Mercenaries and Adventurers

The priest led by the God of the Dead hurriedly jumped on the donkey cart and whispered the news he had learned to his companions who were setting off together.

There is basically no problem with the reliability of this news. Although the Church of the God of the Dead does not have any great kindness to the refugees in the checkpoint, or distributes the rations that the other parties need most, but the refugees who died due to illness or injury, their Church of the God of the Dead All performed a series of formal and uncompromising death farewell ceremonies.

The church provided free firewood to burn the bodies, and offered comfort to the departed souls and living people about life and death.

Not to mention being comparable to the Church of the God of Agriculture, which has been trying to raise funds to distribute food, the Church of the God of the Dead has also been pretty good to them, and will not lie to them on this kind of intelligence information.

"In this case, the two leaders are very suspicious." Someone said.

The leading priest nodded: "When I was young, I followed the army to annihilate the evil church that just wanted to make money from the chaos. Those people would not find remote places to establish religious closed villages isolated from the world, but would deceive people into arriving in advance. In the well-set trap, directly kill a large number of innocent souls in despair."

Someone immediately answered: "It seems to be very similar to the current situation. We have to hurry."

Everyone on the donkey cart nodded silently, and the whip that drove the donkeys was swung more frequently.

The wheels rolled through the ancient rocky streets in the level, leaving behind the depressed shops and the refugees begging on the streets. They soon arrived at the east gate of the pass. When the soldiers guarding the pass saw that they were priests from the Church of the God of the Dead inside the pass, they did not check and did not dare to look disgusted. However, they deliberately kept a distance and welcomed them out of the pass to the east.

Although the priests of the Church of the God of the Dead have a distinguished status, they are people who cannot be avoided in life. But none of the soldiers wanted to see these professionals who were associated with death all day long. They secretly said that if those priests were exposed to them too much, they would take on the air of death and death would come early.

The priests on the donkey cart didn't know about this. They didn't know that there was such nonsense related to them in the White Stone City Wall level. If they knew about it, they probably wouldn't care.

At this time, except for the priest who led the team, who had rich combat experience in his youth and was relatively calm at this time, the others were restless and did not dare to speak. They had to constantly check the protective equipment they were wearing for the first time.

Each of them holds a short-handled metal staff. This uniform standard of the 'Grip of Death' divine staff can use the divine power given by the god of the dead to emit a blast that can cause life exhaustion to all living things in a rapid swing. Damaging death force blast.

This is their main weapon. In most cases, this weapon is enough to deal with all enemies of life, and some even have excessive power. As for ordinary undead souls that have no life, the priests have them at their fingertips, and there are more simple ways to deal with them.

In addition, they all wear robes with divine protection capabilities. This kind of combat robe is different from ordinary robes. As long as there is still divine power in the body, ordinary external injuries will not easily damage the places protected by the robes. Everyone also carries a protective statue of the god of the dead with a vague face in a calfskin bag on his belt.

Because the situation is unclear and they may have to deal with enemies with strange tactics, they all wear anti-curse necklaces. This kind of protective necklace can resist external magic and curse attacks. No one usually wears it because it is too heavy. It sank. The copper chain was covered with small cylindrical stone pillars engraved with blessings. There was a round flat stone slab on the chest of the necklace, on which was carefully engraved a message from the God of the Dead to the priests of his own church. Words of refuge.

The effect of resisting the curse naturally comes from this word of protection.

In the end, in addition to the weapons and equipment that everyone had, the priest who led the team also carried a small locked animal skin backpack. The tightly carried backpack contained a weapon specially given to them by the superior diocese. The treasure of the church that belongs to the White Stone Wall Level - Orb of Rejection.

This type of combat equipment, which many people have never heard of, let alone seen, is even more powerful.

-

"One, two, three, let's work together!"

"Four, five, six, step up!"

"Seven or eighty-nine, push forward!"

"Push! Push! Push! Hey——"

At this moment, the north side of the open space was a scene of excitement. The felled trees were neatly removed by young people who had extra branches on the trunks, and then many grooves were made on the trunks for easy grasping. After that, dozens of The people went into battle together, taking advantage of the slippery ground and the short distance, to push the trunk of the big tree as far as possible to the direction of the open space where the corpse was placed.

There were people on both sides of the tree trunk. They grasped the grooves made with metal weapons on the tree trunk with their hands, then lowered their bodies to grab it, and then followed the chant of a young man who had cut wood in the village. Kick your legs hard to push the tree trunk weighing several tons forward.

This job is far more skillful than it seems, because when exerting force, you do not rely on the strength of your arms. Instead, you extend your arms diagonally forward to hold the groove, try to support your body diagonally, and then use the power of your legs to exert force. Push harder.

The legs actually do the work, not the arms.

After all, people often say: "One leg is stronger than both arms. One waist is stronger than both legs."

If the strength of the waist and abdomen were not used more for swinging felled trees instead of carrying tree trunks, people would probably have to find a way to use the strength of the waist and abdomen to push the heavy tree trunks.

