Chapter 201 Cult Leader: There are Cows, There are Cows! (Two-in-One)
“I…”
The Cult Leader staggered back a step.
He instinctively wanted to argue back, but he couldn’t organize a complete sentence.
Little Thousand Worlds, Middle Thousand Worlds, Great Thousand Worlds, Infinite Lands… those endless, infinitely stacked concepts seemed to extend in his mind like layers of a step pyramid, causing his thinking to become paralyzed.
And then there was the number of sands in the Mithro River that the other party had mentioned.
As the largest river in the West Continent, the residents of Deep Blue Harbor see it every day and are extremely familiar with it.
But how many people had ever considered how many grains of sand were actually deposited on the riverbed of the Mithro River?
Hundreds of millions, tens of billions, or even hundreds of billions, trillions?
The Cult Leader gritted his teeth.
He realized he could not be led around by the other side any longer; following Rast’s train of thought would only keep him in a passive position.
The only way to break out of this state was to outright deny everything the other party had said: “If we follow your assertion, that the so-called ‘Infinite Lands’ were created by the deity you believe in.”
“Then I ask you, what exists outside that so-called ‘Infinite Lands’? What was the state of the entire world before the ‘Infinite Lands’ were born, and who was the master before the birth of that Infinite Lands?”
With that, the Cult Leader let out a long sigh of relief.
After all, he was the leader of a cult and had a talent for persuasive speech in preaching.
Although he had been mentally shaken earlier by Rast’s theory of infinite nesting boxes, he quickly adjusted his state and launched a counterattack.
He directly reversed Rast’s nesting box theory, layering another doll outside Rast’s so-called “Infinite Lands.”
You say your deity created the “Infinite Lands,” but what lies outside the “Infinite Lands”? What was there before the “Infinite Lands” was opened? What is beyond that?
And once the Cult Leader had raised such questions, if Rast continued to stack boxes—creating more concepts like Little Infinite Lands, Middle Infinite Lands, and Great Infinite Lands.
Although this could keep the nesting doll cycle going, it would inevitably put Rast at a disadvantage in this theological debate or boast war.
However, facing the Cult Leader’s doubts, Rast merely smiled.
“I don’t know.”
You don’t know?
The other party actually admitted defeat just like that?
The Cult Leader was momentarily stunned but then showed a gleam of delight.
In such a heated debate, to voluntarily say “I don’t know” was tantamount to conceding defeat in his view.
Yet Rast’s words did not pause at all due to the Cult Leader’s excitement, instead, they immediately continued.
“Your Excellency, have you seen… an iceberg?”
“Iceberg?”
The Cult Leader was a bit taken aback.
Deep Blue Harbor was located in the subtropics, so there were naturally no chances to see an iceberg, but at this moment, it was already the steam age, and the speed of information transmission had greatly improved compared to the medieval period, so the Cult Leader could still understand the term iceberg.
That was a massive ice chunk floating on the ocean in the frigid regions of the extreme north.
“Due to density, the part of the iceberg that floats on the frigid ocean only reveals a small portion above water, merely a fraction of one twentieth.”
“Therefore, regardless of how the sailors on deck look out, what they observe of the exposed part of the iceberg is just an inconspicuous little corner.”
“It may look like an insignificant piece of floating ice, but below the surface of the water, it may hide an enormous object.”
“However, people who can only observe from the deck, no matter how hard they try to imagine the entire iceberg, are merely peering through a tube or trying to grasp an elephant by touch; they will never be able to know the whole picture of the iceberg.”
Rast paused for a moment: “And the deity I believe in is the same.”
He coldly scrutinized the Cult Leader before him: “Whether it’s ‘galaxies,’ ‘superclusters,’ or ‘Great Thousand Worlds,’ ‘Infinite Lands,’ these terms are definitions created by humans, concepts that can be understood by humans.”
“But how could an existence as great and vast as my deity be fathomed or understood by us insignificant humans?”
