Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland

There are such people all over the world.

They are the exiles of the hive.

But this is not all bad.

Many compatriots cannot accept the pain of freedom and eventually die due to the exhaustion of pheromones; but more of them, after walking out of the nest made of sand and mud, have integrated into a more cruel but more exciting world.

The outside world seems complicated, but the logic of rule is exactly the same as that in the hive. As long as a little trick is used, they, who should be managers, can gain the freedom that belongs to the highest person alone——

The prince of the hive, wearing a robe, walked in the dark mine tunnel. He put his hands on his chest and looked extremely pious. However, all the mountain people who saw him would only bow down more piously and fanatically, as if some mechanism had been triggered.

The mine tunnel stretched in front of him: the supporting beams were one every three meters, and the wood had been corroded by moisture and turned black. The top rock layer exposed the dark red veins of iron ore, rusty iron hooks were nailed on the wall, and broken iron chains were hung; the accumulated water formed puddles in the depression, reflecting the flames of the oil lamp.

The track of the ore transporter was crooked, the sleepers were rotten, and the rails were covered with rust.

The wind blew through the corridor, and the sand and gravel rolled up and fell.

He was the preacher.

The leader of the ruling Witcher sect.

Although he was in the blocked Sad Mine Town, he was able to lead the largest organized group of survivors in the ruins by himself and spread the seeds of fanaticism... The preacher was indeed like his fellow beehive princes, with quick thinking and a tongue full of incitement and bewitching power.

However, because of this, he became the only brain that was still thinking among tens of thousands of people.

He also clearly realized:

No matter what position he had achieved among these mountain people after replacing the "bloody remnants", the final outcome was nothing more than the demise of the Sad Mine Town.

The preacher held a torn book in his hand. The entire set of blood pool construction methods of the Witcher sect using corpses as nutrients came from it.

For this reason, this ancient book has become the Bible of the Witcher sect, but it can only be interpreted and preached by the preacher.

Only the preacher knows that its essence is actually what is called "ancient science book" in the outside world - unfortunately, when the preacher came to the Sad Mine Town, it had been in chaos for at least 20 years due to the blockade. This city-state, which once had the activities of scientific hunters and watchers and extremely developed industry, quickly degenerated into a place where beast-like people fought each other. Even basic humanity could not be preserved and many people turned into cannibal tribes, let alone retaining basic cultural literacy.

However, even if a few old people from the Bloody Rebellion period are still alive, because the preacher did save them from hunger and chaos, out of gratitude and the pressure of conformity, they would not stand up and point out the "truth" at this time.

No one cares.

It's good to be alive.

The preacher had actually learned all the knowledge in the ancient science books. He was just pretending to hold it in front of his chest.

The bright lantern illuminated the hall of the mine.

It spanned fifty meters, with the top arched into a dome shape. Twelve stone pillars were arranged along the edge, each of which was as thick as three people hugging.

Iron ore veins were exposed in the rock layer at the top, and the dark red ore was reflected in the accumulated water. A circular pool was dug out in the center of the ground. The accumulated water was dark, with wood chips and rust floating on the water surface, and a stone chair was placed in it.

The entrances to small tunnels could be seen from all directions here, as dense as a honeycomb, and the Blood Moon priests had already gathered.

They were waiting for their leader to enter the temple and recited the prayers in unison.

"Supreme Rock and Moon, witness this ceremony..."

"Let the birds feast on the bodies of our enemies, let the sands drink up our bodily fluids;"

"We will purify filth with death, exchange sacrifice for hope, exchange pain for blessings... sacrifice life for a good harvest, and offer blood for the coming year!"

The preacher designed these prayers with a purpose. Compared with cannibalism, using the corpses of the same kind as fertilizer to supplement the land in Ai Mine Town that has long been unable to be cultivated naturally due to excessive mining and environmental degradation is undoubtedly easier to accept, especially without being infected with the curse of being transformed into a cannibal.

But after all, it still has an impact on the mind.

It was precisely because of the cycle doctrine of Weicher that everything returns to nature that the preacher convinced the survivors of Ai Mine Town - here, every corpse and every drop of blood is extremely precious, even if it is one's own deceased relatives and family members, aborted fetuses or stillborn babies... After death, the corpses must be uniformly thrown into the blood pool for fermentation.

