Chapter 443: The Law of the Pasture

"Tiancai OL" official website forum, development exchange section.

【So Handsome I Can't Sleep】: "Brothers! Major news! A swordsman carrying a greatsword has come to Wheatfield Village! And he brought a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy!"

【This Player Has No Name】: "Get lost, isn't it just a mercenary who came? Weird people mix in every day, what kind of breaking news is this."

【Lighter】: "+1, if there's no work, I can bite the lighter."

【So Handsome I Can't Sleep】: "Grass! I'm serious! That guy is awesome, twenty-some logs, he leveled them all with one sword! But he doesn't know how to build a house, he doesn't even know how to lay the foundation! In the end, I pointed it out and he got it done, hehe."

【Pig That Can Climb Trees】: "And then?"

【So Handsome I Can't Sleep】: "Then he probably felt bad about taking advantage of me, so he taught me that move of chopping wood! It seems to be called Sword Qi! It's different from the 'Qi' of the Dragon God Sect; his sword qi is not only sharper but also more precise! It's just that I'm a bit stupid and didn't learn it."

【Gou Shi】: "Holy crap?!"

【Gourd Baby】: "Still a master???"

Hearing that this NPC also knew martial arts secrets, the sand-sculpture players couldn't sit still, and immediately changed their unruly faces and knelt down to beg for a guide.

The player named 【So Handsome I Can't Sleep】 didn't sell it short, vividly describing how he met the weirdo carrying the greatsword, how he triggered the hidden quest, and then how he triggered the NPC's gratitude, etc.

This brother 【So Handsome I Can't Sleep】 also mentioned that this swordsman carrying the greatsword seemed to intend to build an inn, and such a big project clearly couldn't be finished in one day.

In other words—

This quest can still be done!

Hearing this, the players treated it like a treasure, and flocked into the game, going to Wheatfield Village to practice.

However, it was a pity that the swordsman was too cold, ignoring everyone, and most people got a noseful of dust.

It was his apprentice named Yurien who was more talkative, and could chat a few words with anyone who spoke human language. It was just that this young man was also a newbie, neither triggering hidden quests nor teaching the so-called "martial arts secrets," so he was quickly abandoned by the realistic players.

Most players were going for the swordsman named Gante!

"Damn, I took a teleportation array specifically to fly over, why didn't he respond to me?"

"You're undead, right? He doesn't talk to the undead!"

"Damn! Racial discrimination! Bad review!"

"You undead count as what race... you are a corpse!"

"I suggest you help him work directly! This guy seems to be very socially anxious and doesn't like to owe favors! If you help directly, he might teach you!"

"Too much trouble, I'm not a life-profession player and have no interest in that stuff, can I just give him underworld coins?"

"You can try, see if he beats you up!"

"..."

The hesitant newbies were still complaining on the forum, while the hardworking cattle and horses were already operating in the game.

They first cleared the stones and tree roots on the ground, and then leveled the ground. This work had to be done very carefully; if the foundation wasn't level, the house would be crooked when built.

Then it was cutting trees.

Twenty logs were clearly not enough; they needed to cut more trees and process the wood into the appropriate shape at the sawmill by the river.

In any case, chopping with a sword was clearly not possible; even if the control of power was precise, the person using the sword had to fully understand what shape to chop it into.

Clearly, that greatswordsman didn't have this concept.

By the way, in the past, the villagers of Wheatfield Village wanted to do this work, they had to bribe the lord's forest ranger with some dried meat and wine, or promise to help the latter repair the fence, in order to persuade him to turn a blind eye.

But now, they only needed to declare to the Salvation Army what they were doing with the wood, and that it wasn't for sale, and they could take an axe into the forest to work.

All of this was just the first step; next, they had to dig clay by the river, add some hay or straw, mix them into the clay, add water, and step on it or rub it with their hands until it became sticky and thick... becoming glue mud that could plaster walls.

After all the preparations were done, they could start building the foundation with stones, hitting load-bearing columns with thick logs, and building the main frame of the house.

According to the players' aesthetics, a medieval inn must have at least two floors, the first floor being the tavern for adventurers, and the second floor being the place to stay.

Besides that, there were stables and warehouses, and even a cellar for storing wine... regardless of whether the person planning to open the inn considered it or not, they considered it all for that NPC!

Meanwhile, at the edge of Wheatfield Village.

Gante, carrying the greatsword, looked at the undead—oh no, the Holy Spirits—busy with his inn, and was stunned for a moment, unable to speak.

