Chapter 378: Below and Above the New Holy City

The New Holy City is located in the mountains in the south.

The land here is fairly fertile, but it's not flat, so farming requires some effort.

Of course, these are not what the Paladins need to consider.

After asking around in the Merchant Guild.

The followers of the Mother Goddess sect took the Novice Paladin to visit the Paladin who was in charge of a small commercial area.

The New Holy City is roughly divided into eight commercial areas, and this paladin is in charge of one of them.

Next, the members of the "Jiaoyang Project" plan to start their activities from here.

The Paladin who controls the commerce in this area lives in a magnificent house that looks like a palace.

This is not only a residence, but also an office.

The iron door knocker was heavy and cold.

The gate is carved with exquisite patterns.

It looks even more luxurious than Lord Rand's lord's hall.

The Paladin is free today, so there is no need to make an appointment.

Soon, merchants were allowed to enter.

Passing through the heavy door, there is a spacious hall, in the center of which is a long banquet table covered with an embroidered tablecloth and filled with gold and silver utensils. The walls are hung with exquisite tapestries with complex patterns and bright colors, telling ancient legends.

There is wealth everywhere.

The paladins of the novice faction sneered. How could a person who was in charge of one-eighth of a business district have such a luxurious workplace?

Today's newcomers are a group of beginners who understand part of Rand's ideas and the direction of Karin's reforms.

Of course, the identity of these nascent paladins is still unclear now. They were jointly named "Nascent" by Karin and Rand.

Then it’s just a matter of following the process.

The officer took them to the place where the gifts were stored, which was filled with gifts.

After the officer made the calculations, he brought them to the presence of the Paladin, who was in charge of the commercial district.

This paladin is not ugly, or rather, because of his equally luxurious armor, he looks very heroic and handsome.

The paladin just glanced at these "merchants" and "caravan guards" and lost interest in paying any further attention to them.

After that, he was taken away from this "commercial district office".

After leaving the office and coming to the street.

The Mother God sect member who played the role of "businessman" said: "What a rich man."

The Paladin of the Newborn Torch Church, who acted as the "caravan guard", frowned and said, "They betrayed the Torch Goddess."

In essence, the Torch Church Paladins of the New Holy City did not violate the original teachings of the Torch Church.

Use fire to cleanse away evil.

However, these paladins who only care about interests now will definitely not be recognized by the nascent paladins.

The roads in the new holy city are smooth.

The floors are made of high-quality stone.

If we only talk about the luxury of the buildings, the cleanliness of the roads, the densely packed houses, and the towering city walls.

Then this new holy city completely crushes the holiday villa.

But if we look at the level of prosperity...

The "merchants" and "caravan guards" looked around the clean and tidy commercial district.

Only the utilitarian paladins of the Torch Church, believers, caravans, and nobles who come here for cooperation are qualified to trade in the commercial district.

As for the civilians...

There are no civilians here, only laborers who are "dedicating" themselves to their faith and working hard to build a new holy city under the whip.

At least in the eyes of the members of the "Jiaoyang Project", the prosperity here is definitely not as good as that of the holiday villa.

Even though this new holy city is much larger than the resort.

The Project Sun members, who were visiting area business executives, soon returned to their hotel.

Then comes the next step.

"Walker, where do the other residents of this city live?" asked the members of the Mother Goddess sect.

Walker, the former utilitarian paladin of the Torch Church who was chosen by Fenris, is good at agriculture and decided to change his stance.

In fact, he was forced into this situation in the first place, and he did not really support the utilitarian ideas.

It’s just that in the general trend, there are too many things that are beyond our control.

"I've been away from here for a long time." Walker said, "I can roughly guess the place, but I'm not sure. Anyway, follow me."

"And..." Walker seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"Speak." The member of the Mother Goddess sect signaled him to stop nagging.

"There are many people like me here," Walker said. "Not everyone thinks that the Torch Church should use its power to plunder wealth and oppress civilians in the name of faith."

