Miles returned from the surrounding knight's manor with firewood on his back and a bag of charcoal.

No one cared what was in his arms, because everyone knew that the purple-haired young man had a good swordsmanship, and a dead man in the hilly area was nothing.

To the west of the gathering place, a rickety grass and wood hut is his current residence, and the owner of this house is once an old mountain hunter with a broken leg, who was attacked by a monster giant bear during a big hunt, shooting through his companion's ankle, causing the other party to delay the monster and survive.

For attacking his companions, the tribe cut off one of his legs and threw him out of the mountains to fend for himself, while he managed to survive until the eve of winter with his box, which could shoot birds and people through their throats.

After his death, Miles snatched the right to live in the shack with a sword.

In the course of the scramble, he killed three Westerners, who were also refugees and intended to kidnap Cynthia to coerce him, without the slightest reason that they were fellow countrymen.

And the hand is soft, and the effect of this Liwei is very good.

"Brother?"

As soon as he entered the shack, the man heard a weak girl's voice, a girl with light orange hair tending to the fire in the house. When she saw Miles come back, she turned her head and said with a smile, "The fire hasn't been extinguished, the water in the kettle next to it is warm, you can drink it quickly."

"You take a sip first, don't catch a cold." Miles leaned down and hugged Cynthia, then began to add wood to the nearly extinguished ashes: "No one is coming, is there?

"Nope." The girl shook her head, "It's been too cold lately, and everyone is afraid to come out."

Because there is no firewood, the air is humid, the fire will be extinguished quickly if no one takes care of it, and igniting the fire is a trouble, coupled with Cynthia's physique, being blown by the cold wind when going out is simply devastating, so Miles can only leave the girl in the shack.

Of course, he wasn't that stupid, thinking that killing people would be a deterrent to a group of lawless fanatics.

So the first few times, Miles was outward, but in fact he was standing by the side of the house, and all the refugees who had sneaked up on the shack had been killed by his own hands, and their heads were hanging under the eaves on the side, and these heads were now shaking in the wind, intimidating everyone.

When everyone knew that the girl in the shack was the person Miles valued the most, no one dared to beat Cynthia's idea.

It is not surprising that such a young swordsman knows that his sister has an accident, and the whole village lives there, and those knights of Nauman City know that such a thing will only praise Miles for killing well—is it true that they really expect the little girl to coerce the swordsman to lay down his weapon?

Even if it were possible, they didn't dare to bet. After all, no one but themselves cares about the lives of their people.

It is precisely because Miles knows this that he is ruthless and ruthless to the outside world.

"Earn a living with the sword...... Hey. Earn a living with the sword."

After filling the firewood and starting to cook the soup, the young man's eyes reflected the swaying of the fire, and he sneered in his heart.

Naïve about the past.

In Teal City, when Miles fantasizes about himself wandering outside and begging for a living with his sword, he never thinks that wandering is such a difficult thing to do.

At that time, adventure in his heart was happiness and revenge, floating clouds and long winds, riding horses and holding swords under the sun, slashing and killing enemies.

But that's fantasy. Life is always so hard.

Today was soybean soup, and Miles and Cynthia quietly drank a small pot of cooked bean soup, and then stayed silently by the fire to rest.

It's also a bit strange to say that since the two of them escaped from Blue City and came to Nanling, they haven't been sick, their bodies haven't been particularly tired, and they are not even very sensitive to the perception of pain...... But it's not an absolutely good thing.

Once, while walking on a mountain trail, Cynthia's arm was stabbed by thorny grass, but Cynthia herself didn't feel anything, and Miles found that the girl's arm had clotted a large scab of blood at night, and Cynthia's little face was also pale, and she only realized that something was wrong when she walked staggeringly.

This kind of anomaly is really difficult to reassure, Miles also tried to cut his fingers with a knife, and he was stunned to find that he was real

of the loss of perception of a lot of pain.

There is a force that resides in their bodies, making them tireless and painful, and they can go all the way from the western realm to Shangling...... It allows a girl under the age of ten to endure all the hardships along the way, but it can also make people gradually lose control of their own lives.

"Cursed...... Or a blessing. But we can't go on like this."

The cold wind beat the grass hut outside the window, Cynthia was asleep, and Miles sat silently in front of the fire.

He hadn't slept properly in a long time, perhaps because of his psionic abilities, his spirit was not tired, but his brain and body were in dire need of recuperation.

"Cynthia and I have anomalies that need to be resolved by the Sublimator or even the Psionic as soon as possible...... I've probably awakened my psionic powers, so it shouldn't be difficult to find a job."

Miles pondered in his mind, "The question is how does this prove this? My psionic energy can only be used when it is dangerous, for example, when Cynthia is almost hit by a fallen branch, the branch will move towards me, and my physical fitness will be strengthened - if it is not a danger, but a normal little squirrel throwing a pine cone, this psionic energy will not work."

