Your war hammer is too fake

Since then, the ghosts have lived a peaceful life. New villages have been built, the children's ninjutsu training has been put on the right track, and even the living standards have improved a lot because of the convenient transportation. After all, it is not an easy job to deliver supplies from the empire to the border princes. Although Sartosa is a chaotic place, the maritime trade is really developed.

The only regret was that William had not come once since they moved to the new base. The few remaining jonin and chunin were worried about this, fearing that they had failed to protect the mind engine and the laboratory before, causing William to be disappointed in them, although William had never expressed this attitude.

This kind of crazy thinking lasted until half a month ago, when William's sudden visit ended it. Without any prior notice, William led a team of maids and bodyguards to the village and stayed there for half a month. Every day, in addition to reading and meditating, he watched the ninjas' training and occasionally made a few comments.

The ninjas waited carefully while guessing the purpose of their lord's visit. Some ninjas were excited and thought that there might be a big action, which would be a great opportunity for the ghosts to regain the trust of their lord. However, this view was immediately refuted: If there was a new mission, why did Lord William stay in the village for half a month without saying anything? The ninjas argued about this privately, and in the small village of less than a hundred people, more than a dozen different versions of the rumor evolved.

It wasn't until another outsider visited the village that the ninjas realized that everyone had guessed wrong.

……

William was reading a book when the Nepen sliding door was casually pulled open.

"You are 15 days late for the scheduled date." William said without raising his head, holding the book in his hand.

"There was a very difficult guy following me," a man dressed as an explorer walked in, grabbed a piece of yokan from the low table in front of William and threw it into his mouth, "It took me a lot of effort to get rid of him."

"So," William finally looked away from the book, "did you get the stuff?"

"The information was wrong. There's nothing you want there," the explorer said as he grabbed another piece of yokan, which made the two Nietos kneeling behind William twitch their eyes. "But I found something more interesting..."

After a pause, the explorer did not keep the secret: "I found the Nest Clan. They are alive."

William finally showed an interested expression on his face: "Go on, Mr. 'William Martin'."

"Damn it, why do you still call me by my pseudonym in this situation?" The middle-aged man, whose pseudonym was "William Martin" and whose real name was Kevin, waved his hands exaggeratedly: "Just because my pseudonym is also William?"

"I've been waiting for you for half a month," William rolled up the book in his hand and knocked on the low table. "Let's stop talking nonsense here. Are you sure it's a nest tribe, not some giant insect unique to the south?"

"What kind of insect can use psychic energy?" Kevin asked back, "That damn thing fired five mind blasts at me!" He opened his hands and gestured excitedly, "Five, a full five! I almost went crazy!"

"But you didn't," William said thoughtfully, "Who saved you?"

"It is said that it was a female elf named Arwen Duskstar," Kevin took another piece of yokan, "Not only did I meet the Nest Clan in the South, but there was actually a large group of elves living there. Not long after I set out from Sardenberg..."

Kevin, who was an explorer by profession and a Paradis combat priest by profession, recounted his trip to the Southland from the beginning. William listened very carefully, occasionally interrupting Kevin's narration and repeatedly asking about certain details.

"…Finally, I left the city called Tal-Tur and headed west with the supplies given by the elves. I managed to reach the coast, then headed north along the coastline and finally returned to Sardenberg. These elves were friendly but also very vigilant. They sent a very powerful guy to follow me, but I eventually got rid of him."

"The elves who live in the interior of the Southland... and are hostile to the Brood," William pondered. "Are you sure the one who saved you is called Arwen Duskstar? Have you seen her?"

"I'm a psychic," Kevin emphasized. "Suseb said she left after she cured me. Tsk, both the big skeleton and the elves said she was a beauty."

"There's something you don't know since you just returned," William glanced at this guy who had the desire but not the courage to do it, "The female elf you mentioned recently appeared in the Old World. She cured Boris Todbringer's eldest son, saved the Elector's life from the siege of the Beastmen, and assisted the Imperial Army in rescuing Middenheim from the siege of Chaos believers."

