Destiny is ashes

Chapter 562: The Great Wilderness Sea

In the Great Wilderness, many intelligent creatures live and multiply here, and the human race is just one of them.

This world has its own practices and gods, but they are relatively ancient and simple. The people on this boat are from the main world of the Great Wilderness, and are under the command of the [Tianyu Dynasty] established by the human race.

There are many states and princes in Tianyu, known as "Ten Thousand States Coming to Pay Homage". They are the subjects of King Jingchu of "Jingchu State". As they cannot afford the increasingly heavy silver tax, they can only pay the blood tax to open up the Tianhai Islands for Jingchu.

This is a cave in the Tianhai in the south of Jingchu, named [Liucui Island]. It has a beautiful name, but the environment is harsh, there are many epidemics, mosquitoes and poisonous snakes everywhere in the mountains and valleys, and it is said that there are evil spirits. Although Tianyu theoretically governs this place, it has not sent any officials or priests here, and Jingchu usually does not care about it.

However, because this cave is located near some developed caves in the surrounding area, there are occasionally merchant ships from the Taixu fleet that come to patrol and trade. In theory, there are also some human camps set up by tax evaders on the island, as well as chamber of commerce warehouses and island guard garrisons.

But now it seems that these things only exist [on paper]. In fact, those camps, those Chamber of Commerce warehouses and the property and spiritual objects in the warehouses, as well as a large number of military salaries for the island guards, do not really exist.

There were 300 people on their ship on paper, but in reality there were more than 70 people not counting the sailors. Halfway through the journey, they encountered an accident and crashed into the surrounding area. Now, including the crew, there are only more than 50 people, which means most of them have been killed.

In fact, if the captain was not experienced, they would not have been stranded, but would have been lost in the sea of ​​​​sky and disappeared, turning into primordial evil soup.

“There is no gathering place or warehouse here at all!”

Now, most people have understood this fact. Some people shouted in despair: "Damn Wang Xiang, he didn't really intend to let us come here to open up the wasteland, but to let us die!"

"Then he said that we were all evil-minded people who came to the island and became pirates when they saw the wealth. They hijacked the boat, burned the camp, robbed the warehouse and ran away when the island guards were not paying attention... When they settle the accounts, our families will be arrested and forced to do hard labor, and our property will be completely confiscated, and they can make another fortune!"

The person who said this was very experienced, and what he said was completely in line with facts and imagination. It could almost be said that he predicted the future, and people's morale plummeted in an instant.

"I've seen this happen."

The venerable old man sighed, his wrinkled face filled with calm despair. He looked in the direction of the Jingchu Kingdom in the north and said, "I have seen several empty ships sailing out of the southern ports, but the cargo figures on the books are increasing."

"Five expeditions to open up wasteland, twelve expeditions to support immigrants, more than a hundred island guards, a total of several hundred to nearly a thousand immigrants, seven or eight settlements, and goods worth more than 200,000 spirit stones. There are spirit animal skins, nectar, and magical instruments and spirit iron shipped from the mainland and surrounding caves, as well as various teas and spices... All of them are fake."

As he said this, the old man's lips trembled, and the others were also horrified: "Mr. Huang, is this true or not? You knew everything?! Why didn't you warn us?!"

"I thought it was one-tenth of what was on the books!"

The old man called 'Huang Lao' swung his cane painfully and roared: "As long as we have a dozen island guards, a hundred immigrants, a settlement and enough food for us to eat for a few months, that's enough - I don't even ask for the spiritual objects, nectar and spiritual iron to be real, as long as I have some jade rice and spiritual sugarcane!"

"Who knows? Not to mention one tenth, it's not even one percent!"

The old man knew part of the inside story, and the reason why he came here to open up wasteland was not because he could not pay the money, but because he wanted to help his hometown open up more land at the end of his life, so that Jingchu, which was suffering from extremely serious internal circulation, would have a place to settle the refugees, and the situation would be much easier.

