For ordinary gods, the world did not change at all. But when the bronze man was born, it silently shook the hearts of many gods.
Whether it was the new gods who had eaten the golden apples, or the old gods like Helios who had been restricted to medium power for thousands of years, they all noticed the changes that had taken place.
So, in less than a hundred years, Hades returned to Mount Olympus again, sitting on a bronze chariot.
Of course, perhaps it cannot be described as "short", after all, not much time has passed since its birth.
Looking at the rebuilt shrine, Hades couldn't help but compare it with his own. Then he easily came to the conclusion that the ground was better than the underground.
It's not a problem with the building itself, but that Hades can use as many gems and as precious materials as possible to build a temple for himself, but it cannot change the desolate and remote status quo there.
He himself doesn't care, but since all the gods besides him care, he has to care too.
"Hades, you're here too?"
"Our good brother is really extraordinary. He can always create something extraordinary. Fortunately, he didn't hide it this time, otherwise no one would know what kind of field he would secretly go to."
Even though it was still far away, Poseidon's loud voice still came through.
Hades looked in the direction of the sound and saw Poseidon flying towards Mount Olympus alone in the south.
This was a good thing. After all, before this, Hades was worried that Poseidon would bring his sea god relatives with him. Fortunately, at least when it came to eating alone, his brother never let anyone down.
"Don't waste time, Poseidon. Our sisters are here too, so don't keep them waiting."
Hades said it briefly, without any intention of saying more. He walked into the meeting hall first, and seeing this, the Sea King had no choice but to follow him.
Behind them, Helios, who had just left to put the sun chariot away, also hurried over. In fact, if the existence of the sun was not too important to mortals, he would not have been able to be left out, and the king of gods would not have wanted to let the Titan god join in the feast.
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There are many temples on Mount Olympus, most of which are the residences of the true gods. However, near the top of the mountain, the God King ordered the construction of a palace for the gods to resolve conflicts and discuss matters.
He named the temple Rector, which means a just and honest place.
Today, all the gods who received the notice from Zeus gathered together. They were at least of medium or higher power, and some were even of great power. They all knew the purpose of this trip, which was for the newly born human beings.
The only exception was Prometheus. As the creator of bronze humans, he was allowed to attend the meeting and even sat in a very front seat.
Before this, no one understood what faith was, let alone where this power came from or why weak humans suddenly possessed this ability.
Prometheus didn't know either, but he had at least had in-depth contact with the golden humans, which was why he was sitting here.
"Everyone."
Sitting in the main seat, Zeus's majesty grew day by day. Seeing the last participant entering the hall, he slowly spoke.
"It was proven in the Golden Age that human faith can enhance divine power. Unfortunately, for various reasons, the gods at that time did not take this seriously."
Zeus had heard Prometheus mention this before, but the God King thought that besides the fact that their minds had been modified, there might be other reasons.
For example, his father God did something secretly and gained enough power from it. Unfortunately, the God King knew nothing about it.
"It is worth celebrating that the son of the Titan god Iapetus, the wise man of foresight, created bronze humans. Under his advice, the souls of the new humans were naturally generated, which made us pay attention to this secret."
Looking around, Zeus continued,
"You are all gods of Olympus, and our interests are naturally the same. I am willing to share this discovery with you, but we should also unite when facing other invaders."
The God King knew very well that among all the powerful gods in the world, only his sister Hestia was really willing to fight for him unconditionally. Besides, without the bond of interests, they would at most not go against the God Court.
In this situation, Zeus decisively chose to share the benefits, as long as he could get the biggest share as the king of gods.
And he had to do it quickly and steadily. He had to gain enough faith from his adoptive father before the primitive gods noticed. The God King was now extremely grateful that Mother Earth had fallen asleep. Otherwise, although he did not understand the power of faith very well, as the incarnation of the earth, Gaia would definitely receive a portion naturally.
"What about the other Titan gods?"
On the left side of the hall, Demeter, who had completely gotten rid of the influence of the power of time, looked at Zeus and asked:
"For example, your adoptive parents, are they excluded?"
He said nothing, because Zeus knew someone else would speak for him.
As expected, Poseidon responded directly back.
"Demeter, as our sister, I can barely understand that you have been at sea for so long that you may have developed some respect and affection for those two, but I hope you remember that your brother also has a place on the sea."
Hearing this, Demeter fell silent. She did have a lot of respect for the goddess of water, but it was not enough to make her fall out with her brother over it.
