Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded

Li Mingquan's words made Lin Feng sink into contemplation.

In fact, he had realized a problem long ago.

Why was the Holy City in front doing nothing about the rebellion of the local clans in Oasis Town, and didn't even send senior clergymen to support it?

Nor did it express an attitude of support or opposition.

It was as if the Oasis Town stronghold did not exist.

At first, Lin Feng thought it was because of the long distance. After all, the circumnavigating migration voyage was tens of thousands of kilometers long, and it would take a long time to go back and forth.

However, the appearance of the pilgrimage convoy meant it could make a round trip in half a month. Even if the Oasis Church had only discovered last month that the Li family and other major clans really intended to rebel and put it into practice, it would have been enough time to report to the Holy City and request support.

At that time, casually sending a second-tier Templar Knight would easily resolve the rebellion crisis in Oasis Town.

Moreover, given the importance of Oasis, there was no possibility of it being abandoned.

Lin Feng took a deep breath and said in a deep voice:

"Do you mean that someone in the Holy City Church wants to abandon Oasis Town? But the Moon Night Ritual on the Oasis warship, the observation of the Blazing Sun Forbidden Zone, its importance to the Holy City is self-evident…"

"Do they really dare to risk the destruction of Oasis Town and encounter the Sun Scourge because of internal strife?"

"You must know that the disaster caused by the Sun Scourge crisis can even cause a Holy City to fall and the entire Church to be severely damaged!"

After listening to Lin Feng's analysis and rebuttal, Li Mingquan's eyes flickered, obviously not expecting the other party to know so much about the Forbidden Zone.

But so what? Those high-ranking clergymen never cared about the life and death of the people at the bottom. For them, the power in their hands was more important than the Church.

Such a large top-level force had long been corrupted under the erosion of time, and the internal strife and struggle were almost obvious.

Otherwise, the Li family would not have endured for so many years, just to seize this crucial opportunity.

Li Mingquan nodded, first affirming Lin Feng's conclusion:

"You're right, even if the internal differences are serious, they won't joke about the Oasis warship. But what if some people don't care about the Sun Scourge crisis?"

"Even if we don't talk about the current Wasteland Era, just take the Old Earth period you once experienced. From ancient times to the present, how many cases have there been of foreign enemies taking advantage of internal strife to invade?"

"Isn't it common for people to prefer giving to foreign countries rather than to their own slaves?"

"If Oasis Town is really valued by the Holy City, why would the local parish church, Bishop Zhang Hui and Father Su An, go to great lengths to win you over, even at the expense of using alien blood to tarnish the Holy Spring power in their bodies?"

Lin Feng's pupils shrank. In fact, he didn't care about the internal strife of the Holy Spring Church, or whether the Church was good or bad. As long as they could fulfill the rewards they promised him and fulfill their obligations as agreed.

Seeing Lin Feng showing a tangled expression, Li Mingquan immediately decided to strike while the iron was hot and continue:

"It seems that the Bishop and Father Su An haven't told Chief Lin anything…"

"Think about it, are they deliberately deceiving you? Compared to the arrogant Holy Spring Church, the Oasis Church has fallen to this point?"

Lin Feng frowned slightly. He had already believed 70% of Li Mingquan's words. After all, there was nothing wrong with the logic, so the only problem could be the Oasis Church.

However, Lin Feng couldn't blindly believe one side's words. He had to understand the ins and outs of the matter before drawing a conclusion:

"Since Village Chief Li knows so much, why not introduce the origin of Oasis Town?"

"I heard that the Oasis warship was also a part of the Holy City back then. Because the resources of the Holy City were limited and the population was approaching its limit, the Oasis warship took a group of people to the edge of the Blazing Sun Forbidden Zone."

"Could it be that Oasis was gradually marginalized because it was too far from the Holy City?"

Li Mingquan smiled, seeing that Lin Feng really looked like he didn't know anything, and then slowly explained:

"Chief Lin, you're putting the cart before the horse…"

"It's not because Oasis Town is located on the edge of the Forbidden Zone that it was gradually marginalized, but the departure of the Oasis warship was the beginning of being abandoned."

"A major event happened in the Holy City that year, regarding the selection of the next third-tier bishop."

"You must know that the essence of the Holy Spring Church is actually a theocracy, ruled internally by the Church system. Apart from the Holy Spring Lord, worldly affairs are all under the governance of the Undying Saint."

"Its internal factions are numerous. There is the Original School, which believes in the original Holy Spring scriptures as the canon and adheres to the old rules. There is the Secular School, which follows the Undying Saint and follows the Holy Canon. There are also some more radical groups…"

"In short, within the Church, with the long-term slumber of the Holy Spring Lord, different factions, large and small, have already been differentiated."

