Chapter 705: Turning to Ashes, the Misunderstanding of the Priests

The lead Priest of the Church of the God of the Dead hurriedly jumped onto the donkey cart and whispered the news he had gathered to his companions who were setting off with him.

The reliability of this news was basically not an issue; although the Church of the God of the Dead had not bestowed any great favors upon the refugees within the checkpoint, nor had they distributed the rations the others needed most, they had conducted a series of formal and uncompromising funeral rites for every refugee who had died from illness or injury during their flight.

The Church provided firewood to burn the corpses for free, and offered comfort regarding life and death to both the departed souls and the living.

Not to mention comparing them to the Agricultural God Church, which had been trying every way to raise and distribute food, the Church of the God of the Dead had been quite good to them as well, so they would not lie about such intelligence.

"In that case, those two ringleaders are very suspicious," someone said.

The lead Priest nodded: "When I was young, I once followed the army to wipe out an Evil God church that only wanted to fish in troubled waters. Those people wouldn't find a remote place to build a closed-off village isolated from the world; instead, they would trick people into pre-set traps, killing them directly to harvest a large number of innocent souls in despair."

Someone immediately replied: "It seems very similar to the current situation. We must hurry."

Everyone on the donkey cart nodded silently, and the whip driving the donkeys was swung more diligently.

The cart wheels rolled over the ancient stone streets within the checkpoint, leaving behind the desolate shops and the refugees begging on the streets. They soon arrived at the east gate of the checkpoint. The soldiers guarding the gate saw that they were Priests from the Church of the God of the Dead within the checkpoint; they did not inspect them, and though they dared not show disgust, they deliberately kept their distance while seeing them off out of the gate to the east.

Although the Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead held noble status and were people one could never avoid in life, none of the soldiers wished to see these professionals who were associated with death all day long. They whispered privately that if one came into contact with those Priests too much, one would carry the aura of death, and death would arrive prematurely.

The Priests on the donkey cart were unaware of this; they did not know that such nonsense related to them existed within the Baishi City Wall Guanka, and if they had known, they probably wouldn't have cared.

At this moment, apart from the lead Priest who had rich combat experience in his youth and was relatively calm, the others were restless, yet dared not speak, so they had to constantly check the protective equipment they were wearing for the first time.

Everyone held a short-handled metal short staff; this standardized 'Death's Grip' Divine Power short staff could, by utilizing the Divine Power bestowed by the God of the Dead, emit a shock of death force during a rapid swing that could cause life-decaying damage to all living things.

This was their primary weapon; in the vast majority of cases, this weapon was enough to deal with all living enemies, and was even somewhat overpowered. As for ordinary undead without life, the Priests could handle them even more easily, having more simple methods to deal with them.

Besides this, everyone wore a Robe with Divine Power defensive capabilities. This combat Robe, distinct from ordinary Robes, could prevent general external damage from harming the areas protected by the Robe as long as Divine Power remained in the body. Everyone also carried a God of the Dead Protective Statue with a blurred face, stored in a small cowhide bag on their belt.

Because the situation was unclear and they might have to deal with enemies using strange methods, everyone also wore an Anti-Curse Necklace. This protective necklace, capable of resisting external Divine Art and Curse attacks, was not usually worn by anyone because it was truly too heavy. The copper chain was covered with small cylindrical stone pillars engraved with blessings, and at the chest of the necklace was a round, flat stone slab, carefully engraved with a passage of the God of the Dead's protection for the Priests of his own church.

The effect of resisting Curses naturally came from this passage of protective words.

Finally, in addition to the weapons and equipment everyone had, the lead Priest also carried a small locked animal-skin backpack. Inside the strictly guarded backpack was a treasure specifically allocated to the church belonging to the Baishi City Wall Guanka by the superior diocese—the Denial Orb.

This combat equipment, which many had never even heard of, let alone seen, was even more powerful.

"One, two, three, put your strength together!"