After waiting for a while, and seeing that no one had any objections, Zeus slowly said,
"It seems that we have reached a consensus, so it is settled. We will share our faith and it will not be taken away by other gods."
"So now, do you have any ideas on how to make humans offer their faith? Bronze humans are not like the golden generation of the past. Although the faith they bring has become stronger, they may not necessarily still be pious."
"We need some way to make them keep the gods in mind."
"fear."
Without hesitation, the Sun God was the first to step forward. He was only a step away from having powerful divine power, and his faith gave him hope.
"Let mankind build temples to the gods, offer sacrifices and worship them, just like the Golden Generation did."
"If they don't obey, then bring down drought, storms, earthquakes, and floods. When they are frightened, they will naturally pray devoutly for mercy from the gods."
"I object."
Prometheus retorted immediately.
He was happy to see humans providing faith for the gods. After all, the more important they were, the less likely the gods would want to exterminate them. However, he could not accept Helios' statement.
"Pure violence cannot gain your sincere faith. Just like the previous God King used violence to make you submit, judging from the result, he failed to gain your true loyalty."
"you--"
Helios was furious, and Prometheus' words pierced his heart. But just as he was about to say something, he stopped under Zeus' sharp gaze.
"continue."
Turning around, Zeus said to Prometheus.
With a slight bow, the forerunner continued to state his point of view.
"Facts tell us that suffering can only make people submit, but kindness can make others respect you. Just like children treat their parents, they do it not out of fear, but out of love."
"So the gods should protect humans and bestow blessings on them, so that humans will truly believe in them and our faith will continue unabated."
Zeus nodded. This was also the first time he had come into contact with the power of faith. In fact, he felt that both sides had their reasons.
It is indeed difficult for people to respect power from the bottom of their hearts, but thinking about himself, Zeus felt that even if someone had always been nice to him, he might not necessarily respond in kind.
If nothing else, the baby that is still developing in his body is proof of that.
"Hestia, my sister, what do you think about this matter?"
She was a little surprised as she didn't expect Zeus to ask her this question all of a sudden, but the Goddess of Fire and Protection still stood up and expressed her opinion.
"I think anything imposed on others is unreasonable. If it were me, I would tell mankind that those who believe in me can be protected and receive grace. The more pious they are, the more rewards I will give them. I will not punish those who do not believe in me, but let them go. But if they dare to blaspheme the gods and insult them, I will bring disaster upon them."
"Since God has given humans free will, they should follow it. Otherwise, the faith brought by the golden humans would not have been so weak in the past. This may be a warning from the world to the gods."
Chapter 164 The Myth Begins Here
"You are so kind and wise."
After Hestia finished speaking, Prometheus couldn't help but praise her. The gods nodded one after another after hearing this. This was indeed a good idea, but Hades, who had been silent all along, expressed a different opinion.
"My sister, your idea is good, but how do we measure the degree here?"
"Unless a mortal is standing right in front of us, we have no way of judging whether a particular human is pious or faithless. In today's world, the power of the gods has been limited."
"Moreover, if a devout human being is willing to give everything for God, but demands to gain divinity and enjoy eternal life, is this equal?"
"To mortals, he gave everything. But to God, no matter how pious a person is, he can never be compared with divinity."
The hall fell silent again. It must be said that what Pluto said made sense.
The divinity that grants immortality to one life is insignificant to God, but the divinity that grants immortality to a hundred people would damage even the most powerful God.
"Lady Themis."
In the silence, the God King spoke.
"You are a fair judge and a supervisor of justice, so I hope to use the power of the [Golden Scale] to make a ruling on this matter."
"I have no objection." The goddess of justice nodded and said, "But the [Golden Scales] cannot measure the size of faith. This magical power seems difficult to be controlled by the artifact."
"So if you're going to put 'human piety' on one side of the scale, there needs to be something that represents piety more."
The God King frowned and hesitated. If faith itself could not be measured, and the gods could not personally come to the mortal world to sense it one by one, then how could they know the purity of mortals' faith?
"Then measure it by the sacrifices they offer to the gods." Prometheus suddenly said: "If a person is willing to give more to the gods than he keeps for himself, then such a person must be pious."
"For such a pious mortal, the gods should naturally respond to him, so as to encourage more humans to learn from him."
"good."
His expression softened, Zeus thought this made perfect sense.
As for faith, it was the first time for the gods to get involved. They had no experience, so they could only try their best.
