502: Chapter 482 Become a God as Soon as Possible

Early morning.

At the foot of the back of the Holy Mountain, on an open space stretching along the slope, the high-ranking members of the Church and Zhang Mu gathered.

Familiar groups of three to five clustered together, discussing doubts in their cultivation in low voices, while others chatted about daily life, such as what delicacies they had recently discovered.

Standing near the woods a bit further away, several people leaned their heads close together, their voices kept very low. Judging from the wretched smiles they unconsciously revealed when they reached an exciting point in their conversation, it was likely not a decent topic.

Zhang Mu did not participate, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Pope in front of a stone door erected on the grass.

As time passed, the distant sunlight shifted to Zhang Mu's feet until it enveloped his figure, and the surrounding air gradually became scorching.

High-tier Professionals do not fear the heat, but Zhang Mu became restless, pacing back and forth in front of the door.

After a while, Zhang Mu squinted at the sun hanging high in the sky: "Pope, are you sure it's today? Could you have remembered the date wrong?"

The Pope shook his head: "It cannot be wrong.

Mr. Zhang Mu, there is no need to worry; Lady Leah will definitely come out today."

"Waiting a few more days doesn't matter; I'm just afraid she's in danger." With the deadline delayed, Zhang Mu couldn't help but think that Leah had met with an accident. As he spoke, he walked toward the stone door and patted the door panel with his hand, "Can I go in?"

"The Labyrinth gates can only be opened with the permission of a god."

After searching for a switch on the door to no avail and trying to infuse mana without the stone door reacting, Zhang Mu stepped back to his original position: "According to what you're saying, the key to the Labyrinth gate is in the hands of a god?"

"Yes."

"What is the purpose of this Labyrinth?"

The Pope thought for a moment: "Actually, I'm not quite sure either. I was curious when I first became Pope, but I couldn't find any clues in the Church library, so I gave up investigating later."

"Useless. What good are you?"

"Uh, hahaha—"

Anxious from waiting and unable to enter the Labyrinth to find her, Zhang Mu turned to chat with the Church's Gods Blessing Bishops to kill time.

Having stayed at the Holy Mountain for a month, Zhang Mu visited people all day and had already become well-acquainted with them. He sat down between two people in a circle, listened for a few seconds to clarify the topic, and then smoothly inserted himself into the conversation.

After finishing there, he switched to another group, then spent some time bragging with an old bishop who was discussing which female Gods Blessing was the most curvaceous. Finally, there was movement from the stone door.

The double stone doors opened to both sides, and Leah stepped out holding a pure white scepter. Her face was solemn as she prepared to announce something to the crowd, but her peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of that familiar person. She dropped her scepter, grabbed the hem of her mage robe, and ran over.

Once close, she leaped and pounced toward Zhang Mu.

He opened his arms and caught her, holding the Little Cat Girl he hadn't seen for several years in his embrace.

Compared to when they parted, the Little Cat Girl's figure hadn't developed much; she still reached Zhang Mu's chest, and her curves were as they had been. Only the ends of her dazzling blonde hair now extended from her shoulders to her waist, spreading across her back as she ran.

She rubbed her head back and forth against Zhang Mu's chest. Perhaps feeling somewhat satisfied, Leah leaned her upper body back, scrutinized his face for a long while before jumping down, holding his large hand with her small one, and dragging him toward the mountain top.

The Pope and the Gods Blessing Bishops looked at each other, laughed, and followed after them.

The place Leah took Zhang Mu was not the cathedral, but her private residence on the Holy Mountain.

It wasn't as luxurious as a Gods Blessing Bishop's palace, nor was it very spacious. Upon entering was a small living room; on the inner wall was a door leading to the bedroom, and a door on the left was half-open. Zhang Mu's gaze passed through the crack and saw pots and bowls piled in the corner, appearing to be the kitchen.

Leah led him to the dining table in the middle of the living room, pressed him onto a wooden stool, and then turned around to sit on his lap.

