A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 505 Tao Yuanming in Another World

Rorschach also recalled the miller's conversation, mentioning the contribution to increased grain production.

What's the situation regarding the increased grain production?

"The outsider brought some holy water, saying that if you dip the seeds in it, the wheat will grow bigger. The villagers were skeptical of his words, and even the most credulous ones didn't dip the seeds completely in the water, but only tried it on a small plot of land."

The village chief recalled, but then he muttered to himself, "But this year, both the fields that had been touched by the holy water and those that hadn't yielded a bumper harvest."

Is it a coincidence, or has the Mother Goddess's corruption already spread?

Rorschach told them to hurry to the granary to check on the new grain.

"No need! I think we couldn't finish last year's grain, so this year's grain has all been used to brew wine, and it's underground." Old Merkle uttered another earth-shattering statement.

This stunned the lady: "Didn't I tell you to turn the old grain into wine? And what do you mean by 'all'?"

"Oh, it's all going to be ground into flour and made into bread anyway, so what does it matter if it's new or old? But for brewing wine, you need new grains to get that wheat aroma."

Wow, you're a real tycoon! Your tastes are truly unique and unconventional. Rorschach was speechless. It's a pity that old Merkel wasn't very cultured; otherwise, he would have been a Tao Yuanming from another world.

This old man wasn't like this before. Perhaps his sudden wealth changed his mindset. The burdens of life disappeared in an instant. I wouldn't say he's arrogant, but the old man would never bully men or women. He's just very unreliable.

The village chief's focus remained on Luo Xia's reaction: "You mean there's a problem with this year's grain?"

"Let's go take a look."

In the village chief's granary, Luo Xia saw the newly harvested wheat and the already ground flour. From his perception, trace amounts of magic were gathered together with the piled-up grain. However, the excess was very small; even holding it alone, he couldn't detect anything unusual.

They were very careful. To verify the effect, it was simple: Rorschach injected the wheat seeds with activity, and then they swelled rapidly. Soon, the seeds that were on the verge of death were forcibly stimulated to germinate and grow at an abnormal speed and in an abnormal manner.

"What is this?"

"It's obviously a mutation." In Rorschach's hand, there was no familiar wheat seedling, but a withered, yellowish clump of deformed product, with swollen and curled roots and stems, and the parts that could barely be identified as leaves were shrunken.

The village chief's face changed; his stomach churned, and he felt nauseous.

Rorschach remained calm. Regardless of whether the Merkle family was still eating old grains by accident, even if it were new grains, their genomes were so disordered that they wouldn't grow under normal conditions. This was far better than something that could be passed down.

In fact, the effects on humans are not significant. Foreign genes obviously cannot be digested by stomach acid and can still contaminate the genes of the consumer.

Most importantly, it has no divine contamination residue, or to be precise, very little. The consequence of long-term consumption is contamination with distorted elements, which may increase the risk of cancer.

Are they still hesitant to be too blatant? Compared to the previous generation of the cult, they're more low-key and cautious. Perhaps they'll only unleash their full power with this batch of winter wheat.

Luo Xia reassured the old village chief, but the old chief exclaimed, "Oh dear, the whole village ate it!"

"It's not just the whole village, it's probably the entire region. And there's a new requisition order, so it's very likely that it will be sent to the front lines as military rations. As long as this batch of grain isn't planted back in the fields, it's fine to eat it. Just to be on the safe side, both people and livestock should eat it cooked."

Another issue is addressing the root cause of the mutation.

In the evening, the miller's iron rods arrived as scheduled, each with a cut burlap sack over their head. They recited a mantra from the Caring Charity Association before being put into the mill.

The people in the mill began to plot, with the miller leading the discussion on how to resist taxes.

The way he resisted the conscription team was really simple: he offered sacrifices to the gods and asked for blessings: "With the blessing of the true god, a few soldiers with guns are no problem! Even if you are shot, you will not only feel nothing, but you will also fight more bravely."

