novelraw Chapter 508 - 498: Their Faith in You—What Has It to Do With You?
Chapter 508 - 498: Their Faith in You—What Has It to Do With You?
[Fool! Here you must use red gold stone mixed with magic stone powder to draw a double-layer rune circuit!]
[Tell me, where did the red gold stone on the configuration list go?]
Holding the Yellow-covered Book, Xing Huo explained, "The red gold stone’s role is just to enhance the effect of the magic stone powder, so I replaced it with silver history stone; the effect is about the same."
[About the same?! The magic power conduction efficiency is lower by a whole thirty percent!]
[If there’s an error in the city defense array, I’m the one who’ll be held accountable!]
However, Xing Huo was also troubled: "But our territory doesn’t produce red gold stones at all; this stuff only has veins in the Empire and the Mountains. A small purchase is manageable, but to support the entire Fungus Castle’s defense array... where am I supposed to get it from?"
[Trade! Smuggling! Do I have to teach you these? How can you be dumber than Norris, what’s the point in keeping you around?!]
...
Seeing that Yellow-covered Book was getting along well with his colleagues and was indeed working seriously, Lin Jun didn’t disturb it.
Lin Jun wasn’t worried about the Demon Race sending people to find Yellow-covered Book.
That tracking method has too many flaws; it can only locate a vague position and is utterly powerless in the face of passages like the Rift.
If they really relied on that to find it, they’d only get that the Holy Scripture was sometimes in the Northern Territory, sometimes in the Kingdom, sometimes in the Elf Forest, and sometimes even going towards the Dwarf Mountains.
Not to mention, Lin Jun also has Little Xi as an informant.
Unless he wants to, there’s no way those demons can find the Holy Scripture.
Compared to the matter of the Yellow-covered Book, the other three things are more concerning to Lin Jun.
The primary matter is the excavation progress of the wild spirit.
This thing, which changed the entire climate of the Northern Territory, made Lin Jun afraid to use Abyss Magic recently, for fear of causing another situation with ice and fire.
As the excavation depth increases, the bedrock temperature has dropped to a frightening level.
Even a giant Drilling Puki needs to spend a lot of time softening the frozen soil with high temperature, and the efficiency is far below expectations.
But after such a long time, they are gradually getting close.
However, some unexpected situations have arisen.
Just yesterday, the excavation team unearthed some unusual hollow structures with some artificial buildings inside.
A few stone pillar archways engraved with ancient patterns, the surface covered with runes never seen before.
This is obviously just the tip of the iceberg; a larger group of ruins is likely buried deeper.
A relic buried deep underground in the Northern Territory?
The wild spirit’s dive into that region may not be a coincidence.
Lin Jun has been maintaining attention on this.
Another matter that concerns him is the situation on the West Bank of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is now focusing on constructing a new line of defense, having no time to reclaim that area but also not wanting the Demon Race to truly occupy that land, so they have issued many bounties for demon heads.
At the same time, scattered Demon Race squads are also roaming in that scorched land, attempting to capture human adventurers as slaves.
As a result, small-scale battles in that area haven’t stopped.
But this is not what Lin Jun is concerned with; what Lin Jun is concerned with is that there have been traces of a cult recently in that area.
No cult members have been seen for real, but recently one can occasionally decompose some soulless corpses.
Both humans and demons, it is clear that the cult that worships the Death God is sowing chaos.
Naturally, such behavior as reaching into Lin Jun’s mouth to snatch food must be severely punished, but the other side hasn’t revealed itself yet, so Lin Jun can only wait patiently.
As for the last matter... it just simply feels absurd to him.
...
On the edge of Mushroom City’s plaza, a man in a cloak stood on a platform made of stacked wooden boxes, loudly proclaiming to the surrounding crowd.
"The war has temporarily ended, but our salvation came not from the Elf Dwarves, these foreigners, nor from the dukes who can barely protect themselves, not even from the supreme God of Light!" he suddenly lifted his hood, revealing a face covered in mycelium, "but from Puki!"
The crowd gradually gathered, one part curiosity, seven parts expecting a spectacle, though some also cursed him as a heretic, but the man ignored them all.
"The Demon Race destroyed our fertile fields, and the Fungal Mat granted us endless mushrooms as a gift! When the enemy slaughtered our compatriots, Puki rose from the scorched earth to become a new protector! Why worship those illusory gods? The true miracle lies beneath our feet! It watches over us, it loves us! Everything is the will of the God of Puki!"
Tears of excitement streamed down his face: "Yet ignorant people turn a blind eye! But it’s not too late to change now, we should devoutly kiss every inch of the Fungal Mat, offer tribute to those Mushroom Race envoys, and present our belated faith to the God of Puki!"
"By dedicating our body and mind to the Fungal Mat, we are sure to receive the God of Puki’s eternal blessing!" Deeply emotional, the man jumped off the box, kneeling in front of a mushroom beside the road.
The clatter of iron boots across a puddle interrupted what was a somewhat ludicrous sermon.
"It’s you again, you mushroom lunatic!" the leading guard captain ripped off his cloak, "The third time! Insist on starving in the dungeon for a few days before you’re satisfied?"
The man complied, stretching out his hands, and even as the hemp rope dug into his flesh, he continued shouting about the "God of Puki," finally silenced only when his mouth was gagged.
Two young guards restrained him through the plaza, unable to resist whispering, "Spreading heretical teachings, this time they must cut him down, right?"
"Hard to say, this guy is a veteran who survived the Battle of Dragon Roar Valley, heard he had some injury here," the soldier pointed at his head, "his comrades and superiors pleaded for his release the first two times, I suspect it’s going to happen again."
"Poor fellow," though having respect for a warrior who just fought for the Kingdom, the guard also felt a bit of sympathy seeing the man’s state, "yet this God of Puki... such imagination..."
Aside from the crowd watching in Mushroom City, the "God of Puki" was also paying attention to this farce.
Lin Jun swore, he really hadn’t done anything.
It’s estimated this guy listened to No. 4’s talk of the "great Mushroom Race," and "Puki’s Will," and then conjured up some God of Puki in his mind.
Lin Jun himself has no intention of engaging in religion.
His subordinates always follow due to his own mushroom charisma and kingly aura, never requiring religious brainwashing.
If it really had to be done, it would start at Fungus Castle, not in such a high-profile manner at Mushroom City’s plaza.
Though Lin Jun wasn’t involved, after the man’s several sermons, some people truly began to believe.
Julia, a farmer who fled to Mushroom City and now a mushroom farmer, her husband was a soldier barely surviving the Battle of Dragon Roar Valley due to mycelium symbiosis.
She should have starved, finding a job where she could eat enough in Mushroom City.
Her husband should have died, yet managed to survive a near-certain death situation.
She always thought it was her own good luck, but after listening to the man’s sermon, she suddenly "awoke."
Luck had nothing to do with it, everything was under the care of the "God of Puki."
The man was right, people should repay the God of Puki with devotion, and she should go proclaim the glory of the God of Puki!
However, she also witnessed the scene of the man being captured by guards, the Kingdom bans the belief in the "God of Puki."
Then do it quietly...
She thought of those mushroom farmers with experiences similar to hers, her husband’s comrades, and their relatives.
Even on the Fungal Mat, Lin Jun was not an omniscient and omnipotent god.
He only noticed the absurd man high-profilely spreading the word of the "God of Puki" on the plaza but didn’t immediately notice the ordinary farmer woman who listened and believed.
A group of God of Puki believers quietly emerged in Mushroom City this way.