Chapter 1 All the Clues Come Together

All the clues pieced together in Stonemason's mind, and in an instant, he guessed at one possibility for the background of this mission.

The one manipulating the embryo at this moment wasn't the Reindeer God, but Williams!

As a member of a secret organization, Stonemason was no stranger to the occult.

In the occult, deities are divided into nature gods and personal gods according to the intensity of their self-awareness.

Nature gods, or conceptual gods, are deities produced by natural phenomena and are the embodiment of the laws of nature. Such as gales, the sun, rainstorms, tsunamis, raging fires, and even clouds, rainbows.

Nature gods do not possess self-awareness in the objective sense, but are simply natural phenomena. Without joy or sorrow, foolish and blind, they do not respond to worshippers in any way.

Personal gods, on the other hand, are deities with self-awareness, who can perceive their own state, possess a certain degree of joy, anger, love, and hate, and make subjective reactions to the outside world.

Some personal gods are transcendent beings (such as heroes in Greek mythology) who accept the worship of believers, gather divine power, ignite divine fire, and then become gods.

Other personal gods were originally nature gods, but were "polluted" by the faith of their worshippers, producing self-awareness.

These personal gods must rely on collecting the faith of their worshippers to maintain their existence.

A decrease in the number of worshippers will not only weaken the power of the personal god, but also cause the personal god's self-awareness to decline, becoming foolish and sluggish.

According to the information provided by the script,

The ugly and hideous reindeer should have initially been a nature god of Roanoke Island, who, after accepting the worship of the local indigenous people, developed self-awareness and became a low-level personal god.

As time went on, the number of indigenous people decreased, and the divine power provided to the reindeer also became insufficient.

Until the arrival of the English colonists, who provided the reindeer with divine power once more.

'The Leslie family attempted to use the reindeer's divine power to alleviate the petrification curse in their bloodline. But when the reindeer was resurrected, a part of Williams was also reawakened.

He has been lurking inside the manor, enduring for who knows how long.

The Reindeer God hasn't absorbed the faith of worshippers for so many years, and is already foolish and blind, with a greatly diminished self-awareness.

Williams seized this opportunity to take over the Reindeer God in one fell swoop during the resurrection ritual, attempting to use the embryo to complete his resurrection.'

Stonemason gritted his teeth, 'No wonder, no wonder the embryo can create such precise and perfect creations like the petrified golems.

Williams, with the knowledge and wisdom of a mystic scholar, is far more difficult to deal with than the foolish reindeer.'

In mid-air, the mud pillar arm slammed down towards Dong Fengpo,

The latter activated the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear, hooking the left claw onto the left wall, and flying out horizontally, barely avoiding the mud pillar's strike.

Li Ang also paused the music and stopped the BG skill, falling to the ground.

He watched as the mud pillar arm toppled to the ground, mud splashing high, like raging waves. The mud suddenly contracted just as it was about to fall, curling up like a non-Newtonian fluid, firmly wrapping the embryo inside.

Stonemason, who had melted the last stone giant, shouted loudly to his teammates, "It's Williams, not the Reindeer God!"

Most of the players present were quick-witted, especially Forest Cat, who was also proficient in the occult, and immediately thought of this possibility after discovering that the embryo had spoken.

Killing a non-personal god without much self-awareness, and killing a cunning mystic scholar with the power of a deity, are two completely different concepts.

From within the mud ball that was motionless, Williams's deep, hoarse voice sounded, "You are not descendants of the Leslie family."

Li Ang's heart stirred, and he walked forward. The blade of the long spear in his hand was pointed diagonally at the ground, and he said calmly, "What Leslie family? What is that, can you eat it?"

"Hmm?" Williams, who had been interrupted in his resurrection ritual, instead became less agitated, and asked in a deep voice, "Then who are you? Why did you break into this manor and interrupt my ritual?

Do you know how long I've planned for this day, how long I've endured, and how much I've paid?"

"Do I care?"

Li Ang shook his head and said coldly to the mud ball, "I belong to the armed forces of the IRS. This time I came to the manor to investigate the manor's history of tax evasion."

""

Williams was stunned for a moment, "What?"

The IRS is the Internal Revenue Service of the United States, established during the Civil War, and is one of the most feared departments in the United States.

Whether or not you are a U.S. citizen, and whether or not your income is legal, you must not evade taxes. From gang leaders and millionaires to the middle class and ordinary people, everyone turns pale at the mention of the IRS.

Because the U.S. tax code is complicated, taxpayers are required to fill out and submit their own forms, and the IRS is responsible for checking the tax returns (mainly targeting the middle class. The rich have accountants to help them avoid taxes, and nothing can be squeezed from the bottom, only the middle class has money and is prone to tax evasion, among which the Chinese middle class, who do not understand the relevant regulations and are prone to unintentional tax evasion, are most likely to be targeted by the IRS),

If illegal tax evasion is discovered by the IRS, not only will you have to pay huge fines several times the amount, but you may also be sentenced to prison. It is very likely that you will be sentenced to several months or even years in prison for a few hundred dollars of tax evasion.

"What, don't want to pay taxes?"

Li Ang frowned, "Only death and taxes are eternal in this world. This large manor has not paid relevant taxes since the 1930s.

According to the relevant regulations of North Carolina, the authorities have the right to seize the property of tax debtors, no matter how much tax is owed, and all proceeds from the auction belong to the authorities.

This house already belongs to the North Carolina authorities. If you know what's good for you, get out of here as soon as possible and don't cause us any trouble."

""

Williams didn't know how to respond. In fact, Li Ang's nonsense was also purposeful –

In 2013, an 83-year-old engineer in Oakland County, Michigan, had his property frozen the following year for a tax bill of \$277 (interest on interest) because he underpaid \$841 in partial property taxes.

Local officials auctioned off the property in June for more than \$20,000 and refused to give the engineer the money after deducting the taxes owed.

Because Michigan tax law allows officials to seize the property of tax debtors, no matter how much tax is owed, all proceeds from the auction belong to the authorities. The original purpose of this regulation was to crack down on gang groups, but Oakland officials have used this regulation more to deal with ordinary people – from 2006 to 2015, Oakland officials earned as much as \$20 million by auctioning off the properties of tax-owing citizens.

How shameless, you really are something, America.

Williams had been trapped in the manor for so many years, completely out of touch with the times, and didn't know whether the information Li Ang was spouting was true or false.

His silence instead confirmed Li Ang's guess – the latter's nonsense was to test whether the entity controlling the embryo at this moment was the Reindeer God, Williams, or something else.