Most people took twenty years or more to cross this realm as beguiling mortal souls took literal lifetimes in pocket worlds. Once devils reached the Baron realm they would settle down, have kids, take up middle management clan postings. It couldn"t be rushed through, that was the nature of the realm.

I figured I"d map out a righteous religion for my devout faithful to follow. Devils were evil for diverting faith from lower worlds and stealing the souls from the realms reincarnation cycle.

That didn"t mean that the religions we founded had to be inherently evil. They could be perfectly righteous, as long as they would pull in the ma.s.ses.

As a Baron I could only grant simple blessings using my Light Dao for the ones who wors.h.i.+ped me. I spent a week planning out my religious structure. I set up three levels of blessings compared to the level of faith followers had.

If they were shallow believers, they could gain u003cLights Healingu003e. If they were true believers, they could gain u003cLights Graceu003e. And if they were devout believers, they could gain u003cLights Strengthu003e.

u003cLights Healingu003e was the most powerful of the effects to bring in believers. It would grant minor healing of wounds to those that thought of me. u003cLight Graceu003e granted a speed buff that allowed believers to escape danger. u003cLights Strengthu003e empowered my most devout believers with great strength.

I learned that offering fel to followers to improve their power was not the best option. Devils only did that to collect powerful cultivator souls through contracts. As a Baron I could offer my Dao blessings to mortals but I could grant fel contracts to Esquires corrupting them.

Fel was much too powerful and chaotic. It was much better to offer blessings with your Dao. Those who succ.u.mbed to fel were a great boon, however, if devils took that path we risked our True Name being discovered.

Esquire cultivators weren"t as foolish as mortals. They could use the contract to bind a devil to service. No devil wanted to be bound to serve a weakling over the weakling"s entire life or until their True Name evolved.

I choose the straight and narrow path of developing a faithful following among mortals. That way my True Name wouldn"t be at risk of being revealed.

The better I understood my Dao, the better blessings I could grant. I built my personal devil altar, imbued it with my Light Dao, and begin scrying to find a pocket world.

Scrying was an arduous process. It was much like fis.h.i.+ng. I imbued my Dao into Dao lines and cast it out into the void, hoping to find worlds. Once I found a world, I could attempt to reach a connection with a mortal through their dreams.

After a month of daily scrying, I soon found my first world. It was a Tier-2 pocket world inhabited by intelligent flood dragons. These serpentine beasts were like dragons, but lacked the horns and size and majesty of true dragons. They were long and snakelike with four legs and no wings.

Their world was one giant ocean. The flood dragons called themselves the Hailong race. They had no natural enemies within the world, their only enemy was each other. Other powerful sea creatures inhabited the depths of the ocean world, but none had created a sentient society like the Hailong race.

I found my way into the dreams of a young Hailong who had been beaten and driven out of his tribe. The young Hailong, Lanshe, had no one to watch out for him in the Cheng World. He was having difficulty surviving, wondering where he would get his next meal.

I appeared in his dream; I took the form of a large white true dragon with beautiful scales and giant wings.

"Young one, I see you are not having a good time in the Cheng World," I said.

"If you put your faith in me, I can grant you the strength to overcome your misfortune. I will grant you a small boon as I took pity on your folly."

"All I ask in return is you spread my name as the Guardian Light Dragon. The Light shall flow through all those who open their hearts to me."

When Lanshe awoke his wounds were healed. He could feel the power of the Light flowing through him.

"Guardian Light Dragon, I shall carve this kindness into my heart," said Lanshe.

From then on Lanshe spread the tale of the Guardian Light Dragon to whoever he met in the depths. The story grew wings and quickly in a few years those who were injured would begin praying to the Guardian Light Dragon.

I empowered my altar to provide minor healing to any mortals who prayed to me. Though I could not send blessings to affect Esquires, mortal blessings were all too simple. Within a generation, many mortals prayed to the Guardian Light Dragon to heal their wounds.

The power of faith was strong, Lanshe lived a long mortal life within the Cheng World. On his deathbed he truly believed in the Guardian Light Dragon. For all he had done for him throughout his life. He was my first devout believer.

When Lanshe pa.s.sed away, he found himself in a dark room upon an altar. In front of him there was no Guardian Light Dragon, which he had pledged his soul to. There before him was a creature he had never seen before. It looked at him with a smile.

"You have served me well Lanshe, I must thank you for your efforts to spread my faith," I said.

"Without you I would not have a stream of faith starting to come from the Cheng World."

Those were the last words Lanshe heard before I swallowed his serpentine soul whole.

It sucked Lanshe straight down my gullet. What a pitiful fate for my first devout believer. He truly believed he would reach salvation by believing in me. Unfortunately, the only thing that awaited him was my pallet.

I savored the fresh soul; it was a unique experience. All the endorphins within my head were firing at maximum capacity. This was a delicacy!

No devil would ever forget the taste of their first beguiled soul. I savored that moment and finally felt my Baron realm improve.

I licked my lips.

"Needs more hot sauce," I said.