Nonetheless, what has happened, has happened.

I was planning to leave soon anyway, so if these people truly wanted to continue to worship me, then by all means, I wish them the best.

I eased my consciousness by thinking that by worshipping me, they technically worshipped Zoras, who was an actual god, and a powerful one at that.

So... I wasn't technically toying with their emotions.

Well, it is not like I told them to worship me in the first place.

I didn't go around forcing everyone to prostrate themselves before me.

It isn't my fault the strong are revered in this world. Maybe it is my fault for being so nice... I guess many people would like a nice, super powerful master... So I guess it is technically my fault.

Wait, no. I won't accept other peoples prayers just because they want me to.

I simply sighed as I thought about it. Wasn't this what everyone wanted? To be worshipped? To be revered? Wasn't that simple human nature? To stand at the very top.

Oh well, as soon as Sasha finally mastered the 'Art of Majesty' I would leave this village anyway so there was no point in worrying.

I would have to soon head for the City of Gilleghan, home of the monster lord Gill. I hoped things would proceed much smoother than how things have proceeded recently.

It would take a few more months at best for Sasha to finally master the tome and become a true monster.

Right now, after six months of me idling away in this village, Sasha has increased her mana purity and density even further. She is now 11 times stronger than someone at her own level.

Such a ridiculous little girl.

Well, forgetting about the little monster for now, I began to plan my final route to the city of Gilleghan.

I could either go through the Region of Zidxt or Gell.

Zidxt and Gell, unlike Zedtx and the other surrounding villages were actually occupied by Gill's forces.

So either way I would encounter practitioners from Gill's faction. I hope that my aura didn't scare them into doing anything that would result in me having a bad relationship with Gill from the get go.

I'd pray for the best to happen... but I don't think that would make much of a difference.

So now I also began to meditate as the wait began.

One week passed and Sasha was getting closer to her breakthrough but she was still a good distance away from that bottleneck.

Two weeks passed and similar to the first week, not much had changed.

The third and fourth week also rolled by with little change aside from the fact the Guardian Faith now had 18 temples.

The thought of them expanding in a militaristic fashion terrified me. I just prayed they were peaceful in their expansion.

Week five, six, seven and eight came by and went. Nothing changed. Aside from the Guardian Faith's slow expansion.

Sasha had gotten closer to her breakthrough while I had finally reached Rank 6 as a Spirit Practitioner. Which was quite pathetic compared to others.

Month three and four also passed by quietly, for me at least. For the Guardian Faith though, things were far from quiet.

One of the other regional religions, called the Sun Temple, began to feel threatened by the slow, gradual expansion of the Guardian Faith, so they did what I call the epitome of stupidity.

They declared Holy War upon the Guardian Faith.

Why did religious people have to be so hostile against other religions? What did I expect. Not many religions stayed in power by being pacifistic against other expanding religions.

According to Imperial Law which was decreed by the Emperor, so long as two religions within the Empire declare a war, a major power which was not religious by nature may not join the battle no matter the case, but for any Sect or Clan that had surrendered to the religions rule may participate in the battle.

I learned this from Roman of course, who was my primary agent in the outside world.

He also told me how many people, especially from stronger factions were now starting to pay attention to the Guardian Faith and by extension, me.

This thought terrified me because I didn't have the manpower or capability to fight against these stronger factions should they harbour dark thoughts against me.

What if they actually had people capable of seeing through my bullshittery? I'd be fucked then.

Nonetheless, I followed the Holy Sun War as closely as possible. A local scholar had coined the war that name.

Month five and six also rolled by, but unexpectedly, the Sun Temple was losing the war.

The Sun Temple had 3 major Temples under its jurisdiction, the Fire Temple, the Ember Temple and the Radiant Temple and of those, the Ember Temple had fallen under Guardian rule.

It was quiet shocking to know a religion made under your name, was winning a war that was started out of fear of yourself.

I wonder how many people were dying because of this? How was I supposed to feel about this? What the fuck was I supposed to do?