Who knew that this kindness would be completely exploited.

The old man had great prestige. Although they were angry, no one took their anger out on him. Instead, they said in near despair, "Isn't this asking us to die? Not only will we die, but we will also have to bear the blame, and implicate our parents and relatives, and we will have to settle accounts with the King of Jingchu and the Prime Minister!"

"They don't even want us to be consumed by nature during the development, they just want to kill us!"

Ming Guangchen, who had mixed into the crowd, couldn't help but sigh: "How can this make them happy? They are rebelling against him!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone turned around and looked at Ming Guangchen.

Although no one knew Ming Guangchen, they didn't know each other before. The magic that Ming Guangchen cast on them made everyone feel that he was quite familiar. They didn't care much about it, but said cautiously: "Forget it. If there is a rebellion, no caravans will come from the surrounding caves."

"Yeah, I don't have any family, so I just have to struggle as hard as I can. At least I still have a boat here as the starting material. I can just build a camp. It's not like I can't survive."

"They say there's no camp, but there should be some villages built here by people who evaded taxes before. Let's go look for them."

This is the nature of the people in Tianyu. If you want to open a window for ventilation, most of them will refuse. But if you ask them to lift up the roof, then they will accept opening a window.

Although the insults were powerful, no one dared to actually rebel - maybe they could still survive?

However, everyone is not opposed to rebellion, they just feel that the timing is not right, and it is better to survive first.

Ming Guangchen also knew that according to the notice from Jingchu, there were other humans and intelligent races in this cave island called "Liucui Island".

In the Great Wilderness, "human" is the name that all intelligent life forms call themselves. Those who look like foxes call themselves human, those who look like tigers also call themselves human, and the "human race" that Ming Guangchen has long been accustomed to naturally also calls themselves human.

It's nothing more than calling each other by name, calling each other the 'Spirit Fox Tribe', the 'Fierce Tiger Tribe' and the 'Straight Ape Tribe'. If they have a better relationship, they call each other fox people, tiger people and ape people, giving each other the face of being a 'human'.

Yes. In the Great Wilderness, humans are called "straight apes" by other intelligent races, and the official name is "intelligent straight apes". The advantages of this race are that they are very smart at an early age, have strong endurance, and have good adaptability.

The myriad races in the Great Wilderness are fighting for supremacy, not only for territory, but also for the title of "The Chief of All Spirits", also known as the "Human Race".

There are dragons and snakes in the west, unicorns in the north, phoenixes in the east, and many small tribes in between. To the south is the Tianhai Islands, where the inhabitants are different. And on Liucui Island...

"The goods on our ship were originally intended to be sold to the rat people on the island."

The captain looked at the water-soaked bill in his hand, and his already bald forehead became even balder. "These rat people must be cooperating with the dog officials back home. They are also part of the settlement. We must be careful of their surprise attack."

"Yes." Others were also worried: "These rat people don't believe in [Zhu Zhao], but believe in their ancestors, or some other mountain spirits, river ghosts, earth gods and evil spirits... Will they sacrifice us as sacrifices?"

"May the [Flite Candle Illuminating Daytime God] bless you..." The others were immediately frightened by this possibility. They all looked up and prayed to the sun in the sky.

Candlelight? Flint candlelight illuminates the god of day?
As a warrior, Ming Guangchen suddenly realized that he seemed to have missed some information just now. He couldn't help but raise his head and look towards the ceiling with this group of people.

Like a candle flame, the purple-blue sun with a triple lotus formation rotating is shining.

Is that [Fluit Candle Illuminating the Daytime God]?
god……

Is this... a Shinto world?
But this format of address is not for an ordinary god.

Ming Guangchen knew very well that this format and expression were quite similar to the official title of 'Huai Xu Great Immortal' [Taishang Daguan Huai Xu Immortal Venerable]!

Add to that Dao Ting language, this world is indeed related to Dao Ting!

