Chapter 19: Emerging from the wolf's den, only to fall into the tiger's mouth.
~(¯▽¯~)
The temple mornings were no longer as deathly silent as they used to be.
With the addition of dozens of villagers, the residential area surrounding the temple square became bustling with life. The civil engineering team worked through the night to build several large longhouses, which, although still drafty, at least provided shelter from the deadly fog of the night.
However, as Li Wei sat on his throne, looking at the resource reports in the background, his brows furrowed more and more.
"Population is a dividend, but it can also be a burden."
Li Wei sighed. Now, including the players and villagers, the temple's total population is approaching eighty. These eighty mouths need to eat every day as soon as they open their eyes.
Although Li Wei could conjure black bread out of thin air using his [Material Manifestation] authority, it was an extremely unprofitable endeavor. Using a little divine power to conjure bread was far less beneficial than using it to strengthen his divine status or to accumulate enough to conjure more players.
"I am an evil god, my authority is [deception] and [spirit], not [harvest]. A stable source of food must be found as soon as possible."
Just as Li Wei was worrying about making a living, a series of hurried footsteps broke the tranquility of the temple.
"Breaking news! Breaking news!"
"I'm Not a Husky" rushed into the square like a whirlwind, ignoring the half-bottle of blood he'd lost in the fall from the tree, shouting, "Guys! Over there! About ten kilometers away! A fight has broken out!"
"Who started fighting? Did the kobolds launch a counterattack?" "What Canned Food I'll Talk," who was explaining tactics to new players, immediately asked.
"No! It's kobolds attacking a human convoy!"
The husky was panting heavily, but its eyes shone brightly. "I saw it clearly! There were several large horse-drawn carriages in that caravan, piled high with sacks. One of the sacks had torn open, and what was spilling out was golden wheat! It was all grain!"
"food?!"
The moment those two words were uttered, everyone in the square's eyes lit up. Whether it was the players who had been gnawing on black bread until they were sick of it, or the starving villagers, they all seemed to smell the aroma of white bread.
"How many monsters?" Canned Food asked calmly.
"There are about forty or fifty kobolds. The caravan can't hold on much longer."
"Hakimi North and South Green Bean" grabbed an axe and shouted, "Ha! What are we waiting for? When you see injustice, you should roar; when it's time to act, you should... no, you should save people!"
"etc!"
Canned Goods grabbed the group that was about to charge forward recklessly, pushed up his air glasses, and revealed the smile unique to a shrewd businessman.
"We definitely have to save them, after all, they are food and they are NPCs."
"However, we can't save them for nothing. And most importantly, we can't trade with them in the wild right now, and the power of the gods can't reach that far."
"So…" Canned food pointed in the direction of the temple, "we need to 'invite' them back."
"Please come back and kill again?" Hakimi asked.
"Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs is a bad strategy. Do you understand the importance of a steady, long-term approach? We need to make them willingly hand over their grain."
...
At the edge of the Misty Forest, a fierce battle is underway.
The caravan, known as the "Golden Harvest Merchants Association," is now in dire straits.
"Hold on! For the goods! For the master!"
The caravan's captain brandished his longsword, slicing down a kobold that lunged at him, but his own arm was also slashed by a spear, leaving a deep, bone-revealing wound.
"Damn it! Why is the guardian statue malfunctioning?!"
The captain of the guard looked in despair at the cracked, now-extinguished statue of the "God of Radiance" in the center of the carriage. Without the statue's protection, they lost their way in the mist and stumbled headlong into the encirclement of the hungry kobolds.
Just then.
"ha--!!!"
A unified, powerful, yet strangely unsettling battle cry suddenly came from the hillside.
Dozens of figures burst out of the mist. Some were dressed in tattered burlap clothes, others in just their underwear, carrying rusty iron axes, wooden sticks, and bricks. But each of them seemed to be on stimulants, their faces adorned with chilling, maniacal laughter.
"That's mine! Nobody can take it from me!"
"Experience pack! Here I come!"
"For white bread! Charge!"