"Am I going to let someone else shoot an arrow at Cynthia? It's definitely not going to work...... I can't even figure out the nature of my psionic powers, how can I use Cynthia as a prop!"

But here's the problem...... Without psionic powers, Miles is just an immature swordsman, no problem dealing with those refugee wanderers, and he really wants to be respected by his kung fu...... It's still a lot worse.

Winter is already halfway over, but half is still there. Even when spring comes, Miles goes to work in the city to earn money, and it takes a long time to save enough money for the Ascendant Psionics to check on their physical problems.

In the middle of this, there are too many possibilities, too many accidents can happen, and if something goes wrong with Cynthia, Miles will never forgive himself.

The destruction of the homeland, the death of the mother, the passing of the gracious and the last entrustment...... Heavy pressure built up on the young man's shoulders, making him feel like half of his body was buried in the dirt, making it difficult to breathe.

What does the future hold? Without much life experience, he can only take one step at a time.

Or ......

Waiting for a small miracle. Or a causal necessity.

The next morning, Miles went out to see if he could catch two fish in the surrounding river nest, or a few hares and pheasants in the dense forest outside the hills, but he noticed that almost everyone in the bitter cold village was excited and gathered at the head of the village.

He couldn't help but frown slightly.

The Fellini brothers, who were forced to flee from the southeastern province to avoid debts because of gambling and owed usury, came; stole his knight lord's silver cutlery, and was branded and banished Tommy was next to him; Because of the food disaster, he lost a lot of money, and his wife was separated and the house was taken away, and the old Chedorn was also ...... There were also exiled hillmen and other westward refugees with whom Miles was less familiar.

Almost all the people in the bitter cold village who walked and had a little kung fu in their hands gathered at the entrance of the village and looked at a group of heavily armed knights with a rare, eager and eager gaze.

"What's going on?"

Miles finds a familiar face who has a good relationship and has exchanged food and medicine, and asks what happened to the other person.

"You weren't in the village yesterday, were you?" And this cobbler is not very afraid of the very vicious Miles, after all, the average person in the bitter cold village is rotten.

He explained to the young man, "Yesterday, Ryan took the ...... Oh, now it's called Xia Hui Ling. In short, there is a noble lord who wants to recruit people to open up the mountains to the west, provide food and tools, and have a simple tent - if you can build a house yourself, then the house is yours, and the land that has been cleared has priority to be used."

"If you think you have the strength, you can cooperate with the knights to exterminate the surrounding demonic beasts, and you will be rewarded according to the merits, at least the price they said is very fair."

"Yesterday they were going to other homeless villages to inform as well, so give the big guy a day to think about it - the result is obvious, who can refuse?"

"Huh?"

listen

At this kind of good news, Miles was shocked: "That lord is okay with his head, right? Half of our village is made up of unlucky ghosts, a quarter of them are rotten people who have lost their lives, and a quarter of them are simply prisoners who have not been caught...... You want us to open up the wasteland?"

Are we so honest?

"yes."

The cobbler also lamented: "Nothing has been done in the past, everything can be done from scratch...... To be honest, it's really a chance for people like me to do it all over again."

This honest cobbler has not committed any crime, that is, ordinary poverty and ordinary bad luck, when boiling water, by the way burned his own house and the neighbor's house, not to mention that the customer put him waiting for the flocculent fur to play with all the eggs and pay the neighbor's money, because the food disaster is not easy for the relatives, the cobbler does not want to be driven out and lose all his affection, so he simply ran to the hilly land to gamble on his life for a winter.

can survive the winter, can it make a comeback, can it survive this winter...... Then leave the bad luck for the next life.

Now it seems that his luck should have bottomed out.

"I didn't say anything about you."

Miles scratched his head with his left hand, but his right hand subconsciously clenched the sword at his waist; "I mean, the lord isn't afraid of people like us...... Don't you cheat him out of money and food?"

"You're funny, Miles? Do you know why there are only bad breeds who cheat ordinary humans out of money and stupid people who are cheated out of money in our village? Because those who dare to cheat the nobles out of their money have two feet of grass on their graves!"

The cobbler looked at the young swordsman with strange eyes, as if looking at a fool, "The Xiahui Territory is the domain of the mountain nobles—now it is the holy land of their dragon god messenger...... People like us who have a lot of fart skills dare to play with them?"

"Remember the original owner of your shack, Old Parr? He's just an ordinary mountain hunter, but with his eyes closed, he can draw his bow and shoot at the squirrels in the trees."

"Don't say that their little girls are doing little evil, even if it's you, is it possible that you still plan to avoid the pursuit of the mountain people after committing a crime in the mountains?" Truly.

Miles thought about it for a while, and felt that this was indeed the case - the people were noble lords, and there were knights under them, no matter how fierce the thugs, robbers and criminals could have sublimated murderers?