She wiggled her small bottom, seemingly feeling something wasn't quite right, and pulled Zhang Mu's arms to wrap around her slender waist before happily recounting her life in the Church.

There wasn't much excitement; it was mostly trivial daily matters.

On the first day at the Church, thinking that she had bid farewell to Brother Mu's hand-roasted chicken legs and Alpenliebe candies for the short term, Leah had a hard time and cried that night.

On the second day, under the Pope's guidance, she began to come into contact with secret arts. Waking up in the morning without Zhang Mu to pat her head made Leah very unhappy, causing her progress in learning the secret arts to be slow. Finally, after the Pope tearfully begged her to be serious, Leah reluctantly focused.

On the third day, fourth day, fifth day, and many days later, Leah seemed to have gotten used to the diet and daily life in the Church. She would no longer feel depressed for a long time upon waking up and not seeing Zhang Mu, and when eating the vegetable soup sent by the Pope, she didn't complain that it wasn't as delicious as Zhang Mu's roasted chicken legs.

Life seemed to have calmed down, but at night, when Leah stood in front of her door looking at the bright moon, she always wondered if Zhang Mu was also gazing at the moon at that moment, just like her.

Leah's mouth didn't stop for a moment, recounting from dawn to dusk, and then into late night. She finally grew a bit tired, leaning in Zhang Mu's arms and slowly closing her eyes. Before long, light snores came from her nose, and her cat ears turned backward as far as they could, with the ear canals facing Zhang Mu, as if worried he would suddenly disappear.

Zhang Mu didn't move, maintaining his sitting posture until dawn.

The morning light passed through the living room door and fell on Leah's face; she rubbed her sleepy eyes and woke up.

Leah jumped down saying she would go cook, but Zhang Mu happily pulled her outside, set up a fire in the courtyard, and roasted a chicken leg for the Little Cat Girl on the spot.

After it was cooked through, he handed it to Leah. As she gnawed on it, she looked at the second chicken leg Zhang Mu was roasting and asked why he had suddenly come to the Holy Mountain.

Zhang Mu didn't hide anything, informing her that one reason was to find a method for the Pope's Hall to promote to Epic, and the second was to visit her.

After hearing this, Leah crouched down somewhat distressed, stating that she did not want Zhang Mu to become an Epic.

Already curious about the reason, Zhang Mu took the opportunity to ask.

After her simple explanation, Zhang Mu suddenly understood.

Epics are the manifestation of the human will on the Saul Continent, and human will usually attaches itself to a collective.

An individual might harbor negative emotions such as resentment or hatred toward a collective, but that doesn't mean they reject the concept of a collective; what they resent is the collective they are currently in, while they long to be accepted and ruled by a better collective.

In a sense, the concept of an Epic is immortal, unless the people of the Saul Continent one day deny the existence of collectives.

The collectives of the Saul Continent people are kingdoms and empires. As their symbols, Epics are deeply bound to the empire, living and dying together.

However, while the group of Epics is indeed immortal, human empires will eventually shatter.

The concept of an Epic persists, but specific individual humans who become Epics will fall along with the collapse of their empire.

This process is irreversible. One cannot say that because the empire is about to fall, the Epic can detach from the empire in advance to preserve their life.

If they were to do so, the monstrous wrath of the subjects betrayed by the Epic would burn the Epic to ashes before the empire's fall, scattering them in the spring breeze of the empire.

In the history of the Saul Continent, not a single eternal empire has appeared so far. Even as strong as the Elves who once dominated the entire continent, their final fate was nothing more than being reduced to living in seclusion in the Forest of Spirits, fading from the sight of living beings.

Empires must fall, and Epics who live in symbiosis with the empire naturally cannot escape.

Leah hoped that Zhang Mu would not step onto this path with a destined bleak ending.

Zhang Mu remained silent for a long time, struggling internally.

