The geographical gap between the Crescent Continent and the Rigal Continent has resulted in not only differences in human geography but also many unique species in this area.
In some inaccessible mountains and basins there are still ancient and primitive creatures that have perished elsewhere. Some of them are revered as members of the eight million gods, while others are more harmful to humans. They are called monsters or weird.
Human beings have always divided the world in their own way of cognition.
black and white.
Night and day.
Good guys and bad guys.
Beneficial and harmful.
The common knowledge spread within a specific group helps to improve the cohesion within the group. Children will be taught what should be loved and respected, and what should be hated and rejected, and even killed.
But what if these perceptions aren’t always reliable.
"Maintain the formation." The sage's steady voice brought a sense of security to the group of people as always. He stood at the front, flanked by Kaleva and Mila, who were also dismounted and fully armed, while Lu Lu and Ling behind him stayed on the horse together.
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The Yiren girl tightened her grip on the bow in her hand, holding an arrow ready to fire at any time, and glanced left and right vigilantly.
On the ground behind them as they passed, there were two strange bodies that were chopped open and one was stabbed to death in the throat.
They still retain their human appearance, but their skin has developed large-scale ulcers, and thick limbs have grown out of the flesh in some of the wounds.
These once-human things were wearing the clothes of Japanese civilians, and it was their former neighbors and even relatives who asked the group to kill them.
The development of the matter was very simple - when the villagers who fled the village in the chaos learned that a group of mounted warriors were passing by, they rushed over and knelt down in front of the team, kowtowing to them for help. Even though there was obvious hesitation when seeing a stranger, he finally spoke because of the presence of Ling in the team.
It was noon, a rare warm day with clear skies, so the group could see from a distance the small white flowers growing in the fields of the village without any smoke rising from the kitchen.
Fuso is obviously the area hardest hit by the influence of the outside world, and the closer they get to the provincial capital, the more they realize this. There are many villages affected along the national highway, but this strange but scattered and not large enough incident does not seem to be enough to alarm the local Chinese.
The same thing happened to their village this time.
The small village is located at the foot of the mountain, with a thin stream supplying water, and a wooden bridge spanning it connecting the outside of the village with the inside. There are a total of thirty-seven households living in this village, with a population of one hundred. There are thirty or forty people in this village who are "sick of madness, possessed by demons, and always beating and biting people."
At first, they could lock the patients at home. Later, when seven or eight people were infected, they were locked up in an abandoned house alone so as not to affect other people's normal lives. But due to a lack of doctors and effective management, the condition eventually spread. After more than one-third of the people were infected, the healthy villagers had to urgently pack up their belongings and run to the outside of the village to build temporary shacks for shelter - and this was already half a month ago.
When the rations are exhausted, those brave enough to venture back to the village in search of something to eat often never return.
Although it was a blessing that these patients would not leave the village for unknown reasons, the villagers were becoming increasingly anxious just lying there starving outside the village every day.
Because the village is so small, there are no villagers stationed here to manage the village. Unfortunately, the village chief, who is responsible for contacting the outside world and asking for help, is also one of the patients. The people in charge themselves are "crazy", and the remaining ordinary villagers have been working as farmers all their lives and have no idea how to deal with this kind of thing. They are anxious, desperate but very passive, waiting for the savior to come, so when a group of people When passing by, even though they looked like Southern Barbarians, they already made it clear that they didn't want to care too much.
"It's hopeless. It's a kind of mercy for the adults to send them on their way!" The villagers who asked the group to kill them all asked. No matter how unhappy they were, their eyes and expressions clearly said:
As long as we can go back to farming and have food to eat, it doesn't matter who dies.
In the face of the most critical need of survival, the only distinction is between oneself and others.
After half a month of hunger, even close relatives no longer seemed so precious.
But despite this, our Luoan girl frowned as she glanced around.
The number of villagers hiding outside the village, afraid to go in, is about sixty or seventy. As in many places when disasters occur, it is often the younger and stronger people who can escape to protect themselves. These people also conform to this pattern. Most of them, both men and women, are young adults, and there are very few children.
But they would rather starve outside and wait for the Savior to pass by.
This made Mira find it difficult to understand. If half a month of not having enough food left them with no energy, then why did these people still look so energetic when asking for help?
Since you still have the strength and so many people, why not take back your own village?
Since they are neighbors and relatives, I can’t do it myself, so I want to entrust them to them? ——While thinking this, her pretty little eyebrows furrowed even more tightly.
If the peasant's passivity were seen by the Kazuto noble samurai, they would definitely yell at him for being cowardly and lacking courage. But the facts may not be so simple and easy to draw conclusions.
When he spoke his complaints away from the villagers, Henry responded to her in a calm tone as always.
"It's not so much that they simply don't have the courage to do this kind of thing, it's more that they never thought that they could do it."
"This is a restriction imposed by the nobles on the minds of the common people, and it is also the basis for Xinjing to have no fear until now."
