Mercenaries and Adventurers

He shivered, and he didn't know if it was because he felt uncomfortable about the darkness behind the werewolf and Knight Lanisa, or because of the chilly spring rain.

There was a noise not far away, and Keel turned his head to look, only to find that many people were pointing in one direction.

Kiel looked in the direction the crowd was pointing at, only to find that it was the direction of the wooden bridge and small temple by the river on the east side of Kendall City. He looked intently, and sure enough, he saw something different.

-

Several adopted children changed into "magical" clothes that they only put on once a year.

It was a miraculous dress that 'Mom and Dad' had begged from the gods since they were young. This kind of clothes will only be worn once a year during the spring flood, but every year when they want to wear them, these precious clothes that have been stored will change freely according to their annual growth rate.

It's not as colorful as those rich people who perform plays during festivals, and it's not as noble and formal as the formal priests of other churches in the city. Pray to the gods, and the clothes bestowed by the gods change every year.

Last year, it was the elegant style of the elegant water plants in the river. This year, when the clothes were taken out of the stone box, the miraculous clothes changed into a big fish pattern with scales printed on them.

The male priest who has been living in the bridgehead temple has gone to Hekou Town a few days earlier. At this moment, the female senior priest of the Lord of Rivers and Lakes is wiping the children's hands and faces with a damp cloth, and also took out the A box of paints.

She dipped her fingers from the pre-mixed paint, first formed a water mirror with water, and then carefully drew patterns on herself. Then draw patterns on the faces and backs of the children's hands that are similar to the style of the clothes.

"Mother, mother, you don't look like a picture!"

One child honestly let the female priest draw patterns for her, while the other children ran and jumped around the two of them, giggling and making funny faces, teasing the female priest for her poor craftsmanship.

"Not like, not like." "Hee hee, not like at all."

The annoyed priestess tapped each of the children's foreheads, leaving a dot of paint behind.

"Go, go, calm down, wait for me to draw you one by one. Don't say it's ugly, the great **** is watching you, wait a minute, you must be honest and do the task of explaining well."

The female priest, who looked like an old middle-aged woman, comforted the adopted children, and then painted decorative patterns on each child.

Afterwards, the children took out colorful pebbles the size of fists that had been prepared from the nearby temple. They took out the stones, and the female priests personally placed round cobblestones in the middle of the road.

It is not as rigorous and formal as other churches, just some large and small circles surrounded by cobblestones. But these are enough. The ancient gods of nature do not pursue those complicated rules and rituals, and simple and natural rituals are even more popular with them.

Perhaps, this is also their stubborn side.

The female priest also went back to her room and changed into her 'magical' clothes. Although the decorations on this year's clothes were ordinary fish scales and ugly big fish, but with her natural and simple temperament, it was quite different. .

It seems to be an ancestor of human beings from ancient times, living in nature, aweing it, respecting it, and challenging it.

She imitated the appearance of the big fish in the river in a somewhat mischievous manner, making swimming movements. Seeing her actions, the children also followed suit, running barefoot to the 'mother' like little fishes.

Touching the children's heads, she fetched some roasted plant roots to fill the stomachs of herself and the children.

When the children were thirsty, she stretched out her fingers and tapped the air, and the surrounding water vapor naturally gathered and turned into pure water **** floating in the air.

The thirsty child naturally moved his small mouth to drink water from the water polo.

Soon everyone was full of food and drink, and following the pace of the female priest, they came to the circle of cobblestones that had been arranged just now.

Each child stood in his own little circle, and the priestess stood in the largest circle of stones.

With her hands behind her back, she quietly looked to the north, waiting for her lover to perform the miraculous magic that can communicate with the power of the gods first.

The children squatted in their own small circle, fiddling with pebbles of various colors, and arranged them neatly. There are also children who imitate the appearance of swimming fish they just learned, and play with their friends a few meters away.

-

At the same time, Hekou Town.

