froze for a moment, then opened his system interface. When he saw the notification, a deep sense of reassurance welled up in his heart.

Ten thousand believers.

The first node was complete.

...

From then on, the growth rate of his faith value began to accelerate noticeably.

It wasn't because he had erected more statues, but because the earliest believers had begun to spread the word on their own.

One person told ten, and ten told a hundred.

By the eighteenth day, the Total Faith Value broke thirty thousand.

The second node was activated.

Sitting on the stone steps, Jiang Lin reviewed the data in his mind. He then pulled out the map seized from the black-robed men from his spatial ring and added a few strokes to it.

On the map, red crosses represented the Demon God statues, of which fourteen had already been built.

The blue circles represented the statues of the righteous gods. Between the God of Holy Light, the Goddess of Life, the God of War, the Lord of Arcane, and the rest of the Seven Righteous Gods, there were already over sixty statues.

The red crosses were concentrated in the central and eastern regions of the northern hemisphere, while the blue circles started from the south and fanned outward to the north like a rising tide.

“At this rate,” Cyrus said, having walked over to his side at some point, crouching down and pushing up his glasses, “the total number of believers will break one hundred thousand in another month. Ten nodes won't be difficult.”

“What about the Demon God's side?”

“How are the natives they converted doing?”

Jiang Lin put away the map and looked up at him.

“In those major cities in the north,” Cyrus said, pushing up his glasses. “The converted have completely separated themselves from normal people. Their offspring... I tested a few newborns, and the concentration of Demon God power in their bodies is even higher than their parents'. Their bloodline has already been altered.”

Jiang Lin fell silent for a moment.

He had long anticipated this.

The methods of the Demon Gods were never gentle. They did not care if their believers were sincere; they only cared about their utility.

From the moment those converted individuals accepted the Demon God power, they had set foot on a different path.

Their descendants, purified and strengthened generation after generation, would eventually break away from humanity entirely and become true demons.

This was not something he could change.

“Let them be,” he said, standing up and patting the dust off his trousers. “There's no need for us to chase them down and fight them. This planet is big enough to accommodate both faiths.”

“You're certainly open-minded about this.”

“What else can we do?” Jiang Lin glanced at him. “Forcibly purifying those who have been converted is practically killing them. I have neither the authority nor the desire to do that. Since they chose the path of the Demon God, they must bear the consequences themselves.”

Cyrus said no more.

In the following days, Jiang Lin focused most of his energy on one thing.

He wanted to carve out “tributaries” within the energy circulation systems of the Demon God statues.

This was no easy task.

The core defensive barriers of the Demon God statues were incredibly resilient; raw force alone could not penetrate them.

He spent nearly a month experimenting, recording, and calculating around over a dozen Demon God statues before finally finding a viable solution.

The core of his plan did not involve attacking the statues themselves, but rather utilizing the surrounding “environment.”

Once erected, every Demon God statue would gradually alter the composition of magic essence in the surrounding space.

This alteration was continuous and irreversible, like a drop of ink in clear water—it would only grow darker and never fade on its own.

However, Jiang Lin discovered that erecting a statue of the God of Holy Light in a space saturated with Demon God power would trigger a peculiar “resonance” effect.

It was a subtle phenomenon, akin to a whirlpool formed at the confluence of two rushing rivers.

The center of this whirlpool was precisely the weakest point of the Demon God statue's core defensive barrier.

The solution he devised was to erect three to five small statues of the God of Holy Light at specific distances and angles around the Demon God statue.

These statues were not meant to spread faith, but solely to create a resonance with the Demon God statue, tearing a tiny, nearly imperceptible crack in its defensive barrier.

Then, through this crack, he would embed a specially crafted spatial anchor into the statue's energy circulation system.

The anchor wouldn't destroy anything; it would simply dig a small canal next to the main river.

The main river's flow would remain unchanged, and the Demon God would still receive as much faith as before.

However, this small canal would divert a tiny portion of the power of faith, directing it toward the nearest statue of the God of Holy Light.

Conveniently, the statues of the God of Holy Light already possessed a built-in transmission channel through the Apostle Brand.

Jiang Lin didn't need to build his own receiving stations; he only had to borrow the infrastructure of the God of Holy Light.

It was like installing a T-joint on the Demon God's water pipe, diverting a portion of the water into the Holy Light's canal, and letting it flow down into his own cistern.

The first time he implemented this plan around the Demon God statue in the south of the city, it took him an entire day.