The conventional Professional sequences were impassable for him, and the alternative path of an Epic also hid an inevitable hidden danger. With the front of both paths to becoming stronger blocked, Zhang Mu felt somewhat lost for a moment.

If he remained a Magister for his whole life, how was he going to save Teacher Potter?

Lake's territory was rapidly expanding and bordering Ganno. If Ganno did not fall under the iron hooves of an enemy country, there would eventually be a battle between the two sides—a fight to the death.

Without being able to promote to Epic, Zhang Mu did not hold the slightest optimism regarding the outcome of this battle.

Zhang Mu rotated the bamboo stick, the flames licking the chicken leg skewered on it. He muttered in his heart that there was still a path—becoming a god.

The path was clear and could go far; the trouble was that it wasn't that fast, and the enemy was right in front of him.

"So, I still have to figure out how to become a god as soon as possible?" Zhang Mu whispered. Leah heard him but suspected she was hallucinating.

"Brother Mu, what did you say?"

"Ah?" Zhang Mu snapped back to his senses and handed her the roasted chicken leg, "Nothing, just talking to myself."

Taking the chicken leg, Leah didn't immediately put it in her mouth, her eyes revealing worry: "Then, does Brother Mu still want to..."

"No." Lake was his property, and Zhang Mu didn't plan on binding himself to 'property,' not to mention he had a plan to leave Lake one day in the future.

Relying on Lake to become an Epic would make talking about cutting ties a pipe dream.

Seeing him give up, Leah's mood immediately improved. She hugged the chicken leg and started gnawing, asking unclearly: "When is Brother Mu leaving? Can you stay at the Holy Mountain for a few more days?"

In just a short moment, Zhang Mu had already sorted out his thoughts. Recently, he would push the speed of the statues of gods collecting faith with all his might. Ganno would be unable to harass Lake before the end of its national defense war, so that side could be set aside for now.

Returning to Blue Star from Lake was no different from returning from the Holy Mountain. Zhang Mu nodded and said: "I estimate I'll stay on the Holy Mountain for at least a few years."

"Really?" Leah's ears perked up.

"Really, really." Zhang Mu pulled out a third chicken leg and placed it over the fire, thinking that he could return to Blue Star every night to promote the collection of faith and take time to use "The World" to check on the situation of the Ganno war in Lake. Staying at the Holy Mountain wouldn't hinder these two things.

Since he had decided to stay for a long time, casually finding a room or a tree branch to rest in at night like before would certainly not do. Zhang Mu got up and went to the cathedral, found the Pope, and asked him to arrange a room for him.

It was a small matter, and the Pope promised on the spot, then led him to pick a room. However, before the two of them even walked out of the cathedral door, Leah ran over in a panic, saying she had an extra room at her place that could accommodate two people.

Zhang Mu was stunned, suspecting he had seen wrongly last night, and asked her, "I only saw one bedroom last night, uh, don't tell me the side wasn't the kitchen"?

The Pope said from the side, "Lady Leah's house indeed only has one bedroom."

Leah stared at him expressionlessly for a long time until the Pope felt hair stand up on the back of his neck before she spoke: "There are two."

"Is, is that so?"

"Whether it is now, I'm not sure." Leah's expression became increasingly gloomy, her small arms crossed over her chest, "But if it isn't by dark..."

Halfway through her sentence, the Pope's figure vanished from the spot, and Zhang Mu wondered where he had gone in such a hurry.

The confusion was resolved in the evening.

When Zhang Mu returned to the mountain top residence after strolling around the Holy City with Leah for the day, he saw the stone house that had expanded several times out of thin air and finally understood that the Pope had spent the day acting as a construction worker.

Speaking of which, the first time the two of them met was also on a construction site, with the Pope moving bricks and him inspecting the progress of the project as the employer.

Well, you couldn't say it was exactly the same as today's scene, but it was at least a copy-paste.

Zhang Mu broke into a laugh and led Leah's small hand toward the small house built of stone blocks.