On the central square of the main town, a wooden high platform of more than ten meters has been built by the townspeople, and all the people in the town, regardless of high or low, have gathered around the square.

Everyone looked at the gate of Knight Eliza's house, waiting for the rarely seen male priest of the Lord of Rivers and Lakes to appear.

Even though most of them don't believe in this god, they all gathered here at this time.

Today and Harvest Festival are the most important days of the year for all the people on both sides of the Kendal River in Kendal.

The latter naturally represents the celebration and blessing of the traditional agricultural society for the annual harvest, while the former represents the day when the year really begins.

Every year, the Kendall River floods down from the upper reaches, when the weather gets warmer and the frozen river freezes. The flood would bring nutrient-rich earth and matter from the mountains upstream, and would wash away everything on the plains on either side of the Kendall.

Only after this day has passed can the most populous and most economically developed major areas of Kendall County officially launch various things for the New Year.

Migrants in the early years suffered a lot in this regard, either their homes were destroyed by the flood, or they miscalculated the day and failed to find a high place in the wild in advance, and were washed away to death by the flood.

But fortunately the two high priests of the Lord of the Rivers and Lakes heard about the events in Kendal and came here.

The duo of a man and a woman worked wonders.

They saved the area and made everything in order.

-

In Elisa Knight's mansion, the male priest was changing into the clothes given by the gods alone.

He saw this year's clothing pattern, stroked it lightly, and remembered the news his son entrusted someone to bring.

The sunfish that has been protecting part of the lake in Wumi Lake Village has been killed by people, and the sunfish has also been sacrificed and returned to the hands of the gods.

He put on his clothes and walked out of the house barefoot.

In the hall of the knight's house, an old pagan priest was talking with Elisa and his wife, while the rest of the knight's family sat quietly at their respective dining tables.

Everyone is waiting for his appearance.

When he walked into the hall, everyone, regardless of their status, from the owner of the place, Knight Elisa, to the male and female servants in charge of cleaning, all gave courtesy to the male priest.

The pagan old priest also administered to him a second highest courtesy of the Church of the Warrior's Hall.

The highest etiquette is to salute the gods. For a high-level priest like him who can perform miracles, using the second-highest etiquette is already very important.

The male priest ignored the others and returned a salute to the pagan old priest alone.

They were both religious people, and among the people in the room, the two of them could barely be counted together, even if they were priests of other religions.

"Everyone, you can draw me the pattern of this year's style. As you can see, this year's pattern style is fish. Light and dark scales and mighty fish head."

The male priest spread his arms, signaling for everyone to see the style of his clothing.

Originally, the steward of Knight Elisa came to help the priest draw the pattern every year, but this year, Knight Cook invited Priest Cook to complete the task.

There is nothing wrong with male priests. The ancient church of the gods of nature has no restrictions. In other words, there are not many of them. They only need to follow the preferences of the gods and slowly publicize the power of their own gods. Other things are not there. within the rules.

After talking about this matter, the servants brought paints and brushes. The male priest sat on a chair and quietly asked the old priest to help him draw fish-related patterns.

He was not familiar with Priest Cook, and when they met at close quarters, the two started talking softly.

Pastor Cook had previously done clerical work in the army, including drawing maps and painting battle scenes. So the old priest's craftsmanship was very high. After a while, he painted a beautiful fish pattern on the male priest's face with a variety of paints.

The scales are connected to each other but not too protruding, vying for the head of the ugly and mighty sunfish.

At the corners of the face, Mr. Cook also added the dorsal and pelvic fins and tail of the fish.

Through the conversation, the male priest learned a lot about priest Cook. He blinked, only then did he realize that the old priest in front of him was actually much younger than himself in age.

The other party is nearly eighty years old this year, and his body is still strong, so he has no problem going on the road alone.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. After all, he didn't look like a middle-aged man, but he and his wife were both over two hundred years old. The son who was stationed in Wumi Lake village was the third child born after the two settled in Kendal County.

