When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

After a morning of rest, on the noon of October 11th, all the citizens of the Papal State finally set foot on the starting point of the Blood and Sweat Road.

It was still 350 Li (approximately 175 kilometers) away from Jeanneburg.

Hohen stood on the carriage, shielding his eyes with his hand as he looked into the distance.

On both sides of the winding long road were continuous mountain ranges that looked close but were actually far apart.

The Black Bone Swamp was actually a peat bog in the mountains, and this place used to be a river channel.

Due to changes in the mountains, the original river channel was blocked, and the river changed its course and merged into the Nauan River, creating this swamp in this small river valley basin.

According to Sissi, this river valley is shaped like a three-ball gourd, and the outermost exit is the Wild Spider Forest.

The part where the second ball is located is the lowest and most dangerous uninhabited swamp area.

The entrance area where Hohen and the others were located had patches of reeds and waterfowl, as well as beastmen and wild men living there.

Walking through the narrow valley, the vast swamp area came into view, with muddy and dark ditches beneath the grass and reeds.

The dark ditches were filled with loose mud that was indistinguishable from water, full of moss and animal corpses.

On the few water surfaces, dirty green mud floated, and dead white trees protruded from the swamp, like the white bones of giant beasts piercing through the skin.

Hohen asked people to try it out, and a puddle the size of a washbasin required a spear more than three meters long to reach the bottom, and it took all their strength to pull it out.

If a person fell into this, they probably wouldn't be able to climb out for the rest of their lives.

"Tsk tsk tsk," Hohen couldn't help but sigh.

Even so, smoke could be seen rising from the foot of the distant mountains and even the highlands of the swamp.

It was a miracle that the long road built by the El Empire in such a land had not been damaged.

"El technology is the best in the world," Madelaine couldn't help but sigh as she looked at the long road that stretched to the horizon, "The El people's slogan is not empty talk, El scholars occupy more than a third of the Sarin Scholar Association."

"Leeches lying on their laurels," Bonnerd muttered in a low voice beside him.

Hohen turned his head: "Why do you say that?"

The people around him also looked at Bonnerd, after all, Hohen's Papal State was established based on the El Empire, and some elders even claimed to be the El Third Empire.

Bonnerd swallowed, looking at the unkind eyes around him: "Back then, when the El Empire moved east, the El people inherited most of the El Empire's civilization and refused to let go.

This led to the degradation of civilization in our three kingdoms for thousands of years, and some ancient engineering machinery cannot be manufactured even now."

"The El Empire is the country of the El people, it seems okay for them to inherit their heritage."

"No."

Looking at Hohen, Bonnerd didn't know what to call him, so he could only say, "Your Excellency, the El people of the El Empire are not the same El people as ours."

El people actually meant half-elves or elves. After unifying the Seven Hills Kingdom, the elven bloodline of the El people continued to dilute.

By the end of the empire, only the millennial families who intermarried within the upper echelons still retained some elven characteristics.

The rest of the El people had already lost all elven characteristics in the continuous mixed marriages.

The demon disease that broke out at the end of the empire was particularly effective against the elven bloodline. Those who didn't die either became vampires or had almost no trace of elven blood.

"Those so-called El people, dyeing their hair gold and wearing fake ears, really think of themselves as El people," Bonnerd sarcastically said with malice.

Hohen nodded thoughtfully.

Hmm, wait, doesn't that mean that the vampire nobles of the Flesh Throne are the real descendants of the El?

"The priests are hostile to the El people," Sissi interrupted Hohen's thoughts, "because the Sarin Scholar Association has cultivated a large number of mathematicians, legal scholars, and philosophers, encroaching on a large number of powers originally belonging to the church, Your Excellency, don't think they are really considering the people."

Bonnerd turned his angry eyes to Sissi.

"Look at our little darling, he's so cute when he's angry."

Lightly pinching Bonnerd's cheek, Sissi once again picked up the blue feather fan and covered her mouth to laugh.

At this moment, Hohen was also observing Bonnerd.

Hohen kept this priest by his side mainly to explore the church's information and the extraordinary abilities of the monks.

To be honest, Hohen had experimented with the holy oil that Bonnerd had brought, and it was just ordinary animal oil mixed with herbs.

He even applied a little himself, and besides feeling a coolness on his head, like wind oil, it had no other effect.

Putting down his thoughts, looking at the sky, it was getting late, and Hohen knew it was time to leave.

"Alright, let's keep going. We've already traveled 150 Li (approximately 75 kilometers). After another 300 Li (approximately 150 kilometers), we'll enter the territory of Duke Danner of Kush, and then we'll be safe."

With Hohen's order, the entire Papal State moved again, and the newly joined citizens also began to march forward with the veterans.

Due to the previous two battles, although both major battles were won, nearly thirty people were still killed or wounded.

In addition, Saint Sunken was well-known, and some refugees who had long been dissatisfied with the church nobles simply joined, bringing the population back to just over 1,200.

Walking on the Blood and Sweat Road, Hohen looked to both sides, one puddle connected to another, and scattered bushes were distributed between the puddles.

From time to time, one or two water voles would stick their heads out from the roadside and then quickly retract them, and some otters were swimming by with branches in their mouths.

The Blood and Sweat Road in front of Hohen was slightly higher than the surrounding terrain, a bit like a dike, and the road surface was about the width of two carriages side by side.

The ground was made of hard rubble, and the gaps between the rubble were filled with unknown materials. Although it was not as good as a cement road, it was much better than a rammed earth road.

Ginkgo and lantern trees grew along the roadside, and occasionally there would be a wooden bridge or a raised layer of soil extending all the way from the distant foot of the mountain to the roadside.

"If we walk through these roads, can't we attack those beastman villages?"

"Yes."

Sissi replied immediately.

"Then why didn't the empire directly attack the villages from these small roads before?"

Jeshka replied with a smile: "The nobles here in the Thousand River Valley have tried several times before.

When they marched and attacked, these beastmen would support themselves with long poles and jump between the dark ditches and puddles to attack them.

These small roads are too narrow, allowing at most two people to walk side by side. They can't avoid them, especially since they are wearing armor. Once they are pushed into the mud on the side of the road, they can't climb out at all.

The nobles organized three attacks, and each time they were resolved by these beastmen and wild men. In addition, after investigation, they found that this place had no resources, so they gave up."

So that's how it is? Hohen didn't continue to ask, but continued to urge the villagers to hurry to the mountain road.

If this kind of road interspersed in the puddles is attacked, I am afraid it will be the same as the nobles of the Thousand River Valley.

Because he needed to practice riding skills, and he had captured a lot of horses before, Hohen did not continue walking at this time, but changed to riding a horse.

Just thinking about the beastmen, he looked up and saw a pair of fluttering beast ears flashing past the intersection.

"Did you see that just now?" Hohen asked Jeshka beside him.

Jeshka nodded with a solemn expression: "I saw it, it should have been sent by the beastman village, we have to be careful next."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a whistling sound of a signal arrow rising into the sky.

ps: Ambush!