Chapter 84: The Supreme Incarnation of the Sacred Temple

Happy May Day to everyone...
Caught a cold, feeling terrible. I was planning to write a lot to celebrate the holiday, but I feel so awful I can’t even type. Sorry…

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At this moment, everyone was praying to the Father God for the same thing, hoping for forgiveness and a response.

As the object of their faith, Link was also working hard. Once the crowd entered their devout state, Link sensed through the Paladin Hall the countless prayers, yearning for a divine miracle to drive away calamity. These prayers coalesced into a force of devotion that only he could perceive.

Link then channeled this force through his feet into the Paladin Hall. When the Hall accumulated enough prayer, the system sent another message.

[Ding! Congratulations, host. The Paladin Hall has absorbed sufficient prayer force. Please infuse divine power to activate the avatar effect.]

Along with the message came instructions for infusing the divine power. After digesting the information, Link spread his arms, exposing a noble and dignified expression, and declared, “Lost lambs, rejoice! The merciful Father God has forgiven our transgressions and will bestow divine grace to drive away disaster!”

The people were overjoyed, praying with even greater devotion. At that moment, Link mobilized the divine power within him.

Instantly, the force of prayer and divine power resonated in the Paladin Hall. Its radiance shone down on Link, making him appear as though a god had descended, noble and holy, leaving many in awe.

The Hall absorbed Link’s divine power, merging it completely with the accumulated prayers. This merged force was then transferred equally to the two paladin statues at the entrance. The next moment, the statues burst forth with dazzling golden light, turning the night as bright as day.

Yet this light was gentle, not harsh, and everyone could gaze directly at its warmth and sanctity. Under nearly ten thousand astonished eyes, a new transformation occurred—the two statues came to life. Their stone bodies became flesh and blood, their stone armor transformed into real armor, and before all, they became a man and a woman.

Both retained the towering height of their statue forms, over five meters tall, true giants. Clad in platinum heavy armor, the man held a solemn war hammer and bore a stern visage; the woman wielded a magnificent longsword, her face heroic and valiant—like a pair of divine knights from myth.

Most astonishing of all, golden wings of light unfurled behind them—not the feathered wings of traditional angels, but shimmering, tendril-like wings reminiscent of those seen in the game Diablo, elegant and majestic, noble and awe-inspiring, demanding reverence from all.

Everyone was stunned by this miraculous scene, even the skeptics. The dignified and sacred aura left them speechless, their minds blank, gazing in wonder at these two giant emissaries of the gods.

After surveying his followers, Link turned his gaze toward the direction of Qinke Town, now overrun by rift monsters, lost in chaos. Narrowing his eyes, he raised his hand and commanded, his voice filled with authority, “Go forth, divine paladins—Titus and Sivis—purify those heretical beasts from the other realm!”

The two giant paladins responded, their golden wings vibrating as they soared into the sky, unleashing unparalleled power. Sensing this force, every creature except Link—including the rift monsters—fell to their knees, overcome by an instinctive, irresistible fear.

Ninth tier—the aura possessed only by peak ninth-tier beings! The two giant paladins possessed the strength of ninth-tier peak warriors.

Ninth-tier peak—the strongest existence known to mortals!

In the next moment, golden divine light erupted from the paladins, and wherever it passed, every rift creature was reduced to ash, all monsters purified, every trace of negative energy dispelled by the sanctity of the divine light.

It was a one-sided massacre, utterly without suspense, like spraying insecticide on a swarm of mosquitoes—none of the rift creatures could escape the cleansing light.

Purify, purify, purify—all were purified!

Under the terrified gaze of the rift creatures and the reverent eyes of the people, the two giant paladins effortlessly swept away all the rift monsters, advancing toward the spatial fissure. The rift monsters, terrified, tried to flee in all directions, but how could they outrun light? Wherever the divine light reached, every rift creature was reduced to ash.

Finally, the two paladins arrived at the spatial fissure, their divine power erupting at the focal point as they each struck the rift with a mighty blow.

Boom~~

With a thunderous sound, golden light like the sun blossomed at the fissure. The tentacles and negative energies were incinerated in an instant, leaving not a trace. The spatial fissure itself rapidly closed under the divine light.

When the light faded, the fissure was gone without a trace, not a single rift monster remained, and peace returned, leaving only the two giant paladins floating in the sky.

Though the battle was too distant to witness directly, many could sense the disappearance of negative energy and see the glow from afar. Now, with the fissure vanished and all negative energy gone, the people knew the calamity was over.

