Goddess Wanhua Mirror

Zach nodded after listening. The village didn't seem to notice their arrival. As for the fact that the spies couldn't contact Buddy, it wasn't an abnormal sign for them.The bandit didn't have an expensive magic timer, and there was no moon tonight, so even Zach himself couldn't determine the exact time before dawn.

Anyway, my subordinates all know what Buddy looks like, and after rushing into the village to fight, the kid will run over to join them.

So Zac pulled out the long sword at his waist without saying a word, and shouted to the bandits behind him who were eager to fight in a voice that was no longer deliberately lowered.

"Brothers! Money, food, women! All you want are ahead, and whether you can get them depends on your own abilities. Fight with me!"

"Oh oh oh!"

As Zac said, he urged his horse to move forward, and the bandit group of more than 200 people followed him, trotting out of the woods, and quickly approached the village.

When he was still about [-] meters away from the village, Zach led the most elite cavalry around him and began to accelerate the charge.Like a group of hungry wolves, they are rushing towards what they think is a flock of sheep.

Without encountering any obstruction or resistance, more than thirty riders easily smashed through the fragile wooden fence outside the village, and successfully broke into the interior.Follow the main road in the center of the village and go straight to the location of the granary.

However, just as this group of bandits on horseback galloped wildly in the village like no one else, Zach, who was rushing to the front of the queue, suddenly felt his horse staggered and fell to the ground, directly knocking him down. The whole person flew off the horseback.Immediately afterwards, the other brothers following him fell down a large area one after another, and only the few horses at the end of the queue barely stopped.

"Fuck! What ghost roads are built in this village, why are they full of pits!"

The bandit cavalry who fell down with man and horse rolled all over the ground, crying and cursing their mothers one by one, and a few unlucky ones even fell directly and were seriously injured.

Zach got up from the ground in embarrassment and looked back. The scene in front of him made his jaw drop.He didn't care what happened to the people, what Zach cared about was the horses.

With the help of the light from the torch, Zach fell to the ground and realized that many holes had been dug on the main road in the middle of the village.The size of these pits is small, only a few tens of centimeters so far, and the depth is generally about half a meter. Covering is used to conceal them.If this kind of stumbler steps on it while walking, it is nothing short of a sprained foot, but if a running horse unfortunately steps on it, its own impact can completely break the horse's leg directly.

This was the case with Zach's own war horse. The entire leg of the unlucky beast was deformed, and it was lying on the ground, screaming continuously.

"X's! There is an ambush in the village!"

Looking around vigilantly, Zach suddenly found that the village was indeed very quiet, but it was obviously too quiet.They were so noisy, and no one came out from the surrounding houses to check on the situation.

Soon the follow-up bandits on foot also rushed in. Seeing the companions on horseback falling all over the ground, some heartless guys laughed loudly, until Zach rushed over angrily and kicked one of them, Others realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere and restrained their laughter.

At this time, a confidant of Zach's little boss ran over and reported the anomaly he had just discovered to the boss.

"Boss, the situation in this village is not right. There is no one or anything in many houses. The brothers kicked in the door, and many of them fell into the trap."

"Have you found Buddy the boy?"

"No, the smithy is also empty."

Realizing that he was in vain, the villagers had long been prepared, and Zach lost his initial calm at this time.And at this moment, a lot of gongs suddenly sounded outside the village, accompanied by someone shouting loudly.

"Catch the bandits! Catch the bandits!"

"Brothers, follow me shoulder to shoulder! Cut off the handsome Zach, and exchange his head for wine money!"

"Knights, attack!"

In the dark night, the noisy gongs and drums, the chaotic voices of people are coming and going, and it is not clear how many people there are for a while, but Zach, like most bandits, subconsciously thinks that he has been surrounded .

"Boss! There is an ambush among us."

"His grandma's... Get out!"

Zach, who didn't know the situation, didn't dare to hesitate any longer, he called his subordinates to run quickly without thinking, and he even strode up to a subordinate who still had a horse, and pulled him out of the saddle without saying a word Pulled it off, and then rode on by himself.

"Boss!"

"Your horse is gone!"

"..."

Under the leadership of the boss, more than 200 bandits who had stormed into the village ran out the same way in embarrassment.In the dark night, no one knows how many chasing soldiers are behind them, but since the bosses have all run away, the younger brothers naturally don't have the courage and loyalty to stay and die alone, all of them only hate their parents for giving them fewer children With two legs, the one who ran was called rolling and crawling. He ran until the ravine seven or eight kilometers away before barely stopping his escape.