Become fertilizer for watering crops.

Private burial or burning is absolutely a felony.

Even so, the fragile ecological balance is often broken, and the mountain people need to send out hunting teams to attack the cannibalized city dwellers, preferably to capture prisoners, so as to ensure that the blood that replenishes fertility is not lost due to injuries and deaths.

The only difference between the treatment of the dead and the prisoners is that if it is the body of the mountain tribe, they will first be processed by the most loyal Blood Moon priests into a mixture of flesh and blood and put in a clay pot, and then handed over to the Silver Moon Guards - this can minimize the psychological burden of the people responsible for the delivery, out of sight, peace of mind, to prevent them from seeing familiar faces in daily life and finally falling into the blood pool.

As for outsiders and prisoners, they are directly killed and pushed away.

There are other things, such as using corpses to attract the hungry scavengers that may occasionally come and cross the entire city-state mine, and then hunting them to supplement the meat... These are all other links that depend on the blood pool, and the food produced is limited.

"Bone and flesh belong to birds, and blood is offered to the yellow sand." The preacher returned the gift to all the Blood Moon priests. There were hundreds of Blood Moon priests present alone, and if you add those distributed in various layers and mines, there would be even more. They are the ganglia of the preacher, responsible for spreading the will to those underground corners that the preacher himself may not be fully aware of.

In addition, the Silver Moon Guards, who have a terrifyingly high proportion of mountain people, and the tradition of universal military service inherited from the Bloody Rebellion... It is no exaggeration to say that if it were in the outside world, the preacher would have already had a powerful army that could travel across several provinces.

And they are also extremely loyal and fanatical.

Unfortunately, it was in the Ai Mine Town.

The preacher's heart was eager to move. In fact, he had the ability to lead the mountain people to break out of the blockade of the cannibals and the high wall shield guards, but the result would inevitably be a loss for both sides.

Even if the survivors still worship him as the master.

In fact, his status has fallen.

In the outside world, without the extreme environment of the "God-given" of the Ai Mining Town, the doctrine of the Witcher sect could not be spread, and it was impossible to redevelop and compete with other forces for hegemony.

It seems that it is better to stay in Ai Mining Town forever...

"Preacher, the blood pool in the mud west... The output this season is not as expected."

"The blood ranch is also..."

"The believers are incompetent..."

"Mine too..."

The reports from the Blood Moon Priest flew into the preacher's ears, piercing his nerves.

The business situation of the Witcher sect has been getting worse and worse.

To balance food, we must either increase output or reduce consumption. It seems that we can do this by letting the mountain people attack the city people more. The more people die in battle, the more corpses and prisoners we can harvest...

However, this is directly wearing down their strength. Once the critical point is exceeded, the increasingly mutated and organized cannibal tribes may even break through their defenses in turn.

On the other side, they still have enemies.

- Wilderness Blood Hunt.

These organizations among the wild people went deep into the town of Sorrow Mine, not to hunt cannibals... but to hunt them!

Hunting the ‘bloody remnants’.

Even though the preacher has found a way to change his appearance, and even reshaped many sacrificed or missing bloody rebel leaders into traitors who betrayed the group, saying that it was because of them that today's disaster occurred... But even if the bloody remnants have become the Witcher sect, the wilderness blood hunting has not stopped, as if only the heads of these people can be rewarded.

Blood hunting itself is not terrible, but it reminds the descendants of the rebels: the designer of the Sorrow Mine blockade has never forgotten their existence.

They must be wiped out.

This is like a shadow, shrouding the heart of the preacher, making him dare not easily weaken the power he controls.

Unless it is a decisive moment.

"Preacher," at this time, a Blood Moon priest stood up and carefully suggested in front of the Hive Prince, "I remember that your nest has a dedicated blood pool and underground farmland. I don't know the recent output..."

Unlike other blood pools in the mine, the preacher's industry is extremely mysterious. It not only consumes fertilizer liquid, but also requires energy supply-the fermentation of blood pools in various places produces not only fertilizer, but also a kind of combustible gas.

This fuel is not enough to meet the needs of all mountain people, and most of it is supplied to the preacher himself.

