Guhaicang open-pit coal mine.

During the day, the temperature had already dropped below freezing, and the scrawny miners, wearing only a single coat, lined up in a long row with their backs, each carrying a heavy coal basket behind their backs, struggling to move their feet. Walking a little slowly, the whip of the overseer next to him beckoned up. From time to time someone fell, and the coal in the basket was scattered all over the ground, and the fall was not exchanged for sympathy but for more vicious whipping.

Some of them fell, and they hurried up to save them a few lashes, and put them in baskets with coals scattered on the ground in both hands. When some people fell, they never got up, and the overseers dragged the bodies aside and threw them into the abandoned mines when they had enough to save up a pile.

They are not workers, they are just slaves, blasphemers taken from everywhere by the Church of Heaven's Gate.

The church doesn't think it's cruel! Those who believe in the Lord can enter the gates of heaven under the guidance of the Lord's messenger, the Sect Master Elijah, and those who do not believe in the Lord will be punished for the sins of mankind themselves, and the punishment of labor is only the lightest of them.

Looking at the corpses piled aside, Lu Ziniu's eyes were full of anger. Lu Zi Niu is very thin, but not a skinny and weak thin, but full of strength and leanness, the coal basket behind Lu Zi Niu is the fullest, but it is the most stable of all the miners, I really don't know where he got so much strength in his body by eating only so much food every day. Lu Ziniu's temper is as stubborn as his name, he is the most active among the miners, and he is also the most beaten, because he is not convinced, even if he is beaten, he will not be convinced!

Lu Ziniu poured the coal basket behind him on the high coal pile, and when he turned around, he deliberately spat a mouthful of phlegm on the ground, with black coal dust in the sputum.

"You're not convinced, are you?" The fat overseer with a fat head and big ears next to him whipped him.

Lu Ziniu reached out on the side of his head and grabbed the whip, and Lu Ziniu stared at the fat overseer with a pair of big eyes like a cow.

"You kid let me go, or I'll kill you!" The fat overseer tugged the whip back hard.

Lu Ziniu smiled contemptuously, and firmly grasped the hand of the whip and did not move, the meaning is obvious, if you have the ability, you will drag it back.

"Do you want to rebel? None of you want to eat tonight! The fat overseer's face was flushed, and he couldn't pull the whip.

"Give it back to you." Lu Ziniu suddenly let go, and the fat overseer Teng Teng, who was caught off guard, took two steps back, fell to the ground on his back, and his fat body couldn't get up for a while, causing the surrounding miners to laugh regardless of the danger of being whipped.

Several of the surrounding overseers all ran over and hit the road ox with sticks. Lu Zi Niu didn't run, he lay down on the ground with his hands on his head, his legs bent into a ingot, and he was ready to be beaten.

"I don't believe no one can clean up you bastards!" The Lu Zi Niu lying on the ground was still cursing in a low voice, and the expected stick did not fall on him for a long time. Feeling strange, Niu slightly opened his tightly clamped arm to peek in, as if time had stood still, one by one the overseers wielding wooden sticks froze in place, and in the next second, all the overseers began to spurt blood out of their throats.

Lu Ziniu jumped up from the ground, and looked at the cyan sword flying in the air in disbelief with the bull's eyes, the small sword swam happily in the air like a fish, and every time it swam in front of the overseer, one by one the overseer fell down holding his throat.

Lu Ziniu had never seen so many evolutionary beings, one after another figures holding various blades appeared, and these figures quickly jumped past him as if they didn't see him, and pounced on important targets in the mine.

The machine gun mounted on the lookout post was silenced after only two sounds, and a terrible cry came from the preacher's quarters and the overseer's shed in a corner of the mine, and the big wolf dog tied to the gate of the field to prevent the miners from escaping was cut off without even barking.

Lu Ziniu stood in place in a daze, the time may be as long as a century, the time may only be a blink of an eye, and there is no longer a living overseer in the mine, only the miners who are still standing in place in a daze like himself and don't know what happened.

A young man armed with a simple knife jumped to the top of the watchpost tower with a slight leap, and then his clear voice was heard throughout the mine, "Brothers, you are free!" Each person went to the overseer's shed to receive 10 catties of food, and then walked as far as possible! Lu Ziniu felt that this was the best sound he had ever heard.

The miners finally reacted, some ran to the overseer shed like crazy, and some stood in place in a daze, tears streaming down their faces.

Just now, a man with a knife drove several trucks parked in the mine to a huge pile of coal, and began to load the trucks with coal silently. Lu Ziniu also ran over, picked up the shovel standing on the side, and helped the people load coal into the truck together.

