Brettwen is a subordinate village and town in the northwest of Erudition City, only a few dozen miles away from Erudition City.
This was once a famous hometown of fruits and vegetables. From a modern perspective, Brettwen is probably a vegetable and fruit planting base.
Just like most big cities must rely on surrounding towns and villages to supply fruits and vegetables, Erudition City has always relied on Brettwen to provide a richer and more balanced food mix.
Of course, this vegetable base not only supplies Erudition City, but also supplies the army.
More than a hundred miles southwest of Brettwen is Bacchus Empire's strongest military fortress, Fort Lela.
This fortress originally guarded the main road leading to Siyuan City and Erudition City, so there were always a large number of soldiers stationed there.
Similar to Seven Forks Fortress of the Lionheart Kingdom, this pure military fortress has no residents, so the supply of materials depends entirely on nearby villages and towns. Brettwen, on the other hand, is mainly responsible for providing vegetables, fruits and other food.
But when the lord led the team to Brettwen, this place didn't look like a land of fruits at all.
Large areas of vegetable fields and orchards were deserted and no one cared about them. Most of the winter fruits such as oranges had already matured, but no one picked them, so they just fell under the trees and rotted.
Most of the vegetables in the garden have rotted in the ground.
Some melon sheds still have shelves, the buckets hanging on the shelves are still there, and the farm tools leaning against the trees are still there.
But I didn't see any residents.
Ansen was not found in the village.
The whole village was so lifeless that there really wasn't even a dog in sight.
But the problem is that this place doesn't look like a chaotic place. There are no blood stains or bones on the ground, and there are no messy objects discarded in the village.
"What's going on in this place? If there's a disaster, it shouldn't be so neat, right? The way it is now... makes people feel even more panicked."
Li Ang raised his head and looked around - indeed he couldn't see any living things, not even birds.
This is obviously very abnormal. The ground is full of overripe fruits that have fallen to the ground. It is impossible for birds and animals not to come and eat them.
And even if all the people here ran away, they would at least bring their daily tools with them. The farm tools leaning under the trees didn't look like they were thrown away carelessly, but that no one took them away at all.
"Sir, there seems to be a temple over there... something doesn't look right."
Kloze pointed at a relatively tall stone house in the village next to the lake.
The house is very large and has a relatively rough Goddess Damia image on the roof.
It is indeed a temple. A vegetable and fruit planting base like Brettwen will naturally worship Goddess of Harvest.
Kloze said that this temple looks wrong, mainly because it has no doors or windows.
In other words, all the doors and windows were sealed and neatly sealed. They should have been built with stones and repainted with plaster.
How can a temple close its doors and windows?
Li Ang waved his hand and asked the brothers to surround the temple.
Kloze went up to the wall and listened. "There is no sound..."
Then he sniffed. "But there is a strong smell of blood... There is something wrong here."
"Here! Look... look in the water!"
Sigismund suddenly shouted loudly.
This temple was built close to the lake, and the road on the side of the house extended out to a small wooden pier.
The wharf is very small and should only be used to park small barges that pass through the lake. Just like the inland river wharfs behind Long River Town, it is estimated that vegetables and fruits can be transported directly to Erudition City by small boats from here.
Sigismund is visiting at the dock at this time.
At this time, the lake water near the dock was reddish brown!
Moreover, there were densely packed carcasses of birds, mice and other small animals floating on the water, as well as many carcasses of fish.
No wonder we didn't see any birds, all of them died in the lake!
The lake behind this temple is all reddish brown.
Only when a large amount of plasma precipitates in the lake water can the lake surface be dyed this color.
Sigismund drew out his sword and kept staring at the water and making gestures. Then he walked slowly along the pier to the back of the temple. He looked along the sword blade and pointed at a stone gap behind the temple. "The blood... is flowing out from inside!"
"Brothers, cover your noses... Go to Erudition City and tell General Clerion that it's best not to drink Lake Sava's water during this period. This blood may be poisonous..."
"Come, break this house open and take a look..."
Li Ang took a few steps back and put on the mask. After thinking about it for a while, he felt uneasy, so he simply put on the helmet mask as well, and then signaled the tough men of Silver Hand to work.
