Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland.

Chapter 561 Bloodstained Blueprints (Combined Chapter)

Wurman was silent for a moment.

As a bee man, he was well aware of the dangers of an infestation of dead bees, and those zombie monsters did not kill out of appetite or stress response.

Killing itself is their purpose.

As long as the fog men are not eliminated one day, they will definitely spread everywhere and attack villages and passers-by... And the military leaders of the Holy Kingdom actually gave up such a good opportunity for the sake of fighting for power, even if it is their own land that will be disturbed in the future...

After reacting, he subconsciously took the book and asked in confusion: "What is this?"

"I have shown the design drawings of the Sacred Base to the Grand Commander, your Red King. He asked me to give them to you." Griffin said in a calm tone, as if this was not a big deal at all. "I actually came here specifically to give you this."

Hearing this, the Beeman engineer was shocked.

He quickly opened the book.

This thick yellow scroll shows the defensive structures including city walls, trenches, and the simple defense locations of military buildings such as arrow towers and barracks. The lines are crude and obviously not made by professional engineers, but with the densely packed handwritten data notes and explanations below, with Woman's ability, he can completely restore them.

He didn't have time to take a closer look, but quickly asked: "How did you get this?"

"I drew it," Griffin said.

"You?" Woman couldn't believe it and looked at him in surprise.

The general education level of the people in the Holy Kingdom is not high. Not to mention whether he could write the notes below, as a soldier of the Holy Kingdom at that time, he privately recorded and described the layout of the military base in such detail... This is definitely an act of espionage.

According to what Griffin just said, their troops were about to withdraw, so how did he have the time and opportunity to do it?
Seeing Woman's confusion, Griffin said, "I took the initiative to apply to stay at the Holy Base... to cover our retreat."

"After capturing the abandoned sacred base, most of our soldiers thought the troops would continue to move forward and this would be the future outpost."

"So, many brave brothers volunteered to come here, hoping to eliminate these blue monsters in one fell swoop."

"However, I was the only one who knew at the time: the Inquisitors had already decided to retreat because the schedule was quite urgent. They were worried that the Fog People would make a comeback and catch up with the main force, slowing down the progress of the retreat... This base, which was not under their jurisdiction in the first place, could just block them from the rear and intercept them."

"But because of this, it would be trapped in the fog and become a sacrifice to cover everyone's retreat." Griffin said, "My commander was worried that he would also die, so he got drunk out of worry... A few days later, he used his connections to transfer away from the front-line troops."

"Then you want to stay?" Wurman's eyes widened. "Is it because you want to copy the layout of the base..."

"No," Griffin denied. "At that time, I hadn't joined the Cult of Embers yet, and I didn't even know there was such a person as the Grand Master in the world... I just couldn't bear it. I couldn't bear to see those ignorant brothers die in vain with the passion to fight against the Mist Man."

"Among those who know the truth, no high-ranking paladin is willing to stay, but I will soon be promoted to a paladin, and I think at least... I have this obligation." Griffin stroked the paladin's cross in his hand, as if touched by memories, and gently recited a prayer: "Love and peace... for the Lord of Light, Oakland."

"However, it was there that I met a priest... Well, judging from your expression, you should have guessed it. Yes, he was a priest who secretly converted to Embers." In the surprised eyes of Woman, he slowly raised his head, "Then, I listened to the truth."

The truth about history, technology, and the world.

What touched Griffin even more was that this was completely consistent with a dream he had when he was young: at that time, the Lord of Light Auckland came to him in a dream and told him that he would meet a wealthy foreign wanderer in the future, and this person would lead him to find the truth about the "first extinction".

This is revelation.

It was for this reason that Griffin felt he was called to leave his hometown and join the Holy Kingdom Army, rising through the ranks from the Son of the Chosen... Unfortunately, the prophecy never came true, and he gradually came to regard this memory as a fantasy dream common during adolescence.

But now, it has become a reality.

According to the priests, the founder of the Order of Ashes, the Grand Master, was just a lowly scavenger at the beginning of his career, but he rose all the way, wandered around, and finally founded the order.

Unlike other religious sects that strictly abide by rules and regulations, the Order of Ashes encourages development, technological progress, and the free flow of wealth... Their operating funds are supported by the Blacksmiths' Armory Guild and Brotherhood in the town of Scone.

As their owner, the head of the group is undoubtedly a wealthy man.

All vague signs.