"And the bishop selection in the Holy City that year became the fuse of a dispute. Each Holy City can have up to seven bishops, supporting seven third-tiers."

"The older generation of bishops returned to the temple, and the vacant spots became the target of competition among the major factions. Zhang Hui was one of the strong candidates."

"That is, the current acting bishop of Oasis, one of the peerless geniuses of the year, who was promoted to the upper limit of the second tier in less than a hundred years, becoming a level 29 high priest."

"Of course, the final result must have been that he failed, otherwise it would have been impossible for him to be reduced to this point, becoming the pitiful Oasis acting bishop."

"So the Oasis warship leaving the Holy City's residential area must not be because of overpopulation and resource shortages. Even if there are these factors, it should definitely not have come to the edge of the Forbidden Zone. The harshness of this environment is several times deeper than the wasteland in front…"

"The temperature is forty or fifty degrees all year round, and if you are not careful, you will be swallowed by the Blazing Sun Forbidden Zone behind you. You are constantly walking on the edge of death, which is no different from being exiled to the frontier?"

Lin Feng nodded. On this point, he strongly agreed with Li Mingquan's remarks.

Oasis Town was too close to the Forbidden Zone. Even on Holy Spring Day, the distance was only forty or fifty kilometers at the farthest, with only two days of free time.

Living here is like setting a 24-hour death countdown for yourself every day. You can only keep moving forward, physically and mentally exhausted, and living in fear.

Speaking of this, Li Mingquan sighed softly:

"After Zhang Hui failed in the election and was exiled here, he began to perform the Moon Night Ritual in order to collect information about the Blazing Sun Forbidden Zone for the Holy City."

"In fact, this task can be completed by sending a convoy at random. It's just that the information and data collected are far less detailed and accurate than using an entire Oasis settlement as bait and the Oasis warship as an observation mirror."

"For this reason, the Holy City is willing to support Oasis, and the pilgrimage convoy will send a large amount of supplies every time to transfuse blood."

"And this also promotes our development from the side, so that Oasis Town can support more than a dozen second-tier evolvers, and gradually become a medium-sized settlement."

"But also because of this, the value of Oasis has become higher and higher, leading to a reduction in support from the Holy City in recent centuries. The goods we produce and sell to the Holy City are also subject to extremely high tariff duties, and the local church has to take a cut first."

"It's equivalent to our photovoltaic panels and downstream processed products of the Rockhorn Horse industry being exploited three times."

"Here in Oasis, we have to pay to support the Upper Citizen District. We have to pay again to enter Holy City, and after completing the transaction, we have to pay a percentage of the transaction amount."

"But the most ruthless part is the portion siphoned off to support the Upper Citizen District of Oasis, which eats up almost half of the profits of our entire industry."

"But we still endured it and continued to work like cows and horses for Oasis Town, contributing our energy, to the point that even though I have been a Tier 2 Evolver for many years, I am still stuck at level 22, unable to gather enough evolution serum to reach level 23."

"Until recently, in the past few years, a turning point finally appeared."

Lin Feng narrowed his eyes, already roughly guessing what Li Mingquan was referring to as a turning point.

Without the appeasement of the Great Holy City Diocese, these local families wouldn't dare to provoke the authority of the Holy Spring Church, even if the Oasis Town Diocese is already weak and vulnerable.

"Is it that Holy City, seeing how well Oasis Town is developing, wants to take it back into its own hands?"

Li Mingquan looked at Lin Feng, a hint of surprise in his eyes, and nodded affirmatively:

"That's right. In fact, from the day the Acting Bishop chose to earnestly govern and develop Oasis Town, it was destined to be targeted by those with ulterior motives sooner or later."

"An Oasis Warship that can stably provide information about the Blazing Flame Forbidden Zone, a medium-sized force capable of supporting the resources needed by ten Tier 2 Evolvers…"

"After gaining absolute control, they would be fully capable of cultivating a late-stage Tier 2, level 29 Evolver, and with further development, supporting a Tier 3 King would not be impossible!"

"So, those people in Holy City have set their sights here, wanting to take back the Oasis Warship."

"But the prerequisite for seizing it is to have a suitable opportunity to intervene. If they come directly to rescue, even if they eliminate us, it will only make Acting Bishop Zhang Hui's rule even more stable."

"They are even fully cultivating the next successor, the current Father Su An!"

At this point, Lin Feng roughly understood the cause and effect of the whole matter and couldn't help but sigh:

"鹬蚌 相争、渔翁 得利 (When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman profits). The Great Holy City Diocese wants you to suffer losses on both sides so they can justifiably intervene and take over the entire Oasis Town without lifting a finger."

