Chapter 414: The Noble Goddess’s Truthful Lies
Owen only believed half of what the Goddess of Nobility said. If he were in her position, the best approach would be to support one faction in rebuilding the Empire, then suppress the other new gods and reap the benefits. The Goddess of Nobility had both the power and the motive to do so.
Never underestimate the Goddess of Nobility. She may be lacking in other areas, but in the mortal world, the power she wields is beyond anyone’s imagination.
This is mainly due to the Goddess of Nobility’s target audience. Although nobles have countless flaws as believers, they possess one thing other gods envy: power and influence.
Even if only one-tenth of her noble followers fully carried out her divine decrees, the influence a single noble could exert is unimaginable to ordinary people. Combined, it becomes a terrifying figure.
Most importantly, the Goddess of Nobility’s faith spreads throughout the entire Main World. You may not believe in her, but you cannot ignore her. She is the patron goddess of nobles, the guardian of class, the deity who naturally stands on the side of nobles and those in power.
Besides this, as the Goddess of Nobility, her strategic thinking and overall perspective are definitely not lacking. If she wants to, rebuilding the Empire is not a difficult task.
But what’s interesting is that the Goddess of Nobility chooses to remain uninvolved, even though she has the ability.
Therefore, after returning, Owen summoned Maya and the others. He began to analyze the hidden information within the meeting, word by word. With the Goddess of Nobility’s status, she deserved this kind of treatment.
After some analysis, the first conclusion they reached was that the Goddess of Nobility was not lying. At least, everything she said in front of Owen was true.
This did not surprise Owen and the others. After becoming a god, unless one possessed a related divine authority, lies were easily detected.
But this was worse than a lie. For a skilled liar, nine truths and one lie were not the most sophisticated deception. The most masterful lies were those told with complete honesty while maintaining absolute information control, deceiving people to their deaths. Therefore, the Goddess of Nobility must have withheld crucial information.
Now, the most important thing for Owen and the others was not to identify which sentence was a lie, but to find the misleading part and analyze the hidden information.
This was not easy. Judging from her divine authority, her scheme must involve the entire mortal world, with even the Northern Glory Alliance being a pawn on the chessboard. Moreover, it had nothing to do with whether Owen’s territory cooperated or not. Under the circumstances where all major forces were reduced to pawns, even if they understood the situation, they had no choice but to play along.
Upon seeing that Maya and the others had even included the Underworld in their information summary, Owen immediately lost interest. The Goddess of Nobility was not worth expending so much energy on.
At his current growth rate, by the time Maya and the others figured things out, even if he had not yet ascended to an Intermediate God, his combat power would not be much inferior to hers. So, Owen was unwilling to waste his energy on this.
Although he had lost interest, Owen did not stop Maya and the others from continuing, as it would benefit the future development of the territory.
Just as Owen was about to leave, he suddenly froze, struck by a thought that had just crossed his mind.
“Spread faith in the Elf Kingdom?” Maya was stunned at first, then overjoyed upon hearing Owen’s words. This was a great idea, and if successful, a whole kingdom would be theirs.
It was no wonder Maya thought so highly of it. Owen was a genuine Elf deity, recognized even by other Elf pantheons. Therefore, spreading faith in the Elf Kingdom was perfectly legitimate.
Moreover, the Elf Kingdom was one of the Five Southern Kingdoms. Although not the strongest, it was still a kingdom. If they could conquer it, it would echo Owen’s territory in the north and south, effectively establishing a foothold in the south. If Owen wanted to dominate the world in the future, this would undoubtedly be a huge help.
As for whether Owen would actually aim for world domination, he might not have such ambitions, but Maya couldn’t help but make preparations in advance.
“I have a feeling that the Goddess of Nobility might be trying to prevent me from spreading my teachings in the Elf Kingdom.” As Maya was busy working, Owen suddenly seemed to have figured something out and voiced his thought.
Maya’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. She thought, if the Goddess of Nobility was truly playing a grand game, she couldn’t allow anyone to disrupt the board and increase the variables. Therefore, this conjecture was likely true.
Although Owen’s territory was impregnable, its years of isolation resulted in minimal variables on the chessboard. Even if they suddenly became ambitious, their influence would be limited to the Northland, having little impact on the overall game.
However, the Elf Kingdom was different. Along with the Dwarf Kingdom, it was a crucial part of the former Empire. If it fell into Owen’s hands, the variables would not be as simple as 1+1.
Of course, this was just Owen and Maya’s speculation. They couldn’t be sure of the truth. After all, she was the goddess representing nobility. To say that she lacked cunning and didn’t know how to scheme would be a joke.
What troubled Owen was that he had just become a god, and most of his energy was spent on organizing his faith, accumulating divine power, transforming his divine body, and constructing his Divine Realm. He also had to respond to prayers and create divine spells. Maintaining one Ogre avatar was already challenging enough. The territory was currently developing the Underworld market and establishing trade relations. There was also the entire world of the Mountain Range Otherworld that needed to be developed. He simply couldn’t spare the energy to spread his faith in the Elf Kingdom.
After struggling for a while, Owen ultimately decided to put this matter aside for now.
Spreading his teachings in the Elf Kingdom was good, but it wasn’t worth giving up the benefits he already had. Whether it was the Underworld or the Mountain Range Otherworld, as long as he invested resources to complete the initial construction, he could sit back and wait for the continuous returns.
Not to mention, the Divine Shield had expanded a hundredfold in scale and become a thousand times more complex, taking up a significant amount of the territory’s energy.
These matters were related to the future development of the territory. Owen certainly couldn’t interrupt them for the sake of spreading his teachings in the faraway Elf Kingdom, which was still uncertain.
Maya understood this as well. She simply drafted a plan and instructed their people within the Divine Shield to gather some intelligence. As for when to put the plan into action, they would have to wait for the right opportunity.
Next, Owen focused his energy on learning how to be a qualified deity. He also paid his internet fee and got a connection from the Divine Net.
Although getting connected to the Divine Net consumed a lot of Owen’s divine power, it was worth it for the sake of online freedom and to prevent his browsing history from being leaked.
Through the Goddess of Nobility, Owen was no longer unfamiliar with the Divine Net and had learned a lot from it. Although most of it was basic knowledge, as a new god, that was exactly what he lacked.
Thanks to the vast knowledge provided by the Divine Net, Owen’s worldview expanded even further. He gradually gained a deeper understanding of the Void, worlds, laws, origins, and other concepts.
This was both a good and a bad thing. Sometimes, the more you knew, the more anxious you became.
Fortunately, Owen was currently just a newbie god. Even if the world was destroyed, it wouldn’t be his responsibility to shoulder the burden.
