Lacius's emotions constantly switch between excitement from his new abilities and sadness from Hars's death. Several priests arrived at his laboratory.

  They picked Hars's corpse and brought it toward the temple in Winter City.

  The next day. Lacius, who has turned younger, led the cremation ceremony for Hars in Winter City's temple.

  Even though Hars should've been the center of attention in this ceremony. But, most people instead locked their eyes on Lacius.

  It can't be helped at all. Lacius who has turned younger is simply much more eye-catching.

  Many people saw the meteor like streak of light falling toward the palace yesterday.

  They have also heard of gossip spread by those who have seen Lacius turn younger.

  But most still couldn't believe it and came to visit directly on the day Hars's cremation was held.

  Now that they've seen Lacius. Whether they want to believe it or not, the truth has been shown in front of their eyes.

  The miracle of returning to his youth has also consolidated Lacius's status as a god.

  After Hars's cremation is completed. Lacius expressionlessly left the temple and returned to the palace.

  The next day, he called a few sculptors toward the palace.

  From the memory regarding the abilities he gained, Lacius knew that statues are a bridge for the transfer of faith energy.

  The closer the statue's form to himself, the closer the distance between the statue to himself. The more effective the transfer of faith energy will be.

  As he has regained his youth, the statue depicting himself in his old age has become obsolete and caused most of the faith energy he gained to disperse.

  He simply couldn't accept it, so he planned to send those sculptors to the surrounding cities.

  Before they left, Lacius also sent several blessed and priests to accompany them.

  Except for sculpting his statues, the reason he sent the sculptors is also to spread the miracle that happened to him.

  As those sculptors left for other cities, Lacius's miracle began to spread by word of mouth.

  When Lacius saw a report telling the success of his plan, he continued his work as a king for three whole months.

  Once the situation in the Sacred Kingdom seemed to be stable, and the news regarding the miracle that happened to him had died down, Lacius abdicated.

  The news came as a shock for everyone.

  Many city lords sent their messengers to the Winter City to inquire for more news.

  But all they receive are only invitations to attend Lacius's abdication and the new king's ascension to the throne in the next month.

  A month later, the city lords and all nobles in the Sacred Kingdom arrived in the Winter City.

  Not only those with high statuses. Many merchants, painters, poets, and people of varying classes and professions entered the Winter City to watch this rare event.

  Everyone wished to see the first abdication ceremony in the human race's history with their own eyes.

  Lacius has expected this situation and has long since decorated the city and cleaned every trace of messes. He also employed many cooks to cook free food to every guest who arrived in the city which caused the atmosphere of happiness to spread throughout the city.

  The amount of money he wasted to create this festive atmosphere is equal to the kingdom's budget for a few months. But the result doesn’t disappoint. With how many people have gathered in the city. The news about what happened at the new king's ascension will spread at lightning speed.

  Standing on a window in the palace, Lacius watched the busy street and raised his head to the sky.

  When he saw the sun had almost reached above everyone's head, Lacius went toward a balcony that faced the plaza in front of the palace.

  On the plaza, thousands of people have crowded it.

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  Around them, the wind element blessed kept on using their abilities to make sure no one had suffocated to death because of the crowd.

  A bit further away, many earth elements have raised the earth and created several platforms complete with benches that are quickly filled with people.

  Compared to the crowd inside the plaza, the people sitting on the recently raised platform wore much more intricate clothing.

  Those are the emergency plans Lacius made to accommodate the nobles who had accepted his invitation.

  Initially, he didn't plan to create a special seat for the nobles. But, the amount of spectators from other cities is simply too much compared to his estimate.

  As the distance of those seats is too far away from the balcony Lacius in. Every noble is equipped with binoculars, a recent invention from the Red Leaf City.

  When Lacius saw the sun had reached above the sky, he slightly moved his hand toward a guard as a starting signal.

  When he saw the wind and earth element blessed he prepared had activated their abilities, Lacius started his speech. "Greetings, citizens of the Sacred Kingdom…"

  With the help of hundreds of earth and wind elements blessed. Lacius's voice spread far and wide.

  From the people standing in the plaza to the people sitting in the platforms, everyone could hear Lacius's voice and fell silent to listen to Lacius's half an hour long talk.