Did I barge into a battlefield and go “Your God is here, surrender!”? That would be stupid. The opposing faction declared war in the first place.

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But people were dying because of this war.

For fucks sake. Why did I keep ending up in situations that affected both my pride and moral integrity.

I wanted to end this war because of my morals, but I didn't want to surrender because of my pride.

And because I had a lingering fear that Zoras might hurt me if I let myself lose a battle. I mean I was his champion and no god wanted their champion to lose.

This was mentally and emotionally draining.

So I told Roman to send a message to the closest temple to me and tell the Guardian Faith to 'Kill as little as possible while defending yourself and winning the war'.

Roman of course obliged and went off to deliver my message.

Sasha on the other hand was now 12 and half times stronger than her own level should be but alas, she still wasn't able to comprehend the 'Art of Majesty'.

Month seven, eight and nine rolled by and Sasha was closing in on her breakthrough.

She described the realm within herself.

The humongous sky blocking tree which dotted the heavens with its branches.

The multitude of realms she passed.

The events she faced inside of herself.

What she went through to discover the heart she had to open.

Sasha told me about the final realm she reached within herself.

She described the fluffy clouds that extended endlessly in every direction. The beautiful and serene atmosphere within the realm which seemed to calm her down. Which seemed to allow her to relax.

She described the tranquillity it gave her to simply sit there and meditate.

It was then that I realised that she hadn't broken through yet not because of her inability, but because the current realm she was at within the 'Art of Majesty' allowed her to finally cleanse her heart and mind of the trauma she had received throughout her life.

She had finally discovered a place where she could shed her past and look toward the future.

A silently sat down upon my comfy bed and let Sasha sit between my legs as she leaned back against me.

I let her meditate like that since I knew she would soon breakthrough and it made her feel comfortable.

Sasha's breakthrough aside, surprisingly the Holy Sun War had come to an end.

The conflict had lasted 6 months and in the end all three major temples of the Sun Temple were captured.

Apparently my word was taken a bit to literally since the Guardian Faith now had 2500 or so prisoners, including the High Sun Priest.

There was less than 50 casualties, and they were mainly from the Guardian Faiths side.

That made me feel conflicted. I didn't want people to kill over me, but I didn't want people who believed in me to die either.

Nonetheless, there was nothing I could do about it now. There was already more than a thousand followers of the Guardian Faith, and by that, I mean Cultivators. 1000 plus cultivators had already devoted themselves to me.

It was a very conflicting feeling. I didn't even want to know how many non cultivators 'followed' me.

The ending of the war is what surprised me. It greatly surprised me.

The Sun Temple, which had over 3000 cultivators and who knew how many millions of followers, had joined as a subsidiary of the Guardian Faith, becoming the Sun Faith, otherwise known as the Sun Church.

I felt terrible at the thought of more and more religious wars happening between the Guardian Faith and other religions, but I put my mind to ease with the thought that the Guardian Faith is a very rural religion with minuscule might. Even if they did manage to expand a little bit, it would never be large enough to cause massive wars.

At least I hoped so, but I had this terrible gut feeling boiling inside of me.

I had a terrible feeling of what the future would entail for the Han Hun Tyang Province.

I hope my feeling was wrong.

---

Hey guys, Old Man here!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. 

Also, I want to tell you two things, 1, is that the first arc is coming to an end in another 3 to 5 chaps. Although I have already written the chapters, I still don't know which chapter to declare as the end of Arc 1. So meh.

And 2 is that, Zev won't suddenly be leading a religious organisation, it will still mainly be him and Sasha! In case you were wondering if the story was going to take that turn.

Those points aside, 

I hope you all enjoy the series, and if possible, do rate the story whether it be positive or negative, with as much constructive criticism as possible.

Also do you guys like the [Zev: "BlahBlahBlah" Actions Actions Actions "BlahBlah"]? I like writing like that, but if enough people dislike it, I can forgo it.

Also, please do like and favourite if you enjoy the story. If you don't, well, I still love you all!

Rant Over.

Love and Peace,

-Old Man