Steel torrents pioneering a different world.

Chapter 302 A single thought of embracing others brings a sense of boundless freedom! (Bonus Chapter)

Sorry, there was a chapter with several hundred words repeated a few days ago, it was chapter 229. I will add a free 2000-word chapter in the next day or the day after!

Fear stems from the unknown.

Miraculous appearances can make loyal believers fanatical and blind.

Lin Li had no idea how many people were astonished by the special performance he had put on for the sake of the show.

On the high platform, after hunting down the wicked villains, Lin Li, who had transformed into Gaizur, finally turned his gaze downwards.

"Ancestor!"

"It's an ancestor, absolutely an ancestor!"

The thunderous cheers nearly overturned the entire harbor, and countless dwarves knelt on the ground, offering their most sincere faith.

Lin Li ignored these fanatical believers, flashed back to the ground, and stood in front of the interim governor Gale, who had been thrown to the ground and was already trembling with fear.

His gaze fell on Gail, calm yet heavy as a thousand pounds.

Gail felt a chill rise from her tailbone, instantly freezing her limbs and bones.

That's it!

"Gale."

A cold voice rang out, devoid of any emotion, yet it struck Gale's heart like a heavy hammer.

"How does it feel to become governor? You've amassed so much ill-gotten wealth in just a few days. Not bad at all."

Gail shuddered, and her upper and lower jaws began to chatter uncontrollably, making a soft "clucking" sound.

How did he know? Who! Who leaked the secret!

His mind was in chaos. He tried to argue his way out of it, but Lin Li's gaze had already passed over him and swept over another person in the crowd.

"Legas".

The dwarf whose name was called froze, and the color drained from his face instantly.

"You spent a lot of money to buy the position of disaster relief grain officer, claiming to the outside world that it was for the sake of your compatriots and to show your great kindness."

But you secretly replaced the disaster relief rye with moldy old grain, then pocketed the difference. Did you think no one would find out about this trick?

This time, besides these two, some dwarf managers with impure motives and unclean backgrounds were trembling with fear.

Our ancestors were amazing!

He knows so much!

Legas's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground, stammering incoherently, "I—I don't—have—an ancestor, you must—have misunderstood—it's all a misunderstanding?"

"Is it a misunderstanding?"

Lin Li's voice carried a hint of amusement.

Before he finished speaking, his figure disappeared from the spot.

The next second, heavy wooden crates appeared out of thin air on the platform and crashed onto the stone table!

boom! boom! boom!

Several boxes shattered on the spot.

Under the lights, dazzling gold coins, shimmering gems, and all sorts of treasures are mixed together, like a golden waterfall cascading down from the high platform!

Ding ding ding—

The crisp sounds of impact were incessant, so loud they made it hard to open one's eyes.

The entire port fell into a deathly silence.

Le Jias, who had just tried to argue, was now ashen-faced.

Those boxes—aren't they the ones they hid in the secret room?

Yes, the family crests above are exactly the same!

How did he know all this?

Damn it!

He actually tried to be clever!

He was our ancestor!

Isn't it normal to know this?

The dwarves, especially the lower-class dwarves, looked at the golden light covering the ground and then at the few pale-faced nobles; they understood immediately.

They talk a lot about morality and righteousness, but behind the scenes they engage in all sorts of dirty deals.

Lin Li sneered inwardly.

The dwarves were just unlucky. Lin Li was afraid that the dwarves would cause trouble, so he specially installed surveillance equipment in some of the dwarves' meeting rooms and important offices.

These things are used for intelligence gathering.

With minimal effort, he obtained crucial intelligence.

His icy gaze locked onto Gale and the others once more, and he slowly raised his hand, pointing to the mountain of wealth.

"These were all found in your secret room. Now, is there anything else you want to say?"

Pfft!

Gail was the first to break down, kneeling heavily on the ground, tears streaming down her face.

"Great ancestor! I had no choice!"

He pounded his head on the ground, crying out hoarsely, "If I don't take the money, none of the grain can be transported out! If I don't mix rice husks into the rice porridge, those scoundrels under my command will take 70% of the life-saving food to their own families! I have no choice! I really have no choice!!!"

