Chapter 182 Self-cultivation of Leeks (4.1k)

Late the next night, at the palace of Thebes.

A gust of cold wind passed through the doors and windows and poured into the hall. King Pentheus, who was sitting alone on the throne with his eyes closed, shuddered when he heard the creaking sound. He immediately stood up in a hurry, pulled out the bronze sword from the shelf beside him, and looked around vigilantly.

"Who? You who are playing tricks on me, come out!"

Pentheus waved his bronze sword in the air in warning.

However, the only response he received was the whistling sound of the wind outside the door.

It was just a false alarm.

Pentheus' face flushed slightly, and then he put the bronze sword back into the scabbard angrily, and his heart was slightly relieved.

But even so, when the young king thought of the handsome young man who came and went without a trace in the palace last night, his expression became a little uncertain.

Even though there were so many Divine Blood Guards watching him in the hall at that time, they didn't notice how he disappeared.

Even after searching the entire palace and the city for two consecutive days, the guards still could not find any trace of the man.

Since he can sneak in and disappear so easily, doesn't this also mean that if that guy wants to assassinate the king, it will be just as easy?

Realizing that this threat might still be lurking in some corner of the palace, Pentheus shuddered and could not help but look down at the token next to the throne that was engraved with the image of a poisonous dragon.

The pagans of the Dionysian Church are still imprisoned in the dungeon. If they were released...

As thoughts floated along, a hand reached down hesitantly.

"What? Are you scared by a little trick played by a false god?"

The sudden sound echoed in the empty hall, and Pentheus' face changed. He immediately drew his sword and turned around to defend himself.

However, a white index finger gently pressed on the sword edge, effortlessly pressing down the weapon that was sharp enough to cut gold and iron.

"It's me..."

A low and somewhat hoarse voice came from the blood-red area in front of the throne, and the entire hall was filled with a faint red light at some point.

A pair of narrow eyes stained with scarlet looked at the young King of Thebes in front of him, shook his head and sneered.

"You are the descendant of the dragon slayer Cadmus, the blood relative of the god of war Ares, a true descendant of God. How dare you fear a mere false god? You are simply bringing shame to your ancestors."

"I don't!"

Pentheus's blood rushed to his body, his cheeks flushed red, and he immediately straightened his neck and loudly refuted, as if he was trying to prove something to the mysterious man in front of him.

"What about your courage? Show it to me." The blood-stained figure looked forward and guided him, "He was humiliated in front of you, and he escaped in public. What should you do with this lunatic who brought shame to you?"

"I will kill him sooner or later!"

Pentheus was filled with anger and snorted coldly.

In response to this answer, the blood-colored figure nodded with satisfaction.

"That's right, my king. You should be the most noble being in this land. Anyone who dares to disobey you will pay the price with blood!"

Hearing Blood Shadow's praise, the young king felt suddenly excited.

But then, he thought of the scene last night and couldn't help feeling depressed and embarrassed.

"That's true, but that guy ran too fast. My people couldn't catch him at all. What can we do with him if we can't catch him?"

Bloodshadow glanced at Pentheus who was complaining to her, a flash of contempt in her eyes passed away, and she smiled and spoke softly.

"He can escape, but some people can't escape."

"You mean?" Pentheus thought.

"Since the pagan god claims to be merciful, is he willing to make a small sacrifice for his innocent believers?"

Hearing the meaningful whisper in his ear, Pentheus instantly understood what it meant. He excitedly grabbed the city builder's token beside the throne, injected divine power into it, and activated the runes inside.

Soon, a team of Divine Blood Guards opened the main door of the palace, filed in, and asked the king on the throne in a deep voice.

"Your Majesty, what do you want?"

"Go to the dungeon immediately and take all the pagans to the square and hang them one by one until the pagan who escaped last night surrenders!"

Pentheus threw out the token with a grim smile and gave instructions.

Hearing this, the commander of the Royal Guards was stunned and reminded carefully.

"But your majesty, your mother and several aunts are still in the dungeon, right..."

However, this hesitation only made Pentheus' face darken, and his eyes turned red with anger.

"Shut up! No matter who it is, worshiping false gods and joining paganism is a capital crime! Execute! Execute everyone!"

"Yes, yes, sir..."