The positions of the three small statues of the God of Holy Light were precise down to the millimeter, their angles calculated repeatedly. Each spatial anchor was embedded with extreme care, for fear of triggering a backlash from the defensive barrier.

That night, he sat cross-legged in the courtyard of the stone house, closed his eyes, and felt a new warm current flow into his body.

It wasn't large.

It was only about one-tenth of his normal faith dividend.

But it didn't come from a statue of the God of Holy Light; it flowed from the canal connected to the Demon God statue.

Furthermore, it required absolutely no effort on his part.

As long as those statues of the God of Holy Light remained and the Demon God statue continued to function, this small canal would keep flowing, day and night, without end.

He opened his eyes, the campfire in the courtyard reflected in his golden gaze.

It was a success.

Next came replication.

He began to travel all over the planet.

Wherever there was a Demon God statue, his figure could be seen.

For every Demon God statue, he paired it with three to five small statues of the God of Holy Light, strictly executing the positions, angles, and spacing according to his initial design.

When the terrain was less than ideal, he adjusted on the spot, using his Space Perception to calibrate repeatedly until every anchor was embedded in the perfect position.

The work was tedious and repetitive, but the returns were substantial.

By the end of the second month, he had modified eleven Demon God statues.

Every small canal continuously funneled the power of faith to him. Although the flow from a single canal was small, eleven of them combined yielded a substantial amount.

His total magic essence increased by twenty percent over the month, and his rank progressed steadily from 4th-rank mid-stage to 4th-rank late stage.

This was significantly faster than his own cultivation.

Although he was still some distance away from the 5th-rank, this feeling of “growing stronger while lying down” was undeniably pleasant.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

The spread of their faith had entered the fast lane.

The first batch of missionaries began to make their mark.

The young people who were the first to receive training in the Holy Light Breathing Technique had grown into a force that could not be ignored in just two short months.

The most outstanding among them could even construct small statues and lay down rune arrays independently with Jiang Lin's assistance.

Armed with the blueprints for the statues of the God of Holy Light, the introductory methods of the breathing technique, and the basic rune knowledge learned from Cyrus, they split into over a dozen teams and dispersed in all directions across the planet.

Their speed grew faster and faster.

By the middle of the third month, the seventh node was activated.

By the beginning of the fourth month, the ninth node was activated.

By the hundred and thirtieth day, the Total Faith Value broke one hundred and twenty thousand.

At the exact moment the tenth node activated, Jiang Lin was standing in the square of a small town in the northern hemisphere, his carving knife just finishing its final stroke.

A faint golden halo rippled from the pedestal of the half-man-tall statue of the God of Holy Light. The glow spread, intertwining with the light from the other six righteous god statues in the square, enveloping the entire town in a warm curtain of light.

At the same time, a warm sensation came from the Apostle Brand on his chest, and lines of text condensed from holy light appeared before his eyes:

【Spark Mission · Phase Completed】

【Anchors of the God of Holy Light: 10/10 Nodes (Completed)】

【Total Faith Value: 127,430/100,000 (Overachieved)】

【Quest Status: Core Objectives Achieved】

【Tip: The host may choose to return immediately or remain on Caeous until the 150-day limit is reached. During the remaining stay, faith dividends will continue to take effect, and the excess faith value will be converted into additional rewards proportionally.】

Jiang Lin stared at the lines of text for a few breaths. Then, he put away his carving knife, retrieved the stone tablet recording the faith data of various regions from his spatial ring, and added a stroke to it.

“Is it over?”

Lothar's voice came from behind him. Today, he wore a set of off-white casual clothes, with his silver-white greatsword slung diagonally across his back. His dark brown eyes looked exceptionally calm in the twilight.

“The core objectives have been achieved,” Jiang Lin said, turning around and handing him the stone tablet. “Ten nodes, one hundred and twenty thousand believers. The quest is overachieved.”

Lothar took the stone tablet, glanced at it, and nodded without showing much surprise.

He had been tracking the faith data from various locations these past few days, so he already had a good idea of their progress.

“When do you plan to head back?”

“No rush,” Jiang Lin shook his head. “There are still twenty days left. Every extra day we stay is another day of faith dividends.”

Lothar fell silent for a moment, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

“My thoughts exactly.”

The reactions of the others were much the same.

Twenty days was not long.

Jiang Lin decided to use this time to conduct an experiment he had been wanting to try.

In the northern sky, that dark red rift still hung against the pale purple firmament like a wound that would never heal.

After months of continuous seepage, the rift had expanded considerably compared to when they first arrived. The dark red light at its edges had grown more intense, as if something on the other side was pulling at it with intense force.