Goddess Kaleidoscope

"Yes, that's definitely the plan."

"Haha! That's great! I'll take them all! Name your price!"

Erwin spoke casually, as if he were merely buying up some insignificant trinkets, completely unconcerned by the resentful stares of the other adventurers around him. Lud, however, couldn't help but wonder, how on earth had this guy grown so big?

"Young master, I regret to inform you that your request cannot be fulfilled, as I have already reached an agreement with other chambers of commerce yesterday."

"That's simple! Just refuse them directly. I think they'll be understanding."

Looking at Erwin's nonchalant expression, Lud smiled. He was genuinely angry, but even more so, he was puzzled. He had a hunch that this annoying spoiled brat was doing it "on purpose"!

Faced with Erwin's repeated unreasonable demands and verbal pressure, Ludd remained dignified and firm in his refusal, while subtly signaling to Hume with his eyes not to act rashly.

Seeing that no matter how they pressed him, Lude wouldn't budge an inch, many adventurers around them were secretly sweating for him. Based on what they had heard about Erwin's many misdeeds over the past few days, this guy seemed to enjoy torturing people, and they were afraid that he would suddenly lose patience and order his thug-like teammates to beat the priest.

Strangely, although Erwin's threats became increasingly explicit, he remained largely verbal, showing no inclination to actually take action. Even when Lud told him to give up and turned to return to the temple, Erwin merely sneered, "We'll see," before turning and leaving with his men without looking back.

Back in the temple hall, Lud told Aina to close the doors. Since it was Sunday and there was no need to teach the children, they might as well take a day off.

At this moment, Hume came up to Luther and asked a pointed question.

"You think there's something off about that guy?"

"Yes, to be this badass is almost like acting.

"Should I go and keep an eye on it?"

"Keep an eye on them! Investigate their background."

For an entire day, the temple of Ludwig remained closed, with a wooden sign hanging outside the main gate that read "Internal Reorganization".

Taking advantage of the day the business was closed, Lud and his men transformed the old underground sewer ruins into a real basement, which they planned to use as their laboratory and "pharmaceutical workshop." The books they had previously seized from the ratman camp were also planned to be stored here.

The temple now houses seven residents, both humans and ghosts, and the once spacious area is gradually becoming cramped. With people needing to live inside and the backyard reserved for growing chili peppers, the only option is to expand underground.

The group spent the entire day, with the priest in charge of building the walls and the goddess in charge of moving bricks. They finally transformed about half of the sewer ruins into a basement. All that was left was to move the necessary items down.

The empty room upstairs is intended to be converted into a bedroom for Romian, who is currently a novice nun. She's been sharing a room with Aina, which hasn't been very convenient.

After everything was ready, Ludwig gave Hume a wink, signaling her to send Romian away first. Then he called Aina and Shanis to go down to the basement, because they were about to conduct a series of secret experiments that could not be made public, and it wouldn't be good for Romian, who was just a child, to see them.

The three went to the basement. Ludl lit an oil lamp and then directed Shanis to use leather belts to bind Aina to a special recliner. Although Aina was very unwilling, she could only obediently comply under Ludl's tyranny and let Shanis bind her tightly.

"Master, is this really necessary?"

"Aina, you said it yourself that you were tired of chopping onions and wanted to try something more interesting. Didn't I prepare it according to your suggestion?"

"But something about this new idea doesn't feel quite right to me!"

"Don't be afraid, it will only hurt a little at first, but once you get used to it, you will find it very comfortable."

As Lude spoke, he gestured to Shanis beside him to do so. Without saying a word, Shanis took off Aina's shoes and socks, revealing a pair of fair and cute little feet. Lude then picked up a chicken feather from the operating table and walked towards Aina, who looked terrified, with a lewd grin.

"Hahahaha... Master, it's so itchy! I can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore! Hahaha!!!"

Under Lude's superb (tipping) skills, Aina quickly released a large amount of bodily fluid amidst her maniacal laughter.

Seeing this, Shanis quickly used a cotton ball she had prepared to absorb all the tears, then rinsed them in a large bowl of water. Thus, a large bowl of highly effective "Evelina's Tears" was prepared. Lud then prepared to use this potion to test some new uses!

End of this chapter

The most common way to use tears is to dilute them with water. Three to five drops of tears can be diluted with one liter of water, and then this can be divided into one hundred bottles.

Through actual testing, the efficacy of such a bottle of medicine is almost equivalent to a mid-level Holy Healing spell, and Aina's current total divine power may not be enough to cast a hundred mid-level Holy Healing spells.