To verify his words, the miller went to the cellar himself and returned with a small bag of herbs, carefully taking out a little and inhaling it through his nostrils.

After inhaling it, he changed completely; his eyes became bloodshot and his breathing became heavier.

Rorschach, who was watching him, nodded to confirm that it was the familiar product. Should he say that their production techniques have not improved? If Rorschach had joined the underground cult, he could have produced super pure products back then, and developed all kinds of ways to ingest them.

The miller, feeling the medicine was almost effective, panted and said, "This is the most basic blessing powder. Now, if you all hit me, I won't feel a thing, I won't get hurt at all. If you do as I say, there are even more potent powders. You need to find a pure girl to help me concoct the medicine, and also get some livestock to sacrifice to the true god."

"I think we should stick to the old rules and have the old Merkle family provide the cattle, sheep, and pigs."

"He didn't come? Or was he not sincere?"

"No, no, no, Merkle is just confused for a moment. We should help each other and guide him back to the right path." The miller, drooling as the drug took effect, suggested, "As proof that he's on the right path, you should persuade him to send his youngest daughter to the mill."

The villagers hesitated. Although they believed in a true god who could bless them with a bountiful harvest, they all knew in their hearts that this outsider was no good. They could forgive him for cheating the old Merkle family out of money, but they couldn't bear to cheat their daughter. Besides, he had a sorcerer son.

During the brief silence, a villager suddenly spoke up: "Sir, is the medicine powder really as miraculous as you say?"

The miller was clearly in a frenzy. Seeing the villagers exchanging bewildered glances, he roared, "Still questioning me? Come on! Try hitting me! Hit me! Hit me all you want!" He grinned maliciously and pulled out a dagger. "I'll let you have one punch, you kid who questioned me. You'd better take me down in one blow, otherwise we'll save on sacrificial animals!"

Is that even a requirement? If he hadn't joined a cult, he would be a dedicated salesman, willing to prove the effectiveness of the treatment with his own body.

No sooner had the miller finished speaking than a figure hurtled toward him at an undetectable speed. The kerosene lamp in the mill flickered in the wind of the punch, and in that flickering gap, a punch landed on the miller's body, and something terrible happened.

He was thrown directly into the cellar, leaving only a dark hole where he had been standing.

"Huh?" "What happened?" "Who hit him?" The villagers in the mill were immediately thrown into a panic.

"It wasn't me." Rorschach wiped his fist with a handkerchief, then decisively jumped into the hole in the floor to check: "That person is dead!"

"Dead?" The people inside no longer cared about anything else, such as the strange young man from before. They were all terrified and horrified.

"I'm not dead yet!" The miller, who had been deliberately spared by Rorschach, struggled in the dark cellar, but he was now unable to move or make a sound. The young man who attacked him got up, found the rope ladder, and climbed back to the first floor of the mill. The miller thought he could escape while the young man was away from him, but he didn't expect that his restraints would remain unbreakable.

Rorschach, who had climbed up, offered a suggestion: "Right now, we can't see each other's faces clearly, and we don't recognize each other. Why don't we just burn this place down and pretend that this matter is over, and that no one was ever here?"

"As for the miller's accidental death in the burning mill, we know nothing. Since we don't know who did it, everyone has to take responsibility; everyone is involved, therefore no one is responsible, understand?"

"How can you not recognize me? I can recognize your voice. Wait, who are you? Your voice sounds familiar, but I can't place it among the villagers." A simpleton, still confused, was tapped on the head by a villager next to him.

The villager who had interrupted the fool nodded quickly: "Young man, you're absolutely right! Light a fire, and then everyone hurry up and leave."

Luo Xia offered to stay and start a fire. The others had only taken ten steps when flames shot into the sky, scaring everyone into running back home in a cold sweat.

He returned to the cellar, and in the firelight, like a demon from hell, easily lifted the miller: "I've had enough. My patience has run out. So tell me everything you know."

That night, multiple murders occurred in the town and the nearby big city, and many houses caught fire. The fires were all very precise and did not spread to any one place.

(End of this chapter)