The commotion here was so lively that the blood-fangster who was directing hundreds of people to work was also excited to see it. But right next to it, the trunk of another large tree that had been cleaned was caught by Kil alone at the front part of the trunk. Lifting it directly on his shoulders, he roared and used all his strength to drag the trunk of a tree that was ten times his own.

Next to him, dozens of people joined the battle and slowly pushed the tree trunk to the corpse step by step. But here, after Kiel lifted the tree trunk, he ran with all his strength, shouting with all his heart, while pushing the big tree trunk towards the body. The trunk of the tree was dragged forward.

The place where the back of the tree trunk touched the ground, because it bore all the weight, was forced to drag out a groove during the movement.

Although Kil's display of such powerful strength shocked everyone, the dozens of young people pushing the trunk of the big tree did not give up. As if they were fighting against the Lord Knight, they also increased their strength and shouted The young man conducting the chants also kept speeding up his speech in order to keep up with the young people who were holding their breath.

"ha!!!"

Kil roared, sank his body together, used his legs to push up with his waist, and finally raised his shoulders, threw the tree trunk on his shoulders to the open space aside, leaving it to others with axes. The young man took over and cut the entire trunk into appropriate lengths.

Eventually, these tree trunks, weighing hundreds of kilograms, will be stacked together to form a large fire that can quickly burn the body to ashes.

At the bottom of this fire pile, thick, fire-resistant tree trunks will be placed tightly one by one, and on top, long and thin tree trunks will be erected to look like a fire pile, and the hollow middle will be filled with previously cut branches. and green sprouting leaves.

After lighting the fire, you only need to continue to add firewood to it, and you can continue to throw corpses into it, and they will be quickly burned to ashes by the high-temperature flames.

Kil carried several big tree trunks back and forth in this way. Later, he didn't like the trouble of armor, so he even took off the armor on his upper body, bare chest and arms, and carried the trunks one by one alone while sweating.

The luminous blessing pattern on his chest also aroused the curiosity of many people, but Kiel didn't care about it.

It wasn't until he moved the trunk of the last big tree over and chopped it off with an ax that the green light in Kil's eyes quickly faded.

The infinite energy of the ‘source of grass and trees’ blessing has only been exhausted.

Kil wiped his sweaty face, picked up the ax without caring, picked up the armor with the ax, and returned to his carriage while whistling.

Next to the carriage, he threw the things on the ground casually, picked up a jar of clear and dust-free rainwater, and drank it all in a big gulp.

"Cool!"

Sitting on the driver's seat holding the empty can, Kil felt the situation on his body.

The divine blessing power of the god of agriculture that replaced the consumption of life energy retreated back into the leaf patterns on both sides. After touch and exploration, Keir found that this blessing power could no longer be used in a short period of time. It was not that it could not be used by force, but in order to use it. For the sake of the user's physical safety, it can reduce the wear and tear of the body after forced use.

It seems that after continuous fighting and work, his body's energy has not been consumed at all, and it is all replaced by divine power. But after all, his body still undergoes intense exercise. Even if his physical strength and energy are not consumed, the muscles of his body are stretched during exercise. , the load borne by bones, the contraction of tendons and the wear and tear of skin, these are all things that actually happen in the physical world.

Kil opened his arms and opened and closed them in a wide range, carefully feeling every change in his body.

"Huh, it's like a big truck carrying a gas station in the cargo box. Although there is no shortage of oil in the tank and the engine oil is also full, the wear and heat of various metal parts in the vehicle has It’s something that really happened.”

"Hiss, a dual feeling of exhaustion mixed with spirit."

He muttered, mentally as well. The unlimited energy brought not only no loss of physical strength, but his spirit was also very full at this time. He could fight fiercely all night, coupled with the continuous heavy physical labor and the joyful howling just now, It still brings an unusual feeling.

Keir vaguely felt the existence of something that his consciousness was attached to.

Could that be his soul?

-

"ignition!"

Priest Batal stood far away from the tall firewood pile with a sad face, followed by hundreds of young refugees who had already stood up and stood behind him.

Everyone stared in silence at the wooden tower-like thing piled up with tree trunks and firewood several meters high. Some people had already shed their tears last night and were watching in silence at this moment. Some people began to cry softly, feeling sad once again for the relatives and friends who were innocently killed in the bandit attack.

Some people even felt weak and needed help from people on the left and right to stand up. But with the young priest’s loud command, magical power burst out from the body, and they stood up straight, even stood on tiptoes, looking at Towards the pile of firewood concealed by clumps of messy hair.

The firewood pile was right next to the corpses in the open space. At this time, the priest gave an order, and immediately a disciple of the God of Agriculture strode over holding a blazing torch that had been lit.

Outside the firewood pile, there was someone who had relevant experience. They used the rags and clothes from the corpse that no one wanted, mixed with hay found from nowhere, and twisted them into a simple fire rope.

After the believer holding the torch approached the fire, he squatted down and used the torch to light the fire rope extending from the outside of the wood pile to the central branch according to his companion's instructions.