Saying that, Lin Feng changed the subject and looked at Li Mingquan:

"Then are you Li family willing to be used as pawns by the people of Holy City? It's impossible that they promised to let you rule Oasis Town, right?"

Li Mingquan laughed.

The real reason behind it naturally could not be stated explicitly. That was the biggest secret of their Li family, with the secret support and instruction of Life Farm, another large organization in Holy City.

Therefore, what he introduced to Lin Feng were all unimportant old stories that anyone who had been to Holy City for a day could learn about with a little inquiry.

Nowadays, most of the high-level members of Oasis Town also know about it.

"When you're under someone else's roof… you have to bow your head."

Li Mingquan sighed twice and continued:

"The will of Holy City cannot be resisted."

"We have no choice. Either we are suppressed to death by Bishop Zhang, never to rise again, or we fight back and seize control of Oasis before Holy City can react, controlling the warship and speeding away from this place."

"Either way, we're going to die. Rather than being squeezed even harder after Holy City arrives, we might as well take a gamble."

"At worst, our family will be destroyed and we'll become wanderers, starting from scratch. If we win, we can directly rule a medium-sized settlement, cultivate multiple Tier 2 powerhouses, and ensure the family's inheritance lasts for thousands of years!"

"Leader Lin and I are similar, both successful at a young age."

"If it were you, what would you choose?"

Lin Feng was stunned for a moment, then replied without thinking:

"Then I would definitely take a gamble!"

Li Mingquan laughed:

"It seems that Leader Lin is also a reasonable person. In that case, I believe you can make the right decision."

Now that things had been said to this extent, it would be even more unreasonable for Lin Feng to insist on his previous point of view.

So he said with a smile:

"You're right, but a person must be trustworthy, especially since my cooperation with the Church came first…"

"But I won't completely follow the Church's arrangements. After all, everything is for my own benefit first, otherwise, I wouldn't be selling grenades to the various families."

"Now, as long as Village Chief Li agrees to the transaction, and both parties smoothly exchange grenades and source meat jerky, I can guarantee that I will not interfere with any actions you take on the Oasis Warship."

"Even if the Church asks for help at that time, I will not set foot on the warship!"

Li Mingquan narrowed his eyes, secretly pondering:

"Leader Lin won't take advantage of our absence to attack the three villages, will you?"

Lin Feng shook his head. The Salvation Army has already targeted the farm village, so he doesn't need to take action:

"Father Su An entrusted me to protect Holy Spring Village, and there is no requirement to attack the farm village."

"However, when the time comes, without a leader, it is estimated that there will be many desperate and vicious people who will take risks…"

"Perhaps the major villages will still need me to protect them."

The corners of Li Mingquan's mouth twitched. The man in front of him was even more arrogant than himself, and he was a bit too cocky.

If the situation wasn't forcing him, and everyone wanted to win him over, how could he have lowered his face and come to see this upstart with no foundation?

After squeezing out a smile and nodding, Li Mingquan said:

"So, Leader Lin is agreeing to remain neutral?"

Lin Feng raised an eyebrow and waved his hand:

"After the Oasis Town matter is over, I will also lead my convoy to Holy City for development."

"Unlike Village Chief Li, who can advance or retreat as he pleases."

"So, from beginning to end, I stand with Holy Spring Church."

"As for who represents Holy Spring Church, Village Chief Li should know better than I do."

Li Mingquan took a deep look at Lin Feng and nodded:

"Okay, then we'll do as Leader Lin says. Tomorrow morning, we'll carry out the handover, exchanging two thousand standard grenades for seventy level 10, thirty level 14, and ten level 17 Tier 1 evolution serums."

"As for enhanced meat and evolved meat, the prices in Oasis Town are currently soaring, increasing several times over. Based on double the price, the remaining 100,000 points will be converted into six tons of enhanced meat and one ton of initial evolved meat. What do you think?"

Lin Feng calculated it.

The original price of enhanced meat was 5 points per kilogram.

The original price of level 10 evolved meat was 20 points.

Doubling the price is exactly that number. Li Mingquan is still considered generous. The current black market price for private transactions is estimated to have doubled or tripled.

"Okay, then let's do it that way!"

Lin Feng immediately spoke and agreed.

Fifty mouths to feed, the daily consumption is not low. Even a few tons of jerky would only last for four or five months.

After some communication, both parties completed the transaction and reached a consensus.

Before Lin Feng got up to leave, he suddenly remembered something:

"Oh, right, tomorrow afternoon, I will test the power of my weapons on the right side of Oasis Avenue. At that time, everyone can come and watch."

"My level has been increasing rapidly recently, and I haven't had time to verify the power of my two cannons yet. I hope Village Chief Li will do me the honor!"