The Embers of King's Teyvat Journey

"Come up!"

Ember pulled the stick upwards, dragging the village guard below onto the treetop.

"What are you all doing...?" The village guard, perched on the treetop, saw a large group of people at the village entrance and asked Yu Jin curiously.

"It seems like they're discussing moving you guys?" Yu Jin stroked his chin. In the distance, it had turned into a pointless shouting match, and the scholars from the Order of the Church were completely overwhelmed.

"Moving? No! No... This place... is fine... don't move..."

Upon hearing this, the village guard immediately began rolling around in the tree canopy.

"Do you want to punch a hole in your head and become a real idiot? Who said we were moving? Did you agree or did I agree?"

Ember subdued the village guard who was rolling around in the tree canopy; if he hadn't intervened, the guy would probably be on the ground by now.

The village keeper fell silent, for he heard that they no longer needed to move.

Chapter 658 A Place the Church Cannot Touch

2024-05-10

"You... you..."

"What do you mean, 'what ...? You bunch of little white rabbits sheltered by the big trees should get out of the desert right now. The yellow sand here is more ferocious than the most venomous snakes in the rainforest!'"

A villager who looked menacing shoved him hard, and the scholar from the Order of the Church in front of him staggered and collapsed to the ground.

This scene drew laughter from the villagers of Aru Village, who were nearby. Amid the laughter, a few vulgar words occasionally flew out.

Desert people receive very little education; their knowledge is inferior to that of scholars in the Confessions, but when it comes to cursing, they are miles ahead of the scholars.

Sure enough, in just a short while, the scholar who was confronting the villagers was scolded until his face turned red and he stammered, unable to speak.

"No wonder you people only deserve to stay in the desert, a bunch of uncivilized barbarians!"

The scholar from the Order of the Church rose from the ground, cursing and swearing. He shook his head, clearing the curses from his mind, then pointed at the unfriendly-looking villagers in the distance and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Don't blame us for not giving you a chance. Hand over those lunatics obediently right now, or don't blame us for being impolite!"

The scholar's voice was so loud that it momentarily drowned out the villagers' commotion. However, after a brief silence, what followed was an even more intense barrage of criticism.

"Who do you think you are?"

"Look closely, you outsider! This is the desert, get out of here! Or we'll use your blood to water the flowers!"

"You have a loud voice. I thought you rainforest people were all soft-spoken like women!"

……

No one listened to the scholars. The fact that Aru Village was able to develop into the largest and most orderly human settlement in the desert was partly due to factors of conscience and morality, but even more so to the villagers' fierce martial prowess.

Putting aside everything else, the Crescent Bay Spring, which never dries up, located below Aru Village, is worth no less than an equivalent amount of Mora in the desert.

The dangers that allowed Aru Village to possess this clear spring and live a peaceful life are unimaginable to these scholars.

"You really are a bunch of barbarians! The sages were right, the rainforest should not be defiled by you lot!"

"Who cares about your dog..."

"All right!"

A louder female voice rang out from the crowd, and then Candice, holding a staff in one hand and a shield in the other, stepped out from the crowd.

She glanced around at the grumbling villagers with her heterochromatic eyes. The men who had just been spewing vulgarities were now more polite than anyone else.

They took a few steps back and gave Candice an awkward smile.

Ignoring the villagers' behavior, Candice turned her attention to the scholars in front of her once she was sure it was quiet behind her.

"Scholars, please forgive any offense I may have caused you earlier." Holding the Crimson Sand Staff in her hand, Candice nodded to the furious scholars as if it were business, her voice devoid of any emotion.

"Huff... huff..."

The scholars of the Order of the Church finally had time to calm their anger. Just now, the villagers of Aru Village had been spewing insults in dozens of different styles, giving them no chance to catch their breath.

"I won't bother with you savages."

"Let me remind you guys, you were the ones who started this, and you call your own companion a madman without any qualms. Civilized people don't seem to do that, do they?"

Candice slammed her Crimson Sand Staff into the ground, sending up sand that stung the scholars' faces.

"Forget it, it's a waste of time to talk about these trivial things with you guys! Since you seem to have any influence here, give me a straight answer, those lunatics..."

"Ok?"

Candice's sharp, leopard-like gaze fell on the leading scholar, causing him to pause in his speech.

"Those...those people, are you going to hand them over or not!"

After reorganizing his words, the scholar asked again. However, this time his tone was not as arrogant as before.

"Would you hand over your own families?" Candice glanced at the scholars in front of her, then sheathed her weapon and turned to leave.

"You should go back. Aru Village does not welcome outsiders with ill intentions."

Candice's retreating figure was so jarring to the scholars. Seeing that Aru Village remained unmoved by the Council's demands, several scholars, their faces filled with anger, threatened:

"You said it yourself. The Order of the Fathers has many tricks up its sleeve. Don't regret it later!"

Unfortunately, their blustering threats went unnoticed by the crowd and failed to attract any attention.

“Go back and tell the sages that they should wait until the Church’s tentacles reach the port of Ormus before they start interfering in the desert.”