"The last two don't sound like something that can be done by one person alone."

"She has an army," William said, "an elven army."

Kevin snapped his fingers. "An elven princess or queen, or at least the female ruler of a powerful territory," the explorer said with a longing look on his face. "That makes sense. The elven army, like their master, is from the South."

William seemed to think for a moment. "We can put the matter of the elf doctor aside for now," he said. "Although you didn't find the remains of the Faceless One, the information you brought back is very useful. I now have a guess. We all believed that the Faceless One had long been extinct, but since there are still living individuals in the Nest Clan..."

"…You're thinking of some very crazy things, William."

"And that doctor. The mental trauma caused by psychic energy is not unhealable with medicine, but the fact that you can be cured so perfectly can only be caused by psychic energy," William said with a strange smile. "In order to revive my sister, I once made a deal with 'that one'. Since even the evil god can do it, why can't the faceless man do it?"

Kevin suddenly felt very dry in the mouth. He picked up the teapot on the low table, poured himself a cup of matcha that had already cooled down, and drank it all in one gulp. "William, I can go to the Southland again, but what can you do to impress those cruel slave owners? If they really still exist," Kevin tried to persuade William to give up this crazy idea. "We all know what the Faceless Ones are. 'Loving all beings equally'? Ha!"

"The Mind Engine has fallen into the hands of the Heavenly Court," William said calmly, "Perhaps you can give me a suggestion and tell me how I can defeat the Young Moon Witch and take back the Mind Engine?"

"William..."

"Even if the entire Paradis joins together, it is no match for her!" William slammed the low table hard, causing the cups and plates on it to jump collectively. "She has an army and a fleet flying in the sky! Even the Dragon Knights of Caledor were defeated by this fleet! Tell me, Kevin, what else can I do?! Without the Mind Engine, I can do nothing."

"Listen to me, calm down first." Kevin quickly poured William a cup of tea. "You even want to try to contact the Faceless Men, so why can't you try to contact the Zhendan people? Just because you heard that the Young Moon Witch is actually their queen, the Moon Queen? I met that guy Di Enqing once before, and his judgment may not be accurate (see Chapter 140)."

"I have considered this possibility," William gently pushed away the cup of tea handed to him by his friend, "but I can't afford the cost of misjudgment. My [Soul Transfer] is not perfect."

"Let me go," Kevin said in a tone as if he was discussing what to have for dinner tonight, "I'll go for you."

"……Thanks."

"Speaking of which, aren't you ready for the expedition to Sadenberg?" Kevin changed the subject abruptly: "As the military commander of the cult, you can actually wait for me here for half a month...Aren't you a little too idle?"

"There are still some 'small conflicts' within the cult that have not been resolved. Don't worry, I can handle it," William replied. "The expedition fleet will set sail on time when the monsoon arrives, and Paradis will usher in a new life far away from disputes."

"Then I'm relieved," Kevin said, standing up from the tatami, "I'll go back first. No need to see me off."

Chapter 320 Seemingly Existing but Not Existing

In the southern part of the Southland, deep in the hot and humid tropical rainforest, there are ruins of an ancient lizardman temple city.

After nearly a year of intermittent reconstruction, although more than half of the ruins remain in ruins, a neatly planned small settlement has taken shape in the corner: hard-working laborers dismantled the stone buildings left behind by the Lizardmen, recycled the usable stones and carried out secondary processing, then turned these building materials into Faceless Man-style houses, laid a layer of stone slabs on the ground, and built a circle of walls around the settlement.

The last one is very necessary. Ever since leaving the underground world and returning to the surface after nearly nine thousand years, the Faceless Men, who have always been on high alert, have never waited for the imagined army of Lizardmen, but have instead had many conflicts with Greenskins and Skaven: the Faceless Men are no strangers to these two races, the former are alien creatures accidentally brought to this world by the Old Saints' spacecraft, and these annoying mushroom spirits have harassed the Faceless Men's ancestors in ancient times.

Although in the ancient Faceless Empire, the Greenskins were just one of the many dangerous creatures in the wild. They were far from a threat at that time, and their capabilities were limited to attacking remote settlements that lacked defenses.

