MTL - I Like This Dream!-v2 Chapter 59
Thunder Queen Anna. Sullivan did have a high prestige in the frontier, because she saved the frontier residents by driving away the beast tide, and because she had a terrifying power that ordinary people could not imagine.
Let's put it this way, just like some people worshiped the "locust god" during the locust plague, there are examples of worshiping evil gods all over the world and in all ages. People offered sacrifices in vain, hoping that the evil **** would show mercy to them. The sacrifices and ceremonies included were varied. As Anxu requested, throwing precious grains into the soil to waste, plus loosening and watering activities with unknown meanings, was not an excessive religious ceremony. It is really a good deal to use this ceremony to exchange for the blessing of the Thunder Queen.
However, on the one hand, the people are used to all kinds of demands for religious reasons, and on the other hand, they have developed the habit of having policies and countermeasures. After all, they have found out that they are playing tricks, such as adding charcoal sticks to the jerky that is offered, and going up the mountain. Dodging the church construction tax, God, the old man won't mind.
Eating half of the seeds and not planting them as required is already considered a very sincere ritual method. If the order was not given by the Thunder Queen but the Holy See, all the seeds might disappear in the stomach of the recipient on the same day.
"Enough!" An Xu said.
Everyone shut their mouths and looked at An Xu nervously and expectantly.
"You..." An Xu glanced at them, "Go to the place where the announcement is posted to see how to plant! This is not a strange ceremony! It is said that it is planting, it is planting! Can you harvest it in autumn?"
People froze for a moment, then hurriedly began to nod their heads, still not sure if they understood. An Xu felt a sense of powerlessness, and felt that this was not possible.
It's annoying to find that farmers can't work obediently with a click of the mouse, but what Anxu wants is not to encourage Ian and the others to achieve their goals by means of intimidation.
Among those who worshiped the fierce god, some were out of helplessness and fear, while some were sincere. Ian is a typical example. They have witnessed Anxu's wanton killings with their own eyes, faced the kind of terrifying force that makes people unable to resist, and survived because they were not targeted. Anxu's strength left an indelible impression in their hearts, followed by awe, surrender, and yearning. It sounds super weird, and it almost makes people wonder if these people are masochists, but it's not uncommon. It seems that the survival instinct of human beings who want to stand on the side of the winner covers up the fear, and the subconscious mind hypnotizes the surface consciousness, producing a sincere fanatical belief.
An Xu met his own fanatic for the first time.
The high-ranking people in this world will think that this is a rare and great thing. Just think about it, people on the frontier obey you more or less unconditionally, and some people are so fanatical that they spontaneously and consciously supervise others. How convenient it is to rule! The most holy priests will not refuse this kind of good fortune. They will say that faith is the most noble and refined wealth, why not accept it?
And An Xu's only thought is, who wants to be such a troublesome fan!
One brainless fan is worth ten blacks, today can be regarded as insightful. Even if she has the fanatics of the entire Holy See—a mother Mary of the entire Holy See! My goosebumps are up! —She would only express her distasteful expression. An Xu once again emphasized reading the announcement and the prohibition of lynching, and flew back while hoping that the seeds had not been ruined.
The next morning, the frontiersmen were summoned again.
"I found that many people did not follow my request." An Xu said bluntly.
The crowd stirred slightly, and an atmosphere of uneasiness permeated it.
Immediately afterwards, An Xu said, "But it's not your fault, it's because I didn't make it clear."
Now the whispering became louder, and people didn't feel at ease, but even more panicked, not knowing what the god-favored one wanted to do. Many of them were fanatical and glared at others, worried that the Goddess of Thunder would be disappointed in them, and were about to abandon them.
"This is not a religious ceremony, it's just ordinary planting! Sowing can harvest, just like wild fruits will ripen in autumn, sheep will grow wool, no need for plant supernatural powers, any ordinary person can do it!" An Xu said loudly , "You don't believe me..."
"We believe in you!" Ian cried eagerly.
"Then why didn't you do what I said? Why didn't you read the announcement and listen to the explanation?" An Xu asked back.
"You said 'those who don't understand can listen to the explanation', but I didn't miss a single word that morning!" Ian tried to explain, and many people in the crowd nodded vigorously, "You said, 'It needs to be watered once a day. water lest the seed thirst', I doubled..."
"So you didn't listen to me." The favored man said coldly.
Ian felt like he had been slapped.
"I want you to listen to me, because you are stupid. I didn't expect you to be self-righteous besides being stupid." The girl in the sky said mercilessly, "Being intoxicated by self-righteous 'piety' without authorization, taking your own arrogance as my will, haha , Where did you get permission from? I am not responsible for your smartness, let alone allow anyone to steal my name."
Many people's faces were pale and looked shaky. An Xu has no scruples, she has never been the type of person who lives in the expectations of others.
"Your name is Ian, right? Come here." She waved to the only person in the crowd who could name her.
Ian nodded dully, the crowd parted, and he walked heavily to the high platform. This time An Xu was flying in the sky, but he asked someone to build a high platform that everyone in the square could see. There was a table on the high platform, and there were odds and ends on the table.