The other two children have already received the gift and mission of the gods, separated from the two of them, and traveled to other regions.

Although priests of various religions have long life spans, they generally live to be eighty or ninety without dying. But the great and ancient nature gods are extraordinarily generous. As human beings, although they cannot compare with powerful heroes, they still have no problem living for hundreds of years.

After death, he will be personally guided into the Kingdom of God by the messenger of the gods.

Or live in the Kingdom of God for a long time, contributing to the construction of the Kingdom of God. Or accept the mission of the gods again and descend to the world again.

"Praise be to the great Lord. Thank you for your generosity and mercy."

After the face and hands are painted, since the male priest will perform miracles on the wooden tower, unlike his wife, the feet must also be painted.

Old Cook didn't think there was anything wrong with painting the feet of a pagan high priest with ritual patterns. On the contrary, he found it interesting to participate in it himself.

Not long after, on the square in the center of the town, the door of Knight Eliza's house slowly opened.

The waiters of the knight's house found some fish scales from nowhere. At this time, they excitedly followed behind the male priest who was walking slowly, stretching out their hands to scatter the fish scales with a fishy smell.

Elisa Knight and his family also followed and watched the next miracle ceremony together.

When the people saw the patterns on the male priest's body and the fish scales scattered on his back, they all became excited. Perhaps, they took these fish patterns as a sign that the fish production in the river will double this year under the blessing of the gods.

Under the cheers and gaze of the people, the male priest nodded to the fishermen who believed in the Lord of the rivers and lakes, and then lightly stepped on the stone ground with both feet, and the surrounding water vapor gathered spontaneously and quickly, coming to his feet. Lift him up slowly.

The cylindrical pure water rises from the ground, and directly supports the male priest with weird patterns all over his body to the edge of the wooden platform of more than ten meters.

The male priest stepped lightly to the high platform with a radius of less than one meter. First, he looked down at all the people in Hekou Town who were looking at him. The people, regardless of age, class or wealth, all looked at him. Excited and shouted loudly.

Then he raised his head and looked around.

The large forest in the northeast, the Wumi River flowing down step by step, and the Wumi Lake not far upstream of the river. The forest in the east, the hilly wilderness in the southeast, the impact plain of the Kendall River in the south, and the faintly visible Kendall City and various farms on the plain, and another dark forest in the southwest. To the west is still part of the wilderness and dark forest, and to the northwest is the remote forest farm, the knights' station on the upper reaches of the Kendall River, and the needle-like Griffin Tower.

In the north, there are the upper reaches of the Kendall River and the rolling mountains.

Legend has it that there are dwarven towns in the mountains, and everything north of Kendal County is the land of another foreign kingdom beyond the boundary pillars set by the gods.

This is a place that is neither big nor small.

When you live on the ground, measure the land and rivers with your feet, the natural world is vast.

But the world is very different when you look from above.

Occasionally, he will use his divine power to fly into the sky, shuttle among the clouds, and think about the connection between the cumulonimbus clouds in the sky and the gods he believes in.

Gradually letting go of these thoughts, he opened his arms without cumbersome prayers and rituals.

Look up and look up to the sky.

Under the control of his divine power, a large amount of water vapor gushed out and gathered from the gradually melting ice of the Kendall River next to the town, flew into the sky and gradually turned into a water mirror that was several times larger than the entire town.

The sky was originally clear, but as the incomparably huge water mirror gradually appeared, it gradually blocked the sky, as well as the sun and sunlight hanging in the sky.

As a steady stream of water vapor thickened the water mirror high in the sky, the shadow that blocked the sun gradually covered the entire Hekou Town.

"Wow!"

Although the vast majority of the townspeople saw this scene more than once, almost every year, they still screamed in panic in the face of completely incomparable power.

Knight Alyssa squinted his eyes and sat quietly on the chair brought by the servant, paying attention to the stage of the miracle ritual.

