Chapter 471: Monument of Heroic Spirits

The City of Sin was established outside the sphere of influence of the Human Empire, belonging to a frontier city newly developed in a place rarely visited by humans.

And now, this lonely city has gained a new neighbor; a brand-new city has been established not particularly far from the City of Sin.

This new city was named Pan Duola.

It is also the Shengcheng of the Machine Sect, and the first batch of residents in this Shengcheng were the tens of thousands of resistance fighters who survived that previous battle, along with their families.

Counting it up, the total population is around 150,000; it is not a large number, but as the initial population for a newly built city, it is sufficient.

At this moment, on the construction site of Pan Duola, men and women, young and old, are all working together. Although the construction conditions are not particularly good and the work on the site cannot be considered easy, very few people complain about bitterness or fatigue. Everyone's face carries a smile because everyone knows very clearly that they are not working for others, but building a new home that belongs to themselves.

The Shengcheng Pan Duola is not the fiefdom or territory of any kingdom or any noble, but a home that belongs to the Machine Sect and to all of them, the workers.

Working for oneself and building one's own home—how could this be tiring? Even if it is truly tiring, it is a happy kind of tired.

Whenever they are tired from working, the workers sit on the ground without ceremony and take off the straw hats on their heads to fan themselves. As they watch this new city take shape bit by bit through their own hands and their own labor, that sense of pride and happiness welling up from the heart is the best reward.

"Good, truly good. This is really a beautiful city."

An old man with white hair and a white beard, but whose complexion looks quite good, sighs with emotion.

"That goes without saying, Old Uncle. The planning map for this city was personally handled by Sister Dorothy. It is so beautiful; even the sewers are as big as palaces. I have participated in the construction of other cities before; compared to our Pan Duola, those cities are just ruins. When the city is completely finished in a while, Old Uncle, you look again then—that will be what is truly beautiful."

A middle-aged strong man covered in sweat nearby hears this, and a somewhat honest and proud expression appears on his face. While pouring cold water on his head to cool down, he says this.

Regarding this, the old man nods, and then notices the middle-aged man's somewhat special hand.

That is not a hand made of ordinary human flesh and blood, but a prosthetic limb made entirely of metal. Through the semi-transparent "skin" on the surface, one can vaguely see the exceptionally exquisite mechanical structure inside. Countless gears of all sizes, brass levers, and so on constitute the "meridians" of this hand, while the steam flowing within those slender conduits counts as the "blood."

"This hand of yours?"

The old man looks at this fine young man with some pity.

"Hey, Old Uncle, don't look at me like that. This hand of mine is not a loss at all. Back on the battlefield, it traded for two of the Church's lackey knights! A huge profit."

Seeing the old man's pitying expression, the strong man scratches his head and says this proudly.

This is something he can brag about for a lifetime. Who would have thought that an ordinary worker like him could have such glory? A mere arm, trading for the dog lives of two Church dogs—he earned it. At the very least, it counts as having avenged his parents and ancestors.

However, after the pride, he inevitably feels some lingering fear.

After all, he is the main labor force in his family. If he had truly lost a hand and become crippled, then his already not-wealthy family situation would have gone from bad to worse. His wife and children at home all rely on him to support the family.

Although he does not regret the arm he lost at all—if given another chance to choose, he would still fight to the death with those hateful Church dogs on the battlefield—it is indeed somewhat unfair to his family.

Originally, he did not know what he would do after becoming disabled, but at this time, it was the Machine Sect that saved his life.

Mechanical prosthetic limbs—this is a great invention newly developed by the Machine Sect. It is a special machine developed by Sister Dorothy and Sister Sophie Liya specifically for disabled people like them, allowing disabled people like them to recover and become whole again.

Moreover, the Machine Sect actually provided such good things to them for free, without taking a single cent, and promised lifetime maintenance, saying it was to thank them for their heroic performance on the battlefield before.

But what is there to thank? After all, they already had a grudge against the Church; it was the Machine Sect that gave them the opportunity for revenge, not them helping the Machine Sect.

In short, the two Sisters are truly too benevolent. If there really are gods in this world, then those two must be the true gods among humans.

"Old Uncle, look, this hand of mine is even easier to use than the original. Not only is the strength greater, but it is also more flexible, and it is not afraid of sword cuts or fire burns. This Mechanical Dao is truly magical. We are responsible for building the future school, the place where Mechanical Monks will teach the Mechanical Dao. I have to work hard at this and build the academy sturdier. The little brats in my family will also come to this academy to study in the future. The Machine Sect is the future; with the Machine Sect, our days can finally be said to have more to look forward to."