This thing is very good, and the flame starts to ignite as soon as it touches it. The flames burned rapidly along the hay wrapped in rags in the center, and extended along the rope to the center of the firewood pile at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The believer holding the torch seemed to be quite afraid of the flames that were about to erupt from the tall firewood pile in front of him, so he ran back with a slight stagger. He returned to the edge of the crowd and placed the torch on the ground. Others had already prepared earth in their hands. They sprinkled a few handfuls of earth on the torch to cover it, and the flame was extinguished.

In this way, this special torch can be used again later, just shake off the soil on it.

The flames quickly penetrated into the tall firewood pile from the thin ignition rope. At first, there was nothing. Everyone complained a little, as it seemed that the ignition failed.

But soon, before the people who were about to go up to check came close, green smoke came out of the pile of wood.

Those who approached were called back urgently.

Then, the green smoke visible to the naked eye grew larger and thicker.

Finally, the flame broke out of the smoke and began to rise from the center of the firewood pile, expanding rapidly in a few breaths.

Priest Batar walked out of the crowd and took a few steps forward. Then he turned towards hundreds of young refugees. Taking a deep breath, he shouted loudly: "Let us pray for the innocent people who died!"

Most of the people present bowed their heads and prayed silently.

The priest then shouted: "Let us pray for the fallen brave men who fought bravely and deserved to enter the country of the great Saturn."

Most people bowed their heads in prayer, but some young people who fought with those who died bravely raised their heads and silently raised their weapons to the sky.

The swords are like a forest, and although they are immature, they are still powerful.

But most people here did not notice that what Priest Batal said was very contradictory to what he said last night.

Last night, in order to encourage believers to have the courage to fight against non-believers, the priest personally promised in the crowd that those who fought hard for this purpose could enter the Kingdom of Saturn after death.

But now, he uses vague words to cover up the whereabouts of people after death.

'Please forgive me'. He was thinking so at this moment.

He then shouted: "Finally, let us issue the last curse to those thugs and robbers! Only by suffering torture after death can these guys make up for the sins they committed while alive. Of course, we will never forgive them!"

"Never forgive those thugs!"

"Never forgive those bandits!"

Everyone roared in unison.

Accompanied by bursts of roars and vented anger, the flames behind Priest Batar grew higher and higher, and gradually began to emit a huge amount of light and heat. This heat was enough to burn human bones.

The ominous aura in the pile of corpses next to them seemed to be extremely afraid of the light and heat. In the visible range where ordinary people cannot directly see and hear, the resentment and twisted emotions exuded by the cruel souls of the dead are gradually losing weight to the light and heat, fading quickly like white snow under the sun.

And the confused souls who lingered and refused to leave had to retreat far away from the scorching fire and their broken and cold corpses.

And vaguely knew that it was time for them to leave.

This is not a place where the dead can linger for a long time. Confused souls have their own place to go.

-

"Has the negative energy started to subside?"

On the empty trade road, a donkey cart was gradually traveling towards the east direction of the trade road.

In the open carriage, the leading priest sitting next to the driver frowned and asked doubtful questions in a voice that everyone could hear.

The other priests who were worried about the possibility of fighting for the first time in their lives only raised their heads from their worries at this time, turned their heads to the east, closed their eyes and listened carefully.

Although the bumpy donkey cart greatly affected their perception, due to the shorter distance, they were better able to sense the huge amount of negative energy they had discovered before.

"It's indeed fading, and it's going fast!" Someone said quickly.

"I also sensed the screams of those floating souls, 'Light! Heat! Escape! Nowhere to escape!', that's what they said." Some people felt it carefully before telling what they found.

"The situation has changed. If someone wants to do something with those negative energies, they probably won't be able to do it at this time. Maybe someone is helping to deal with this?"

Others raised different opinions: "Is it just that we think too much? It's not as complicated as we thought before?"

The priest who led the team waved his hand and made a judgment: "Whether it is someone who has been judged to be causing mischief or not, we must be prepared for the worst. After all, everyone has a prediction of what the southern province will be like, even if it is not the case this time , something big and bad will inevitably happen in the future."

He continued: "Of course I hope it is a misunderstanding, but the misunderstanding can be solved, but the evil is raging, and it cannot be explained by conscience and morality. Evil will only retreat if it is knocked to the ground. . By just begging and retreating, the evil will only become more powerful."

The leading priests who participated in the crusade against cults when they were young were tough-minded in their words, far more determined than these priests who had lived in vain for decades.

He looked towards the direction where the trade road extended eastward, suddenly stood up, and carefully squinted his eyes to look at the distant sky.

There, under the dark and rainy sky, a black plume of burning smoke shot straight into the sky.

"It's not like an evil spell or divine spell, hmm, but it's more like the chimney smoke from the church's burning of corpses?"

The priests who had been dealing with these things all day quickly identified what the black smoke was. This greatly surprised them, because the scale of the smoke was not small, at least it would only be of this scale when ten corpses were burned together.