Chapter 137: Sharing

"Huh, Freya doesn't seem to have a clear grasp of... my current relationship with the little red dragon?"

Within moments of their conversation, Huang Ze keenly realized this. The Goddess of Love made no mention of the red dragon that had been fawning over him, focusing instead entirely on her devotee, Wen Ya, obsessed with the idea of having Huang Ze and Wen Ya conceive a child.

Huang Ze naturally refused. To be honest, he didn't have a very high opinion of this goddess. Judging by her modus operandi, she was somewhat unscrupulous; to make contact with him, she had even gone so far as to directly interfere in his mother's dreams!

"It's a mercy I haven't settled the score with her yet, and here she is, trying to control me!"

With such prejudice in his heart, Huang Ze's interaction with Freya was naturally far from pleasant.

"It's a pity... I didn't want to resort to force with you," Freya sighed as she saw Huang Ze remained unmoved. "We could have been very good friends."

"..."

Huang Ze did not respond, instead heightening his vigilance. He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the Goddess of Love seemed somewhat abnormal—her paranoia and erratic nature suggested she was hovering on the brink of madness and collapse, which was why she was so desperate to latch onto him.

Though Huang Ze didn't understand why she was so fixated on making him have a child with... whoever Wen Ya was. Could it be that she wanted to use this to reincarnate and escape some kind of curse? If that were the case, did it mean... Freya wanted him to be her father?

Huang Ze thought, somewhat irrelevantly.

"...Wen Ya told me that the God of Love for you people of Xia is called Yue Lao. The red thread he holds is the thread of destiny for you humans."

"You only need to connect the threads of two people, and they will fall in love, becoming an enviable celestial couple... This is what you call a marriage predestined by a thousand-mile thread."

As Freya spoke to herself, she pulled out a massive red rope from goodness-knows-where—good grief, it was at least ten centimeters thick!

"At the time, Wen Ya asked me if my work was the same, dealing with countless threads of destiny every day, and if I could weave sweaters with the red thread when I was bored..."

"I told her no. Wen Ya was a little disappointed and suggested I should keep pace with the times and adapt to local conditions, genuinely considering the cultural customs and psychological needs of the Xia people, and use the red thread to replace their marriage lines. That way, it would be easier for the people of Xia to accept."

"I thought she made some sense, so I did just that."

"..."

Huang Ze stared at the giant red rope in her hand, speechless. *Good god, isn't this thing a bit too big? Once a red thread this thick binds someone, I fear it will last for thousands or tens of thousands of years!*

"I didn't expect that a dignified deity like you would actually stoop to such forced measures..."

Huang Ze shifted into his dragon form and sighed. "But this is also fine. I had thought your divine authority and methods would be more complex and intuitive—rising to some level of quantum mechanics or high-dimensional interference where you could just tap a keyboard—oh, I mean, use a bit of divine power—to decide someone's fate."

"I didn't expect you to have to do it yourself... So-called gods, it turns out, are nothing more than this!"

"Hehe... You're not entirely wrong to think that."

Freya chuckled, though it was unclear whether she meant that the gods were "nothing more than this," or that the essence of divine authority was indeed quantum mechanics and high-dimensional interference.

She gently patted the red rope in her hand and said, "Go, bring back that black dragon."

With that, the red rope seemed to gain a life of its own and joyfully darted toward the black dragon.

Do not be fooled by its slow speed; compared to the massive form of the black dragon, it appeared harmless. Yet, Huang Ze dared not lower his guard, for in his perception, this was no simple red rope—it was a heavy, binding chain!

"You want to catch me... it won't be that easy!"

Knowing this was not his home turf and that he was not in his best state, Huang Ze did not choose to be a hero. Instead, he decisively turned tail and slipped back into his own mental world.

To his surprise, however, the red rope seemed to have an auto-targeting system. It ignored his mental defenses and, slowly but determinedly, surged into his spirit.

"Too arrogant! You really think I can't handle you?"

Huang Ze grew angry. He didn't retreat but advanced, unleashing a burst of mental power and spewing a scorching breath of dragon fire in an attempt to incinerate the rope.

But the rope didn't dodge or evade; it actually caught fire!

"Oh no!"

Huang Ze was not happy; he was horrified. He seemed to have fallen for Freya's trap!

The red rope was like a highly flammable material. Once hit by his dragon breath, it ignited violently, releasing a massive amount of fragrant scent. This scent seemed to spread faster than light; despite Huang Ze being at a significant distance, he was still affected.

"Is it really that cheap?"

Huang Ze was startled but not panicked. He felt that the threat level of this thing wasn't high; it wouldn't cause him any substantive damage. Furthermore, he didn't develop any strange feelings, nor did his intelligence drop to that of a lovesick fool obsessing over the woman named Wen Ya.

"Is it just a smoke bomb?" Huang Ze didn't believe Freya's methods could be broken so easily. "Or... is it true that dragons, as transcendent beings, are immune to divine authority?"

Thinking about it, his current brain system was indeed very different from that of humans. Not only was his defense stronger, but he could also actively control the secretion of various hormones... As long as his intelligence remained online, he was basically immune to the bewitchment of romance. Even if he occasionally had a lapse in judgment due to base urges, it was purely physiological, and he would return to a state of saintly detachment afterward.