"This city should actually have a lot of potential help for us," Walker said.

After hearing Walker's explanation, the members of the Mother Goddess sect said, "Take your time. There's no need to be too anxious."

It's better to be steady now.

Contacting what Walker called "potential helpers" is definitely risky, and there is even the possibility of being reported and hunted down.

We will definitely get in touch with it in the future, but there is no need for it now.

Walker also nodded. He didn't intend to do anything risky right now.

…

At the same time, a team of knights with a smell of sulfur on their bodies also came to the outside of the holy city.

Their goal is to remove the curse of Purgatory.

Walk from north to south.

Arriving outside this new holy city.

"It seems that only here can we remove the curse of purgatory." The team of knights whispered among themselves.

The new holy city of the Torch Church, perhaps there is a way to curb the power of Purgatory here.

And what's more, their other target, the ratman Quirrell, seems to be here as well.

They had won the title of knight at the Knight Conference in Frost Moon Royal City, and then passed through Crescent Moon Territory, where they were invited to be guests to taste the delicious food.

Then Rand, the Lord of Crescent Territory, came to them and commissioned them to find a ratman named Quiro and was willing to pay him in advance.

After a period of investigation, they finally confirmed that the target of the mission was likely to be here.

But now, how to enter this city? ...

The slums of the New Holy City are different from most places in this world.

Because the slums of the New Holy City are underground.

The New Holy City was designed with a complex drainage system from the beginning, which makes the underground environment sufficiently "spacious".

And the slums are located underground like this.

As for why the slums are still set up underground even though there is still plenty of space on the ground, it is naturally because these lowly creatures are not worthy of feeling the glory of the Torch Goddess.

In the dark sewer.

Since the city was built not long ago, the sewers are not dilapidated.

But there was hardly any warmth.

Only in very few places can a few rays of sunlight shine in.

The rest is just rotting excrement and moss growing in the cracks in the walls.

And the "slums" built of dilapidated wooden boards.

In the slums of the New Holy City, a rat man whose temperament and mental state were obviously different from those of his kind walked around the stinking slums for several circles.

Avoid those human civilians with lifeless eyes, as well as civilians of other humanoid races.

Arrived at the door of a small and cramped house.

Pushed open the creaking old door.

It’s not quite appropriate to describe this place as a slum.

This place should be called a slave camp.

It was just that in name, they were all civilians, not slaves.

The reason why there was no one to supervise these slaves.

It’s simply because the paladins and believers of the New Holy City are simply unwilling to come to the sewers to look after these slaves.

There is no need to supervise.

You can't grow food in a dark sewer.

If these "slaves" want to survive, they must come to the upper holy city and work under the whip.

Rat people are a type of beast-eared people, but compared to other beast-eared people, their beastly features are more prominent.

But correspondingly, they also gained more animal abilities.

For example, the sense of smell will be better, the digestive ability will be stronger, and the probability of getting sick from eating garbage will be lower.

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But it definitely doesn’t mean you won’t get sick.

At least in such an environment, the probability of getting sick is not much lower.

Ratmen have a stronger reproductive capacity, but individuals are thinner than ordinary humanoids.

Since the ratmen learned human language very early, they were not classified as monsters by the Adventurer's Association and human nobles.

Skaven tend to have their own tribes and live in the wild, but some will enter human towns and take on some work.

For example, joining a team of adventurers as a thief, or doing some manual work.

Since this race is highly adaptable and has learned the common language of the continent, ratmen can be encountered almost everywhere in the southern continent.

As for why there is none in the north, it is naturally because of the existence of the Northern Border.

Generally speaking, humans are not very welcoming to rat people. Although they cannot be said to hate them, rat people's lives on the continent dominated by humans are always full of suffering.

This is especially true in the New Holy City.

