With a helpless glance at her companions behind her, Zhu Dong formed seals and cast the most powerful spell she could currently muster.
It was the Golden Crow Bathing in Fire Technique.
In the next second, a vast amount of solar power surged from her body, instantly transforming into a great sun-crow that absorbed the solar energy from thousands of miles around, leaving the surrounding area in an almost absolute darkness.
Simultaneously, the great sun-crow itself appeared black, like a black hole, as it had absorbed all light. To outsiders, it naturally looked black.
However, there was a ring of dazzling golden light around its periphery.
This was the intensely concentrated essence of sunlight.
This was also the primary reason why the world often spoke of the sun-crow being black. All the light was absorbed by the sun-crow's body, and it did not reflect any light. Thus, it appeared black.
As the great sun-crow finally took shape, Zhu Dong swiftly guided it over the ocean, demonstrating to all the Octopus people what "the great sun bathing the sea" and "a boiling ocean" truly meant.
Fortunately, by this point, the sun-crow was no longer actively absorbing solar energy, and the surroundings returned to light. Thus, the Octopus people, who were preparing to attack, could clearly see the three-legged phantom bird, which had been black moments ago, turn golden.
And as soon as it entered the nearshore domain,
The area within a hundred-mile radius began to boil rapidly.
Steam billowed out, and many sea creatures were cooked.
"This is just a warning. We came with peaceful intentions, seeking to negotiate with you and only spread our faith, not to seize your sovereignty or anything of the sort. But do not assume we are easily bullied.
Especially when it comes to the Sun Goddess, be cautious. Those who blaspheme will die; this is our final bottom line.
Allow us to preach, and we shall be peaceful and friendly. Deny us, and we are all warriors of the Goddess!"
Just as the Octopus people were extremely wary and cautious of outsiders and other races, Zhu Dong and her companions were also very guarded. Therefore, they quickly issued another threat.
They hoped to intimidate these Octopus people.
Even a multitude of ants could bite an elephant to death. They did not truly wish to initiate a full-scale war. More importantly, they were unfamiliar with naval warfare, and solar energy was somewhat weakened in the ocean.
This was why they were so restrained.
Otherwise, a direct push forward would not have been difficult.
After this display, the pale golden octopus indeed showed signs of fear. It didn't know if this was biological technology or some advanced weapon, but it was undeniably powerful.
At the same time, it did not want to bring terrible danger to the entire Octopus race because of its own actions.
Most crucially, it did not want to bear the blame. Thus, it quickly announced a halt to the attack, offering appeasement while simultaneously reporting to its superiors, hoping they would make the decision. This way, whether it was war or peace, it would not be the primary deciding factor, and it would not have to take responsibility.
Many characteristics are essentially biological instincts and natures.
Humans are not unique in this.
Most intelligent life forms are quite similar.
...
On the other side, progress on the beastman planet was, conversely, relatively smooth. After demonstrating a few miracles, most people began to preach with relative ease.
The issue was that the beastmen lived relatively dispersed, with many existing in tribal forms. Although many beastman tribes had contact with each other, this contact was limited to intermarriage or the exchange of goods. There was no hierarchical system between them.
This made it impossible for the missionaries to preach by first approaching an emperor or high official and having them disseminate the message downwards. They had to visit each tribe individually.
However, if they only performed a miracle and left,
The resulting faith would be too weak.
They might even stop believing after a short while.
In short, while preaching was easy, it was difficult to spread rapidly and solidify faith.
Then, some chose to take their time, tribe by tribe, ensuring that a tribe produced devout believers. After helping a believer successfully begin cultivation and appointing them as the tribe's shaman, they would move on to the next tribe.
Others, however, inquired all the way, intending to head directly for the largest local tribe, to see if they could merge tribes through conquest and form an alliance for preaching.
Everyone had their own methods. While the outcome was not yet apparent, they were indeed all working hard to preach through their own means.
...
A year later, most planets had been successfully taken by the missionaries. The remaining few planets, including the Octopus planet, had not yet achieved success, but there had been significant progress, and the dawn of victory was in sight. They believed that with enough time, they would eventually succeed.
However, this time, Ding Yun did not specifically wait for them to succeed before proceeding with the third phase of the plan after the second batch of all planets was secured. Time waited for no one. Not only were many people on the main planet eager to go to other worlds to preach, but even many kings and generals on the first ten conquered planets who had reached the level of devout faith also wished to join.
They felt that the lottery should not be limited to people on the main planet; they were also believers of the Goddess and should preach.
In the face of everyone's enthusiastic response,
Ding Yun soon commenced the third batch of missions.
This time, there were more spots. Her own Sun Temple offered a full hundred thousand slots, and the Moon Temple also provided a hundred thousand slots. Together, this amounted to two hundred thousand slots, and two hundred thousand worlds to be summoned to. The sheer number sounded terrifying.
In addition, among these two hundred thousand worlds requiring missionaries, there were countless strange intelligent races and civilizations with diverse developmental directions. Therefore, before the specific registration and lottery phase, Ding Yun specifically used her Sun Maiden clone to hold a live broadcast to give everyone a heads-up:
"I know you are all very excited, thinking that with more slots this time, your chances of winning the lottery are greater, and even if you don't win, the possibility of becoming an attendant is infinitely greater than before.
But what I want to tell you is that the previous worlds were mostly hand-picked by the Goddess from countless worlds, with little difference from your current world, making them relatively easy to adapt to and preach in.
However, these twenty thousand worlds this time are uncertain. All sorts of races may appear, even purely soul-based races, or non-carbon-based races. Additionally, the environments of many worlds may also have significant differences. For example, gravity might be much greater than in the main world, or oxygen content might be much lower, or the air might contain substances toxic to carbon-based life. These situations are all possible.
So do not assume that preaching will be easy.
..."