They... what are they doing?

Unlike his master's confusion, Yurien standing on the side said excitedly.

"They seem to be helping us build the inn!"

Gante naturally knew they were building the inn, but didn't know why they wanted to do this.

Before, he specifically asked a "Highlander" about the steps to build a house, and he originally planned to do this work himself.

And he was glad he didn't.

Seeing these guys, he realized that things that sounded easy were actually so troublesome to do!?

This was not a project that one person could complete at all.

By comparison, it would be easier for him to carve a huge stone into the shape of a house...

At this time, a farmer walked over here.

Gante remembered his name was Old Hanke, and he also lived in this area; because they had chatted before, the two were still familiar.

Before the farmer could speak, Gante pointed to the skeletons busy at the construction site not far away, and couldn't help but ask.

"Excuse me... what are they doing?"

"Ah, them, I was just about to say this," Old Hanke smiled embarrassedly, looked at the Holy Spirits not far away and said, "Our ancestors are very welcoming to you... this is their way of expressing enthusiasm."

A way of expressing enthusiasm?

Gante was stunned.

He had been to countless places, but this was his first time seeing people—uh, Holy Spirits? —who would express enthusiasm in this way...

He had also gradually begun to accept this setting recently—the "Holy Spirits" of Wheatfield Village were different from those lonely ghosts with incomplete souls and puppets manipulated by necromancers.

They had souls!

Looking at Gante who hadn't spoken for a long time, Old Hanke scratched the back of his head and said embarrassedly.

"By the way, my ancestor said, he wants to learn sword skills."

Gante: "... Learn sword skills?"

Old Hanke grinned.

"Yes! They said if they learn sword skills, they can protect us... if it's not troublesome, please teach them when you have time; if it's troublesome, forget it!"

Gante looked at the inn being built at a speed visible to the naked eye not far away, and looked at Yurien who was full of expectation, but couldn't say a word of refusal.

Anyway, teaching one person was teaching, and teaching two people was teaching; it didn't make much difference to him, and these Holy Spirits didn't look like guys who would use his sword skills to do evil.

They were all very kind souls.

Compared to the Dragon God Sect sword techniques with many practitioners, the Sword Saint Sect he founded was a niche emerging school, and not many people practiced it.

He was actually very happy that someone was willing to learn.

Gante nodded and agreed to Old Hanke.

"It's not troublesome... but, which one is your ancestor?"

Old Hanke was stunned upon hearing this; he hadn't thought about this question, and it took a long time before he said.

"This... I don't know either. How about, you teach them all by the way? Anyway, my ancestor must be in there!"

Gante: "..."

Things seemed to have become a bit troublesome...

Near the end of May, the thriving Wheatfield Village, following the sawmill and brick kiln, added a small inn with stables and a wine cellar.

The one running the inn was a man carrying a greatsword, but he really didn't know how to run it, and was always flustered when calculating accounts.

But fortunately, the warm-hearted "Spirits of the Ancestors" would help him, and even taught his adopted son Yurien to learn arithmetic, as well as many things other than sword skills.

And in exchange, he would point out sword skills to the ancestors of Wheatfield Village in his spare time, and the backyard of the inn had become his "Sword Hall."

Later, it wasn't just the "ancestors," even the mercenaries or adventurers passing by here would occasionally peek and learn a move or two.

This swordsman named Gante never stopped them.

By the way, the "ancestors" of Wheatfield Village could also speak, but they needed to convey it through crystal balls attached with language magic...

At first, Gante frowned and thought about the secrets in this, but after a long time, he found that the Saintess and her followers were strange, but not bad people, so he was relieved.

Cognition was established bit by bit.

And once a consensus was formed and spread, every traveler passing through Wheatfield Village would default to the fact that the Holy Spirits of Wheatfield Village were different from the undead elsewhere.

Over time, the entire Quemubao territory would become the territory where the Necropolis players were active.

Of course, this wasn't a bad thing for the locals; after all, the undead of the Necropolis were much kinder than other undead.

Not only would they not hurt people, but they would even go to the depths of the Twilight Forest to clear out the nests of magical beasts or the dens of robbers because they had accepted friendly quests, doing those high-risk jobs that adventurers were not very willing to take.

The greatswordsman named Gante was just an interlude in the daily life of the villagers of Wheatfield Village; besides this mercenary carrying a greatsword, people with all kinds of stories written on their faces wandered over from other parts of the Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng every day.

