Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1203 The Kind Lord

The style of the palace where the Good Lord of Paradise City lives is different from that of the one in Rock Cellar City.

——It can even be said to be the exact opposite.

The good lord of Rock Cellar City, the "Honest Afshin", should actually be considered an artist - although his art is a bit bloody and cruel, it is actually quite good in Aiwas's opinion.

The most important art system in Anxi... or the most highly regarded and high-end art system is called miniature painting. It is different from the art style popular in Iris that pursues realism, harmony and light and shadow... It pursues delicate brushstrokes and bright colors, using color rather than light and shadow or lines as the core.

There are realistic and abstract types of miniature painting. But in general, it does not emphasize light and shadow, or even the sense of space and perspective. It is mainly used for flat decoration. The subject matter is basically various recognizable characters, and almost all of them are sideways, a bit like the illustrations in picture books. Or it is a variety of evenly distributed runes, flowers, animals, clouds and water, which is quite similar to the style of meticulous painting.

Afshin's work perfectly conforms to all the rules required for miniature painting and is in line with the aesthetics of the Parthians. No wonder he proudly displays it in the hall for everyone to see.

Based on this purpose, his palace was built entirely to showcase his artworks to the greatest extent possible - in a sense, it is not actually a palace, but more like a gallery for displaying paintings. Therefore, it does not have so many functional rooms. The gorgeous but not complicated decorations are the "seasoning" prepared to match these artworks.

The gold ornament is essentially a picture frame, and the water curtain is the canvas that protects the treasure.

And the Palace of the Good Lord in the City of Heaven...it's more like a temple than a palace.

That style would remind Aiwas of the giant temple on the ancient island of Avalon.

Cylindrical pure white boulders were connected together to form a temple as flat as a cake. Above it was a strange device - it looked like a clock tower, with a large and complex mechanical structure. Inside the temple, one could clearly hear a subtle sound similar to that of a watch spring.

But generally speaking, the clock on the clock tower should at least be visible to people.

But the dial of the temple built by Adil is facing the sky.

No one can see the time unless they fly directly above the palace.

It was as if... he built an alarm clock tower for the gods in heaven.

The white robe he wore looked as simple as that of an ancient Greek philosopher. He looked more like a priest than a benevolent leader.

That's why Aiwass says they are polar opposites.

Because here, it is not the palace that serves the people, but the people that serve the palace.

Once you enter the palace, this feeling becomes clearer.

The slaves who served the good master also wore neat and simple white clothes. There were not many flashy decorations in the temple, but there was a lot of lead and gold - the floor, walls, and ceiling of the temple were all made of pure lead, and reliefs and etchings were made of gold, and the walls were full of praises for Huantiansi.

——Evans looked quite uncomfortable.

There is an extremely embarrassing feeling...

Adil, the benevolent lord of Paradise City, took Aiwas into the inner room.

Although the scale of Paradise City is much larger than Rock Cellar City, the palace where the Good Lord lives is only one-third of the size. According to Aiwass's understanding, this is not because Afshin is too extravagant... On the contrary, Afshin can be regarded as a frugal and pragmatic person among the Good Lords. His wealth is basically used to build underground waterways or purchase various goods from other places.

A large portion of Afshin's money was given by Adil, the philanthropist in Paradise City.

But Adil's own reception room was not even as big as Aiwas's bedroom in the Palace of Silver and Tin. This room was only about 30 square meters, which could even be considered narrow for a person like Shanzhu who had a higher status than the king.

In this reception room, the largest area was occupied by a statue. Looking at the statue, Aiwas' pupils suddenly focused.

——Because that is the holy statue of Huantiansi!

Its appearance was exactly the same as the Huantiansi that Aiwas had seen during the promotion ceremony—even the ring behind it was restored. That upright face full of divinity was at least 70% similar to Aiwas... This was probably the reason why Adil was stunned the moment he saw Aiwas and very politely called Aiwas "you".

He was probably trying to confirm whether he was the incarnation or apostle of Huan Tiansi.

Although they look very similar, Aiwass and Huan Tiansi have completely different temperaments after all.

However, this degree of similarity also has power in this world. The twin mirrors of the path of beauty allow similar things to gain similar power. On the other hand, if they are completely unrelated, they cannot become so similar through pure coincidence.

It is similar to Huantiansi to this extent, and even has the same inheritance of the shepherd's secret sutra...

A rather reasonable thought popped up in Aiwas' mind: He wouldn't think of me as Huanhuan's direct descendant, right?
Then he really had to be polite to Aiwass.

This is like the general manager of a branch company suddenly discovering that the son of the chairman of the head office has come to inspect. Naturally, he would be surprised and then treat him well.

The statue was built on a slightly higher platform, and it looked like a bed, except that this bed did not have pillows and quilts, but instead had some futons.

Adil was sitting cross-legged on a cushion, and only one meter behind him was the statue of Huantiansi.

Originally, there were six futons of different colors in this room. Now, in order to entertain Aiwass and his "daughter" Leviathan, a table and two sofa chairs were specially moved in. There was also a high platform under one of the chairs, so that Aiwass could almost look at Adil at eye level.

"I'm very sorry for the poor hospitality."

Adil spoke in a gentle, even humble tone: "My place is different from other city-states... I care more about making those who follow me happy. So I use most of my resources for construction and charity."

"…You mean, the free food and water?"

"That was part of it. When I ate meat, I gave them meat. When I drank pomegranate juice, I gave them pomegranate juice. If I wanted to drink wine, I gave them wine. I had slaves to serve me, so I gave them slaves. They ate and drank with me, and they wore the same clothes and ate the same food. That's how we understood each other.

"As for the slaves living underground, their food and drink expenses are actually quite a large expense. Even if we feed them with the cheapest food, it is still difficult to keep them alive. Even if some of them can be used for sacrifice... but just in case, I will still give priority to buying slaves from the outer city.

"I will also replace my legions with better equipment so that they can survive better and fight for me. This investment is worth it. An excellent slave knight is worth fifty slaves, and if he is equipped with equipment worth fifty slaves, his value can easily surpass a hundred slaves.

"As for myself - I don't like too much luxury, it will make my spirituality dull and make my devotion numb. So I usually do penance here, only eat two meals a day without sugar and salt, and only eat half full. So I really don't have anything good here, I'm sorry.

"But I will send someone to prepare some food for you. Some time ago, someone presented a batch of very high-quality fish sauce. It is a special blood sauce made from tuna blood and viscera. It is a specialty of Avalon and I like it very much. Can you try it too?"

——Although it sounds funny for a person who lives in a truly "magnificent" palace, has about three hundred slaves serving him, eats food that is several times more expensive than gold, and says that he is practicing asceticism.

But Aiwass knew... for the good master, this could really be considered as penance.

This is even more ironic.

There is still one chapter left at around one o'clock. I was so sleepy that I accidentally fell asleep just now, and now the second chapter is not finished yet!
Ah wow, the cycle has begun again——

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(End of this chapter)