Ashen God
Chapter 547 - 546: Power of Faith

Chapter 547: Chapter 546: Power of Faith

Therefore, even if Zhao Yalan’s Gathering Power could potentially include some kind of mind-control ability, it would have nothing to do with Zhang Yanhang. Besides, even if it really involved mind control, what’s the harm? He was immune to such powers thanks to his Supreme Will.

Moreover, to tell the truth, Zhang Yanhang actually felt there probably wasn’t any mind-control aspect to Zhao Yalan’s process of advancing her believers’ ranks. Only by becoming fervent on their own could the believers ascend in rank.

After all, if one were to ignore the extraordinary element of drawing upon the Power of Faith, then the process Zhao Yalan uses to enhance her strength is actually no different from popular influencers gaining followers, which naturally generates some die-hard fans without any need for deliberate influence—the larger the base, the more die-hard fans there are.

It’s just that due to gender reasons, Zhao Yalan’s method of acquiring followers certainly wasn’t as convenient as that of other gigi, and compared to the influencers’ die-hard fans, indeed, it’s the brain-dead fans who are more likely to turn into fanatic believers, ripe for the picking.

Or perhaps, that other side essentially is just a variant of religious faith, which naturally carries a degree of mind-control once the atmosphere is set; something influencers definitely couldn’t achieve.

Zhao Yalan immediately checked Zhang Yanhang’s Believer Level and discovered that he really was just a Light believer of hers, "But even though you really are one of my Light believers, could you see what the Power of Faith actually is? Fourth Tier Awakened can’t see it, yet you, a Second Tier Awakened, can?"

Originally, Zhao Yalan was not particularly worried about someone seeing the Power of Faith, or rather she hadn’t even considered the matter. However, after hearing that Zhang Yanhang initially wanted to call the police and have her captured, she started to feel a bit apprehensive about it.

"Didn’t I say that I’ve upgraded a Skill? It’s a Perception-related skill, and so, my Perception precision has improved by a lot. Then, all of a sudden, I could see the Power of Faith being drawn out from my body by you."

At the beginning, Zhang Yanhang thought he would finally encounter that classic plot scenario, something like a nearby evil Awakened was drawing power on a large scale for nefarious purposes, and then he would show up, slap them dead, and incidentally inherit the evil Awakened’s fortune, resulting in a windfall of great items.

But, unexpectedly, the one drawing the power turned out to be Zhao Yalan, and she wasn’t doing it for evil purposes—just harmlessly extracting the Power of Faith to enhance her own strength.

What’s more, she wasn’t particularly wealthy, so slapping her dead probably wouldn’t yield any treasures worth mentioning, much to Zhang Yanhang’s disappointment.

Of course, Zhang Yanhang also knew why he didn’t encounter those classic plot scenarios: It was mainly because he barely went out. When staying in the Main World, his life was monotonously linear, just between school and home, and on top of that, his antisocial personality meant he hardly had any friends.

If life went in such a way that you ran into classic scenarios daily, it could only mean that the Empire was probably on the brink of collapse, as dealing with criminals was mainly the responsibility of the relevant authorities.

Like that time Zhang Yanhang encountered people fighting over a treasure, it seemed like just a few Awakened were contesting it, but in reality, there was a large circle of government officials lurking around. Presumably, once the victor emerged, those officials would immediately begin capturing them.

It was exactly this level of responsiveness that had maintained order within the Empire during these six months since the Spiritual Qi Recovery.

As for Africa, when Zhang Yanhang watched the news in the morning, in just one night there had been three coups, four assassinations, and eight unexplained large-scale explosions causing countless deaths and injuries, along with over a dozen localized wars breaking out simultaneously.

If the relevant departments weren’t strong enough, it’s probable that the Empire’s interior would become as chaotic as the African Continent, with countless Awakened warlords dividing the territory and waging endless wars.

By the way, Zhang Yanhang remembered that the situation in Africa hadn’t been so chaotic at the beginning of October, but for some reason, it had suddenly turned chaotic recently, with the intensity of the wars also increasing immensely, which was quite baffling.

