Chapter 458

Chapter 458: The Risk of gaze.

According to Morris, the God of Wisdom’s standards for granting a divine blessing seemed to be a very subtle thing.

“In most people’s minds, a believer of the God of Wisdom has to be a well-learned grand scholar, or some eccentric genius with shocking talent in a certain field. That view is not exactly wrong. After all, most believers of the God of Wisdom do meet the two conditions of being ‘learned’ and ‘brilliant’. But nothing is absolute.”

Morris sat on a chair near the captain’s cabin door. He ignored the subtle look on Shirley’s face beside him as he explained seriously.

“First of all, being favored by the God of Wisdom does not always require a very high level of knowledge. Take Dog right now. Dog learns very fast, but compared to the properly trained believers who passed all three rounds of the Church exams, Dog’s academic level is clearly not enough. Yet Dog still received Rahm’s gaze. In other city-states, there were also many believers, and even Saints who later became famous, who received revelation long before they mastered any deep knowledge.

“The most notable example was Saint Coleford, a professor more than two hundred years ago. This grand scholar received revelation at the age of sixteen, when he was still a dock laborer who could not even read. Only after that revelation did he get the chance to touch the knowledge in books.

“There was also a case that was the complete opposite. In the city-state of Morka, there was a well-known scholar who spent his whole life trying to gain the favor of the God of Wisdom. He almost passed every exam at the Truth Academy, yet he never saw Rahm’s radiance before he died. Later, the Truth Academy posthumously granted this scholar the honorary title of Saint. And cases like this are not unique.”

Duncan rubbed his chin thoughtfully: “So it sounds like the God of Wisdom’s ‘admission standards’ are a bit arbitrary?”

“I wouldn’t say arbitrary. What I just mentioned counts as ‘exceptions’. Otherwise, the Truth Academy would not use the unified exams as an effective first filter for believers,” Morris said with a shake of his head. “We can only say that gods are simply impossible to fathom. Even the four True Gods are the same. They have their own standards for measuring the world, and mortals over tens of thousands of years have only managed to summarize a few of those rules by chance.”

Duncan listened to Morris’s serious explanation but did not speak. He sat there with a thoughtful look, holding his own opinion in his heart.

The old mister’s earlier explanations and examples might have been fine, but his final “conclusion” still had room for debate.

Were the Gods’ patterns of behavior really impossible to guess? During Rahm’s gaze, were all those “exceptions” and even “absurd” cases truly random, or was there some other reason behind them?

Without noticing, that strange dark space surfaced again in his mind, along with the exchanges he had seen in the darkness.

That individual labeled “LH-02”, who most likely was Rahm, the God of Wisdom, had said a few words at the end of that exchange that bothered him deeply.

If that information had really happened in real time, if LH-02 really was Rahm, and if everything was as Duncan suspected, then the so-called “Gods” in the mouths of mortal beings truly deserved deep thought.

Lost in thought, he lifted his eyelids without meaning to and looked at Dog.

Just as Morris had said, Dog had shown an amazing gift for learning, but Dog’s current “academic level” was still far from those grand scholars who were long famous in the Truth Academy. Yet this same Dog, who had only shaken off illiteracy not long ago, had received a direct gaze from Rahm, the God of Wisdom. It was an honor that tens of thousands of scholars in the Truth Academy would not even dare to dream of for their entire lives, though for Dog it did not seem to be a good thing.

So what exactly had attracted Rahm? Dog’s “talent”? Dog’s drive to learn? Or…

Was it because Dog was a mutated individual that belonged to a Abyssal Deep “cluster”? Because this Abyssal Hound had gained a “heart” and happened to match LH-02’s identification criteria?

Dog shrank back without meaning to. Duncan’s silent gaze made Dog’s whole body prickle. After holding back for a long time, Dog finally could not help speaking: “Captain, you…”

Duncan did not answer Dog. Instead, he turned and looked at Morris: “In your judgment, is it possible that one day Shirley might suddenly meet the God of Wisdom’s standards and be accepted by Rahm?”

Morris froze for a moment, then immediately shook his head. “That is absolutely impossible!”

“So sure?” Duncan asked with a very serious tone. “You just said Rahm’s standards are not that absolute. Sometimes even someone who cannot read can suddenly be chosen.”

“There are exceptions to the God of Wisdom’s standards, but at least there is one thing that has never gone wrong. Anyone who has been rejected once will not get a second chance. There are very few clear cases of being rejected by the God of Wisdom in history, but at least…”

Morris paused there and glanced at Shirley.