"The duty of a common man."
Duty, class.
Peasants, nobles.
They are farmers, and the duty of farmers is to farm, and they stay and farm around their villages honestly. You cannot travel far or do anything that goes against your class.
Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, scholars are the most noble, farmers who are honest and follow the rules are second, they are important, as long as they keep their duties. Craftsman Secondly, they are pretty good. But those wandering merchants! Those who do not keep their duties and want to make money must be sneaky people who often do dirty things.
——Even if you are not at the top or the upper class, as long as you are not at the bottom, as long as you can continue to look down arrogantly, you can join others in despising another class.
Those days didn't seem so sad anymore.
Therefore, the only person who can travel far to contact outsiders for help is the village chief, because this is a privilege granted by rules and traditions. And if you want to kill someone or something, you must ask the samurai master for help, because this is something only the samurai master can do.
The strong ideological confinement of the people at the bottom is the fundamental reason why this country has been able to maintain its unity for thousands of years.
The history of the Moon Country is not without its turbulence. Incidents such as local powerful forces, Chinese infighting, and pirates plundering the coast have occurred from time to time. However, with the overall strict class division and the social system that never allows for overstepping, , still maintaining overall stability.
However, cracks gradually appeared in all this during the two hundred years of communication with the Lamanite countries.
Because the doctrine of the White Church advocates that believers are born with sin, and the sufferings in this life are all to wash away sins. As long as the atonement is completed, they can be reborn and live a different life.
It promises change and a better tomorrow, which is exactly what Xinjing cannot tolerate, because all this means instability and the destruction of the existing structure.
The existence of monotheism is different from other religions that have appeared in this country in the past. It grew and prospered with another empire and was difficult to be tamed by the localization of Xinjing.
The only god cannot join the eight million gods of the Kingdom of the Moon like other polytheistic beliefs, and be domesticated and accommodated into their four-thousand-year culture to become a small episode.
She can only be the only god, everything else is heresy.
– But let’s get back to where we started.
These "traditional Japanese farmers" who are still not influenced by the ideas of the White Church are so poor that they cannot give any reward to the sage and his party for seeking help, and they may not have thought about reward at all, because in their understanding of the samurai master It should be done for the sake of "benevolence and justice".
As long as their explanations are consistent with benevolence and righteousness, there is no need to pay material rewards.
This overly idealistic way of thinking coupled with the reality of poverty may be the reason why there are probably other people passing by the national highway within half a month, but no one is willing to help.
Even in Xinyue Continent where there is no mercenary culture, it is better to collect money.
But even though they agreed to help, they were not just good old guys who would help anyone they met.
There are many mysteries related to the inner world. If there is a change in the entire village like this, an on-site investigation may be able to obtain a lot of key information.
This will be of great help in suppressing the expansion of the situation and responding to the crisis.
This operation was said to be to help the villagers clean up, but in fact that was a secondary purpose. The main force of the operation was Miss Doctor, who was originally just out to relax. Her rich knowledge as Doctor Xingyong was the basis for judging where the changes occurred, while the others were mainly responsible for protecting her during the process.
But as soon as they entered the village, the group of people was attacked immediately. Although the sage solved them all in a few strokes, the strange appearance of the patient left everyone speechless.
Even the horses seemed to feel something and were frightened, so Henry took Kaleva and Mira to dismount and fight on foot. Lulu, on the other hand, continued to stay on the horse to take advantage of the good view from a higher place for reconnaissance.
The doctor who was examining the dead body looked more solemn in silence, because all this was more or less beyond her imagination.
"The vitals seem to be the same as those of humans, and they can be killed like that."
"The changes also exist at a shallower level, mainly in the skin and muscles."
"The knuckles are alienated, the index finger and middle finger are fused together, and the epidermis is sclerotic." She raised the corpse's right hand, and its muscles swelled irregularly, like a normal human arm with tumors, and the overall skin color turned yellow. But the finger parts at the end are all black.
"Insect limbs grew out of the crack." Ling used a knife to poke into the rotten flesh at the wound. The tip of the knife touched something hard inside. She stabbed around the cut several times, and then broke off the limbs. Come down.
"It's not a parasite, it's just a separate limb growing out of the flesh." Miss Doctor seemed to want to put this limb into her pocket, but the Luoan girl next to her tried her best to stop her.
"There are scales growing in some places." She inspected the base of the neck and sides exposed under the torn clothes.
"How?" The sage in front asked.
"I don't understand it at all." Ling let out a long sigh.
"It's like several different creatures are mixed together, but it's not just forcibly spliced together by external force. There are indeed tendons in the muscles connecting the joints and limbs."
"It's like I've encountered that rabbit-like thing before." She said, rubbing her brow.
“Perhaps we can learn more by going deeper.”
After Ling came to such a conclusion, the group of people slowly moved along the road towards the depths of the village.
