When Xiao Shizi returned to Fengshi Village with the food, a group of children immediately surrounded him. Zhang's mother and Wang's aunt naturally couldn't let him leave empty-handed.

Crispy sesame flatbreads filled with meat and vegetables, and wontons cooked in rich chicken broth.

The two women originally wanted to bring more food for the two children, since there were so many people in the tribe, but the two children picked up their lunchboxes and left, as if afraid of packing more food into them.

Little Stone knew that fighting a war required a lot of food.

If they eat too much, it might cause trouble for the general.

The adults in the tribe still didn't get any food; only a few children ate a flatbread each.

"Why did you go to General Huo's for dinner again?" the tribal chief asked Little Stone.

"General Huo took me there. He said my sister and I were too thin."

After being rescued, Hadie settled in the Fengshi tribe. Little Stone always brought her home, and her parents liked her, so she stayed at their house as his older sister.

Little Stone used to envy other people who had brothers and sisters, but now he has them too.

While we are happy, we must not forget General Huo's instructions.

Those who wanted to turn Hadie into a magical artifact hadn't eaten for three days. The little girl led her younger brother, carrying white porridge and chicken legs, and walked up to them.

The little girl looked at the people through the wooden fence, opened her lunchbox with both hands, and Xiaoshizi very cooperatively laid a carpet behind her.

Then Ha Die sat on the ground and began to drink porridge and eat meat.

There were men and women, and children as young as a few years old, inside the fence.

The little girl spoke up.

“Look, who is suffering now? It’s yourselves, not me. I don’t believe in Buddha, but I can eat my fill and eat very well.”

Little Stone also asked Aunt Wang for two marinated chicken legs, which he roasted outside the fence. The aroma wafted into the group's noses on the wind.

"You are a goddess! Such blasphemy against the Bodhisattva will bring retribution!"

"What nonsense about retribution! I've been a goddess in the tribe since I was a child. Do you think I don't know whether I've had any interactions with him?"

"If there truly were a god, he would have saved you long ago. Begging him was useless, so you sacrificed the goddess. He can decide a person's life or death with his mere words. It wasn't you who were turned into magical artifacts! It was the goddess who suffered. You have a god in your hearts, you fear him, you respect him, you want to be people that the Bodhisattva likes, but behind the scenes you enjoy the pleasure of deciding people's life, death, and suffering. People like you, even if I were a god, I wouldn't give you any favor!"

Hadie was somewhat hysterical, her eyes filled with resentment, but then she transformed back into the gentle, kind girl, speaking to them with a soft smile.

"But it doesn't matter, you're lucky. As long as you don't make offerings to the Bodhisattva of Faith today, you can eat these things."

She pointed to the white porridge and the chicken leg that was being vigorously fanned by pebbles.

Adults might be able to resist, but children can't.

Soon after, cries and screams came from inside the fence.

"Mom, I'm hungry, I'm hungry."

The woman tightened her arms around her child, wanting to tell the child to hold on a little longer, but was there really any hope if the child just held on? Did her child, who had only been born a few years ago, deserve to suffer because of some unseen and intangible deity?

"As long as you don't believe in the Heavenly Bodhisattva, you can come out and eat."

Hadie tore off a small piece of chicken and put it into the child's mouth through the fence.

Look how delicious it is.

As long as you don't believe it, you can eat all of these.

"I don't believe it anymore, I don't believe it!" the woman cried, pushing the child outside.

"Goddess, please let him have a bite to eat. He's a child you've watched grow up. Please."

Hadie gestured to the guards, who then took the child out. The little girl then asked through the fence...

"Is it that you don't believe it, or that he doesn't believe it? If you don't believe it either, you can come out for dinner."

The child beside him was drinking porridge from a bowl, and Xiaoshi handed him a chicken leg. Through the fence, the person inside swallowed hard, suppressing his hunger.

Don't you want to be with your child?

"What do you mean?" the woman asked.

“He’s eaten, so naturally he can’t stay with you. From now on, he’ll stay there,” Ha Die said, pointing to the fence next door.

How could you possibly lock these people up together? They have different beliefs; people could really die.

Hadie watched the child wolfing down his food and said softly to him.

Do you know who gave you these things?

After the little boy filled his stomach, he shook his head and looked in the direction the goddess pointed. There was a girl in red armor looking down at the soldiers training.

It's her.

"Believe in her, not in the Bodhisattva," Ha Die said.

"Is she a goddess? Like Mother said, a newly born goddess?" The little boy asked while still eating, without putting down his bowl.

Hadie shook her head and said

"She is not a goddess, not someone who can communicate with Bodhisattvas and the heavens and earth; she is a true god who can bestow blessings."

The little girl continued speaking with a smile.

“Look, the real God will bring food to you. She will not take your life. As long as you believe in her, do not resist her, and listen to her, she will give you the best things.”

"We have crops in our tribe that allow us to be self-sufficient. We no longer have to go hungry in winter or rob food from the Central Plains."

"Have many of the uncles who looted the grain not returned in the past few years?"

The little boy nodded. He remembered that many of his uncles and elders had gone to the Central Plains and never returned. He turned around, looked at his mother, and then at the bowl in his hand.

"Mom, stop believing in God and Buddha. I want you to eat too."

Looking into the pair of large, fluttering eyes close to the fence, the woman couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for him, a flesh and blood of her own flesh.

“As long as your mother and you don’t believe in God, you two can eat your fill every day, wear warm clothes, and not be bullied by others.”

"It doesn't matter if you don't have a father, General Huo will protect you."

Haddy's words sounded like the whisper of a demon tempting sinners. The little boy reached out his hand to the woman through the fence.

"Mommy, hug me."

The woman finally couldn't resist and bowed her head to Ha Die.

“From now on, I will no longer believe in the Heavenly Bodhisattva.”

"Yes! Mother! Believe in that sister, that sister is more efficacious than the Bodhisattva."

A few days later, when Huo Xiaolong came to see the prisoners of war again, a group of people bowed to her, then knelt down and kowtowed, saying things like "thank you for your blessing."

"General Huo! Look! They don't believe in the Heavenly Bodhisattva anymore!" Ha Die said to the girl, jumping up and down.

Da Nier couldn't help but laugh when she saw her friend's constipated expression. She really didn't believe in God anymore; she believed in Huo Xiaolong instead.

General Chijia wanted to find some words to tell the two men that what they were doing was wrong, and that people should not place their hopes on others, but he had no words to say.

The best way to fight against the gods is to create a new god.

"Get up."

If it can give you something to hold onto, then it's not necessarily a bad thing.