But Zach, who was still in shock, didn't realize until then that there seemed to be no pursuers behind his buttocks, not even half a figure!

End of this chapter

In the hall of Lude's temple, the old and weak women and children of Pine Tree Village are praying to the god statue in the center of the hall in a dark environment, while outside the hall, in the courtyard of the front gate, a group of armed men holding various agricultural tools as weapons The villagers stood guard here, cautiously shrunk behind the courtyard wall, poking their heads out to glance at the direction of the village from time to time, all of them extremely nervous.

Just a few minutes ago, more than 200 bandits rushed into their village, but the other party didn't know it. The villagers had already heard the news of their coming, and moved everyone and valuables to a place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. This side of the temple.

After the bandits rushed into the village, they quickly discovered the abnormality, and at this moment, a dozen villagers who stayed in the village, according to the "combat plan" formulated by the priest Lude for them, rang the gong and pretended to be the general of the army. Shout to kill the enemy.

In the dark night, the bandits thought they were in an ambush, but more than 200 people were frightened by a dozen villagers beating gongs and drums and fled.

Soon, the villagers hiding on the side of the temple learned the good news that the bandits had retreated.All the people present breathed a sigh of relief, and then all praised Mr. Lude's strategy. Songshu Village was able to get through the difficulties this time without any danger, all thanks to his ingenuity!

After being flattered by the villagers for a while, although Lu De was proud of himself, he still maintained a kind of calmness on his face, saying that he had only done some small work, and he had to rely on the support of the whole village. Working together, it makes me feel ashamed if everyone takes credit for him personally.

"Everyone, now is not the time to relax our vigilance. Although those bandits were scared away by us, they may come back again. We will be truly safe when reinforcements arrive!"

Under Lude's reminder and encouragement, the militiamen with high morale returned to their posts.Lude, on the other hand, glanced in the direction of the village with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Based on the existing conditions in the village, Lu De prepared many sets of attack plans in advance in order to deal with the bandits. He didn't think that the simplest "empty city strategy" could completely scare the courage of those desperadoes.

If there is no accident, Lude believes that it won't be long before the bandits who fled will come back, and the possibility of making a comeback is very high!

Taking advantage of nothing happening right now, Lude is going to go back to his room to rest for a while.From yesterday to now, he has not closed his eyes for more than 24 hours. Even though he is actually a 17-year-old young man under the old man's foreign trade, he is really feeling a little tired at the moment.

Returning to the hall of the temple, Lu De first comforted the women and children, and then went to the attic on the second floor, where all the former refugees were arranged.Although the village head, Rom, loosened the bonds of these new villagers who were suspected by everyone at the suggestion of Lu De, he still did not completely relax his vigilance. There was always the elder son of the village, Ron, who led people to guard the stairs.

Seeing Lu De approaching, the few people who were squatting leisurely and chatting on the stairs all stood up at once, and greeted Lu De respectfully. The nervous look looked like they were secretly smoking in the toilet but accidentally A junior high school boy who met the director of the teaching department.

Seeing the reactions of these guys, Lude immediately guessed that Ron, a big, stupid man, was doing something.Since he heard the legend about "bloody hands and souls" when he was interrogating Buddy in Lude yesterday, this shriveled boy has become the number one fan of the priest, spreading his "glorious deeds" everywhere in the village with embellishments.In less than a day, it spread to almost one-third of the villagers through word of mouth.

And what made Lude feel speechless the most was that these rumors were passed on and back again!This directly led to several variants of Lude's "nickname", such as the blood slaughter butterfly and the god's hand.

Seeing that the situation was out of control, Lu De simply gave up the treatment, ignored the reactions of the villagers, and did not give any explanation for his past.

Under the awe-inspiring eyes of Ron and others, Lude came to the room where the refugees were on the second floor.As a result, as soon as he came over, he saw the nun under his sect, happily telling the children the story of the bloody hand and the soul.

"I really just..."

Taking two deep breaths, Lu De suppressed the anger in his heart, stepped forward and patted Aina's shoulder.As soon as the little nun turned her head, she saw Lu De's smiling face without the slightest hint of a smile, and a big word "danger" flashed in her heart.

"Master, master, master!"

"Aina, I think you seem to be very busy. Is it because I left too little homework for you? How about I triple the amount of homework for you starting tomorrow?"

"Master! I was wrong!"