"So be it. Those who believe in God will be rewarded according to their piety. Those who do not believe will be left alone."
"As the King of Gods, I first make a promise here: There is little that I cannot give to those who believe in me. What mortals can gain from me depends only on the degree of their piety."
First of all, Zeus made a promise, but he was careful not to make a specific commitment. After all, as the guardian of the oath, his promise itself was binding.
Such a broad statement also helps him to make adjustments according to the situation.
"Then I will allow the devout to ignite the flame. The authority of [Guardian] will be associated with the flame from now on, and the disasters in the world will not be able to approach."
Hestia also made a promise. Although her authority over [Fire] only involved the burning of matter, [Protection] could give it another meaning.
On the side, after her sister finished speaking, Demeter also followed suit.
"Then I will give them evergreen fruit trees that will never wither, and they will never be hungry again."
Even if the power cannot be exerted in the mortal world, this macro application of power can still be accomplished on Mount Olympus. Demeter believes that mortals pay more attention to food than others.
Seeing the three gods set an example, the gods also followed suit and made promises to attract human belief. After all, as the forerunners said, obedience brought about by oppression can only be superficial. If there is no belief from the heart, it is difficult for humans to generate the power of faith even if they worship them every day.
"Very good, then it's settled."
With a smile on his face, when everything was over, the King of Gods looked around at the gods and finally stopped at Prometheus.
"Son of Iapetus, go back to the creatures you created and tell them about the greatness of the gods. I think you can do this well."
"I will obey your will."
Prometheus was also very satisfied, for he had foreseen a bright future for mankind. The gods had given their blessings, and mankind would surely become the leader of all spirits. So he left the sacred mountain and flew towards the human world.
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The gods dispersed, but Zeus remained in the hall.
Although he did a lot today, in fact the God King was just going with the flow.
He didn't really show much concern for the bronze man's faith, but since this had attracted the attention of other gods, he simply called them over.
After all, among all the gods present, he was the only one who, relying on the authority of the God King, could sense that the power of the Foresighted One was increasing almost every moment.
Although this was also related to his own weak divine power, the increase was still too fast.
"Prometheus, you are right. True faith is like a child's faith in his mother. It is not born out of fear, but out of love. But tell me, what kind of gift can make children abandon their parents and worship other beings instead?"
He whispered to himself, "A person who can betray his parents can also betray others. Such a person cannot be said to have faith. Perhaps huge benefits can make them believe, but Zeus did not want to pay this price, so until the end of this meeting, he did not bring up the matter of creating women."
Because if even women were created, and the bronze humans continued like this, then who would be the biggest beneficiary of faith, him or Prometheus?
"One or two hundred years, no more than three hundred years at most, the number of humans who cannot reproduce is still very limited. Even if Prometheus still has some materials left to create humans, he can only create one more round at most. After a few years, we can find a reason for him to complete it."
"In the next generation, I want humans to create themselves with the help of God. In this way, the mortal creator will no longer be a creator."
Making the decision in secret and thinking about the next generation of humans, the God King suddenly had an idea.
He reached out and touched the surrounding space, and an invisible network emerged. The elements were bound by the network and moved along a specific trajectory. As long as the corresponding "string" was plucked, different element changes would be triggered in the material world.
That was the Magic Net. In the past, Zeus had studied this thing out of curiosity about witchcraft, and the Magic Net had indeed never refused to use any being.
But in the end, the God King came to a regrettable conclusion. These elements are of no use to God. Even if the divine power is combined with them, it will only turn it into a weaker force, a diluted energy that only has some of the characteristics of divine power.
But in today's world, Zeus suddenly realized that being weaker than divine power might not necessarily be a bad thing.
".Not in a hurry yet."
"It is not necessary now. There are still few humans. It is not yet time for the gods to divide the territory among humans. Let's wait until the next generation. When they are all over the earth, they will be truly needed."
"How can a simple gift be enough? Those who believe in me should also be able to pick up swords and fight for my reputation in the world."
Holding the handle of the throne tightly, Zeus knew that the so-called "shared" faith would not last long after all. Just as those who obeyed the orders of several kings at the same time were necessarily disloyal, unless they were like the golden humans in the past, those who believed in several gods at the same time would not be very pious.
At this time, when the number of humans is large enough, this division is bound to occur. As the king of gods, as long as Zeus does not take action first, justice will always be on his side.