"Young man, why don't you go and get food?" It was the young man who had just shouted at the top of the watchtower.

"I want to go with you!" Lu Ziniu smiled innocently, revealing his soot-stained teeth.

.....

The Chosen City. More than a month has passed since the assassination of Bishop Christian, but the city is still the same as it was on the day of his assassination, and the cathedral that had been destroyed by fire has collapsed in half and has not been repaired. The site of Christian's assassination is a daily gathering of prayerful believers.

In a makeshift prayer room next to the cathedral, long prayers could not calm the priest.

Chen Qi felt that he had entered the darkest period of his life, and it was even more desperate than when the end had just come.

Chen Qi was the least regarded priest in the church, and he was recognized as the worst of all the priests in terms of polemics. Chen Qi was able to become a priest because he was a friend of Bishop Christian, he was Christian's first friend after coming to China, and before Christian became bishop, Chen Qi had been his staunchest supporter, not one of them.

But Christian died suddenly, and his greatest support in the church was gone. When he turned back and was about to hold on to his strength, he was sent out to clear Xining, and all the men who escaped from Xining were missing, and half of his men disappeared silently.

Of course, these people will not disappear for no reason, the targets of the purge are still there, but the purge is gone, and a fool can guess that these people have been poisoned. With the strength he has now, he can't avenge those missing subordinates.

He went to ask High Priest Zhongli, but the woman who had just died of her husband didn't care about him at all, the woman was blinded by revenge, and she threw almost all her power into the battle with the Light Alliance.

What really distressed Chen Qi was that he had almost become a forgotten figure in the Chosen City, no one had assigned him a combat mission with the Light Alliance, and no one cared about what he was doing now. No, people still care about him, whether he can deliver coal for heating on time, and whether he can send enough coolies in time.

There was a sharp knock on the door outside the prayer room. Chen Qi knew that it must be his cronies who could find this place at this time. Chen Qi calmed down his mood for a while, straightened the collar of the wide priest's robe, and replaced it with a smiling face. Always maintain the majesty of a priest in front of his subordinates.

After doing all this, Chen Qi slowly opened the door of the prayer room.

The one who knocked on the door was his preacher Xu Zheng.

"Priest, it's not good, our coal yard has been attacked!" Xu Zheng was still panting when he spoke, obviously rushing to report the news as soon as he got the news.

"What? You repeat! Chen Qi grabbed Xu Zheng's neck and lifted him up, at this time he couldn't care about any dignity anymore.

"Our Guhaicang open-pit coal mine has been attacked by a group of strangers, and the preacher and overseer in charge of guarding it have all been killed!" Xu Zheng had the courage to say it again.

One sentence completely knocked Chen Qi into the ice cave!

Chen Qi weakly loosened the collar he was holding tightly, and unconsciously took a step back, but sat on the ground with his buttocks, sitting on the ground as if he had lost his soul.

"Priest, priest, are you alright?" Xu Zheng hurriedly came up and shook Chen Qi's shoulder.

"Hey!" Chen Qi let out a long breath and finally reacted back. Chen Qi touched his back, and in a short period of time, his entire back was soaked, and no one knew better than Chen Qi what the loss of the Guhaicang open-pit coal mine meant to himself and to the Heaven's Gate Church.

There are four preachers under him in charge of guarding the coal mine, and if he loses these four people, there will be four preachers left under him, three of whom are still outside the church to arrest blasphemers, and his subordinates are only Xu Zheng, who is delivering the letter in front of him, and only one priest who is followed by the preacher, which may not be in the history of the church, how can he still hold his head up in the church in the future.

Compared to his own life, whether he can hold his head up is still a trivial matter, the Chosen City and the vast majority of the church's strongholds rely on the Guhaicang Coal Mine for fuel, and everyone will fall into the cold if they lose the coal mine, what will the woman who has lost her husband and is angry do with herself? And what will Megan, the woman with a cold face all day long, do to herself? Chen Qi didn't dare to continue thinking about it at all.

Even more terrifying, after Christian's death, there have been rumors that the church headquarters will send a new bishop of China, and the most likely candidate is Duke, who has the nickname "Ghoul". Barry, that's a more perverted and terrifying person than the old virgin Megan.

Chen Qi stood up from the ground and his gaze became crazy, "There must be no problems at this juncture, only by taking the coal mine before the fuel runs out can we have a chance to get through this hurdle!" ”

"You go and take out all the things we've collected this year, and we're going to visit Priest Zhongli."

Xu Zheng hesitated, "Priest Zhongli may not be able to take care of us at this time, right?" ”

Chen Qi smiled coldly, "It's not like there's only one Zhongli priest in this city!" ”