Confronted by such overwhelming power, many gasped, then offered devout prayers of gratitude to the Father God. Even Link himself was shaken by the paladins’ might, his heart pounding with excitement.

This was the true power of advanced structures—a capability unknown to intermediate and basic buildings. It made sense; intermediate and basic structures also had combat and defense functions. If advanced structures merely allowed three reconstructions, they would be unimpressive indeed.

Likewise, as the driving force of advanced buildings, divine power was unmatched. It might not fuel ordinary skills or techniques, and its quantity was small, but it was the key to activating advanced structures. After this battle, Link suspected its effects extended far beyond this, perhaps hiding greater secrets yet to be uncovered.

But that was for the future; for now, Link could set it aside. At this moment, the two giant paladins returned, landing before Link under the astonished gaze of the crowd, then knelt on one knee and offered a knightly salute.

This scene left many trembling in shock. In their eyes, the paladins were messengers of the Father God, incarnations of divinity—yet they saluted Link as a subordinate. What did this mean? Could Link’s status be even higher than theirs? As a mere mortal, even as the founder of the Father God’s church, shouldn’t he be at most equal to the divine messengers, not above them? After all, Link was only the Father God’s spokesperson.

Once the shock passed, the church members were elated. Their archbishop outranked ordinary divine emissaries—what did this imply? It meant Link was the Father God’s favored child, deeply trusted, and following him promised a brighter future than even the divine messengers.

The next moment, the two giant paladins stood and looked upon the believers, suddenly radiating dazzling divine light. Where the light touched, all wounds were healed, all fatigue vanished, and, most astonishingly, even the unfortunate fallen were revived, climbing up from the ground.

Resurrection of the dead—true resurrection!

Only gods possess such power!

People could not help but stare at the two paladins in awe, reverence, and fanaticism. The faith of every believer soared wildly, countless people became zealots, and even the least devoted rose to high-level believers—there were no lower ranks left.

But the paladins paid no heed to the believers’ reactions. After performing this miracle, they flew to the stone platform before the Paladin Hall where their statues stood, and, to the astonishment of all, transformed back into statues, perfectly matching their original forms as if nothing had ever happened.

Withdrawing his gaze, Link looked at the believers and declared with that dignified expression, “Father God above, these are his divine paladins—Paladin of the Holy Hammer, Titus, and Paladin of the Holy Sword, Sivis—two of our church’s exalted guardians. Paladins, remember their names and forms. They are the embodiment of holy light, the ultimate form of paladins.”

Upon hearing Link’s words, not only the paladins but many church members and believers showed longing and reverence, especially the passionate youths, who gazed at the two statues with fervent admiration. The avatars of the Paladin Hall had left such an indelible impression that it would never fade.

Some paladins quietly recorded this chapter of history and the story of the two avatars, and as the church developed, the tales of Titus and Sivis grew richer, even invented stories spreading by word of mouth.

In the end, Titus and Sivis, whose brilliance flashed only this night, became legends among the paladins, their titles as Holy Hammer and Holy Sword knights becoming the lifelong pursuit of countless paladins.

But that is a story for another time—let us return to the present.

After venerating the statues, the people once more prayed devoutly to the Father God, even the former skeptics now joining in, all becoming Link’s followers, and very loyal ones at that.

Among them, Lin Xi was the most unique. While she prayed, she would occasionally cast remorseful and guilty glances at Link, as if she had committed a terrible crime, her conscience deeply troubled.

But Link knew nothing of this. He was caught up in the surge of faith, ecstatic, though also regretful that the avatar effect could not be used again for a year.

The avatar effect was truly incredible—not only powerful, but granting access to all of the paladins’ ultimate abilities. The healing spell just used by the giants was the paladin’s strongest healing magic, Radiance of the Holy Light, while the resurrection spell was the ultimate group resurrection, able to instantly revive all allied forces within its effective range.

This skill required mastery at the ninth-tier peak, with a cooldown so long as to be frustrating, and the corpse must be at least half intact, death no more than two hours past, and the soul complete. Especially the last point—if the soul was damaged more than five percent, the skill would fail.

Also, those resurrected would remain in a weakened state for three days, able to exert only ten percent of their strength, and their cultivation would drop by about twenty percent after recovery—so it was not truly a perfect resurrection.

(P.S. Titus and Sivis are played by a reader named “Wang Tianxia Under Heaven.”)