Seeing that the lord was so careful, the tough men also took precautions and started swinging hammers.
It turned out to be useful to equip them with hammers, and they came in handy so quickly...
This long-handled hammer is very good at knocking rocks - the eight-pound long-handled hammer's biggest function when not fighting is to knock rocks or drive wood piles.
A group of tough men surrounded the temple and started banging and banging, but the walls of the temple seemed extremely strong. It was not until one wall was knocked deeply that it deformed inward, finally opening a big hole in the house.
Moreover, after the wall was broken, the bricks and stones actually fell out.
Then, the group of people all took a few steps back.
Several broken corpses fell out of the big holes along with the bricks and stones, bringing out a pool of sticky blood.
It was impossible to see into the temple through the holes, because countless corpses were piled up layer by layer to form the inner wall. The corpses covered the newly dug holes like masonry, and no one knew how high they were piled.
No wonder it couldn't be knocked. There were obviously piles of corpses inside, supporting the surrounding walls.
Even with masks on, the stench still made everyone's scalp numb.
"... Knock down all the walls, brothers, wrap yourself up, don't get the blood from the corpses."
Li Ang It was not easy for him to hold back from spitting out. He retreated to a distance and waved to everyone to join him.
Hundreds of sledgehammers were swung together,
The temple is filled with... all corpses.
The skin of most of the corpses has been ulcerated, and thick red pus is constantly dripping down. They look like corpses stained with Red Death.
But this was definitely not done by Radiant Cross Knights's doctors or exterminators who sealed the corpses inside - the exterminators would have burned the corpses of all infected people and would never have piled so many corpses in the house.
This looks more like an evil ritual.
Because all the corpses were naked, they were piled up on the four walls of the temple to a height of more than three meters.
In the middle of the temple is a square pool...
It was a blood pool, four meters square.
Thick black blood has filled the entire blood pool. Probably due to the vibration of the sledgehammer just now, the plasma is shaking slightly at this time.
There was a four-pointed star-shaped platform floating in the middle of the pool, swinging slowly in the blood pool. On the four-pointed star platform, a person was tied with an iron chain.
In other words, it is tied to a broken body that barely looks like a human being. After all, no one knows whether it is still a human being.
The chest and abdomen of the body were broken open, and two huge gaps, one horizontal and one vertical, penetrated the entire body in a cross shape. Large pieces of flesh on the chest and abdomen were deliberately pulled apart and rolled over, so that the gaps in the chest and abdomen also took on the shape of a four-pointed star.
Almost all the internal organs are exposed.
This is an altar, a poisonous blood altar built with the blood of countless Red Death people.
Li Ang and Sigismund looked at each other and blurted out at the same time. "Castro!"
Yes, this is what happened to the powerful gladiator who died in the hands of Wendy!
Li Ang originally thought that as long as he killed the Snake Worship Cult army, most of the problems would be solved... But now it seems that the threat of Snake Worship Cult is not over yet...
"I'm afraid thousands of corpses were used in this evil ritual... but the guy who was cut open looked dead!"
Kloze said with a frown.
Since the temple was full of corpses and sticky blood, no one went in and touched it to avoid getting infected by Red Death.
But you can tell from the outside that the body on the four-pointed star is definitely dead.
After all, the heart was exposed. There was no movement at all at the moment, and there was no sign of resuming beating.
"What a good eye... Nine hundred and ninety-nine adult male corpses, and the body of one Chosen of God... Exactly one thousand people."
A harsh and weird voice suddenly answered Kloze's words.
The sound was so sharp that I couldn't even tell whether it was male or female, it just felt like it suddenly appeared in my ears.
A group of people turned around and looked around, but saw no one.
Li Ang and Kloze immediately drew their swords. They were familiar with the sudden appearance of sounds but no one could be seen - they had seen this technique from Three Prophets, and it was very similar to the sound of Three Prophets reciting rituals.
"Haha... Maybe you are the perfect body of God's choice... What a strong warrior..."
That weird sound sounded again.
"Who is pretending? Come out!"
