Imprisoned for a Trillion Years, I Was Worshipped by All Gods!

"So, just how many divine stones did he take out earlier?"

Audrey asked in disbelief.

"Based on my rough estimate, the four of us combined now have about six billion," Nar replied.

As someone who had started out as a merchant, he had an innate sensitivity to numbers.

"I had 1.6 billion here. He bought 1.6 billion worth of items from me."

"I'm at 2.1 billion," Nar added.

"I had only 1.2 billion," the Beast God said in a low voice.

"I had just over 1.4 billion," Audrey said, her expression complicated.

"So, he spent a total of 6.3 billion divine stones from us? No, he brought out 6.3 billion divine stones all at once? Is this even reasonable?" Audrey asked, looking at the others, especially Nar.

As the founder of the Godlink Consortium, Nar should have been the most knowledgeable.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!" Nar exclaimed, visibly agitated.

To him, such a thing shouldn't have been possible at all.

"This kind of situation cannot happen. I've calculated it before—among the top factions in the God Realm, they collectively control over 90% of all divine stones across the worlds.

"The remaining divine stones combined wouldn't exceed three billion!"

"This is because the total number of divine stones across all worlds is only enough to forge two Level 14 forges," La added calmly.

"Then how do we explain these 6.3 billion divine stones?"

And it wasn't just the 6.3 billion.

Daniel had only spent 6.3 billion because he had found items worth that much among their collected treasures.

Based on the speed at which Daniel had taken out the divine stones, it was clear he could have produced even more if needed.

The only reason he spent just this amount was that he only found items worth buying up to that value.

"How should I know? This defies explanation! Even as the founder of the Godlink Consortium, I can't explain this! That man—he's simply not normal!" Nar said, his tone bordering on despair.

He couldn't comprehend why this was happening.

Daniel, as a person, couldn't be understood using conventional logic.

His inexplicable strength—

In a God Realm where it should have been impossible for another ruler to emerge, Daniel had become the fifth ruler.

And he hadn't even achieved this under their watchful eyes.

It was likely he had ascended to ruler rank in the Mortal Realm before coming to the God Realm…

No, was that even something a normal person could do?

Leaving aside how he had managed to suppress his ascension in the Mortal Realm, what kind of Mortal Realm could sustain a ruler without being destroyed?

Such a thing was simply unscientific!

What's more, Daniel's association with the 5-Element God Realm stemmed from its connection to the Crossbridge World, which was the Mortal Realm of the 5-Element God Realm.

In the brief time since Daniel's visit, they had already investigated.

The Crossbridge World was now a High God-rank world.

In recent years, it had risen significantly in rank, having only recently reached High God status.

A few years ago, it had been just an Earth God-rank world.

An Earth God-rank world producing a ruler?

Even thinking about it seemed utterly absurd.

Yet…

This bizarre event had occurred.

All these peculiar, illogical, and unexplainable occurrences seemed perfectly natural when it came to Daniel.

It was maddening!

And the most astonishing part—Daniel had spent all these divine stones with a smile on his face, as if he had profited from the exchange.

Nar, with his vast business experience, understood that such an attitude could only mean one thing: Daniel still had far more divine stones at his disposal.

To him, these 6.3 billion divine stones were merely a drop in the bucket, entirely insignificant.

Only this explanation made sense.

But the problem was, this explanation was the least logical one of all.

How could one person possess so many divine stones?

Could all the top factions of the God Realm combined even muster such a sum?

"Should we call him back and ask?" Audrey suggested.

"No," La immediately replied.

"We've just managed to ease our relationship with him. The God Realm is in no condition to endure a battle between rulers. With the Apocalypse looming, it's unnecessary to provoke a rare ally like him."

"And his strength… might not be any less than ours," La added cautiously.

Daniel had become a ruler without their knowledge and could produce such an extraordinary number of divine stones.

Who could guarantee his strength wasn't as terrifying as his resources?

There was no need to test him. The God Realm couldn't afford such risks right now.

Avoiding unnecessary trouble was the most prudent course of action.

"If provoking him leads to animosity, he could easily turn against us. At such a critical moment, there's no point in creating additional problems," La concluded.

"You're right. In the face of the Apocalypse, petty schemes are meaningless. Maintaining a good relationship with someone like him is the better approach," Audrey agreed, finally understanding.

Daniel, as they had observed, wasn't a bad person.

If anything, he seemed deeply protective of those he cared about—though, at present, that concern was limited to the 5-Element God Realm.

"Actually, we could take a different perspective. Since he likes to trade, why not keep trading with him?" Nar suggested.

The four of them then reviewed what Daniel had purchased from them.

The list was extensive.

It included large quantities of rare fruits, spirit beast meat, heavenly treasures, relics of the Divine Dynasty, pills, divine spells, and more.

While the volume was significant, these only accounted for a small portion of the 6.3 billion divine stones he spent.

The bulk of his expenditure was on a specific type of item: Fruits of Rule.

Yes, Daniel's primary purchases were Fruits of Rule.

These were the items that had consumed the majority of the divine stones.

Fruits of Rule for God Lord, God Sovereign, and God King ranks—these accounted for the bulk of the 6.3 billion divine stones.

Seeing this, the rulers were perplexed.

Because…

Were these items even useful?

Fruits of Rule were produced by Mortal Realms to provide shortcuts for their inhabitants, enabling them to quickly reach the realm's power ceiling.

However, these items were only effective for beings native to the realm that produced them. For anyone from another realm, they were entirely useless.

They all knew Daniel hailed from the Crossbridge World, as he had openly stated.

So why would he need these items? They would be utterly useless to him!

Yet the key point was that Daniel had smiled when he saw these Fruits of Rule. It seemed these were the items he was most pleased to acquire.

The very items the rulers considered the least useful were apparently Daniel's most sought-after treasures.

These things… didn't even taste good!

Even Nar, who had conducted business across countless worlds, couldn't fathom why Daniel placed such value on them.