"Alright, I’ll reluctantly accept that reason... What’s more important is that I’ve already introduced my ability in detail, aren’t you going to introduce yours?"

Zhao Yalan wasn’t too concerned about Zhang Yanhang seeing the Power of Faith; what she cared about the most was his ability. Just how heaven-defying was his ability that he could ascend to Second Tier so quickly and begin to plan for his Third Tier promotion?

"My ability? My ability is called ’Heavenly Destiny Master.’ To be specific, I’m just extremely lucky," Zhang Yanhang recycled the same story he had used to brush off Zhou Muxi before.

"And then?" Zhao Yalan looked at Zhang Yanhang with eyes full of expectation.

"And then, that’s it," Zhang Yanhang ignored Zhao Yalan’s expectations and simply shook his head.

"Do you think it’s appropriate to be like this? I’ve painstakingly explained my Talent in great detail, but when it’s your turn, you only have five words, ’just extremely lucky’?"

Although Zhao Yalan felt that if she continued to press the matter something unpleasant might happen, she just couldn’t suppress her curiosity.

"But my ability is that simple; there’s nothing I can do about it. Besides, the last person who heard about my ability somehow became quite agitated," Zhang Yanhang thought of Zhou Muxi’s intense reaction and felt it indeed wasn’t quite right to elaborate on his ability.

"Wait, are you the legendary Lucky Awakened?" Zhao Yalan realized that things might indeed be a bit tricky, but it didn’t seem to be too bad; she decided to keep pressing, "I’ve been wanting to find out what it’s like for you Lucky Awakened to live your daily lives."

"Well then, honestly, I feel my luck is just pretty average. Just yesterday morning alone, I only stumbled upon four extraordinary encounters and found four pieces of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

Today, since I just left the Ashen World this morning, I’ve only had one extraordinary encounter so far. But based on my estimation, I should still manage at least one or two more encounters today."

Zhang Yanhang’s previous option to find the Sky Demon Purple Crystal Grass was linked with leaving the Ashen World, so he didn’t consider it today’s extraordinary encounter. Thus, at the very least, he should trigger another encounter today.

"In one morning... you found four pieces... of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures?"

After hearing this, Zhao Yalan felt her thinking abilities suddenly decline; she could understand each word individually, but when they were connected, the sentence suddenly became a bit too much for her to comprehend.

She could find a Heavenly Material or Earthly Treasure only once every three or four days, yet Zhang Yanhang picked up four in just one morning. Wouldn’t that mean eight in a day, the equivalent of her monthly haul, one day = one month?

Her fist clenched hard, and for some reason, Zhao Yalan suddenly felt the urge to punch the expressionless but certainly smug face of Zhang Yanhang.

"Actually, I think it’s just alright," Zhang Yanhang really didn’t want to discuss this topic because he felt it was not very interesting. "After all, Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures are just embellishments, the Ashen World is the real place where such abilities can be put to good use."

Zhao Yalan felt she couldn’t concede just yet, "You’re not going to tell me you can get items of the same Quality from Treasure boxes of the same Quality, are you? If it’s just that level, then I could do it too..."

Before Zhao Yalan could finish, Zhang Yanhang interrupted her, "No, that level is too weak, isn’t it? I’ve been getting Light Golden Quality items from Dark Purple Treasure boxes. For example, the Light Golden Quality weapon that dropped from the Dark Purple Treasure box of a Third Tier One-star Lord Monster I killed around five in the morning..."

"Enough, don’t say anymore!"

As the saying goes: those who cut others off will be cut off themselves, and this time, it was Zhao Yalan’s turn to interrupt Zhang Yanhang. She couldn’t bear to listen anymore; this wasn’t just a crush in terms of Luck, but also a crushing in terms of Strength.

She had struggled to even fight a First Tier Four-star Lord Monster, and without that inexplicably controlled Second Order One Star Elite Monster, the Takut Buck, as her meat shield, she wasn’t sure if she could have survived the encounter. Just thinking about the Takut Buck being torn in half by the Lord Monster sent shivers down her spine.

