Goddess Wanhua Mirror

End of this chapter

Counting the time, it has been almost four years since Lude traveled to this world, and he has been a priest for more than three years, but the more he understands the mechanism of belief, the more sacred these so-called "gods" are in his eyes. stand up.

certainly!To a large extent, this is also related to the general weakness of the gods that Lude has actually come into contact with at this stage.

Aina and the three sisters were "born" by him, and Shanisi was the orphan left to him by an old astrologer. These are new gods who are still in the "growing stage". At this stage, it can only be said that "the future is promising." .The old ones such as Hume had their divine power sealed, and Marikis in front of him was so weak that he couldn't even stay awake.

The strongest one is probably the Goddess of Wisdom, Kumilad, but there are two labels of "fraud" and "conspiracy" in this god who are in charge, which make people feel uncomfortable. Goddess.

As for the above goddesses, except for Hume, who was at the fourth level before being sealed, and Kumilad, who claimed to be at the fifth level, the rest are lower-level gods.

In terms of strength alone, most of the low-level gods are not on par with the top peerless powerhouses among mortals.Only by ascending to the fourth level and becoming a mid-level god can it be regarded as truly gaining an overwhelming advantage over mortals.

But it is not easy for a god to break through to the fourth level. The first three levels mainly depend on the total amount of faith absorbed. As long as the level is reached, it will naturally happen.However, breaking through from the third level to the fourth level began to have a certain threshold. In addition to requiring the corresponding level of divine power, some additional conditions must be completed.

There is not only one channel to break through, which includes increasing the god position and becoming a compound god. Therefore, before Aina reached the second level, the layout was made in advance, and a "rich" god position was added to her.As for whether it is possible to rely on only two gods, it will have to wait until Aina is about to touch the threshold of the fourth level, depending on the actual situation.

For Marikis, Lude believes that we should first help her build momentum and restore a certain degree of popularity among the general public. The rebuilding of the sect can be done slowly, or not at all.

You must know that the Goddess of Kitchen Fire has led her followers to hide from the world for 300 years, and she has long been forgotten by the general public today, and is only occasionally mentioned in a small number of documents.At this time, you suddenly announce that you want to rebuild the Vesta Sect, and you will attract people to believe in a goddess that you have never heard of. In all likelihood, you will be regarded as a cultist.

Therefore, in the first stage, Ludd should guide the public to "rediscover" the Goddess of Kitchen Fire, Marygis, and popularize and even entertain the teachings related to it.

As long as Marikis's name is known to everyone, her symbols can be spread all over the world, and it is convenient to collect beliefs on a large scale, then even if she doesn't create a sect, she can live quite well as the Goddess of Kitchen Fire.

After listening to Lude's explanation, Marikis thought that he was a god who was hundreds of years old, but his knowledge and understanding of beliefs was far inferior to that of the seemingly young human youth in front of him. Coming out of the island for the first time, it was a blessing in disguise!

"Then what are you going to do next? Do you also go to other places to hold food festivals like today?"

"It doesn't have to be a food festival, and it's impossible to hold such festivals often. So in the next stage, I plan to make your image into a trademark."

"Trademark? What's that?"

"An iconic symbol, like a statue, is also an emblem that can represent you as a god. It's just that the trademark is not used in the temple, but on the merchandise that can be sold."

Seeing Marikis' puzzled expression, Lude simply took out something real, a bottle of God's Tears recovery medicine sold by their Medicine God Sect.

Since the town became rich, Lude has also upgraded the packaging of his fist products.The potion container was replaced by a higher-grade crystal bottle from the previous wooden vial.

Lachesis, the youngest who made the three sisters, is a strange girl who likes digging very much. She has always been responsible for the main excavation work of the abyss labyrinth.And as a by-product of digging to survive, she dug out a lot of weird things from the ground, including a lot of crystals.

Therefore, based on the principle of making the best use of everything, these crystals were processed into bottled containers by the envoys of the three sisters at the request of Lude. The emblem and profile of the God of Medicine were engraved on the polygonal bottle.Because of its exquisite workmanship and hard crystal texture, it is stronger than the previous wooden bottle, and Lude did not take the opportunity to increase the price, so it was well received when it was launched. Many people would subconsciously glance at the goddess on the bottle before drinking it. Like to ask for blessings.

Lude explained the function and various benefits of the trademark to Marikis, and the other party was very moved and wanted Lude to make one for himself, but Marikis is the kitchen god after all. Can't think of anything to put my logo on.