This made Lud very curious, because Aina's tears did not consume divine power, but her tears did have special abilities.

So, following the principle of asking questions when in doubt, Ludwig consulted Hume, a senior deity, but Hume said she wasn't entirely sure either, only certain that it was related to the characteristics of the divine position ruled by Aina. In fact, many gods have lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, and even they themselves don't understand their own destiny.

According to Lu De's understanding, "divine characteristics" are probably the unique skills of each god, or to put it more bluntly, their "special skills"!

As the God of Medicine, Aina's special skill is "medicine infusion," and this ability was a new setting that Lude added to her later by making up stories.

This means that, theoretically, as long as sufficient recognition is obtained, Lud could add many new abilities to Aina, but these settings should ideally not conflict with each other or be inconsistent with the divine position, otherwise the defective product created by the rats would be the fate of that.

Lude made Aina laugh and cry for a minute, obtaining about 1,000 milliliters of diluted solution that could be used as a super-fast recovery drug, and about 5 milliliters of undiluted pure tears, which were then placed in a delicate little crystal bottle.

Lude planned to add tears to other types of regular medicine to see if any strange "theological" reactions would occur.

The first potion Lud tested was a common stimulant used by adventurers; in short, it was a stimulant. After taking it, it would increase heart rate and make one feel extremely energetic, but once the effects wore off, one would immediately become lethargic, and long-term use could lead to heart failure.

Lude took out two doses of the invigorating potion, dipped a copper needle in a tiny amount of his tears, and mixed it into one dose. He then sealed the bottle and shook it vigorously a few times. When he poured out the mixed potion, the originally deep purple liquid had turned into a translucent pale gold, and it had a faint fragrance.

Seeing that the medicine had indeed undergone some obvious changes, Lude decided to conduct live experiments. If he couldn't get mice, he could use field mice as well.

Soon, two field mice in metal cages were brought out, and Ludger fed them dry pieces of black bread dipped in the two medications.

The field mouse that took the regular medicine was noticeably more energetic, jumping and hopping around in its cage, appearing quite lively. The one that took the mixed medicine, however, was rather strange; at first glance, it showed no reaction, sitting motionless in place. But Lud quickly noticed something was wrong.

This mouse is growing bigger at a speed visible to the naked eye!

In less than a minute, the little field mouse, which was originally only the size of a palm, grew to the size of a cat, filling the once spacious iron cage to the brim.

Having witnessed all these changes, Lud, like most ordinary men, subconsciously glanced down at his crotch.

This medicine... might sell even better than the recovery medicine!

Looking at the field mouse, which had swelled to six or seven times its original size, Lude poked it with a small stick. The field mouse immediately struggled violently, but this gigantic state did not last long. The giant field mouse quickly deflated like a punctured balloon and eventually returned to its original size, which fortunately looked normal.

The other field mouse, which had taken the original potion, also lost its effect around the same time, but lay on the ground convulsing, clearly showing the side effects of the potion.

The comparison between the two groups of voles led Lud to discover that, in addition to its powerful restorative properties, Aina's tears could also be used as an enhancer, added to other types of conventional medicines. This discovery thrilled Lud!

They were planning to continue testing to see what amazing new effects adding tears to other common potions would produce. But then, the undead Miss Eliven suddenly floated down from the basement ceiling in a panic, telling them that something had happened in Ludlow Village.

"Your Highness, something terrible has happened!"

"What's wrong? Why are you so panicked?"

"Another priest has arrived in the village!"

"What do you say?"

Upon hearing Elizabeth's report, Lud was initially taken aback, but quickly realized what had happened: priests from other religious sects had arrived in the village. This situation did not surprise Lud; he had long anticipated that as Pine Village developed to a certain extent, it would inevitably attract the attention of other religious sects.

In earlier years, although Pine Village had a ready-made temple, the local population was sparse and the village was extremely poor. Even missionaries were not very willing to come here, let alone priests who came here to reside and preach.

But times have changed. Pine Village has risen to prominence, and it's only a matter of time before it replaces the declining Riverwood. It's perfectly normal for people from other sects to come and fight for territory.

However, because Elizabeth dared not get too close, she didn't know which cult had come, only that they had a large number of people. There were four caravans alone, and about a squadron of knights accompanying them for protection.

Lude understood that his days of keeping a low profile were over.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the slums, the spoiled young master Erwin was secretly meeting with a man in a long robe in the grove east of the village.

As soon as the two met, Erwin frowned and said...

"Why are you here so early? I haven't even finished here yet!"