But what about him? He was at ease, having killed a Third Tier One-star Lord Monster in the Second Tier, and even got Light Golden Quality items she had never seen before.

"Let’s talk about something else!" Although Zhang Yanhang didn’t say it, Zhao Yalan had already imagined various extremely lucky turns of events. She felt she couldn’t endure such luck crushing her, so she forcefully changed the subject.

"What do you want to talk about?" Zhang Yanhang was also not really keen on discussing that topic anymore.

Zhao Yalan thought for a moment, feeling that since she had just entered the Second Tier, perhaps now was the time to ask Zhang Yanhang, an already Second Tier Peak Awakener and ’senior,’ about various things to watch out for at Second Tier, "Like, after being promoted to Second Tier, are there any particular things I need to be careful about?"

"Oh, that," Zhang Yanhang had asked others about it when he had just been advanced, but later discovered there really wasn’t much to pay attention to. The only thing to keep in mind was not to court death. Don’t go fighting monsters above your Rank because if you can’t beat them, you might not escape in time and drop dead on the spot. Fighting monsters of the same Tier is much safer.

Zhang Yanhang remembered that the only advice the group leader had given him was just this one, woefully scarce but indeed very practical. Well, perhaps not so practical for him.

"You just said you killed a Third Tier One-star Lord Monster and now you’re advising me not to fight above my Tier? Really?"

"Very appropriate, because sometimes the gap between people can be bigger than the gap between humans and dogs." Although Zhang Yanhang always considered himself an Ordinary Awakened, he knew he was indeed a little bit extraordinary.

"You’re insulting me again!" Although it seemed unrelated to her from the context, and the other party in question was definitely not her, Zhao Yalan still felt offended.

"Ah?" Zhang Yanhang looked at Zhao Yalan in surprise, utterly confused about what she was thinking.

"Besides not fighting above your Rank, do you have any other useful tips?" Zhao Yalan felt that Zhang Yanhang was in an unusually serious state, so she really should take this opportunity to ask some equally serious questions.

"Let me think... Oh, yes, the Rank Penalty is quite important. If you keep fighting First Tier Monsters after advancing to the Second Tier, the Treasure box drop rate will fall to one in every twenty kills. That actually has a big impact."

If there were no Rank Penalties, Zhang Yanhang figured he could probably collect enough Soul points to advance all his skills to Original LV.6 just by clearing a Goblin Plain. He could also aim to raise his Profession Level to LV.20 and start working on advancing to Third Tier but alas, even Multiple Choice couldn’t interfere with Rank Penalties.

"Twenty? Isn’t that the normal drop rate? What’s the difference? Wait, what’s your usual Treasure box drop rate?"

Upon first hearing "twenty" Zhao Yalan thought it was pretty normal since she normally had to kill twenty to thirty monsters to secure one Treasure box. Now, with only twenty required, there was not only no decline, but it actually seemed like an improvement.

But soon, Zhao Yalan realized something was off because she had subconsciously put herself in the context of her usual drop rate, but this data was provided by Zhang Yanhang, a Luck System Power User.

"Me? When I hunt monsters of the same Tier, it takes ten at the least for a Treasure box to drop and seven at most."

Zhang Yanhang felt that unless he could further increase his Luck Value, his usual hunting drops would probably stay within this range. At most, he could encounter a monster that would drop a Treasure box every six kills, but five was definitely impossible.

"So for you, dropping to twenty actually means the drop rate is halved... and for me, it means dropping to fifty or sixty monsters per Treasure box..."

Facing such a huge disparity in drop rates, Zhao Yalan felt an inexplicable urge to curse, but considering she couldn’t beat Zhang Yanhang, she held it in.

"Fifty or sixty, huh? Then your drop rate is surprisingly normal. I met a Third Tier Female Awakened yesterday with a similar drop rate when she was hunting Low-level Monsters."

Zhang Yanhang remembered this very clearly since it happened only yesterday. If he couldn’t remember something so recent, then he probably had early onset dementia. Though he indeed wished to retire early, dementia was definitely not something to anticipate in advance.