Jian Suyan said, “Further north of the Red Flame Nation is the Swamp Kingdom. Help me capture a living tree shadow man in the Swamp Kingdom, and the reward will be two million gold soli.”

Li Xiang asked, “What is a tree shadow man?”

“Go and ask the country lord of the Swamp Kingdom. To capture a tree shadow man, you must deal with him. Be quick, I’m in a hurry to use it.”

After Jian Suyan finished speaking, her profile picture dimmed again.

This was… blacklisted again.

Li Xiang was extremely depressed.

He definitely had to make a trip to the Swamp Kingdom.

Just as Jian Suyan had said, the Swamp Kingdom was to the north of the Red Flame Nation. After annexing the Red Flame Nation, it would be the new neighbor of the Demon Country. He would definitely need to understand his new neighbor.

After returning to the Demon Country, the first thing Li Xiang did was to bring Wang Heng to the business district and stand in front of the book of contracts, “The Brass Book of Herab”.

Following him were the merchants of the business district.

Some of the merchants looked surprised, some were curious, and some looked fearful.

Li Xiang came to the front of the book of contracts and solemnly wrote on it, “From today onwards, all those who vow to be my vassals will be loyal.”

Under the witness of the book of contracts and the merchants, Wang Heng knelt on one knee in front of Li Xiang and solemnly vowed that the Red Flame Nation would become a vassal state of the Demon Country.

Compared to the previous vassal states, the Red Flame Nation vassal state was bound by the book of contracts, and its core became a “slave kingdom”.

“Country Lord, I saw a few familiar faces here.”

Wang Heng did not hesitate. After swearing the oath, he blamed some people among the merchants.

These people had passed information about the Demon Country to Wang Heng during the battle in the narrow valley.

“Your Highness, there might be a misunderstanding.” A merchant said with an embarrassed smile.

Li Xiang sneered, “Are you doubting the ability of the book of contracts?”

That merchant was instantly at a loss for words.

With the book of contracts, Wang Heng didn’t dare to play any tricks.

Li Xiang looked at those merchants and said coldly, “Go back and tell your country lords that they have two choices. They can become my vassals like the Red Flame Nation, or they can be crushed by me like Ye Fan. I will only give them three days.”

Those merchants who had betrayed the Demon Country immediately broke out in cold sweat. One after another, they were trying to think of a way to send this message to their country lords as quickly as possible.

Li Xiang then said to Wang Heng, “When you return to the Red Flame Nation, your first mission is to build an S-Rank military fortress and protect the ‘Flame Burst Spring’.”

“S-Rank? This… Yes, Country Lord!”

Wang Heng’s face was filled with pain.

Building an S-Rank military fortress would be very difficult even for the Red Flame Nation when they were at their peak, not to mention now that they had just lost four-fifths of their troops.

However, this was Li Xiang’s order. Even if Wang Heng had to demolish his own castle, he had to build it up. Otherwise, he would have to break his oath and receive the curse and punishment from the book of contracts!

After giving his instructions on the matter of the “Flame Burst Spring”, Li Xiang went to the water curtain room and saw John the mud man.

During the period when the narrow valley was sealed off, he stayed in the Demon Country.

Isabella used her “illusion” ability to create a chair.

Li Xiang sat on the chair and said, “I conquered the Red Flame Nation. The trade route from the Swamp Kingdom to the Demon Country was cleared.”

John bowed and said, “Thank you, Your Highness. According to the agreement, we will pay you. I wonder what Your Highness wants?”

“Do you know the tree shadow man?” Li Xiang glanced at a metal button on John’s waist.

The mud man was covered in mud and dried branches. Common mud men did not have the metal button, which meant that John was a high-rank mud man.

“They used to be from our race, but now they are believers of the Mother of the Swamp.” John trembled.

“Believers?”

Li Xiang’s eyes focused.

The word “believers” made Li Xiang think of [Religion].

What was religion?

In the Myriad World Continent, religion was the “word of God”, “ways of God”, and “rule of God”.

For these words, Li Xiang spent a million gold soli.

This time, Li Xiang was even more interested in going to the Swamp Kingdom.

“Go back and tell your country lord that I will visit him in a few days,” Li Xiang said.

John nodded in agreement.

Li Xiang didn’t say what he wanted in return.

But as a high-rank mud man, John knew that this must have something to do with the “tree shadow man,” and only the country lord of the Swamp Kingdom could make such a decision.

Without returning to the castle, Li Xiang went straight to the bank.

After seeing Gnome Pacu, Li Xiang took off the money bag on his waist and threw it on the table. He asked, “Do you recognize this?”

Pacu took the money bag and carefully looked at it. “Shireen’s money bag, this is a good thing.”

“Shireen’s money bag?”

Li Xiang was puzzled.

“Yes, it’s made by the Shireen Kingdom. Er… The Shireen Kingdom is a very special country. It doesn’t have a country lord, and it’s a dukedom formed by the Myriad World’s Country Lords Guild,” Pacu replied.

Li Xiang frowned.

“A dukedom is a kingdom that is permanently neutral and doesn’t belong to any forces.

“However, the ruler behind the Shireen Dukedom isn’t a country lord, but the Myriad World’s Country Lords Guild,” Pacu explained.

Then, he pointed at the pattern on the money bag and said, “See the three golden crescent patterns on it? They represent the three goddesses of the Moon, which are the beliefs of the Myriad World’s Country Lords Guild members.”

“So they believe in the ‘three goddesses of the Moon’?”

Li Xiang smiled and asked, but his heart was palpitating.

He seemed to have figured out the meaning of [Religion].

Pacu nodded and said, “Yes, after all, the three goddesses of the Moon are one of the few ancient gods who can maintain a gentle character.”

Li Xiang smiled and said, “That’s true. I wonder what Mr. Pacu’s beliefs are?”

“Gold soli, only gold coins are the most reliable!” Pacu said proudly.

After transferring the money from the money bag into the bank, Li Xiang returned to his castle.

“What is your belief?”

Li Xiang asked his subordinate.

The Eye Demon and Succubus Lilith looked at each other.

The Eye Demon replied in a deep voice, “Demon Lord, our belief is you.”

Li Xiang shook his head slightly. If he really was the belief of the demons, then the [Religion] coefficient of the Demon Country should not be zero.

Could it be that the country lord was going to lead his people to believe in some ancient god?

Li Xiang looked up at the dome of the castle for some reason.

Things like religion had always been exclusive to gods and demons.

It seemed that it was not easy to obtain the power of belief just because someone really believed in themselves.

There might be some specific conditions that needed to be met.

For example, statues, rituals, and even some specific prayers.

However, these might not be the key. There was definitely something that he had not thought of.

In the information that Jian Suyan had sent over, what were the first conditions for the words of God, ways of God, and the rule of God?

The first was to become a God!

But he was not a God yet.

Was it faith that made him a God, or was it God that made him believe?

Was it because he was not strong enough that he could not obtain religion?

Li Xiang’s mind was filled with thousands of thoughts. All kinds of thoughts kept popping up in his mind. All kinds of questions were lingering in his mind, causing him to be at a loss for a moment.