Goddess Kaleidoscope

The other party was initially furious, thinking that such a small sect that he had never even heard of dared to mess with the guardian knights under their God of War, and was about to step forward to teach this ungrateful old man a lesson. However, he had only taken two steps when he ran headfirst into the divine magic barrier.

When the knights who had come to cause trouble saw that the old man hadn't made any move, they immediately unleashed their divine magic. They realized they might have run into a tough opponent, so they left after uttering a few harsh words.

Lude wasn't worried about these people retaliating against him. Since the war of the gods three hundred years ago that almost destroyed civilization, the surviving sects had reached some kind of peace agreement. Unless they were really humiliated or confirmed to be a cult that violated human ethics, they wouldn't go to war over such a small friction.

After the Berserker Knights left, Pine Village quickly returned to its former peace and tranquility. However, after the night of the bandits, Lude had established absolute authority in the village, and all four hundred villagers had collectively joined the cult, becoming loyal followers of the Medicine God.

……end……

At the summit of a distant snow-capped mountain, a colossal golden gate slowly opened by itself, unleashing a torrent of divine power that formed an invisible giant eye, peering into the distant northern lands.

Inside the gate, a powerful being was muttering to itself.

"Oh dear! A strange feeling... Could it be a new god? Or some old buddy's clone? Honestly, only three hundred years have passed, and they're all getting restless again... Oh well! Watching the show is the most interesting thing, so don't disappoint me too much!"

(End of Volume 1)

End of this chapter

Time flies, and before they knew it, almost two weeks had passed since the bandits left. The villagers repaired their damaged houses, filled in the craters, and life returned to its former peace and tranquility.

Some changes have occurred. Because of the miracle that night, the entire village of Pine Tree has now converted to the Medicine God Cult. The priest Lu De now holds a position in the village that completely surpasses that of the village chief, Rom, and no one dares to disobey his orders!

However, unlike many newly emerging religious sects that rush to solicit donations from believers or even directly levy religious taxes, Ludwig remained approachable and treated everyone with the same gentle and refined manner as before. He also did many good things for the village.

Relying on his almost absolute authority in the village, Lu De first formulated two "rules" that the villagers could accept.

The first thing was to designate Thursday and Sunday of each week as prayer days, on which villagers would come to the temple to pray after sunset.

The world itself has a concept of dates, with unified rules for years, months, days, and seven days a week. However, many remote and underdeveloped areas like Pine Village have not developed this concept. Therefore, Lu De asked a carpenter to make a calendar sign and placed it in the center of the village to remind the villagers and, in doing so, establish the concept of time in their minds.

The second rule stipulates that believers must face the rising sun and perform a set of "blessing dances" every morning, which is the eighth set of broadcast gymnastics. The goddess will bestow upon those believers who persevere a healthier physique!

In addition to these two rules, Ludd also did two other things. One was to mobilize the villagers to build a public bathhouse in the village, which was open every Wednesday and Saturday. The reason given was to make it convenient for the villagers to bathe and change clothes before participating in prayer the following day. But in reality, Ludd hoped that the villagers would bathe frequently and maintain personal hygiene.

Pine Tree Village is located at the confluence of two major rivers, so it has no shortage of water, and it is also adjacent to the Void Forest to the north. Although many terrible monsters live deep in the forest, the outer areas are relatively safe, so the source of firewood is not a problem at all.

Lude knew very well that it was unrealistic to expect the villagers to bathe every day given the local climate and conditions, but being able to bathe once every one to two weeks was much better than bathing once a year or even once every few years.

Lude believed that as long as the villagers bathed frequently and exercised every day, their physical condition would definitely improve significantly. This tangible benefit would make the believers think they had received a blessing from the goddess, thus inspiring a heart of gratitude in their faith.

Another thing Lud did was to set up a school in the village, or rather, a rural literacy class!

As a time traveler from Earth's 21st century, Lude deeply understands the importance of basic education. He not only possesses scientific knowledge from Earth, but also inherited the ability to read and write the local language of this world from young Lude.