Under that fierce and cruel look, the commander of the Royal Guards dared not say much. He quickly picked up the token on the ground, gathered his men, and headed towards the dungeon.

When the God-Blood Guards who had received the order completely disappeared from his sight, Pentheus immediately turned his head to the side and asked impatiently.

"How am I doing?"

The blood shadow in the darkness smiled and clapped, with approval in his eyes.

"This is what a wise monarch should be like. You are even better than your grandfather!"

Pentheus nodded with satisfaction, his young face, set against the bloody background, was filled with excitement and cruelty.

That’s right, I am the king of Thebes!

No one can go against my will! Not even God!

However, just as Pentheus was immersed in his wonderful fantasy, the team of guards who had been ordered to go to the dungeon came back with a look of panic on their faces.

"Your Majesty, this is bad! Those pagans have escaped!"

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Pentheus angrily stood up from his throne and cursed the commander of the Guards.

"What are you doing with all these people? You can't even watch over a hundred prisoners! They're all old, weak, sick and disabled!"

After hearing the king's reprimand, the commander of the Royal Guards who came back to report also looked aggrieved.

"Your Majesty, this is really none of our business. When we arrived at the dungeon, the prison gate had already been opened, and the jailers were all drunk and passed out. And then our eyes blurred, and the prisoners disappeared from our sight. There was only a pile of handcuffs and shackles that fell off automatically in the cell."

"If they run away, then go find them again! Catch them again! Many pagans still have homes in the city, they definitely can't run far!"

At this time, after some mysterious guidance, Pentheus seemed to have realized how to deal with the pagans, and he gritted his teeth and gave the order.

"If you can't catch them, bring their families back to take the punishment for these criminals!"

Upon hearing this, the commander of the Imperial Guards groaned inwardly.

Such a large-scale involvement will definitely cause trouble.

And these guards who are responsible for executing orders will inevitably be scolded.

But he could not disobey the king's order. Seeing that King Pentheus was determined to strike hard at the Dionysian Cult and its related personnel, he had no choice but to take the token, gather the Blood Guards, and go to the camp of the city defense army to prepare for a joint operation.

There is no way, the pot is too big for one person to carry it.

It is better to ask the brothers who are traveling with us to help share some of the weight.

Besides, he didn't want to be drowned in spit, so he first tried to find a way to track down the group of pagans who had escaped and bring them to justice. If he couldn't hand them over, it wouldn't be too late to arrest the relatives of the suspects to make up the number.

But no matter what, tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.

~~

Meanwhile, outside the city.

After a dizzying moment, the disappeared Dionysian believers in the dungeon opened their eyes in a trance and suddenly found that they had escaped from the dark and damp cage and found themselves in the dense forest of Mount Kitalon.

Under the dim moonlight, the blond young man who performed miracles in the palace last night was standing in front of them with a cane in his hand, smiling.

"Saint! It's Saint!"

“Thank you for the rescue!”

"Bacchus, we finally escaped."

The believers came to their senses and immediately swarmed forward, expressing their excitement in a flurry.

When the group of God's Blood Guards arrived, they learned from the noisy discussions that King Pentheus had decided to execute them, and they were horrified to think that they were going to die on the gallows.

Unexpectedly, Lord Bacchus actually ordered His saints to rescue them from the life-and-death crisis just now.

What a merciful and just God!

Having just survived a catastrophe, the believers were naturally moved and filled with worship.

The strong faith turned into invisible spots of light, poured into the mental world of a certain "saint" at the scene, and turned into golden divine liquid, which poured down, causing the grape seedling inside the golden wheel to grow several inches taller in an instant, and several tender branches to grow from it.

What a good group of people!

Loen looked at the believers in front of him with his eyes shining, as if he saw a group of fresh leeks growing vigorously.

The gods and believers who were running towards each other invisibly looked at each other passionately, and both felt that they were the ones who benefited the most.

“Gugu~~”

Just as the atmosphere became increasingly ambiguous, the rumbling sound of hunger in the stomach broke the silence in the dense forest.

A dozen believers rubbed their stomachs in embarrassment, and the rest of the people also looked embarrassed.

They had not eaten for nearly a day since they were locked in the dungeon.

Lorne smiled slightly, reached out and handed the wooden stick in his hand to a woman in the crowd who seemed to have some familiarity with him.