“Even everything I just said was full of praise, but just like sailors can only see a part of the iceberg above the sea but can never grasp the entire iceberg—what I described is just an insignificant aspect of my deity’s true power.”
“It is distorted, misinterpreted, and taken out of context by our shallow human viewpoints and knowledge… thus it has been reduced to a concept that we can barely understand.”
“And the real deity is an existence that humanity can never fathom.”
Rast’s words paused a bit.
“He transcends all matter, all meaning, all concepts, all spirit and language.”
“He is the cause of all results, and also the result of all causes. He has already traced back time, stepped into the oldest roots, so He has never had a moment of weakness.”
“He encompasses all possibilities in the world, embraces the past, present, and future, encompasses the beginning and the end… He is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful. Any contradictions in logic and causality can simultaneously exist in Him.”
“He is unobservable and unfathomable… neither can it be observed, nor can it be described, one word can be wrong, one thought can be erroneous.”
“The true deity does not need faith, does not require our worship, and certainly does not need so-called bl**d sacrifices.”
His tone slightly elevated: “And in the mundane world we live in, the deity we find ourselves in is merely an insignificant aspect and projection of His true form—”
“Thus, we can perceive His existence, we can pray to Him, and have so-called holy objects and divine revelations… and even if it is just a side that the deity projects in the mortal world, it is enough to exhaust the efforts of the wisest sages among humanity to fathom and seek.”
【666, I didn’t expect this activity could be played like this.】
【How did he design this speech? Little Thousand Worlds, Middle Thousand Worlds, Great Thousand Worlds… I’m getting dizzy just listening.】
【It should be stitched together with religious system rhetoric, but before this, I had never heard such a set of religious theories.】
【Look at those cultists beside him, the way they look at him is as if they are looking at the deity’s own child.】
【At this rate, it feels like this Little Ferret Candy is very likely to score extremely high—becoming the cult leader himself, how high of a modification to the original plot is this?】
【The only issue is that Little Ferret Candy has been active in the cult organization’s territory all this time, constantly suffering from the pollution of that pollutant—he could be forcibly logged out of ‘Guardian’s Poem’ at any moment due to low mental points.】
【Even if the plot modification rate is high, if he doesn’t survive long enough, it will still be difficult to climb to a top position on the leaderboard.】
Lines of b*llet comments flew by rapidly.
And in the live stream’s visuals—
“I I I I…”
The Cult Leader once again staggered back a few steps.
He originally thought he had finally grasped Rast’s tricks and rhetoric, that they would continue to chase each other on the nesting doll and stacking box track.
But unexpectedly, the reason Rast had retreated earlier was to prepare a major move at this moment.
It was like two people arguing over whose combat power was higher, originally staying at the level of who could cause more destruction, you blow up a street, I blow up a city, he blows up a country…
But halfway through, someone suddenly says that His power cannot be described with human words, is unknowable and indescribable, so everything we argue about is wrong, all our speculation is absurd.
How are we supposed to continue?
This is completely impossible to discuss!
The other party had completely killed the competition.
And the most crucial point was, listening to Rast’s exposition about the deity.
The Cult Leader felt as if his worldview had been thoroughly cleansed by the other party.
His past understanding of the deity was so superficial, attempting to use human language and words to describe a great existence that transcended all concepts and causality.
Compared to the deity Rast described, the god he had once believed in—seemed to suddenly become inferior, completely unworthy of the greatness beyond everything he had portrayed, not fitting the definition of a true deity.
For a moment, even the Cult Leader began to doubt his life.
He was contemplating a possibility—
Was it possible that the other party was indeed a true emissary of the deity… while he himself was merely a fool tricked by a vile false god, a fraud parading around?
However, the Cult Leader had been in contact with the pollutant for the longest time, and his spirit was most deeply corrupted, so he would not easily waver in his faith in the Evil God.
