Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

Just as they had done in their pursuit of pleasure, they were equally decisive in finding their enemies. They couldn't wait to wash away their humiliation with the blood of their enemies. Fortunately, fate was indeed on their side, and the Serpent God did indeed have an enemy.

They were the chosen champions who fell from the sky. Although they were clearly not qualified to be enemies of the Serpent God, they did declare war on the Serpent God at least some time ago. Even before declaring war, they had already begun to break into Tatunbutori and kill people.

Although not many people died in that riot, there were still a few casualties. Moreover, they hadn't done anything to these chosen champions before, and had even warmly invited them to participate in the daily tournament.

"How wicked! These tin men are absolutely wicked!"

The more they thought about it, the more indignant they became. These chosen champions were not only enemies of the serpent god, but had long been enemies of the Tatunbuto people.

"Kill! Kill them all!"

This newly formed Bloodstained Legion issued its first kill order.

Yes, Blood Legion, that's the name they gave themselves. As for the origin of the name, it's naturally because they bleed when they sign their names—and this has become the core of this legion. They not only want to drain the enemy's blood, but also, in order to achieve this goal, they are willing to drain their own blood.

However, if they only have such intentions, they will definitely not be able to accomplish anything. After all, they know that those chosen champions have considerable combat power. If they just rely on their strength and rush over mindlessly, they will only be throwing their lives away.

"They even help them level up."

The first person to sign his name, a member of the enforcement team, pointed out this easily overlooked blind spot.

Yes, just as they can level up through experience, the Chosen Champions can do the same. If they just throw their lives away, it will only give the Chosen Champions a source of experience, and they will become even stronger.

"So... at the very least, we need to become stronger first."

This is also the most urgent thing for the Blood Warband to do.

As for the ways to become stronger, there are only three.

The first, and best, option is to receive divine food, a treasure that directly increases experience. Once consumed, one will visibly become stronger. However, it is clear that such a treasure is not always available, and given their current sinful state, they are not worthy of such treatment.

The second option, of course, is to buy a set of weapons and equipment first. This is the most urgent thing. After all, many of them were originally just civilians. Let alone weapons and armor, they didn't even have a spear at home. Suddenly, when it was said that there was going to be a war and who they were going to fight, the only things they could use as weapons were the hoes at home and the stones on the ground.

Fortunately, this wasn't a big deal. Some of them weren't civilians. For example, the leader of the enforcement team, although not wealthy and unable to provide weapons and armor for the rest of the band, could at least bring out a few old short swords he had used to arm his brothers in the band.

After everyone pieced things together, the group finally started to resemble a real battle group. Although not everyone was armored, at least everyone had a sword or spear.

And after that, there is the third type.

That is, leveling up.

Only by raising their level can they be qualified to fight against those chosen champions. However, it is obvious that in this era where there is no real war, leveling up is already a difficult task. But this does not matter to them. Even though the experience provided by ordinary sparring is quite limited compared to fighting on the battlefield, they believe that they can accumulate experience little by little.

With this in mind, the newly formed Blood Warband began training day and night.

This is not an adjective, but a physical description of working day and night. They no longer regard their own lives as their own; they only regard their bodies as tools to complete training. As long as they can hone their combat skills and improve their level, they are even willing to risk their lives, and it doesn't matter if they die on the training ground.

Then they really died, after all, the human body has its limits.

But the existence of the underworld allowed them to transcend their limits, and after the four priests performed a ritual to summon their souls, they came back to life.

"What's going on? Why are they going to go this far?"

Among the four priests, Melk of Libra couldn't help but mutter something while conducting the resurrection ceremony.

"How could he have died so quickly?"

Although it was just a brief complaint, the Blood Chapter warriors who heard it couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.

Clearly, the four priests still harbored prejudice against them, thinking they were just playing around and indulging in pleasure—even though they were practicing diligently for training, they had even transformed the former Temple of Elysium into a training ground, and they didn't even value their own lives...

"Wait a minute?"

Just as the warriors of the battle group were about to fall into despair because of this complaint, the law enforcement officer who was the first to step forward suddenly thought of something.

"Who said we can only train? Can't we fight like this?"

"...?"

Upon hearing this, the other members of the Blood Warband suddenly realized the blind spot in the matter.

