Goddess Kaleidoscope

Ludd did not force these heretics to convert, and he also frequently restrained his followers from engaging in religious discrimination.

According to his observation, even if these heretics did not convert, they could still generate faith in the God of Medicine and the God of Love, only the total output would be slightly less than that of converts.

This also made Ludwig realize that the act of a believer converting to a certain sect does not actually have any binding force. It's like a married couple who, although they vowed to love each other only at their wedding, still can't help but steal glances at other handsome men and beautiful women when they see them on the street.

Therefore, he firmly believed that as long as he acted provocatively enough, those heretics, even if they said they didn't believe, would definitely believe it in their actions!

Following this line of thought, Ludwig's next task was to integrate religion into people's lives and eventually make it a kind of "folk custom." The first step was to bring the gods into people's homes!

In this world, almost all religious activities of indigenous sects revolve around temples. After all, temples are signal towers for the gods; the closer believers are to the temple, the higher the rate of faith gathering. Therefore, traditional sects are generally keen on organizing large-scale collective activities.

However, it is difficult to hold such large-scale events every day. Believers also have their own lives. They cannot be idle all day long, squatting at the temple entrance and kneeling and kowtowing to the statue of the god. Otherwise, they would not need to eat.

In reality, every believer generates faith almost constantly in their daily lives. However, these beliefs are fragmented and weak, so due to factors such as distance, most of them are difficult for the temple to collect and end up being wasted.

The advantage of Lude's "golden finger" lies in this: the primordial fire within his body is like a 5G base station, directly maximizing the signal for the entire village, allowing even the fragmented faith that would otherwise be wasted to be collected.

Therefore, Lud must strengthen the presence of his two goddesses in the daily lives of the villagers. This is similar to the ubiquitous warning signs on the other side of the world; people see them so often that they gradually develop a habit of obeying them.

At the last mass wedding, Ludwig gave each of the sixteen couples a small gift—a portrait of the god of love and desire.

Lude told them to take it home and hang it near their bed in the bedroom, saying that this would bring the goddess's blessing so they could have a child soon.

Since there were no printing tools available, Lu De personally drew each portrait one by one, working from dawn till dusk. In reality, they were just ordinary hand-drawn portraits, without any divine power imbued upon them.

But it is precisely because these portraits are hung in their homes that whenever these newlyweds close the door to have children, they will very devoutly bow to the portrait of the god of love and desire, allowing their faith and other things to gush out together!

Unfortunately, the current conditions don't allow it; Lu De can't put up a pair of goddess portraits on the front door of every household in the village. So he can only settle for second best, first setting up propaganda boards at the intersections of the main streets in the village, and then painting propaganda slogans on the earthen walls.

So Lude first had a carpenter make the billboards, while he prepared some dyes and brushes. He left Aina and Young Dragon at home to watch the house, while he took Shanis, Fallen Leaf, and the reluctant Hume to the streets to paint the slogans.

However, as soon as they arrived at the village entrance carrying their things, they bumped into Sharo and his group, and the atmosphere immediately became somewhat awkward.

"What a coincidence! What are you knights up to?"

Lude glanced at the curly-haired guy behind Sharo, who was clearly a magician. The guy was sprinkling some green powder on the earthen wall where Sharo was going to paint slogans, and he seemed a little flustered when he saw Lude.

Seeing this, Sharo subtly shielded him behind her, then smiled and said to Lud.

"Ah, that's how it is! My men were patrolling the woods to the north a couple of days ago when they discovered what appeared to be signs of undead activity. They were worried that the evil spirits might endanger the village, so they scattered some magical powder with a dispelling effect around the crossroads, just in case!"

"Yes! If you find the exact location of the undead, please be sure to inform me. As a priest, it is my duty to exorcise evil."

"Of course. We'll have to rely on you a lot then."

"Ha ha!"

"hehe!"

The old man and the young man smiled at each other, and Lude then led his men toward the village. However, just as they passed Sharo, a gust of wind suddenly blew by, scattering a lot of the powder from the young mage's hands, some of which landed on Lude's robe.

The group of Sharo and his companions stared wide-eyed, for they clearly saw that the powder on Lud's robe was emitting a vibrant green glow. This magical powder, specifically used to mark the undead, should only react to areas touched by the undead within the last hour or two, yet Lud's robe was glowing.

Lude noticed the fluorescent light on his sleeve and the strange looks from Sharo and the others, and couldn't help but sigh.

"This is going to be fun!"

End of this chapter

To be honest, I don't really have much to say. I've been writing books for eight years now, and I'm long past the age of being sentimental. I want to sincerely wish our motherland prosperity, but when I think about how my "blessed" words have already misled quite a few people, I realize that not believing or spreading rumors, and obediently staying at home in self-isolation, is probably the greatest contribution I can make to my country.