Kloze understood. The divinely chosen body the voice was talking about seemed to be him... After all, Kloze was obviously the strongest among them all.
He is extremely nervous now, and he completely understands the panic that Amy felt when Long River Town faced Madam Bella.
Madam Bella is a heretic who worships Dark Goddess. At that time, Misfortune Bringer once said that Amy was the perfect carrier of Goddess.
But now, after encountering the altar of Snake Worship Cult, he himself is said to be the perfect body of God's Chosen...
"Sir... I think Snake Worship Cult may have some connection with the heretics who worship Dark Goddess... Their paths seem to have many similarities..."
Kloze kept looking around and cautiously approached Li Ang.
"I think so too..."
The Lord Lord was also moving carefully, constantly looking for the person who made the sound.
"Huh huh huh... Come on, come find me, I'll tell you everything... Huh?!"
The voice seemed to be teasing the lord, but it stopped abruptly mid-sentence, and then became completely silent.
"Sir! An army of the Bacchus Empire is coming from outside. There are still a few miles to go..."
Sammer, who was standing guard outside the village, ran in. Before he finished speaking, he saw a group of people around Li Ang, standing guard with their backs to the room full of corpses.
He stopped talking, looked around, drew his sword and lowered his voice. "Sir, are there... any enemies here?"
Li Ang rolled his eyes and shouted very suddenly, "Don't run! Catch him!"
A large group of subordinates hurriedly looked around, but they didn't see who Li Ang was asking them to arrest.
In fact, the Lord is bluffing...
He wanted to try to see if he could trick the mysterious man into making some noise.
But it has no effect.
Li Ang looked around again and then put down his sword. "If you can't cheat, that bastard should be gone... Sammer, what is the banner of the army outside?"
"It looks like the flag of Governor Kairos. Sir, Governor Kairos should not be an enemy now, right?"
Sammer asked with some uncertainty.
The ships and food previously sent to Mettenheim came from Governor Kairos. Although this was a transaction for Kairos, the Mettenheim people actually have some feelings for Kairos, and naturally they don't want Kairos to become an enemy.
"Kairos... Why did he appear here..."
Li Ang frowned, turned around and looked at the blood pool behind the altar, and then shook his head. "Is he coming to this altar? We'd better hide first..."
"Kairos, I still can't believe that you will be driven by people from Snake Worship Cult... I thought it was possible for anyone to take refuge in Snake Worship Cult, but you will never..."
Emperor Marius was sitting on a gorgeous prison car, whispering to Kairos who was riding a horse next to him.
The prison car was quite exquisite. It was even a luxurious four-wheel carriage with a sofa that sat opposite each other, which was rare in the Pande Continent. However, the windows were equipped with iron bars and the doors were locked.
If Li Ang sees this car, he will definitely recognize it - this is the carriage he 'sold' to Governor Kairos last year.
"I didn't take refuge in Snake Worship Cult... I know I can't explain it, and maybe I won't be able to forgive myself until I die, but I have to do this... I'm sorry, Your Majesty..."
Kairos's complexion is a little withered and his eyes are dull, but a man in his fifties looks like he is seventy years old.
It was obvious that he himself had been suffering a lot these past few days.
"Then tell me why you did this? Maybe I can help you!"
Emperor Marius still seems to have not given up hope of solving the problem.
"You'll soon find out... we've arrived..."
Kairos looked at the village in front of him, stopped talking, and silently led Emperor Marius to the village.
"What... what's going on! What's going on!!"
When he first arrived in the village and saw the temple with most of its walls knocked down from a distance, Kairos suddenly panicked and rushed forward like flying, but he did not dare to enter the altar.
"It's over... it's all over...Antonius... my Antonius!"
He ran around the outside of the temple twice like a headless fly, then sat down on the ground and cried like an old farmer.
"Antonius? What happened to your son? Kairos... tell me, what happened to you, and what is the situation with these corpses here?"
Emperor Marius struggled left and right, broke away from the hands of the two soldiers who grabbed his shoulders, looked at everything in the temple, and then looked at Kairos who was sitting on the ground, his frowning eyebrows forming deep grooves.