Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 248 The Ancient Serpent's Thick Soup

Destruction comes silently.

At first, people only felt a little tired. Although this was obviously abnormal, it was normal for everyone to feel tired after the city had been operating at full capacity all day.

Therefore, apart from the necessary defenses and the maintenance of the city's operation, those who could take leave did so. After all, with the Serpent God lurking outside the city, they only needed to rest for a day to recover their strength, and there shouldn't be any problems.

But who could have imagined that this rest would last for a full seven days?

After seven days, everyone was still exhausted. As for why no one had reacted after seven days, it was because the clerks who were responsible for notifying people to start work had also collapsed—they not only lacked the energy to get up and leave the house, but even had pustules growing on their bodies.

It was at this moment that everyone realized that this was more than just simple fatigue.

But when they finally managed to force themselves out of their homes, wanting to find the four priests to resolve the matter...

The four priests were even more severely ulcerated than the others, and they were no longer recognizable as human beings.

"This……"

Looking at the four still-breathing, mangled bodies, people felt a chill run down their spines.

"kill me……"

At that moment, one of the four priests let out a weak, mournful cry.

"Kill us..."

The agonizing screams sent chills down the spines of everyone present. The four priests were currently the strongest in Tatunbuto, and even they could only wail and await their death; their pitiful state was truly appalling…

"and many more?"

Just then, a quick-witted clerk abruptly raised his head.

"Yes! Kill them!"

Upon hearing this, the others thought he had gone mad. After all, no matter how badly the four priests were treated, they were still one of their own. They should at least try to save them instead of killing them outright. But then, someone realized what he was trying to do.

"Yes! Kill them!"

Without hesitation, the clerks used their last remaining strength to grab a few desks and smash the four already mangled heads.

The souls of the four priests naturally returned to the underworld.

Yes, if these four priests were dead, it would be easier to handle—after all, just by looking at the way they were rotting, it was clear that they wouldn't survive to leave the city, let alone leave the city; they wouldn't even be able to leave this room.

Instead, if the four priests were killed directly, their souls would return to the underworld, allowing them to see the serpent god without even leaving the city gates.

As it turned out, this was indeed the fastest way. Less than a quarter of an hour after the four priests died, Du Yi, who was stationed outside the city, had already received the complete news.

"You mean, you suddenly became covered in sores and then you died?"

Upon receiving the message from the four priests who had already arrived in the Underworld, Du Yi was momentarily confused.

Although it sounds like some kind of disease, in reality it is far from something that can be explained by disease—because disease, after all, only affects the body, but those four priests clearly had damage to their souls as well.

The exhaustion of the previous week wasn't physical fatigue at all; it was a matter of the soul being unable to provide sufficient power, causing the consciousness to be unable to drive the body to function normally. However, the people of Tatunbhut couldn't see this level of problem, which is why they kept delaying treatment, even allowing the festering sores to spread directly to the body.

"This is clearly not something from here."

Du Yi immediately made a judgment.

The reason for this judgment is simple: these local natives are really too weak. Whether it's him or those Tatunbuto people, from top to bottom, there isn't a single one who can truly harm the soul.

Their technology is far from reaching that level; this must be a product of the stars.

"However, with our current level of technology, we can at least do one other thing."

It was at this moment that Ansag's soul, one of the four priests, put forward an idea.

Ansag's idea was simple: while there were still a batch of terracotta figures, he would simply put the souls of the dead into the terracotta figures, and everyone would stop using their physical bodies and live in the terracotta figures for the time being. If they still needed to use their physical bodies, that was also possible; once this inexplicable epidemic was over, they could find a way to replace their bodies back.

However, Du Yi rejected this proposal.

"Simply changing the body won't do any good; the problem lies with the soul."

Although he knew it was a problem with the soul, Du Yi didn't know exactly what it was. At this moment, he suddenly missed Ilya being dead. At least when this chosen champion commentator was around, there was someone who could answer his questions about knowledge from the stars.

For now, he has no choice but to do it himself.

"The power of life and death reincarnation might solve this problem, but to use that power of life, we still need to bring those souls to the underworld first... To put it bluntly, they are still dead, and it may even take a considerable amount of time to recover before they can be resurrected."

This is indeed a solution, but it's a last resort. Compared to letting his men die, Du Yi prefers to cure them directly.

"But, if we want to nourish the soul..."

It was at this moment that Du Yi suddenly remembered the so-called divine food.

The food that he found completely useless was actually beneficial to the locals, but they gained experience from eating it. Du Yi remembered that when he was puzzled by this, Ujat, the sun god who had now become a new energy barbecue grill, also said that the meat he grilled could not possibly activate his own consciousness.

Conversely, the meat he grilled could actually stir up the consciousness of the residents of Tatunbto.

Although Du Yi still needs to study the underlying principles, if we think about it in this direction, doesn't that mean that the food he cooks can directly nourish people's souls through their consciousness?

"Try it!"

Du Yi was always the type to act on his words, so he immediately laid the sun god Ujat on the ground, ready to fire.

Roasted meat was definitely not suitable; with those people's weak teeth, they probably couldn't eat something that required chewing. So after a moment's thought, Du Yi came up with a suitable solution.

Thus, Ujat, the sun god who had already turned into a thin sheet, was subjected to a second impact. Not only was his entire body smashed into the ground, but a huge crater was also rammed into his chest and abdomen.

After that, Du Yi began to pour water into the pit.

He was preparing to make soup.

(End of this chapter)