So, once he had a voice in the village, Lud suggested that he teach the village children to read, using his temple as the classroom, with classes five days a week and weekends off. And it wasn't just children who could learn; adults were also welcome to attend.

At first, Lud thought the proposal would be met with resistance from the villagers, since most of them were poor farmers whose children had to work in the fields from a very young age. Lud's demand that they send their children to his school would naturally lead to a decrease in the labor force.

Surprisingly, the villagers responded very enthusiastically, sincerely thanking the priest for being willing to teach their children to read and write. These elderly farmers, though unfamiliar with the saying "knowledge changes destiny," knew very well that literacy was a highly sought-after skill for making a living!

It is important to know that in this wild world that can be described as a magical medieval era, the illiteracy rate is unimaginably high. Not only are the vast majority of commoners illiterate, but even some nobles are uncultured and uneducated, relying entirely on their superior military strength and wealth to maintain their ruling position.

Therefore, literate "cultured people" were highly valued, and the lower classes had a somewhat idealized fantasy about the education they rarely had access to. They thought that if they could read, they might be able to go to the city and become accountants or stewards for noblemen, which would be an effective way to improve their social class.

So on the first day of Lud's classes, all the children in the village came! There were a few naughty kids, some of whom were even tied up by their own fathers, making Lud think he was going to sell them.

Because he was busy and fulfilled, time seemed to fly by in Lude's eyes. Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, and the weather was getting colder and colder. In the morning, he could see a layer of white frost on the rocks, and his mouth and nostrils were like chimneys, puffing out white steam.

For the past two weeks, Lude had outwardly told the villagers that the goddess had given him a second chance to undergo the trial, and that he should not use divine magic lightly unless absolutely necessary. However, he had secretly conducted over a dozen experiments related to divine magic, consuming a large amount of his hard-earned faith, which greatly displeased Aina.

In fact, since successfully using divine magic last time, Lud has now surpassed the old astrologer in his progress of creating a god. Therefore, the contents of the notes can no longer help him. He must find his own way forward.

Just as soldiers must be proficient in disassembling and maintaining firearms, Ludwig must also understand the use and principles of divine magic in order to better utilize its effects and achieve twice the result with half the effort.

After numerous experiments and attempts, Ludwig discovered that divine magic, which uses the power of faith as its energy source, is indeed a very magical power. It can easily do things that ordinary people cannot, and it does not abide by the law of conservation of energy. This made Newton jump around in the incinerator in a fit of rage. However, even with such power, it is not omnipotent.

Lude had tried to use divine magic to create things out of thin air, or to turn raw materials into industrial products that could not be manufactured with the current technology of this world, as in some comics, but all of them ended in failure.

Lude had been trying to build an AK47 for self-defense for ages, but he almost farted out, and the gun just wouldn't fire!

This could be because Aina's divine power is insufficient, or perhaps the limits of her divine magic have been reached. In any case, further testing is needed, which will consume even more faith power. Aina was like an orange cat whose food bowl had been stolen—she was furious and practically bristling with anger!

End of this chapter

Just how angry can a cat owner get when they keep snatching food from their feline overlord? Lude looked at the crooked words "Master is a big bad guy" written on Aina's homework and couldn't help but sigh.

"Looks like I still don't have enough homework!"

Rudd casually circled a large duck egg on his workbook, pondering whether to add more green peppers or carrots to dinner while worrying about the sect's development.

At present, the Medicine God Cult of Lude seems stable, thanks to the fact that all the villagers of Pine Village have joined the cult. Because the believers hold regular religious activities, they will produce faith steadily like sunflowers. Therefore, the food and clothing of this man and god are indeed no longer a problem, but it will be difficult to take it a step further.

After all, the entire Songshu Village is only so big, with a total of more than 400 villagers. If they want to expand the number of believers, they have to find a way to attract refugees or go out and compete with other sects.

This was precisely what Lud was worried about. After all, Aina was a new god who had only been born for two months, and Lud knew better than anyone how weak her power was. If she were to clash with those major sects that had been developing for hundreds or thousands of years, they would be doomed to defeat.