He distributes it.

However, the consumption is huge, and the benefits are also obvious. Everyone estimates that the preacher's industry occupies no more than a large mine cave, but its output underground can be more than ten or even dozens of times higher than those farmlands of the same area.

It has become another manifestation of miracles.

So no one complains about the distribution.

However, it seems that in recent times, the tribes distributed in various mines have not heard of the preacher's industry for a long time, and the workers inside seem to have disappeared - but the fuel produced by the blood pool is still being consumed.

Under the situation of the visible imbalance of output in the entire Witcher sect, the Blood Moon Priest asked this question.

"What?" The preacher's voice was cold, "Do you suspect that I'm hiding something?"

"I dare not..." Hearing the change in the tone of the Lord, the priest knew that something was wrong and lowered his head.

But it was too late.

In just a moment, a sharp blade penetrated the back of the Blood Moon Priest and came out through the chest.

At some point, an assassin had flashed behind him.

Decisive knife.

It only took the preacher a thought.

Just when the blood of the wounded was about to gush, another Blood Moon Priest had stepped forward and took out a clay bowl to hold it under the wound of his colleague.

The inner wall of this vessel was coated with a special potion that can keep the blood flowing.

The assassin exerted force synchronously, twisting the handle of the knife.

His wrist maintained a constant force, and the handle of the knife turned slowly. The speed of blood flowing out of the wound was precisely controlled, neither splashing out of the container due to being too fast, nor coagulating due to being too slow, showing an extremely steady and skilled technique.

"Ah...ah..." The Blood Moon Priest who asked the question opened and closed his mouth, and could only make a few weak and repeated groans, and finally fell to the ground with his eyes wide open.

During this process, the other hundreds of Blood Moon priests present in the cave did not move, but just chanted prayers in a low voice, waiting for the punishment to end, as if it was natural.

The proposal was reasonable.

They allowed it.

But if it angered the preacher.

That would be unforgivable.

The assassin dissipated in the mine like a black smoke, and even the glowing lantern could not illuminate his figure. The dead body of the Blood Moon priest was dragged down by the Silver Moon Guards along with the blood, ready to be thrown into the blood pool. He at least used his life to test the bottom line of the preacher again.

Next, naturally no one dared to mention the industry of the Hive Prince.

"If it weren't for your incompetence, and you haven't found enough fuel energy until now, how could my blood pool stop running?" The preacher lightly pushed the responsibility to his subordinates, and at the same time implicitly criticized, mentioning the previously issued tasks as an explanation, "——Continue."

'... Fortunately, I didn't have time to speak. 'At this time, another Blood Moon priest thought, with lingering fear: 'It can be seen that the Lord is in a bad mood. If it is known that someone is spreading heresy in the mine under my jurisdiction, the punishment may not be as simple as piercing the chest. '

Maybe he will be skinned first, and then thrown directly into the blood pool against convention, so that he will be exposed and slowly tortured to death.

He is one of the people who rule the mine and blood pool together with the priestess who received Lu Meng and others. His status is not too high among many priests. His position is squeezed at the edge of the mine, which means that his order of speaking is much later. As such a marginal priest, he cannot decide the major events of the entire sect. This time he came only to report to the bard and arrogant Bard.

Now he has experienced this scene.

The Blood Moon priest dared not speak anything, just waited for the council to disperse, and went back to deal with it himself.

At this time, one of his subordinates, the Silver Moon Guard, hurried over from the entrance of the mine tunnel and just reached behind the Blood Moon Priest. The Silver Moon Guard whispered a few words beside him, and the Blood Moon Priest's uneasy look suddenly brightened.

On the other side, the preacher listened to the reports of other Blood Moon Priests. There were more bad things than good things, and there were inevitable scoldings during the period, but there was no such thing as killing people at will.

This made the priests feel relieved and felt that the Lord had restored his former holiness and kindness, but they still felt the atmosphere was depressing.

In such a scene, a loud voice suddenly came from the edge of the crowd.

"Lord of Blood and Moon, just as the holy light of the sermon guides--" The Blood Moon Priest just now shouted loudly without paying attention to the order of speaking, with an excited look, "The oil you want has been found!" (End of this chapter)