You can't use the real body of the goddess to make a mold and bake it into a huge bread, so that the believers can take it home to eat, right?

In this regard, Lu De reassured Marikis that he already had a good idea.

"The spice with the highest yield in the town this year is pepper. The total output of the 40-acre pepper field is nearly [-] catties. In addition to the ones I eat and sell, I purposely set aside [-] catties to make flavored peppers." Sauce, I am going to put your trademark on the jar of chili sauce."

"Ah this?"

Hearing that Lude said that he was going to put his face on the chili sauce jar, Marikis couldn't help but frown.

When a god hears this, the first reaction will be that the mortal in front of him is humiliating him. The crystal bottle containing the recovery medicine is fine, and the clay pot for chili sauce is too low-grade, right?

Lude saw that Marikis seemed to dislike chili sauce, so he explained patiently.

"Don't look down on chili sauce, let me tell you, if I didn't think your god position is more suitable, I would really be reluctant to give up this good position to you!"

"What's a good location for a jar of chili sauce?"

"Do you understand the penetration rate? A bottle of recovery medicine and hardware, the main consumers are mercenaries and adventurers who are licking their blood, and those rich and powerful who are willing to spare their lives. My medicine can save lives at critical moments, but it also means Those who buy medicine will not use it unless they have to. Chili sauce only costs [-] copper coins a bottle, and most ordinary people can afford it. Which of these two consumer groups do you think is bigger? Which one is used more frequently, healing medicine or chili sauce?"

"This……"

Lu De's words made Marikis speechless for a while, because she felt that religion should be "sanctified" like many traditional gods in concept, but to be holy, she must be "detached from vulgarity" and not be contaminated with secular atmosphere.

But Ludd's approach is just the opposite, folklore religious rituals, advocating integration into life.This made it somewhat difficult for Marikis, who had not yet changed her mind, to accept it, but her reason told her that what the other party said seemed to make sense.

End of this chapter

In the study of the temporary lord's mansion, Mrs. Sirina, who had just returned from the open-air opera house, did not change her clothes to go to bed after putting her son and daughter to sleep. Instead, she came to the study alone and looked through the The reports are all neatly stacked in the rattan basket on the desk, so that the old lady acting in charge can read them at any time.

Since Mai En and his gang of traitors were eradicated, the management of the territory returned to Sirina.But the old lady knew in her heart that as a woman, she was not capable enough to govern a large town with a population of tens of thousands, and the only cronies around her were the three knights and an old mother, who were not talents in internal affairs.

Therefore, under Lude's suggestion, the old lady reactivated the original mayor, Roma, and asked him to serve the baron.

To be honest, in the first period of time, even though Mrs. Sirina knew that it was Lude who saved her life and helped them bring down the traitor, Mayen, she still harbored suspicions about him.

The old lady doesn't have much desire for power. Her biggest wish is to hand over the territory to her son Lothar intact when he becomes an adult, while she herself can retreat behind the scenes with peace of mind and wait to go ahead. Step husband and sons to pick themselves up.

But the existence of Lude made her feel very worried.

You must know that the baron's family is a lord who "falls from the sky", and they have no connections in the local area at all, and they are out-of-towners through and through.

And Lu De, as a "land snake", is the religious leader, educator and big landlord in the town. He is rich and powerful, and is deeply loved and supported by the local residents. He also has a lot of relationships with many powerful people around him.An ordinary feudal lord would not wish to have such a person stronger than himself on his head.

The old lady was very worried at the time. If Lude also harbored evil intentions, the situation of their family would probably be worse than when they were in the hands of Mayen!

However, after getting in touch with her for a while, the old lady found that it was really hard for her to have any bad feelings towards this kind-hearted and knowledgeable priest, especially after learning about the other party's deeds, she couldn't help but feel admiration .

It took three years for Pine Tree Town to develop from a small village with a few hundred people to a prosperous town with tens of thousands of people. This master contributed a lot. Instead, his family picked up ready-made ones and did not share the joys and sorrows with the locals. Pass.

So after this, the old lady quietly changed her attitude towards Lude, let go of her suspicions, and humbly asked Lude for advice on many matters in governing the town, trying to treat Lude as a reliable elder, even if the other party's Appears to be about the same age as his second son.

