If there were any differences between the Goddess of Nature and the God of Light, a theologian wouldn't be able to explain them in a year. But for the layman, there was only one obvious difference.
The churches of the God of Light were built with donations from believers. The temple of the Goddess of Nature, on the other hand, was built with her own money.
The Bestow Temple in front of them wasn't even on the scale of a temple. It was only one-twenty-fourth the size of an ordinary temple. This was the crystallization of the believers of Lorgar City. All the materials were mostly from other planes.
The black temple wasn't depressing. There were crystal skylights, and the not-so-strong light shone on the statue of the goddess. The goddess didn't like humans to build statues for her. All the temples of the goddess were basically in the form of murals, which recorded the goddess' tens of thousands of years of grace.
These creatures from other planes built statues for the goddess according to their own ideas. However, the face of the statue was covered with a layer of mist that didn't dissipate.
Salin already knew that these creatures from other planes hadn't seen the face of the goddess. Otherwise, Nelis's image would be extremely suspicious.
Salin and Rex bowed respectfully in front of the statue of Goddess Myers. Salin wasn't in a hurry to find the Divine Crystal. Instead, he observed the structure of the temple.
There were countless precious materials in the temple, but Salin didn't want to destroy the temple. He just wanted to get what he couldn't get in this plane. Of course, the Divine Crystal was the most important. Other than the statue, there was an altar in the temple. On the altar, there was an emerald green branch. This branch was extremely thick, with a diameter of nearly half a meter. Salin scanned it with his perception and was surprised.
Is this a Thundercloud Tree? Such a thick branch was just a small bud at the end of a certain plant.
Eleanor looked at the branch that was nearly ten meters long and occupied the altar. Excited, she said to Salin, "This is the Tree of Eternity."
The Tree of Eternity was a plant unique to the Elf Plane. It wasn't as famous as the Tree of Life, but it was much more useful as a material for equipment.
The best longbows in the Elf Plane were all made by the Tree of Eternity. It seemed that there used to be elves in Lorgar City who believed in Goddess Myers.
Everyone quietly waited for Salin and Rex's action. Even in the era when humans weren't afraid of gods, Goddess Myers was still an extremely respected existence in the Myers Continent. It did not seem appropriate to steal her offerings in her temple.
Salin sighed and said to Rex, "Let's do it. They didn't follow me in because they knew what we were going to do, but they couldn't stop us."
Salin was only half right. Imers didn't want to follow Salin because he couldn't stand the humans destroying the temple in front of him. But he wasn't sure if he could deal with Rex.
But Rex's actions had a special meaning to him. Now, Lorgar had become a cage for all creatures. The souls of these creatures were still there, but their bodies were dead. It was only thanks to the power of the Goddess that they did not completely perish. Half-undead, in fact, were much weaker than undead.
If he left Lorgar, he would have a way to gradually regain his strength and even his life.
Although the Goddess had fallen, some nature divine spells still existed. These divine spells could be completed without the blessing of the Goddess, including Life Bestowal.
Many creatures like Ismail were also eager to leave Lorgar. That was the real reason why Rex and the rest could come to the Blessings Shrine.
"Be in awe," Rex said to himself.
Salin, however, walked up to the altar and put the huge branch into the dimensional stone. He understood awe, but he had to do what he had to do. Just like how humans challenged the gods and conquered the various planes. Salin didn't believe that it was because of the desire for power. It was more like they had no other choice.
Humans, who were already extremely free, had no need to conquer the gods. Goddess Myers didn't put shackles on them, either. Why did they have to do those arduous and unrewarding things?
Rex didn't fight with Salin for the branch of the Tree of Eternity. She followed Salin to the altar. Under the branch of the Tree of Eternity, there was a huge shelf. Rex liked the materials on the shelf very much, so she put them into the Divine Sieve Ring directly.
The mages didn't follow. Only Rex and Salin were moving.
Salin released the water in the gourd and began to cut all kinds of materials that he liked in the shrine. He didn't want to touch the statue of the goddess. There were no pillars in the shrine. Everything was laid out on the surface, except for the divine crystal.
Logically speaking, the divine crystal should be on the altar. However, the branch of the Tree of Eternity was on the altar, which was the goddess' favorite natural object. The divine crystal wasn't hidden under the branch, so Salin could only dismantle the shrine bit by bit to find the location of the divine crystal.
Because he didn't want the shrine to collapse, Salin was very careful. After working for more than four hours, Salin had cut all the materials that could be cut and divided them with Rex, but he still couldn't find the location of the divine crystal.
"Eleanor, where do you think the divine crystal will be?" Salin could only ask the elf who knew the Divine Language.
"It's most likely to be condensed in the statue."