He cried and kowtowed repeatedly to his ancestors, his forehead soon becoming a bloody mess.

Then he turned to his fellow dwarfs around him.

Fellow countrymen!!!

"I, Gale, am guilty! But I have my reasons! I was forced into this position, and I had to compromise for the interests of all parties. I—"

"I'm so sorry, everyone!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly pulled out a firecracker that he had hidden somewhere in his pocket and pointed it at his temple without hesitation.

boom!

A loud bang.

Red and white hair mixed with stray strands exploded out, and Gale's body fell straight backward.

Before his consciousness completely sank into darkness, he vaguely saw himself in his younger days.

That passionate young dwarf joined the enforcement team, determined to eradicate this corrupt and greedy bureaucracy.

Unfortunately, at some point, his robes became stained with indelible mud and bloodstains, eventually turning into the very thing he once loathed.

Gail's breathing stopped.

The entire room fell silent.

All the dwarves were stunned by this sudden scene; no one expected that the interim governor would end his life in such a tragic way.

Fear, shock, and bewilderment—various emotions spread among the crowd.

The moment Gale fell, the deathly silence of the harbor was ripped apart by a shrill child's voice.

"grandfather!"

A little dwarf boy tumbled and crawled out of the crowd, threw himself on Gale's still-warm body, and wailed loudly.

Immediately afterwards, a dwarf woman staggered over, collapsed to the side, and cried out in despair.

Just as everyone's expressions were complicated, a strange scene unfolded.

A translucent, faintly glowing phantom slowly emerged from Gale's corpse; its outline was exactly what Gale looked like in life.

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd, as awe and fear settled on every face.

In the place where their ancestors resided, the souls that were originally invisible could now be seen by them.

The power of our ancestors is terrifying!

Lin Li, the ancestor Gaizur, remained expressionless as he slowly raised his hand.

The illusory figure seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, transforming into a stream of light that entered the bottle inside his palm and then disappeared.

Another miracle without any magical fluctuations!

This is our ancestors reclaiming the souls of their deceased children!

Although Gael was to be punished, the dwarves knew he could remain in the ancestral temple.

All the dwarves were utterly shocked by this scene that transcended life and death, and they were deeply moved by the image of the person on the high platform, whom they had worshipped since childhood.

The awe for a figure worshipped to the extreme has seeped into one's very bones.

After settling that matter, Lin Li's cold gaze swept across the audience again, precisely locking onto the few trembling dignitaries.

"Gail is dead, so what about you?"

Pfft!Pfft!

The others, excluding Le Jiasi, immediately knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Ancestors, spare my life! I—I didn't want to do this either, I have a large family to support!"

"I am willing to give up all my possessions! I beg my ancestors for forgiveness!"

However, amidst the pleas for mercy, a discordant voice rang out. A stout dwarf nobleman, his neck stiff with bravado, roared, "I did nothing wrong! They're just lowly commoners, what do their lives matter! You can't—"

Before he could finish speaking...

Lin Li's eyes didn't even waver; he told Laplace's demon a single thought.

[That's enough, kill him!]

The transparent Laplace's Demon in the distance responded instantly.

Then, spacetime source matter flowed into the body once again, and was subsequently drawn out by an invisible force.

"Well----!"

Then, the nobleman's voice abruptly stopped, and an invisible giant hand gripped his throat, forcefully lifting his obese body off the ground.

He kicked his legs wildly, his face turning a deep liver color.

Just as the loyal guards around him were about to draw their weapons, they found themselves being pulled up by the same force and suspended in mid-air.

Their weapons clattered and fell to the ground.

The next second, seven or eight heinous dwarves, including the nobleman, along with their guards, were all dragged by an invisible force and floated high onto the platform's pillars!

The ropes tightened automatically around their necks, and as the counterweights were added, they were suspended upright.

"Heh ————·————"

The desperate struggles and the terrified sobs eventually turned into deathly silence.