However, Lud also knew that he couldn't win in a direct confrontation, but he had a convenient shortcut of "encircling the city from the countryside" to take.

Like secular regimes, most powerful traditional religious sects have their main parishes centered around large and medium-sized cities because these cities are more densely populated and economically developed, resulting in relatively abundant donations and religious contributions.

In contrast, while these established religious groups haven't completely abandoned rural areas and occasionally send missionaries to spread the gospel, their focus has long since shifted away from rural areas.

Lud wasn't worried about the gods of those sects discovering him. In fact, if they were truly as omnipresent and omnipotent as he boasted, the old astrologer wouldn't have waited until a traitor within his underground sect betrayed him before being discovered. He wouldn't have been on the run for over a year and now had a stable foothold in the kingdom's northern border. He probably would have been struck by lightning long ago and blasted into a charred corpse.

These gods are essentially just alternative forms of authoritarian rulers, forming interest groups with their religious followers. As long as these lackeys can manage their "flock" well and ensure a stable source of faith without any mishaps, their gods may not care at all whether the priests and bishops strictly adhere to the doctrines and laws!

Compared to these seasoned charlatans, Ludwig, who always held good intentions and ideals in his heart, was more like a truly devout saint.

Looking back at the history of this plane, Lude knew that three hundred years ago, this world had experienced a terrible war of the gods, in which hundreds of gods perished, nearly two-thirds of the world's higher intelligent beings were wiped out in the war, and some subhuman races and ethnic groups were even lost to the long river of history.

The three hundred years that followed were known to mortals as the "Age of the New Gods".

The surviving gods made some kind of peace treaty and hid away to recuperate. However, due to the large-scale extinction of mortals, the source of faith was greatly reduced, causing these gods to become increasingly stingy. Like misers, they were unwilling to share their precious divine power and rarely appeared in the human world to perform miracles for believers to admire.

Some deities haven't appeared for almost a hundred years, causing believers to feel confused about whether their own gods still exist.

In Ludwig’s view, these gods had all chosen the wrong way to recuperate and thrive, only thinking about how to reduce expenses and cut costs, but never thinking about increasing revenue, or their methods of increasing revenue were too outdated and not keeping up with the times.

For example, the fact that they do not show themselves or perform miracles for a long time can indeed save some hard-won divine power of faith, but it will also cause their "popularity" in the mortal world to decline, thereby shaking the faith of believers and causing their output to decline as well.

Lude still remembers the night the bandits attacked. He and Aina put on a show called "Goddess Descends." The villagers witnessed the miracle and not only converted to the sect, but also produced faith at a high intensity for more than a week in the following days.

Because the villagers witnessed it with their own eyes and were saved, they believed it, they praised it, and they talked about that night with great relish. They even dreamed that the goddess was smiling at them.

How much divine power did Rudd actually use that night? Not much!

Holy Light is the simplest divine spell, it doesn't consume much energy, and its light is extremely intense, making it visually striking.

In this world, no one understands stage effects better than Lud from Earth. So he managed to create a strong visual impact on the spot, as if the King of the Blankets was about to chop the EX curry stick, by using a few enhanced holy light spells and wind spells that had no actual killing power.

If Zack hadn't turned and run in fright, but instead calmly stood still for a few minutes, he would have discovered that Lud's incredibly impressive super lightsaber was completely useless; it couldn't even cut a hair.

This experience was very rewarding for Lud. He felt that he had successfully grasped the knack of missionary work. Given more time, he would carve out his own space and surprise the local sects!

Thinking of the happy things, Lud couldn't help but smile smugly, but then he realized a damn crucial problem: his new sect, just like the Principality of Zeon, had no troops left to use!

Currently, Lud is basically a lone commander in the entire sect, with only one foolish nun disguised as a goddess under his command. If you expect to send this girl out to preach, she'll probably get lost as soon as she leaves the village, and Lud will have to go through all the trouble of finding her again.

As for the villagers of Songshu Village, Lu De is still observing and hoping that the literacy classes will help him discover some promising talents.