All the civilians within the New Holy City's sphere of influence, as well as the humanoid creatures who could understand human language, were captured and brought to the New Holy City, contributing their sweat to the construction of the holy city.

Nezumi is no exception.

Ratmen work less efficiently than humans, but can eat worse food than humans to survive.

At least in the New Holy City, the life of the ratmen is like a nightmare.

Inside the room were Quirrell's children and wife.

The rat man Quirrell took out a piece of bread.

A piece of moldy bread.

This piece of bread was given to the overseer by the ratman Quirrell as a reward after he tried to please the overseer and helped him find his lost whip.

The bread was made of rye, of poor quality, and mixed with sawdust.

Moldy and has some odor.

But it is bread after all.

This is much better than giving them food that tastes like slop as usual.

So Quirrel waited carefully until the work was finished and brought the bread back here.

Quirrell broke the moldy bread, carefully peeled off the mold marks on it, and then shared it with his children and wife.

The rat children, as well as Quirrell's wife, were all a little excited about the black bread.

This is very precious to them.

Qui Ruo was somewhat silent.

He is an elite level rat man.

If he had not been malnourished and had to constantly struggle to make a living, he might have been a senior professional by now.

However, elite-level ratmen are also qualified to join a good adventurer team and carry out activities.

I heard that a holy land for adventurers appeared in the north that is relatively friendly to non-human races.

If he didn't have a wife and children, the ratman Quirrell would definitely give it a try.

The benefits will definitely be much better than being captured and made into a slave now.

Quirrell could have escaped on his own.

But his wife and children couldn't escape.

And here, in this smelly sewer, there are a large number of his kind.

Quirrel's fellow tribesmen are suffering the same hardships as Quirrel.

Even more painful.

When Kuiruo was born, he was expected by the tribe members. At such a young age, he has reached the elite level, which can be regarded as a response to the expectations.

And even though he was malnourished and lacked rest, Kui Ruo felt that he was about to become a senior professional.

But what can you do if you become a senior professional?

They may also be detained or hunted by humans because they are too threatening.

Humans are too powerful, and this new holy city has many top-level professionals.

Can't resist.

Rat Man Quiruo planned to rest early as he had work to do tomorrow.

At the same time, members of the "Scorching Sun Project" also followed the local paladin Walker to the sewer.

All members of the "Scorching Sun Project" frowned because of the stench.

But no one complained.

They observed the environment here.

It seems that this is the right place.

In the stinking sewer environment, apart from rats and wild dogs, the only people were those with no life in their eyes.

Someone scraped moss off the walls for food.

Others try to capture wild dogs for food.

The wild dogs were also just skin and bones, with not much meat left.

A lot of the fur has even rotted away.

The followers of the Mother Goddess sect also lived a hard life before Rand came.

But it hasn’t come to this.

It is even more difficult for the new believers and paladins of the Torch Church to imagine such a life.

A young-looking member of the Mother Goddess sect said, "If Lord Rand were here, he would definitely curse and say that this is a waste of manpower."

The members of the Torch Church's newborn sect, who had been frowning because of the stench, relaxed their brows a little.

Even some of the younger members tried to hold back their laughter.

Count Lander's penchant for plundering the population is well known.

The believers and paladins of the Torch Church's new sect naturally knew about it as well.

However, with the explanation of Bishop Kahn and Saint Karin, they also understood why Earl Land did this.

And what Count Lander really did.

From Count Lander's governance, members of the Torch Church can see what they have ignored in the past.

In some sense, the holiday villa in Crescent Moon Territory has become a true holy place in the hearts of many members of the Torch Church's new sect.

It is a place where you can live a good life through hard work.

And here, the civilians in the sewers will only endure endless malice.

"Let's see if there is a leader first." said the paladin of the Torch Church's nascent sect.

The member of the Mother Goddess sect nodded and added, "Be careful not to reveal your identity. Our purpose in coming to the sewer is to hire some cheap laborers."

(End of this chapter)