Chapter 404: Crimson Goddess, Feathered Serpent and Curly Ball Jue!
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Suinhall.
If the Shepherd's River is the waterway connecting the north and south of the giant island of Ruhe, then the Serpent Road is the main land route between Suinhor and the King's Court of Ten Thousand Snakes.
Kurmis passed through the Alpans Fortress, left the boundary of the King's Court of Serpents and entered this famous trade road.
There are many villages and towns along the way, and there is an endless stream of passing caravans, so there are hotels for rest and residence along the way.
certainly.
Groups of bandits occasionally burst out of the dense jungle.
Especially in these years, the number of bandits on the Serpent Road has increased day by day. The early bandits even established a very hidden gray power town on the Serpent Road.
These large and small gangs of robbers and gray forces are notorious in Suinhor and the King's Court of Ten Thousand Snakes.
As these forces grew stronger, they also recruited a large number of powerful people.
Now, this place has become a completely lawless zone; their power is even so strong that the towns on the border between the two countries are being influenced and controlled by these characters walking on the edge.
If caravans want to pass through this trade route, they must not only have inextricable relationships with these forces, but also must train their own guards or hire mercenaries for protection. This also makes the mercenary unions on the border particularly prosperous.
Kurmis walked this road alone.
There is no need to fly or any magic, just like ordinary snake people.
Although Sukob also taught him how to transform into the form of God, Kurmis never thought about changing his form after becoming an apostle; he just wanted to maintain his current appearance and feel what everyone sees.
He looked at me the same way as an ordinary person.
Kurmis especially likes to pay attention to and collect various plants along the way, collecting the seeds of gymnosperms or seed ferns.
"There are plants like this."
"What kind of plant is this? How can it be so tenacious and able to survive in the sand and in the cracks of stones?"
"Why do some have seeds and some don't?"
Kurmis was carrying a backpack with many things in it.
He looks like a farmer in the mountains.
After becoming an apostle and reincarnation, Kurmis began to gradually discover the true secret of spiritual power; he no longer had to contact other people as before, he could observe the world and other lives from a special perspective through spiritual power.
The secrets inside the body.
The powerful and special spiritual power even allowed him to sense the terrifying aura of the Luch giant monster that shrouded the sky over the Luch giant island.
Although.
The moment he observed the phantom formed by the condensed breath, he was so frightened that he couldn't breathe.
I dare not look at it again.
He observed that every intelligent life has spiritual power in its body, and spiritual power can affect the life form of intelligent species, and even partially affect the health and lifespan of intelligent species.
When a species of wisdom is on the verge of death, its spiritual power must fall into decay.
It's not depletion, but an inexplicable decay, as if it's rotten.
This kind of decay is difficult to reverse, and even if Kurmis repairs it through spiritual power, it can only be alleviated.
It is impossible to significantly extend the life of a certain intelligent species, including himself.
There are only two ways to get rid of the shackles of life span, break the boundaries of mortals and become an apostle, and then master the secret of reincarnation.
Therefore, after mastering the power of spirituality, both sky angels and feathered serpents are mostly used for healing.
But now.
Kurmis had a novel idea.
What would happen if spiritual power was injected into these plants?
Along the way, Kurmis was trying this power.
But unfortunately, nothing was gained in the end.
"Plants are not intelligent species and cannot carry spiritual power."
"Maybe it's possible, but I haven't found this way."
Although Kurmis failed, he continued to search and try.
Walking alone on this road full of bandits, even if Kurmis was lucky, he would eventually encounter a bandit.
Kurmis was walking on the path, and several figures on both sides who had been lying down for who knows how long suddenly rushed out.
"Stop."
"Hand over all valuables."
A group of robbers dressed in rags and holding a few sticks chased Kurmis fiercely.
"Stop!"
It was a group of unprofessional robbers who stopped Kormis, but this is normal. Kormis's current dress and situation really didn't look like a rich man; robbing him felt like a waste of effort.
, only such a stupidly poor robber would choose to rob him.
Moreover, this place is very close to the city. Generally, large bandit gangs will not choose this kind of place, because it is easy to be discovered when there are many people, and then they will be wiped out by the city's security officers.
These people attacked Kurmis when they came up, and they did not have a clear division of labor like skilled bandits.