As for the ratmen, this race that did not appear until the end of the Longbeard War is also an "old friend" to the Faceless Men. Although the frequency is not particularly high, the ratmen active in the mountains on the edge of the Southland world sometimes fall into the underground river due to various accidents, and then are washed all the way to the mysterious underground world along the water flow.

In most cases, these outsiders drowned on the way, but occasionally the Faceless and the Brood would pick up live rats. Compared with the Brood, who were not good at fine psychic manipulation (except Namtaru), torture, and always killed the captives during interrogation, the Faceless Men's psychic masters could easily get the information they wanted from the brains of the ratmen, so the Faceless had a basic understanding of the Skaven race.

This intelligence advantage played an irreplaceable role in this escape. When the Faceless Men were defeated in the battle with the main force of the dwarves, most of the military forces of the entire race were wiped out, and the survivors were forced to abandon their homes where they had lived for nearly 9,000 years and flee, the Faceless Men were surrounded by endless fear and anxiety and plunged into the tropical rainforest that they had only seen in their memory matrix before.

Thankfully, even in this desperate situation where the entire race was facing a life-or-death crisis, the Faceless Men still had a fully equipped army of cavemen and a large amount of valuable wealth accumulated over the years. The first wave of attacks was quickly defeated. By reading the minds of the captives, the Faceless Men learned that this was the territory of a group of wild orcs, and that there were ratmen nearby. As for the lizardmen that the Faceless Men were most concerned about, at least in the memories of these wild orcs, those cold-blooded monsters had never appeared.

As the Speaker of the Parliament and the only remaining psychic master of the Faceless Men, Kieran Soul Blade decided to try to search for the traces of the ratmen after weighing the limited intelligence. For the Faceless Men at the moment, the most important thing is not even to collect intelligence about the Lizardmen, but to find a new source of slaves.

Cavemen are the native race of the underground world. This group of eyeless and bald-headed people find it difficult to adapt to the surface environment, not to mention that they encounter an extremely harsh natural environment such as the tropical rainforest, which was deliberately transformed into a "green hell" by the ancient saints.

The clashes with the Greenskins and Skaven resulted in limited casualties. Instead, it was the unfamiliar environment and tropical diseases, especially the latter, that killed a large number of the caveman slaves brought to the surface by the Faceless Men. And tropical diseases are showing a tendency to get worse.

To do this, the Faceless Men must find a replacement as soon as possible.

Greenskins can't. The souls of these alien mushroom spirits are very special. They will continuously generate a kind of alien magic energy that only their race can use. They call it WAAAGH! ! Energy. According to the research of the ancient faceless men, under certain specific circumstances, the souls of greenskins will resonate strongly with each other, and this resonance will greatly enhance the output and intensity of WAAAGH! ! Energy, making all affected greenskins (mainly orcs) become fanatical and fearless.

This unique characteristic makes it extremely difficult to use [Education] on greenskins. Although it is not absolutely impossible, unless there is no other choice, this kind of inferior raw material that is hard to get and twice as effective is something that the Faceless Men, who are in urgent need of replenishing slaves, must try to avoid.

So Kieran set his sights on the Skaven, a race whose reproductive capacity was even more exaggerated than that of the Greenskins (Note 1). According to the intelligence obtained by the Faceless Men when they were still squatting in the underground world, the Skaven were cowardly and weak-willed by nature. Although this race also had a crazy and hysterical side, in general, the Skaven were more difficult to resist the power of [Cultivation] than other races.

More importantly, the special reproduction method of the ratmen also makes it very easy for the Faceless Men to enslave them. Although the ratmen also have gender distinctions, they do not have the concepts of marriage and family like ordinary races. The female rats responsible for reproduction are specially biochemically modified, and their shape is like a meat mountain devil, which looks fat and disgusting.

When necessary, mother rats can give birth to a large number of offspring at an extremely exaggerated speed, and the short lifespan of rat people is actually an advantage here: a short lifespan means that the time required for development and growth is also short.

