Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

"It's up to you, Warriors."

"This...you're planning to make me work for free?"

Sethka still looked somewhat reluctant.

"That divinely bestowed blade..."

"What divinely bestowed blade?"

Satek frowned.

"The monthly pay has already been agreed upon, and you still think it's not enough... To put it bluntly, we're giving you so much experience to level up, and if you're still not satisfied, then let me do it?"

"you……"

Setka, who had originally planned to take advantage of the situation, was immediately speechless.

Yes, even Setka himself knew that the biggest benefit of this job was never the salary on the surface.

It's not so much the experience points you can gain from it, but the vast amount of experience you can accumulate.

Indeed, it's not impossible for him to do it himself, but illegal killing and legal killing are two different things—and if Setka heard correctly, the two priests didn't mention anything about loot. In other words, all the equipment obtained after the killing could remain in his hands.

As for why he was so sure there would be equipment... it's because when Setka heard about this assignment, he already realized that his opponents would definitely be warriors like him, whose minds were full of equipment and upgrades.

After all, they are the ones making the biggest fuss right now.

"In short, we'll give you money, supplies, and even the title. You'll have to fend for yourself in terms of manpower... No matter what method you use, we need to see results in seven days. Arrest those who should be arrested, and kill those who should be killed. This is the Serpent God's decree. The Serpent God doesn't want to see His kingdom descend into chaos."

"I will obey the holy decree."

Upon hearing that this was actually an order from the Serpent God, Setka's expression immediately turned serious, and his posture, which had been lazy just moments before, became ramrod straight.

If it were just an order from two priests, Setka would indeed find it hard to take it too seriously. After all, as one of the four warriors who had fought against Matt Perry, his current level was almost the same as those two priests. But if it were an order from the Serpent God, that would be a different story.

Recalling the serpent god's kind attitude towards him when they met, Setka decided to take this request seriously and make it a matter of course.

As it turns out, there were quite a few people who wanted to level up, especially after hearing that it was possible to legally gain experience. Setka's house was immediately overcrowded. This was partly because Setka hadn't yet set up his own office space, but also because people felt that it was easier to get things done when they came to his house.

As a result, in just one morning, the gifts at Setka's house had piled up like a mountain.

This forced Setka to temporarily close his doors to visitors, as his house was truly overflowing.

After that, Setka the Mad Axe and his team became active. These were all his companions whom he had met when he was a divine warrior. They might not be good at managing daily life, but when it came to grinding experience, they were all experts.

With such a group of fierce warriors sweeping around, for a time no one dared to commit crimes anymore.

Of course, as fewer and fewer people committed the crimes, some began to complain that this method of gaining experience was too inefficient, and some even turned back to commit crimes, only to be beaten to death by their companions—but that happened later, and because the matter was not serious, the impact was limited to the law enforcement team established by Setka.

At least for now, the law enforcement team in Setka has indeed succeeded in improving the security situation in Tatunbto within seven days.

"Next, they will expand the scope to outside the city, until there are law enforcement teams on duty in every settlement of the empire."

Under the shadow of the giant serpent, Ansag and Sathek reported their results to the serpent before them; this time, they could be said to have successfully completed their mission.

Before them, the enormous ancient serpent nodded in agreement.

"So, it's nothing serious, isn't it?"

Upon hearing this, Ansag and Sataik immediately nodded in agreement.

In their original assessment, not only were the high-level experts themselves extremely dangerous, but even the concept of levels was itself extremely dangerous—after all, the evil eagle-headed man had said that these levels and experiences were not Sun God magic at all, but rather bait dropped into this world by some being in the boundless starry sky.

So recently, Ansag and Sataik have also considered another option: since they already know that these things come from the boundless starry sky and may be bait dropped by some being, then completely eradicating them is the best solution.

Directly banning it would be troublesome, so the solution is to incite the high-level powerhouses to kill each other, and then prevent the weaker ones from having any contact with these things from the beginning. Over time, after several generations, no one will even know that levels and experience existed.

