All Gods: Starting with Two Families

Chapter 168 Territory DevelopmentHalf a year.

Just half a year.

The changes in the Us Territory were enough to make anyone who hadn’t returned in half a year wonder if they had gone to the wrong place.

The harbor docks had been expanded threefold, with ships coming and going every day.

The merchant ships of the Water Snake Family had hoisted their flags again, their routes reaching further than before, and their fleets were larger than ever.

Those shipping routes that once required paying protection money had now all become their own backyard.

On the surface, it was commerce.

In secret, it was piracy.

The White Shark Pirate Group, led by Serena, had now become the most terrifying name in these waters.

Old K’s head had been hung from the prow of the ship for three days as a warning, and since then, no blind pirate had dared to provoke them again.

The Gluttonous One led that group of newly promoted sequence 9 [Decoys], like a group of talking underwater scouts, clearly figuring out exactly where valuable shipwrecks, isolated merchant ships, and dangerous reefs were located.

The treasures in the shipwrecks, the cargo on the merchant ships, and the protection money collected by the pirate group—all flowed endlessly into the Us Territory.

And then there were those Water Snake breathing techniques that had been improved by Zhou Zheng.

Serena broke down the breathing techniques into several parts and taught them in batches to her confidants.

Those pirates who originally could only rely on brute force to fight started to have real combat techniques.

A group of pirates who only knew brute force was not scary, but a group of pirates who had Cultivated top-tier breathing techniques was the most terrifying nightmare on the sea.

Gold coins poured in like flowing water.

Leon Us looked at those account books and remained silent for a long time.

He had never seen so much money in his Life.

...

The first thing he did was build churches.

The waterways were already under control; there were no threats and nothing to worry about.

Leon Us waved his hand, and construction began all over the territory.

Not just one, but over a dozen.

Large ones in the town centers, small ones at the village crossroads.

Each one had two statues erected—the God of Metamorphosis and the God of Ascension.

Moby became the busiest person.

He led a team of missionaries, walking from village to village, preaching from town to town.

The doctrine of the God of Metamorphosis was simplified by him into the simplest sentence:

“Believe in him, and you can become a noble in your next Life.”

The words were crude, but they worked.

Those farmers who had farmed for generations, those poor people who had never seen a gold coin in their lives, those at the bottom who dreamed of changing their fate—they didn’t understand what Laws were, they didn’t understand what Metamorphosis was, but they understood the sentence ’become a noble in your next Life.’

Next Life.

Become a noble.

No more suffering.

No longer being ordered around by others.

Every noon and nightfall, prayers could be heard everywhere in the territory.

Those farmers knelt in the simple churches, drawing an inverted ’8’ on their chests, chanting, ’With my mortal body, I achieve transcendence.’

Threads of faith connected one by one.

Moby’s route was smoother, but the believers of the God of Ascension grew faster.

Because of healing.

The sequence of the God of Ascension extended from the Jade Spirit clan and came with innate healing abilities.

Those injured soldiers, sick farm women, and horses having difficult births all went to find the priests of the God of Ascension.

The priests didn’t need to say much; they only needed to pray, reach out, and the wounds would heal.

This was more persuasive than any preaching.

There were more and more believers.

The threads of faith became denser and denser.

...

Cargo ships came and went, bringing not just gold coins.

But also divine authority fragments.

Those fragments were hidden in cargo, in shipwrecks, and in secret corners of islands.

As long as the fleet passed by, as long as the pirate group landed on an island, as long as the Gluttonous One led that group of fish wandering around, they could always find some.

One piece, two pieces, three pieces.

Ten pieces.

He devoured, absorbed, and refined them.

Every fragment contained three Laws.

Some overlapped with the Laws he mastered, some overlapped with the Laws mastered by the God of Ascension, and some—

Were brand new.

At first, he didn’t feel much.

There weren’t many fragments, and not many new Laws.

But later, the fragments became more and more numerous.

Ten pieces, twenty pieces.

Zhou Zheng started to feel that something was wrong.

Those new Laws piled up inside him, like messy clutter filling up a warehouse.

They conflicted with each other, repelled each other, and polluted each other.

His Divine Thought began to feel dizzy, as if he were drunk, as if his perception were covered by something.

He stopped and examined himself.

In those fragments, some Laws overlapped with the Death, Life, Sun, and Moon he mastered, and the Fusion went very smoothly.

Some Laws overlapped with the Spirituality and Evolution mastered by the God of Ascension and could also be shared.

But there were still some that were brand new.

Those new Laws could not be absorbed, could not be fused, and could only pile up like trash.

He stripped out a portion of those new Laws and distributed them to the God of Ascension.

The God of Ascension silently endured it, and a faint mist rose on its mirror-like surface.

The two divided the work and barely managed to stabilize the situation.

...

The Iron Shield Family still held their ground on North Mountain.

Over the past half year, Leon Us had sent people to investigate countless times.

The mountain remained the same; the road up the mountain was still as narrow as ever, and people still patrolled the walls day and night.

They did not attack, did not negotiate, and had no contact with the outside world.

As if the changes on the island had nothing to do with them.

Leon Us did not act rashly either.

That mountain was easy to defend and difficult to attack; a direct assault would result in too many losses.

The waterways were already in his hands; he could just starve them out.

He was not in a hurry.

...

One evening, when the sun was about to set, a fleet appeared on the horizon.

It was magnificent, with at least ten ships.

The hulls were painted gold, and the sails were embroidered with complex patterns, glittering in the setting sun.

On the prow of the leading ship stood a golden statue—a woman holding a gold coin in her hand.

The fleet slowly sailed into the harbor.

People on the docks stepped aside one after another, curiously watching these uninvited guests.

The lead ship docked, and the gangway was lowered.

A woman wearing a luxurious long dress walked down, her hem dragging on the wooden planks, her gold-trimmed shoes clicking loudly.

She looked up at the onlookers on the dock and gave a faint smile.

The smile was gentle, but for some reason, it made people feel uneasy when they saw it.

“May I ask, is the lord of the Us Territory here?”

Her voice was very light and soft, like the sound of gold coins falling into a money bag.

Leon Us, who had received the news long ago, walked out from the crowd and stood before her.

Moby stood beside Leon Us, his expression grave—Zhou Zheng felt a rich aura of the Pantheon on her!

The woman looked him up and down and bowed slightly.

“Bringing you greetings from the Goddess of Gold Coins.”