Also, to say something some readers wanted to hear: you wanted me to offer a bounty for extra chapters, right? Well, here I am!

So far this month, I have a total of 546 blades. I'll start from 500. According to the basic rate on Shuke, one hundred blades will get me one more update, on top of the three updates a day.

I refuse to believe you guys can kill me!

End of this chapter

The atmosphere instantly froze, transformed from slightly awkward to completely tense, because of the sudden fluorescent light that appeared on Ludwig's sleeve.

Sharo didn't want to clash with Lud and his group, who were suspected of engaging in cult activities, before reinforcements arrived, but this strange wind that seemed to have come from nowhere disrupted his plans.

After a brief silence, Shanis was the first to break the awkward silence.

"Master, your sleeve is shiny."

"..."xN

Perhaps due to a lack of mental fortitude, before Sharo could even try to bluff her way out of it, a young knight beside her suddenly drew his longsword. This served as a signal for battle, prompting the other companions present to follow suit.

Seeing his men disobey orders and act on their own, Sharo could only curse them as "good-for-nothings" in his heart before taking action himself.

At this moment, the two sides were face to face, with less than three meters between Sharo and Rud, a distance that was undoubtedly very advantageous for the warriors. Mages and priests were powerful, but their spells and prayers were no match for the speed of drawing a sword.

Sharo was going all out at this point, her target was Lude! She thought that as long as she could kill him before he could unleash his divine magic, the remaining two gatekeepers and the nun would be easy to deal with.

Sharo was quite confident in her swordsmanship. She was twenty-three years old this year and had received instruction from famous teachers since childhood. She had also participated in many actual battles, and her strength was among the top of her peers. Even when facing the Earl's number one expert, Knight Jegan, she could last for more than ten minutes.

Therefore, she was confident that she could pierce Lud's heart with a sword before he could utter the first word, preventing him from ever reciting the complete incantation.

However, Sharo's confidence lasted for less than a second before he was instantly slapped in the face by a barrier of holy light that appeared out of nowhere. He and his sword were thrown seven or eight meters away, and he almost lost his footing and fell to the ground.

"How could this be..."

In Sharo's eyes, Rude neither spoke nor made any move, yet his divine magic was cast instantly, even faster than her sword strike. The difference in strength between the two was now undeniably apparent.

But in reality, Lud, who appeared calm and unmoved on the surface, was almost scared out of his wits by that last move. He had actually been ready for battle the moment the fluorescent light on his sleeve lit up, so the moment Sharo placed his hand on the hilt of her sword, he instantly activated his defense.

Unlike ordinary priests who need to pray before casting divine spells, Lud has complete authority over the divine power held by Aina and Shanis, so he can use divine spells without asking permission, and casting them instantly is as simple as breathing.

Furthermore, Lud has an advantage: they are now fighting on home ground. The entire village is within the temple's signal range, and Shanis is even standing right behind Lud. A priest with dual SIM cards and dual standby power—that's practically unstoppable!

Seeing that he had failed to kill Lud with a single blow, Sharo was secretly alarmed. Lud also retreated several steps, allowing Hume and Fallen Leaf to block the swarming warlord knights. The two sides immediately engaged in a fierce battle.

The five warlord knights were surprised to find that the two mercenaries in front of them were quite powerful, both possessing the combat strength of high-level warriors. Even when fighting five against two, they were still able to hold their own, and their teamwork was superb.

Sharo realized that their preemptive surprise attack had failed, and now they had to concentrate their forces whether they fought or fled.

"Platform, call for help!"

"Yes!"

The curly-haired magician who was called immediately took out three red magic crystals from his pocket, infused them with a trace of magic, and threw them into the air. The crystals immediately flew into the air and exploded like fireworks.

Lud soon heard the sound of hooves behind him and thought to himself that the warlord knights reacted quickly, and the reinforcements arrived in less than two minutes.

The first to rush over were three fully armed cavalrymen, who were on combat duty. So when they saw the most urgent red signal, which was three at once, they mounted their horses and charged over. The compacted dirt road in the village was just big enough for them to run on.

As soon as Lud saw the three cavalrymen charging towards him in a line, he immediately raised his hand and created a "small-scale holy light barrier." A band of light, seven or eight meters long and less than thirty centimeters wide, swept all three knights down. The charging warhorses suddenly realized that the people on their backs were gone, and immediately stopped in unison, following their trained conditioned reflexes.

"Our horses are still here, so how come the people are gone?"

Fortunately, Lude didn't want to kill anyone, so he deliberately held back. The holy light barrier that served as a tripwire wasn't made too thin, and its height was just right to face the chest rather than the neck. Otherwise, these three guys wouldn't have just fallen off their horses; they would have instantly become "headless knights."

