The slums, the temple of Ilmater, the god of suffering.

A middle-aged male priest in his forties, with almost all the hair on his head gone, looking like he is in his fifties or sixties, is kneeling in front of the crude altar, leading a group of believers in devout prayer.

Although the new sect of Talona, ​​the goddess of poison and disease, expanded rapidly and, to a certain extent, robbed many of Ilmater's original believers and even squeezed the church's living space, he did not seem to be in a hurry at all, and had no intention of competing head-on with the opponent.

Because the teachings of the God of Suffering do not encourage fighting, but rather hope that everyone can live in peace and help each other.

Therefore, his priests and priests rarely come into conflict with the churches of other gods, and even if they are bullied or oppressed, they usually choose to endure it silently.

What's more, the teachings of the new Talona sect are to make people aware of the nature of poisons and diseases, and to prevent the poor, who are not rich to begin with, from getting sick or poisoned, which is equivalent to reducing the suffering in the world.

This coincides exactly with the idea advocated by Ilmater.

As a result, a very strange phenomenon appeared in the places where poor people gathered in the major cities of Amn.

That is, the new sect in Talona is expanding rapidly, constantly eroding the original base of faith in the God of Suffering.

However, the latter not only had no intention of fighting back, but also acted submissive and lived in peace with it.

When members of the two churches meet each other on a daily basis, they greet each other with a smile, and there is no sign of hostility at all.

If you don't know, you would think that these two gods are allies.

But in fact, anyone with a little knowledge of religion and theology knows that Ilmater and Talona have been mortal enemies for thousands of years.

Whatever Talona wants to achieve, Ilmater will stop her at all costs.

But now, their relationship is becoming complicated and relaxing.

Of course, the way God thinks is obviously not something that ordinary mortals can understand.

Therefore, the priest did not dare to speculate rashly, but simply wanted to do his job well, help the poor in need, and provide children who had lost their parents with at least one hot meal a day and a shelter from the wind and rain.

But this is obviously not an easy thing to do.

Although he had received a lot of donations from the Bernard Chamber of Commerce and Zuo Si's Mage Tower, it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the huge number of poor people in the slums.

As for this point, one can get a glimpse of it by looking at this still dilapidated and poor temple, and the linen smock that the priest is wearing, which has been patched countless times.

Even when he had tens of thousands of gold coins, he did not want to spend a single penny to decorate the temple or buy himself decent clothes and shoes. Instead, he carefully calculated and used all the money to help the poor who really needed help.

This is also why Zuo Si never hesitated when donating to the Temple of Ilmater, and he donated tens of thousands of gold coins at a time.

Only they know that there are families in the slums who really need help.

Since the God of Suffering does not emphasize complex and solemn rituals, but rather emphasizes practicing the teachings through physical practice, the prayer ends after just a few minutes.

When the priest stood up from in front of the shrine, all the believers immediately stood up as well, staring at the large pots set up outside with eager eyes and swallowing their saliva continuously.

What was cooked in the pot was also very simple, just a hot soup stewed with potatoes, onions, cabbage, garlic, animal offal and some bones with little meat.

In order to make the soup look thicker and more viscous, a large amount of bread crumbs and crumbs are sprinkled in it.

Whether it was bones, offal or bread crumbs, all of them came from the high-end restaurant opened by Zuo Si in Chengmen District.

The former is the leftover part after cooking high-end dishes in the kitchen, and the latter is the bread that guests do not take away, which is dried and crushed directly.

Although in the eyes of rich people, these things are of no value at all and are just garbage that can be thrown away at will.

But for the poor people at the bottom of the society who have lost their ability to work and labor in the slums, it is a rare delicacy.

At least it is much cleaner and more hygienic than picking up food from garbage dumps or sewers, or simply catching rats to satisfy hunger. There is no need to worry about contracting terrible diseases after eating.

Seeing these disabled people with broken hands or feet, or who were blind or deaf, as well as those children who were too young to work, the priest showed a look of pity on his face, and spoke in the gentlest voice possible: "Let's eat! Come, you're welcome, I have prepared enough bread and hot soup today."