Corpses swayed in the wind high above, their distorted shadows stretching long across the ground, like a satirical depiction of hell.

Lin Li's voice rang out at the right moment, cold and clear, echoing throughout the entire port.

"In the past four days, 156 lowly dwarves have died from hunger and cold."

"The food they were supposed to eat was exchanged for gold coins, jewels, and all sorts of medicines for healing and prolonging life! It all went into these people's pockets."

His hand pointed to the mountain of ill-gotten gains, and then to the hanging corpses.

"Now, they are paying for this blood debt with their own lives."

As soon as he finished speaking, translucent phantoms of souls began to appear on the corpses.

Lin Li resorted to his old tricks again, and under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he once again performed a miracle of punishing souls, taking in these filthy souls as well.

Of course, no one knew that Lin Li's heart was bleeding.

【Spacetime Source Material - 0.1】

【Spacetime Source Material - 0.1】

A series of consumption notifications made Lin Li feel extremely distressed.

Laplace's special effects are professional, and so is his spending. He only kills a few people, but he makes it look like a Hollywood blockbuster, with every second showing the budget burning.

However painful it was, the gains were real.

At the instant Laplace's demon consumed spacetime essence, Lin Li clearly felt that a surge of energy, mediated by a special particle within his body, was rapidly transformed into an invisible, all-consuming telekinetic force.

The entire energy conversion process was like a detailed instruction manual, clearly imprinted on his perception.

It turned out to be the case.

He seemed to understand something.

Perhaps before long, besides making water balloons and playing with lightning, I'll be able to try this "glare at anyone and they'll get pregnant" trick too.

No, wait, it's like the telekinetic power that makes anyone who glares at you fly to the heavens.

While melee mages delivering visceral blows is certainly satisfying, the ultimate romance for men lies in their ability to obliterate enemies with a mere thought, and to soar through the air and disappear into the depths of the earth.

"I'll have to find some time to properly develop this new feature later."

Lin Li made up his mind and shifted his gaze from the wind chimes swaying in the wind to the last few surviving fish below the stage.

These people seem to have committed relatively minor crimes, and Lin Li really wants to get rid of them all.

but----

Keeping them will be more useful.

Although these middle and lower-level managers of Tranquil Harbor have many problems, they know a lot about Tranquil Harbor.

The Ming Dynasty had a good solution for dealing with such dwarfs.

He slowly walked down the platform, the sound of his leather boots on the stone steps like a heavy hammer striking the heart of the survivor.

"These ringleaders have been dealt with. I guarantee their souls will receive the punishment they deserve!"

Lin Li stepped directly over Gale's corpse and came to the small fish.

Gale may be a clever dwarf, but since he chose to go along with the corrupt practices, he should have been prepared for the possible future.

Of course, it was probably due to the threats from Lin Li and many other reasons that made Gale realize she would be judged and killed, so she decided to commit suicide instead.

Perhaps this way, my guilt can be significantly reduced.

"For an ethnic group to remain vibrant, it is essential to establish a comprehensive and equitable promotion mechanism."

Lin Li shouted, "Our people descended from the stars to this land. Our ancestors, sensing the difficulty of survival, established the ancient precept of 'sharing warmth in the fireplace and helping each other in times of need.' Unfortunately, as the power and wealth became entrenched, and self-interest and greed took hold, it ultimately led to the exploitation of most of our dwarf brethren!"

"Here, you can learn a great deal from humanity. The future problem of celestial convergence can be solved together with humanity. Those who don't address the issues of internal resource allocation, or the problem of free ascent, but instead seek to control power, are selfish and self-serving. These people will be dealt with sooner or later!"

He didn't say another word, he just looked at the little fish.

Lin Li transformed into Gaizul's silent form, more oppressive than any roar.

Finally, one of the younger noblemen couldn't hold on any longer.

He crawled over, tears streaming down his face, and hugged Lin Li's boots: "Ancestors! I confess! I confess everything! I know everything about who else in Tranquil Harbor has embezzled grain, who has withheld wages! Please give me a chance to atone for my sins!"

His words seemed to have flipped a switch.

