This year's summer seems to be extremely early and extremely hot.
Even in May, when cicadas are not supposed to chirp early in the morning, the fuso air is filled with the smell of charcoal, rust, and the salty sea breeze, but it is filled with annoying cicada chirping one after another.
The sound of hammering steel, the rotation of waterwheels, and the sound of flatbed trucks transporting ore mixed with the chirping of cicadas overshadowed the voices of people talking, creating the not-so-sounding sound of Fuso Summer.
Weird and unreasonable things happened one after another not only in Fuso, but also throughout the entire Moon Kingdom.
Flowers that are supposed to belong to the coldest months of winter are blooming all over the sunny and warm fields. Trees that only bear fruit in autumn have grown twisted fruits of different sizes - some are so full that they pull the branches down. They hang down, like an overweight nobleman who falls to the ground as soon as he gets off his chair and turns into a puddle of sour and smelly mud that attracts flies and mosquitoes. Some of them are small and green at the end and soon turn gray and black and die prematurely.
Dead leaves and flowers appear alternately in the same area, and death and overly prosperous new life are mixed together in scattered forms, as if time and seasons have been disrupted and the rules no longer exist.
In almost all populated areas where the fairy trees are blooming, farmers are reporting unexplained pregnancies and miscarriages in livestock.
Ordinary people who do not know and have no power to solve the problem can only try to sort out their emotions and mentality after experiencing ups and downs of emotions and continue to struggle to make ends meet.
And those high-level figures who had the power to solve the problem and who should have been aware of the problem, after seeing this happen to their beloved horses, naturally did what they thought was reasonable:
Find someone to blame.
Whether it was the groom responsible for taking care of it or the wild horse that seemed suspicious, whose head had to be killed.
At the scene of the incident, almost every local elder over the age of sixty or seventy was shouting everywhere trying to draw people's attention to the strange phenomena. But the younger generation who had just heard that the feudal army group was disbanded just thought they were making a fuss. Between the strange phenomena and the blame for beheadings, the entire Crescent Continent was filled with festivals and celebrations, as if people were trying their best to forget this. A catastrophe spread across the country.
People at the bottom are busy making a living, telling themselves that if they don’t see it, it won’t exist.
Those at the top, on the other hand, "perfectly address the root of the problem" by identifying who they believe is causing the problem.
When human beings face difficult-to-understand problems, they often fall into these two endings: either ignore them as if they don't exist, or follow the established, past, traditional, and consistent way of trying to conquer the world with one trick.
It's all accidental, or the work of gods.
Just deal with it in this way, and it will pass after a while, and the problem will magically disappear just like when it appeared.
——That’s the problem with the domain army, isn’t it?
Xinjing has never won a single battle, and many civilians and even the Chinese gentry in directly-governed states do not even have a systematic understanding of the war situation.
Too many aristocratic children were crammed into various departments by their parents, which seriously slowed down the administrative system of the Moon Country. The extreme overstaffing caused most people to sit there and eat without knowing anything.
They didn't even know how many cities the feudal army had captured, how many territories they had occupied, and how many people had died in battle.
They were just vaguely aware that the feudal army was making great progress.
Then there is no more.
This seems to be another excellent evidence that "the royal family of the Great Moon Kingdom has been in the royal family for thousands of years, and its status is unshakable, and the empire will prosper for another four thousand years."
It seems that no event or disaster will truly subvert this country and shake its foundation. Everything will disappear, but only the Kingdom of the Moon will remain standing.
That's what people believe.
At least that's what they want to believe.
Because this year has been a difficult year for many people.
The war directly led to an increase in food prices. Farmers who fled to the north turned into bandits, and conflicts between refugees and locals frequently occurred.
Everyone desperately hopes that the problem is behind them, that it is over and that they can return to their lives as before.
Under the background of the times, people will always come up with different ideas when faced with the same suffering. When faced with incomprehensible phenomena, if they cannot numb themselves and turn a blind eye or find someone to blame, people will choose to look for some kind of spiritual support.
At a time when people's hearts are in turmoil, the influence of faith is also gradually expanding. Although the White Church missionaries from distant Rigal are centralized and controlled, some people who are not operating in an official position secretly take advantage of the higher authority of Crescent Continent. Literacy rate, "Holy Scripture" translated into Japanese language is distributed everywhere.
But there are some things that are unfamiliar even to today’s white churches.
Two hundred years is a small chapter in the life of a longevity species, but it is enough for human society to undergo earth-shaking changes.
This religion, which is bound to Rigal's nearly two thousand years of world history, has brought suffering to people, but it has also become people's hope in a short period of time.
But that was back when Henry was still standing with them.
In the past two hundred years, the rise of the merchant class and the educational system organized by private scholars have gradually eroded the foundation of the church, and the white church, which has increasingly bound itself to the interests of the Padrosi nobles, has become increasingly Passive and paranoid, they are eager to regain their influence, and for this reason they have once again extended their tentacles beyond the East Coast.
Fanaticism fanned the flames of small West Coast states and took root in lands where it had never had a foothold.
It cannot save believers, but it easily gives imaginary hope.
The scene where the bishop led a large number of poor people led the group of people on the way to Xinjing happened one after another in places they didn't know - the excessive gathering of Japanese poor people became fanatical followers of the White Church and As chess pieces, the upper echelons of the church plan to use these people to seek benefits and even initiate riots to liberate other priests.
Gathering such a huge population naturally requires material supplies, and at this juncture, those wild areas full of white flowers that violate the season and are fruitful have become their best choice.
Even if you have doubts, you will give up thinking due to hunger and exhaustion.
Then forces beyond their cognition appeared.
As if a shark smelled blood, a voice emerged from the crowd of people who gathered their enthusiasm and despair.
It was a voice that sounded while he was half asleep, a beautiful woman's voice.
