The Ceremonial Chalice still shimmered serenely atop its pedestal, untouched, unyielding.
The drifting ash of the puppet settled silently on the sacred marble floor; a silent testament to the price of daring to reach for a god’s treasure. The forbidden chamber fell back into a holy, suffocating stillness—as if nothing had happened.
After coming into contact with the Temple of the Blazing Flame, Jacob was well aware of the characteristics of a Divine Flame. But even he wasn’t expecting the idol of the Holy Justice God could utilize a Divine Flame or something similar with the Eyes of Judge.
Jacob thought as his Eyes of Judge flickered profoundly, ’Can my Eyes of Judge achieve something like this?’
Nonetheless, Jacob didn’t have time to mull over this matter since the Ceremonial Chalice was still outside, and if he wanted to retrieve it, he might have to pay a certain price.
Jacob’s gaze turned cold, even though he had prepared every safeguard, even though he had used a puppet to avoid personal risk—the methods of Holy Justice God weren’t easy to deal with.
It wasn’t a formation he could dismantle, nor a curse he could dispel. It was a power that only a true god could wield, impossible for mere mortals to deceive.
Yet in the depths of that failure, Jacob’s Eyes of Judge flickered with dangerous light, "Cursed Immortality!"
The cursed book appeared and started laughing wantonly, "Hahahaha, you almost got ’burnt’ just now, it was damn hilarious!"
As usual, Jacob ignored Immortika’s antics and coldly inquired, "Do you have any suggestions? What is that idol, anyway?"
"Hehehe~, that idol is a ’Faith Idol’ that only a powerful Faith God can create when they reach a certain threshold in their Godhood. Furthermore, a Faith Idol is also one of the methods used by Faith Gods to gather Godly Faith Nectar. You have already seen the setup, not bad, right?" Immortika teasingly replied.
Realization dawned on Jacob at this moment, but he still didn’t get the answer he was looking for, and retorted, "You should’ve told me sooner about this. I’ve wasted a Legendary Lord Rank Soul Puppet. Besides, you still didn’t tell me how I can deal with that Faith Idol."
"Hehe~ you didn’t ask, so it’s not my fault. Besides, I think this way is far better since you’ve learned how not to touch items related to Gods causally.
"Anyway, the Faith Idols also have different ranks, and depending on their ranks, they hold different abilities and powers. The Faith Idol that you’ve encountered is the lowest rank Faith Idol, and it is called a Trace Faith Idol.
"A Trace Faith Idol is crafted by a Faith God by imbuing a trace of their divine faith power into their statue or a relic. It’s primarily used as a conduit to collect faith power and gather Godly Faith Nectar from the believers.
"As for its ability, it has an artificial instinct instilled by the Faith God like a set of orders and rules, which can activate on its own when one of the protocols set by its owner is triggered, like against blasphemy or theft...
"But its power is very limited, like it can activate limited defenses, such as a one-time release of a powerful attack or a curse. Just like earlier, the Trace Faith Idol used an ability of the Eyes of Judge the moment it felt the Godly Faith Nectar was in danger.
"Furthermore, don’t underestimate its power despite having a limit because the power a Faith Idol can use is connected with the Godly Faith Nectar, which can convert the nectar into ’Divine Power of Faith!’ Unless someone has a God’s Crown, they’ll instantly turn into oblivion.
"As for you, you won’t have it easy either, but you at least have a chance to resist and counter. Lastly, a Trace Faith Idol, because of being the lowest rank Faith Idol, it cannot think, judge, or adapt. Its power is finite and tied to the trace of the divinity left by the Faith God.
"Meaning, it can be overwhelmed and exhausted as long as the supply of Godly Faith Nectar is exhausted, but we don’t want that, do we now? Hahahahaha!" Immortika burst into eerie laughter.
Jacob, despite being perplexed, agreed with Immortika’s statement since exhausting the Faith Idol means wasting the Godly Faith Nectar in the Ceremonial Chalice. His entire goal was to obtain the Godly Faith Nectar, without challenging the Faith Idol of the Holy Justice God.
Nevertheless, the information about the Faith Idol was still fascinating and enlightening at the same time. After all, Jacob wasn’t familiar with the ways of the Gods and only recently had he started to come in contact with them.
They were fascinating yet terrifying at the same time, and as Immortika said, he can’t touch anything related to the Gods without having the same power as them.
"What about the Faith Idol above the Trace Faith Idol rank?" Jacob asked as he wanted to know what the higher rank Faith Idol could do since even the lowest rank Faith Idol was enough to kill a Quasi-Myth instantly!
"Hehehe, above the Trace Faith Idols are the Echo Faith Idols, Incarnate Faith Idols, and Divine Faith Idols. As for their abilities and powers, I can’t tell you until you encounter one yourself, since this information is still very high-level considering your current power level.
"Well, you don’t need to worry too much since only Trace Faith Idols are allowed within the rules of the Middle Plains. Higher-level Faith Idols can’t exist here without drawing the attention of the Zodiac Plains!
"However, I shall still warn you to look out for these Faith Idols, especially the highest rank one, the Divine Faith Idol, it’s not different from an Avatar of a God!"
Jacob felt a chill in his spine when he heard the last part, and his cold, dormant heart almost stirred. After all, the concept of an ’Avatar of God’ was too terrifying, and Jacob could only imagine the terror of such a powerful being!
Since Immortika had already provided more than enough information and clues about the Faith Idol, as well as the gravity of his current situation.
Jacob questioned sternly, "Then what do you suggest I do? Make a wish? But if I even need to make a wish for something like this, then won’t I be just exhausting my entire lifespan and would be left with nothing when I truly need it?" Jacob stated impassively.
"Hehehe~ well, that’s your ability, and whether to use it and how to use it, it’s all dependent on you. But you do have a point. For only 41 drops of Godly Faith Nectar, a wish is still wasteful." Immortika chortled.
"What, there’s only 41 drops of Godly Faith Nectar in that ceremonial chalice?!" Jacob was startled, as he hadn’t expected the Godly Faith Nectar to be in such short supply.
Although the chalice was small, Jacob thought it was a storage-type container and that there should be more Godly Faith Nectar inside of it. After all, the entire Great Cosmic Continent of Leo worshiped the Holy Justice God.
That’s why Jacob thought he would get at least 10,000 drops of Godly Faith Nectar or even more, but reality hit him hard. After all, Jacob needed 100,000 drops of Godly Faith Nectar according to the requirements of the third phase.
"Hahahaha..." Immortika instantly burst into laughter as if enjoying Jacob’s reaction very much, "Do you really think Godly Faith Nectar is some seawater that can be gathered from anywhere and in vast quantities? Naïve!
"The Godly Faith Nectar is too hard to form, or those Faith Gods won’t be fighting over believers all the time. Just a single drop of Godly Faith Nectar requires at least faith of 10 billion lifeforms, and even then, their faith needed to be sincerer, not to mention the Godly Faith Nectar takes at least 500 years to form a single drop, or even more, depending on the power of the believer and their sincerity.
"You, finding 41 drops of Godly Faith Nectar in the Middle Plains, are already a huge deal. Furthermore, if you want to gather the Godly Faith Nectar, then you need to snatch it away from the Faith Gods, which will make you their mortal enemy since you are literally cutting off their progress! Hehehe, isn’t that even more interesting?" Immortika poured cold water on Jacob’s expectations while laughing mirthfully.
Jacob’s eyes contorted when he heard this new information, as he wasn’t expecting there were such strain conditions on forming the Godly Faith Nectar, and how difficult it was going to be to gather it from here on out!