Kormis stretched out his hand, and a ball of light spun out from his hand. A stream of air flowed from the surrounding area into his palm, and the bandits seemed to have been drained of their strength and fell to the ground.
"not good!"
"It is the Powerful One!"
"It's that kind of power!"
Kurmis walked towards one of them, and the man fell to the ground weakly but shouted with fear in his eyes.
"Don't kill us, we don't know you are the powerful one."
"This is our first time being a robber, please let us go!"
Kurmis didn't really believe this kind of nonsense, but the other party did not look like a professional robber, and he didn't even have a weapon.
He asked the other party: "Why do you want to be a robber?"
The other party replied: "I can't live anymore, I have no land."
"Because of tax arrears, the land was taken away by the nobles."
Kurmis also knew this situation, and had seen a lot in the past. He sighed: "You can also farm land for the nobles, and you can barely survive, so why do you want to be a robber?"
The other party suddenly said with great anger: "Farm the land for them?"
"We don't even have food rations left all year round. Every winter, we don't know how many people starve to death and freeze to death. They are trying every possible means to force us to death. They don't treat us as human beings at all."
Kurmis was very puzzled. In his day, it was not bad to farm the land for the nobles.
Because population and slaves are also assets, most nobles still cherish them very much.
But now Suinhall seems to be completely different. The nobles no longer take the population of the territory and the slaves seriously.
Kurmis didn't know why this was happening, so he could only think it was a special case in the border territories.
"Are all the nobles on the border so cruel?"
Kurmis proposed another idea: "You can also enter the workshop, and you can support yourself by working in the workshop!"
At his time, workshops were also a good job, and many people without land would choose this path.
Kurmis did not expect that the other party would immediately yell and roar as soon as he mentioned the workshop.
"What?"
"Do you think I don't know how to go?"
The other party was furious: "The workshop owners are even more evil-hearted and crueler than those nobles; they make us work day and night, and many of us are exhausted to death within just a few years."
"Not only do they not treat us as human beings, they don't even treat us as livestock."
"When it comes time to distribute the money, I try my best to deduct it every time. You must know that the money is so pitiful that it is not even enough to fill your stomach."
"Even animals have to be fed, but after working day and night and not even having enough to eat, I'm tired and hungry and have no energy to work, so they beat me and say I'm lazy."
The other person sat up from the ground and pointed at the scars on his body.
"Look at the scars on my body, they were beaten by them. I was almost beaten to death by the workshop owner's men."
"I'd rather be a robber than go to a workshop."
The more they talked, the more uncomfortable they became, and the robbers burst into tears one by one. In the end, they even shouted to Kormis to kill them.
"I can't survive anyway."
"My lord, please kill us so that we can suffer less."
"There's no way to survive."
Kurmis suddenly felt sympathy for these bandits, but he didn't know what to do.
He put down some money and gave it to these people, without saying anything high-sounding, and just left.
He was going to see what Suinhall had become now.
-----------------------
He traveled all the way to Suinhoor's Moonlight City.
The guard at the city gate stopped him and asked him to pay money to enter the city.
Kurmis was very puzzled: "I am a doctor, and you see, I don't bring anything with me except personal belongings. I am not a businessman who brings things into the city. Why do I have to pay taxes?"
"For a person like me, you shouldn't ask me to pay."
In the past, in Meiya City, only merchants who brought goods into the city paid taxes.
But the guard said: "What are you talking about? You don't pay taxes when you enter the city?"
"I've never heard of it."
Kurmis: "More than a hundred years ago, there was no need to pay taxes when entering the city of Meiya."
As soon as these words came out, everyone on the other side laughed.
"What?"
"More than a hundred years ago?"
"Return to Meiya City?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
After the other party finished laughing, he immediately surrounded Kurmis with a fierce look.
"You're not here to stir up trouble, are you?"
"This is our general law, a law issued by the city lord; everyone who enters the city must pay taxes, otherwise you poor people will sneak into the city.
"Looking at you, you are just a farmer, and you still say you are some kind of doctor."
"I also said that I am a powerful person. Do you want to get down and kowtow to me?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Kurmis also used to be a guard. He was a bodyguard guarding the city lord at a very young age. Now he has seen how powerful his colleagues are.