According to the news brought by the refugees, Shijiunya Castle finally fell, and the Weifute family all fulfilled their oaths and became the first Count family to be exterminated in this catastrophe.

The despicable people jumped off the teetering sinking ship early, while the loyal people were ultimately buried in the sea.

For the Kingdom of Lain, the "Hometown of Knights" had forever lost a heritage called loyalty. As for what would grow next, it would depend on the creation of the people living on this land themselves.

At least it was not optimistic at the moment.

In order to please the "Claw of Eternal Hunger" in the void, cutting off a few thousand heads was not enough; the "Executioner" Aka had to kill more people.

Not only did he have to kill, but he also had to incite a group of people to kill another group of people in various ways, only then could he become stronger!

He had a hunger that seemed to come from the depths of his soul for power, as if only in this way could he make his ugly soul transcend the mortal world.

After taking Shijiunya, the Green Forest Army had completed the blockade of Dusk City and completely cut off the thoughts of Count Theron Gard and other cowards fleeing to the royal capital.

Actually, calling them cowards wasn't entirely correct; after all, the real cowards had run away much earlier, and they were the batch that ran relatively slowly.

But it didn't make any sense to say this now.

Only God could decide their fate.

Just as the Green Forest Army was marching toward the setting sun of Dusk City, the Campbell Principality's army was also advancing toward Dusk City.

The rebel thieves who tried to stop them along the way were not a match for this group of well-equipped and well-supplied militia at all!

However, when Princess Ailin's army advanced to the Jingshuitan territory, they still encountered trouble.

According to the refugees from that side, a rat-man clan that fled from the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain range to the Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng occupied that place, and it was under the leadership of the God-chosen "Gluttonous Rat" Geluo.

Although the combat effectiveness of those rat-men was low, three of them combined couldn't beat one Lain person, let alone fight the sturdy Campbell people.

However, their numbers were really too many; when millions of slave rats ran, even the entire forest would tremble with fear.

Not only that, they would dig tunnels, set traps, and even use explosives and cannons stolen from the dwarves!

The Campbell militia finally met their match, and the high-spirited Northern Rescue Army finally began to suffer casualties.

However, this setback certainly couldn't stop the Principality's footsteps; after all, the land-enclosure movement in the rear provided a steady stream of soldiers for the front line.

A few factories couldn't consume so many landless farmers at all, not to mention the population from the Lain Kingdom and even the coast of the Vortex Sea as a supplement.

The public security problem outside Lei Ming City was immediately alleviated!

After all, those who caused trouble now didn't need to be taken to prison, but were sent directly to the recruit camp, and shipped to the front line two weeks later.

Thanks to this, the pressure on the guards was also reduced a lot, because now the army's recruitment officers were very willing to work for them.

The happiest was undoubtedly the textile factory owner, Holles.

In the past, he had luckily survived by relying on Princess Ailin Campbell's kindness, but now whoever dared to hinder him from doing business, the loyal soldiers would drag those consumables away like livestock, letting these guys use their energy in more worthwhile places.

Besides the guarantee of soldiers, another piece of good news for the Northern Rescue Army came from the diplomatic aspect.

Grand Duke Edward, who was far in the rear, exerted his excellent diplomatic mediation ability and invited the dwarves in the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain range over.

When his envoy brought the rat-man's tail to the Hatred Castle of the Gaoshan Kingdom and clarified the relationship between the Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng and the Huang Tong Pass to the Jiasita family ruling there, the Jiasita family just pondered for a moment and signed a military agreement with the Campbell Principality.

The Gaoshan Kingdom would send twenty thousand dwarf warriors to support Campbell's Northern Rescue Army.

Of course, they abided by the ancient alliance and would not intervene in human wars. They only provided dwarf cannons, and used dwarf tunnels and mine carts to transport supplies for the Campbell people, as well as take action against the rat-man guerrillas attacking the supply lines.

As the nemesis of rat-men, dwarves were undoubtedly professional in "rat extermination." In order to efficiently clear these guys with fast reproduction speed, they invented a series of efficient killing machines including but not limited to flamethrowers, pipe organ cannons, etc.

After the Campbell people got these equipment, they certainly wouldn't only use them on rat-men; the dwarves didn't have any good feelings about chaos anyway, and cleaning up those Green Headscarves was just a matter of convenience.

Famine?

The oppression of the nobles?

Perhaps their uprising was out of compulsion, but what did that have to do with the dwarves?

Dwarves wouldn't abandon their oaths because of this little thing... of course, Hell Dwarves didn't count as dwarves.

