Chapter 2645: Funeral Reform, Death Course

The last day of November.

This is the Moon Festival of Netheril, a day when every household pays respects to their ancestors; originally, had it not been for the Linshui Village renovation project, Daxia Territory would have held a grand celebration.

However, because demolition has already begun in Linshui Village, the relevant ceremonies have been kept as simple as possible; furthermore, due to a shortage of Death Priests, Xia Duo has temporarily not approved the independent construction of public cemeteries in each village.

Currently, cemetery management in Netheril is highly dependent on Death Priests; the graves of the few who have status, position, or even wealth can receive regular blessings from Death Priests to ensure that Negative Energy does not breed.

If handled properly, corpses can even remain uncorrupted for a long time, but ordinary people do not have such favorable conditions; being able to periodically dispel Negative Energy is already considered a benefit of the Territory.

Even in Daxia Territory, which advocates more for fairness, it is difficult to provide blessings for every single grave, but Xia Duo does not want it to be determined entirely by status, background, or money like in other territories.

Instead, it is based on merits during one's lifetime; as long as a certain standard is met, one can receive regular grave blessings for a certain number of years—the higher the merit, the longer the blessing duration.

At the same time, the large-scale sacrificial ceremonies held every year, besides their original intent, are actually also for collecting Holy Power for the Death Priests; if several large ceremonies were to be cancelled, the Holy Power might not cover the expenditures.

Of course, in the ongoing Linshui Village renovation project, many Magic elements have been added to the new cemetery; Laidun had not thought that far, but this was added by Xia Duo.

The main purpose is to dispel Negative Energy and save the Holy Power of the Death Priests, but the Peace Domain of the cemetery itself cannot be replaced by Magic, as that is the result of the action of the Death God's Holy Power.

At the same time, some low-end medical care or extreme handling still cannot be replaced by Magic, and with Xia Shao's emphasis, the clinic is currently operating quite well.

"I don't have time for that, but I can let an Apprentice go; it just so happens that using teaching can also deepen their understanding of death."

Now that he has received permission to let the death course enter the School, Ruier's first reaction is not how much Divine Grace he can obtain, but that he finally has a chance to rest.

Unless the same treatment (cremation) is carried out on all past graves at the same time as the reform, if the gap in Holy Power is too large, it is very easy to trigger some unpleasant things given the current scale of the Territory's cemeteries.

Only in this way can the cremation system be accepted by more people.

Therefore, Xia Shao needs to improve the lives of the vast majority of people, raise their level of Knowledge, and let them truly understand the natural laws of this world and know what the afterlife is really like.

Although a large-scale sacrificial activity can collect a lot of Holy Power at once, in terms of quantity, it may not compare to the daily accumulation of the Death Priests.

As for Savile Territory, the number of people is even smaller; there are only two Priests who can perceive Holy Power, and while there are more Apprentices, as long as they perceive Holy Power, they are sent to Daxia Territory.

But like Xia Shao's thinking, Ruier also does not support pushing for a cremation system now, because any reform to the Death Domain could potentially affect the public's understanding of death, thereby affecting the annual Holy Power income.

This kind of thing does not cause me any psychological burden; after all, the cremation system was not popular in my hometown either, and this was also the result of changing customs and habits—it was not like that at the beginning.

……

This is also why Necromancers are so detested in Netheril, and why it is an important reason why they are collectively hunted down once they start creating undead creatures on a large scale.

……

Ruier is a Death Priest who came to Xia Shao relatively early, so some things are said quite bluntly; after hearing this, Xia Shao also felt that he might have overlooked this area.

Magic cannot solve everything; at least at the current stage, Magic is not enough. Many affairs in the Territory need to rely on various Priests, such as cemetery management or the Holy Clinic.

Thinking this way, Xia Shao suddenly thought that in his hometown, the funeral profession is actually a very popular but easy-to-employ major; he did not expect that after switching to a Magic world, a similar situation would appear!

Because the disappearance of the mortal form does not affect the peace of the Soul, and at the same time, it can save the present world a lot of trouble; it is simply a genius idea.

If one could cultivate dozens of Death Priests at once, that would definitely greatly alleviate the current shortage of Priests in the Territory.

After thinking for a while, Xia Shao continued to ask Ruier, "How is the recruitment of Priest Apprentices going?"

……

Speaking of which, the total number of Death Priests in Daxia Territory and Savile Territory combined is not even a few dozen; currently, there are ten in Daxia Territory, five of whom are still Apprentices who have not been able to truly perceive Death Holy Power.

Could it be that simplifying the ceremony was a mistake?

The latter can provide the territory residents with a certain level of basic treatment, and because the Faith in the Lord of Radiance is very widespread among the Netherese, the scale of the Midsummer Festival is something that the Moon Festival sacrificial activities cannot compare to; therefore, although Radiant Holy Power consumes more in the territory at present, it has not reached the point of being stretched thin.

In short, in summary, cemetery management in the current era is a fairly delicate job, and anyone with any ambition is likely to hover on the edge of not making ends meet.

Ruier has long yearned for the night school in the Territory, but the night school curriculum is decided by the Lord of the Territory—there is common sense, there is law, there are Radiance Proverbs, but there is no content regarding the Doctrine of Death.

But in the long run, Xia Shao still wants to push for a cremation system; on one hand, this can save land resources, and on the other hand, it is to minimize the soil for the birth of Necromancers.

But how could there be no new deaths? Currently, the total population of the Territory has exceeded 700,000; with this magnitude of population, at least several thousand natural deaths will be added every year.

After all, there is a severe shortage of manpower here.

That night, Xia Shao and Ruier talked for a long time, even talking about future funeral reforms; as a Death Priest with sufficient understanding of the essence of death, Ruier highly agrees with the cremation method of directly eliminating the mortal form.

"I will think of a way for this problem; after the Linshui Village renovation is completed next year, I will have the School open a course explaining the principles of death; you can prepare the teaching materials now, and if you are willing, you can also teach the course yourself."

"If there are no new deaths, it should be enough."

Of course, one could also use the promotion of a cremation system to replace the way Death Priests guard graves, but this viewpoint is truly too advanced; back when the Territory was first being developed, because there were no Death Priests following, Xia Shao had tentatively asked many territory residents.

After the simplified sacrificial ceremony, Xia Shao asked the Territory's Death Priest Ruier, "How much Holy Power was collected today? Is it enough to last until next year?"

"Too few; the vast majority of children hope to enter the Tower of Time to learn Magic, and as for adults, unless they have had special experiences, it is very difficult to have the opportunity to perceive Death Holy Power."

For him, the significance of opening such a course in the School is to be able to select potential Priests who are compatible with the Doctrine of Death in batches; he does not seek to cultivate thousands of people at once like the Tower of Time, as long as he is given a few dozen children with spiritual aptitude, it is enough.

But everyone's answers were very uniform; out of remembrance and protection for their loved ones, and longing for the afterlife, the living do not want to harm the dead as much as possible.

Desecrating a corpse is intolerable in the vast majority of places where civilization has developed even slightly; after all, no one wants to be treated like that after they die, and if one is strict today, it might be their turn tomorrow.