However, after the snake god's method proved effective, they realized that such a large-scale effort was indeed unnecessary.

"After all, these levels and experience are still useful."

Thinking of this, the two priests subconsciously raised their heads and looked at the magical glasses on the huge snake head.

Yes, Du Yi still wears those magical glasses. He uses them to check how much his cooking experience has increased, and he also uses them as sunglasses. He finds them quite interesting.

Even the great Serpent God doesn't reject this special divine art, so there's no need for them to completely suppress it. As long as the Serpent God is still stationed outside the city, this divine art, no matter whose bait it is, won't be able to cause any trouble.

Moreover, just like the way the Serpent God used it, is this set of divine arts based on levels and experience only meant to kill people?

Clearly, the way the serpent god uses it is the true way to use this divine art.

"Besides killing, this system can be used for many other things, such as..."

Ansag and Satek couldn't help but start daydreaming.

With this idea in mind, a massive leveling campaign began.

Chapter 195 Divine Food

It's not through killing and fighting that people accumulate experience, but through various production and life skills. Once they can see the level and experience of their skills, people do become more enthusiastic about whatever they do. They may not have gone down the path of bloodshed, but more and more people have begun to achieve their own specialization in their respective professions.

The newly formed empire, which was initially somewhat desolate due to the war, quickly began to thrive, and even the supply of fresh cattle and sheep to Du Yi began to increase.

However, Du Yi is now able to fully enjoy the food by shrinking his body. So even though the beef and mutton would not even be enough to fill a tooth gap for him at his normal size, after Du Yi selected a little of each to taste, there was still a large pile of beef and mutton that had not been slaughtered.

"Even if they really eat it seriously, they can't eat more than a few bites of this beef and mutton. It's better to just give it all away as prizes."

Du Yi couldn't help but think this way.

Yes, prizes. The neighboring city is really short of them lately. The reason is that the two priests wanted to deal with the security issues. In their opinion, the best way is to put experience and levels into various life skills. And after people have time occupied by these production and life skills, they will naturally not have time to grind for killing levels.

So, in order to divert people's attention from thinking about killing seven or eight people every day, the two priests started various competitions.

Projects with relatively long cycles, such as farming competitions or chicken-raising competitions, are definitely difficult to organize. However, projects that have both practical value and a certain degree of entertainment value, like metallurgy and logging, are quite interesting to watch.

Of course, in order to attract more people to participate, the two priests really went all out, not only giving out honorary titles, but also giving out a lot of wealth as rewards—of course, the most eye-catching of all was the so-called "food from the gods" that the two priests took from Du Yi.

Although it was just a piece that Du Yi used to practice his control of the heat, the roasting technique accumulated over thousands of years was still quite remarkable. In addition, the evil eagle-headed man that was used as a campfire was laid on the ground. After all, this eagle-headed man was once a sun god. So, rounding up, this roasted meat could be considered a joint creation of two great gods.

At first, people just regarded these divinely bestowed roasted meats as a gimmick, like amulets obtained from temples—if there was anything different about them, it was that these special amulets could be eaten.

Putting everything else aside, this is a delicacy bestowed by the Serpent God, and its taste alone is already among the best.

Moreover, this divinely bestowed food has other effects as well.

Although the first few winners of various competitions did not mention it, as more and more people received divine food, people gradually realized that these fragrant roasted meats were far more than just food.

"You mean, the meat I grill not only restores health after eating, but also gives experience points?"

Du Yi was stunned when he received the news.

You know, he eats this kind of barbecue every day, so how come he didn't get this effect?

"What a joke! How could you possibly control the mind of the meat you grilled yourself?"

Just as Du Yi was racking his brains trying to figure it out, the sun god Ujat, who was sprawled on the ground in thin slices, sneered.

