Chapter 471: The Divine Race and the Demon Tribe

When the seven deities saw the Star River God, they immediately realized how terrifyingly powerful this suddenly appearing river god was.  

They wanted to flee, but how could they possibly escape right in front of Jiang Li?  

“Why run? I’m not a bad guy,” Jiang Li said with a cheerful smile, casually looping his arm around the Light God and the Wind God’s necks, his attitude so intimate it was as if he were the eighth deity.  

“It’s my first time seeing people whose bodies are made of faith power,” Jiang Li clicked his tongue in amazement. He had thought the seven deities were hiding in some secret realm, but it turned out they were the very embodiment of faith power—where there is faith power, there are deities.  

Seeing that the seven deities had been found, Li Er no longer needed to pretend to be the World Tree and reverted to his true form, causing several deer clan girls to shout excitedly.  

“I told you long ago, the uncle is the World Tree, but you didn’t believe me,” one of the deer clan girls said proudly. She had always suspected that the uncle was extraordinary, definitely more than he appeared. Connecting the fact that the uncle disappeared and the World Tree appeared, equating the two was bold but very reasonable.  

“Girls, we’ll talk more later,” Li Er waved his hand, leaving behind a mysterious silhouette.  

…  

With the arrival of Li Er, the Wishful Gourd, and Lance, the Light God finally asked the first question.  

“Who exactly are you?”  

Oh, Lance could be ignored.  

“Demon King.”  

“General of the Demon Tribe.”  

Jiang Li didn’t hold back and dealt each of them a hit.  

“We are cultivators from another world.”  

“Another world? Do you come from the Immortal Realm? The same place as the Executor of Honghu?” The Light God’s first reaction was the Immortal Realm.  

“So you know the Executor of Honghu. What did he tell you?”  

Under pressure, the seven deities knew they were no match. They had secretly disbanded multiple times, attempting to leave, but Jiang Li tightly controlled them.  

Then Lance saw the seven faith beings quietly begin to tell the true history.  

“In the far distant past, the Ayla World was plagued by rampant gods and demons. The divine race was born powerful. To become stronger, faith was necessary. To compete for faith, they used every means possible, frequently creating miracles to assert their presence. But we have no right to blame them. As members of the gods, we often use miracles to snatch believers.”  

Born powerful? Truly a distinctive race. Jiang Li was hearing about such a race for the first time.  

“The demon tribe varies in strength and appearance. The biggest difference between them and us is that the demon tribe can grow stronger without faith power.”  

“Because of the existence of the demon tribe, the three races sought the protection of gods, which was good for the divine race.”  

“Sometimes we truly fought the demon tribe; other times, it was just for show to deceive ordinary people’s faith.”  

“The competition for faith grew increasingly fierce. Some gods, to gain more faith power, bestowed part of their strength upon ordinary people. This is called the god’s blessing by mortals; some call it ‘skills.’”  

“Giving ordinary people power was surprisingly effective. That deity quickly gained a large number of followers, making other gods envious.”  

“Seeing this, the gods all followed suit. For a time, many ordinary people learned skills. Some could even fight the demon tribe without help from the gods.”  

“Although bestowing skills to mortals could temporarily gain followers, once everyone did it, the advantage disappeared, and the gods returned to square one.”  

“The struggle for faith intensified. Eventually, a god could no longer restrain himself and attacked his own kind. Thus, the divine race’s civil war began.”  

“Their thoughts were simple and cruel: the best way to gain faith is to reduce competitors. With fewer divine beings, each one receives more faith power.”  

“During the divine race’s civil war, the demon tribe coincidentally produced a genius who killed gods, demons, and humans alike. Because of this demon genius, the demon tribe also began to implode.”  

“With both sides in turmoil, accidental killings between gods and demons became inevitable.”  

“That was the most chaotic period. Gods and demons fought wildly, killing so indiscriminately that no one knew which race was being slain.”  

“The three races were the weakest and could only struggle to survive under such warfare.”  

“Eventually, all the gods fought fiercely, aiming to seize the sole god. The battle ended with only us seven remaining.”  

“So you seven made peace?” Li Er naturally assumed.  

The Light God showed a pained expression: “No, we fought, slaughtering each other until none survived.”  

Li Er was stunned: “Then you…”  

“After death, our souls should have gone to hell, with only fragments—or rather, lingering regrets—of our souls left in the faith power.”  

Jiang Li nodded slightly. The post-death state of the seven deities was like Meng Chun’s—just a soul fragment. Over time, the fragments would become complete souls.  

This involved many coincidences that could not be deliberately created.  

“We are just parasites of the faith power, dependent on it for survival. Faith power shapes us into what we become.”  

“At that time, the three races fully used their imagination. Humans declared light the greatest and imagined me as the Light God. The orcs wanted their own god and created the Beast God. The elves did the same.”  

“The forms and identities of the four gods of earth, wind, fire, and water were also imagined.”  

“Once our seven images and identities were fixed, it meant all the faith power of the three races was concentrated on us.”  

“The three races were in dire straits. The divine race was dead, the demon tribe still alive. To help the three races resist the demon tribe, we continued to bestow skills.”  

“That demon genius matured and became the Demon King. He wanted to invade the three races. The seven of us fought, hoping for a battle with the Demon King, but our powers were too scattered to stop him.”  

The Light God said, “Then the other six suggested concentrating all the faith power onto me. We barely managed to fight the Demon King to a standstill.”  

The Light God shuddered with lingering fear. The Demon King was incredibly powerful, a battle no one wanted to repeat.  

Lance secretly glanced at the Wishful Gourd. The Demon King, who had been barely held off by the gods, was easily killed by the Wishful Gourd—and Jiang Li was obviously even stronger than the Wishful Gourd.  

Li Er spoke honestly: “It’s less about you fighting the Demon King and more about you giving faith power a tangible form to fight him.”  

The seven deities did not deny Li Er’s statement.  

The Light God continued, “Later, our soul fragments evolved into true souls, but we still couldn’t leave faith power.”  

“Just as we wanted to break free from faith power and become independent beings, the Executor of Honghu appeared, claiming he had a way to free us from faith power’s control.”