  To summarize, Lacius said he is abdicating as a king to fulfill his duty in this world as the god of alchemy to bring prosperity to the world.

  Once he finished speaking. One of his oldest sons, which he had selected as the new king, kneeled in front of him.

  Lacius removed the crown he wore and gave it to a newly appointed high priest that has been chosen from among his children.

  The new high priest brought the crown and placed it on the new king while chanting prayers for the creator and the god of alchemy.

  At last, the High Priest finished his sentence. ".... Under the sight of the creator and the gods, may the king reign upon the Sacred Kingdom for a long time."

  Once he finished, the high priest quickly retreated. Then, Lacius, followed by the high priest, retreated from the balcony.

  When only the new king is left on the balcony. He waved at the people who immediately cheered.

  While the civilians are cheering. The nobles and city lord sitting on the platform further behind felt something wrong, but they simply couldn't tell the exact place where it was wrong.

  Only Lacius who planned all this knew that the main reason he had invited so many people and wasted so many resources was to spread an idea to the people.

  He wanted every civilian to think that a king must be appointed by the temple's high priest and receive a blessing from the gods. This is why he asked the newly appointed head priest to be the one placing the crown on the new king.

  With this, Lacius has consolidated the temple's status and left it a way to intervene in the kingdom's affairs.

  Even if the Sacred Kingdom is split into several kingdoms. With the temple's current status, it'll still be the undisputed true ruler of the human territory.

  As for him, he'll be able to mobilize the strongest organization in the world. This time, he won't even need to waste his time to manage it. Because the high priest of the temple will be the one to manage the temple's daily operations.

  All he needs to do now is to wait for new ideas and the path to the next level to open.

  Furthermore, unlike the extremely unstable Sacred Kingdom where an ambitious city lord might try to usurp his status as a king. The temple's cohesiveness is based on faith.

  That means, even if the high priest suddenly gained an ambition, they definitely won't be able to usurp his status within the heart of the believer.

  For the first time in tens of years, Lacius felt there wasn't any burden in his mind. Which made him subconsciously hummed as he walked towards the laboratory where many alchemists once gathered.

  Once he arrived at the part that's used as a laboratory, Lacius did a simple check and found the place had been thoroughly emptied.

  Now that he has decided to focus more on the temple. Of course, he won't leave those precious alchemy and alchemists in the palace.

  Although the palace is still under his control for now. Lacius has already planned to petrify himself soon and waited for a new era to arrive.

  An era where the requirement for someone at his level to reach a higher level has been met.

  That's why he has transported the alchemist and alchemy tools inside the palace, and sent them to the temple's headquarters in River Stone city. A place absolutely under his control.

  Without anything else to do inside the palace, Lacius rode a horse and exited Winter City to travel toward River Stone city.

  During his journey, Lacius occasionally experimented with his ability to manipulate faith energy and quickly found a few ways to utilize it.

  By the time he arrived at River Stone City, Lacius didn't ride on any horse. Instead, he stood above a silk like light that flew with incredible speed.

  The silk like light is made of materialized faith energy, and also one of the ways to use faith energy that Lacius has found.

  It's not like he wanted to show off or anything. But, the horse he initially rode has accidentally exploded into a messy blub of flesh after he accidentally infused it with to much faith energy for an exeriment.

  Furthermore, using the light to travel has increased his control over faith energy, which is killing two birds with one stone.

  Lacius controlled the slik like light toward the city's temple and entered it.

  When the priests saw Lacius's entry, they all quickly kneeled and worshiped him.

  Sensing those priests' pious beliefs, Lacius felt the faith energy within him increase with considerable speed.

  He felt quite satisfied and tried one of the tricks he had learned along the way.

  Lacius pulled some of the faith energy he stored and dispersed them toward the priests.

  Some priests felt their body began to reinvigorate, while a few other priests who have a blessed power has absorbed the faith energy Lacius has just sent and became slightly stronger.

  Ignoring the priests, he walked towards a hidden corned and used his blessed power to create a secret underground room right below his statue in the temple's main hall.

  That way, the faith energy gathered by people who pray to his statue in the temple can be absorbed more effectively.

  After the secret room is ready, he gives some orders to the high priest before activating his self fossilization ability and started his hibernation.

  Lacius has set it so unless someone attacked him or there is important news, he won't wake up from the fossilization state for the next ten years.