Three days after the miracle, Silas wanted silence.
*THE FLOOD*
Day 14.
20 people came to the shrine.
Day 15.
34 people.
By Day 16, the courtyard was full.
Old men with bad backs. Women with sick children. Farmers praying for rain.
All of them kneeling. All of them praying.
And every single prayer echoed in his head.
_"Please heal my leg."_
_"Please let it rain."_
_"Please help my son."_
It didn't contaminate him.
His Domain was still venting Faith Energy.
But it was bothering him. Constantly.
100 voices. 24 hours.
He was not a god. He did not have a divine body to handle this.
He was a 16 year old boy who just wanted to cultivate.
Silas sat in the basement with a headache.
His Domain flickered not from corruption, but from fatigue.
"I can't do this," he thought. "If I have to listen to every 'my chicken is sick' for the next 40 years I will lose my mind."
That night he rethought Varn's notes.
The history part.
_The ancient gods never answered every prayer themselves. They appointed priests. The priests collected faith, sorted it, and sent only the worthy prayers upward._
Silas closed the book.
"Priests," he whispered.
A filter.
A collector.
Someone to stand upstairs, listen to them, and only send the important ones down.
His time would be free.
And the priest, by channeling prayers, would also strengthen the threads.
More believers. Stronger threads. More Divine Energy for him.
But it needed to be someone whose body could hold Divine Energy.
*THE SATURATION*
He opened his Domain.
The girl. Thread 6% now.
The mother. Thread 3%.
5 others. All weak.
The girl was different.
For the last 3 days, every time Silas did a miracle, he didn't just heal.
He pushed excess Divine Energy from the 100 believers into her body.
He had been saturating her.
Slowly. Carefully.
Now her body was different.
More sensitive.
She could feel the threads.
She could feel when someone prayed.
If he pushed more, she would become a vessel.
She was 8. But she was the only option.
*THE APPOINTMENT*
The next morning, when she came alone, Silas answered.
Not with warmth.
With a voice.
It came through the altar, distorted, layered, ancient.
"Child."
The girl froze. "Y-yes?"
"You have been faithful," the voice said. "The Lord of Lost Children has need of you."
"Me?" she whispered.
"Stand at the altar. Listen to them. Use divine power to help only those in true need. You will be my hands. My priest."
He pushed.
All the Divine Energy he had collected from 100 believers over 3 days.
It flooded into her.
The girl gasped. Light gold flickered under her skin for one second, then vanished.
Her eyes cleared.
She could suddenly feel 6 threads connected to her. To the shrine. To him.
It didn't make her a cultivator.
It gave her a strong body.
And it gave her Divine Power.
Enough for small miracles. A touch to ease pain and cure small diseases. A word to calm fever.
"Y-yes," she said, tears falling. "I will do it."
When she left, Silas exhaled.
His head was quiet.
*THE SECOND PROBLEM*
With the priest handling prayers, Silas finally had time.
He sat in the basement and stared at his hands.
Stage 1. F talent.
`9 Steps to Heaven` had a technique. 10 postures. 3 breathing patterns.
Garbage.
40 years for F talent.
But he had Domain and divine power to use it.
"What if I don't use a technique?"
Techniques were for people with talent and good meridians.
Silas had neither.
He opened the domain using divine power collected by him as for faith power in altar ,well he has used all of it to strengthen the threads.
Then he grabbed.
No form. No cycle.
Just ripped Spiritual Energy from the air around the vein.
90% dissipated.
But the 10% that stayed was pure.
Because Domain had already filtered it.
It slammed into his core.
Day 18. Energy Gathering 1 [99%].
Silas smiled.
The girl upstairs now had a purer divine body than any priest of other gods.
Because his Divine Energy was cleaner than Faith Energy.
And if her thread hit 10%, she would be as strong as Energy Gathering 1.
Body and Divine Power only. No techniques. No skills.
Just like him.
The God of Lost Children now had a priest.
And the boy in the basement was learning that gods don't get strong by training.
They get strong by making others strong for them.
_END CHAPTER 4_