"Use it."

The woman was flattered and took the staff. She followed the instructions of the saint and knocked on the rock. Suddenly, clear springs and fine wine flowed out from the cracks in the rocks, milk flowed in the stream, and honey dripped from the hollow tree trunks.

The sweet smell prompted the hungry believers to try scooping up wine and milk, or sucking honey from the trees.

The aroma of the food in their mouths and the real feeling of fullness made them feel refreshed and excited beyond words. They kept muttering the word "miracle" and worshipped the benevolent god of wine.

As a result, the divine power in Loen's body and the vines in the center of the golden roulette wheel grew a little bit, and his mood became even happier.

Looking at the believers around him who were feasting on the food, the founder had a sincere smile on his face, like a hardworking old farmer who was happy for the thriving growth of leeks in his field.

As expected of a fellow villager, he is so simple and honest.

If you give them some practical benefits, they will be willing to trust you, and each one will trust you more thoroughly than the other.

Of course, it is also possible that these Greek gods are usually such bad people that they do whatever they want based on their preferences and moods, and they don’t understand sustainable development and mutual benefit at all.

Either root out the chives or turn the land over.

Therefore, farming still depends on the mysterious oriental power.

While secretly sighing, Loen quietly drew the Hermes script behind him and cut through the space.

Although he has become a god, his power is not yet strong enough to create something out of nothing.

Therefore, part of these foods are the result of utilizing the power of the shepherd god and the hunting god of [goats] and [wild boars] to stimulate the natural birth, and the other part is the result of transporting some things from the city through space.

Of course, Loen also left some gold and silver as compensation.

As the previous secretary of Crete, he still had a lot of precious metals, which was enough to feed a hundred people for several months.

Just as Loen was thinking about whether he should take advantage of the believers' meal time to rehearse the pre-meal prayer ceremony to strengthen their faith and sense of belonging, a noisy sound of horse hooves was heard outside the woods.

Soon, hundreds of fully armed figures appeared in the forest.

"It's the Guards!"

Seeing the poisonous dragon emblems on the armor and weapons, the believers suddenly panicked. They picked up sticks and stones, surrounded the saint and pretended to be struggling to death.

“Stop!”

Loen stopped the believers' irrational behavior, walked out of the crowd, looked at the leader of the Royal Guards, and spoke with a smile.

"I heard that your king wants to see me? Well, I am willing to surrender. Please don't make things difficult for the people behind me."

Upon hearing this, the commander of the Royal Guard thought seriously for a moment, glanced at the hundreds of people at the scene, and nodded slightly.

Many of them were dignitaries of Thebes, and the king's initial order to him was to try every means to lure this "saint" out.

It's just a job, there's really no need to kill everyone.

We are all fellow villagers, we will see each other sooner or later. It is always better to leave some way out.

What's more, the Majesty in the palace seems to be seriously ill.

Seeing that a consensus had been reached, Loen took the initiative to put shackles on himself.

"We can't let them take the Saint away!"

"Fight them!"

“…”

However, just as the guards were about to take the prisoner to the prison van, the believers finally couldn't bear it anymore, and they all rushed forward, tremblingly raising sticks and stones.

The commander of the Royal Guards saw this and had no choice but to remind him.

"His Majesty Pentheus has ordered that if you dare to resist or escape, your relatives and friends in the city will be thrown into prison together. For the sake of your family, you should surrender."

Upon hearing this, the local people of Thebes among the believers could not help but look dejected, but there were still many believers with resolute expressions, and it was obvious that they were ready to die for the saint.

Loen raised his hand to once again stop the believers' resistance and spoke with a smile.

"Don't worry, you guys wait here, I'll be back soon, this trip is the will of Lord Dionysus."

There seemed to be a magical power in those words that convinced people. The believers gradually put their minds at ease, nodded obediently, and chose to continue eating and praying.

Since it is the will of Lord Dionysus, he will definitely protect his believers.

When the guards saw the believers using their staffs to conjure up honey, wine, milk and other food out of thin air, they were shocked one after another, and their attitude towards Lorn, the pagan, became more cautious and respectful.

Soon, the guards escorted the serious criminals in the prison cart towards the city of Thebes, ready to report to the monarch who gave the order.

(End of this chapter)