If his followers were able to kill other followers, it could be attributed to the spontaneous behavior of mortals. If a god wanted to intervene, the God King would be able to take the initiative to stop him.
In one hand is a sword, in the other hand is grace. The sword comes from mortals, and grace belongs to gods. This is Zeus' ideal world.
"Soon."
"After hundreds of years, Mother Earth probably hasn't woken up yet."
Whispering softly, the God King made plans secretly. Of course, the gods who attended the meeting before also had different ideas.
The forerunners returned to the human world and taught the newborn humans all kinds of knowledge. Hades returned to the underworld and watched the dead worship the moon in silence. Poseidon thought hard, trying to get some humans that belonged to him in the future. And near the place where the bronze humans were born, there were also figures walking slowly.
Perhaps for the present world, the change of the God King represents the change of the era. But for Chaos, perhaps now is the beginning of the third era.
All myths started from this point, whether true or false, are left to future generations to judge. The more distant past was buried in the long river of history with the disaster at the turn of the era, leaving only a few words that are difficult to guess and identify.
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 165 Traveling Together and Brilliant
Undoubtedly, no matter how Prometheus is evaluated from other perspectives, his preference for humans is indeed sincere.
Perhaps there were other thoughts mixed in, such as secretly being surprised at the increase in his own divine power, but that was not the main reason. He liked his creations, so he was willing to do things for them and always consider them from their perspective. This was the reason for everything he did in the past, present, and future.
So Prometheus returned to the place where man was created, which was a plain in the east of the continent, not far from the sea. He flew high into the sky and observed from the perspective of God where there were cattle, sheep, and grains, and then guided humans to go and get them back.
He taught humans writing, allowing them to write and communicate. He taught humans knowledge, which was all learned from the dreams of the king of the golden humans in the last era. He also relied on his divine body to drive away wild beasts for humans.
Later, however, the forerunners gradually discovered that this meticulous care made some humans lazy. They enjoyed the gifts from the Creator but were unwilling to work.
So after thinking about it, Prometheus decided not to do it himself. He would use his wisdom to help humans and then let them do everything themselves.
From then on, Prometheus lived with his brother in the human settlement and told them how to solve various problems.
Of course, he did not forget the most important thing. The Illuminati guided the construction of temples dedicated to the gods and described the greatness of each god one by one. He built the temple of the God King in the most magnificent way and then asked people to offer tributes to the gods.
The gods responded to humanity, just as they had promised, and when humanity offered the gods more and better things than they had themselves, the gods still blessed them, even though they did not really care about the offerings.
From then on, the places where humans lived had good weather and the fruit-bearing plants were evergreen all year round. When people lit torches, ordinary beasts would avoid them, and disasters such as earthquakes and storms never occurred in places where humans lived.
Everything was fine. The gods gained faith as expected, and humans benefited. Prometheus even used the remaining materials to create humans under the order of the God King. But this time, he created a child similar to the infancy of the gods. The foresight hoped that this way could make the God King realize that it was time to give women to humans.
In this way, several years passed quickly.
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It is another year of harvest, and also a day to offer sacrifices to the gods.
Under the guidance of Prometheus, humans flocked to the temples built for different gods, where they offered most of the year's harvest to prove their piety.
Therefore, in human settlements, the bustling scenes of the past are no longer seen, and instead appear a bit deserted.
Walking on the human streets and looking at everything around him, Ryan picked a fruit from a tree by the roadside and handed it to Lyanna beside him.
The faithful angel took the fruit, but just held it in his arms without any intention of eating it.
"Lyanna, don't always look so sullen. Don't you think this place is interesting?"
He shook his head slightly, looking at the trees around him that were full of fruits.
Although with the birth of the three goddesses of the spirit world, spring, summer and autumn have become more obvious in Chaos, but under the authority of Demeter, the fruit trees here are still evergreen.
Even standing on Mount Olympus, the gods still have a huge influence on the world.
"Within a few years, without the help of divine power, humans have built such a large-scale settlement. If I hadn't seen more powerful things, I would be surprised by this."
Admiring the quaint and primitive buildings around, the bronze humans are still building houses with wood and stone.
Everything seems rough and orderly, and a thriving atmosphere arises here.
"But what good will that do? All it takes is an earthquake or a falling meteorite, and everything they have will turn to dust."
Standing next to Ryan, Lyanna asked confusedly.
If Ryan hadn't come, the Moon Goddess would never have come to any human tribe, and she didn't think it was a big deal.