The strong man sighs with emotion toward the old man again.

"Mm, yes, the days are getting better and better. I really hope my youngest son could see it too."

The old man also smiles and nods, but as he smiles, the smile becomes somewhat sorrowful. His gaze looks toward the center of the city.

"Ah, this, Old Uncle?"

Hearing this, the strong man immediately opens his mouth. Being honest and simple, he is not good with words, and at this moment, he does not know what to say; he can only slightly open his mouth, but cannot speak.

He just follows the old man and looks up at the center of the city. There, a huge monument tens of meters high has been erected.

Monument of Heroic Spirits—this is the name of this memorial monument.

This monument was personally erected by the two Sisters. That day, the two Sisters worked together to move this heavy monument here and erected it.

Thus, the site selection for Pan Duola City was determined to be here.

This Monument of Heroic Spirits is the soul of this city and also the absolute center of this city.

At this moment, gazing at this memorial monument from afar, the strong man's eye sockets are also slightly red. On the previous battlefield, he was lucky to survive, but many people did not have his good luck. Those comrades-in-arms are sleeping there forever.

One must know that they were all the same as him, possibly the pillars of their families. For those families to lose them is no different from the sky collapsing.

"Alright, I am not as sorrowful as you. My son is a hero; this was personally certified by the two Sisters. This memorial monument contains his ashes. As long as this monument is still here, he will always still be here, and he can still be worshipped by all the people in the city. This is the supreme glory; there is nothing to be sad about."

The old man comforts the strong man in turn. Although his eyes still carry reluctance and sorrow, the smile on his face reveals a trace of pride.

After all, his son is a hero.

"Then, Old Uncle, is your family doing okay? If there is anything you need help with, just say it. I might not be able to help with big things, but I can still handle some heavy lifting."

The strong man scratches his head, thinks for a long time, and only manages to blurt out this sentence.

"No need, no need, everything is fine."

The old man waves his hands hurriedly.

"The Machine Sect says we are hero families, so they give us a subsidy every month. Moreover, the children's tuition is fully waived when they go to school in the academy, and meals are included. This treatment is so good that my conscience feels uneasy. Isn't this it? Since I am idle at home anyway, my old bones can still move, so I thought I would come to the construction site to help out and seek some peace of mind."

The two chat idly like this, and then, after resting enough, they each start working again.

And casting one's gaze over the entire construction site, there are many people like the strong man carrying mechanical prosthetic limbs. Similarly, there are not a few people like the old man who came to work spontaneously. Some are happy and carry smiles, some are sad but become even more resilient, but what is common to everyone is their strong sense of belonging to this city.

This is their own city, and it is also the beginning of their good days; it is their new root and home.

And at the center of the city, Dorothy and the Witches are responsible for coordinating and directing the construction work of the entire city. This is the Home Witch's old profession, and she is very happy doing it at this moment.

"Tsk tsk tsk, after working hard for so long, I have finally returned to my original intention. The air at this construction site is just comfortable."

Dorothy sighs with emotion in her heart like this.

It is just that, happy as she is, this task is actually not simple. After all, this is the Shengcheng Pan Duola, the future capital of the Witch World; the significance is extraordinary, so this cannot be built carelessly.

Well, although the Pan Duola City in history was very lackluster at the beginning, and the magnificence and prosperity of later generations were all renovated and rebuilt by the Witches bit by bit, as a professional, the pride of a Civil Engineering Witch does not allow her to build a Shengcheng that is as perfunctory as in history.

Not to mention getting it right in one step—that is not realistic—but at the very least, she must lay a good foundation and also leave enough space for future renovation and upgrades.

Mm, let's set a small goal first: let's make it a Wonder City.

And speaking of wonders, the Home Witch also looks up at the huge obelisk memorial monument in the city center square not far from her.

"I didn't expect that the first wonder building I truly built in my life would actually be this."

Dorothy looks at the intense light of faith on this huge obelisk that is almost soaring into the sky and invisible to mortals, and sighs with emotion in her heart like this.

Mm, at this moment, she can already see faith. This is thanks to the few angel materials left behind by the Church before. Through the dissection and research of those few angels, combined with a little basic professional knowledge of holy practitioners learned from her father, Adam, the former Church Archbishop, the Home Witch quickly figured out the evolutionary map of low-rank angels.

She and Sophie Liya have also already realized some specific evolutions according to some templates given by this evolutionary map through the evolutionary effect of the Hero's Blood potion, and they can already preliminarily observe and utilize a portion of the power of faith; their strength has increased greatly once again.

