You became an emperor by letting me AFK.

A natural wonder can influence the geopolitical landscape, which raises the stakes. If a neighboring religious site isn't dealt a heavy blow, the other side will gain a long-term advantage that can't be resolved in one or two wars.

How to do?

Unable to think of a solution immediately, Xia He continued to observe.

The prisoner group was led all the way to the inside of the city wall, where they found a large domed hall, similar to a tent, with a large number of cattle and sheep as offerings arranged in a circle.

"Prepare," a hoarse old shaman shouted. "Begin the human sacrifice."

That's too outdated.

Xia He had no idea that the Eternal Heaven belief still retained the primitive dogma of human sacrifice.

Although in ancient times people sometimes had slaves and servants perform sacrifices, those practices that have continued to this day can be considered living fossils.

This game is roughly based on the period around 1000 BC.

The primitive beliefs of the various city-states in the Western Regions she had encountered were none of this violent; it certainly seemed quite barbaric, a fact clearly visible through the first-person perspective of this unfortunate soul:

"Bring him here."

After the presiding shaman gave the order, a prisoner was brought to the platform, and the barbarians on both sides immediately disemboweled him.

The blood of the sacrifice flowed toward an eagle-headed statue, presumably as a symbol.

The surrounding barbarians erupted in cheers upon witnessing this.

Fortunately, today we only need to kill one sacrifice, and that's because of the special nature of the day, the reasons for which have already been revealed:

"The battle at the front is going badly. We pray for God's protection. A devout believer offers you a gift."

Case solved.

They chose to pray over attacking or retreating.

The shaman then began her ritual dance, accompanied by a series of seductive melodies that made Xia He a little sleepy. It was nowhere near as interesting as the programs in Daqian, especially since Feng Tianyin was a beautiful young woman, while this old witch looked anything but respectable.

She shouldn't be the [Great Shaman] because the information from the Great Qian Dynasty describes her as a young and beautiful girl.

It's likely that he didn't make an appearance.

Meanwhile, the surrounding barbarian tribes also slaughtered sheep and cattle to participate in the blessing ceremony.

While some rejoiced and others grieved, as Xia Yi celebrated the victory and supplied the troops, the tribes of the northern deserts, having suffered setbacks, were silently praying. Looking around, Xia He noticed many wounded soldiers being cared for and blessed by shamans.

It was probably a plea to the gods to spare his life.

The wounded lay on their beds groaning incessantly. They were only slightly relieved after some herbal medicine was applied to their wounds. They were then forced to drink alcohol until they were drunk and finally quieted down.

The technique was rather crude, reminiscent of early witch doctor treatments.

Switch.

Xia He shifted her perspective to a prisoner who was being forced to work, digging a deep foundation pit with one shovel after another.

"Hurry up, you must expand the temple this year, the bigger the better, so that the Eternal Heaven will take notice."

"The great gods will protect our war."

"The Great Qian Dynasty is nothing more than a false god and a priest who pretends to be a god. You will understand our power."

Meanwhile, other shamans were burning incense and breathing fire...

Performing acrobatics?

After looking at it for a while, Xia He, who was both amused and exasperated, simply continued to focus on the foundation in front of her. Looking around, there were quite a few religious buildings, each with certain stat bonuses, which was why it was only with a population of 50 that the construction progress was barely 80%.

But it will definitely get stuck next.

Even if the numerical value can be increased through a series of corrections, it is still impossible to avoid the hard threshold of 100 million true believers.

Xia He had a question that had been bothering her: "Why is the population small but the faith points high?" Now the answer is finally here: thanks to the bonuses from various buildings and natural wonders.

The truth is out, there's no need to worry anymore; the population means the barbarians are destined to be unable to catch up with the Great Qian.

She felt anxious seeing the rising trend of barbarian faith.

Now I understand, this card can hold them for decades, while the Great Qian will soon establish a religion.

But Linchun is not entirely without merit.

After all, they did reach 80% of the progress bar and generate the original Eternal Heaven faith, thus receiving a small portion of the buff. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so united and organized such a grand invasion.

"Such a clean and efficient method must have been guided by a master."

Xia He vaguely saw the action of exploiting the mechanism, or what NPV would call exploiting objective laws, and immediately elevated the faith attribute.

clever.

It was the work of the Great Shaman in the temple of the sacred land of Linchun, hence its extraordinary status.

The barbarians believed that Gegentana possessed divine power, which piqued her curiosity. Because when the progress reached 80%, some hazy psychic phenomena did indeed appear; she wondered if it was just supernatural trickery or a glimpse into the future of the extraordinary.

She continued to shift her focus closer to the central temple.

Here, a few prisoners were also responsible for repairing cracks and saving dilapidated buildings using various scaffolding structures.

The volcanic farmland was fertile, but earthquakes were frequent, often causing cracks to appear in the houses. Moreover, Xia He discovered that the barbarian's building techniques were backward; the foundations were dug crudely, and they did not use qualified clay or bricks.

The wall was built entirely by ramming together dry grass, mud, and gravel; miracles can happen with great effort.