Thus, the previous self-doubt was merely a fleeting thought in his mind.
The Cult Leader looked at the sympathetic expression on Rast’s face, then at the backstabbers lurking behind him, and the d*e-hard supporters beside himself who also displayed signs of being swayed by Rast’s words, his expression turned solemn.
He knew he had already lost this theological debate utterly, with no chances of turning it around.
If he allowed the other party to sway opinions further, it wouldn’t be long before these originally unwavering d*e-hard followers would likely start to waver and turn to the other side.
However, he still had one last chance to prove his identity.
“You said earlier that I am a fraud who has stolen the deity’s holy objects and is parading under the deity’s name, right?”
The Cult Leader glared fiercely at Rast: “So, my status as a favored one may be false, but the deity’s holy object is true, right?”
“Of course.”
Rast nodded calmly.
“Good, you said it yourself.”
The Cult Leader’s expression turned harsh.
He directly took out a small box from his bosom and opened it with a quick motion.
Inside the wooden box was a black iron sculpture.
This was the pollutant of the Evil God and also the root cause of the Iron Cross Plague in Deep Blue Harbor.
【I can’t believe he actually brought this out.】
【In my memory, in all previous limited-time event challenges, no one has ever successfully obtained this pollutant— even if they painstakingly broke through the cult organization’s base, it would always be proactively destroyed by this Cult Leader before they could secure it.】
Rows of b*llet comments flew by.
All players knew that this Evil God sculpture, as the holy object of the Evil God, was also the origin of the Iron Cross Plague, making it an extremely important quest item in the entire Deep Blue Harbor event.
If they could get this key item, the final score would definitely receive a significant boost.
But regrettably, up until now, no one had successfully gotten their hands on this Evil God sculpture.
First, this sculpture was kept closely guarded by the Cult Leader, so to obtain it, one would have to break through the entire cult organization’s base.
And even if those players contacted the Deep Blue Harbor Police Department and used their force to do so, that Cult Leader would certainly destroy this pollutant proactively, not leaving it for enemies knowing that the situation was dire.
Therefore, even being aware of its importance, throughout three months of limited-time events, among the tens of millions of players of ‘Guardian’s Poem’, no one had managed to acquire it.
However, at this moment—
That Cult Leader actually took the initiative to bring out that pollutant, right in front of this player called Little Ferret Candy.
“The deity’s holy object is also a manifestation of the deity’s will.”
“Then, in fact, we don’t need to debate like before— we only need to let the deity’s holy object make a choice, and it will naturally determine who is the true favored one and who is the cheating fraud.”
The Cult Leader’s expression was fierce.
He placed that sculpture on the ground and then took out a short dagger from his bosom.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Cult Leader turned his wrist and the glint of the short dagger flashed, splattering a drop of bl**d.
The bl**d dripped onto the Evil God sculpture, rising white smoke, and it seemed that the Evil God sculpture was gradually waking up under the stimulus of the bl**d, continuously humming and trembling, gaining its own vitality.
This was the Cult Leader’s last resort, but it was also his method of turning the tables.
A hint of confidence returned to the Cult Leader’s eyes as he glanced at Rast across from him.
Look, no matter how eloquently you speak, as long as the deity’s holy object awakens, then everything will be revealed!
Time passed second by second, and the bl**d-colored patterns on that sculpture became increasingly clear and distinct, fully revitalized as if it had acquired its own life.
Until at one moment, the sculpture suddenly levitated, rippling with bl**d-colored waves in mid-air.
Then—
In the eager gaze of the Cult Leader, that revived and levitating Evil God sculpture sketched a light bl**d-colored arc in the air—
And just like that, it swept past in front of the Cult Leader.
Ultimately, it landed straight into Rast’s hand, lying down obediently.
It was like a goddess rushing into someone else’s arms while the desperate gaze of a devoted admirer looked on.
(End of Chapter)