"Praise the merciful God of Weeping! It is you who gave us the courage to continue living!"

The middle-aged man with only one arm left raised the wooden bowl in his hand and shouted loudly, then walked to the soup pot and took the initiative to take on the responsibility of distributing food to others.

The rest of the people did not scramble for the food, but instead lined up in an orderly manner.

Children, the elderly and women lined up at the front of the line, while adult men stood at the back very consciously.

After everyone had eaten, the one-armed middle-aged man poured the remaining soup from the pot into his own bowl, picked up a piece of hard black bread, and held it in front of the priest with one hand: "Glorious One, you should eat something too."

But the priest smiled and shook his head and refused: "No, I'm not hungry, you should keep it for yourself."

"But you haven't eaten anything all day. You won't be able to hold on at this rate." The one-armed man showed a strong sense of worry on his face.

Because he knew that in the entire Askatla, apart from the temple of Ilmater, the god of suffering, there was no other god or church that cared about a poor and disabled person like himself.

If something unexpected happened to this morally upright priest, and there was no second person to take over, the group of people behind him who relied entirely on relief would starve to death and become corpses lying on the roadside, ignored by everyone.

Although Amn's merchants like to demonstrate their wealth and social status through charitable donations, their money is usually taken away by those so-called "beggars" who occupy the downtown area but are actually swindlers, ruffians, and gangsters.

This group of people are often strong and carry weapons such as daggers. They control areas frequently passed by nobles and wealthy businessmen.

Once other beggars approach, they will immediately threaten, intimidate, beat, or even kill them.

Therefore, beggars in slums who are truly hungry and cold are unable to obtain so-called charitable donations.

Of course, the nobles and wealthy businessmen didn’t really care who their money was donated to.

He simply wanted to show off his wealth in this way and gain a reputation for being generous and kind.

Just when the priest was about to refuse again, he suddenly found that the believers who were originally eating suddenly stopped eating at some point, and stood up and poured some of the soup in their bowls into another empty bowl next to them.

After a while, the bowl was filled with hot soup.

An old woman with a lame leg carefully held up the bowl and brought it to the priest. She forced a smile and said, "Respected Glorious One, the God of Suffering taught us to have the courage to bear pain, endure suffering, and help each other. You have helped us selflessly in the past. Now please allow us to express our humble respect to you in our own way. Eat. If you don't eat, how can we eat?"

"Thanks!"

This time the priest did not refuse. Instead, he smiled with satisfaction, took the bowl of soup, and squatted at the door of the simple temple to eat with all the believers.

Influenced by his actions, these disabled people and children, although very poor and hungry, showed the best side of human nature.

Even though they have nothing and don't know where their next meal will come from after this one, they are still willing to share their only food and struggle to survive in this cruel world.

There is no doubt that this pure act of kindness without any distractions soon caught Ilmater's attention.

A golden light flashed across the shrine, and the priest was suddenly surprised to find that his priest level had actually been raised. He quickly expressed his gratitude to the god he served in his heart.

Unfortunately, the God of Suffering did not respond.

Because at this moment he was standing on the third floor of a brick building not far away, looking down at the entire slum. After a full minute, he asked, "What do you think of the kind actions of those people just now?"

"Well - how should I put it, it's indeed very touching, but I don't like it." Zuo Si expressed his thoughts directly.

"Oh? Why?"

Ilmater turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

Zuo Si smiled and explained, "Because in my opinion, problems caused by food shortages can actually be solved in other ways. This priest would rather starve himself than let others eat, which is certainly a very noble act, but he overlooked the most important and crucial part."

Ilmat seemed to understand something and nodded slightly: "I understand. Compared with the process, you actually value the change, the result, and the answer more."

"That's right! I never deny the greatness of selflessness, dedication and self-sacrifice.

But these alone cannot fundamentally change the current situation.

Look at this priest. Although he tried his best to help others, did he change anything in the end?

No, he didn't change anything, he just prolonged the lives of these poor people a little and alleviated the suffering they were enduring.