In front of the nobles of the sublimators, no matter how kind of thugs they are, they can only honestly farm the land...... It's not the same creature at all!

And...... Clearing the wasteland?

At least it's better than staying in a bitter cold village and waiting for the winter to pass...... At least I can work a month or two earlier to get paid!

As soon as he thought of it, he went back to the shack and told Cynthia the news.

The brother and sister immediately went to sign up.

And during the registration process, Miles also noticed an interesting thing.

This group of knights, although everyone knew that they were the people of the Xia Hui Leader, they themselves called themselves the "Chongtian Sect", or the "Star Soul Sect, people."

This sect has two core doctrines, 'Asylum', and 'Vengeance,'.

Shelter, in essence, is the blood family first, encouraging people to take care of the elderly, treat children well, make the family happy, and bravely protect the life they want.

Revenge, as the name suggests, is to fight against all enemies who dare to endanger people's happy lives, and to punish them justly.

And the name of the Star Soul is essentially the worldview of the Spirit Cult, they believe that in this world, everything has a soul and spirituality, whether it is a machine or a rock, a human or a worm, it sounds like a 'Spirit Weapon Church, and the 'Hall of All Souls, the doctrine of the sect must have borrowed some of it, but the core doctrine of the Star Soul Sect has its own unique derivation.

They believe that even the 'humans', the group, and even the 'land' of Terra beneath their feet have an obscure' collective soul.

It's called 'The Soul of All Beings' and 'The Heart of Terra'.

In the souls of all beings, there are all the wisdom and memories of human beings from ancient times to the present; In Terra's heart is all the knowledge and liberation that all beings need.

Both of them are the 'true spirits' worshipped by the Spiritualist sect,-

- The essence of protection and revenge, bringing yourself closer to the soul of all beings and the 'holy rites' of the heart of Terra.

The dragon god is the power of the earth, the dragon god is the spokesperson of Qin La, and the true dragon itself is an incarnation of the soul of all beings and the heart of Qin La in the heaven and earth - so the dragon god belief is the star soul of the worshipping spirit!

According to the people of this sect themselves, if you practice to a certain extent, you can even talk to the dead! Hearing this, Miles' heart suddenly moved slightly. "Talk to the dead......

The young man closed his eyes slightly, and he could feel Cynthia's small hand holding his hand also a little harder.

Yes, even if reason tells you that this sect is deceiving and exaggerating...... But he was still tempted.

No, not tempting.

It's the desire.

Even if you know that there is no hope, even if you know that what you want to do is impossible...... But he still wanted to see his mother again.

"Brother......

Miles heard Cynthia's whispered call, he was silent for a moment, then laughed, "Of course. Cynthia, we'll try it."

"But if it doesn't work out...... Don't be sad then."

"Hmm." The little girl nodded earnestly. She rubbed her eyes and didn't say anything more.

There are things about the teachings of the Chongling Sect, and the knights themselves attach great importance to it, and they have specially publicized it, but the people of the bitter cold village don't care about this, they just see the excellent conditions for clearing the wasteland.

The knights were well aware of this, but they still insisted on preaching - it's one thing for no one to care, they themselves had to put on the most formal posture.

According to them, the reason why they recruited people in various places was to build a base for the sect from scratch.

Miles understands this.

Although there are only four major orthodox churches above Terra that are officially recognized as orthodox, local beliefs, national beliefs, and cults have always emerged in an endless stream - especially in a place like Nanling, which is on the edge of civilization, and it is really a daily situation for one or two new sects and new beliefs to pop up from time to time.

Especially inside the mountain people. Although everyone believes in the dragon god, it is very important to say how to believe in it, and basically every tribe is different, which is why the mountain people have felt more and more divided in recent years.

There are only dragon god messengers. Only the dragon god messenger can reunite the core of the mountain people's faith and reunite them.

And it just so happened that the lord of the Xia Hui Domain was the young genius who was now famous in the entire Nanling, the messenger with the dragon's blood, Ian Yinfeng.

Therefore, Miles believes that this sect definitely has the support of the lord behind it, it is very formal and can be trusted.

And, unless the young lord dies suddenly, it has a bright future to the naked eye.

"Finally, is there something good that is going to happen......

With this in mind, Miles and many other homeless people who wanted to start a new life and were willing to venture into the mountains followed the Cult of Souls and embarked on the road to the mountains.

On the other side of the road, a small carriage watched the procession from afar.

The winter sun was a little dim under the cold wind, and the middle-aged nobleman with black hair and blue eyes sat on the side of the rather inconspicuous carriage, and he lifted the baffle and watched the migrating brigade thoughtfully.

"Interesting."

