Cthulhu Gonfalon

On the ground, Morani’s messenger incarnation surged with divine power and shook, turning into a strong combat incarnation in the blink of an eye.

He no longer had to worry about his enemies, and could safely wait for the divine crystal to fall. Then, he’d claim what was supposed to be his own.

After a while, the luminous divine crystal finally fell to the ground. He, who had been waiting for a long time, caught it.

The divine crystal quickly absorbed into his body, like water into a sponge. Warm light emanated from his body in a reddish aura.

Everyone touched by this aura would feel their body fill with strength. The young felt themselves become stronger. The old felt as though they had been rejuvenated by years.

But it wasn’t over yet. After a while, another dim divine crystal formed in the air.

“Huh?! This is… the position of Competition?!” Sui Xiong looked at the divine crystal which was falling slowly. He immediately felt the power of the law contained within, and asked with surprise, “Has no one obtained this divine duty before?”

“That seems to be the case…” Javier pondered for a moment and nodded. “It seems that there has never been such a completely harmless battle before. People have always been injured or killed in battle. Therefore, the concept of fighting for victory without threat to life has never been thought of before.”

“I have no need for more divine positions,” Morani said, taking a few steps back. “This position is wasted on me. Let’s discuss.”

All the Gods’ eyes fell onto Sui Xiong. Everyone knew that he had contributed the most to the idea of Competition.

Sui Xiong shook his head. “I have no affiliation with, nor do I identify with, this divine duty. I cannot accept it.”

Yorgaardman immediately followed suit and shook his head. “Me neither. Martial Competitions, contests: I have no interest in these!”

“I’m the God of Knowledge!” Wor emphasized. “The God of Knowledge! Even if I’m a combatant, I’m the God of Knowledge! Can you imagine me with the duty of Competition?”

Everyone laughed loudly. Finally, their eyes fell onto Javier.

Javier paused for a moment, looking at everyone. After a few seconds of silence, he could not help but let out a sigh, laughing.

“Anyone else would fight brutally for an extra divine duty, yet here you guys are…”

He was not unreasonable, expressing his gratitude towards everyone. He made his way to where the divine crystal would land. He stared at it, silently waiting.

After a while, it fell into his hands and was absorbed into his body.

Again, a ray of light rose from his body, filling the hearts of those around him with a happy and relaxed feeling, as though the tension had eased from their bodies. Even those who were originally in a bad mood became much more comfortable.

Then, several Gods who could no longer conceal their identities emerged. They greeted the contestants and the audience and announced the end of the World’s First Martial Championship.

“If all goes smoothly, in ten years we will hold the second World Martial Championship,” Sui Xiong laughed and said. “I look forward to seeing everyone then, and eagerly await more spectacular competitions! Thank you, everyone! See you in ten years!”

Hence, the curtains fell on the gathering, though conversations continued to revolve around it. Perhaps it would remain that way for the entire ten years when the second World Martial Championship would supersede conversation.

In the light curtain closest to the main plane, the true bodies of Sui Xiong and the Gods with whom he had good relations gathered.

“Oscar, it’s such a pity you didn’t become a God!” the God of Justice proudly said. “That time, inside the Pantheon temple, it was really… hahaha!”

He acted out the expression then: lifting his head, looking upon the other disdainfully, pointing in the air: “You, you, you, and you… I’m not talking about you, I’m saying that you guys are all rubbish! This sentence was truly suited to that situation then! Satisfying! Really satisfying!”

He guffawed, laughing until his entire person was shaking. He was happy to the point where you could stick wings on him, and he would take flight immediately.

The “Silent Knight” Mo smiled too, taking out a gourd filled with wine and passing it around everyone.

It was strange: he clearly only had one gourd, yet no matter how many he passed around, that green gourd still remained in his hands.

“Good wine!” Javier exclaimed loudly after taking only a mouthful.

“Truly good wine!” the God of Justice laughed, tilting back his head as though he were drinking water. “At such a time, we should drink to our hearts’ content and sing!”

He was absolutely right!

After a few drinks, Javier sighed softly and said, “Actually, you didn’t have to scold Goddess Gaia just now. Despite the circumstances, they had good intentions to save people.”