Once the temple's income and donations from the outside world decrease, some of these disabled people and children will inevitably die.

After all, their fate has never been in their own hands, but in the hands of others."

When saying this, there was no emotion in Zuo Si's tone, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

"If you were the priest of this temple, what would you do?"

There was a glimmer of curiosity in Ilmater's eyes.

Zuo Si raised his hand and extended his index and middle fingers: "Two methods.

First, find a way to find some work for these disabled people that they can do. It would be best if they could get some money to build a tavern, an inn or a small workshop.

In this way, they can not only earn a salary sufficient to support themselves through work, but also increase the income for the temple so that it can help more people.

Simply put, it means giving up the original approach of giving without asking for anything in return, and organizing these people to create value.

Although this method does not solve the problem from the root, it is at least much better than leaving your destiny entirely to the control of others.

The second method is to expose the greed and evil of the nobles and wealthy businessmen, stir up the anger of the poor at the bottom, and thoroughly intensify social contradictions.

Through means such as marches and strikes, they constantly forced the merchants and the aristocracy to compromise and make concessions, in order to attract more people from the lower classes to join.

At the same time, he had to secretly develop an army, bribe corrupt city guards to obtain weapons and equipment, and prepare for a head-on conflict with the Shadow Thieves Guild.

When the time is right, launch a riot that sweeps across the entire Athkatla, overthrow the rule of the Six-Man Council, and establish a new municipal council with the church as its core.

Finally, land and wealth are redistributed to make the entire society relatively fair.

This is the real solution to the problem at its root.”

"I can't believe I heard such remarks from a high-ranking official like you." Ilmater was obviously surprised, but soon he sighed involuntarily. "Alas - if we follow the second method to solve the problem from the root, the city will be flooded with blood and many people will die."

Zuo Si shrugged his shoulders and responded, “That can’t be helped.

If we want to bring about a thorough reform at the social level, we must overthrow the existing vested interest ruling group.

As far as I know, no vested interest group will willingly give up everything they have worked so hard to obtain.

So using violence is almost one of the necessary means to success.

This is also why I emphasize that a truly kind person can hardly become a good ruler.

Because no matter what decision is made, it is usually destined to sacrifice the interests of some people to satisfy the interests of others.

It takes an extremely rational and calculating mind to know when to sacrifice the lower classes of people and when to sacrifice the nobles and businessmen.

In addition, I dare to say this because I know that with your personality and ideas, you will never support such a bloody and violent social change. "

Upon hearing this, Ilmat couldn't help laughing. "Yes, I will never support these actions that could obviously lead to violence and death. Not only me, but also the God of Justice, the God of Loyalty and Courage will not support them. Tell me, what is it that brought you to me this time?"

Zuo Si made no secret and stated his purpose directly.

"Kalinshan?" Ilmat frowned subconsciously.

Although Calimshan has the largest number of believers due to its slavery system, he does not like this country at all.

Zuo Si nodded seriously. "Yes, Kalinshan. Not long ago, I reached a cooperation agreement with King Shane VII. We are going to take action against the Entangled Talisman and Ivyklathasagran "Sharp Teeth" to help them restore the Shane Dynasty."

"Shane VII? He's still alive!"

The God of Suffering was obviously very surprised by this.

After all, Shane VII had disappeared for nearly a thousand years by faking his death, and he was not like the goddess of magic who could instantly discover the identity of the spellcaster who connected to the magic network, so he knew nothing about it.

"Well. Not only is he still alive, but he has transformed himself into a lich. Since Calimshan is the place where you have the largest number of believers, I would like to ask about your attitude towards this matter." Zuo Si raised his head and looked into Ilmater's eyes.

The God of Suffering lowered his head and thought for a moment, then immediately replied, "Order is always better than chaos. Calimshan is now under the control of the Entangled Symbol and countless thieves' guilds, and it can't be any worse. Therefore, I have no objection to the restoration of King Shane VII."

"I feel relieved to hear you say that. Oh, by the way, King Shane VII also promised to abolish slavery after taking back his country in return for your support."

