"You know my thoughts now."
The banquet ended, and as the bonfire died out, everyone dispersed one by one. Chen Junting and Ning Tian also returned to their "cabin."
Just as Ning Tian was bathing, the serenely cold Snow Empress, her arms crossed over her chest in a posture that emphasized her majestic figure, quietly watched Chen Junting, who was meditating with his eyes closed, and said these words in a flat tone.
"Mm, I know."
Dreamily, Chen Junting kept his eyelids half-closed and his gaze lowered, seemingly in a half-asleep, half-awake state, but his mind was perfectly clear. Only after finishing his adjustments did he fully open his eyes.
His eyes were clear and bright as he looked directly at the Snow Empress.
He didn't explain that today's matter wasn't a deliberate design on his part to extract information from the Snow Empress.
Because he knew that even if he and the Snow Empress weren't of one mind, they at least had this much tacit understanding on certain matters.
Otherwise, the Snow Empress wouldn't have failed to understand why he took the opportunity to tease her about this.
"If it were just about simply becoming a god, then continuing on my current path would be enough. I could even become a 1st-Class god."
"A 1st-Class god still isn't enough!?"
Hearing the last three words, two streams of light shot out from Chen Junting's body simultaneously.
One transformed into a bear cub-like Xiong Xiong, sitting on the edge of the bed, eagerly watching the show; the other was like a winged lizard, constantly fluttering around Chen Junting.
And the shocked question, "A 1st-Class god still isn't enough!?" was precisely uttered by that latter winged lizard.
This winged lizard, of course, was a playful nickname for the Tyrant Dragon.
As for why he would ask such a question?
It could only be said that when Chen Junting was explaining some great secrets to Elder Yi, he didn't always block out the three great spirit souls. This also gave them some right to know and a certain understanding of the structure of the God Realm.
At that time, they were truly eye-opened!
They never imagined that even gods had to look up to the breath of higher beings; it could be said that the hierarchy was strictly divided.
But no matter how you put it, a 1st-Class god is already incredible!
After all, there are only five... six... well, very few God Kings.
"You think that's enough?"
Chen Junting casually grabbed the Tyrant Dragon, gave him a fierce rub, then threw him, causing him to collide with Mad King and roll around together.
"But I don't think it's enough."
He looked towards the Snow Empress, who had already gracefully sat down, and said, "Actually, the Ice God you have faith in is, at most, just a 1st-Class god. Powerful? Perhaps. But he is absolutely not at the pinnacle of the God Realm."
At this point, Chen Junting paused slightly.
"You all know that there's the shadow of a big boss obstructing us in our future path to godhood, or if we want to achieve godhood through faith. Even if we truly become a 1st-Class god, if we're not a God King, we won't be as powerful as him."
A 1st-Class god not as powerful as a God King?
Perhaps for others, this wouldn't be wrong. But you... the image of something like the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation couldn't help but flash through the Snow Empress's mind.
Thinking of this, she immediately came to a conclusion—
It's not necessarily true!
But a God King is a God King, after all.
And so...
"Is the faith of the soul beasts of the Extreme North alone enough?"
As the Snow Empress was secretly estimating how much faith might be needed, she asked just this. But this one sentence made Mad King and the Tyrant Dragon stop their roughhousing and look over.
"That's right."
At this moment, the Tyrant Dragon seemed to have realized something incredible.
"Why only add the faith of the soul beasts from the Extreme North?"
Hearing this, Chen Junting also revealed his true thoughts. "That's because, other than the Ice God, the beings behind the other faiths are not to be trifled with."
The beings behind the other faiths are not to be trifled with?
Is the Ice God easy to trifle with?
No matter how detached the Snow Empress was, she was now covered in black lines.
Are you even listening to yourself?
A believer of the Ice God is right here!
But Chen Junting made this decision precisely because among these beings, the Ice God was the relatively softest persimmon to squeeze.
After all, just look at the fact that the soul beasts of the continent have the Dragon God as their backer, and half of that very being is still lying in the Lake of Life.
Discussing with Di Tian about spreading faith to the continent's soul beasts and letting them choose to accept it? That would be a suicidal move.
Of course,
if the soul beasts offered their faith of their own accord, it wouldn't count.
Secondly, there were the sea soul beasts in the ocean. As for why this category of soul beasts cannot be touched, do we even need to mention it?
So, all in all, the Ice God was the easiest persimmon to squeeze. Or rather... the persimmon that is the Ice God doesn't even exist anymore!
This point was just like with the God of Love.
The departure of the God of Love only left a treasured land, the "Qiankun Valley," to prove her existence. Of course, this allowed the Sea God, Tang San, to take over the magpie's nest. As for the Ice God, he most likely just left an endless legend in the Extreme North and that was all.
This led to controversy in the previous life, during the era of Peerless Tang Sect, over whether the deity known as the Ice God truly existed.
In Chen Junting's eyes, the Ice God should have been real.
But this "existence" probably referred to the era of the Dragon God.
Otherwise, how could the Ice God's status in the post-Dragon God era have left behind descendants like the Titan Snow Devil on the Douluo Continent?
And in his memories from his previous life, Huo Yuhao, the most suitable candidate to inherit the Ice God's divine position, received no intention of inheritance. Even after ascending to the God Realm, the Ice God was in a state of being completely untraceable.
Therefore, Chen Junting believed there was a seventy percent chance that the Ice God, of whom the Snow Empress and the others spoke, had already perished in the battle of the Dragon God.
Of course, this was not something easy to tell the Snow Empress.
So, facing the Snow Empress's persistent questioning, Chen Junting could only prevaricate, shifting all the blame onto the divine mark on his brow.
In an instant, the Snow Empress's mind began to fill in the blanks.
For example, agreements between gods, things between gods...
And so on and so forth, in the end, she had managed to fool herself.
Immediately after, the Snow Empress focused more of her thoughts on how to help Chen Junting obtain the faith of the Extreme North more smoothly.
After all, regardless of the Ice God's situation, only if Chen Junting becomes a god and grows powerful can she, the Snow Empress, live as long as the gods.
She and Chen Junting were a community of shared destiny!
On this point, Mad King and the Tyrant Dragon deeply agreed.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Find a way to make the soul beasts of the Extreme North willingly provide me with their faith." After speaking, Chen Junting seemed to feel something was not quite right, so he added another sentence, "The voluntary kind."
Hearing this, the Snow Empress fell silent for a moment.
This is very difficult. Even with her immense prestige in the Extreme North, where she could be called the leader and uncrowned king, it wouldn't be enough.
After a long moment of deliberation, "With Bing'er included, I can probably only make the Ice Jade Scorpions and the Ice Bears explicitly have faith in you."
Chen Junting wasn't surprised. "What if we factor in formations?"
The Snow Empress, of course, knew what kind of formations Chen Junting was referring to, so she said, "Add seven more tribes, but their submission will only be on the surface."
"What about adding man-made soul rings and man-made Soul Bones?"
"...We'll still need a very, very large catalyst."
"Is that so."
Hearing this, Chen Junting couldn't help but feel a little regretful.
Little did he know, this catalyst was about to be delivered right to his doorstep.
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