In short, they had long been displeased with this bunch of guys who destroyed Gray Stone Town!

With the support of the dwarves, the Northern Rescue Army, which had originally stalled due to the intervention of the rat-men, regained its vigorous combat effectiveness and beat those little mice and Green Headscarves running around everywhere!

Of course, many of their teeth were also truth, so who Dusk City would eventually fall into was still an unknown...

Dusk City.

Unlike the orderly prosperity of the Lain royal capital, this capital of the Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng was currently shrouded in an atmosphere of oppression and despair.

Under the city walls, countless refugees crowded together; they were sallow and thin, their eyes numb, like withered grass forgotten by the world.

The soldiers on the city walls watched them coldly, prohibiting anyone from entering the city for any reason on the grounds of preventing Green Forest Army spies from mixing in.

Except for the nobles they couldn't afford to offend.

The air was filled with a foul stench of death and decay.

Part of it came from those who had died, and another part came from the living...

It was hard to say which side had the upper hand.

"This is simply hell..." Standing beside a simple carriage, Lyon stopped for a long time and said blankly.

Not long ago, Lyon, an apprentice of the Great Sage Duoliuke of the Academy, arrived in the Lain Kingdom to warn King Xioden Devalu that the corrosion of chaos was spreading in the province.

However, the wisdom of the Great Sage was met with the ridicule and questioning of the King and his courtiers.

The King ordered him to find concrete evidence, otherwise he would be punished for the crime of insulting the royal family. Thus, "accompanied" by the old butler Skyler, Lyon traveled all the way and finally arrived at this city on the front line of war and famine.

According to what the travelers he met along the way said, that place was the place closest to hell in the entire kingdom. And when he arrived here, the scene that entered his eyes confirmed what those travelers said... and even they were too conservative.

Lyon was completely shocked.

He was a scholar who grew up in a high tower; under the careful cultivation of the Great Sage, he had already come into contact with many magic spells that mages had no chance to touch in their entire lives.

It was precisely because of this that he couldn't imagine such a thing happening.

They had clearly communicated with the void outside the world, and could even use magic to make bread fly to everyone's table automatically; why was it that some people couldn't get enough to eat?

The Academy was part of the Empire, and the Lain Kingdom was naturally also part of the Empire; why didn't the Emperor come to manage it?

Even if the Emperor couldn't see it, what about the King?

He turned to the old butler beside him, unable to control the trembling of his voice.

"Lord Skyler, open your eyes and look! Isn't this enough evidence that the corrosion of chaos is eroding this land?"

Standing from the perspective of a scholar, he believed that such a thing as famine was unacceptable in the Empire, and there was only one logical inference—

That was that chaos did it!

However, upon hearing Lyon's accusation, the expression of the old butler Skyler didn't change at all.

He just watched the crowd struggling to survive outside the city calmly, as if he sighed unbearably, and said slowly.

"Lyon... Mr. Whether it is famine or rebellion, any kingdom will experience it. There may be many reasons for it; perhaps the Viceroy is incompetent, perhaps the weather is bad, perhaps the farmers are lazy... It cannot prove that all this is related to chaos."

Lyon widened his eyes, unable to believe his ears; was this still the Imperial Common Language he was familiar with?

What was he saying?!

"Unbelievable... is life so cheap in your eyes? How are you different from the apostles of chaos in your indifference!" He pointed to a child on the side of the road who was starving to skin and bones, his gaze fell on the forest not far away where the tree bark had been scraped clean, his voice roaring angrily.

This was a very severe accusation.

Skyler could have ignored him, or even retorted, but looking at this young child, he couldn't say anything too harsh.

Perhaps as he said, the world shouldn't be like this, but the world in reality was not operating according to the logic imagined by students in the ivory tower.

He paused and persuaded in a gentle tone.

"Mr. Lyon, please forgive me for speaking bluntly. His Majesty actually has no intention of punishing you; even if you might not understand, he is actually a quite benevolent monarch, especially toward you."

Without waiting for this angry young man to speak, he continued.

"As long as you admit that your words were inappropriate and no longer insist on that set of illusory claims, His Majesty will not only forgive your offense but also send you out of the country... I think that is exactly what you came for."

If the Great Sage really felt that there was corrosion of chaos here, why didn't he come himself, but sent a magic apprentice to pass the message?

He wasn't unable to leave the high tower; he even went to the Huang Tong Pass not long ago, and thought of the neighboring Lain Kingdom on the way.