But he didn't say anything more, and finally chose to pay and go to the city.
But when he entered the city, he suddenly remembered what Long said to him.
"Kulmis!"
"It was more than a hundred years ago when you left. Even if you go back."
"Everything has changed a long time ago, and you won't find anything when you go back."
Kurmis had just stepped into this country, and she felt as if she had entered another country, unable to find any trace of the past.
After more than a hundred years, he once again looked at everything from a human perspective.
"It seems that a hundred years have passed and everything is indeed different."
"Has the country changed, or have people changed?"
"Or...have I changed?"
The urban population of Suinhor is much larger than that of the north. Many of the cities here can be traced back hundreds of years ago, even to the era of the Fire Keepers. Unlike most of the cities in the Court of Ten Thousand Snakes,
Newly created.
There is a stench everywhere in the city and there are huge crowds of people everywhere.
The streets are crowded with people, and if you are not careful, you will step on the feces of humans and animals.
A large number of shacks built by the poor on the outside are squeezed together and piled up.
In the twilight.
It has a twisted and dark sense of horror and depression.
Kurmis came to this slum, not far from which was a fresh food market.
The stench is so strong that it can make people faint, but the people living here seem to have become accustomed to this smell.
Kurmis didn't want to see what the lives of the nobles were like. He came here mainly to see how the people at the bottom of the city lived.
Is it really what the robber said?
Because he came from such a place, his parents were workers in a workshop, so he grew up in the city and eventually became a guard of the city lord's palace.
Every morning.
Before dawn, he saw groups of workers working like zombies.
Then we waited until it was completely dark, but none of these people came back.
"It's already dark, why haven't you come back yet?"
"How can you work when it's so dark?"
Kurmis went to take a look secretly and discovered a new style of thing.
Gas lamp.
It is also called an alchemical gas lamp. Although it is made with alchemy, it does not have extraordinary power. The word "alchemy" is more like a gimmick.
But something like this completely changed the night in the city, and also changed Suinhall's workshop.
Ever since the arrival of cheap alchemical gas lamps from the Land of the Rising Sun, night can no longer stop workshop owners from earning shiny coins.
The workshop owner asked the workers to work in two shifts, working day and night.
When Kurmis went to observe these workshops, he found that there were not only a large number of women in the workshops, but also many children.
The women were all hunched over, and the children were all skinny. The scene looked horrifying.
And when he observed what every household was eating, he didn't know whether he could call it food or not. It smelled so bad that it was hard to swallow.
And even for this kind of thing, they cannot guarantee it.
They all ate the last meal but not the next one.
Sometimes, people in the slums would gather together to chat, and Kurmis would join in as a doctor.
He has recently treated many people in the slums and is quite popular in this area.
During this gathering, he couldn't help but ask a question.
"Why don't we use adult men in the workshop? Most of them are women and children?"
"Is it because we can't recruit men?"
Someone in the crowd sneered: "How is that possible? That's because women and children earn cheaper wages."
"Those greedy workshop owners can hire a woman and child with half or even a quarter of the money, and some even do it for free."
"Why do they still spend money to hire men? Women may not necessarily do less work than men. Although children may work slower, the price is also lower!"
Kormis was stunned: "So that's it!"
Someone replied: "We are pretty good here. At least we have a place to live. At least we have freedom."
"Many children were sold to the workshop owners as slaves at the age of ten, working like livestock in the workshops."
Speaking of which, this person kept shaking his head.
"You haven't seen it. It's really miserable."
"I don't know how many people die in the workshop every year. They are dragged out when they die. They no longer look like human beings at all."
The people on the side laughed at him and said: "I am living like this, and I am not much better than others. I still have the heart to sympathize with others."
Someone else said: "He is worried about his children."
The other person didn't say the second half of the sentence because he was worried about whether his children would be like this in the future.
As soon as the words came out, everyone fell silent.
Kurmis asked these people again: "Slaves are wealth. It stands to reason that workshop owners should cherish them. If they die within a few years, won't they lose money?"
The other party said: "Slaves are not valuable. Sometimes you can buy a little slave as long as you give a few copper coins."
"Someone will sell themselves or their children to you even for no money, as long as you give them a meal."
Kurmis: "How could this happen?"
