The Lord Demon King is Unfathomable!

A pitch-black Sea of Consciousness.

Standing in front of the stone tablet, Luo Yan confirmed the updated data after the refresh: the original 3,000 beta test slots had now become 3,100!

Not only that, the daily net growth of Faith Value was precisely fixed at 12,001—a nearly whole number!

Based on previous observations, Luo Yan had roughly discerned the patterns and drawn preliminary conclusions.

"...When the daily net growth of Faith Value exceeds 10,000 points, for every additional 100 points, five more beta test slots can be obtained!"

"The ratio is approximately 20:1."

This conclusion was derived by Luo Yan over the past month, analyzing fluctuations in the increments of Power of Faith through data comparison.

Interestingly, the newly added 2,001 points of Faith Value increment happened to be provided by Beifeng City's increasing population.

Unlike other races.

The Faith Power provided by humans is the most stable, unlike Little Demons or goblins, whose contributions fluctuate wildly due to cohesion, nor like Stone Men, Earth Cave Spiders, or Frost Beetles, which, due to their lower cognitive levels and weaker self-awareness, contribute very little.

Currently, Beifeng City's permanent population stands at exactly five hundred, and these five hundred people visit the local temple to pray at least once every seven days.

Some even go daily, seeking spiritual solace.

Given that this world's Divine beings truly manifest miracles, it's unlikely that devout believers of Saint Sis would stay within the Demon King's territory, let alone pray to the Demon King.

Therefore, these five hundred people can be rounded up and regarded as his faithful followers.

However, given the unquantifiable nature of individual devotion, differences in mental maturity across age groups, and personality traits that could act as interfering factors, this statistical result is almost guaranteed to have errors—but it's still acceptable as a reference.

Based on plotted curves, Luo Yan boldly hypothesized that under ideal conditions, the ratio of human followers to Divine Chosen in the Great Graveyard should be around 5:1.

This is determined by the current distribution of Faith Power within the Great Graveyard, where the Divine Chosen personally appointed by Luo Yan are relatively weak in overall strength and thus require less Faith Power.

As Players' overall strength increases, the ratio of human followers to Divine Chosen might dilute to 10:1, 15:1, or even lower.

This is akin to a person's appetite growing increasingly voracious; the number of providers required to sustain this person inevitably rises proportionally.

After all, significantly raising the overall cognitive level and soul purity of a race overnight is unrealistic—humans cannot transform into Elves overnight.

Thus, for Divine beings to ensure a surplus of Faith Power, they often adopt two strategies: control the collective strength of Divine Chosen or increase the number of followers.

The population of the Holy Sis Empire is already nearing saturation.

Without major societal upheavals, population growth would instead weaken cohesion, thereby suppressing Faith Power's growth. Conversely, a population decrease might shrink the number of followers but consolidate those who remain, indirectly increasing cohesion and maintaining stable Faith Power.

Therefore, as long as the Empire's population does not exceed or drop below a certain threshold, the Faith Power concentrated by Saint Sis can remain in a relatively high range, sufficient to cover current expenditures.

From this perspective, increasing or reducing followers is not the optimal solution for the Empire—preserving the status quo is.

If no major social transformation occurs—for instance, like the Isaac Dynasty attempting to initiate an industrial revolution—the decisions of the Imperial Emperor and the Church's Pope would likely lean toward maintaining the status quo. They would enhance internal mobility among existing vested interests through the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death, thereby "balancing" the overall strength of Divine Chosen and reducing the consumption of Faith Power.

Take nobles like Baron Ges, for example, who live cushy lives in peacetime. Though his Soul Level might reach Silver or even higher, without the need for warfare, he might never truly hone his Extraordinary Power to Silver Level before dying of old age.

After all, improving one's strength is a prolonged and painful process, even for the martial-centric Ryan Kingdom.

During times of war, however, when the regional situation turns dire and survival is threatened, noble lords would naturally take up arms and armor… Even if they don't, their sons or grandsons likely would, indirectly mobilizing potential Divine Chosen from that region.

To guard against sudden mishaps, the Holy Sis Church also bestowed Divine Artifacts upon some special families, enabling them to rapidly enhance power and seize victory on the battlefield.

For example, the Campbell family's generational Divine Artifact, the "Light of Praise."

These weapons themselves are legendary, infused with vast amounts of Faith Power. They not only grant their wielders exceptional abilities and growth bonuses, but also further augment their capabilities after usage!

This system ensures efficient distribution of Faith Power, though at the cost of nearly locking class mobility. Unless one achieves monumental feats, a commoner is destined to remain a commoner—not only in this life but the next as well. At most, they may reincarnate into a wealthy family… and that's under the condition of affording a Priest to facilitate reincarnation and another chance to live as a human.

If someone, like Robert, dies unceremoniously at the burial ground, they wouldn't have a chance of returning to the embrace of Saint Sis for reincarnation. Such lost souls, with nowhere to go, would at most become Undead—eventually fading away like wild grass, disappearing into the cosmos and making way for newly sprouting wild grass.