There is a one-to-one correspondence in the priest's story.

As an engineer from the swamp, Worman still underestimated the development of the Order of Embers.

This sect, with Skun as its origin, was not only popular throughout the entire Shak Kingdom with Bayan's secret support, but more importantly, it occupied all the ecological niches of the original Auckland Sect - almost all of the wandering missionaries sent by the Holy Kingdom converted to the Ashes Sect.

Originally, they could only hide timidly in dark corners, and could only choose rare humans in the Shek Kingdom to preach. At the same time, after witnessing the prosperity of the outside world, these originally most determined priests had to endure inner conflicts and doubts at all times.

Initially, in the eyes of the Saints, the Shek tribe were just the most barbaric, uncivilized and corrupt demons. They believed that the sacred breastplate and the Paladin's Cross passed down from their ancestors were enough to defeat these monsters covered in scales.

But with the new policy reforms.

The Shek Kingdom began to introduce various new technologies and productivity, including wind power, smelting, forging, medicine... Although the street lights on the streets of Scone flickered from time to time, they were many times brighter than the torches of the Holy Kingdom.

This is the most intuitive change.

Even in terms of overall national strength, the Shek Kingdom is still far inferior to the Holy Kingdom; in terms of economic and technological levels, it cannot even compare with the United City, which is its learning object... But the wandering missionaries who went out actually saw a kind of vitality in these ancient enemies of theirs.

And the new policy is just the beginning.

Give it time.

It is indeed possible to surpass the Holy Empire, which has a large population but stagnant social development.

The converts also heard in Bard's poems the story of the nameless man, the founder of the Order of Ashes, who broke through the obstacles to the New Deal, wiped out the Kral's Choice, and even saved the kingdom's chief advisor.

The acceleration of the new policy of the Shek Kingdom is indeed tied to the development of the Cult of Embers, and the two are complementary to each other.

As the new policies made the kingdom more open, the number of technical talents continued to increase, which provided the Ashes Order with fertile soil to take root; and the Ashes Order's wide-ranging influence and unique doctrinal ideas further broke the original social atmosphere, while allowing many priests who had returned from their studies to devote themselves to local development and production.

In contrast.

The Oakland Church, which restricts culture and resists technology, has gradually lost its sacredness even in the hearts of its original believers.

To the extent that Huo Buyang was even able to send a small group of secret missionaries back to the Holy Kingdom to preach.

And one of them.

With his original identity as an apprentice priest of the Oakland Church, he infiltrated the Holy Kingdom army.

The purpose is also very clear.

[Sacred Base] So——

"I know that the Grand Master will build a promised city in the future land of Shan as a base for the rekindling of the flames of civilization... and in order to extinguish the First Flame, his enemies will certainly do everything they can."

Griffin smiled:
"Then, in order to protect this hard-earned fruit... the Holy Base is the most suitable. It was created for protection. However, this time, it is protecting the 'embers' instead of the 'holy fire'."

Because in his opinion, the Olympic flame in Auckland had indeed been extinguished long ago.

It is time to admit that the world we have today is not the treasure originally created by the Creator, but the wreckage that struggles to survive after repeated destruction.

There is nothing worth reminiscing about it.

We are now entering the Age of Ashes.

"I don't recognize many words, mainly the Holy Fire and the Glorious Codex that I secretly read. The extra words were dictated by me and then recorded by the priest. As a soldier stationed in the Holy Base on the front line, I think I have a comprehensive understanding of the structure and function of its various parts."

Worman flipped through the book again in surprise. This time, in addition to the drawings, he paid close attention to the notes below.

"Choose terrain, high ground or ridges that are easy to defend but difficult to attack, with a wide field of vision and more physical energy required for the enemy to attack; make reasonable use of more natural barriers such as rivers and cliffs, with the river width preferably exceeding 50 meters and the cliff height 20 meters... Set up three lines of defense: the front line, the main line of defense, and the internal line of defense, layer by layer to increase the depth of defense capabilities. Each line of defense should maintain a distance, and reserve space for troop movements and tactical changes. It should be enough to accommodate at least a thousand soldiers' collective maneuvers, and the composition of the troops..."

From building types, stronghold location selection to troop ratio and deployment... the books Griffin brought covered almost everything. The so-called "Sacred Base" did not represent a dead and static military town, but a complete defense and military system.

This is the ability that enabled the Holy Kingdom to stand for a thousand years despite being surrounded by powerful enemies.