Opening the report sent by the mayor, looking at the neat handwriting on it, Sirina knew that it was not written by the mayor Rom.The lame old man is a semi-literate man who can read but not write. All the reports that are routinely submitted to him are actually written by his youngest son.

The old lady had met several sons of Roma before. The eldest son, Ron, was appointed as an apprentice knight. He is currently following Athos. The second son, Rody, is running a hotel, and the third and fourth sons went to the nearby Earl of Lumley. The leader of the army, the fifth Rocco is the youngest carpenter in the town, and the youngest sixth, Raleigh, is underage. He was originally an apprentice with Bank, the best blacksmith in the town, and later entered Lude's school.

The old lady had a good impression of this child. He just turned 14 this month. He was a very smart young man, and he was the most educated of the six sons of old Roma.Mrs. Sirina plans to recruit him into the baron's mansion as a clerk when he becomes an adult next year, so as to cultivate a future confidant for her son.

There are not many documents in the rattan basket, there are only two in total, one is the briefing submitted by the mayor Rom, mainly about the recent situation of Pine Tree Town in the past week.The old lady looked through it roughly, and everything in the territory was normal.The other document is the just-completed census report.

Normally, the census is the first thing every enfeoffed nobleman does after arriving in his own territory.Only when you figure out how many people, fields and livestock you have on your land can you start collecting taxes in the coming year.

The entire barony encompasses the territory within a radius of 5000 kilometers from Pine Town as the center.In addition to the town itself, some surrounding villages also belonged to the Baron.According to the results of the census, there are currently more than 1000 formal citizens in the barony, and more than [-] pioneers who moved from the mainland this year are willing to belong to the barony.

If you include the floating population from outside, such as adventurers or caravans, the daily population in the barony should be around [-], and it can quickly soar to more than [-] during festivals like today. , and if this momentum continues, there will be more people coming here because of fame.

As far as a baronial standard is concerned, the fief that King Duran conferred on the Cork family can be described as "rich and oily"!

According to the noble decree of the kingdom, the enfeoffed nobles have the right to freely tax their territories. What is the specific tax rate?What kind of taxes should be levied?It all depends on the lord's own will, and even the royal family is not allowed to interfere at will. After all, this is the main source of income for most feudal lords.

As far as the old lady knows, most lords usually only collect two kinds of taxes, one is a fixed amount of poll tax, ten copper coins for adults and five for children, and the other is income tax, which is carried out in proportion Taking a commission, the agricultural population collects food, and the non-agricultural population collects money. Generally, [-]% tax is normal, and no more than [-]% is considered a tyrant, and as long as it is less than [-]%, you can have the virtuous name of "loving the people".

The high tolerance of the people to the ruling class can be seen from this!

Given the wealth of Pine Tree Town, the old lady also felt that [-]% of the tax was enough, and even in order to quickly win the hearts of the people, it is not impossible to reduce it to [-]% in the next three to five years.

But just this morning, Lu De took the initiative to talk to Sirina about economics, which gave the old lady some new ideas.

In Lude's view, the lords' tax collection is actually quite outrageous. This exaggerated percentage is completely tested by the rulers step by step, and the bottom line of squeezing that the common people can accept!As long as the whole family does not starve to death, these low-level people who are accustomed to submissive to the nobles will not rise up.

Many of the levied money and food were stored in treasuries and warehouses by the lords. They were not used for the infrastructure of the territory, and they were not even consumed.

Perhaps in the eyes of these misers, letting the common people have money means that the money in their own hands will decrease, which is worse than losing money!

And the people are too poor, not only because of their own hardships, but also because of the impact on the local economy.

No one is consuming, so where is the market?

So since the old lady took the initiative to consult with herself, Lu De had a good chat with the other party about the topic of the economy, and also taught the other lords who were present at the time, hoping to make them listen to it.

Lude himself is not an expert in economics, but at any rate, he has traveled through modern society, and he has been exposed to many things. Coupled with his personal experience, he naturally understands more than a bunch of feudal lords.Moreover, Pine Tree Town was developed by him alone, so the facts speak louder than words.

The most important thing is that Lude's words are not just to let them, the lords, pay less taxes, but to tell them how to develop the local economy so that they can earn more money than taxes!

In the current Pine Tree Town, the local productivity is more than enough for self-sufficiency under Lude's painstaking management, so it has the conditions to start developing foreign trade.And Lude's magical medicine business accounts for the bulk of Pine Tree Town's foreign trade.