When she heard that Lude was going to "double up" her homework, poor Aina was so frightened that her face turned pale, and she hugged Lude's thigh and begged bitterly.As a result, her exaggerated reaction made the children on the side laugh. Lude could only touch Aina's little head and said.

"Okay, don't make trouble for now, I have something to do with Mr. Bank."

"Mr. Bank? He just went out."

Aina told Lude that Bank had just been called by the village chief, and he should be helping the villagers sharpen their weapons at the shack in the backyard of the temple.

When Lude heard this, he thought that this old Rom was wicked enough, and he didn't give Bank any rest time for the whole day.

The blacksmith worked all night yesterday, and it wasn't until noon today that he finally helped Lude prepare the "decisive weapon" against the bandits.Lu De originally planned to let him and the other villagers who helped him go to have a good rest, but old Rom only grabbed Bank and gave him a lot of things.

It can be seen that the old Roman has not fully trusted Bank, but he is not good at contradicting Ludd who advocates trusting Bank, so he changed his method and drained Bank's energy by constantly arranging jobs for him.

So Lude went around to the backyard of the temple again, and when he came over, he saw Bank was stepping on the grinding wheel, polishing a pile of tattered "weapons", and the village chief, Rom, was sitting beside him, like a capitalist who was squeezing the workers .

Seeing this, Lu De unceremoniously ignored this guy.

"Mr. Bank, take a break. After all, people are not made of iron."

As Lude said, he glanced at the old Rom next to him. The old man seemed to know that he had gone too far, so he also assisted Bank in persuading Bank to rest, as if he was not the one who forced people to come to work before.

Under the persuasion of the two old men, Bank put down the newly polished "wu (nong) weapon (ju)".In order to ensure that he could really get a rest, Lu De simply found a bench and sat down.

Right now, no one knows when the bandits will come back, and naturally they can't sleep well, so it's good for everyone to sit down and chat, and relax the tense spirit.And Lude also hoped to chat more with this taciturn blacksmith, because in his eyes, he could vaguely see that there seemed to be something imprisoned on the blacksmith, which made him obviously different from others.

And the specific manifestation of this "abnormality" is that since Bank came to Pine Tree Village until now, Lude has never observed even the slightest belief in him, as if he doesn't believe in gods at all!

End of this chapter

According to Lude's observations over the past year after time travel, as long as people living in this world, it is generally impossible for people to have no faith at all, even him, a time traveler, is no exception. The difference is only in the amount.

And there is only one situation or emotion, which will hinder the generation of belief after being strong to a certain extent, and that is the so-called "disappointment"!

It was the first time that Luther observed this rare and special phenomenon on the blacksmith Bank, but it was mentioned in the notes of the old astrologer.After all, the old man lived in the royal capital back then, and the entire city and surrounding towns and villages had a combined population of 30 to [-] people, so there were enough research objects for him to observe.

Mortals who are disappointed with the gods usually have knots in their hearts, and once the knots are untied, these people will regain their faith, become more devout than before the knots, and produce more power of faith.

After the old astrologer observed this phenomenon, he actively developed this kind of believers in the capital, because these people are high-quality fields, and the output of their beliefs is several times or even ten times that of ordinary believers. .So the old man uses his eyes that can see beliefs to specially develop this kind of people to join the religion. Even if some people don't have any knots, he can make them out first, and then untie them!

Lude could tell that Bank, the blacksmith, was definitely a man with a story, and the story that made him feel anxious was probably related to his dead wife.

When Bank came to Pine Tree Village, he had no other relatives beside his three children and Buddy, a second-to-fifth apprentice who was accepted on the way.Although he himself is taciturn, the three children around him are very cheerful and talkative.Rudd has already mastered some key information by chatting with the children.

Before Bank came to Pine Village, he lived in a city called Irwin with his family.This city is the largest seaport in the entire Duran Kingdom, and its economy is more developed than that of the king. It is a very prosperous and rich city.

Bank lives in this city. He has a shop and a handicraft. He marries a woman he really loves and has children. In fact, his life is very good.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. Although Bank's wife was gentle and virtuous, her health was not very good. After giving birth to her third child, she contracted a cough and became weaker and weaker.

In order to cure his beloved woman, after seeking help from some herbalists but to no avail, Bank had to pay a lot of money to ask the priest to perform healing magic on his wife, hoping to eliminate the disease with the power of the gods.