Ming Guangchen took another person to question and soon learned the relevant information.

In the Huaixu Realm, people first practice Qi training and cultivate immortality, and then move on to fate-based martial arts. Even if there is occasionally Shintoism, it is not the mainstream and is still mixed with immortality and martial arts, so he is not particularly sensitive to this.

But after learning more about it, Ming Guangchen discovered that this world was actually dominated by Shintoism!

The intelligent creatures in the Great Wilderness are not stupid, in fact they are extremely smart. They have long discovered that no matter whether they are performing magic or practicing, as long as they mobilize the spiritual evil between heaven and earth, it will activate the demonic energy, making people gradually anxious and crazy, and even alienated into evil monsters.

In such an environment, practicing is an extremely terrifying thing.

As a result, Shintoism flourished.

All races and nations, and all intelligent creatures in the Great Wilderness, worship their own gods. The more powerful the gods are, the more they can suppress the interference and backlash of demonic energy. Their priests are also the most important members of each country and party, even the royal family.

Besides, without priests, there would be no gathering place.

Just like now. They said they had to be careful of the raids by the Skaven tribe, but in reality, it was good enough that these shipwreck refugees could survive.

As the sun gradually sets, the dangers of the Great Wilderness gradually become apparent.

Ming Guangchen learned from these people that this world is very dangerous: wind, water, fire, earth, starlight, trees... everything between heaven and earth is very dangerous and can take lives.

When the sun was still out, several people were sucked blood by flying insects around the beach, and were bitten and had large cysts, and some even had their fingers bitten off without noticing.

When the sea breeze blew, it was indeed like a knife. The leaves on the tops of slightly taller trees were cut off. Only the spiritual plants that were strong enough and shining with spiritual light could resist it.

Several people who were near the bushes and said they wanted to go take a look in the forest were almost knocked down by the tentacles of the trees and the miasma they released. If Ming Guangchen had not been unable to bear it and took action, these people would have turned into fertilizer for the forest within a few steps.

That is to say, the highly respected and venerable Huang Lao was a [Fire Priest] of [Zhu Zhao].

He used his own blood to light the purple-blue "candle-light flint", and built a bonfire on the beach, which drove away the poisonous insects and snakes that were approaching step by step, scared off the roots of the living plants, and made the man-eating crabs and fluorescent jellyfish in the sea dare not approach, and also softened the sea breeze that was getting increasingly cold and enough to soak into people's bones.

The demonic energy returned to inertia under the power of the fire, and the spiritual energy became controllable.

Only the blessing power of gods can stop these creatures that have been alienated by evil spirits and become twisted and weird.

Mixing in the crowd, Ming Guangchen gradually learned a lot of things that he couldn't ask, things that were beyond his comprehension as a person from another world, but were common sense for people in this world.

For example, people in this world practice cultivation not by absorbing the "spiritual energy of heaven and earth", but by taking various refined spiritual foods.

Once the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is mobilized, the demonic energy will be attracted at the same time, which may very likely cause the practitioner to go astray and transform into a demon.

Only the spiritual energy in various spiritual objects, such as the coconut he ate when he first arrived in this world, can be absorbed by the human body.

Compared to the violent, crazy, and even world that wants to devour everything all the time, the spiritual evil spirits among the spiritual objects in this world can allow people to grow and accumulate cultivation.

However, if you do not take spiritual objects of corresponding levels or stay in spiritual places of corresponding levels for a long time, your cultivation will gradually regress.

Many cultivators, without the support of power and resources, can only absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and then gradually become madly alienated, turning into demons and monsters, and becoming spiritual materials for others.

In this world, the cultivation systems are roughly divided into three types.

One type is the priests of Shinto gods.

One is similar to the primitive Qi-refining practice, performing spells and talismans, and is similar to the alchemists in Dachen who mobilize the power of Feng Shui and earth veins.

The last type is the martial art that he is very familiar with, which is somewhat similar to the way of demons and spirits.