Everyone's faces were shrouded in gloom, as if they thought that Ian would receive a public punishment. Ian's lips were trembling all the time, but he raised his head, looking like he was going to die generously.
"Don't make such an appearance." The favored man waved his hand impatiently, "People who die for reasons they don't understand are no different from drowning in a cesspit after being drunk. Come here, lift that up, Let's take a look inside."
As she said, Ian raised a small bamboo stick, which was covered with a layer of light yellow particles. Everyone in the audience knew what it was, they had just received a copy a few days ago.
"This is the seed. It is the same as the one sent to you before. It is intact but has not received any blessings, and no plant supernaturalists have tampered with it. Those who don't believe it can check it!"
No one moved, An Xu asked Ian to walk through the crowd with the bamboo strips in his hands, circle around the field and come back. When the seeds passed by, many people dared to take a closer look.
"Many of you know Ian, he is just an ordinary person with no supernatural powers!" An Xuyang said, "Show me clearly!"
She instructed Ian to soak the seeds into the water basin, and scoop up the floating seeds and put them aside. Then drain the remaining and washed seeds, cover with a wet black cloth, and cover the water basin with a lid.
People straightened their necks and waited for the next step, but Ian had already stood aside under the instructions. The favored ones announced that they could not lift the lid, and that they could disband now. They would gather at the same place tomorrow, and left them and flew away.
The border residents looked at each other in blank dismay, and the monks and border soldiers were also puzzled. No one dared to step up and look too far, so as not to disturb this weird scene like witchcraft. The acquaintances looked at Ian eagerly, and Ian stared blankly at the pots he had handled and his hands, but couldn't see anything.
In the early morning of the next day, everyone consciously came to the open space, and Ian waited anxiously by the basin until the God-Fated One descended from the sky again. She asked Ian to open the basin, and there was a strange smell coming from the basin. For a while, the young man thought that something was rotten. He lifted the black cloth, and the seeds didn't rot, they seemed to be a little whiter than yesterday.
Ian believed in his heart that the guidance of the Goddess of Thunder would never be as simple as it seemed, and he must be dull if he couldn't see the difference. He opened his eyes wide and stared at each seed, and suddenly found that there were small white spots the size of needlepoints on each seed.
He circled the field like yesterday, curiosity made the mountain people push and stretch their necks, and many people also found the white dots, just like Ian, they didn't know what they were.
"This is the sprout of the seed," said the favored one.
Most people nodded with half understanding. Some people who had tried to plant or observed the germination of wild fruits shook their heads in their hearts, thinking that "buds" should not be green, long like worms or flat like leaves? For a seed to germinate from the ground, it takes at least one, two, three, four... It takes about as long as the fingers of two hands combined, and of course you will get nothing in one day. But when the favored one said so, they had no choice but to nod along with the others.
Under Ian's instructions, he washed the seeds again, filtered the water, covered them with a damp cloth and covered them again, and restored everything to its original state.
This time, after the favored man left, more people surrounded him. Although they dared not go up to the high platform, they kept poking around at the side all the time. The general assigned two soldiers to stand on both sides of the high platform, in case anyone had the audacity to disobey the order and lift the cover. How could it be, the border residents took the covered wooden basin as a container sealed by the gods, and speculated whether there was a little monster driven by the lord sealed inside. They spontaneously and consciously took over each other's shifts, stared at the basin with wide eyes, and watched the soldiers on guard, for fear that something would get into the basin or run out of the basin in a blink of an eye.
On the third day, the wooden basin, which had never left the sight of everyone, was lifted.
Without Ian going around the field, everyone gasped in unison. Every seed, the one that was motionless two days ago, and the one with a white spot the day before, has sprouted—everyone who sees it can say so, because of the tiny struts that branch out into two leaves It is exactly the same as the grass buds that break out of the ground after the spring rain every year, and the vigorous vitality is surprising.
There is no spring rain bestowed by God, only the river water that people scoop up at random; there is no land promised by God, only a wooden basin that can be seen everywhere; there are no plant supernatural beings, only the sinner Ian who was called up at random. After only two days and two nights, this series of impossible conditions created a whole pot of well-growing seedlings, which were vigorous and dense, as if they had been kissed by the gods, and none of them was a dead seed that could not germinate.
The crowd was in an uproar, and no one kept order, because the monks were as shocked as the frontier soldiers. It is not uncommon for people to do things that are favored by the gods, but this series of uncommon things that everyone can do is even more unacceptable than chanting a bunch of spells and using a bunch of weird props. Many people couldn't help looking at Ian, wondering if he had received a divine favor when he stepped onto the stage—a divine favor from the Goddess of Thunder.
"As I said before, this is not divine favor, supernatural power or witchcraft. I am not a god, and there is no power beyond the limits of mortals in this matter." A cold voice overwhelmed all the noise, "You guys don't have supernatural powers , no blood, neither strong nor smart, I'm teaching you what you can learn if you work hard."
People fell silent and looked up at the owner of the voice in the sky.
The girl with blond hair and golden eyes lowered her eyes and said, "I will teach you the laws of how the world works."