“At least when Dog was about to be ‘taken away’, Shirley was able to pull Dog back into the Mortal Realm by her own strength. That is already the clearest ‘rejection’ of a mortal by the God of Wisdom that I can imagine.”

Duncan gave Shirley a complicated look. Shirley still seemed a bit confused. The young lady looked left and right, and only after a long pause did she finally ask: “So?”

“So you still have to do your homework,” Duncan said without hesitation. “Don’t even think about using ‘shielding Dog from divine revelation’ as an excuse to refuse to study.”

“Ah…” Shirley’s face fell at once. Her mind worked faster than usual this time. “You just said I am not cut out for studying. Even the God of Wisdom has clearly said he doesn’t want this brain of mine…”

“More than ninety percent of the people in this world never even get the chance to enter the Truth Academy. Sixty percent only take the exams to get a diploma. And almost one hundred percent will never become Rahm’s Saints or receive his gaze,” Duncan said, gazing quietly into Shirley’s eyes. His expression and tone were both serious. “Do you think I decided to teach you to read and write just so you could become a grand scholar like Morris?”

Shirley was startled by how serious Duncan looked. She opened her mouth a few times but did not manage to say anything. After a moment, she slowly lowered her eyes: “I…I know… I’m sorry, I was being stubborn…”

“It’s fine. You are still a child in my eyes. Children are allowed to be stubborn,” Duncan said with a gentle shake of his head. “Relax. I’m not scolding you. I was just thinking… what will happen to Dog in the future.”

“Me?” Dog, who had been lying obediently to the side, lifted its head in confusion, as if it had not followed Duncan’s train of thought. “What will happen to me in the future?”

Duncan looked into Dog’s eyes: “Have you ever thought that you might receive Rahm’s gaze a third time, or even a fourth?”

Dog froze, then finally reacted. Its “eyes” – Dog technically had no eyes – but its whole body clearly trembled.

“Th-then I can’t read books anymore?” Its voice was tight with nerves.

“The God of Wisdom is not some ‘shadow’ that gets drawn over by books. As a deity, he has already noticed you,” Morris answered from the side. The old scholar shook his head, his eyes heavy. “I cannot guess his will. But since he has taken an interest in you once, there is no guarantee he will not come looking for you again. That will be true even if you stop reading in the future. It might even…”

The old scholar stopped for a moment. His expression turned a bit strange, as if he was not sure whether he should describe his own deity this way. In the end, he still shook his head and went on: “You could even say that as long as you keep ‘thinking’, your mind will always remain within the God of Wisdom’s sight. When he looks your way again depends only on his mood.”

The red glow in Dog’s eye sockets visibly quivered.

When Duncan heard Morris’s words, some strange feelings rose in his heart. From this description, Rahm’s “divine blessing” sounded almost like an eldritch god’s curse.

But then he thought it over. From the point of view of a Abyssal demon, any divine blessing from a True God probably was not much different from an eldritch god’s curse.

This time, even Alice, who had been silent at the side, reacted. She suddenly spoke up: “Then won’t Dog be living in danger every single day from now on?”

“There is danger, yes. But as long as the link between Dog and Shirley stays, that danger might not be fatal,” Duncan said with a shake of his head. “From Dog’s description and my own… well, my own guesses, Rahm does not seem hostile. He may not even have realized that the ‘mind’ that just appeared in his sight belongs to a Abyssal demon. On that basis, he likely will not use a more ‘violent’ way to ‘take’ Dog.”

Hearing Duncan’s judgment, Dog could only lower its head. There was a hint of sorrow in its tone: “Sigh… I guess that’s the only way to think about it.”

“Take it easy. You and Shirley still carry my mark. Even if the worst happens and Shirley can’t hold on to you, I should still sense something,” Duncan said, comforting the anxious hound. “I have never tried it, but I don’t mind testing what it’s like to snatch a person… or a dog… out of a True God’s hands.”

“And I will definitely hold on to you!” Shirley added at once. She patted her chest and shook the symbiotic pact chain in her hand. “Dog, don’t worry. This brain of mine has been clearly rejected by the God of Wisdom! It will definitely work as your safety anchor!”

Dog had been about to be moved by Duncan’s words, but Shirley’s proud and confident tone caught it off guard. Dog could only raise its head and stare blankly at her: “That… that’s not really something to be proud of, is it?”

Shirley did not answer. She just kept grinning foolishly.

But her fingers gripping the chain clenched tighter and tighter.