Combined with this newly mastered Dao of Faith, the simple Netherworld system that Dorothy wanted to build for the comrades who sacrificed themselves in the previous great battle finally has a concrete and feasible plan. Her inspiration is overflowing in a way it hasn't in a long time.

The Monument of Heroic Spirits in front of her now is the final product of her inspiration.

This obelisk can use people's faith in heroes to strengthen the souls of the heroes, causing these originally ordinary souls to slowly transform into Heroic Spirits.

Heroic Spirits, essentially, also belong to a type of undead creature, similar to ghosts and spirits, belonging to the ghost-body undead. However, the biggest difference between Heroic Spirits and ordinary undead is that they can relatively clearly retain their memories from before death, and they will not become fierce and cruel due to the resentment and obsession before death like ghosts and spirits. They will not even have the weakness of normal undead fearing sunlight or holy light.

Basically, it can be said that except for becoming ghost bodies, they are no different from when they were alive; it counts as a kind of alternative immortality.

The only drawback is probably that they are too difficult to transform, and subsequent upgrades are somewhat difficult.

The birth of a Heroic Spirit requires the baptism of strong faith. Only figures who had great fame before death and were highly respected or feared by people can possibly be transformed into Heroic Spirits after death.

Although newly ascended Heroic Spirits have strength comparable to ordinary high-rank ghosts, they cannot upgrade and improve their strength through ordinary methods.

Just like the method of their birth, if they want to further improve their strength, they must expand the collection of faith—that is, just like when they were alive, go do good or evil, let their fame expand further, and finally, after collecting enough faith, transform from a Heroic Spirit into a God of Faith.

Those angels who fool the public by saying that if their faith is pious enough, they can go to the Heaven God Kingdom to enjoy happiness after death—actually, they are just transforming them into Heroic Spirits. In a sense, they really didn't lie, they just didn't tell the whole story. After all, the only ones who can finally be transformed into Heroic Spirits are a small number of high-level Church members with widespread popularity; ordinary believers don't have this treatment.

The only hope for ordinary believers is probably to advance into fanatics. In this way, there is a certain probability that they can be transformed into a special Heroic Spirit known as a Prayer. This thing is a degraded version of a normal Heroic Spirit; its strength is weak, but it can barely maintain its thinking from before death.

Moreover, this maintenance of thinking also has a prerequisite: it requires them to always offer faith to the gods. Once they abandon their faith or their faith is not pious, they may disintegrate.

The only value of existence for a Prayer is probably to become a "battery" that continuously provides faith for the God Kingdom and the angels.

Of course, Dorothy naturally has no interest in these Prayers; what she wants are true Heroic Spirits.

This Monument of Heroic Spirits is a wonder building that can continuously give birth to Heroic Spirits. As long as a trace of a hero's ashes is sprinkled in front of the monument, then as long as this hero truly meets the rules for ascending the Monument of Heroic Spirits, this trace of ashes will be absorbed by the Monument of Heroic Spirits, and then the hero's name will also appear on the monument.

Afterward, as long as someone offers sacrifices to the Monument of Heroic Spirits, then this hero's soul can share a trace of faith. Over time, it can always transform into a true Heroic Spirit.

"Calculating the time, when the city is finished, the first batch of Heroic Spirits will be able to appear. Then, it is time to consider preparing new bodies for these Heroic Spirits."

Dorothy thinks like this in her heart.

A simple Netherworld system, right? With the soul-soothing, naturally, there must also be a reincarnation system. It is a pity that the Home Witch's current ability is not enough to realize true reincarnation.

Fortunately, as ghost bodies, Heroic Spirits naturally also possess the ability to possess that all ghost bodies have.

Although they have considerable strength even without possessing, if there are suitable bodies, their power can also increase greatly. It is just that suitable bodies are not always easy to find.

However, all of this is not a big problem for the Home Witch. After all, she is also an excellent puppeteer. In her view, these Heroic Spirits are the best puppet intelligent agents.

True mechanical ascension is happening right now.

The faith positioning of these Heroic Spirits is originally heroes who defend their homes, guardians. Therefore, Dorothy's positioning for them in the future is also like this: they will become the law enforcers and guardian gods of this city.

And in order to ensure that these Heroic Spirits have sufficiently abundant combat power, a set of specially made combat-specialized mechanical bodies is indispensable.

Coincidentally, while researching the angel evolutionary map recently, the Home Witch had new inspiration. Mechanical Angels, check it out, ha...

.... Mechanical ascension in progress.... ===== CHAPTER 472 =====