All the dwarves who had not been executed began to speak.

"I know! I know where the quartermaster's hideout is; his vault is huge!"

"And the port tax official! He converted all the tax money into jewelry and hid it in his mistress Mimi's little treasury."

"I also know a few guys who like Grumon, and they even keep male companions!"

Amidst the frantic scrambling and biting, a dwarf cried out, stumbling and crawling, "Me, me, ancestor, I am the most valuable! I have the navigational charts of Tranquil Harbor, all the trade ledgers—I know them all better than anyone! Ancestor, spare me! I can get the port running again in a day!"

"very good."

Lin Li finally spoke, and those two words abruptly silenced the clamor of pleas for mercy.

He didn't even glance at the dwarves begging for mercy at his feet.

With a wave of his hand, a large number of heavy steel neck shackles appeared out of thin air and crashed to the ground with a thud.

The shackles had a unique design; he had commissioned humans to make them specifically for dwarves.

This was a unique feature of the Ming Dynasty: shackles for going to work, a powerful deterrent.

"Put it on." Lin Li's voice was devoid of any warmth. "This is your identifier as criminals, and also your tool for atonement. The corruption problem in Tranquil Harbor has not been completely resolved. The war has left this place in ruins and in need of rebuilding. It needs managers, but it doesn't need parasites."

"Only when you have dragged out all the parasites hiding in the port, when you have filled in all the deficits, and when you have corrected all the mistakes you have made over the years, will your sins be atonement."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the shackles and then over the faces of the men who had been resurrected.

"Only then will your souls be qualified to return to the embrace of your ancestors. Otherwise, like them, you will forever be wandering ghosts drifting above the harbor."

His finger gently pointed to the wind chimes swaying in the wind high up.

The dwarves who had not been executed were immediately relieved, and they scrambled to put the shackles around their necks as if they were not instruments of torture, but lifelines.

After doing all this, Lin Li turned around and faced the tens of thousands of hungry dwarves who had gathered in the square.

The suffocating aura of killing intent emanating from him vanished, replaced by a compassionate yet majestic divinity.

"Fellow countrymen."

His voice, amplified by human loudspeakers, clearly reached every corner.

"The food is right behind us. In our human friends' camp."

His words were slow, but each one carried immense weight.

"Do you want to fill your stomachs?"

As soon as he finished speaking, as if in response, a muffled engine roar came from afar.

Dozens of vehicles slowly drove in, then lined up in a row to the dwarves' astonishment. A multitude of lights illuminated the area as bright as day!

Then, the vehicle doors opened, and one by one, energetic human soldiers jumped out and nimbly worked together to lift down huge metal barrels, each about half a person's height.

"Bang!"

The moment the first bucket lid was lifted, a rich aroma of food quickly wafted out.

The taste was so delicious that it was like an invisible hand that instantly gripped the throats of all the dwarves!

It was a porridge mixed with diced meat, vegetables, and mushy rice grains—the feast they had been dreaming about these past few days!

This kind of porridge is also a good thing for hungry dwarves to quickly replenish their energy and reduce the burden on their stomachs.

Once they eat it for two days, they will be able to enjoy food normally again.

Gudong!Gudong!

In the square, thousands of Adam's apples bobbed wildly, and the sound of swallowing saliva created a sea of ​​noise.

Countless eyes turned bloodshot instantly, and reason teetered on the brink of collapse in the face of extreme hunger and the temptation of food.

"From today onwards, you can receive food from your human friends," Lin Li's voice rang out again, pointing the way for this frantic desire. "But you need to repair your homes and help humanity build some things!"

"At the same time, in the name of the three main gods, I grant mankind the right to build towns here and to trade with my people forever."

"You will elect representatives later to discuss the specific matters with them."

After he finished speaking, Lin Li's figure was enveloped in a dazzling golden-white light, and then disappeared into thin air under the watchful eyes of everyone.

Ancestor Gazul once again left the dwarven kingdom that was loyal to him.