However, to Bank's disappointment, the magical magic he had placed high hopes on failed to save his wife's life in the end, and Bank wiped out his wealthy family because of this, and even sold the family's ancestral blacksmith shop. , and finally left Erwin lonely with the ashes of his three children and his deceased wife.

The above is the story that Lude learned from Bank's eldest son. Imagine putting yourself in the shoes, it is not difficult for Lude to understand Bank's knot.

But what touched Lude the most was actually the detailed process of Bank seeking the priest to treat his wife.

Because his goddess is still very good, although the priest Lude can no longer be regarded as a counterfeit, it is estimated that he will have to wait a long time before he can really use magic.So he was very curious, what is the situation when the priests of other sects perform magic?

According to what most sects declare to the outside world, divine magic is an omnipotent power bestowed by the gods, and the healing technique in divine magic is indeed far stronger than magic in terms of effect. It can heal wounds, detoxify, and heal diseases , the rich princes and nobles all agree to use it!

But it is such a universal magic, but it can't cure Bank's wife's illness.

So Lude wanted to find out whether it was the priest who was treating the disease who was cheating, cheating, collecting money and doing nothing, or whether there was something special about Bank's wife's illness.

The three were chatting, and Lu De deliberately brought the topic to this.Bank didn't want to bring up these sad things at first, but he opened his mouth because of Rude's words.

"Maybe this will help me cure your daughter's illness."

Recalling the tormented and painful days that year, Bank, who was originally dull, was obviously moved.He told Lu De that after his wife's condition became serious, he almost searched for the priests of several sects in the city.

The situation was fine at the beginning, the divine spell was indeed useful, and his wife's complexion and body always improved immediately on the spot.But this effect only lasted for a few months, and then the disease relapsed again, and it went back to the old way.Bank can only take his wife to the temple again, and spend money to ask the priest to perform magic.

In the past three years, Bank took his wife to look for priests eight times. If he was a rich businessman or nobleman, he could afford it, but he was just a blacksmith with a pretty good craft. The middle class can't afford such a toss.

No matter which sect in Erwin, if you find a priest to perform the most common low-level healing technique, the unified price is three gold coins, and this is almost equivalent to Bank's annual income. The money he saved will soon be contributed to Various temples, but in the end they still failed to save his wife's life.

After listening to Bank's story, Lude and Rom were silent. Lude was shocked by the huge profits of the magic medical industry, while Rom sympathized with Bank's experience and felt a little sorry for his previous series of behaviors.

"Mr. Bank, can you describe in detail the process of those priests performing magic when they treated your wife?"

"The process? It's just...that very common way, chanting a divine scripture, and then a burst of golden light emerges, covering my wife's whole body. It doesn't seem to be anything special."

"That is to say, divine arts directly affect the whole body."

After listening to Bank's description, Lude nodded thoughtfully, but just as he was about to continue asking for some details, a villager suddenly stumbled over from the front yard and shouted in panic.

"No, it's not good! Those bandits are back!"

"So fast!?"

"It seems that this handsome Zach has a quick brain!"

Hearing the villagers' report, Lu De was not surprised at all.Judging from the information obtained from the previous interrogation of Buddy, these bandits are also preparing for the winter. They must grab enough food for the winter before the heavy snow closes the mountain, so they will not let Songshu Village go easily, let alone the bandits The boss's "moth chicken" is still on their heads, so they will not let it go.

"Call all the people who stayed in the village back, the same trick can't be effective a second time, and there should be a tough battle to fight next!"

End of this chapter

Zach is very angry now, so angry that he wants to slaughter the village to vent his anger!

I thought it was a sure-fire deal, but instead of offering their food and daughter obediently, these damn gangsters dared to make these moths resist stubbornly, causing Zach's men to injure seven or eight brothers. More than a dozen precious war horses were bought.

If they don't snatch them all, and then massacre the village as an example, I'm afraid the bandit business will not be able to continue in the future!

The angry bandits went back under the leadership of Zac, but this time they had learned their skills and did not charge forward on horseback. Instead, they all advanced on foot, and first surrounded the entire village from both sides, sealing several main entrances and exits. Then they entered the village and searched door to door.

"Rush in! Get out those tortoise kings and eggs that were beating drums just now!"

However, the bandits who rushed in quickly found that there was not even a single person in the village, only the potholed road and various unpredictable earthen traps waiting for them to step on.

And just when these angry bandits were about to set fire to the village, a fire was suddenly lit on the side of the temple. The fire, which was very conspicuous in the dark night, instantly attracted the attention of the bandits, and Zach noticed a hint of provocation. mean.