"A woman with long black hair." The poor people who saw her described her in various ways.
"It must not be human."
"Sometimes she was crying, and sometimes she seemed to be smiling in a very sad way."
"She seems to want to say something to us."
The church personnel were frightened by their adjectives, but the leading middle-aged priest still tried to make good use of these people's illusions, so he searched for the records in the "Holy Scripture" and used it as always to explain the situation at hand.
"That must be the saint who has saved countless people in the past and has returned to the side of the Lord God. He appears to guide us!"
"Yes, her name is -" The moment the name written in the corner recorded in the "Sacred Scripture" filled with countless gorgeous words was read out, the priest didn't know why he did something. The feeling of something you shouldn’t do.
Some things should not be written down.
He recalled that there had been many great purges within the church, and he also panicked for a moment as if he had woken up, remembering that he did not seem to know the name of this saint - but he clearly had no knowledge of the Holy Scriptures just like other priests. "I have read it thousands of times.
"Why did it suddenly become so outdated?" The appearance of the "Holy Scripture" in his hand changed. The decoration and the style of the cursive characters were not the version he was familiar with, and the things recorded on it were also different.
The more he read it carefully, the more amazing he felt. As he looked at it, he found it was a little blurry, so he rubbed his eyes, but it became even more blurry.
small book booth
The moment the font twisted and attacked him like a living thing, he screamed, closed the book and fell to the ground.
"Are you okay?" A gentle Laman voice sounded from the side, instantly erasing all his panic and anxiety.
The hand pressed to the ground was a little painful from the snow, and the body temperature began to melt the snow through the knight's robe.
'Ah, this person always has such magic power' he suddenly thought, although he didn't know why he thought this.
He stretched out his hands, which were larger than his own and covered with calluses caused by holding a sword, and took hold of the other person's hand. The woman in old-fashioned white church clothes held him with both hands and struggled backwards with all her strength. It took a tug to pull him up.
"Thank you, Your Excellency Sania." After standing up, the young man who was nearly two meters tall looked at the saint who was breathing laboriously and thanked her.
The other party brushed the long hair around his ears and replied with a smile that was enough to dispel the cold winter in Suomir.
"You're welcome."
————
"Another place that suffers disaster." The silver-haired lady with lightning flashing in her eyes seemed to be able to see some things that ordinary people could not see, because to the white-haired girl, this was just a weird and dirty camp. That’s all.
Apart from the food that was not taken away and the inexplicably burnt Rigal-style hardcover books, it was difficult to tell whether the people who had encountered an accident or who simply stayed here had left.
"So what's going on?" She asked hesitantly. Our Luoan girl has never been a proud person who is ashamed to ask questions, but she has been afraid to speak recently. The reason is naturally related to the new team members.
"Human beings are really useless." As expected, the little mage who always had a bad tone next to him once again made a disdainful voice: "Even if the silver species degenerated after being expelled, they don't even understand magic vision."
"There are negative demons everywhere here, and there are a lot of residues. It seems that the eating is over, okay?" Anyone can hear the disgust in her ancient Lamani tone: "The etiquette of the individual born this time. Some of them were really bad, and I didn’t even know how to eat them completely, and even vomited some of them upside down.”
Mira was confused by what she heard, but she didn't dare to speak anymore, so she gave her a look and asked Ling, "Excuse me, what are you talking about eating?"
Her Lamani language was a bit stiff and had some northern pronunciation, because it was taught by Galeva during her travels with others.
But surprisingly, the short mage seemed to have a more tolerant attitude towards Ling: "What else can it be like eating? A person's personality will be chewed up."
"Everywhere here is the soul that has been chewed up and left with residues and scraps, broken memories and life past."
"You can see it with magic vision. If the wavelength is suitable, you can also feel the content and emotions. Over time, it may even integrate into the earthbound spirit in this area."
"Broken, unable to remember his own name, a strange magnetic field that intersects the memories of many people."
"And the body that became empty turned into a wanderer and wandered around, not even noticing the fact that he was dead. Driven by the negative demon, he wandered around forever, trying to fill his never-ending stomach. "
"What you humans call ghosts and ghosts." The tall beast leader said in a deep voice from the side.
"They are not complete existences, but fragments, fragmented and repeated memories that remain. Like the blackness left by fire, like insects trapped in amber."
"To put it bluntly, the witch will eat people's memories. This is the residue left after eating. The fragments of personality will remain at the place of occurrence in the form of magic power. And the body that has lost its personality will become Ghouls are like this." The summary made by the silver-haired lady who was squatting on the ground for inspection was said in modern Lamani language, which made everyone including Leng Touqing understand the situation straightforwardly, except Lu, who did not understand Lamani language. Lu was still confused, but Mira explained it to her.
"There are some interesting discoveries here." Erica waved to Henry.
"The thing Mu'er said he vomited out seems to be yours."
"Have you been in recently?" she asked.
"I did some protection and simply sacrificed the medium, but it seems I was still somewhat vulnerable." The sage shrugged.
"I don't even understand how much memory you have lost." Erica sighed.
"There is a reason why druids don't go deep into those areas. Even if they wear a full set of enchanted protective clothing and a sacrificial medium, this kind of attack method that even the magister can't understand is still impossible to prevent."
"You should be glad that it is just an anthropomorphic personality and memory fragment. Unless it is attached, it will not be a complete existence with specific malicious intent. Otherwise."
"I'm afraid this world will be destroyed more than once." She turned her head, her silver high ponytail swaying slightly under the influence of the wind, just like the sea of white flowers in the distance.
"It's time to continue on the road." The tall hard-skinned warrior said. And through the connections between the shrine maiden and the Onishin clan, Fuso's group left from the mountain road near Onisato.
Now I am on my way back to Xinjing.