"Four, five, six, step out your feet!"

"Seven, eight, nine, push forward!"

"Push! Push! Push! Hey—"

At this moment, on the north side of the open space, it was a scene of bustling activity. The felled trees had their excess branches removed by nimble young people, then many grooves convenient for gripping were opened on the trunks. Dozens of people then went up together, taking advantage of the slippery ground and the short distance to push the large tree trunks toward the direction where the corpses were placed in the open space.

There were people on both sides of the trunks. Everyone gripped the grooves opened by metal weapons on the trunks, then lowered their bodies to grab them, and following the slogan of a young man who had once logged in the village, they exerted force and kicked their legs in unison, pushing the multi-ton tree trunks to move forward.

This work required far more skill than it looked, because when exerting force, one did not rely on the strength of the arms, but rather, after extending the arms diagonally forward to grip the grooves, one had to try to support the body diagonally and then use the strength of the legs to exert force.

In reality, it was the legs that exerted the force, not the arms.

After all, people often said: "The strength of one leg is stronger than two arms. The strength of one waist is stronger than two legs."

If it weren't for the fact that waist and abdominal strength were mostly used for chopping wood rather than carrying trunks, people would probably have to find a way to use waist and abdominal strength to push the heavy trunks.

This side was bustling with activity, which made Xueya Site, who was directing hundreds of people, feel his blood boil. But right next to them, another processed large tree trunk was grabbed by Jier alone at the front part of the trunk; he lifted it directly onto his shoulder, roaring as he exerted force, dragging the tree trunk, which was more than ten times his own size, entirely by himself.

On the side, dozens of people worked together to slowly push a trunk to the corpses, while here, Jier, after lifting the trunk, exerted force and ran wildly, shouting with abandon while dragging the large tree trunk forward by force.

The part of the trunk touching the ground at the back, because it bore the entire weight, even dragged out a groove during the movement.

Although Jier's display of such powerful strength shocked everyone, the dozens of young people pushing the large tree trunk did not give up. As if competing with the Knight, they also increased their force, and even the young man shouting the directing slogans constantly quickened his pace in the rhythm to match the young people who were holding their breath.

"Ha!!!"

Jier roared, sank his body and rose, his legs exerted force while his waist pushed upward, and finally, with a lift of his shoulders, he threw the trunk he was carrying onto the open space to the side, leaving it to other young people holding axes to take over and cut the entire trunk into suitable lengths.

Eventually, these hundreds-of-kilogram trunks would be stacked together to form a large bonfire that could quickly burn the corpses into ashes when ignited.

At the bottom of this large bonfire, durable thick trunks would be placed tightly one by one, while thinner, long trunks would be stood up on top to form the shape of a pyre, and the hollow center would be filled with previously cut branches and green sprouting leaves.

Once this bonfire was lit, one only needed to continuously add firewood to it afterward, and one could continuously throw the corpses into it to be quickly burned into ashes by the high-temperature flames.

Jier moved several large tree trunks back and forth like this. Later, finding his armor troublesome, he even took off the upper part of his armor, and with his chest and arms bare, he sweated as he moved the trunks one by one by himself.

The glowing blessing pattern on his chest also aroused the curiosity of many people, but Jier did not care about this.

It was not until he moved the last large tree trunk over and personally used an axe to cut the trunk that the cyan divine light in Jier's eyes quickly faded.

The 'Grass and Wood Source' blessing of infinite energy was finally exhausted.

Jier wiped his sweat-covered face, nonchalantly shouldered his axe, used the axe to pick up his armor, and whistled as he swayed back to his own carriage.

Beside the carriage, he threw his things on the ground, picked up a jar of clear, dust-free rainwater, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Refreshing!"

Holding the empty jar and sitting on the driver's seat of the carriage, Jier felt the condition of his body.