After a period of searching, the Faceless Men found the traces of the ratmen. After some more effort, Jilan personally led a raid on the lair of a weak clan and successfully captured the first female rat. The deep hibernation facilities required for the indoctrination were built as quickly as possible. The good news was that the Faceless Men brought a full set of core components when they embarked on the road of escape, so the work was completed quickly. Not long after, the precious female rat completed its indoctrination.

It was at this time that Kieran made a highly controversial decision: with the exception of the black-haired rats, ordinary ratmen would not be educated, but would be used as low-level labor under the supervision of overseers.

This was a decision that went against their ancestors. "Slaves must be educated before they can be used" was an iron rule that could not be disobeyed in the ancient Faceless Empire. Once upon a time, the Faceless in ancient times also felt that it was not necessary to educate all slaves. As long as slave soldiers and the most critical positions were used, educated slaves would be enough... As a result, the ancient Faceless were educated by slave uprisings. After several large-scale slave uprisings broke out, causing extremely painful losses, the above iron rule was established.

Kiran's decision caused an uproar among the remaining Faceless Men, but in the end the Spiritual Master convinced his members one by one: given the Faceless Men's current dire situation, not taking any risks would be a way to death.

The Faceless Ones obeyed Jilan's decision very reluctantly. Except for the black-haired rats that were naturally stronger than ordinary ratmen, all newly born ratmen were treated equally. They received adequate nutrition and standardized care, and cannibalism would be severely punished, and repeat offenders would be executed directly.

Blacksmith workshops sprang up, and the remaining cavemen craftsmen recycled the armor and weapons of the dead soldiers and reforged them into equipment that fit the body of the storm rats. Due to the amazing power of tropical diseases, the extremely short-handed Faceless Men had to use potions to catalyze the growth rate of the rats, but the cost was that the already short lifespan of the rats would become even shorter.

Regardless, the faceless men who returned to the surface did their best to survive the most difficult first year. The first batch of catalytically mature storm rats soon lined up and walked out of the education hall, holding sophisticated equipment to supervise the uneducated and similarly matured ordinary rats to go to work, and a good positive cycle was established.

[…In three more cycles, our seventh batch of slaves will be offline.] A young faceless man reported to Jilan. [The biggest problem now is that the catalyst inventory is insufficient. We have not found substitutes for some materials yet.]

Jilan pondered for a moment after hearing this. [With the current inventory, how long can the supply last? ]

[Based on the current slave production rate, the catalyst can only supply about two batches before it is completely exhausted.]

[That's enough.] The Master of Mind said. [The scouts have found a large ratman stronghold. We will launch a raid in the near future... Before that, let all our troops be ready.]

[All of them?] The young faceless man raised his head in surprise.

[All of them.] Jilan nodded vigorously. [Since uneducated slaves are unreliable, let them play their last bit of value for the Faceless Ones before they start a rebellion.]

……

Note 1: The reproduction rate of greenskins in Medieval is not as outrageous as that in 40K, although it is still strong.

Chapter 321 Awakening

Xuanshui, a hollow underground.

After returning from the Desolate Castle, An Jiyue plunged into this place. The tiger troops are temporarily stationed in the northern part of Athel Loren near the area of ​​Paraon, and the logistics are coordinated by the Paraon people. These big cats will go to the Arden Forest when the time is right and join up with the Asrai, no, the Kaldorei troops sent there before.

As for the Jiedushi herself, she returned to Xuanshui with the flying fleet. In addition to meeting with Liu Jianguo, who had been inspecting Sanhe Prefecture for some time, to discuss the subsequent "recruitment" matters, she also brought back Dursu, who was previously imprisoned in the Desolate Castle.

The last elder of the forest did not die in the Battle of Desolate Castle. An Jiyue, who used the [Superior Summoning God] to transform into Wang Lingguan, did not kill the old wood after defeating it. Instead, she beat it to the point of being seriously injured and dying, and then used magic to force it into a deep sleep. The governor did this not to let Dursu go, and she had no reason to let him go.

