Chapter 472: Chapter 471: The Divine and Demon Races

Upon seeing the River God of the Stars, the seven deities knew at once how terrifyingly powerful this sudden emergent was.

They wanted to run, but how could they possibly escape in the presence of Jiang Li?

“Why run? I’m not a bad guy,” Jiang Li chuckled as he casually draped his arms around the necks of the God of Light and the God of Wind, acting as if he was the eighth deity.

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone whose body is made of faith,” Jiang Li marveled. He had assumed that the seven deities were hiding somewhere secret. Instead, they were manifestations of faith, appearing wherever faith was present.

Seeing that the seven deities were discovered, Li Er didn’t need to disguise himself as the World Tree anymore. He resumed his true form, causing a few deer tribe girls to scream.

“I told you guys, the uncle is the World Tree. You didn’t believe me,” gloated one of the deer tribe girls. She had suspected from the beginning that the uncle was no ordinary being; he was far more than meets the eye. Connecting the uncle’s disappearance to the appearance of the World Tree was a bold move, yet she found it logical.

“Girls, we can chat later,” Li Er waved, leaving behind a mysterious silhouette.

…

With the arrival of Li Er, the Gourd of Wishes, and Lans, the God of Light finally asked the first question.

“Who are you guys, really?”

Oh, Lans can be left out.

“The Demon King.”

“The Demon Clan’s General.”

Jiang Li bluntly labeled them.

“We are cultivators from other worlds.”

“Other worlds? You’re from the Immortal Realm? The same place as the Honghu Messenger?” The God of Light’s first thought was the Immortal Realm.

“So you guys know about the Honghu Messenger. What did he tell you?”

Driven into a corner, the seven deities knew they were no match. They tried to dissolve and exit the scene numerous times, but they were all tightly controlled by Jiang Li.

Then Lans saw the seven gods of faith start to recount the real history.

“In a time far more ancient, gods and demons roamed the Eira World. The deity race was born strong. To strengthen further, they need faith. They did whatever it took to garner faith, frequently demonstrating miracles to prove their existence. But we have no right to judge them. As members of the same pantheon, we too stole followers with miracles.”

Born strong? What a unique race. This was the first time that Jiang Li had heard of such a race.

“The demons varied in strength and appearance. The key difference between us and them is that demons can grow stronger without the power of faith.”

“Because of the presence of the demons, three races hoped for our protection. This was good for our deity race.”

“Sometimes we were really in combat with the demons. Other times it was a show to deceive regular people into giving us their faith.”

“As the competition for faith heated up, some gods granted a fraction of their power to ordinary people to secure more faith. This was regarded as a god’s favor by ordinary people, and some called it ‘skills’.”

“The decision to grant power to ordinary people was extraordinarily effective. This god quickly attracted a large group of believers, making the other gods jealous.”

“Seeing this, the other gods followed suit. In no time, a lot of ordinary people learned skills, and some even could fight against demons without the help of gods.”

“Granting ordinary people skills surely attracted a group of followers in a short time. But as everyone could grant skills, the advantage was gone and gods were back to square one.”

“The struggle over faith became fiercer until some gods couldn’t take it anymore and attacked their own kind, which marked the beginning of the deity civil war.”

“Everyone’s aim was simple yet cruel. The best way to secure more faith was to reduce competition. With fewer gods, each individual would get more faith.”

“With the deity civil war going on and an emerging genius in the demon race who slayed gods and demons alike indiscriminately, the demons began their own civil war.”

“Both factions were fighting internally. It was inevitable that gods would accidentally kill demons and the other way around.”

“That was the chaos era with ruthless killings everywhere. Not even the killers knew the races of their victims.”

“The three races were the weakest and could only struggle to survive under these circumstances.”

“In the end, all gods blindly killed each other, vying to be the ultimate god. At the end of the battle, only the seven of us remained.”

“Then, you seven called a truce and shook hands?” Li Er naturally assumed that happened.

The God of Light wore a painful expression: “No, we did fight, and none of us survived.”

Li Er was shocked, “Then you guys…”

“After we died, our souls should have gone to hell. Only a piece or remnant of our souls clinged to faith.”

Jiang Li nodded lightly. The state of the seven deities after death was similar to Dream Pure: only a piece of the soul remained. With the passing of time, soul fragments would become a whole soul.

This process involved various coincidences and couldn’t be induced deliberately.

“We are parasites of faith, relying on faith to survive. Whatever faith shapes us into, we can only become that.”

“Back then, the three races exercised their imaginations. They called light the greatest, hence I am imagined as the God of Light. The beastmen wanted to have their own god, thus they invented the Beast God. The Elven God was created the same way.”

“The forms and identities of the Gods of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water are also imagined.”

“After the forms and identities of us seven were established, it implies that the faith of three races was all channelled to us.”

“The three races were in a very bad state back then. All gods were killed, and the demon race still existed. We, in order to give the three races power to counter the demons, continued to grant them skills.”

“The demon prodigy matured and became the Demon King. He wanted to invade the three races. We seven stepped in to retaliate, but our power was too scattered to stop the Demon King.”

The God of Light said, “At that time, the other six suggested concentrating all faith into me. We barely drew the battle with the Demon King.”

The God of Light shuddered at the memory. The Demon King was overpowering. He didn’t want to engage in such a battle again.

Lans couldn’t help but glance at the Gourd of Wishes. The Demon King, who had fought hard with the gods, was casually killed by the Gourd. And Jiang Li was obviously stronger than the Gourd.

Li Er then pointed out, “Instead of saying you guys fought the Demon King, it’s more like you let faith take tangible form to take on the Demon King.”

The seven deities did not deny Li Er’s statement.

The God of Light continued, “Later, our soul fragments evolved into real souls, but we still couldn’t leave faith.”

“Just when we were wondering how to detach ourselves from faith and become independent entities, the Honghu Messenger appeared. He said he had a way for us to break free from the control of faith.”