The Agricultural God Blessing Divine Power, which had replaced the consumption of Life Energy, retreated back into the leaf pattern on his ribs. Through touch and investigation, Jier discovered that he could not use this blessing power again for a short time. It was not that he couldn't force it, but for the sake of the user's physical safety, to reduce the wear and tear on the body after forced use and to allow for rest.

It seemed that after repeated battles and labor, his body's energy had not been consumed in the slightest, as it had all been replaced by Divine Power, but after all, his body had undergone intense exercise. Even if physical strength and energy were not consumed, the muscle stretching, the weight borne by the bones, the contraction of tendons, and the abrasion of the skin during physical exercise were all things that had truly happened in the physical world.

Jier spread his arms to perform large-scale opening and closing movements, carefully feeling every change within his body.

"Phew, it's like a heavy truck with a gas station in its cargo box; although the fuel in the tank hasn't decreased at all and the engine oil is full, the wear and heat of the various metal parts in the whole vehicle are things that have truly happened."

"Hiss, a dual feeling of fatigue mixed with spirit."

He muttered. Mentally, too, the infinite energy brought not only no loss of physical strength, but his spirit was also very full at this time. Yet, having fought and run for a whole night, plus the continuous heavy physical labor and the hearty roaring just now, it still brought an unusual feeling.

Jier vaguely felt the existence of something to which his consciousness was attached.

Could that be his Spirit?

"Light the fire!"

Priest Bata'er stood with a sorrowful expression far from the tall pile of firewood, behind him were hundreds of young refugees who had long since stood up behind him.

Everyone silently watched the thing similar to a wooden tower built from the several-meter-high tree trunks and firewood. Some had already shed all their tears last night and were watching silently at this moment. Some began to cry in low voices, feeling sorrow once again for the friends and relatives who had innocently lost their lives in the Bandit attack.

Some were even so weak that they needed to be supported by those around them to stand, but following the loud command of the young Priest, they miraculously burst forth with strength from their bodies, stood straight, and even stood on tiptoe, looking toward the pile of firewood covered by clumps of messy hair.

The firewood pile was right next to the open space where the corpses were placed. At this moment, as soon as the Priest gave the order, a Nongshen Believer immediately held high a burning Torch and walked over with large strides.

Outside the firewood pile, there were people with relevant experience who had used the rags and tattered clothes from the corpses that no one wanted, mixed with dry grass found from somewhere, to twist into a simple ignition fuse.

After the believer holding the torch approached the woodpile, they followed their companion's instructions, crouched down, and used the torch to ignite the ignition rope that extended from outside the woodpile to the branches at the center.

This thing caught fire very easily; as soon as the flame touched it, it rustled and ignited. The flame followed the hay wrapped in rags at the center, burning rapidly and extending to the heart of the woodpile at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The believer holding the torch seemed quite afraid of the flames about to erupt from the tall woodpile, so they ran back with a slightly stumbling gait. They returned to the edge of the crowd and placed the torch on the ground; others had long since prepared handfuls of loose soil, and after a few handfuls were scattered to cover the torch, the flame was extinguished.

In this way, this specialized torch could be used again later, as long as the soil on it was shaken off.

The flame quickly burrowed from the thin ignition rope into the tall woodpile; at first, there was nothing, and everyone had slight complaints, as if the ignition had failed.

But soon, before the person who was about to go up to check could get close, wisps of blue smoke emerged from the woodpile.

The person approaching was urgently called back.

Subsequently, the blue smoke, visible to the naked eye, grew larger and became thicker.

Finally, the flames broke through the encirclement of smoke and began to emerge from the center of the woodpile, expanding rapidly within a few breaths.

Bata'er Jiaoshi walked out from the crowd and took a few steps forward, then he turned to face the hundreds of young Refugee, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly: "Let us pray for the innocent who have died!"

The vast majority of those present lowered their heads and prayed silently.

The Priest continued to shout: "Let us pray for those who died fighting bravely; they were heroic and deserve to enter the great God of Agriculture Divine Kingdom."