It's really big.

Anyway, they often lead a nomadic life and have a sense of belonging to Linchun, but not much. They basically regard it as a religious holy site, and the permanent population is estimated to be only 3.

3 people is basically enough to sustain the city.

Including the population engaged in farming in the surrounding areas, it is estimated that the total population of Linchun area is at least 10, which explains why it supports the largest tribe.

Volcanic soil is incredibly fertile.

Upon closer observation, Xia He discovered that the barbarian's farming techniques were even more crude, lagging behind by more than a century. They relied entirely on "sowing seeds to grow seedlings." Their strength lay not in their agricultural technology, but in the fact that volcanic ash, with its mineral deposits, made everything grow quickly—a natural goldmine.

"It's practically a land-based Java Island."

"Moreover, this volcano is relatively young and active; a few more eruptions will cause the fertile soil to expand further..."

I have to admit I was tempted; after all, it's a blessed land for farming.

With this thought in mind, Xia He looked down again, examining the surrounding environment from a large map perspective. Unfortunately, the map was still shrouded in fog in the more distant north. But it didn't matter; that place was too high in latitude, a barren and frigid land.

Moreover, the far north region is not very vast, far inferior to the Siberian permafrost, and the land area is not large. In other words, the "rotten land" she identified is relatively rare in this game.

This was the original design; if everyone were born in a barren land, the level of civilization would be limited.

She didn't care much about going further north.

To put it bluntly, even if a company has abundant mineral resources, it still needs to consider the cost of mining in the surrounding environment. High costs mean a lack of competitiveness and will result in a significant loss of points.

So she doesn't really care about places that are further away.

"Linchun is more than 1000 kilometers away from Xiayi, so its influence will be very weak... The plan remains the same: destroy the enemy's war potential, especially the holy land. Don't expect to occupy it."

Xia He calmly shook her head.

At worst, they'll turn into nomadic tribes and come to plunder from time to time, making your lives miserable.

She believed that with the resources of the Great Qian Dynasty, it was possible to achieve this; it should be quite interesting...

thump~

Suddenly, a distant chime rang out from the central temple. Upon hearing it, Xia He immediately switched to a first-person perspective and saw a huge ceremonial guard emerge, exuding elegance and grandeur.

He was quite the ostentatious figure, but such behavior was necessary for a religious leader, and unsurprisingly, everyone bowed down in submission.

They bowed deeply in submission to show their reverence.

"Welcome, Great Shaman."

Is that her?

Looking out from the prisoner's perspective, Xia He saw a sedan chair carried by four men appear amidst the procession.

Seated atop the robe was a beautiful woman wearing a sheep bone crown, an animal skin dress, and painted patterns on her body. Her long black hair was braided and strung with a jade hairpin, and her eyes were also deep black, so that looking directly at her seemed to plunge into a cave.

Despite being in the dead of winter, she was dressed quite lightly, yet she seemed to be in good health.

You can see her beautiful abs on her exposed waist, and her arms are long and muscular, yet she looks slender and graceful overall.

Wildness and restraint are organically combined.

Gegentana is definitely a hero. Her physique is outstanding even among the barbarians. In ancient times, a woman over 1.6 meters tall was quite tall. Among the people Xia He has seen so far, only Feng Tianyin is a head taller.

She looked around from the sedan chair and then asked, "Is there still no news of the Great Khan? Where is he?"

"Reporting to the Great Shaman, Lord Erbala has gone to meet the vanguard... Unfortunately, they are in trouble and need to rest."

"waste!"

The cold rebukes made everyone bury their heads even deeper.

Xia He understood. It seemed that the same vanguard had attacked the two passes of Kurong Mountain, only to suffer a crushing defeat, forcing the Great Khan to send in the remnants. This was likely also for organizational reasons; only a high-ranking figure could effectively manage the defeated army.

There will be no major offensives in the short term, giving Daqian some time to redeploy its troops.

However, the tribes in the northern deserts were not seriously injured.

The resources she saw in Linchun alone were enough for a large-scale offensive, and the gloomy weather with falling snow suggested that the harsh winter was hastening the start of the war. The livestock in the nearby pastures were also sickly; the plague had not yet subsided…

The atmosphere was heavy and wild, still brewing war.

There was no other choice.

There will be no quiet this year; there will definitely be another major battle, and this battle will determine whether the Great Qian Dynasty has achieved its strategic goal of "curbing barbarian religions".

While I was pondering this, I heard Gergentana continue:

"Everything is going wrong. I need to perform a prayer ceremony. I need to start organizing it immediately and bring all the offerings over."

At her command, all the shamans sprang into action, and the numerous barbarians, not daring to be negligent, began setting up the high platform, following the same old routine. The more one looked at it, the more it seemed to resemble the Great Qian Dynasty, indicating some degree of influence.

At the same time, Xia He saw a bright display of spiritual energy.

Very faint.

It is true that Gedentana has some talent, after all, in this era, heroes are actually people who enhance their physical bodies without manifesting their psychic powers.

Shamans like her, and priests like Feng Tianyin, seem to be better at perception.