Just like when humans see beasts without wisdom, they will not lament, "If I don't have wisdom, I can't do as well as them," because wisdom is a natural gift of humans, just as divine power is a natural gift of God.
So Ryan was not surprised by Lyanna's idea. In addition to faith, what the gods really valued about humans was creativity. Or, perhaps it was precisely because of their creativity that they had faith.
Ryan is not sure about this, and humans have not had time to show anything about the latter.
"They seem useless, but they can generate faith, and you don't know why they can generate faith. At least in this respect, they still have their merits."
Responding to Lyanna's question with words that were easy to understand, Ryan noticed that a young man was sitting there blankly next to a wooden house not far away.
He looked vaguely in the direction of the temple, but did not go there to worship the gods like other humans.
"You will understand later, Lyanna. This is civilization. Everything is changing, only change itself remains unchanged. And civilization itself is the source of 'change'."
"Let's go and take a look."
Lyanna seemed to understand, but she followed him. Soon, they came to the young man.
As if noticing the person coming, the young man raised his head slightly, and his originally cloudy eyes instantly became clear.
"God."
Calm tone, affirmative judgment. In the mortal world, it is already difficult for gods to judge whether each other has divine power, but Lyanna's existence is proof of this.
There are no women among humans, so the one who comes must be a god.
"Well, isn't it the same for you?"
Nodding and smiling as he sat down next to the young man, Ryan motioned for Lyanna to sit down as well.
"I brought her along to see the world. After all, with her current condition, it will be difficult for her to make further progress in the future."
"No matter what you do, you must always learn to plan ahead and not wait until trouble strikes before thinking about solving it."
With his eyes slightly narrowed, Epimetheus still did not relax. He did not think it was a coincidence that he came to the human tribe on this special day.
"I'm afraid there's not much to see here. Apart from my brother and I, there are only a bunch of ignorant mortals."
"hehe."
With a light laugh, Ryan could feel that Lyanna's gaze towards the other party was already a little unfriendly.
However, the man in front of him was understandably wary, and he knew why he was wary. So he tried to comfort him,
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not here for your brother. And even if no one noticed his actions, he probably wouldn't be able to continue to succeed."
Epimetheus was silent again. The other party really knew what his brother was going to do, and he should not have remained indifferent. But as Ryan said, even if Prometheus escaped this time, he would not be able to succeed forever.
He always believed that anything that could happen was destined to happen under the endless time of the gods. Epimetheus had not supported Prometheus's actions before, but the other party obviously did not care about the advice of his foolish brother.
In the past few years, the forerunner watched humans offer the best parts of cattle and sheep to the gods and the best grains as tribute. At first, he thought it was natural. But later, as time passed, Prometheus, who ate and lived with humans, felt a little unbalanced.
The blessings bestowed by the gods are only a small use of their authority and do not affect their power much, but the tributes provided by humans are real. The more you give to the gods, the worse your life will obviously be.
If the gods really needed these tributes, then Prometheus would have accepted them in exchange for their blessings, but he knew very well that the gods did not need them. They were happy for human piety and secretly delighted by the existence of the power of faith, but then they threw these tributes away.
Seeing the fruits of his creations' labor being wasted in this way, the Foresighted One couldn't help but have some inappropriate thoughts in his mind.
"Then why are you here?"
Epimetheus was a little irritated, knowing that Prometheus would not have a good ending. He tried to persuade him, but on the one hand, it was ineffective, and on the other hand, he felt that this could not be changed, so he had to let it go, but this did not mean that he felt better.
He even began to feel some dislike for humans, a creature that he had originally had some fondness for.
"If I have to say it, it's probably for the sake of witnessing."
After a moment of hesitation, Ryan spoke slowly.
"Witnessing the crime, witnessing the sacrifice, and of course, waiting for someone."
"There aren't many people in this world who meet my requirements and have 'potential', but I think he is one of them."
If Yi Wenjielin could feel it, Ryan could naturally feel it too. That pure and powerful belief attracted his attention at the first moment.
When the Lord of the Spiritual World casts his gaze over there, the traces of history become clearly visible, but this is not enough. The most ancient human king still has illusions, after all, he has never really seen the ruthlessness of the gods towards humans. So Ryan is not in a hurry to contact him, but just pays a little attention.
He believed that a truly outstanding hero could blossom the most brilliantly under the strongest emotions.
As for Ryan, he didn't need to do anything. After all, the gods on Mount Olympus were like that.