"After gaining the leadership on the surface, I immediately started to reform the teachings of the mountain people, regained the right to interpret the belief of the dragon god, and then used a new expression to integrate the consensus of the mountain people—protection and revenge, living beings and the earth, what a perfect doctrine."

This Imperial Capital nobleman, who was born in the Imperial Noble Hall, obviously knew a lot about the actions of the Xia Hui Leader and the "Soul Worship Sect" in the recent period, so he stroked his hands and admired, "This should be done...... No, that's the only way to do it! If we want to reunite the scattered mountain people who have just fallen into civil strife, we must have a new faith to guide their spirit and soul!"

"Ancient

The belief in the dragon god is outdated, and since this is the case, it is better to deconstruct and strengthen the meaning of the earth dragon once again!"

"The dragon god we believe in is a true dragon, but it is not just a true dragon, but an endless and vast mountain, this infinite and thick land!"

Exhaling a breath and staring at the crowd of people in the distance, Viscount Ducas nodded solemnly: "The importance that His Royal Highness and the Second Prince attach to this young man is indeed reasonable, and this experience and idea of establishing a sect is very meaningful for us."

"It's going to sink and it's going to be uplifting—it's going to be easy for people to understand, and it's going to have enough depth for people to look at and deconstruct. We need to give people a sense of pride in what they believe in and confidence in preaching it to outsiders."

"Hmm...... His Highness's career requires this kind of experience in building the church almost from scratch."

Temo Dicas, a member of a small aristocratic family in the imperial capital, worked in the court of nobles, and was appreciated by the Grand Prince Carlos Settar, and eventually served as a committee member of the Imperial Court of Noble Disciplinary Justice, which is responsible for all cases of violations of law and discipline by the nobles of the Empire.

In the imperial capital, such a background and position can also be regarded as a head-scratcher...... If he had a third energy level, he could barely be regarded as half a big man, and the entire family would be proud of him.

Theoretically, a figure like Viscount Ducas could not have traveled all the way to Southridge for the help of a country nobleman...... But because of the great prince's affection, and the country nobleman's name was 'Ian,' he set out without complaint.

In fact, Viscount Decas's opinion of Ian has always been very high; The future master of alchemy, or even the master craftsman, the pioneer of new armor and alchemy techniques - this alone is enough for him to come and build a good relationship in person.

But along the way, I heard a steady stream of news related to Ian, and Viscount Decas's evaluation of Ian also rose all the way.

Not to mention anything else, just because Ian forcibly seized the Xiahui Territory, declared himself to be the Dragon God Emissary, and really led the mountain people to defeat the rebels and constructed knights supported by the Flying Flame Land, it is enough to represent that Ian is now the "real power nobleman" second only to the Marquis of Batun in Nanling,—— his territory is actually the entire Baisen Mountains, and the people are all mountain people.

There is no more marquisate than this.

But the question is, as an actual outsider, a dragon god envoy who has "parachuted" without any internal "roots" of the mountain people, how can Ian truly grasp the 'potential' of his territory in the following time?

It can't just rely on the support of the Avod tribe, or just rely on the Xia Hui Territory to rule all the mountain people in turn, right?

Viscount Ducass walked slowly all the way, in addition to greeting the nobles and local leaders such as the Marquis of Batun along the way, he also wanted to wait outside the bureau to see how Ian would deal with this sensitive issue.

And Ian used a combination of food trade and a new faith to hand over an answer sheet that he also admired.

- Is this really a decision that a sixteen-year-old can make? Or is it that behind him, there is the guidance of the Marquis of Batun or the Elder of the Cliff?

Intellectually, it's definitely the latter. But Biankas is very full, and it is best not to take common sense as a genius who can advance to the second energy level at a young age and independently design new armor and yojin skills.

"He may be the future 'Grand Master' of our empire."

Dicas's heart gave Ian a very high evaluation: "And my task is to win him into His Highness's camp as much as possible - although the second prince is one step ahead, he can't give His Highness the price he can give."

"In terms of funding, we have always had plenty of money."

"Master, do you want to continue with this team?"

In front of the carriage, the casual knight asked about the next move.

And Viscount Decass shook his head slightly: "No." We returned to the convoy – Baron Silverpeak (Aljomont) was waiting for us. There are also many foreign guests waiting for us to see."

"Let's go, towards the Radiance Leader." Terra 774, January 29, afternoon.

Viscount Temodicas, an official of the Imperial Capital Noble Hall, and a group of representatives of the Chamber of Commerce came to Xiahui Territory.

They brought with them medals, riches, orders, contracts, and imperial bounties.

And most importantly......

The Imperial Grand Prince Carlos Syetal's goodwill,.

Ian's thoughts on this are simple.

"It's not in vain that I've waited so long."

Looking at the smoke and dust kicked up by the convoy in the distance, Ian, who had been suffering for a long time, let out a long breath, and he showed a kind smile from the heart.

"Kaizi, it's finally here!"