Griffin's account is not only comprehensive, it is penetrating.

His own military talents should never be underestimated.

No matter how much more there was, it was still a bit incomprehensible to Woman. He had to admit that Pastor Meyer might have more say in military engineering. If they wanted to build a sacred base, they must work together.

The confidentiality and value of this blueprint...is simply immeasurable.

Lu Meng chose the sacred base as the type of his [Outpost], and it was not a sudden decision.

Or rather.

That was premeditated.

However, even he did not expect that the Order of Ashes would spread and grow so rapidly because of Bard's attention; and the blueprints of the Holy Base could be obtained so early - according to the original plan, if sending spies and assassins failed to produce results for a long time, he would have to take the time to go there himself.

Griffin, as a special character with great potential in the original version, was surprised to be accepted by the Order of Embers - in the other party's background story, the wanderer who brought revelation was undoubtedly a reference to the player himself, which was a small easter egg left by the production team.

I just didn't expect it to come true in this way.

What he didn't expect was that the other party also brought such a valuable gift, which saved him a lot of energy and time, and could greatly speed up the construction of the stronghold and shorten the time to be promoted to an [Outpost].

Therefore, after meeting with Griffin, he immediately asked the other party to contact Warman and Mailer, while he began to plan the next step with others.

Such good news also diluted the tense atmosphere caused by the threat of revenge and the human skin and skeleton incident.

The beeman engineer's hands were shaking a little. After confirming its authenticity and feasibility, he seemed to be unable to bear the weight of this drawing.

But he remembered another thing:

"So, you copied and recorded this blueprint while you were staying in the ruins of the Holy Base. I can understand that the high-level paladins and inquisitors have left and there is no one to monitor... But how did you leave with the blueprint?"

"The Sacred Base is very solid. It's called a ruin because the soldiers who were stationed there were killed and eaten by the fog people...but all the defenses are still there, and we even have some weapons that haven't decayed." Griffin said, "It was thanks to them and the sentinels who volunteered to stay that we persevered to the end."

In the tide of fog men.

"The priest and I told them the truth... Of course it caused chaos, but it was eventually settled."

Griffin's words were understated, but Woman could imagine: those sentinels who took the initiative to stay and fight against the Mist People, when they learned that reinforcements would not arrive, and even that the Holy Nation would not continue to march to the Mist Island to completely eliminate the threat, and that their fight was in vain...how intense the despair must have been in their hearts as victims.

I'm afraid that even the most steadfast Aucklanders would have collapsed under the circumstances.

Griffin said it easily, but with internal and external troubles, it would certainly not be a peaceful means to quell the unrest.

It is definitely not a happy memory.

At this moment, the beeman engineer turned to the next page and paused - a large bloodstain appeared on it, a mixture of dark red and blue-green, and it had completely dried.

The entire book had obviously been carefully cleaned, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not completely erase these traces.

"Where are they?" asked Worman.

"The Fog People did come back, and because there was no support from the rear, the Holy Base was quickly surrounded," Griffin said softly. "I am quite strong and was able to cross the Holy Kingdom border without being caught and treated as a deserter. The priest asked me to deliver the blueprint... and he himself led the remaining soldiers to break through and go deep into the center of the Fog Island."

"He said that if the Grand Master's prophecy is correct, there is a city beneath the fog in the center of the Fog Man's Death Field."

“That’s their last hope.”

After saying that, the knight in black armor stopped talking and looked into the distance - the red earth wall stretched all the way to the sky. From the appearance, it was indeed unattractive and might even make many people feel disgusted... But it was such a wall that rose from the ground during the beast disaster and sheltered countless lives.

It is not as magnificent as a palace.

But it is far more precious.

He knew that some herdsmen in the land of Shem had already called it "the Red King's Unbreakable Wall"... But only when he saw it with his own eyes did he feel such a contrast and shock, so much so that he had not expected it and failed to recognize it before.

Captain Lu Beiyou...even a dirt wall can be so effective in his hands.

In contrast.

Griffin couldn't help but wonder: What would have happened if he had been the one guarding the sacred base at that time?
At least, it won't end the same way.

Griffin, wearing black armor and holding a cross-shaped heavy sword, performed a scepter salute to Woman, who was still staring at the blueprints and books, and said, "I hope we can all see the day when the promised city is built soon."

Then turned and left.

(End of this chapter)