Is this reasonable?

There was only one explanation: the Great Sage just wanted to exercise his apprentice, but this young man who had been in the ivory tower for too long really didn't know how to be tactful.

If he had changed his way of saying it, he would have gone back to finish the job by now, and wouldn't have implicated himself in coming along.

Skyler couldn't help but ponder, how did the Great Sage choose this guy?

Was there no other talent in the Academy?

The old butler's statement was actually not a problem, and the King indeed thought so, but it was a pity that a certain magic apprentice didn't think so.

Provoked, he squeezed this sentence out from between his teeth.

"Mr. Skyler, you must have misunderstood something; I didn't come here to finish the task, but to save our world!"

Looking at the stunned Skyler, he said word by word.

"Compared to my safety, isn't what is truly worth paying attention to... the people of the kingdom who are suffering in front of us?!"

This deafening voice made the surrounding guards silent and unable to speak.

Skyler was the same.

However, this experienced old butler was silent for only two seconds before answering Lyon's anger.

"Then, respected savior, did you bring food, did you bring an army, or... did you just bring a mouth?"

Lyon was stunned.

However, he wasn't a person with only anger and no brains; on the contrary, his thinking was quite agile, and he found the loophole in this sentence in an instant.

"You are sophistry... what we are talking about is clearly your indifference! I will tell the Great Sage about the situation here, and the garrison of the Huang Tong Pass! But this is the direct territory of your King, and your Majesty should be the first to do something!"

"Then I will trouble you to notify the Great Sage; I guess he definitely didn't predict what happened here, hehe," Skyler smiled indifferently, and said in a very low voice, "But what I want to say is another thing... Mr. Lyon, is there a possibility that everything we see in front of us is exactly 'preventing' chaos?"

Lyon was stunned, completely not understanding the meaning of this sentence.

Skyler didn't look at him anymore, nor did he explain, just cast his gaze into the distance at those struggling to survive, as if looking at the cattle and sheep in the pasture.

His Majesty was not unaware.

On the contrary, he knew everything.

In the distant First Epoch, people on this land often died because of faith and territorial disputes, but after the First Epoch, this problem no longer existed... replaced by plague and famine.

Was the lord not wise enough?

No.

Were people lazy?

No.

Was it because of the war at the Huang Tong Pass?

That was even more impossible.

The reason people died was not because of other reasons, but simply because the arable land here couldn't support so many people.

The people here didn't just refer to the farmers in the fields, but also included those vassals who were constantly encroaching on His Majesty's direct territory, and the priests who were constantly expanding the church land in the name of Saint Xisi.

It was time for a massive uprising.

They needed to let the farmers who couldn't survive kill their lords, and then let those nobles and priests who still had martial virtue kill the rebellious farmers.

As long as nine out of ten people died, the land in the Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng would be enough for everyone to share, and the royal family would naturally be able to take back the part that belonged to them.

With the Empire here, could a group of heretics really turn the sky upside down?

This was also why the King acquiesced to the nobles leaving their castles, and even allowed those losers to hide in his palace.

That lord had already made a list for these losers; once this farce ended, all the nobles, whether they were His Majesty's vassals or not, would have to peel a layer of skin!

This was not the first time it had happened in the history of the Lain Kingdom, and it was precisely the lesson the royal family learned from the separation of the Campbell Principality.

A weak Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng was more beneficial to the Kingdom, and only a weak Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng belonged to the royal family itself.

And this was also why the Twilight Saint Saint Xingsheng clearly possessed huge resources, but didn't become the "Twilight Principality."

The only exception was the dispatch of troops from the Campbell Principality, which hadn't happened before; after all, there was the Demon King of Lei Ming County to clean them up before.

However, Skyler didn't think this was a big problem; His Majesty must have already thought of a countermeasure.

"... A smart pasture owner will burn his pasture at the right time. The grass that grows back will not only be more delicious but also more conducive to the continued prosperity of the pasture."

Lyon clenched his fists tightly.

"I can't understand..."

If this wasn't enough to serve as evidence of chaos invasion, he really couldn't think of any other way to prove it to the King who was pretending to be asleep.

Perhaps, he had to find the apostle of chaos...

Or, he had to create an "evidence" himself.

Looking at Lyon who seemed to have calmed down, Skyler nodded slightly, ending this meaningless discussion.

The young man was actually not a bad person, otherwise he wouldn't have helped him patiently.

"So you are a scholar, not a King." ===== CHAPTER 444 =====