The dwarves were stunned for a moment, their gaze shifting from the place where their ancestors had disappeared to the corpses hanging high above. Finally, without prior agreement, they stared intently at the dozens of large metal barrels that emitted a fragrant aroma.

The humans were clearly prepared.

The cooks were skillfully drawing lines on the ground with white powder, bringing out rows of small stools and tables, and even setting up sorted trash cans on the side.

A human cook wearing an apron, with a simple yet warm smile on his face, waved a huge soup ladle and shouted loudly in a somewhat broken dwarven language, "Hey folks! Want a bowl? Plenty to go! I see you didn't bring a bowl, come over here, we provide disposable tableware!"

boom!

The crowd erupted in chaos; hunger drove the lower-class dwarves to rush madly toward the white lines.

Rotten fish were among them.

He was incredibly fast, and with his slender frame, he nimbly weaved through the crowd, quickly squeezing to the front of the line.

He even loosened his belt beforehand, preparing to eat his fill even if he ate himself to death today.

When it was his turn, the cook who served him his meal was the same cook from a few days ago.

"Hey! It's you, young man!" The cook recognized him immediately, grinning, "I remember you! Come on, come on, I'll give you extra meat today!"

A large bowl of piping hot meat porridge was handed to Lan Yu, its heavy weight making it almost too heavy for him to hold.

Ignoring the heat, he took a big gulp.

A delicious, warm current flowed into my empty stomach, and an indescribable feeling of happiness rushed straight to my head.

Rotten Fish's eyes stung, and tears, uncontrollably, mingled with the hot porridge and slid into his mouth.

So fragrant.

Smack~~~

It's so good to have a full meal!

Just as all the dwarves who had received their food were basking in the happiness of being full, the loudspeaker in the human camp blared again, and a slightly awkward dwarven voice rang out.

"Attention, fellow dwarves! We have signed a joint development agreement with your forces under the orders of our ancestor Gazul! Starting tomorrow, recruitment will officially begin for the human-built town area!"

"We are recruiting port repair workers, construction workers, and porters! Food and accommodation provided! Three meals a day, at least two with meat! A monthly salary of 200 copper coins! Uniforms provided!"

"Spots are limited, so if you're interested, come to our camp to register first thing tomorrow morning!"

The sound from the loudspeaker continued, but Rotten Fish's ears suddenly buzzed.

He held his bowl, staring blankly at his childhood friend across from him, who was also wolfing down his food.

My childhood friend also raised his head, his oily mouth agape in an "O" shape, his eyes sparkling with an unprecedented light.

Two hundred copper coins?

Two meals of meat a day?

That's way too extravagant!

You have to understand that these dwarves, the lowest-level laborers, eat a lot every day, but their daily wages are only about 50 copper coins. Even if they work themselves to the bone for a month, they can only earn less than 1,500 copper coins, which is about 1.5 silver coins.

But on the human side, it's two hundred copper coins a day. The salary has quadrupled, and food and lodging are also provided.

Rotten Fish's heart pounded wildly. A daring idea sprouted wildly in his mind. He leaned close to his childhood friend's ear, lowered his voice, and couldn't hide his excitement.

"Hey, shall we go give it a try later?"

"what?"

"I'm going to the human side."

"Are you really going?" My childhood friend was taken aback. "But—"

Rotten Fish's eyes shone brighter than ever before, and he spoke each word clearly and distinctly: "Yes, since the ancestors have agreed, why can't we find something to do!"

After saying that, he quickly finished his porridge and didn't bother to get more rice. Instead, he stuffed the disposable but precious plastic bowl into his childhood friend's arms and then strode off on his short legs to find humans and ask them about the situation!

Eat good food early, don't let go of good women, and fight for good jobs.

This is what his mother told him before she passed away!

The rotten fish believed itself to be clever, hardworking, and capable of working for human masters. It thought that as long as it acted quickly, it could become a worker for human masters.

At this moment, the pressure and desire for survival brought on by hunger over the past few days were completely relieved by the appearance of his ancestor.

The various promises made by humanity today have only strengthened his resolve!

This might be another kind of "a single thought arises in a person, and suddenly the world seems vast."