"So miraculous..."
The Shore Flower seemed a bit surprised.
In their era, there was nothing like this.
In their time, mortals who wished to possess great power had to become their devout followers, dedicating themselves and their race's faith to them, and then pray to them to gain power beyond their own.
"Can I see it?"
"Look!" As the words fell, the Devil Fruit in Kong Tai's hand flew automatically towards the flower, hovering in the air.
Then, a special fluctuation emanated from the Shore Flower's body, passing through it.
As the flower swayed, a peculiar energy among everyone was extracted by the Shore Flower from the fruit amidst the fluctuations.
After this power left the fruit, the fruit rapidly changed. Its scales disappeared, its horns vanished, and it became an ordinary fruit.
"This is the change produced by this energy, isn't it!" Staring at the energy before him, the Shore Flower pondered slightly, "This feels familiar to me."
Unsure of what it was thinking, it suddenly stopped swaying and then transmitted a soul voice.
"I know..."
"You know?" everyone asked, puzzled.
"Know what?"
"I know what this energy is."
As the words fell, the Shore Flower released its hold on the Devil Fruit's energy.
When the restraint was released, the energy tried to escape, but how could it escape from Kong Tai!
Without any visible action from Kong Tai, the void containing the energy and the fruit was enveloped by a sphere of space.
The energy struggled left and right within the space, but finding no way out, it had no choice but to return to the fruit.
The moment the energy entered the fruit, the fruit transformed. Scales grew, and the two dragon horns also sprouted, returning it to its original state and back into Kong Tai's hand.
Only then did the flower speak.
"Spatial control?"
"What a powerful ability!"
"Indeed!" Kong Tai put away the Azure Dragon Fruit, looked up at the Shore Flower, and nodded. "I've had the innate ability to control space since birth. I don't know why, but this ability, among your divine race, surely many gods possess, right!"
"After all..."
As he spoke, Kong Tai looked up at the void outside and smiled, "This space, isn't it something you created?"
"This space exists because of me, but I did not create it."
"Not you?"
Kong Tai showed surprise.
He had always assumed that this space was created by the Shore Flower before him, thus overestimating the power of gods.
"Yes!" The Shore Flower swayed. "Not me. This space is the cradle that nurtured me. It existed from the moment I was born."
Kong Tai then asked, "Are there any gods who can control space?"
"Yes," the Shore Flower replied affirmatively, then its tone shifted, "but..."
"What is it?"
"But such gods are extremely powerful among the divine. I have never seen them. It is said that only gods who have experienced reincarnation can truly control space, and of course, time as well."
"Such gods are very few, so few that I haven't only not seen them, but I haven't even heard of them."
"I see!"
Kong Tai nodded.
Then the conversation returned to the Devil Fruit. "You said you knew what the energy inside the Devil Fruit was?"
"Yes! I do know, and I have seen it."
"What is it?"
The flower seemed to ponder, then spoke with a tone of recollection, "To talk about this, we must first talk about why gods are discussed in conjunction with ordinary beings."
"I just mentioned the stages of gods, with the most important being the growth stage and the mature stage."
"During these two periods, a god's power will undergo earth-shattering changes."
As it spoke, faint luminescence gradually emanated from the Shore Flower's body. As soon as this luminescence appeared, it exuded a desire from the depths of everyone's hearts, a primal craving.
"What is this?"
Gu Yina bit her lip, her voice trembling as she asked.
She felt that if she could obtain this energy, she could break through the physical limits she had always yearned to surpass, overcoming the limitation that women's innate physical qualities were inferior to men's.
Although this limitation had long been broken due to the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the inner yearning still made her covet this energy.
However, as Kong Tai looked at this energy, he felt a strange sensation.
Although he also desired and was greedy, deep down, he felt this was not something good, which made him feel wary and resistant.
A paradox.
"This..." The Shore Flower swayed. "This is the faith of all beings, and it is why we gods are linked with ordinary people."
"This energy is the sustenance that allows us to grow rapidly. As long as someone can believe in us, we can continuously gain the power of faith, and thus quickly pass through the growth stage and mature stage to reach adulthood."
With that said, the Shore Flower retracted the power of faith.
This made everyone sigh in relief.
That kind of palpable, yet unattainable yearning, even greed, was not a pleasant feeling.
"Then what does this have to do with the Devil Fruit?"
"This is what I was going to say," the Shore Flower paused slightly, then continued, "The energy within the Devil Fruit you speak of is actually a variant of the power of faith."
"A variant?"
"Yes!"
"Rather than calling it the power of faith, it is more like a special illusory object formed by the collective wishes, that is, desires of all beings. While such an object can grant power, there must be some limitations, right!"
"Yes!" Kong Tai nodded. "Eating a Devil Fruit makes one ostracized by the sea, unable to swim."
"Hmm..." the Shore Flower pondered.
"Rejection by Mother Nature, the 'Sea'?"
Indeed, to gain something, one must naturally lose something. This was the law of nature.
Although they gained the power of faith that could rapidly accelerate their growth, they also had to pay a price during this period, which was to protect the beings who believed in them.
Moreover, if the beings who believed in them died, their growth would stagnate, and in severe cases, even regress.
He himself had regressed to the growth stage after the god wars.
Originally, he was on the verge of adulthood. Once he became an adult, he would no longer be dependent on the power of faith. Even if his growth slowed without absorbing faith, he would not regress in growth when the beings who believed in him died.
Due to the lack of faith power, he had not only regressed to the growth stage but, through long years of entanglement with demonic energy, was about to regress to the infantile stage.
If there were any other way, he would not have allowed Kong Tai and the others into this space.
Because gods are not truly altruistic.
Before understanding the disposition of other gods, allowing other gods into one's birthplace was an extremely dangerous act.
After all, although his current strength was in the growth stage, due to the demonic energy, he was not much stronger than this silver-haired brat before him.