Chapter 829: Reclaiming Land

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The Eastern Continent.

The defense line of the Hogsback Mountains.

After the arrival of the Divine Realm army, believers were summoned to build a statue of the Goddess of Light in a valley.

Since its completion, a multitude of believers from different regions have gathered here daily, undeterred by the looming threat of the Dark Kingdom army, to offer their prayers before this towering pure white statue, standing over a hundred meters tall, even surpassing the nearby mountain in height.

To the believers, this location holds significance as the spot where the Divine Realm army, led by the Goddess of Light, initially arrived to rescue the world. Similar to the revered Light City of Avino within the Light Church, it is regarded as a sacred site.

The places where the Divine Realm army descends are also considered special places by the believers to a greater or lesser extent.

It’s hard for players to imagine how much fanaticism and faith a god can give to believers in a world with gods.

With the arrival of the Divine Realm army, Ji Chen could feel that the followers of the Oceanic Faith were in a somewhat unstable emotional state.

Many of them were previously followers of other oceanic deities of the Oceanic Divine Lineage. Due to the long period of no response or manifestation from the deities, or the decline of the church’s power, their faith declined or turned to disappointment and instead turned to the Oceanic Faith.

So at this moment, seeing many Divine Realm armies descend, they couldn’t help but feel a bit frightened, fearing that the original Divine Realm armies would cause trouble for them.

Infidels are more detestable than heretics!

So they were full of worry and anxiety, and their faith in the Oceanic Faith began to waver, resulting in less provided faith power.

Ji Chen knew what needed to be done now. Immediately, he sent troops to the coastal cities along the Mid-Ocean, propagating force in various Oceanic Faith churches.

Especially when the two excellent-looking Divine Power armies arrived, they didn’t seem inferior to other Divine Realm armies. The believers were obviously uplifted, and their anxiety and worry were much less, replaced by abundant faith power.

The struggle for believers between the gods was no less intense than the battles between the Divine Realm armies. In relatively peaceful times, it was even the main channel for the expansion of the power of the gods.

At the same time, the Oceanic Faith priests who were sent to preach in various places were also called back to the Crown of the Ocean in batches to listen to Ji Chen’s plans and orders.

When they returned to their respective jurisdictions with the next batch of resources, they all started large-scale output of inventory resources for a new round of preaching work.

In simple terms, it was to continue or even strengthen the “spending” behavior.

Nowadays, wars are raging all over the main world, and demons, evil factions, and orderly factions are still at war. The Divine Realm armies of various divine lineages are also fighting each other.

It could be said that the whole world had turned into a mess!

In such a chaotic world, whoever could provide believers with shelter and a sense of security, and whoever could provide enough survival resources, could win the loyalty and trust of believers.

Among them, the Oceanic Faith focuses on the impoverished people and the lower-level believers. After a period of preaching, the effect was remarkable.

Among the newly converted believers, eighty percent were from the lower class, and they were the most loyal group of believers to the Oceanic Faith. There was no doubt about it.

Like the Oceanic Faith, which was so close to the people, treating the lower class and believers by sending food, clothing, and even establishing dedicated relief agencies.

Such “down-to-earth” behavior was unique among many god churches!

Most of the other god churches usually focused on indigenous aristocrats, urban officials, military officers, urban middle class, landlords, or at worst, wealthy farmers.

For them, only these upper and middle-class believers could provide assistance to the operation of the church.

Without the donations of these wealthy believers, the vast amount of funds needed for the establishment of numerous church facilities such as churches, welfare homes, and the training of church warriors in each city would be enough to overwhelm the church itself.

Only these affluent believers with assets and backgrounds could provide financial support to maintain the operation and expansion of the church. However, it did not mean that they didn’t care about the lower-level believers; it was just that most of the time, their focus was not on them.

The Oceanic Faith focused on the seemingly minor but crucial aspects of daily life such as food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. By swiftly addressing the needs of the indigenous population, they seized upon a realm overlooked or disregarded by other religious institutions, rapidly accumulating initial followers.

In a sense, the faith and loyalty provided by the lower-class believers were no less significant than those from affluent indigenous people; in fact, they may even have surpassed them in devotion.

Combining spiritual, material, and survival needs, this three-pronged approach swiftly won over the majority of hesitant residents, with many impoverished followers from smaller churches flocking to embrace the Oceanic Faith.

No matter how strong one’s faith, having food on the table was essential.

Observing this aggressive encroachment, other religious institutions could only curse this opportunistic behavior of the small church. However, entangled in a series of events triggered by the arrival of divine armies, they had little energy to spare.

Moreover, as these impoverished believers could not contribute significant resources, it was not worthwhile to engage in a major confrontation at that moment. Therefore, they temporarily set aside this matter, intending to settle scores later.

At that time, with divine armies descending one after another, various religious institutions were quite confident.

However, what they didn’t realize was that once the Oceanic Faith fully captured the lower strata of society and established a deep-seated belief, it would be challenging to sway them back.