What's wrong with me, a mage, loving to farm?

Chapter 157. The Greedy Orange, a Hidden Chapter (5K)

A prisoner who then jumped down proved this point:

"He definitely didn't intend to kill me."

The female victim, a former clown from the Stardust Circus, toyed with a bomb made entirely of magic in her hand and remarked strangely, "This guy looks like he was forced."

"And I sensed a color on him that was somewhat similar to the light emanating from the mage... it was orange, I think."

Although it was just her guess and feeling, she couldn't help but tremble when she said those words, as if she had been pierced through by the icy air and felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

Upon hearing her words, the three silently touched their arms, or more precisely, the spot where the thorns of justice had been planted.

Lord Kroya imprinted an eternal golden magic within it, a magic that endlessly radiates warmth within the thorns, their unwavering goal.

But at this moment, when they looked at the castle, it seemed as if they sensed something, and a greedy orange halo was swirling around it.

It seemed to envelop the entire castle, and even in the blizzard, it continued to emanate an indescribable power, as if enticing people to keep going.

"..."

"Let's go back!"

Ryan suppressed the turmoil in his heart and quickly led his two companions and the tortured man back to the team that was waiting in the distance.

He felt that if he stayed here any longer, he might not be able to resist the temptations and allurements.

……

At this moment, on Hanjiao Island.

Kroya suddenly stood up. In his mind, within the Orange Song chapter that he remembered every single word of clearly, a new poem suddenly appeared.

That is……

"Mammon's boundless greed."

He read out the title of the chapter and also saw its contents. It was a story about someone who received the blessing of the orange light but could not satisfy their greed.

The story of how He eventually transformed into the orange demon under the sunlight.

Kroya was absolutely certain... that the power those children felt came from greed.

Those greedy forces seemed to sense the unchanging eternal light within the apprentices and wanted to tempt them into being tainted by greedy desires.

The eternal light ensures that these greedy forces cannot directly touch their bodies, but if they develop such a desire, the light will quickly dim and disappear.

At that time, these apprentices will surely become greedy puppets.

At the same time, he also vaguely understood that if he wanted to finish learning this hidden chapter, he needed to erase his greed, which would allow him to gain a great deal of power!

And only then can it be considered a complete Orange Song.

"...Sunlight paints desire with seven colors."

"I'm afraid there are still seven deadly sins that will correspond to seven colors."

He sighed deeply, sat back down in his seat, and remained silent, watching the screen.

He wanted to know how the apprentices would choose before giving instructions to the mushroom man and telling them something.

……

Outside Baron Andy's castle.

The apprentices had already had a discussion.

They ultimately decided to rescue the people inside the castle—many of whom were probably their relatives and friends, and they couldn't bear to watch them perish.

After they made this decision, the mushroom man tremblingly conveyed Kroya's meaning: "The lord said that you do not need to worry about the power of the demons affecting you, as they dare not approach you at will."

But you must be careful, because a being possessed by a demon can still kill you if it uses its power.

After it finished speaking, it opened its mouth and emitted a clear harp melody.

Upon hearing this melody, the apprentices felt a slight movement of golden light within the thorns inside their bodies.

Like dew glistening in the morning sunlight, it has hidden itself away.

Even the mage apprentices felt Kroa's blessing.

The effects of the eternal light remained, and even became stronger and more unique, completely repelling that strange power from the body.

"Your master has been watching over you."

The mushroom-man, who had transmitted the music himself, collapsed, utterly exhausted.

Upon hearing the mushroom man's words, the knights exchanged glances, but suddenly gained confidence—Kroya had been watching them all along!

Upon learning this, they were suddenly filled with boundless courage, as if the thorns within them sensed their will.

It stirred briefly, then fell silent again.

"Let's go!"

Ryan finally decided, "Lord Chloe is watching us; we absolutely cannot let him down!"

"As we just discussed, let's go and rescue the people inside first. If there's any danger, I'll face that Jitter with the armor and sword that Master gave me."

The young knight apprentice took out an exquisite bottle containing a kind of gaseous flame of prayer.

This is one of his trump cards. As long as he swallows these flames of light, he will gain their power for a short period of time, allowing him to approach level two.

However, the cost is that internal organs and systems will be burned by the flames, causing some damage and resulting in a period of weakness.

However, as long as the goal can be achieved, it's worth it.

"How can we let you go alone, Captain?"

"We have something too!"

Seeing that their captain was prepared to fight to the death, the apprentices stopped holding back and took out all their belongings.

There are gadgets that can fire holy light projectiles, modified scorched pepper balls, and even scrolls decorated with magic runes.

These are all little gadgets that Kroya made in his spare time to hone his skills, but even a gadget made by a powerful mage is a life-saving treasure for them.