“If they truly wanted to save people, they could have come to lend me a hand!” the God of Justice laughed coldly. “That’s not called saving people, that’s called looting the spoils.”

Javier frowned. Just when he thought of something to say, Morani spoke. “If they wanted to save people, they should have at least come to tell us. They talked about the distribution of profits, totally not caring about our opinions. It’s as though everyone was nothing but a spoil of war!”

“Yes! Attitude is the most important!” Yorgaardman smiled coldly. “Attitude comes first injustice. Then comes action. People cannot guarantee that their actions will bring about a good result. But they should at least work hard in a good direction!”

Javier was silent for a long time and sighed deeply.

“You guys are right.” He looked somewhat unhappy, not knowing what he was thinking about.

After drinking, everyone went their separate ways.

Morani and Javier needed to sleep for a while to familiarize and control their new divine duties, as well as adjust their divine structures. Their divine powers increased considerably, especially Morani, who had stepped into the ranks of a mid-tier God. He needed time to properly fine-tune himself.

The God of Justice continued to wander about. He had always believed that justice meant fighting injustice. To fight injustice, one naturally had to discover it first. As such, he travelled the world so that he could perform divine duties as much as possible.

The Gods of desolation were working hard to adjust the structure of their holy kingdom in the new world, to get along with Sui Xiong’s vacant world. They had no intention of leaving, and Sui Xiong welcomed this group of friendly guests. Other than a solid outer defense, this world of his had nothing. When the Gods of desolation brought their holy kingdom over they brought life. It was not as quiet; in his previous world, he saw houses so abandoned and dilapidated it was like a ghost town.

However, he did not realize the Gods of desolation were discussing a big matter secretly.

This matter was important and concerned everyone. As such, the Gods of desolation hesitated. They talked, unable to come to a decision.

Wor naturally continued to take charge of the improvement and popularization of stationary. Under Sui Xiong’s suggestion, he began construction of a school near Void Mask’s Carnival. It was neither a theological school nor a school for magical knowledge. It most definitely was not a school for aristocrats. It was targeted towards the common people, to teach basic literacy, arithmetic, and knowledge.

In this world, the vast majority of civilians were illiterate. He who could recognize his own name was already counted as a man of culture, while you wouldn’t be able to find someone who could read the royal announcements within a 100-mile radius.

Forget common folk; even adventurers were illiterate. Why was it that they always needed at least one spellcaster in a party? Because spellcasters knew how to read!

Sui Xiong felt that this situation was not beneficial towards societal progress, so he recommended that Wor build and promote schools in order to eradicate illiteracy. Wor felt that this method was a good way of transferring knowledge and happily took up the task.

Building a school was not troublesome; getting the people to come to school was the hard part.

In this world, people did not have a high income. Many civilians were lucky to be able to save up a single gold coin after an entire year of labor. Spending time and effort to go to school was a luxury for them. With this time and energy, they could earn a bit more money or rest. What was the point of learning how to read?

Luckily Void Mask’s Carnival was prosperous. The employee incomes were higher, giving the commoners a higher standard of living. With the addition of Sui Xiong’s prestige, this half-*ssed order somehow managed to be carried out.

With this came the new problem of not having enough teachers.

Wor’s initial plan was to wipe out illiteracy across Void Mask’s Carnival. However, when he set up his stall, he discovered that he was unable to find that many teachers. He was forced to scale down the size of his operations.

Sui Xiong comforted him. “Education is a long-term plan. It could take over 100 years. Do not be petty over a single day. We can spend three to five years nurturing civilians with a baseline level of education before letting them become teachers, taking charge of the introductory level. Then we can select a few elite from those to teach at a higher level. By expanding slowly this way, after tens or hundreds of years, there will be many literate people.”

Wor thought deeply, restraining the anxiety and impatience in his heart. He slowly built the foundation for basic education.

For Gods who were immortal, time was never an issue. Many Gods often waited hundreds or thousands of years for their plans to come to fruition. Compared to this, just a few tens of hundreds of years was nothing

After two years, Void Mask’s church opened schools in Geertung and Garth City in order to remove illiteracy, promoting basic education.

This would likely be long and arduous work, but Sui Xiong believed that basic education would definitely promote progress in this world, and let the lives of the people become better!