Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 760 Only Banshees Are Special?

Chloe couldn't answer either of the two questions, and her diary pages remained blank.

The chaos inside the house gradually subsided, and people dispersed.

Jules' letter had a significant impact on Castells—Shughes sent many people to try to investigate the secret history.

At the same time, he also planned to strengthen ties with the Silent Sanctuary. These White Crows may have declined in power, but their lineage had not been broken, and they must have a more profound influence on the secrets of this world.

Hughes had promised to provide homes for the refugees in the North, but he had not made the same promise to the Silent Sanctuary.

Now it seems that we could try to deepen our cooperation; the secret histories collected in the sanctuary might be very valuable.
In addition, Hughes changed the future battle plan.

Jules knew more than he imagined, and was perhaps more powerful than he thought.

The Papacy, after all, ruled over most of the continent for centuries and should not be underestimated.

Hughes now takes this war even more seriously and is prepared to go all out.

The military production lines are no longer just for arming Isabella's army; now Hughes has issued a lord's decree to expand the military in full force.

Imperial Truth's recruitment efforts no longer focused on elite soldiers, but began to recruit large numbers of ordinary soldiers.

The new recruitment criteria have been relaxed considerably, and joining the Imperial Truth is no longer required; it is now closer to the auxiliary forces.

The previously elite Imperial Truth Believers are now dispersed, with each Guardian Army leading a small squad of new recruits.

They were trained as junior officers, and even the most basic Imperial Truth Guardians underwent comprehensive command training and education far exceeding that of ordinary soldiers.

In fact, most of the Defenders had engineering experience and directly participated in the reconstruction of Blood Harbor. Many of them even taught at schools, making them truly versatile.

Castells controlled the pace of expansion, which gave him the advantage of highly professional friars. They were able to lead small teams in combat and were also very effective in missionary work and spreading knowledge.

Castells' investment in education was unprecedented; almost all of the friars of the Church were given time off to receive education, and now it was time to reap the rewards.

Apart from that, the Banshee and the Deep Ones both belong to the Church of Poseidon, so this matter didn't cause much of a stir.

Hughes had expected the banshees to be shocked and cause chaos, but nothing happened.

The banshees did indeed harbor deep hatred for the fishmen, but they truly felt nothing for the sea god.

Firstly, the source of the information is Jules Castel's opposing camp, which makes the whole claim less credible.

Secondly...
The succubi do indeed have oral traditions about the fall of gods a thousand years ago.

However, this time span is simply too long.

Hughes even talked to them specifically. The banshees generally didn't care much about such things. To them, it was similar to discovering that Neanderthals had been wiped out by Homo sapiens. They might sigh a few times, but their sense of belonging to the gods? It was long gone.

In a way, they are the only race that has a concept of "gods." Hughes had discussed the word "gods" with them.

The banshee's understanding of the gods was similar to that of Hughes, almost a replica of the interpretation of gods on Earth.

However, other people in this world have a completely different understanding. For example, when Xiao Bu said "You are a god," they just felt that he should be as powerful as an evil god, rather than like the banshee at the beginning, yearning for the protection and recognition of a god.

This is quite interesting. The Church of the Sea God, the only one that believed in a deity, was expelled from the four major churches and then destroyed. The remaining churches don't even know what a "deity" is.
Yes, I don’t know.

Hughes specifically sought out Nora and Helena.

Nora is one thing, since she's not that old, but Helena is a veteran "Undertaker." Although she always avoids talking about her age as a woman, all signs indicate that she has lived for at least two hundred years.

She also had absolutely no understanding of the gods, or rather, her understanding of the gods was basically limited to the general term for evil gods. Hughes took this matter very seriously, setting up several research groups and allocating special funds to send scholars to search for the truth.

With the support of Beatrice and the Silent Sanctuary, there should be some gains to be made.

Besides these, there is one more point worth noting.

That's about Xiao Bu.

Little Bu was discovered by Nini in the underground water veins, and although Nini was ordered by Hughes to go to the Rhine to gather intelligence, she had not actually set off yet.

She didn't find Little B near the Rhine.

On the contrary, the place where she found Little Bu was very close to the Duchy of Tiss. Nini's appearance underground was not accidental; she had gone underground as part of the seawater intrusion plan.

The story begins not long ago.

The Vance family moved from the North to Bloodharbor because they were hiring, specifically carpenters like him.

Logically speaking, both Castells and Bloodharbor had completed basic industrialization. Carpenters, if not unemployed, had basically transitioned to using lathes for their work.

But old Vance was still recruited, along with many other carpenters, because there was still an industry that was difficult to scale up and industrialize.

That's related to the extraordinary.

The seawater mysteriously disappeared shortly after flooding the valley. The researchers at the Fire Moth team discussed the matter for a long time and came up with a somewhat unique solution:

The ritual runes are simplified and engraved on wooden blocks. These blocks are then scattered in large quantities into a river, where they are allowed to disappear with the water. Afterward, a supernatural ritual is used to track down the whereabouts of the wooden blocks.

Supernatural rituals are not precise, industrialized processes; rather, they are quite ambiguous, with many aspects open to interpretation.

Take this kind of wooden block, for example. Depending on the different wood grain patterns, the ritual circuit is carved along the wood grain. This is almost instinctive for carpenters. Carving according to the wood is a basic skill.

But for machines, it's incredibly difficult. Either you have to design a visual judgment system that even Earth can't come up with, or you have to let something like a machine spirit do it.

Dealing with the machine spirits was much harder than dealing with the carpenters, so Hughes recruited a large number of carpenters directly from the North.

His approach proved to be very effective.

After traveling throughout the Duchy of Tiss for several days, the researchers finally found the reason:

Almost all waterways conceal the entrance to underground rivers.

Perhaps it's just a hole the size of a fist, or perhaps it's just an inconspicuous cave, but these tiny cracks all lead to underground rivers.

These underground rivers are incredibly numerous.

Hughes didn't know much about geology, but he felt that the quantity was unusual, so he sent many banshees to explore the underground river.

They possess the special ability to sense water veins, making them perfect for this task.

Nini was one of them; she pulled Xiaobu out while exploring the underground river.

“In other words, Little B went down the underground river from the Rhine, while you went up the underground river,” Hughes said, looking at Nini in front of him.

"An underground river runs directly from Blood Harbor to the Rhine!?"

(End of this chapter)