The prisoners also stated that although this was still part of the trial, they would also help if they encountered danger—just kidding, Kroya had already spoken, how could they sit idly by?

"Okay." Ryan nodded.

After confirming that they were all ready, Ryan led them toward the castle and quickly found a corner where he used the Earth and Stone Shaping Scroll to create a hole in the thick wall.

This time, the plan is to infiltrate first, rescue people, and then fight, so of course we can't just climb through the window like before.

Fortunately, they had some friends who were somewhat familiar with the castle, so their infiltration went quite smoothly.

After passing through the narrow hole in the wall, they arrived at the lower level of the castle, where the servants lived.

Normally, this place would be packed with people sleeping on a large communal bed, but right now it's completely empty.

The dim, damp room was lit only by the flickering light of the nearly extinguished lamp on the wall, and the tense and uneasy atmosphere made the apprentices even more cautious.

Only the personal belongings of the servants scattered around the beds tell the story of the lively place that once existed here.

The servants' quarters smelled extremely bad, and things were scattered everywhere. The apprentices scattered one by one, looking for anything that could be used.

Soon, someone found a diary.

The apprentices gathered under the dim light, reading the diary.

The owner of the diary should be a young male servant. Although it is called a diary, it is at most a record of some scattered words.

Moreover, the characters were written crookedly.

This is actually quite normal. In this world, it is already very difficult to learn a little bit of writing, let alone write fluently.

After all, not everyone is like Kroya, prioritizing literacy. He simply cannot accept that the knights and subordinates he has painstakingly trained are illiterate.

"The men have arrived; they have killed the lord."

An apprentice read aloud important passages from the diary.

"They say... if we believe in Mammon, we can witness God's power, ascend to heaven, and rest peacefully in God's embrace."

Only these two sentences in the entire diary are useful.

After watching it, they looked at each other, feeling as if they hadn't watched it at all.

But at least I learned a name: Mammon.

"Tell the mage this, and we'll continue on our way." Ryan patted the mushroom-man on his shoulder, and the mushroom immediately nodded.

They then continued on their way.

Walking cautiously down the dark corridor, as if facing a formidable enemy, they didn't encounter a single person, but soon found the stairs leading to the underground prison.

What's even stranger is that there are no guards here.

They easily reached the bottom of the stairs and found the nobles imprisoned in jail.

Baron Andy and several other nobles were hung upside down on the wall by orange vines, stripped naked, like pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

His scalp had been cut open, and blood was dripping from his head.

"Tick-tock~ Tick-tock~"

The sound of blood dripping was particularly clear in the silent dungeon; in fact, because several people were dripping blood at the same time, the sound even sounded somewhat harmonious.

The apprentices had never seen a piano before, but if they had heard the sound of a piano, they would have been able to sense that these sounds were extremely similar to the music of a piano.

The blood did not drip directly onto the ground, but instead nourished the dense orange vines growing there.

The vine is covered with small orange flowers that emit a strange pollen scent, turning the surrounding environment orange.

This orange color is somewhat similar to the calming orange magical light that Kroa casts, but a closer look reveals the differences.

The former selflessly showers light upon us, bringing peace to our hearts; the latter entices us to draw closer, offering our souls and consciousness to them.

"Hmm."

The victims suddenly covered their heads, took a few steps back, and their eyes were filled with horror.

Just now, they inhaled a little pollen, and they felt their greed becoming uncontrollable; they wanted more—magic, status…

The feeling almost overwhelmed them, and they quickly retreated to a place where the pollen couldn't reach them, panting heavily as if they had survived the ordeal.

They didn't have the light given to them by Kroya, and their greed was also very strong. After leaving the Stardust Circus, they greedily longed for a better future.

This greed almost led them to be assimilated by the orange pollen.

Fortunately, they had heard Chloe's music.

While the music certainly wasn't as effective as the light that the apprentices had directly rooted in their bodies, it was enough for them to react and take a few steps back.

"Are you alright?" Ryan looked at them warily. In the instructor's lessons, he had emphasized countless times the tragedy of people being controlled by mental magic and then killing each other.

If these prisoners, who are nominally their protectors, were actually taken into custody, he would absolutely not hesitate to draw his sword.

The prisoners shook their heads.

"fine."

A wry smile appeared on their faces; "We can't go in, you guys go in and rescue them."

"Be careful... we may have already alerted them."

The "they" mentioned here are, of course, demons and cultists.

The situation was clearly not optimistic, and the apprentices didn't exchange many pleasantries before rushing straight into the pollen.

The power from Kroa ensured they weren't affected by the orange pollen, and they quickly found more people.

Unexpectedly...

The prison where these people were held had no pollen, and none of them seemed to have been tortured or abused; they were simply locked up there.