What he has learned is very complicated, but there is no way to do it. Everything in this life is pieced together intermittently. On the road of knights, no one can provide him with direction.

Big organizations naturally have ways to become stronger, but no matter how good his relationship with the Imperial Border Knights is, he is not a formal member of the Knights after all, and cannot get in-depth help from the other party.

The Church of the Warrior Hall seems to be a direction, and he is working **** it recently.

But for him, the miraculous ritual of preventing the Great Flood, which he undergoes once a year, is the real power that makes him dream.

Even if he could not get the favor of the gods to join the church, learning and comprehending something from this ceremony full of divine power and power was what he had been pursuing for many years.

Priest Cook's hand stroking his beard stopped at some point.

His slightly open mouth was covered by his thick white beard, but his shocked eyes had exposed all his shocked emotions.

"Is this the miracle ceremony?" He couldn't help muttering to himself.

Sitting next to her, Knight's wife Elyssa gracefully covered half of her face with a hand fan, not to offend the old priest with her smile: "You're joking, Priest Cook. This is the beginning."

"start?"

Before he could say anything, the huge water mirror above Hekou Town changed again.

The huge water mirror that was originally parallel to the ground began to tilt slightly, and the tilt gradually increased as time passed.

Gradually, the scenery of Wumi Lake in the distance was reflected on the huge water mirror shaped by divine power.

Wumi Lake, which could not be seen on both sides of the lake at first, has been completely wrapped in this water mirror at this time, revealing that unless you fly into the air, you can't see the panoramic view of Wumi Lake.

The mortals on the ground held their heads high, looking at the scene in the mirror high above.

It was a vast lake that was gradually melting and shattering.

"It's coming, it's coming."

The people whispered similar words, and Priest Cook, who heard these words, also raised his head and clenched his fists to look at the whole picture of Wumi Lake reflected in the tilted mirror.

As the people whispered, the ice in the center of Wumi Lake suddenly exploded and lifted on the mirror. The white or transparent large chunks of thick ice are pushed by the gradually rising center of the lake, and gradually fall towards the surroundings.

On the edge of Wumi Lake, the ice surface on the original shore of the lake suddenly shattered, and then fell downward. It turns out that a huge amount of lake water under the ice surface has been rising abnormally towards the center of the lake at this time~www.readwn.com~The lake water has not risen much, and it is waiting for the ice surface in the center to roll and fall to the surroundings. It gradually descended again.

Accompanied by all this, there is a continuous roar.

All the villagers of Wumi Lake Village stayed away from the north of the village at this time, and gathered under the wall outside the south gate of the village, relying on the distance and the shield of the wall to offset the huge roar.

They all opened their mouths wide and stuffed their ears with their fingers. They waited until the roar faded away, and then went back to each house through the south gate of the village one after another.

Fortunately, the northern land wolf has been defeated and can hide outside the village wall. In the past few years, they could only be in the village, unable to rely on the fence, and endure the huge roar that occurred every year.

Here in Hekou Town, when the water mirror in the sky revealed the finished scene of Wumi Lake, there was a huge roar like ten thousand horses galloping from the northeast.

"Oh!!" The people probably knew the distance from the town to Wumihu Village, so when they heard the loud noise coming from the northeast, they all let out a voice of amazement again.

Accompanied by a loud noise, the water mirror in the air revealed the center of Wumi Lake, where the lake surface gradually changed.

Only the lake water remained in the center of the lake, surrounded by a large amount of scattered thick ice. And in the center of the deep Wumi Lake, a huge, one-kilometer-sized giant water eyes gradually emerged out of water.

It was a huge eye, bigger than Wumi Lake Village next to it, and even bigger than Hekou Town at this time.

"Lord, ho, ho. I'm face to face with the gods."

Old Cook panted nervously, staring intently at the huge water mirror in the sky, his face was red and white.