Carrot and Stick

"This god was destined for me!" Even with his singular focus on resurrection, the Spectre Prophet could not help but be deeply shaken at this moment! Of everyone present, no one understood better than he just how rare a god was, how precious a godhead truly was! Though the school of virtual godheads allowed all demigods to forge gods from scratch, researching a complete virtual godhead sorcery procedure was as daunting as scaling Ruby Mountain! First, a sorcerer had to reach the demigod rank in the relevant faction—that was merely the baseline requirement. Then, they had to seize a Concept Incarnation and spend time becoming intimately familiar with it, a process often measured in years. Finally, they had to find the right direction; otherwise, they might spend a lifetime without achieving any results, or end up developing something impossible to realize! A god was unique! If one sought to create a god that had once existed in history, a fundamental problem arose: did that god already exist? Perhaps it was held by someone else, or perhaps it lurked in the Void Realm in a wild state. A demigod might spend decades finally researching a virtual godhead procedure, only to fail repeatedly in forging the god, realizing in the end that the god they wished to create already existed in the world. Unless that old god was destroyed, they could never turn their research into reality. Worst of all, when beginning one's research, one might be certain the old god had perished, only for someone else to beat them to recreating it while they were still researching—all without their knowledge. Therefore, rather than attempting to recreate ancient gods, sorcerers were far more inclined to create new gods from scratch. Yet new gods posed another major problem: were the corresponding laws of the Void Realm sufficiently complete? Or rather, could it truly be created at all? Take the God of Sweet Dreams, originally envisioned by the Nightmare Angel: because the dream faction developed so sluggishly, he tried for years before realizing it was an impossible endeavor, ultimately forcing him to pivot to researching the God of Nightmares. The Spectre Prophet had once contemplated creating a god of his own, but he had never even managed to capture a Concept Incarnation—one could not make bricks without straw. He had, however, acquired quite a few virtual godhead sorcery procedures and had even manufactured virtual godheads before, which made him all the more acutely aware of the sheer value of the virtual godhead within the Golden Hall. Virtual godheads were graded by quality! The lowest grade had a resonance rate of merely one percent. The moment resonance with a concept failed, every sorcery spirit would explode, leaving no choice but to start over from scratch. Even a standard virtual godhead possessed a resonance rate of only twenty-five percent; with poor luck, it would still detonate. What made it even more terrifying was that when a virtual godhead that already possessed the embryonic form of a law exploded, it whipped up an illicit wind. An illicit wind was a destructive gale capable of sundering all laws; any sorcerer nearby would suffer grievous wounds, or even perish with their soul utterly extinguished! Beyond the extreme danger, the currents of an illicit wind would sweep through the Void Realm and send ripples across reality. Put simply, once an illicit wind blew, other sorcerers would immediately know someone was forging a god—and know precisely what god was being created! The virtual godhead procedures the Spectre Prophet had obtained in the past hovered around resonance rates of ten to twenty-five percent. This showed that the completion level of a godhead procedure was itself a tremendous hurdle in forging a god. Yet the virtual godhead before his eyes was more flawless than any the Spectre Prophet had ever witnessed! Even though he no longer possessed the keen perception of the demigod rank, he could still deduce that its resonance rate was likely over fifty percent! In other words, simply embedding the concept into this virtual godhead would practically guarantee the birth of a god! And it was a god of the dream faction at that! Every successive master of the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams had been proficient in the dream faction, and the Spectre Prophet was no exception. While he could not compare to the pioneering Nightmare Angel, his dream faction had nonetheless attained the demigod realm! If the Spectre Prophet obtained this new god, not only could he put it to immediate use, but he could also make it the core from which to manifest even more dream divine miracles! Just as the crowd remained dazed by the Golden Hall and the virtual godhead, a brilliantly silver soul abruptly materialized before the Spectre Prophet. Compared to ordinary vengeful souls, this silver soul was not only vastly more solid, but its spiritual mass was so weighty that it weighed down upon even the Sanctuary sorcerers! Five source crystals beside the Spectre Prophet shattered with a violent crack, and the silver soul instantly morphed into a silver deluge, slamming ferociously against the transparent barrier outside the Golden Hall! Divine Miracle: Soul Pressure Furious Waves! Though it was called a divine miracle, the Spectre Prophet was merely driving Four-Wing sorcery spirits. There were fifty-three of them in total, and with every casting, five would directly die from overexhaustion. However, the true core of this divine miracle was the divine soul under the Spectre Prophet's command! It was the vengeful soul of a demigod, preserved through thirteen divine miracles deployed in rapid succession after the Spectre Prophet hunted that demigod down! Though he had never possessed a god, the Spectre Prophet had never lacked divine miracle methods. While alive, he had even been able to contend on equal footing with demigods who wielded gods, and it was entirely thanks to this divine soul! Amplified by the divine soul, the power of Soul Pressure Furious Waves was fully on par with a true divine miracle! The other Sanctuary sorcerers had initially intended to seize the chance to ambush the Spectre Prophet. The Blood Saint sorcerers, for instance, had already crept forward using invisibility. Yet as they drew near, they found their own souls pulled toward the silver torrent. Sorcerers lacking sufficient strength would not merely be