It seems that's really the case. They can be resurrected after they die. In other words, even when they are sparring, they can freely use lethal force against their opponents. Sparring where they can use lethal force is the same as going into battle to kill the enemy.

Anyway, you can be resurrected after you die, and you can die again after you come back to life. The dead will know where the most fatal wounds are, and thus know how to avoid attacks. As for the living... that experience itself is already the best reward.

With this in mind, the intensity of the Blood Warband's training sessions suddenly increased, with more than half of the members being killed every day. If the training intensity was extremely high, there would be only one or two people left after an afternoon of training.

Then comes the resurrection time.

"So what exactly are you guys doing?"

The four priests were already numb. Even if they could carry out the resurrection ritual, they couldn't keep up with the daily deaths of a batch of people. Moreover, this was not a small number; hundreds of people died at a time. Didn't they have anything else to do?

"You will know soon."

The first legion commander of the Blood Warband, the first member of the enforcement team to step forward, said these words to the four priests when he came back to life.

“We will wash away our sins with our blood, and you are our witness.”

Chapter 242: Undead Army

Half a month has passed since the collapse of the Temple of Elysium, and the chosen champion Ilios is becoming increasingly uneasy.

Clearly, their plan had backfired. The god of pleasure, whom they considered terrifying enough to destroy a civilization, had failed to subdue the ancient serpent—in fact, they sensed that the god of pleasure had withdrawn his gaze and was no longer paying attention to this land.

This made them increasingly uneasy.

Having received the divine grace of the god of courage, been influenced by the god of wisdom, and now rejected the joy of the god of pleasure, who knows what these natives really are—can they truly defeat such a thing? Or perhaps, does such a thing even exist?

Yes, it does exist; after all, the facts before our eyes are undeniable.

As for whether or not they can win...

"Definitely!"

Elias gritted his teeth.

As the chosen ones of the god of courage, they had no reason to back down.

Since we have chosen to fight, we must fight to the very end.

However, even if a fight were to be fought, how to fight would be a major problem. At least as things stand now, rushing in recklessly would be nothing short of foolish suicide—after all, under the influence of the God of Wisdom, the immortals from all walks of life among the local natives have already gained the ability to convert their three or four hundred level professional ranks into actual combat power.

This means that if they rush over like this, the only consequence will be helping those immortals reach level 500.

Other than that, there will be no results whatsoever.

"We still need to find a way to gain experience, at least to reach a level of combat strength comparable to theirs... Hmm?"

It was at this moment that Ilios suddenly sensed a team charging toward the camp of the Chosen Champions.

When Elias stepped forward, he also saw what the group looked like—a group of junk scavengers with extremely poor equipment. Just by looking at their tattered armor and chipped short swords, you could tell they had no fighting power whatsoever.

Of course, their eyes might be considered fierce, but even if they are fierce, what can they do?

"Experience that comes to us should be killed."

As Elias drew his longsword, the other chosen champions also drew their blades.

As for the battle itself, it went as they expected. Although these junk collectors seemed fearless, they were no match for the chosen champions when it came to fighting. Not to mention their tattered short swords couldn't even leave a scratch on their armor. With such fighting strength, how could they possibly come looking for trouble?

Thus, the charge left behind only corpses, and the chosen champions gained the experience they wanted. Although the experience was somewhat limited, it was enough to satisfy them after many days without improvement.

As for the corpses, they didn't care much. They just cut off some heads and stuck them on the spikes of their shoulder armor as spoils of war. As for the local natives who secretly came to transport the corpses back in the middle of the night, they didn't care either. After all, on the one hand, they were too lazy to desecrate the enemy's corpses, and on the other hand, they were worried that among those who came to transport the corpses, there might be some strange figures like "corpse-moving immortals".

What they didn't expect was that on the very second day of the battle, those raggedly dressed warriors attacked again.

"Hasn't this... already been killed once?"

As the weapons clashed, one of the chosen champions realized something was wrong—after all, the faces that appeared in front of the blades had already appeared once yesterday, but these already dead trash collectors had actually reappeared and even dared to charge at them.

"So, you can be resurrected?"

Upon realizing this, many of the chosen champions were immediately delighted.

An enemy that can keep resurrecting is undoubtedly the best enemy, especially for them at the moment, as it is a stable source of experience. So, after yet another satisfying massacre, they didn't even touch the corpses.