As Lude was deep in thought, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Master, are you there? The village chief needs to talk to you."

"The village chief wants to see me? Sure! I'll be right there."

Wearing Hume's smile, Ludwig rose and went to the temple hall. As soon as the village chief Rom saw him coming, he quickly smiled and bowed.

"Your Excellency, I apologize for disturbing you."

"It's alright, what can I do for you?"

"It's nothing serious, I just wanted to hand the money to you in person."

"Money? What money?"

As Ludwig spoke, he looked down and noticed that old Rom was holding a bulging burlap sack in both hands, and suddenly remembered what it was all about.

"Oh! You mean the bounty for capturing bandits!"

End of this chapter

Two weeks ago, when the bandits were driven back, the villagers captured a total of six prisoners, but in order to help Lud conceal his identity, the one who was handed over to the town in exchange for a reward was a half-dead, unseeing head.

After receiving the heads, the town's sheriff, since none of them were prominent figures on the wanted list, could only classify them as the lowest-ranking bandits and gave each head a reward of ten silver coins.

This amount of money is not a small sum for the villagers.

It's worth mentioning that when Old Rom personally took these heads to town to exchange for the bounty, he learned from the sheriff that the bandit leader "Handsome" Zack, who had raided their village that night, was the third most wanted person in the Kingdom of Duran, and his head was worth a full five hundred gold coins.

This man was a renowned mercenary leader over a decade ago, hired by the previous king to fight against enemy nations. He was said to be extremely brave in battle, leading his mercenary group to conquer several cities for the king. In addition, Zaksheng was exceptionally handsome, a rare and strikingly beautiful man. Therefore, the princess was quite fond of him, and the king also wanted to make him his son-in-law and appoint him as a general of the kingdom.

Unfortunately, this man later committed a heinous act, angering his future father-in-law, the former king, and the two became enemies, with Zak becoming a wanted criminal in the kingdom.

What exactly this guy did was never revealed by the previous king, but rumors circulated that he most likely used his handsome face to seduce the princess's mother and painted the old king's crown green. Otherwise, the king wouldn't have been so furious. The previous queen also choked to death on her soup less than a month later.

Of the 500 gold coins he was wanted, the old king contributed 200, and the major religious sects of the kingdom pooled their resources to contribute another 200. Most remarkably, the enemy kingdom that had previously been forced to cede territory and pay reparations during a war with the kingdom also sent 100 gold coins to join in, bringing the total bounty to 500 gold coins.

Lured by the huge sum of money, Zach went from being a hero of the kingdom to a street-side roast duck that everyone coveted. Luckily, he was quick to run and, because he was disfigured while fleeing, he was able to hide in the mountains and live as a bandit for more than ten years to avoid trouble.

If it weren't for the fact that when Buddy was captured, he was so frightened by Lud's torture of being slowly sliced ​​to death that he revealed his father's real name, the entire kingdom would have thought that he had long since died in some unknown corner.

Five hundred gold coins was an astronomical sum for a country bumpkin who rarely saw gold coins in his entire life. Although Rom felt it was a pity, he also knew that even if they got the bounty, they probably wouldn't have a chance to keep it in their hands for long.

With the bounty he had earned from the bandits' heads, old Rom returned to the village, intending to give thirty of them to the priest and use the remaining thirty for other purposes.

Ludwig received the bag of silver coins from old Rom and weighed it in his hand. It felt quite heavy, but then he realized that he couldn't spend the money in the village. If he wanted to experience the feeling of spending money, he would have to take a day-long donkey cart ride to the town.

"I do have a use for this money, so it would be impolite to refuse it."

"Not at all, sir, this should be yours. To be honest, I still have thirty taels of silver left here, and I'm thinking of going to the neighboring town of Unos to hire two mercenaries."

"Mercenaries? Why?"

"It's all for the sake of the village. You saw it last time, all of us old and young men... they're too weak! They're all quite strong, but look at how pathetic they were when they faced the bandits that day. They're not even as good as an old man like me!"