Divine Embryo Realm, the first realm of the Incense Fire Divine Path.
Entering this realm meant that Chu Zheng had formally stepped onto the Incense Living Beings Way, becoming an Incense Fire Deity.
After nurturing a Divine Embryo, this mud-sculpted Divine Statue had awakened spiritually.
Chu Zheng's true body and this Divine Statue were now connected. He could even use this statue to project some of his Divine Skills across space.
Only after setting foot on this path did Chu Zheng understand why Zhao Tingxian had suddenly appeared on that star.
A true name is extremely important for Incense Fire Deities, and it must never be disclosed recklessly.
If a believer prays, and someone calls out the true name of a deity, as long as the Incense Fire Deity is within a certain range, the true form must descend.
If the distance is too far and it is impossible to arrive in time, one must manifest a miracle through their Golden Body.
Believers are the source of an Incense Fire Deity's power, inseparable—this constitutes the constraints of believers on Incense Fire Deities.
Therefore, most people only know the titles of deities and not their true names.
The Ancestral Dao Golden Body spreads across the Myriad Heavens and Realms, yet no one knows its true name, likely for this reason.
Incense Fire Willpower, which is the believers, also has levels, generally categorized into upper, middle, and lower tiers.
Those who can provide first-class willpower are called Fanatical Believers, who possess the most devout hearts towards their worshipped deity and are willing to die for their faith at any moment.
Those providing middle-tier willpower are called True Believers. Among all groups of believers, this type occupies the most central position and is the cornerstone on which high-rise buildings are constructed.
True Believers would at most worship two or three deities and will spread the doctrine of their own deity, continuously expanding the group of believers.
As for lower-tier willpower, derived from a mixture, these believers are called False Believers. These people typically worship many deities, with their worship sporadic, like fishing for three days and drying the nets for two.
If a better option arises, they may even switch sides at any moment.
The believers Chu Zheng gathered using Spirit Stones had particularly low-quality Incense Fire Willpower, belonging to the lowest among the lower tier.
Should Chu Zheng cut off the supply of Spirit Stones, these gathered believers would quickly disperse.
However, even if the quality of the Incense Fire Willpower was not high, Chu Zheng still received many benefits.
Because many of these believers gathered by Spirit Stones were cultivators, their daily worship provided him with significant Incense Fire Willpower.
The amplification of Incense Fire Willpower on the Divine Infant was clearly evident. In these three years, he had saved himself more than a decade of arduous cultivation.
The advancement of his Immortal Path Cultivation had already reached the Middle Stage of Divine Infant and was rapidly progressing towards the Late Divine Soul Realm.
This was still the case when the Incense Fire Willpower was far from abundant. If there were enough believers, the speed of cultivation enhancement in the Incense Fire Divine Path would be terrifying.
Zhao Tingxian's ability to reach the Immortal Venerable realm in just over a thousand years was definitely linked to the Incense Fire Divine Path.
Compared to those cultivators who came because of Spirit Stones, Yuan Dazun was clearly an exception; Incense Fire Willpower could most directly reflect a believer's level of devotion.
Over these three years, as time passed, the Incense Fire Willpower carried by Yuan Dazun during his incense burning and worshipping became denser and far exceeded that of ordinary believers.
This was Chu Zheng's only True Believer.
He had truly come to believe that in the Primordial Era, there existed a Dao Lord, who now intended to return to the human world through the Incense Fire Divine Path, with Chu Zheng as his spokesperson.
The rapid advancement in Chu Zheng's cultivation was something he had witnessed. Without the aid of a deity, it would have been impossible.
Because the quality of Chu Zheng's believers was extremely low and given the limitations of Spirit Stones, it was already predestined that this model could not be sustained long-term, and changes were necessary.
Without numerous incomplete Magic Artifacts to continuously acquire Spirit Stones, the substantial daily expense over these three years was already stressing his resources.
He needed to change this pattern, ensuring a stable and enduring supply of Incense Fire Willpower.
In the following period, Chu Zheng interrupted the supply of Spirit Stones after worshipping the Divine Statue.
When worshipping could no longer yield Spirit Stones, the supply of Incense Fire Willpower quickly decreased significantly.
Soon, Chu Zheng's true body sensed an emptiness within the Divine Infant, but his realm of cultivation did not fall, thanks to Elixirs that could replenish this deficit.
This might be one of the advantages of a living cultivator practicing the Incense Fire Divine Path; even if believers dispersed, they could still rely on their own cultivation to exist in the world, minimizing the impact.
As believers gradually became few, and the recently gathered Incense Fire began to dissipate, Yuan Dazun observed with some urgency.
After the Incense Fire Willpower was depleted, Chu Zheng started over, re-screening for believers, while the task of preaching for "Daoist Venerable Zheng Chu" naturally fell to Yuan Dazun.
To increase Incense Fire, Yuan Dazun went out daily, beginning to search for suitable believers for Chu Zheng within the city.
Under Chu Zheng's instructions, he no longer mentioned Chu Zheng's name to others.
Over this period, his initial wish had gradually changed; to serve as a Wandering Deity under the Dao Lord was also a fulfillment of his previous desires.
The logic of seeking shade under a big tree is understood by everyone. Without support from behind, even if he gathered a small fraction of believers, and luckily entered the Divine Court after death, as someone unknown and unremarkable, the eventual outcome was likely to be quite bleak.