"Hey! Jack!"

"It's you, Pete!"

"Edward, you're not dead?"

The people in the prison were overjoyed to see the suddenly appearing apprentices; they all knew each other and hadn't seen each other for some time.

The apprentices were also surprised, and their voices became excited.

"Uncle Joseph?"

"Aunt Ral?"

After confirming that there was no danger, they quickly chopped open the prison bars—these wooden bars certainly couldn't withstand the blows of swords.

It's naturally especially heartwarming to meet friends and family.

However, they did not forget to inquire about the situation here.

"What exactly is going on here?"

"Let me speak."

An elderly man with a white beard, who looked quite energetic, said helplessly, "One day, Jitter suddenly said that he had received divine revelation and that he brought us here."

The castle guards and nobles were no match for the terrifying creatures he summoned.

He led us to occupy the castle, and at first let us walk freely inside, eating whatever we wanted.

Some people felt something was wrong with him, that he might have been bewitched by a demon and had run away, saying he was going to the Great Master of the Reef Island.

He was furious when he discovered this and immediately locked us up here, not allowing us to leave, but food and water were still being delivered by those monsters every day.

We've been here for a long time.

The old man gave a concise and clear account of the recent events, and then couldn't help but sigh at the end.

"I feel that he wasn't completely controlled, but rather forced into this situation."

The serfs on the other baronies nodded in agreement:

"He didn't kill us."

"Are you going to kill him?"

"Is there really no way to bring him back to normal?"

Listening to the chatter of these people, Ryan thought for a moment and decided to take the people to a safe area first.

But now there is still a huge problem... can they withstand the damage from these pollen?

Don't wait until everyone you take out goes crazy; that would be a huge loss.

Just as he hesitated, in the deeper part of the dungeon, in an area shrouded in orange pollen.

A remarkably clear voice rang out.

"Under the radiant light of the goddess, there can be no greed."

Accompanying the sound was an extremely dazzling beam of platinum light, which burst forth from the orange pollen, like a divine sword tearing through the sunlight.

The pollen was like a defeated dog in the face of this beam of light, only able to tuck its tail between its legs and flee in panic, quickly disappearing completely, leaving the surroundings clear.

The apprentices stared blankly at the scene, almost thinking that Kroya had come in person.

Unfortunately, the person who walked out from the depths of the dungeon was a blond young man dressed in a rather elaborate but extremely gorgeous and solemn robe, holding a cup-shaped object in his hand.

He had a smile on his face and even waved: "Hey, brave friend!"

"Who are you?"

Before the unknown superhuman, Ryan maintained absolute respect, asking humbly yet arrogantly, "Are you a priest of the church?"

The blond youth scratched his head: "Maybe it used to be."

He was clearly unwilling to discuss the matter, and after giving a vague answer, he went straight to the point.

"Are you here to clean up the Mammon Flowers too?"

After speaking, he looked at the young men and women in front of him suspiciously and asked curiously:

"No, although you are slightly better than the church's knight apprentices, you are still too weak to clean up these things."

Ryan shook his head.

"We are Lord Kroya's apprentices from Han Reef Island."

"Our superiors ordered us to come out and gain experience, but we unexpectedly encountered this situation."

The blond youth's confusion deepened: "Hanjiao Island... I just returned from outside the kingdom, and I really don't know who he is."

"But none of that matters!"

He waved his hand: "Brave children, since you're here... I'll be going now!"

"May the light of the goddess shine upon you."

After saying that, he turned around and left decisively, quickly disappearing into the depths of the dungeon.

It's like shedding a huge burden.

"..."

The apprentices fell silent for a long time upon seeing this scene.

Are you really gone? Aren't you part of the church? Isn't it your responsibility to cleanse the demons?

They were genuinely at a loss as to how to deal with this exceptionally eccentric priest.

Finally, Ryan spoke up: "We..."

Before he could finish speaking, another figure suddenly ran out of the dungeon—it was the priest.

As he ran outside, he waved, shouting, "Come with me! That demon has found me; it won't allow anyone to leave!"

The apprentices dared not be negligent, for they had already heard a sound like snakes crawling coming from the depths of the dungeon, growing louder as it approached.

Those were huge, thick vines, surging out from the depths like ferocious snakes, heading this way.

"Run!"

They dragged the still confused serfs one by one, hurriedly running back to where they came from, hoping to leave this place as soon as possible.

感谢罗兰奥古斯都、宅界新手、卢燊、空筝、听雨无忧、失眠小虫、子非小鱼乾、wyx、红尘客_梦、书友2017010121265112、书友20230225195154427、殇心丶琴阁、书友20220304170022601、书友20200607230130397、书友20230409949_eD大佬们的月票和推荐票，感谢大佬！

(End of this chapter)