Zuo Si delivered the final assist at just the right moment.

"Abolish slavery? I'm afraid this is not King Shane VII's idea, but your proposal, right?"

Ilmater's face immediately revealed an undisguised look of joy.

Needless to say, in his eyes this is a hundred times more important than the restoration of the Shane Dynasty.

"Is there any difference?" Zuo Si smiled and spread his hands.

The God of Suffering also laughed: "If we are result-oriented, there is really no difference. Soth, you have not disappointed me, and you are constantly bringing good changes to this suffering world. Go tell Shane VII that I and the Church of the God of Justice will recognize and support his legitimate right to rule Calimshan."

"As you wish..."

Zuo Si placed one hand on his chest and bowed slightly.

Ilmater nodded in response with a smile, then turned into a golden light and disappeared without a trace.

"What a god we can't help but admire, isn't it?" the diary suddenly exclaimed.

"Yes! In Faerun, if there is still a god who can represent true kindness, it must be the God of Suffering. It's a pity that his teachings determine that he will never be able to become a powerful god, and he may even decline because the whole world is developing in a good direction. Maybe this is what they call good people don't get good rewards."

After saying that, Zuo Si no longer paid attention to the diary, but walked towards the stronghold of the new Talona sect not far away.

As the representative of the gods in the material world and with the status of a voter, he was not blocked at all and went directly to the huge statue of the goddess.

Before the several trainee priests who were cleaning could react, the sect leader Ilze rushed in from another room and drove everyone out of the hall, even himself.

After the area was completely cleared, a graceful young woman appeared out of nowhere right below the statue.

Needless to say, she is the incarnation sent down by Talona.

Different from her previous outfits, the goddess today put on a translucent, low-cut, sexy black gauze dress. She walked up to Zuo Si with an elegant and seductive step, held Zuo Si's cheeks with both hands and kissed her without saying a word.

When they separated, Zuo Si didn't even bother to wipe the saliva from his lips. He was shocked to find that his priest level had increased by ten levels, from LV5 to LV15.

Including the LV10 of the [Mystic] profession, the total spellcasting level of divine spells has reached LV25.

Not only that!

He also obtained three ten-ring spell slots and four legendary spell slots, as well as a unique legendary spell - [Summon the Avatar of Talona].

Yes!

The goddess of poison and disease generously granted the chosen people the magic to summon her anytime and anywhere.

It is estimated that throughout the history of Faerun, no other god's chosen people have ever received this honor.

Because for God, the existence of the chosen people is to carry out some dangerous tasks and fight against enemies who are inconvenient for him to appear in person.

If the elect were given the power to summon their own incarnations, it would be more cost-effective for them to do it directly.

"How about it, are you satisfied with this gift?" Talona raised the corners of her mouth with a playful smile.

"What else can I say? Of course I am very satisfied."

Zuo Si gave an affirmative answer without any affectation.

Although he knew that he had unintentionally helped the goddess to improve her divine power from weak to medium, the goddess would definitely give him huge rewards.

But I never expected that the rewards would be so amazing.

Needless to say, directly upgrading ten priest levels is extremely rare in any church of God.

Especially Zuo Si didn't have any faith in Talona at all.

But compared to being given three ten-ring spell slots and four legendary spell slots, ten priest levels are nothing.

As for the final [Summon the Incarnation of Talona], it is far beyond the scope of ordinary legendary magic.

So after a brief surprise, Zuo Si also took out his return gift, a small box covered with a powerful magical seal.

"What is this?" the goddess asked with a tone of slight surprise and joy.

"A key that can help you ascend to a powerful god before you obtain the priesthood of death." Zuo Si replied calmly.

"oh?!"

An expression of ecstasy instantly appeared on Talona's face, and she raised her hand and tore the lid of the box into pieces.

The next second...

Something that cannot be seen by the naked eye but emits a dazzling brilliance lies quietly in the middle of the box.

It looked so fragile and small, as if it could collapse at any moment.

Priesthood!