Clearly, this was a mockery of Du Yi's ignorance, but Du Yi himself didn't care about it at all—compared to this innocuous ridicule, Du Yi was more concerned about the words about consciousness spoken by the eagle-headed man.

Clearly, his previous torture was not enough; the eagle-headed man still had something important to hide.

Thus, a new round of torture began.

Learning new knowledge mainly relies on interrogation, and Du Yi felt that he was unique in this regard. While he was busy, various competitions in the city were in full swing. As it turned out, the two priests had once again made a successful plan. Especially after the addition of the Divine Food, the competitions that were originally only for ordinary people even attracted a lot of newcomers to the field of divine magic.

Clearly, these warriors' goal was simply to obtain the divine food, whether to increase their experience or to restore their health in critical moments; these things would be a great asset to them.

Unfortunately, the competition was fair and just, and there was no possibility of using violence to seize the prizes. Not to mention that the Serpent God was lurking outside the city and could see the events inside with just a glance, the enforcement teams alone were enough to terrify any warriors who wanted to take shortcuts.

However, this kind of thing was no challenge for these warriors. Although they couldn't use their signature skills, they could incorporate various combat techniques into the competitions—such as using the methods of chopping people to participate in the logging competition, or using divine magic in the forging competition. Of course, the most exciting competition was the cooking competition, where the warriors picked up their weapons and showed off their knife skills. Their exquisite skills, which were aimed directly at the enemy's vital points, even made professional chefs feel ashamed.

Seeing how lively the various events in the city were, Du Yi simply increased the supply of barbecue, since this amount was just a piece of cake for him.

With such an almost unlimited supply of barbecue, various competitions in the city were held in full swing, even reaching a point where there were competitions every day.

Various competitions not only attracted people's attention and improved the security of this new empire, but the experience brought by the abundant divine food also allowed people to level up by leaps and bounds.

For a time, high-level people were almost everywhere. Even a seemingly ordinary civilian you randomly pulled off the street might have a terrifying level 85 gardener.

As for the warriors, needless to say, the divine food has become a stable source of experience for them, which has led to a sharp drop in the number of murder cases. Even the law enforcement team led by the Mad Axe Setka has become idle, to the point that there is no one to arrest.

Everything seemed to be developing in a positive direction. This emerging empire appeared to be thriving. Just look at the way those high-ranking people walked on the road; the confidence shining in their eyes was even more dazzling than the stars in the sky.

And this confidence brought about by rank, these stars fallen to the ground, did indeed enter the constellations and the vision of certain beings.

"Oh? You've already reached such a high level?"

In the boundless starry sky, a being sensed this distant fluctuation and gradually opened its eyes.

"They've already killed their way up this high, it's time to go and harvest the spoils."

Chapter 196 The Chosen Champion of the God of Courage

Setka the Mad Axe has been very free lately, extremely free.

While the war was still at a stalemate, Setka had wondered when this long war would finally end—but no matter how he calculated, he could only come to one conclusion: if the Serpent God did not personally intervene, the war would probably be difficult to bring to a true end.

In fact, it wasn't just Setka; other frontline warriors shared a similar understanding. Many of them were originally divine warriors of the Sun God, which is why they were even more aware that the Sun God Temple in the Holy City would only hold more hidden tricks.

This is why Setka organized people to try to gather intelligence about the Temple of the Sun through a reverse defection, simply because Setka believed this was the closest way to ending the war.

But Seth Jacques never expected that the victory would come so suddenly.

The messenger of the sun god suddenly went mad and began to slaughter his own people. In order to survive, Setka had no choice but to risk his life with his companions. Fortunately, they finally succeeded. After paying a heavy price, they actually managed to kill Matt Peri, who was known as the "Priest of War".

It was after this battle that Setka learned that the real war had already ended, and that the sun god who had descended to earth had long been subdued by the great serpent god.

As for the fierce battle in the City of the Sun, it was merely the final aftershock of this divine war.

