390: I am the torch, and all living beings are the torch.

Inside the communicator, Fatty Zhang's tearful scream pierced the brief peace that followed the escape from death.

"Brother Fan! This is bad! Look at the sky!"

Lin Fan didn't move.

He simply raised his head, his pure gold pupils seeming to ignore physical barriers, directly reflecting the endless Void Realm outside the Tomb of the Epoch.

That massive purification fleet had completely dispersed.

Thousands of warships formed a giant ring that enveloped the entire Star Domain.

At the bow of every warship, a brilliant white light lit up, bright enough to burn the Soul.

The lights connected with each other in the void, as profound and complex rule runes were forcibly inscribed onto the canvas of time and space. A massive formation covering all the wreckage was closing rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

That wasn't an attack.

It was an erasure.

They were going to completely cut this graveyard of the previous epoch, along with every living being and every trace within it, out of the river of time.

"It's the 'Final Purification Protocol'..."

Li Hanyue's voice carried a hint of strain. She had just stabilized her true spirit, and her face was as pale as paper.

"Once the formation is complete, we, along with this entire space, will be defined as 'non-existent'."

The despair was deeper than when they had faced the Bishop Puppet earlier.

This was a judgment from an entire civilization, and it was unstoppable.

The hope that had just been ignited in the surviving Xin Huo Members was instantly extinguished by this cold reality.

"Then... then what do we do..."

Fatty Zhang's lips trembled as he looked at Lin Fan's back; he was their only hope at this moment.

Atop the ruins of the shelter, Lin Fan stood quietly.

In those pure gold eyes, not a single ripple could be seen.

He didn't look at the fleet in the sky, but instead surveyed the faces around him—faces covered in blood and grime, filled with panic and despair.

His voice, once again, rang out calmly in everyone's hearts.

"Conventional methods are no longer enough to break through."

"The only way..."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over every person.

"...is for me to become stronger."

His voice was devoid of emotion, yet it carried an indisputable logic.

"My power originates from conviction."

"I need your faith, and I need... the faith of even more people."

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire area fell into a dead silence.

Faith?

What an ethereal thing that was.

However, Fatty Zhang didn't hesitate for a second.

He slammed a fist against his chest, his fat trembling, and roared with all his might.

"Whatever you say, Brother Fan, we'll do it!"

"Brothers! Everyone get moving! Spread the word that Brother Fan is a god throughout the entire Mining Area! No! The entire Tomb of the Epoch!"

"If any bastard doesn't believe it, tell them to open their damn eyes and look at the sky! Other than believing in Brother Fan, do we have any other way to survive?!"

With bloodshot eyes, he took the lead, dragging his scarred body toward the area with the most concentrated communication equipment, preparing to use the most primitive methods to spread this crazy gospel to all known survivor outposts.

Li Hanyue was even more direct.

Leaning on her sword, she stood up unsteadily, her gaze becoming cold and sharp again.

"I will go 'invite' them here."

She gathered the dozens of Kindling warriors who could still move, preparing to use the most direct way to "persuade" those survivor gathering points that were still waiting and watching.

Zhao Linger didn't move.

She just looked at Lin Fan with concern. She could feel that the aura of a 'human' on Lin Fan was becoming increasingly indifferent.

Lin Fan gave her a reassuring smile, though it was still pale.

Then, in the very center of the ruins, he slowly sat down cross-legged.

He closed those golden eyes.

In the next moment, his will, in a way that transcended space, followed the three hundred incredibly resilient golden threads of faith connected to the Xin Huo Members and suddenly surged outward!

"I am here."

His will was no longer just a voice, but had transformed into tangible rules.

He mobilized the Origin of "Purification" he had just devoured and analyzed from the Bishop Puppet.

That dark gold power representing "Ending" and "Erasure" was forcibly twisted, reversed, and rewoven within his Divinity Furnace!

Ultimately, it transformed into the exact opposite concepts.

"Protection."

"New Life."

Boom!

An invisible golden wave, as gentle as spring rain, centered on Lin Fan and swept toward the entire Mining Area, and even further into the remote wreckage of the Tomb of the Epoch.

Deep in the Mining Area, a dying warrior whose half-body was crushed by a massive rock was about to give up.

The golden wave brushed past.

The ground beneath him suddenly sprouted flexible green vines, which slowly pushed up the multi-ton rock.

In the bone-deep wounds on his body, the charred flesh fell away, and brand new skin grew and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In another collapsed tunnel, several survivors were being torn apart bit by bit by violent spatial turbulence because their Spiritual Qi was exhausted, their faces filled with the numbness of waiting for death.

The golden wave brushed past.

The violent energy around them instantly became docile.

The Spiritual Vein beneath their feet, which had been dried up for countless millennia, actually glowed again, and wisps of pure Spiritual Qi poured into their parched Meridians.

Such miracles played out simultaneously in every corner of the Tomb of the Epoch.

Countless survivors hiding deep in the ruins, barely clinging to life in despair, walked out of their respective hiding places in shock.

They felt their miraculously healed injuries.

They breathed in the Spiritual Qi flowing in the air again, carrying vibrant life force.

"It's a god..."

"The god has not abandoned us!"

An old man, his face covered in tears, knelt tremblingly toward the source of the golden wave—the direction of the Mining Area.

His kneeling was like a signal.

Thousands, even hundreds of thousands of survivors, after confirming this wasn't an illusion, unhesitatingly offered their most devout kneeling and prayers toward the same direction.

They didn't know who this new god was.

But in the face of this world-ending crisis, this miracle that brought life was their only lifeline.

Strand after strand, wisps of Power Of Faith millions of times greater than the previous three hundred Kindling members gathered into a golden ocean, breaking through the barriers of time and space to surge madly into Lin Fan's body!

Lin Fan, sitting in the center of the ruins, felt his body shake slightly.

On his System panel, the numbers representing his divinity rank began to jump wildly.

[divinity rank: Lv.1]

[divinity rank: Lv.2]

[divinity rank: Lv.3]

A vast and majestic power grew and expanded wildly within his Mortal body.

His ability to analyze and weave rules soared at an unimaginable speed.

This advancement had no Bottleneck and no limit, as if as long as there was enough faith, he could cover a thousand miles in a day and reach the realm of the gods directly.

This was the Path of Divinity.

However, just as Lin Fan was immersed in this rapid expansion of power, fully analyzing the rule structure of the "Final Purification Protocol" outside...

A weak but clear thought, mixed in with the massive amount of prayers, was captured by him.

It wasn't a plea, nor was it worship.

It was a kind of... scrutiny and curiosity.

He snapped his eyes open.

At the entrance of the Command Hall not far away, a ten-person squad had appeared silently at some point.

The aura of this squad was completely out of place with these ruins. They seemed as if they didn't belong to this era, carrying a decayed and ancient scent, but the eyes of every single person were as deep as the starry sky.

The leader was an old man with white hair and a white beard, wearing a tattered hemp robe and leaning on a staff made of an unknown beast bone.

He wasn't affected by Lin Fan's invisible pressure, but just looked at him quietly, his eyes carrying a hint of inquiry and a hint of emotion.

Fatty Zhang, Li Hanyue, and the others immediately surrounded them nervously, as if facing a great enemy.

The old man didn't look at them, but simply bowed slightly toward Lin Fan, his voice hoarse but clearly reaching everyone's ears.

"Tomb of the Epoch, Gravekeepers Lineage, 67th Generation Grand Elder."

"I have come... to have an audience with the new god."