As a goddess, Talona recognized at a glance that this little gadget was exactly what countless gods were crazy about and longed for.

Especially those demigods who have not yet obtained the priesthood, are willing to pay any price to obtain even the most insignificant priesthood.

Without any hesitation!

Talona reached out her hand and carefully picked up the little thing and held it high above her head, feeling the complex rules contained in it. After about ten minutes, she couldn't help laughing out loud: "Hahahaha! It's spores! It's the spore priesthood! No wonder you said this is a key to powerful divine power.

With this, I can slowly develop the priesthood of fungi and compete with Lady Fungi Zuggmoi for the faith of the myconids.

More importantly, I could separate viruses and bacteria from the priesthood of disease, and together with fungi, they constitute an indispensable part of the natural cycle - degradation.

Once I do this, no one will be able to stop me from becoming a member of the powerful divine force.

Soth, you really brought me a huge surprise this time."

"All this is thanks to the Night Goddess Shar. It was she who used her divine blood and the mycelium left in the material world by Lady Fungus to help Angel Poison Core become the God of Spores. As for this priesthood, it was one of the trophies I got when I killed Angel Poison Core, and it is also the only thing that I can't use." Zuo Si shrugged nonchalantly.

"But to me, this is a priceless treasure. It seems... I must give you more in return."

Having said that, Talona immediately absorbed the spore priesthood, then opened her arms to give her chosen ones a hug, and let them feel her soft and broad "heart".

Seeing this, Zuo Si quickly dodged and refused, saying, "If this is the reward, forget it. I am not ready for it, and I cannot stand such stimulation."

"Hehe, don't be shy. There's a first time for everything. I promise, it's just a simple hug."

As the last word came out of her mouth, Talona took a step forward at lightning speed, hugged Zuo Si's head tightly in her arms, and her entire face was involuntarily sunken into it.

After about ten seconds, she finally let go of her hand and admired her constituent's slightly embarrassed look with a slightly amusement look.

There's no way not to be embarrassed!

You have to know that Zuo Si's body has entered puberty, which is the age when physical impulses are most likely to occur. How could he withstand such stimulation?

So he spent a long time to calm down the restless hormones in his body, and said in great annoyance: "If you do this again, I won't come next time."

"Don't be angry, I promise to ask for your opinion in advance next time." There was a hint of cunning in Talona's eyes.

You don't need to ask to know that the goddess obviously enjoys this kind of intimate and slightly ambiguous interaction.

Zuo Si shook his head helplessly and took out the [Talona's Favor] he carried with him: "Here, the soul of Angel Duxin is sealed in it. I think you have a score to settle with him."

"Ah! I would have forgotten it if you hadn't told me. Come, let me see what else this traitor has to say."

Talona reached out a finger and tapped the scepter lightly.

moment!

The captured and imprisoned soul emerged from inside.

The moment he saw the goddess of poison and disease, Angel Duxin's face changed drastically and he turned around and tried to escape through the roof.

It’s a pity that with only his soul left, how could he escape the control of a true God?

Before it could fly far, it was pulled back by a huge force.

"My once most beloved believer, where are you going? Do I scare you so much?" Talona sneered and mocked.

"Great goddess! Merciful goddess! Please let me go! I swear that after I am resurrected, I will serve you as my master again."

Angel Duxin knelt on the ground and begged without any shame.

Having briefly been the Spore God, he knew better than any mortal what a god could do to a defenseless soul.

Especially if you fall into the hands of a vengeful goddess like Talona, ​​it would be better for you to die directly.

"Humph! Let you go? Don't dream! I will squeeze out all the potential of your soul! You will be punished in eternal pain and despair!"

A ball of divine power containing a powerful curse suddenly burst out from Talona's palm and poured directly into Angel Duxin's soul.

The latter couldn't hold out for even a second, and immediately let out a heart-wrenching wail, and slowly from the depths of his soul, a large number of scalp-numbing, parasite-like things grew out.

As they devoured Angel Poison Core's soul, they released energy that could repair the damaged soul, causing the wound to heal and tear in a cycle...

(End of this chapter)