At this moment, the other warlord knights also arrived on foot, some fully armored, carrying only longswords and shields, and there were more than twenty of them. In contrast, the villagers did not react as quickly. Many did not know what the red signal meant, or they were inside their houses and only heard three loud "bangs" outside, thinking it was thunder.

The arriving knights immediately formed a pincer movement with Sharo's group of seven, and they had an overwhelming numerical advantage.

So Sharo rallied his forces, chanting spells to protect the curly-haired mage behind him while shouting loudly to the reinforcements that were arriving later.

"Knights, take down these cultists!"

"Tsk! He's really into it."

Lude glanced at Sharo, who was glaring at him angrily, and knew that nothing he said would make a difference at this point. Before one side was completely on the ground, they probably wouldn't be able to have a calm and normal conversation.

So Lude didn't hesitate, immediately setting the dye bucket on the ground, grabbing a brush, and getting ready for battle.

But at this moment, Shanis stepped forward, pointed to the twenty-odd warlord knights who had arrived later, and asked Lud for instructions.

"Master, can I take care of these people?"

Are you sure you can do it?

"There shouldn't be any problem," Shanis nodded.

"Then fight with some dignity, and remember not to kill anyone. I'll provide you with backup."

With Ludwig's permission, Shanis put down what she was carrying and turned to walk towards the twenty-odd knights. But after taking only a few steps, she suddenly felt that the hem of her nun's habit was a bit restrictive, so she reached out and ripped it open, instantly pulling the side slit of her dress from below the knee all the way up to near her thigh. There, on her long, white thigh, was a striking black thorn tattoo, like a thigh ring.

Shanis opened her hands, and the same black thorn tattoo appeared on her palms, twisting and hanging down to the ground like a living thing, before coiling into two huge, spiked meteor hammers.

The knights opposite them only saw the nun strolling towards them with two flail-like hammers sprouting from her palms, her smile alluring and seductive, a strange pleasure that sent shivers down their spines. It was as if their twenty-odd well-trained knights were nothing more than a pile of toys to be manipulated at will!

End of this chapter

Before this, Shanes had never told Rudd that she was actually skilled in martial arts and very good at fighting. So when she showed off her skills, the opposing warlord knight was immediately beaten into a Kamen Rider rolling on the ground, leaving even Rudd stunned.

Lud had to admit that gods, as "super beings," while not omnipotent, were indeed far more powerful than mortals.

In short, when everything had settled down, Lud was kneeling in front of a young mage, pleading with him... begging him to hold on!

"Young man, wake up! Wake up!"

Compared to Hume, whose divine power was mostly sealed, Shanes, though a new god less than two years old, has grown at an astonishing rate under Rudd's careful nurturing. Perhaps she's not yet capable of challenging established gods, but she's more than capable of overwhelming a group of mortals.

The poor warlord knights had no idea they were fighting a god. They thought their years of hard training had put them on the verge of becoming powerful, but they were utterly humiliated by a nun and questioned their existence.

To be fair, Shanis's fighting style lacked any real skill; it was all about being "crazy"! Wielding a flail in each hand, she left the knights completely disoriented.

What's most terrifying is that Shanis's two meteor hammers not only have amazing physical attacks, but also have a "life-stealing" effect. As long as they are hit, a lot of their stamina will be drained. Therefore, many knights become weak in the limbs after only one or two hits, and feel like they have masturbated too much, and have no energy at all.

Fortunately, Shanes remembered Ludwig's instructions and held back somewhat, not beating them to death. After she single-handedly knocked down the group of knights, she used the black thorns she conjured to bind them all, then turned to support Hume and Fallen Leaves.

So, of the forty-three members of Sharo's entire squadron, including herself, only two knights who had been sent out to deliver messages were missing; the remaining forty-one were all here, and none of them managed to escape.

After successfully subduing all of them, Lude used Holy Healing on several of the more seriously injured, but one of the young mages remained unconscious, pale-faced and slumped on the ground, looking as if he might die at any moment, and no matter how Lude tried to treat him, he did not get better.

Fortunately, Hume glanced at him and said that he was simply overdrawn on his magic, not related to his physical injuries. Shanis's thorny vines absorb everything, and mages are generally less resilient than knights, so his condition was naturally worse. However, since this guy was a mage in the Earl's army, he must have mana-restoring potions on him; just find some and give him some.

So Lude opened the magician's hard leather pouch and, sure enough, found a bunch of colorful bottles, one of which was light blue and had the words "Mana Recovery" written on it. Lude pried open the magician's mouth and fed him a little, and his complexion improved considerably.

At this moment, the villagers, belatedly realizing what was happening, finally rushed over after hearing the noise. Old Rom, leading a group of militiamen, was stunned to see that Lud had actually tied up all of Salo's knights.

"Old buddy, what's wrong?"