The players' intervention instantly disrupted the battle. Despite their inferior equipment, the players were fearless and resilient, and their teamwork was extremely high (referring to their tendency to steal monsters from each other).
"Gangzi! Hold off that elite!"
With a loud roar, the muscles in his already recovered arms bulged as he held up a newly captured wooden shield, forcefully holding off the charge of a kobold squad leader.
"Hakimi! Flank behind! Asshole!"
"Mage unit (lime-spreading squad)! Spread it!"
In just ten minutes, forty or fifty kobolds abandoned more than a dozen corpses and fled in terror.
The battle is over; the battlefield has been cleared.
The head guard, still shaken, watched his "benefactors" expertly looting corpses and stripping equipment, his heart pounding with unease. This group didn't look like a regular army at all; they looked more like… a pack of starving bandits?
"Thank you all for your help..." The head guard gripped his sword warily. "May I ask who you are...?"
"We are local… well, settlers."
Canned Food emerged with a friendly (but insincere) smile on his face. "Looks like you're in trouble. The idol is broken? In this god-like place, without the idol's guidance, you won't even make it ten miles before the monsters devour you, leaving not even bones behind."
"This..." The head guard turned pale. Indeed, with the statue broken, they were blind.
"To meet is to be destined."
The canned food pointed towards the temple. "Our camp is nearby, under the protection of the gods, absolutely safe. And our priest (actually a made-up character by the player) might be able to help you repair the idols. Why don't we go to our fortress to rest?"
The head guard and the fat merchant exchanged a glance.
Go? This group of people looks like bandits.
Not going? You'll just be waiting to die.
"Then... I'll have to bother you," the merchant said through gritted teeth.
...
The atmosphere on the way back to the temple was unusually eerie.
The caravan's wagons walked in the middle, with the players surrounding them like prisoners being escorted.
"Boss," a young guard whispered to the head guard, "something's not right with these guys. Look at that guy with the axe (Hakimi), he's been staring at our grain carts with a drooling look the whole way, his eyes are even more greedy than a kobold's."
"And that big guy (Gangzi) kept staring at my sword, muttering strange things like 'drop rate' and 'quality'."
The head guard was covered in cold sweat: "Don't speak, and keep your hands on your sword hilts. I suspect this is a double-cross. These people might be cannibals or exiles from the wasteland. If things don't look good when we get there, we'll abandon the vehicle and save our lives."
The caravan members lived in constant fear, imagining themselves being turned into meat buns the whole way.
However, when they passed through the last layer of fog and saw the black city wall built against the mountain, and the "green slime lights" hanging on the wall, their hearts sank.
This color scheme is so sinister! And this eerie green light!
This isn't a human camp; it's a den of demons!
"We've arrived. Welcome to the only pure land in the land of forsaken gods—the Old Temple."
The canned food smiled and made a "please" gesture.
The carriage drove into the square.
The first thing that catches the eye is the villagers, dressed in rags but working hard to move bricks, and the few dog-headed slaves tied up to do the work.
Then, they looked up and saw the magnificent, dilapidated, black temple that stood tens of meters tall.
And on the high platform, seated on the throne, shrouded in indescribable black mist and the shadows of tentacles, he looked down upon them with a pair of purplish-gold eyes, indifferent as gods…
"An evil...evil god?!"
The fat businessman rolled his eyes and almost fainted from fright.
The head guard's hands and feet turned ice-cold, and the sword in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.
It's over.
Having just escaped one tiger's den, they entered another.
This is not a cannibal camp at all; this is the lair of a legendary evil god!
"Welcome, guests from afar."
Looking at the terrified caravan members, the canned goods man smiled even more broadly. "Don't be afraid, our god is very easy to talk to. As long as you can afford the price."
He pointed to the broken statue of the God of Radiance.
"Now, we can talk about the business of restoring idols. Of course, under the watchful eye of our gods."
On the high platform, Li Wei almost couldn't help but burst out laughing when he saw this scene.
These players are really good at using coercion and enticement. But that's exactly what he wanted.
"Now that you've entered my temple, don't think you can leave easily."
Li Wei extended his pale finger and pointed it at the broken statue from a distance.