Statue? Salin's perception immediately penetrated into the statue. He was shocked to find that the divine crystal was at the head of the statue. Moreover, a part of the divine crystal was exposed. They were the eyes of the goddess.
The statue of the goddess was more than eight meters tall, and its head was less than one meter. It was perfectly proportioned. Xiao Chen did not know what this Deity Statue was made of. However, the Divine Crystal in the head was something that had naturally accumulated over the years. Because the goddess had fallen, the divine crystal didn't have any pressure, so Salin could estimate its size.
The irregular divine crystal in the head of the statue was more than half a meter in diameter. Moreover, this divine crystal wasn't complete. Instead, it was formed by hundreds of crystals linked together. The divine crystal in the eyes was emerald green, just like Neris's eyes.
Should he take it or not? Salin was still hesitant in his heart. A heart of reverence. Should I want it?
"Master, the goddess has never set up a statue in her own shrine," Neris suddenly said.
Salin suddenly understood. This statue was set up by the believers of the goddess from another dimension. Even the goddess hadn't personally descended here. Since the goddess didn't allow believers to erect statues, it wouldn't be disrespectful to the goddess if he dismantled the statue.
"Neris, come." Salin controlled the water to wrap around the feet of the statue, trying to cut it off from the pedestal.
Rex hesitated. Salin smiled at her and said, "Let's leave quickly. We'll split this when we get back." He had used up some of his Mental Energy, and the statue was huge, so he asked Neris to collect it. Using a dimensional stone to collect items depended entirely on the strength of one's Mental Energy to determine how much one could collect.
As for putting the statue with Rex? It wasn't that Salin didn't trust Rex. He saw the greedy looks of Rex's mages.
Mages weren't synonymous with nobility. This huge divine crystal was more valuable than a high-level magic core of the same size. Any mage would be afraid of lacking Mental Energy. Without Mental Energy, no matter how many magic strings you had, you wouldn't be able to release any spells. With Mental Energy, even if the magic strings were exhausted, you could still release level-one spells. To a Great Mage, the value of this divine crystal couldn't be measured with gold coins.
The water took more than an hour to cut down the statue, and Neris quickly put it into the dimensional stone. Those mages looked at Neris helplessly. Since Rex didn't object, of course, they couldn't raise any objections. Fortunately, Salin and Rex had a pleasant collaboration before, and this young mage had never gone back on his word.
Crack …
Suddenly, a small crack appeared on the ground. Although the ground here was not made of steel rock, it was still made of colored granite. Moreover, it had been fused with divine spells. Even if a low-level magic bombarded it, it would not crack.
"Let's hurry …" Before Salin could finish, the temple shook, and the stones on the ceiling suddenly fell. Salin quickly cast Water Pattern Shield on everyone around him. Rex's mages also released their spells and rushed out of the temple.
Ismail waited patiently in the small square. Seeing the temple on the verge of collapse, his eyes revealed a trace of sadness. Purgatory creatures shouldn't have emotions, but seeing the Bestowal Temple collapsing, Ismail couldn't help but shed a tear.
The tear fell from the corner of his eye. Ismail reached out to catch it, and took out a gemstone bottle to store it. He might be the first Purgatory creature to cry, and this tear was one of a kind in the world. This tear could be used to exchange for anything with Salin in the future.
Salin and the others escaped to the square. The temple behind them had already collapsed, and dust flew up. Salin looked at the ruins regretfully. If he had known that the temple would collapse after taking the statue away, he would definitely have torn it down first. He carefully took out a piece of material from the dimensional stone. Seeing that the material in the dimensional stone didn't turn into powder like the rest of the materials in the temple, he was much more relieved.
"Rex, we …" Before Salin could finish, the buildings around the temple started to collapse, spreading out in a circular shape with the ruins of the temple as the center. The rumbling sound was endless, and even the sky was filled with the sound of glass shattering.
"Lord Salin, your arrival has doomed Lorgar City," Ismail said calmly. Ismail said faintly from the side. At this moment, he did not seem to be sad at all.
Lorgar City itself was a labyrinth of folded spaces. With the collapse of the buildings, countless spaces burst like bubbles, making crisp popping sounds and bursting. The creatures that couldn't leave the bubbles in time also died completely.
Salin was horrified. Ismail was so cruel. In order to leave Lorgar City, he didn't hesitate to let so many lives die with him.
As if knowing what Salin was thinking, Ismail said, "Lord, you're the one who freed them. Without a goal of faith, even if their souls are eternal, it's still painful."
Salin gradually sorted out his thoughts. These creatures could still have their souls after their bodies died, not only because of the Goddess' divine spells, but also because of the crystals condensed from their power of faith. The crystals were taken away by him, and those creatures would definitely die unless they signed a contract with him.
In time, that statue might become a real god.
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