"It's a pity that Habisa didn't get to see all of this."

This is also what Setka regrets the most. Among all those who infiltrated the past, that young swordsman was the first to be killed, even by Matt Perry's own hands.

If he had known it would turn out this way, he wouldn't have recruited that young swordsman. After all, he remembered that what the young swordsman really wanted was to learn to read and write and practice his calligraphy.

As for Setka's second regret, it was naturally the current peace and tranquility. Although Setka had anticipated the peace after the war, he was actually quite unaccustomed to it after it actually came to peace.

Whenever he closes his eyes, Setka's vision still flashes back to those days of fierce fighting. The battlefield, where flesh and blood flew, is his best home. Unlike Habisa, who doesn't really want to fight, Setka feels that he was born for war. All his skills exist for better fighting. Only fighting can make him feel that he is still alive.

But the empire now has no more wars.

Therefore, Setka could actually understand the behavior of Amonsa the Greatsword, one of the four warriors. Of course, he did not approve of such madman-like behavior of attacking his own people, but he could truly understand Amonsa the Greatsword's thoughts. After all, for warriors like them who had honed their fighting skills to the extreme, only a blood-pumping battle could make them feel alive.

When those two priests came to her door before, there was one thing that Setka didn't tell her completely.

Skilled fighters kill for either experience or equipment, and those are usually the two reasons. But for warriors who have reached the pinnacle of their level and honed their combat skills to perfection, there is a third reason.

That is, the battle itself.

A formidable opponent, a powerful foe who could fight him to the death, both sides risking their lives for the sake of the battle itself... Setka could even sense that this was the true source of experience; the numbers flashing before his eyes were merely a facade, only the carnage of this brutal battle was the reality.

So when the two priests came to him to organize an enforcement team, he didn't really have any intention of refusing, after all, he longed for battle and slaughter, no matter who he was fighting with.

However, the enforcement team's work was not as reliable as he had imagined. Apart from catching a few divine warriors who were killing indiscriminately to gain experience at the beginning, Sethka didn't have any chance to take action at all. After all, those warriors were not stupid. Except for a few who had become like him and were obsessed with battle, most of them knew that their lives were more important than temporary experience and levels.

Ultimately, this isn't the front line; it's Tatunbuto, the city of the Serpent God. The great Serpent God resides outside the city, and even the most powerful divine warriors can't possibly cause any trouble in front of him.

After that, with the appearance of Divine Food, warriors had a direct way to gain experience. As long as they ate Divine Food, they would gain experience, which meant that warriors no longer needed to level up by killing people.

If the soldiers stop killing, what can the law enforcement team do?

"Sometimes, I can't even tell myself what I really want: levels and experience, the battle itself, or both..."

Beyond the ruins of the former Sun City, before an unmarked tomb, Setka, who had traveled a long way, sat cross-legged and spoke to Hapisa within the tomb.

"Looking back now, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that you died sooner. At least you wouldn't have had to suppress yourself like I did every day... Sometimes I feel like something's missing if I don't gain some experience or level up..."

Facing his old friend, Sethka was no longer the decisive man he usually was, and his words became more rambling.

"It seems that only leveling up can satisfy me, and only combat itself can bring me joy... But as you can see, things are peaceful now."

Of course, as the former holy city of the sun, now on the border of the empire, this city called Heliopolis is unlikely to be peaceful.

But things are different now. As the founder and leader of the enforcement team, one of the four warriors, and nicknamed "Mad Axe," Setka led the team here to bring the same order as the Serpent God City to the border of the empire.

"It's a pity they don't dare to fight me anymore... Hmm?"

Before he could finish speaking, Setka's hand had already touched the axe handle on his back.

He suddenly sensed a chilling killing intent.

This wasn't some petty threat like a small-time thief playing around; it was a threat that could truly kill him.

Just by the scent, Setka realized that the warrior hidden in the distance was even more ferocious than the war priest Matt Perry!