"Repair? No, reshape."
To repair the statue of a true god requires corresponding divine power, something the evil god Livy certainly cannot do. However, he can "usurp" it, forcibly filling in and modifying it with his own power.
"Buzz—!"
In the center of the square, the goddess statue, which had been dim and lackluster, suddenly began to tremble violently.
"A miracle! A miracle has occurred!" the unsuspecting merchants exclaimed.
But the next second, their exclamations turned into terrified screams.
A thick black mist suddenly erupted from the cracks in the statue, enveloping the entire sculpture as if it were alive. Accompanied by a teeth-grinding "crackling" sound, the statue's form began to twist and contort in a bizarre manner.
The originally kind and gentle goddess's face gradually became blurred, eventually transforming into an abstract mask with only one eye; the scepter that originally represented light in her hand was also twisted into several intertwined tentacle-like torches.
A few seconds later, the black fog dissipated.
A guardian statue, entirely black, radiating a faint purple light, with a strange shape yet exuding an eerie beauty, appeared before everyone.
Although it looked somewhat eerie, and even made one dizzy after looking at it for a while, the domineering and cold pressure it exuded did indeed force back the mist within dozens of meters around it!
"It's...it's fixed?" The guard captain swallowed hard, feeling his sanity dropping from staring at the statue for too long.
"Not only is it fixed, it's an enhanced version."
The canned food patted the statue that exuded a chilling aura. "Bonus feature: It has a strong deterrent effect on low-level monsters. Of course, the side effect is that you might have some nightmares, but that's a blessing from the gods, you'll get used to it."
Seeing that the merchant was still trembling, the cannery knew that the time was almost right, but he did not give up.
"Besides the idols, we also have a specialty that you must 'buy'."
The canned food snapped its fingers.
Edison, who was standing nearby, immediately came up with several glass bottles that emitted a faint green glow. Inside the bottles, slimes filled with fluorite were slowly wriggling, releasing a steady and bright light.
"Look at this, the 'Slime Magic Lamp'."
The canned food man picked up a bottle and waved it in front of the merchant. "In this damned land of God's forsaken people, light is life. Ordinary torches are afraid of the wind and rain, and they need lamp oil. But this thing is different."
"It doesn't need oil or electricity. Just feed it some garbage, rotting flesh, or even mud from the ground occasionally, and it will keep burning! It's truly bio-energy, environmentally friendly, and has unlimited power!"
The merchant and the head guard stared wide-eyed.
As caravans that spent most of their time traversing the wilderness, they knew all too well the value of such a stable light source. It was practically a miracle worker in the darkness; if taken to the aristocratic circles of a major city, it would fetch an astronomical price for an alchemical product!
"This...this is also for us?" the merchant asked in a trembling voice, greed temporarily overriding his fear.
"Of course." The canned food revealed a devilish smile. "The cost of repairing the idol, plus these ten magic lamps. In exchange, we need your two carts of grain."
"These...two cartloads of grain..." The merchant felt a pang of regret.
"What? You think it's too expensive?" The canned food's face darkened. "Then how about we smash the idol, take the lamp back, and you can walk out yourselves?"
The surrounding players cooperated by raising their axes and bricks and letting out malicious laughter.
"Not expensive at all! Not expensive at all!"
The portly merchant nearly jumped up in fright, crying out, "Exchange! We'll exchange! Just let us leave alive, and these two carts of grain... will be offered to you gentlemen! This lamp... this lamp is simply a miracle!"
The deal is done.
Li Wei withdrew his finger with satisfaction. Although he had expended a lot of divine power, he had gained two cartloads of urgently needed food and had also managed to sell the "slime lamps" that the players had concocted. It was a worthwhile trade.
His gaze swept over the two carts of grain, finally settling on the last cart in the caravan covered with sealing talismans.
There, he sensed a faint yet pure life force.
It was a natural force that was completely out of place in this desolate wasteland.
"It seems there's been an unexpected bonus besides the food."
Li Wei's lips curled up slightly, revealing the smile of a farmer seeing a top-quality seed.
"A living...tree spirit?"