"I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing..."

Huang Ze's mood was inexplicably complex. While being immune to the Love Goddess's influence guaranteed the independence and integrity of his soul and mind, it also meant that the distance between him and ordinary people would only continue to grow.

"Wait... Freya is a native deity of this world; she couldn't possibly be unaware of this!"

Huang Ze suddenly realized, "Her doing this must have some other purpose!"

This thick, long thing was likely not Wen Ya's marriage line at all, but something else entirely!

"Not bad... your reaction is quite fast!"

'Wen Ya' emerged from nowhere. Seeing Huang Ze's defensive stance, she looked somewhat gratified. "The red rope you see actually has another name—the Anchor of Destiny."

"My divine authority relies heavily on it to function."

"Huang Ze, I actually lied to Wen Ya. The reason I was so anxious to find you wasn't to play matchmaker for her, but to share this Anchor of Destiny—and the divine authority of the Love Goddess—with you."

"…Why would you do that?"

Huang Ze was shocked. He had expected to have a real fight with Freya today, but he never imagined she would say such a thing! All this, just to share her divine authority with him?! Was the divine authority of love really that much of a hot potato?

"Because you people of Xia... are truly terrifying!" Freya seemed to have lingering fears. "You cannot imagine the impact that the surge of thoughts and beliefs from over a billion Xia people will have on me once the barrier vanishes! It is no exaggeration to say that I might even collapse because of it!"

"That can't be right... aren't you deities supposed to want as many believers as possible? Why would you dislike having so many people believe in you?" Huang Ze asked, confused.

"Because my deification is not complete, and I still wish to retain my self," Freya replied. "You can compare me to a supercomputer whose daily task is to process the love of various intelligent beings in the material realm."

"Before you Xia people arrived, my workload was small. I had plenty of redundant computing power to do as I pleased, and I could largely maintain my sense of self without being assimilated or polluted by the world's will."

"But since you people arrived, my good days have come to an end. A catastrophe is near because the thoughts of you Xia people are simply too complex!"

"Without exaggeration, the workload generated by a single Xia person is equivalent to that of a hundred indigenous humans, if not more!"

"Because your Xia society has highly developed information flow, you are generally well-educated, possess clear and stable values, have strong self-awareness, and the complexity of your souls is more than a hundred times that of the indigenous humans in this material realm!"

"Moreover, you Xia people... were originally mostly atheists, with no other gods to fill your spiritual void, which has led to a particularly intense pursuit and craving for love!"

"Although the barrier has not yet disappeared, I have already received scattered faith from no fewer than three hundred thousand people, not counting potential believers. Yet even so, it has caused me a massive impact, pushing me to the brink of madness and collapse!"

"..."

The more Freya spoke, the more agitated she became. Huang Ze was stunned, not only by the reasons but also by the information Freya revealed about deities! Was she actually comparing herself to a supercomputer? Did this mean the gods of this world were truly some kind of super-intelligent machines?

"But if you share your divine authority with me, aren't you afraid I'll fall into madness and collapse?" Huang Ze asked in a deep voice. "This is clearly your responsibility. Isn't it a bit too much to force it onto me?"

"It is too much, but I can't just watch myself be destroyed!" Freya said. "And... aren't you Xia people capable of great things? With an entire nation as your backing, you might not fall into madness and collapse like I would."

"I can even give you a suggestion. Don't you Xia people have some achievements in big data? You can absolutely apply that technology to divine authority!"

"..."

*Using big data to arrange marriages? What a thought!*

Huang Ze wasn't so easily fooled. He said coldly, "Since you think big data is useful, why don't you use it yourself? At worst, we can provide technical support and supply you with a few supercomputers... Why must you share your divine authority with me?"

"...You definitely don't have good intentions!"

"Fine, think what you want." Freya smiled indifferently. "After all, you're not wrong—gods have no good intentions. We must first consider our own interests and how to survive!"

"..."

Huang Ze found it strange. Why did Freya's tone sound as if the gods of this world weren't as glorious as they appeared, but also had their own difficulties and troubles?

However, as a person from Xia, why would he care whether these gods were doing well or not? He only knew that his own interests had been violated!

"Take back your divine authority!" Huang Ze's mental power surged as he glared at Freya, his aura threatening. "Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite!"

"Except for the very beginning... you've never been polite to me." Freya didn't mind. "And I don't care if you're polite or not; I just want to throw this hot potato out of my hands!"

*Damn it!*

Huang Ze was furious and charged at Freya.

"Don't be so excited. Don't you see?" Freya said while dodging the black dragon's strike. "Your mental world is too primitive and rudimentary; it desperately needs divine authority to stabilize it."

"And aren't you worried... if I truly fall here, you will inherit my entire godhood and become the new God of Love?"

"Right now, we can cooperate for mutual benefit, sharing the gains and losses. If it truly comes to that, you will have to hold the line alone, facing a situation a hundred or a thousand times more difficult than the current one!"

"..."

The black dragon slowed down, looking at Freya coldly. "You've had everything calculated from the start?"

"It's not that I calculated it; it is all the arrangement of destiny!" Freya smiled. "Instead of wasting time on me and trying to settle the score, you should find a way to deal with the faith of over a billion people as soon as possible. After all, you don't have much time left—three years at most!"

"You won't succeed!"