harmed if struck by the miracle; simply coming close threatened to suck them in! Terrified out of their wits, they scrambled backward, only daring to bombard the Spectre Prophet from afar. But when casting the divine miracle, the Spectre Prophet had left a coil of silver water swirling around himself, and the Sanctuary miracles crashing against it produced nothing more than ripples. Confronting the fierce onslaught of Soul Pressure Furious Waves, the Dream Demon calmly flipped open the treasure chest behind it. Several source crystals within instantly shattered, and dozens of layers of bubbles abruptly materialized outside the Golden Hall! Divine Miracle: Dream Bubble! As the silver torrent struck the bubbles, each bubble absorbed an entire layer of the surge before popping. By the time ten layers of bubbles were pierced, the silver deluge had spent itself entirely, yet over thirty layers of bubbles remained intact. The Spectre Prophet's expression darkened. He saw at a glance that this defensive divine miracle drew upon the power of the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams. If he wanted to breach the Golden Hall by force, he would have to engage in an attritional war of source crystals against the devil inside. He not only lacked enough casting sorcery spirits, but more crucially, source crystals were what he lacked most of all! Thus, he turned his gaze toward the four black-robed sorcerers inside the Golden Hall, clapping his hands. "When I broke out of the death prison only to see nothing but this crooked crop of Sanctuary weaklings, I was terribly disappointed. I never expected to find such a surprise. "Even in my era, completing a virtual godhead with mortal bodies was an unheard-of feat. Your existence makes me view this era in a whole new light. "Yet a god is not a power that Sanctuary sorcerers can possess. The Divine Lords behind you will unquestionably confiscate it, granting you a lifetime of wealth and glory at best. However, if you are willing to deliver the god to me, the Spectre Prophet, I will take you on as my disciples. Stepping onto Ruby Mountain goes without saying, and I shall do everything in my power to help you step into the divine realm!" "Not a single punctuation mark from the Spectre Prophet can be trusted!" Baiyu immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, "How treacherous and shameless the Spectre Prophet is can be glimpsed right from the *Spectre Manual*! Hand the god over to our Blood Moon Ultimate Lord, and even if you aren't Blood Moon natives, the Ultimate Lord will grant you the magnificent bloodline of eternal life!" "Is eternal life the only thing you Blood Moon people have to offer?" Ezhao chimed in at once. "Our Heavenly Lord is willing to guide you to the Heaven of Eternal Life, regardless of which nation you hail from!" "The Lord of Paradise will definitely reward handsomely," Zhuozhou, usually a man of few words, could not resist speaking up. "The Lord of Paradise is never stingy!" The Sanctuary sorcerers watched these spokesmen of the Divine Lords waving their banners and shouting their slogans, looking for all the world like salesmen squabbling over clients. Just then, an even weightier voice reverberated through the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams— "The Divine Lord of Stars is willing to grant each of you a single wish, so long as it lies within Her power." The speaker was none other than the Sanctuary sorcerer bearing the stars concept! "She just contacted me and gave this promise," the Star Sanctuary sorcerer stated calmly. "The others have not consulted their Divine Lords, so they dare not promise anything too grand. Even if you accept their terms, their Divine Lords could easily go back on their word." "You dare insult the Ultimate Lord?!" "Impudent!" Baiyu, Ezhao, and Zhuozhou glared at the Star Sanctuary sorcerer as if ready to lunge forward the next second and teach him the price of blaspheming a Divine Lord. Yet the Star Sanctuary sorcerer paid them no heed, continuing to address the four within the Golden Hall. "The Divine Lord of Stars instructed me to hand over the stars concept to you first. That way, even if the Divine Lord of Stars breaks Her word, you can destroy the stars concept. While it cannot compare to a god, it would still represent an immense loss to Her. "As for what wishes you may make, the Divine Lord can fulfill most mortal desires—immortality, resurrection from the dead, assisting you in attaining the legendary rank, and more. However, She cannot guarantee you entry into the divine realm." The remaining Sanctuary sorcerers listened in stunned disbelief. This was a direct personal promise from a Divine Lord! One wish for each of them! Unlike the Spectre Prophet's unappealing recruitment pitch, no one doubted the Divine Lord of Stars' promise. For a Divine Lord, granting a mortal's wish was entirely feasible, even if it came at a cost. Though no one knew what the stars concept was, the fact that even the Spectre Prophet had not tried to drive a wedge between them proved that the Divine Lord of Stars was being genuinely sincere. At that moment, one of the black-robed sorcerers glanced toward another, seemingly seeking an opinion. Clearly, they were tempted as well! The Spectre Prophet gave a cold sneer. "The Divine Lord of Stars is indeed sincere. However..." The corners of his mouth curled up, unabashedly displaying his malice. "Can you truly live long enough to make your wish to the Divine Lord of Stars?" Faced with a threat from a demigod-level combatant known for his ruthlessness and cunning, anyone would feel their heart pound with dread. Yet even more eyes turned toward the devil in the Golden Hall. Anyone with half a mind knew that this bizarre devil with only an upper body was the true ruler of the Golden Hall. Seeing that the god was about to be offered to someone else on a silver platter by these black-robed sorcerers, how would it react? Bribes, or internal strife? Yet nothing of the sort happened. The Dream Demon raised its hand, causing the crystal barrier sealing the entering dreams concept to rise. It dispelled the crystal seal, leaving the slumbering little fox exposed before the black-robed sorcerers. "Come," the Dream Demon said serenely, seemingly indifferent to the outside threats and temptations directed at the black-robed sorcerers. "Complete the final step of god-creation—infuse the concept."