After all, this is a monopoly profiteering industry. Their family has the ability to mass-produce similar magical medicines. Even if other sects can produce them, it will be difficult for them to compete with the God of Medicine Sect in terms of cost performance.

The second is the spice business, which is also in the hands of Lude. The church has [-] acres of fertile land, more than half of which are used to grow spices, and the rest of the retail investors combined are not as much as they grow.

These two big deals allowed Luther to earn tens of thousands of gold coins a year, and because he was a religious force, he didn't even have to pay taxes to the lord.

Lude himself knew that it was reasonable for him not to pay taxes, and he was protected by the kingdom's laws.But his side is making a lot of money every day, but let the lord stare at him, and there will inevitably be a gap in his heart.

Therefore, it is both a show of favor and a win-win, and Lu De intends to invite the old lady to take a stake in the seasoning factory he is preparing to make money together.

Lu De's proposal moved the old lady very much. After all, the baron's family is not rich at present, and the old lady has a kind heart and is not willing to oppress the people in her own territory.As for the views on economics, although she didn't quite understand what she heard, the duke and earl who were present at the time were all brightened, and they took the initiative to ask Lu De a lot of questions, so that the old lady couldn't get in her mouth.

It is not difficult to see from this that Lu De's point of view must have its own uniqueness, otherwise the two big brothers would not have reacted in that way.

Recalling her experiences during the day, and what her family saw and heard after they arrived in Pine Tree Town, the old lady couldn't help feeling in her heart that the gods had indeed not abandoned their orphans and widows, and had arranged such a saint to help their family. De, can't help but pay respect to the god behind him.

"Maybe I should also convert to the God of Medicine..."

On the side of the temple at this time, Lude also did not sleep. After talking with Marikis, he asked Shanisi to send Frank, who was released from the state of advent, back to school, while he came to the medicine god statue in the hall to give Hume, who was "on a business trip" thousands of miles away, called to ask her about the situation there.

Prior to this, Lude had been researching how to use divine magic more effectively to achieve what some locals thought were very "profane" operations, so he thought of some special functions of the statue and tried to use it.

Lude knew a long time ago that the idol can actually be used as an exclusive teleportation point corresponding to the god, and can also be used as a camera and a microphone, so Lude slapped his head, can the miniature idol be used as a mobile phone?

Just do what you say, and you happen to have a ready-made miniature statue (figure) at hand, which was directly used by Lude for experimentation, and Hume took one out so that he could distance himself for a call test.

Since Hume is still in a sealed state, most of the gods' abilities cannot be used, so the god that Lude gave her is Aina's, and then Aina remotely launches a seance on the god in Hume's hand, so that she can see Arrived and heard what Hume was saying, and relayed it to Ludd.

The test proved that Lude's idea is feasible, but the call can only be initiated by Aina unilaterally. Hume cannot call Aina actively. After all, she cannot use divine power now, even if there is her idol on the temple side.

There is another point worth noting, that is, the remote god trance, at the moment when the consciousness is connected, there will be a lot of "movement", which may not be noticed by ordinary people, but it will resonate with other nearby gods, making people Other gods have noticed.

So Hume and Luo Ye made a mutual agreement with Lude that the regular communication would still use the ravens raised by Hume, but every three days when the moon was dark at midnight, Lude would let Aina launch a long-distance seance to communicate with Hume. Communicate regularly, ask her to bring Aina's statue in advance, and find a suitable place to speak.

At Lude's request, Aina activated the remote trance, and her consciousness instantly attached herself to the statue thousands of miles away.

"Master, I'm connected over there."

After using the seance, Aina's eyes instantly became dull, and only one mouth could move in her whole body.This is mainly because of the long distance, and Aina herself is not very used to using this kind of supernatural power, and it will be fine when she gradually becomes proficient.

More than a month ago, Hume set off for Yanmu City in the southern part of the kingdom, where the Black Hand Brotherhood's lair was located.Lude used the maze to play a game before, causing the necromancer Dick and the Navarro family to fight each other, trying to induce the Black Hand Brotherhood to fight internally and weaken the power of this underground sect.

On the other hand, Lude is speeding up the cultivation of several goddesses under him, and let Aina, who is a seed player, break through to the third level as soon as possible.

Because Kumilad had revealed to Lude before that when he was still there, the "fake" that the Brotherhood of the Black Hand believed in had already reached the threshold of the fourth level by relying on the "Mars" in his hand.Once she breaks through to the fourth level and reaches the same level as the sealed Hume, then it will not be certain who is the fake!

