Chapter 208 - 171: The Symbiosis of Deities and the World, the Secret of Conquering the Star Realm

’The Giant Demon Empire still has over sixty Deities?’

’Three Main Gods, five with Powerful Divine Power.’

This was the peak strength of the entire Giant Demon Empire—no, the Tobien Empire.

Giant Demon was just Lince’s name for them.

These Giant Demons had their own name.

They called themselves the Tobien race, from the Emperor Planet Tobien, and members of the Tobien Empire.

According to the Giant Governor.

At its peak, when the Tobien Empire set out to conquer the Star Realm, it had nearly one hundred and fifty Deities.

They had thousands of Demigods and over ten thousand at the Saint Tier.

However, Pseudo-Saints and Pseudo-Demigods made up nearly eighty percent of that number.

The ones with a real chance at attaining godhood were the other twenty percent who had reached the Saint and Demigod Tiers through their own efforts.

The Tobien Empire naturally treasured these individuals who had reached the Saint and Demigod Tiers on their own.

Therefore, during foreign conquests, the commanders used as frontline cannon fodder were typically Pseudo-Saints, supplemented by Pseudo-Demigods.

So, under normal circumstances, the Strong Persons with the potential for godhood were actually well-protected by the Empire.

Just like the Giant Governor before him.

Usually, only after the Empire had almost completely conquered a world would people like him, who had reached the Saint Tier on their own, be assigned to clean up and garrison the New World.

Of course, most Saint Tiers and Demigods remained in seclusion on the Emperor Star, doing their best to improve themselves.

It was all in preparation for their Ascension to Divinity in various New Worlds.

Just like on the Karte Continent now.

Which was, in fact, in the Star Realm.

Right now, under the watch of several Deities, at least a hundred Demigods were doing everything they could to condense the Divinity Law of the Karte World.

Once these Demigods could truly condense the Divinity Law of the Karte World...

...they would only need to solidify this Divinity and fuse it with themselves as much as possible, and then they could begin attempting Ascension to Divinity.

These were the so-called New Gods.

The Deities of a New World.

After all, in the words of the Tobien Empire.

There was a limit to the number of Deities a world could support.

Based on a world’s total Mana Magic Power, the number of Deities each world could produce was different.

Under normal circumstances, the Magic Environment of a Low-level Mana World could support, at most, a number of Deities you could count on two hands.

The Magic Environment of a Middle-level Mana World, however, could produce anywhere from dozens to over a hundred.

After all, Middle-level Mana Worlds also had varying energy levels, and since their energy levels were a step above those of Low-level Mana Worlds, the number of Deities was relatively higher.

As for the Magic Environment of a High-level Mana World, the Tobien Empire predicted that the number of Deities would be at least three hundred, or even in the thousands.

Anything more than that was beyond what the current Tobien Empire could imagine.

As for how to know how many Deities each world could support...

...on this point, according to the Tobien Empire, when no more Demigods in a world could channel the world’s rules to ignite their Divine Fire, it meant all the divine slots in that world had been claimed.

The number of Deities was not directly related to the World Law.

This was because the thousands of worlds in the Star Realm were all under the Law of a much larger world—the Cosmos.

Therefore, the Laws of each world were essentially the same, with only minor differences.

What truly affected the number of Deities was the Magic Environment.

The Magic Environment determined everything.

Because the so-called Deities, in the initial stages of their Ascension to Divinity, ultimately borrowed their Mighty Power from within the world itself.

And all this Power was condensed through the world’s Mana Will.

If there were too many Deities, the world’s environment would be unable to support their consumption.

This was why different worlds had varying numbers of Deities.

But ultimately, Deities were not purely ’parasites’ on the world.

After all, the World Law fostered the emergence of Deities, essentially to allow the world to improve step by step.

Therefore, Deities only needed to rely on the world’s internal Power at the beginning of their ascension, during their time as Weak Divine Powers.

But once a Deity reached Medium Divine Power or even Powerful Divine Power...

...they could begin to use another kind of Power to support themselves.

This Power was called ’Star Energy’ by the Tobien Empire.

The ’Star Energy’ referred not to the energy of a planet, but the energy of the Star Realm.

What was the energy of the Star Realm?

It was actually easy to understand—it was nothing more than cosmic radiation or dark energy.

Any Energy from outside a planet was collectively referred to as ’Star Energy’.

So how did a Demon World maintain its internal Magic Environment and prevent it from decaying?

In a Demon World, the fundamental world rule that the Tobien Empire called the Mana Will would continuously absorb ’Star Energy’ as the planet operated.

It was the planet’s fundamental ruling will that converted Star Energy into Magic Power!

This was how Transcendents and Extraordinary Life came to exist in the world.

Star Energy was violent and typically couldn’t be absorbed directly by mortals.

But the planet’s Mana Will solved this problem. It smoothed out the violent nature of the Star Energy, ultimately converting it into a gentle, secondary energy and disseminating it throughout the world.

Thus, the true purpose of Deities...

...was revealed at this point.

Yes, to a planet, Deities were auxiliary tools meant to help the planet absorb energy from the Star Realm more quickly and in greater quantities.

This, in turn, slowly and continuously raised the world’s overall energy level.

And as long as the planet’s energy level continued to rise, the number of Deities a world could produce would naturally increase.

So, from this perspective, Deities and their world existed in a symbiotic relationship, mutually reinforcing each other.

This was why, after successfully completing their Ascension to Divinity, Deities were ’expelled’ from the world.

They were not easily allowed to return to the world’s interior, so as to prevent internal damage that could be caused by wars between gods.

