Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 698 Walking in the underground world?

When Linger brought a large group of people to old man Pancras, the latter was obviously stunned for a moment, probably because he didn't expect so many people to go with him. But he quickly came to his senses and said with a smile, "It's better to have more people, it's more lively," which relieved the embarrassment of the young man.

Afterwards, the old man took them to the confessional in the side hall and gently pulled down the brass candlestick embedded in a pillar. With a low rumble, the solid stone wall in front of them first sank inwards, then moved sideways, silently opening a spiral staircase leading to the underground. Torches were inserted at intervals on the walls on both sides of the stairs, and the flickering flames stretched the shadows of the steps very long, as if they could extend infinitely to the end of the underground world.

"Please come with me."

Old man Pancras turned around and said something, then took down the candlestick beside him and walked into the passage full of mystery and strangeness. Behind him, Linger, Saint Xia Liya, Alice and others followed in turn, step by step, and Countess Nevi walked at the end. When she also entered the passage, the secret door behind her closed silently, and it was seamlessly connected with the original stone wall. The mystery behind it could not be seen with the naked eye.

Shesta did not participate in this operation because she seemed to have no interest in the "City of Cities" of Lunweiting, so she stayed in the Gospel Academy to play with the three sisters of the Photon Elf. It is said that they were invited to board the Cloud Whale Sky Island and visit the Fairy Sleep Inn. With her and Shelia, Iyeta, who stayed on the Sky Island, should not feel too lonely.

The stairs are very long and not straight down. Sometimes they are interrupted suddenly. One needs to pass through a semi-enclosed stone platform or a passage that was obviously repaired later before continuing to climb down. Judging from this, Linger believes that this staircase should not have existed at the beginning, but was built after the completion of the Evangelical Convent. Its purpose is to connect the scattered and incomplete ancient ruins into a whole. Therefore, the platforms or passages they passed through in the middle are the real ruins inherited from the ancient and medieval times.

This was undoubtedly a huge project that required the mobilization of huge manpower, material and financial resources, and there was also the risk of being discovered by the church. Given the situation at the time, if no one provided help, these eccentrics in the Evangelical Seminary alone would not be able to complete the project, as many of them did not even know any architectural knowledge.

As for who provided the help, there was no other possibility except the spiritual prayer meeting.

Elder Pancras once said that he was a member of the True Spirit Sect. So, if there are still members of the Spirit Prayer Society in the city of Lunwitin, they can only be believers of this sect. Because their doctrine is closest to the original animism, the most gentle, and will not attempt to summon imaginary gods to achieve the so-called "Return of the Saints". From another perspective, it is also most likely to reach a reconciliation with the sect.

Don't think that this is impossible. In fact, it should be said that there is no other possibility, because the cleverness of the "Religious Decree" lies in that it did not forcibly ban the churches mentioned in the decree, but allowed them to retain their respective beliefs while prohibiting large-scale missionary work.

The Spiritual Prayer Society has long been rooted in the land of Lunkwell, and there are countless animist believers. Using violent means to suppress them all will only cause another turmoil. Therefore, the best way should be to suppress one group while winning over another group - suppress those stubborn elements who try to summon the imaginary gods, showing their determination to promote the "Religious Decree", and at the same time win over the True Spirit Sect with more moderate doctrines, so that they can manage the remaining believers and avoid further expansion of the turmoil, while also planting a wedge for division within the animist.

I have to say that this is a very good plan. It may not be perfect and cannot meet the needs of everyone, but one advantage is that it will never fail, because everyone in the plan will act according to the designed route whether they like it or not. Will the stubborn elements including the Druids compromise and choose to endure after knowing that someone will be given a break? Will the fundamentalists of the True Spirit Sect ignore those innocent believers if they know that the united sect is using them?

The best plan in the world is like this, not to satisfy everyone's needs, but once it is implemented, there is no possibility of failure. As for why the True Spirit Sect and the Church Union reached a tacit understanding, but old man Pancras is still in exile, there is a very simple reason: he is an alien, and the Church Union has always had a zero-tolerance attitude towards aliens.

Just because he is an outlier.

Who made him an outlier?
……

Firelight flickered, and human figures passed one by one through the ruins of ancient times. The dark environment blurred the perception of time and space. Judging from senses alone, Ling felt that they had been moving forward for at least fifteen minutes before they finally reached the ground - or rather, reached underground.

What appeared in front of everyone was an abandoned corridor, which was wide enough to accommodate three or four people walking side by side, and about three meters high. The stone slabs underfoot were extremely solid and had not been damaged after many years; the ceiling above was sealed with a whole piece of granite, and was later reinforced by humans, stubbornly withstanding the pressure from gravity; the walls on both sides appeared broken and mottled after years of erosion, and many bricks had fallen off, exposing dark brown rock layers and twisted roots. Abandoned bricks and broken wall roots were scattered at regular intervals on the ground, and the torn cracks led to the dark and unknown depths.

There was another waterway on the left, but it had dried up, with a cracked riverbed, rusted drain fences, mud, broken weapons, fish bones, human bones, rotten deposits and rat carcasses as big as puppies.

"We are underground in Brooks." Old man Pancras, who had been silent, turned his head and said to everyone, "In the Middle Ages, the five towns of the Kenkwell Green built a complex underground passage connecting the five towns to resist the invasion of the barbarians, so that when the battle broke out, the soldiers of each town could rush to support quickly and in time; in addition, they also built underground barracks and hiding caves, caves for the elderly, the weak, women and children to avoid the war, warehouses for storing food, underground water channels and reservoirs for storing drinking water and ensuring water and air circulation. These buildings gradually sank deeper underground in the repeated land subsidence of the land of Runkwell, and in the end they were basically isolated from the ground, but they still retained their intact appearance. The corridor we are walking through now was also walked by the militia of Brooks Town six hundred years ago, and perhaps they had a fierce battle with the invading barbarians here."

No wonder there were human bones and broken weapons in the dried-up waterway. Lingge answered a question in his mind.

Southeast of Kenkville Green is the most critical defensive section of the Varian Wall. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was attacked by barbarians perhaps second only to the capital, Lenksting (and fell the same number of times). No wonder people often say that each of the 13,000 ancient ruins on this land represents a tragic history, and even the most knowledgeable and wise archaeologists cannot fully understand their background and origins. But those who say this obviously don't know that the history of Kenkville Green is not only on the ground, but also buried underground.

If this scope is expanded from the Kenkville Green to the entire city of Lunwitin and even the entire Lunkville land, it must make sense - or, rather, make more sense.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)