Chapter 499, 498. What does it matter to you if I believe in you?
[Fool! You must use Red Gold Stone and Magic Conduction Stone Powder to draw a double-layered rune circuit here!]
[I'm asking you, where did the Crimson Gold Stone go on the configuration list?]
Holding the yellow book, Xinghuo explained, "The effect of the Crimson Gold Stone is only to amplify the effect of the Magic Conduction Stone Powder. I replaced it with Silver Calendar Stone, and the effect is about the same."
[Almost?! The magic conduction efficiency is a full 30% lower!]
[If the city's defense formation malfunctions, I'll be the one held responsible!]
However, Xinghuo was also in a dilemma: "But our territory doesn't produce any red gold stone at all. This stuff only has veins in the Empire and the mountainous areas. Purchasing a small amount is fine, but to support the entire Fungus Castle's defensive array... where am I supposed to get it?"
[Trade! Smuggling! Do I have to teach you all this? You're even dumber than Norris! What use are you to the boss?!]
...
Lin Jun glanced at the yellow book, which seemed to be getting along well with its colleagues and was indeed working diligently, and decided not to disturb it.
Lin Jun wasn't worried about the demons sending people to find the Yellow Book.
That positioning method has major flaws; it can only locate vague positions and is powerless when faced with channels like cracks.
If you really rely on that to find it, you'll only get the Holy Scripture, which is sometimes in the North, sometimes in the Kingdom, sometimes in the Elven Forest, and sometimes even in the direction of the Dwarf Mountain.
Not to mention, Lin Jun also has Xiao Xi as her informant.
Unless he wanted to, those demons had no chance of finding the holy book.
Compared to the Yellow Book, three other things concerned Lin Jun more.
The most important thing is to make progress in the excavation of the Mad Spirit.
Because of the lessons learned from this thing that changed the climate of the entire North, Lin Jun has recently stopped using abyssal magic, fearing that it might bring a double whammy of ice and fire to the North.
As the excavation depth increased, the temperature of the rock strata dropped to alarming levels.
Even with giant drilling machines, it takes a lot of time to soften the frozen soil with high temperatures, making the efficiency far lower than expected.
But as time has passed, we've gradually gotten closer.
However, some unexpected situations arose.
Just yesterday, the excavation team unearthed some unusual hollow structures containing man-made buildings.
Several stone pillars and archways are carved with ancient patterns and covered with runes never seen before.
This is clearly just the tip of the iceberg; a much larger group of ruins is likely buried deeper within.
A ruin buried deep beneath the northern lands?
It's probably not a coincidence that the Mad Spirit descended into that area.
Lin Jun has been paying close attention to this matter.
Another thing that concerned him was the situation on the west coast of the kingdom.
The kingdom is currently focused on building new defenses and has no time to reclaim that area, but it also does not want the demons to truly occupy that land, so it has issued many bounties for the heads of demons.
Meanwhile, scattered demon squads also roamed that scorched land, attempting to abduct human adventurers as slaves.
Therefore, small-scale battles have never stopped in that area.
But that wasn't what Lin Jun was concerned about. What she was concerned about was the recent appearance of traces of a cult over there.
I haven't actually seen any cult members, but recently I've been occasionally decomposing some soulless corpses.
Both humans and demons were involved, clearly indicating that the cult that worshipped the god of death was taking advantage of the chaos.
Such behavior of reaching into Lin Jun's mouth to snatch food should naturally be severely punished, but since the other party has not yet revealed their identity, Lin Jun can only wait patiently.
As for the last thing... it was simply something he found outrageous.
...
At the edge of Mushroom City Square, a man in a cloak stood on a platform made of several wooden crates, loudly proclaiming to the surrounding crowd.
"The war is temporarily over, but our saviors are not the elves and dwarves, nor the dukes who are barely able to save themselves, nor even the supreme God of Light!" He suddenly threw off his hood, revealing a face covered in mycelium, "but Puff!"
A crowd gradually gathered, partly out of curiosity and partly out of curiosity to watch the spectacle. Of course, some insulted him as a heretic, but the man ignored them all.
"The demons destroyed our fertile fields, but the creeping fungus bestowed upon us an inexhaustible supply of mushrooms! The enemy slaughtered our kin, but the Puji rose from the scorched earth to become the new guardians! Why kneel before those illusory gods? The true miracle lies on this land beneath our feet! He watches over us, He loves us! It is all the will of the God of Puji!"
Tears of emotion streamed down his cheeks: "But the ignorant people are blind to this! But it's not too late to change now. We should devoutly kiss every inch of the fungal carpet, offer sacrifices to those mushroom messengers, and present our belated faith to the god of Puji!"
"As long as you dedicate your body and soul to the fungal carpet, you will surely receive the eternal blessing of the God of Puji!" Overwhelmed with emotion, the man jumped off the wooden box and knelt down in front of a mushroom by the roadside.
The sound of cast-iron boots splashing through puddles interrupted the somewhat comical sermon.
"It's you again, you mushroom lunatic!" The leading guard ripped off his cloak. "The third time! Are you really going to starve in the dungeon for days before you're satisfied?"
The man obediently stretched out his hands, and even as the rope dug into his flesh, he continued to shout "God of Puji" until his mouth was finally gagged, at which point he finally quieted down.
Two young guards escorted him across the square, whispering amongst themselves, "Spreading heresy, shouldn't they kill him this time?"
“It’s hard to say. This guy is a veteran who survived the Battle of Dragonroar Valley. I heard he was injured here,” the soldier pointed to his head. “His comrades and superiors came to plead for him the first two times, and I guess this time will be no exception.”
“Poor fellow,” the guard thought, still holding respect for the warrior who had just fought for the kingdom, and feeling a pang of sympathy for him in this state. “But the God of Puji… that’s quite the imagination…”
Besides the onlookers in Mushroom City, "God of Puji" was also watching this farce.
Lin Jun swore that she really did nothing.
I reckon this guy heard Number Four's propaganda about the "Great Mushroom Clan" and the "Puji Will," and then he went on to imagine some kind of Puji God.
Lin Jun herself has absolutely no intention of engaging in religion.
He has always relied on his own personal charisma and domineering aura to manage his subordinates, and has never needed religious brainwashing.
If they were really going to do something like this, they would start with Mushroom Castle. How could they possibly preach so openly in Mushroom Capital Square?
Although Lin Jun was not involved, some people actually believed him after the man preached several times.
Julia is a farmer who fled to Mushroom Capital and is now a mushroom farmer. Her husband is a soldier who barely survived the Battle of Dragon Roar Valley by relying on mycelial symbiosis.
She, who should have starved to death, was able to find a job in Mushroom City that allowed her to have enough to eat.
The husband, who should have died in battle, miraculously survived despite being almost certain to die.
She had always thought she was just lucky, but after listening to the man preach, she suddenly "woke up".
There was no luck involved; everything was thanks to the "God of Puji."
The man was right. People should repay the God of Puji with piety, and she should go and proclaim the glory of the God of Puji!
But she also witnessed the scene of the man being taken away by the guards, as the kingdom forbids the worship of the "God of Puji".
Then let's do it quietly...
She thought of the mushroom farmers who had similar experiences to her, her husband's comrades-in-arms, and their relatives.
Even on the fungal carpet, Lin Jun is not an omniscient and omnipotent god.
He only noticed the outrageous man loudly proclaiming the "God of Puji" in the square, but didn't immediately notice the ordinary peasant woman who had believed him.
A group that worships the god Puji quietly emerged in Mushroom City.
(End of this chapter)
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