"You can't even control the rainforest, yet you want to conquer the desert? I suspect you've been fooled by that leaf next to your ear!"

Candice accepted the scholars' threats without turning her head. In her view, it was more like the impotent rage of children arguing.

The current ecclesiastical councils don't even have a hand in the desert.

"Stop watching the spectacle, everyone, go back!" Candice waved to the villagers who had gathered, and the unruly desert people scattered like birds and beasts.

Before long, only a few scholars remained standing alone in the wind and sand at the entrance of the large village.

"Looks like it's all resolved?"

Ember jumped down from the treetop, carrying the village guard who had been lying with him in the treetop.

"How did you manage to get him up there?" Candice exclaimed in amazement as she looked at the tall, smooth date palm tree.

After sighing, she nodded to the embers and said nonchalantly:

"It's all settled. They were just a bunch of scholars who saw Aru Village as a tool. It seems that our acceptance of the village guardians from the Order of the Church gave them some wrong ideas."

At first, Aru Village was very resistant to accepting mad scholars from the Order of the Church. However, all the dissatisfaction vanished after an earthquake.

An unprecedented earthquake, yet its damage was less than that of a common sandstorm. All of this is thanks to those mad scholars from the Church of Christ.

They protected Aru Village, so from then on, the term "madman" gradually disappeared from Aru Village and was replaced by "village guardian".

"What about the people you're looking for?" Candice asked next. She hadn't met the Grand Disciplinary Officer yet, so perhaps she could get to know him.

"I suspect my friend was lying to me. I've been waiting here for days, and I haven't even detected their presence, let alone seen them."

Yu Jin fell into deep thought. Although he had been quite happy capturing the village guards during his days in Aru Village, he had made no progress on the most important matter, which made him less than happy.

"Perhaps I should try to look outside?" Looking around, the ground near Aru Village was gravelly soil, and further out was an endless sea of ​​sand.

"It's best not to. The desert is extremely dangerous. Even we who have lived here for generations can get lost, let alone a stranger like you."

Candice disagreed with the idea of ​​Ember heading to the desert. Without guidance in the desert, death was the only outcome.

"It's okay to get lost. Maybe I'll just bump into the person I'm looking for while wandering around aimlessly?"

Yu Jin waved his hand dismissively and said.

The desert is indeed dangerous for others, but for Ember, it's just a slightly special tourist attraction.

He couldn't believe there wasn't anything interesting in such a large area. Even if he didn't run into Seno and the others, encountering some strange and unusual things would be quite nice.

"It's decided then, we'll set off tomorrow morning!" Yu Jin waved his hand, deciding the time to head to the desert.

"Alright, I wish you all the best." Seeing Ember's expectant look, Candice could only offer her her blessings.

Chapter 659 Pulling and Seduction

2024-05-10

The desert was utterly silent in the dead of night, if one ignored the embers rushing around nearby.

Today, Ember didn't lie on the sand counting stars as he usually did. He wandered around the outskirts of Aru village, trying to choose a suitable starting point for tomorrow.

Although the scenery near Aru Village was almost identical, Ember still enjoyed comparing the differences.

He was particularly interested in things like unusual phenomena, because the existence of such things meant there would be plenty of fun.

Soon, to the northwest of Aru Village, he saw a faint, blurry shadow. Judging from the shape of the shadow, it should be some kind of huge pyramid.

"It's a good place, I'll make a note of it." Yu Jin nodded. He was right. How could such a large place not have some interesting things?

However, just as he was about to change direction and investigate the other side in detail, he saw a swaying figure appear in Aru Village late at night.

"Going out to relieve yourself?" Yu Jin scratched his head. Because he had experienced this before, he didn't pay much attention at first.

But as time went on, things started to get strange—mainly because this person had crossed the public toilet in Aru Village and was about to run out of the village.

“There’s a problem.” Yu Jin decisively abandoned his work of surveying the terrain, approached the figure, and shrank behind him.

To his surprise, the figure that ran out in the middle of the night was none other than the village guard who had been making a ruckus during the day.

In stark contrast to his energetic daytime demeanor, the village keeper now walks with a limp, muttering to himself, as if a gust of wind or sand could blow him away.

"Sleepwalking? Mentally ill people also sleepwalk?" The villager's appearance reminded Yu Jin of some symptoms of sleepwalking.

"Then does that mean we can't disturb them?" As he squatted in the back, deep in thought, Yu Jin realized that this was a tricky problem.

It's said that sleepwalkers shouldn't be woken up, or their brains will be completely ruined. Although the village guards' minds have already started to malfunction, Ember still hopes to prevent their brains from being further damaged if possible.

"We're about to leave the village? This is going to be difficult." Swaying and staggering, the village guards ahead were about to leave Aru Village.

Moreover, because of the wide field of vision, Yu Jin was surprised to find that there was more than one villager who was "sleepwalking".

"I heard you went mad because you absorbed divine knowledge from the World Tree."

"So... this thing should be very useful, right?"