After all, they had all more or less figured out that those who came to collect the bodies last night were probably there to help these dead people come back to life.

"Now there is hope of killing all these natives."

The champion, chosen by God, couldn't help but sigh.

"As long as we keep gaining experience, we can continue to grow stronger. As long as we keep getting stronger, one day we'll be able to wipe them all out... Elias, why are you looking at me like that? Am I wrong?"

"..."

Elias remained silent, still thinking about what had happened during the day.

Indeed, the chosen champion was absolutely right. At least on the surface, the logic of constantly getting stronger and then being able to kill everything would not be wrong in the logic of any chosen champion. But Elias always felt that something was not quite right, after all, there was a problem with the current situation itself.

Even if it's just a bunch of garbage collectors, they can still gain experience after killing them. The ancient snake also has experience and levels, so it would naturally know this.

Even knowing that this would make them stronger, these trash collectors still keep pouring out. Has that ancient serpent gone mad? Is it planning to use this method to aid the enemy?

"No way, absolutely impossible."

Elias frowned; he instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

But right now, if he can't explain the source of the problem, he can't persuade these chosen champions not to take action. After all, these chosen champions haven't seen experience in a long time. If he wants to cut off their source of experience now, it would be like digging up their roots and taking their lives.

If Elias wanted them to stop, he would probably be the first person these chosen champions would kill.

But if we don't stop...

"……Um?"

Seven days later, one of the chosen champions, amidst the daily battles, suddenly sensed something was amiss.

Simply because his sword, which should have been invincible, was blocked.

The broken short sword in front of him actually began to keep up with his speed, and the garbage collector's frail body actually managed to block the powerful blow with a rather stable stance.

But it was only a temporary hold, and perhaps only for a moment. After all, there was a qualitative difference between the weapons of the two sides. The broken bronze short sword could not possibly withstand the powerful slash of the fine steel greatsword.

So, naturally, the garbage collector in front of them was cleaved in two.

But just as this chosen champion wanted to easily declare the battle over, as he always had.

He suddenly noticed a scratch in the seam of his armor.

Chapter 243 The flesh and blood are weak and bitter

A scratch appeared on the armor of one of the chosen champions. This was a very insignificant thing, after all, for these battle-hardened chosen champions, their armor was as weathered as they were.

However, this was only the beginning.

On the seventh day, only the armor of the chosen champion had more scratches. On the ninth day, a broken sword blade was already stuck in the gap of the armor. On the eleventh day, the chosen champion had begun to bleed in battle.

By the fifteenth day, a chosen champion had half his arm severed in battle, and all the chosen champions realized that something was wrong.

"Quick! Too fast!"

The chosen champion, whose arm had been chopped off, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

This is not because of pain. As the chosen champions, they have long since ignored any pain. Even if their arms are cut open and their bone marrow is pulled out, they can still talk and laugh.

What truly made this chosen champion break out in a cold sweat was the battle just now.

"Too fast, these garbage collectors are improving way too fast... If I hadn't reacted quickly enough and risked injury to save my life, that garbage collector could have really killed me."

Upon hearing this, the chosen champions who had gathered around also turned serious.

Yes, they all saw the battle just now. They witnessed the terrifying combat power displayed by the junk collector wielding the bronze sword. It was as if it had been meticulously calculated. Every sword gust was precisely dodged, and every assassination attempt missed its mark. On the contrary, the bronze sword seemed to have eyes, never missing the gaps in the armor, and even several times it seemed to pierce the eyes directly through the gaps in the helmet.

Just like the chosen champion with the missing arm said, if he hadn't traded his life for his injury at a crucial moment, what was cut off now wouldn't just be a mere arm.

But just half a month ago... no, even just a few days ago, these garbage collectors were just a bunch of idiots who were easy prey for them.

"Fast, too fast."

At this moment, these chosen champions felt an inexplicable sense of urgency.

It was as if someone was chasing them.

"This isn't normal; they're also grinding for experience points."

It was at this moment that Elias slowly spoke.

"They have all received the blessing of the God of Courage, and they can all gain experience... and because of the ancient serpent that has become the God of Death supporting them, they can even be considered immortal."

“You think they are a stable source of experience, and they also regard you as a source of experience... Even if you kill them, it won't make a difference; instead, it will give them an opportunity to understand your martial arts.”

After he finished speaking, the group of chosen champions fell silent.