An Jiyue had just finished negotiating with Liu Jianguo, the staff member of Yulong Yuanbo, and was ready to nominally submit to the Zhendan Heavenly Court. Then she took Dursu to the cave under the Iron Rock. Since she had drained the heat from the magma lake here and cooled it into an oversized mixture of igneous rocks, this cave had become her private space. The girl put all her research work related to psychic energy here, and Bing Ruolan also slept here.

Relying on the mind engine seized from the ghosts by Dustan and a fully functional psychic laboratory, An Jiyue established a research center here with only her. Psychic equipment including projectile cannons were all developed here. Although the foundation was the small laboratory built by William in the ninja village, the girl gradually added a lot of things, most of which were research equipment she made herself, and a few were specially customized tools.

This is not only An Jiuyue's workplace, but also her private space in the true sense. Even Jin Zhifan, who always brings people with her wherever she goes, has never been to this place.

With the help of telekinesis, An Jiyue placed the sleeping Dursu on a white stone platform that matched his body shape. The limbs and neck of the forest elder were tied with iron chains, and each section of the iron chain was engraved with mysterious talismans; seven copper nails arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper were driven into its chest, and each "nail" was thicker than An Jiyue's thigh. In addition, there was a small seal character "封" on Dursu's head that seemed to be burned out by high temperature.

Coupled with the psychic spell [Personality Prison] cast on Old Wood's soul, under the four constraints, An Jiyue did not think that Dursu had even the slightest chance of breaking free.

A bunch of cables soon appeared on Dursu, who was lying flat on the stone platform. The ends of these cables were all made of pure gold spikes, which were wrapped in telekinesis and pierced into the forest elder's body, especially his head. After checking all the safety measures for the last time and confirming that they were correct, An Jiyue pressed a specially prepared big red button.

A faint murmur and a painful moan sounded at the same time. The former floated into An Jiyue's ears, while the latter echoed on the spiritual level and could not be captured by conventional hearing. The girl waited quietly for a moment until a surprised voice sounded in the laboratory: "Hmm... Hmm? Is the ceremony about to begin?"

"Not yet," An Jiyue replied, "I haven't even prepared the prerequisites for the ceremony."

All the Lords of the Holy Scriptures are Outer Gods, although they are incomplete Outer Gods who have not yet truly ascended to the throne of God, and can also be said to be the infancy of Outer Gods. As the first person to truly cross over among all people, Bing Ruolan paid a huge price to reach this world. Her soul was shattered by the rejection and compression from the subspace itself, and the Holy Scripture of War, which is essentially a part of the Lord of the Holy Scripture’s soul, has been in a state of no response to this day.

Although she is the Lord of the Holy Scripture, Bing Ruolan does not even have the standard system unit abilities such as [True Death], so even if she exiled Bilak once during the battle to save the bear, the latter was still able to make a comeback.

The good news is that even such a serious injury can be cured by An Jiuyue; the bad news is that due to the status of the Outer God, only the sacrifice of a lesser god can repair Bing Ruolan's soul, and it cannot be a too weak lesser god, at least not weak gods like Stromophus (Note 1) and Esmeralda (Note 2).

According to An Jiyue's estimation, even Ersun in his prime would not be qualified to be a sacrifice. However, she would not attack this giant hamster, which was a mirror among mirrors and wanted to protect its people even when it was about to die.

To be honest, the governor really wanted to capture Lilith and sacrifice her, but it was too difficult. The Elf God was not a single god, but a group of gods, not to mention that Lilith was Asuryan's wife. At least for now, An Jiyue really couldn't beat the Phoenix God, so he had to give up this tempting idea.

After much deliberation, An Jiyue thought that the best choice was to choose between the Great Glutton or Hasut, with the Great Horned Rat as a backup. The advantage of choosing the Great Glutton was that he was also an outsider, with no roots in the local area, so he was not afraid of getting into trouble beyond the plan. Moreover, the Great Glutton had a physical anchor in the material world, and killing him would greatly increase the favorability of the Zhendan Dynasty. As for Hasut, the advantage of choosing him was that the overall strength of the Chaos Dwarves was the weakest among the main races, weaker than the Wood Elves.