In this regard, the Mana Will of every Demon World surprisingly maintained the same basic rule.

In short, once you became a god, regardless of whether you were a native deity or not, the Mana Will’s primary stance was to never let a Deity return.

Even if they could go back, the constant ’gaze’ and suppression from the World Law would be even more terrifying.

As for the benefits of Deities conquering the Star Realm, they also became apparent at this point.

For their home world...

...when the beings of a home world successfully conquered the Star Realm, they could use the Magic Environment of other worlds to produce Deities of their own Race.

Then, the home world could rely on these newborn Deities to help it absorb Star Energy more rapidly, thereby striving to complete the next stage of world ascension as quickly as possible.

And for the native beings themselves...

...one more world meant more land and more Magic Environments to cultivate more of their people and Power.

In this way, it became a snowball effect.

One day, certain civilizations, or even the worlds themselves, could touch the essence of all things—the ultimate truth of the Star Realm and the Cosmos.

And at that time, perhaps a truly great being would emerge.

It would be omniscient and omnipotent, possessing the power to control and create everything, just like a creator god.

It had to be said, these Giant Demons of the Tobien Empire had truly gained impressive insights and knowledge through their exploration and research of worlds.

They had even figured out most of the truth behind how worlds operated.

’But on the other hand, it’s absurd that this world hasn’t undergone a "modernization" revolution for Magic Power.’

’Their current stage of development is barely comparable to the early industrial revolution in a Magicless World.’

’So, does having Deities, or even too many powerful Deities, actually create more obstacles to a civilization’s progress?’

’Otherwise, how could the mortals in that New World the Giant Demons are currently fighting be so fierce?’

Just listening to the Giant Governor’s brief account of their conquest of the New World left Lince utterly speechless.

’What the hell? A Low Demon World actually developed ’mecha technology’?’

’Although they aren’t the mechs I had imagined, these guys can mass-produce legions comparable to Demigods using external armor.’

It wasn’t just the Giant Demon Deities who were baffled.

Lince would have been baffled too.

’In fact, based on my current understanding of a Demigod’s Power...’

’...mechs with the Power of a Demigod would definitely be far more useful and intimidating than nuclear bombs!’

’A single strike from a Demigod could destroy a city as if it were child’s play.’

’They have extremely high mobility and even possess all sorts of ridiculous abilities like a Transcendent.’

’They’re basically enhanced, humanoid nuclear bombs.’

’With the mechanical way real-world nukes operate, forget about hitting them; they probably couldn’t even hit a Saint Tier being.’

As for how the Saint Tiers of the Giant Demon Tobien Empire achieved Elementalization through their own power...

...in this respect...

...their path was different, but it led to the same result as on the Oakland Continent.

It still involved Elemental Creatures.

They also called them Elemental Essences.

The Tobien Empire still had Elemental Spirits today.

And they were all ’artificially cultivated’.

Although cultivation was a bit troublesome, and they were very rare and precious...

...there were still ways to obtain them.

For a being at Tier Nine Peak, they could certainly afford one with a lifetime of savings, but in the Tobien Empire, a Giant Demon without connections also needed to have equivalent military merits to be eligible to purchase one.

As for the current Karte World...

...that thing was considered temporarily extinct here.

This was because the rules of the Karte World had been made somewhat special by its native gods.

Elemental Essences could only be obtained in the Underground City.

The reason for this was that the gods of this world all liked to keep Elemental Spirits as ’pets’.

Therefore, in this world, all the Elemental Spirits had once been raised by the gods in their own Divine Kingdoms.

If a mortal wanted to obtain an Elemental Spirit’s Elemental Crystal Core, they had to rely on a reward from the gods.

Clearing the Nightmare Dungeon was the second method.

In any case, when the Giant Demon Gods killed all the gods of this world, those Elemental Spirits had already been plundered by them.

So, the Karte World currently had no Elemental Spirits.

As for those Elemental Spirits in the ocean?

They were just a group of Puppet creatures created by the Sea God using Divinity Law after his fall.

Eating their Elemental Crystal Cores was not only useless, but in a way, it was also poison.

In short, the information Lince obtained from the Giant Governor was extremely useful to him at this stage.

But there was no way of knowing how much of what this guy said was true.

’But for him to be so detailed, it’s probably ninety percent truth and ten percent lies.’

’In other words, the overall strength of the Giant Demon Empire he described is probably not exaggerated.’

’Three Main Gods, five with Powerful Divine Power.’

’And even sixty other Deities at or below Medium Divine Power.’

’Not to mention the number of Demigods and Saint Tiers.’

Compared to the Oakland Continent, an opponent like this was truly a bit terrifying.

Fortunately, however, these guys could only show off in the Star Realm.

In a world they didn’t yet control, like this one, it was hard to say how much power they could wield even if they managed a Descent.

But it would be absolutely impossible for them to have power approaching that of a Deity. At the very most, they could only maintain the Demigod Tier.

The suppression of the World Law was no joke.

But even if their high-end combat power couldn’t be used, the sheer number of Saint Tiers still made Lince frown.

Therefore, Lince hoped the battlefield would advance more quickly.

He had to at least ensure that he could step directly into the Saint Tier during the second phase of the campaign.

As long as he reached the Saint Tier, then even if a Deity paid a huge price for a Divine Descent and maintained its mortal power at Demigod Peak...

...Lince would still be able to fight it.

He might even be able to kill it in return.

And so, after asking the Giant Governor every question he could think of, Lince temporarily imprisoned him in a Space Cage within his own stomach.

With that done, Lince immediately used the power of his contract to cast his vision back to the various continental battlefields.