Most people lowered their heads to pray, while some young people who had fought alongside those who died bravely held their heads high and silently raised their weapons toward the sky.

Swords and blades were like a forest; although they were young, the momentum was still imposing.

But most people here did not notice that what Bata'er Jiaoshi said had a great contradiction with what he said last night.

Last night, in order to inspire the Yongqi of believers and non-believers to fight, the Priest had personally promised in the crowd that those who fought for this could enter the God of Agriculture Divine Kingdom after death.

But now, he used vague vocabulary to cover up the destination of those who died.

'Please forgive me.' He thought to himself at this moment.

He then opened his mouth and shouted: "Finally, let us issue a final curse upon those brutal Bandit! These guys will only suffer endless torture after death to make up for the sins they committed while alive. Of course, we will never forgive them!"

"Never forgive those brutal people!"

"Never forgive those Bandit!"

The crowd roared in unison.

Accompanied by bursts of roars and venting anger, the flames behind Bata'er Jiaoshi rose higher and higher, gradually beginning to emit a massive amount of light and heat; this heat was enough to incinerate the bones of Human.

The ominous aura at the nearby corpse pile seemed to fear this light and heat immensely. In the observable range that ordinary people could not directly see or hear, the resentment and distorted emotions emitted by the dead, cruel Soul were gradually unable to withstand the light and heat, and like white snow under the sun, they quickly faded away.

And the lost Soul that wandered and refused to leave also had to stay away from the scorching woodpile, away from their broken and cold corpses, and retreat far away.

And they vaguely knew that they should leave.

This place was not a place for the dead to linger for long; the lost Soul had their own destination.

"Is the Founengliang beginning to fade?"

On the empty Shanglu, a donkey cart was gradually moving in the direction of the east along the Shanglu.

In the open carriage, the team-leading Priest sitting next to the driver frowned and asked a question of doubt in a voice that everyone could hear.

The other Priest, who were worried about the first battle of their lives that might occur, only then raised their heads from their troubles, turned their heads toward the east one after another, and closed their eyes to sense carefully.

Although the bumpy donkey cart greatly affected their perception and sensing, because the distance had shortened, they were actually better able to sense the massive Founengliang they had discovered earlier.

"It is indeed fading, and the speed is very fast!" Someone spoke quickly.

"I also sensed the wailing of the wandering Soul, 'Light! Heat! Escape! Nowhere to escape!', that is how they expressed it." Someone said after carefully sensing it for a while.

"The situation has changed. If someone wanted to use that Founengliang to do something, it is estimated that they would not be able to do it at this time no matter what. Perhaps someone is helping to deal with this?"

Someone else put forward a different opinion: "Could it be that we are just overthinking it? It is not as complicated as we thought before?"

The leading Priest waved his hand to make a judgment: "Regardless of whether it was the previous judgment that someone was doing evil, we must be prepared for the worst. After all, everyone has a prediction in their hearts about what the Nanbu is like; even if it is not this time, there will definitely be some terrible bad things happening in the future."

He continued: "I certainly hope it is a misunderstanding, but misunderstandings can be resolved, but evil running rampant cannot be reasoned with by mouth based on conscience and morality. Evil will only retreat when it is knocked to the ground. Relying only on begging and retreating, evil will only become more arrogant."

The leading Priest, who had participated in the crusade against evil cults when he was young, spoke with a firm attitude, far more determined in will than these Priest who had lived for decades in vain.

He looked in the direction where the Shanglu extended all the way to the east, suddenly stood up, and narrowed his eyes to examine the sky in the distance.

There, under the dark and rainy sky, a black, burning smoke was rushing straight into the sky.

"It doesn't look like an evil spell or Divine Art, hmm, it looks more like the chimney smoke of the church burning corpses?"

The Priest who dealt with these things all day long quickly identified what the black smoke was. This surprised them greatly, because the scale of the smoke was not small; it would only have this scale when at least ten corpses were burned together.