As for the Horned Rat, do you need a reason to beat up a rat? ... Unfortunately, this creature is more cunning than all of the above combined, and is too difficult to catch, so it can only be used as a backup.

An Jiyue had talked to Bing Ruolan about these things before she fell asleep. At that time, the governor told Xiu Yanqing that when she was awakened, the preparations for the sacrifice ceremony would most likely be complete.

"If you're not ready yet, then why did you wake me up in advance..." Bing Ruolan's voice was weak and tired, but then it turned into boundless surprise: "Wait, it doesn't hurt anymore?!"

"Finally realized it?" The beautiful girl with silver hair and red eyes laughed: "Look back."

"...Dursu? We're at war with Green Chaos?"

"There is no Green Chaos anymore," the girl crossed her arms, "The Asrai are functionally extinct. There may be a few survivors in some places, but the race has been destroyed without a doubt. I captured Dursu in the battle as a trophy. I wanted to kill it, but then I suddenly remembered the matter of Adanhu."

"You transferred the soul pain that I originally endured to it?" Bing Ruolan was not stupid. A professionally trained spellcaster couldn't be stupid, no matter what race he was from. "What's the upper limit of what you can endure?"

"You now have two hours of free time every day. Dursu won't be able to bear it beyond this limit. After all, it is just a powerful mortal. Note that I am talking about general activities, not including fighting. Even if there is a forest elder who suffers for you, you must not fight with others in your current state," An Jiuyue replied, "and you can't stay too far away from this equipment... puff~" The girl suddenly turned her head away, her shoulders shaking.

It was not until this time that Shugenqing finally realized something belatedly.

"...Why did you paint this thing gold and make it look like a flush toilet?" Bing Ruolan, who was sitting on a golden toilet, had her face gradually turned into an indescribable distortion with joy: "An Jiyue! I <Dragonborn swear word>! Are you a fucking human?!"

"In short, the golden toilet, well, you are sitting on the transceiver terminal of this equipment. Although it supports long-distance transmission, its effective range is limited. You'd better not leave the urban area of ​​Xuanshui," An Jiyue avoided Bing Ruolan's scorching gaze with a guilty conscience. "Before we prepare for the sacrifice ceremony, you can directly withdraw all your expenses from the Wu Guogong Mansion."

"Don't think you can bribe me like this!"

"The expedition team departing from Marienburg for the Skogee Colony should be arriving soon," the governor suppressed a smile, "They will be returning with crops such as peppers and potatoes. I remember that before we crossed over, you were the number one pepper fanatic in the group?"

"Tsk... that's more like it," Bing Ruolan, who loved spicy food and ate chili oil as soup before traveling through time, but was forced to live a life without ever seeing chili peppers for fifty years after traveling through time, waved her hands unhappily, "You woke me up, it shouldn't be just for these, right?"

An Jiuyue nodded: "I am currently inclined to use the Big Stomach God as the first option for sacrifice. In order to get the Heavenly Court to agree to let our forces enter Weixi and perform this level of magic ritual, we need a real weight. For this reason, I plan to launch an expedition to the Norsca Peninsula to rescue Dragon Princess Shenzhu. Of course, before that, I need you to meet with the person sent by Yuanbo. It is most appropriate for you to tell the other party the whereabouts of Shenzhu."

"I understand," Bing Ruolan said with a serious expression, "Is there anything I should be careful about during the meeting? Should I reveal everything?"

"Just follow your own understanding. You won't say anything that shouldn't be said. You are a 50-year-old lady after all. You must have some life experience."

"Hey, she's not an old aunt!!"

(End of Volume 4)

……

Note 1: Stromfels, the god of sharks and pirates, can transform his followers into sharks. If I remember correctly, someone in the Hammer Wars creative workshop made a corresponding mod.

Note 2: Esmeralda, the goddess of health and family, is the racial god of the halflings.

Volume 5: Terror of the Yellow Sand

Chapter 322 Sir