The other party replied: "Because many people simply cannot feed themselves and their children. If they become slaves, they will at least not starve to death."
Kurmis was silent for a long time: "Is this all the case?"
The other party shook his head: "Why isn't that the case?"
Kurmis suddenly wondered if the same was true in his hometown.
"Why did it become like this?"
"It wasn't like this before."
"Why does civilization develop more and more, and so many years have passed?"
"The situation has not gotten better, but has gotten worse?"
Everyone was talking about it, but no one could give a real reason.
At this time, someone said something: "It would be great if there was endless food, so that no one would have to go hungry."
This sentence touched Kurmis.
yes!
The most important thing for people living in this world is food.
-------------------
In the distance, a strange jungle glowed.
Special tall plants rise from the ground, each with a big ball hanging on it; the ball emits light, and the light is dreamy and cool.
Kurmis looked at the jungle and read its name.
"Moonlight Jungle."
One of the famous death forbidden places on the giant island of Luhe.
Although the Moonlight Jungle is not as large as other forbidden areas, it is extremely dangerous.
Because people who enter other forbidden areas have more or less rumors of returning alive. Although the area is large, the real dangerous places are not large; but people who enter the Moonlight Jungle have never heard of people returning alive, so let alone entering
In the jungle, no one dared to approach even the large area around it.
And Kurmis came here for a reason.
It is said that at the beginning of the Era, Arsini, the ancestor of the city-state people, discovered the Rolling Ball Jue here, which eventually opened up the civilization of the city-state people in the entire south.
Later, the Rolling Ball Jue was introduced to the Court of Ten Thousand Snakes, to the Land of the Rising Sun, and to the Kingdom of Leize.
It can be said.
The snake people cannot have today's civilization without this jungle and the rolling ball.
Kurmis did not dare to enter this jungle, but after walking around the outside, he was not too afraid with the power of the apostle.
"Why was the Rolling Ball Jue born here?"
"Is it because there's something special about this place? Or is it because of this jungle?"
Kurmis raised his head and looked at the huge and strange luminous plants in the distance.
He felt that the birth of the Rolling Ball Jue could not be related to the legendary giant god Ruhe.
Therefore, Kurmis wanted to search here to see if he could find any special plants.
He even wanted to find a plant like the curly ball.
He kept walking around the outskirts of the Moonlight Forest, carrying a braided frame on his back, wearing very short short-sleeved shirts, and a vine tied around his waist as a belt.
After wandering around for several days, Kurmis did find a lot of novel plants that he had never seen before, but he did not find the kind of plants he wanted that could be used as food comparable to the Scroll Ball.
this day.
When Kurmis was lying on the ground carefully observing a plant, a slight tremor came from the ground.
"Is the caravan coming?"
Kurmis looked in the direction where the movement came from.
He saw a shadow coming from afar, passing across the road in the blink of an eye, and disappearing into the distance with a reddish afterglow under the setting sun.
Wherever you pass, you can faintly see the image of flowers blooming and falling under the roller, which is a blood-colored flower cup.
Ordinary people may not feel anything.
But as an apostle, Kurmis, who also possesses special senses, could see the characteristics of the passing existence at a glance.
His spirituality felt the overwhelming sea of blood, and even the endless Ancient Ones chanting something.
"The Sage of Truth."
"The inheritance of the Temple of Truth...the inheritor of the will of the saints..."
"The Great Sage of Truth..."
The aura possessed by the other party was huge and thick, not as agile and mysterious as wisdom and power, but as terrifying as divine punishment.
It was similar to the aura of the Titan Ruhe.
"It's the car of the gods!"
Kurmis went from lying on the ground to standing up in just a moment.
But when he caught up with him, the other party had already disappeared at the end of the sky.
But when the god's car passed by, the being in the car seemed to have glanced at him.
That is a beautiful woman.
The other party stood in front of the window, with his red hair burning like a flame in the setting sun. He glanced at Kurmis lightly as the car passed by the moonlight jungle.
Kurmis suddenly trembled all over, and he said with an excited expression.
"The Scarlet Goddess."
He had met each other in Meiya City more than a hundred years ago.
Kurmis couldn't help but kowtow on the ground and shout the name of the other party's god.