In addition to this, there are actually quite a few small cultivation systems, which include destiny, bloodline power, magical powers, and formation and weapon cultivation. However, they are not as professional and systematized as Huaixu's, and most of them are developed independently.

Among this group of refugees, there were only three monks.

The old man is a Candlelight Priest, the captain is a Water Spirit Alchemist, and the captain of the escort team is a warrior, which just happens to be a complete group of three types of cultivators.

In the case of priests, everything is based on the priests, the alchemists are auxiliary, and the warriors are the vanguard. The three work together to deal with all dangers.

Having said that, the cultivation levels of the three really can't give people much sense of security, not to mention that if they want to maintain their cultivation levels, they either have to practice in a safe spiritual place, or take spiritual objects - and on this island where there are no human gatherings, priests are okay, but alchemists and warriors are too difficult to maintain, and the food on the ship can't sustain a few battles.

Not to mention, there were some people who were clearly not warriors, yet they insisted on sneaking around to steal food from the ship.

At night, a few sneaky figures tried to run into the cabin of the stranded ship. It was very obvious what they wanted to do, but they were discovered by the "Water Spirit Tripwire" set up by the captain, and the awakened people immediately caught them.

Even Ming Guangchen was unwilling to protect these people. He just watched from the sidelines as the angry refugees hung these grain thieves on the trees, whipped and scolded them harshly, beating them until their blood flowed and soaked into the earth and roots, making the living trees happily relax their branches and leaves.

The next day, their bodies began to smell bad. Some had been gnawed by insects and wild beasts, leaving bones swaying in the wind. The maggots on the bodies were used as bait for fishing.

The deaths of these people actually gave this refugee organization some cohesion.

"We must go into the forest to find food and a safer place to settle!"

After a few days, as the food on the ship gradually decreased and the problem of daytime heat and nighttime cold became more and more serious, the Fire Priest had to announce the next move: "The Lord of Candlelight has given me a revelation in the past few days. A storm is coming. We can't stay on the beach any longer!"

He was right. Ming Guangchen could also see that the storm in the sky and sea was gathering. The air was unusually moist and the sea was equally quiet. This was just the calm before the storm.

Under normal circumstances, they could slowly build a forward camp around the beach, relying on the food on the sunken ship, fishing, and crabs, shells, and coconuts on the shore, and then go deeper into the jungle after they were fully prepared.

But now, if they cannot enter the island and build a camp as quickly as possible, their fate will be to be swallowed up by the violent winds and tides.

By following this group of people and protecting them secretly, Ming Guangchen has roughly understood the specific situation of this world.

All races and nations.

The simple Taixu sky ship.

A vast country spanning the sky, sea and caves, as well as the many vassal states that make up this country.

The corrupt and decadent princes and officials of the vassal states.

Shinto rituals, demon martial arts, Feng Shui alchemists... In a world where evil spirits and spiritual spirits coexist, magical powers and spells will cause backlash, and the world needs to be appeased by spiritual objects and gods.

"interesting."

Ming Guangchen raised his head. The strange candlelight sun was now obscured by dark clouds, but some light could still be seen faintly, like a ball of purple fire burning behind a curtain, burning large patches of clouds into purple-red flame clouds.

The gorgeous glow made the Far Skywalker smile sincerely: "It's huge and interesting."

"This world is really worth exploring!"

Not only did he think so, but Jin Yuantian also thought so.

[Exploration Mission 'Great Wilderness Sea': Explore the specific situation of Liucui Island, gain a preliminary understanding of the local customs of the Great Wilderness, and build a local exploration base without disturbing local forces and gods]

[Unlock the Great Wilderness Exchange List]

Jin Yuantian's power also arrived at the Great Wilderness Realm with his arrival.

"The Great Wilderness Sea."

As he murmured the word, a silver-green light lit up in Ming Guangchen's eyes and he smiled.

——It seems like it’s time to show some strength.

(End of this chapter)