"There's no way around it, the plans have changed! Father said we need to take actual control of the area first and find a way to eliminate Earl Ramley's influence there."

"What? Is the Duke getting impatient?"

"To be precise, it's our eldest brother who couldn't wait any longer."

The man in the long robe removed his hood, revealing a young face that bore a resemblance to Erwin. Using a sliver of moonlight filtering through the treetops, Erwin saw the man's barren skull and couldn't help but chuckle.

"I said, is it really necessary to be so ruthless?"

Hearing the obvious teasing in Erwin's tone, the bald young man shrugged helplessly and pointed to his head.

“I didn’t want to either, but our family’s hereditary hair color is so conspicuous. My advisor was afraid I’d give myself away, so he specifically told me to shave my head like this before I came. I specifically asked you to meet me, not only to pass on messages from my father and advisor, but also to remind you not to let anyone in the village find out that we know each other, Second Brother!”

End of this chapter

The next morning, in the central square of Songshu Village, a group of strangers from out of town built a tall platform with their own materials and placed a hollow bronze statue on it.

Some passing villagers were drawn to the group's actions and stopped to watch. Some recognized the statue as Feigolai, the Mad God of War, one of the "Three Families"!

As one of the three largest religious sects in the world, this god who worships war and conquest has followers in every corner of three continents, and its churches have thousands of temples. It has even been adopted as the state religion of many countries. Even a conservative estimate of the total number of followers is more than 20 million.

In comparison, Lud's Medicine God Cult was pitifully small, with its territory limited to the village of Pine Tree and a mere three thousand followers.

Rudd had heard many tales of the God of War from Hume. The other was one of the original first-generation gods, born amidst the conflicts of mortals.

Later, during the War of the Gods, Feigolai defeated the God of Slaughter and the God of Duel, whose divine positions overlapped with his own. As his strength increased, he successively absorbed many other divine positions related to battle, such as Justice, Revenge, and Conquest, and eventually evolved into the current God of War, the Mad God of Heaven.

It is worth mentioning that the core doctrine of the Heavenly Mad War God Cult is to promote the act of war itself. Whether killing or being killed, it is a sacrifice to Feigolai, and the souls of the brave will be rewarded by the War God.

To be honest, when Lu De first learned that the people who came to the village were from the God of War cult, he was somewhat surprised, because the vast majority of the villagers here were ordinary farmers, and many of them had no need for the God of War cult at all.

But Hume reminded Ludwig not to forget that there were still many hot-blooded young men in the village, and that the target users of the Cult of War were precisely these teenagers and young men in their twenties who harbored "heroic dreams."

This is also the main reason why the Church of War is so popular among kings and nobles in many countries, and even established as a state, because wherever the priests and missionaries of the Church of War go, they actively encourage young people to serve their country and join the army.

After all, the religion of war promotes the act of war itself, and the doctrines preached by the priests do not differ because of the region they live in.

So this is a scene that often happens in this world... A war breaks out between country A and country B. The soldiers on both sides believe in the god of war, but they still fight to the death on the battlefield.

Whoever was killed was not sincere!

Soon, the platform for the War God Cult was set up. A burly priest, holding a warhammer-shaped scepter, walked to the golden bronze statue of the War God, surrounded by a group of cultivators, and loudly proclaimed the doctrines of the War God Cult.

"War! Forges an undying spirit. Glory! Belongs to the God of War!"

From the temple in the distance, Lude could clearly hear the loud voice of the priest of the God of War from hundreds of meters away. The volume was obviously not something a normal person could achieve; it was almost certainly enhanced by divine power.

"Master, that person has a really loud voice!"

"What's the use of having a loud voice? It's not like I'm practicing the Lion's Roar Kung Fu."

Lude curled his lip in disdain, but he was still somewhat uneasy. After all, this was one of the largest religions in the world, with a long history and tens of millions of believers. Even if the priests on the God of War's side did not have the super-strong boost from the primordial fire, the total amount of divine power they possessed far exceeded that of their own.

Fortunately, it wasn't a god personally attacking from the other side, concentrating the entire power of the sect to fight; otherwise, Rudd would have to consider running away by now!

"This is unbelievable! I haven't even left the starting village yet!"

Muttering to himself, Lud was mentally planning how to deal with the enemy.

Judging from the current situation, this group came prepared. They have prepared a full range of personnel and equipment. They arrived yesterday evening, set up camp outside the village for the night, and were able to set up a platform to begin preaching this morning. This setup is much better than that of Lud, who fled here when the refugees first arrived.