"The Red Witch, the ruler of the kingdom of blood in the deep sea, the great ancestor of blood, the king of the most ancient race."
"I saw you come to the world again."
He was a believer in this goddess during his boyhood and youth, and his hometown and relatives were also saved by this goddess.
No matter what happens now, he has always received this goddess's favor.
After getting up, I looked at it from a distance for a long time.
Kurmis couldn't help but said.
"Why do I always meet gods?"
He seems to be born with luck, or rather misfortune.
But Kormis shook his head again, thinking that this must be a coincidence.
"wrong!"
"Maybe it's because this period of time is different. Gods have begun to walk in the world, so I happened to meet them."
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On the path of the giant snake.
"I'm coming."
"There's a lot of movement."
A group of robbers were lying on the ground listening to the movement. They immediately felt the movement and stood up and shouted.
But as soon as they finished speaking, they saw the shadow of a vehicle coming in the distance at an extremely fast speed, and they immediately rushed down.
"stop!"
"stop!"
But the person who came passed by like a hurricane. They didn't even see the shadow clearly, and the other person had already disappeared into the distance.
Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what had just passed.
"what is that?"
If someone could see clearly, they would find that it was not a vehicle at all, because there was nothing pulling it in front.
It was a house running on the earth, with two large wheels touching the ground on both sides, and a clockwork-like wheel behind it.
Miracle Props·Magic Wheel House.
It looks a bit dreamy, like something out of a fairy tale.
The props of dream power always have the color of fairy tales.
Inside the Magic Wheel House.
The red-haired demigod naturally saw the scene on the road of the giant snake, saw the thieves everywhere, and the gray forces entrenched on this road.
There was a hint of sadness in the red-haired demigod's eyes.
Then he sighed.
What worries her is not just the chaos, but the root cause behind it.
At this time, someone came out and stood behind the red-haired demigod.
"Lord Vivien!"
"We've reached the border."
Vivien looked at Alpans and Smerkel, who had been following her: "There is really a big problem."
Although Suinhall still looks strong on the surface in recent years, in fact, very violent contradictions and conflicts have broken out at the bottom.
Between cities and within cities.
There are constant wars and conflicts.
The only thing that didn't appear was that none of these people dared to declare rebellion against the King of Divine Scrolls.
However, the King of Divine Scrolls' control over this country is indeed getting weaker and weaker, or there is no way to change this situation.
A large number of farmers lost their land, which resulted in this, and there were bandits everywhere.
Not only on land, but also on the sea, there is no need to say much about pirates.
They are entrenched on various islands in the sea, driving ships to plunder all directions, and constantly attack Suinhor, the border coast of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Now the entire Suinhall is like a porcelain jar full of cracks and about to burst with water.
It's just that a powerful force tightly squeezed this exquisite and gorgeous porcelain, preventing the water inside from erupting.
That force is the nobility, the powerful.
It is also the will of God.
It is the power granted by the gods to the king.
Vivien asked Alpans and Smerkel: "You two, tell me, what is the most fundamental problem."
Alpanz said: "The population is growing too fast, but the cultivated land is constantly decreasing, and internal conflicts continue to intensify, but they are suppressed by extraordinary forces."
"Behind the chaos, there is only despair."
"Ordinary snake people can't even shout out, and they are completely swallowed up, making people feel no hope."
Smerkel: "The cultivation of croquettes requires land. The area of suitable cultivated land in the entire Suinhall is limited. It has grown to a certain extent. Many places are either too barren or unsuitable.
Development.”
"There is too little arable land, and the population is gradually increasing."
"That's what it ended up being."
Vivien asked them: "Can everything be changed by taking back the power of the divine right of kingship?"
Smerkel shook his head: "This is not enough, because it cannot fundamentally solve the problem."
Alpanz: "The change of dynasty is nothing more than the consumption and reduction of population through war, and the redistribution of land and wealth. This is an infinite cycle process."
"Reduce the population and redistribute; then the next kingdom will be replaced, and the cycle will begin again."
"This is meaningful to mortals, but for you, Lord Vivien, this is not enough."
In other words, it is meaningless,
The Scarlet Goddess nodded: "Yes, a civilization that cannot move forward, a civilization that keeps walking in circles, has no hope."
But even gods sometimes cannot solve all problems.