So in terms of time, it is quite rushed, because no one knows when this fake will break through, and we have to find a way to interfere with the other party's progress.

So Hume's trip, in addition to scouting the enemy's situation, was also responsible for fanning the flames secretly, trying to make their internal conflicts bigger as much as possible, and judging from the information fed back by Hume, it was indeed very lively there recently.

After all, the eldest son of the Navarro family was conspired against and turned into a living dead man whose soul had been shelled out, and the necromancer who caused him to disappear without a trace. The furious Chief Navarro wanted to kill all his enemies. up!

End of this chapter

From Pine Town to Yanmu City, the distance between the two places almost spanned the entire Duran Kingdom.If it weren't for Hume, no matter how strong Lude's sense of justice is, he would not take the initiative to provoke a cult thousands of miles away at this stage.

The False God of Thieves is still at the third level, still a low-level god, but according to Kumilad, the other party has touched the threshold of the fourth level a few years ago, but has not been able to break through.

Once the opponent really crosses over, it will be a qualitative leap from the third level to the fourth level. With the power of the middle god, it will have an overwhelming advantage over the lower gods.

In view of this, there is actually not much time left for Lude. He needs to let Aina break through to the third level before the fake thief god breaks through the fourth level. Shanisi and the three sisters are close to the third level. Marikis, then, took the initiative to attack by virtue of her "divine number" advantage.

So Lude is also quite desperate during this time, and has formulated a series of plans to increase the collection of beliefs. All the goddesses have a share, and there are "linkage activities" with each other, all just to strengthen their own strength as soon as possible.

On the second day of the food festival, according to the festival process formulated by Lu De, the highlight of the day today is the first "King King Competition" in Pine Town. Lu De directly copied many variety shows that focus on "culinary competition" on the earth programme.

The competition is based on a team of five people, who register with the organizer.Since this is the first time, the twelve participating teams are all from the local area, and members of seven of the teams are from the culinary department of Brewster College, just like a final exam.

In order to increase entertainment and enjoyment, the venue of the competition is located in the central square of the town. Twelve open-air kitchens have been built in advance, which is convenient for the audience to watch the participating chefs cooking.And because there is still a distance in the middle, there is no need to worry about being stolen by the crowd.

As for the judges who were in charge of tasting and scoring the competition, Lude directly invited a group of distinguished guests who were invited to watch the ceremony, including Lude himself, the little baron and the old lady, Hamilton and Debra from the Three-person Tower, Earl Lumley and Duke Ganmerin, the Patriarch of the Steel Whip Clan, Viscount Gulig, the Chief Priest Winig, and the bishop of the God of War Cult, Ural, just arrived this morning, and there were just ten judges.

The competition process is divided into upper, middle and lower rounds. In the first round, the organizer will set a topic and designate an ingredient for each group to make dishes.The second session is to prepare a bunch of blind boxes on the spot, which are filled with various ingredients, and each group chooses one, and makes a dish on the spot.The third scene is the final show, each group is free to play and cook their best signature dishes.

The final winning team will each receive a "XXth Chef King Medal" blessed by magic and a generous bonus of two hundred gold coins. The No.2 and No.3 teams will also receive one hundred and Fifty gold coins.This bonus is not a small amount for ordinary civilians.

If Lude hadn't set up a bunch of entry requirements and qualifiers in advance, I am afraid that everyone in the town who can cook would have to squeeze their heads to try their luck.

For safety reasons, all the ingredients for the entire game are provided by the temple as the organizer, and there are three high-ranking priests at the bishop level, Lud, Winig and Ural, sitting in the scene, even if someone really wins Poison can also save you on the spot!

It is worth mentioning that this game was also deliberately incorporated into a considerable degree of religious atmosphere by Rudd.The dishes for each group have to be made into one big and ten small ones, and a total of eleven servings will come out. The ten small servings are for the judges to taste, and the big ones must be offered to the altar in the center of the arena for presentation. To the gods who blessed them with a bountiful harvest this year.

Harvest Thanksgiving Festival, how can we not highlight the "gratitude" element?

The competition officially started at around [-]:[-] in the morning. A group of judges sat on the judging table, which was second only to the altar in height, overlooking the open-air kitchen and the crowd of onlookers outside the arena. They chatted leisurely while Waiting for the chefs to serve.