Chapter 449: Joyful Envoy
The three court mages anticipated that there would be many cultists in the northern part of Taqiya Territory.
After all, they had already seen an astonishing number of cultists in the city of Lars.
Even in the southern part of the country, where the total population of cities, towns and villages is less than 300,000, the undead were able to dig out thousands of cultists from every nook and cranny (excluding bandits). In the much more densely populated plains in the north, the number of cultists must be no less .
But even though they were mentally prepared... when they actually witnessed the scene of the Tarantan undead coming to "hand over" the cultists, the three court mages couldn't help but drop their jaws.
The courtyard in front of the town government building was brightly lit. The "captives" carried in by the dead souls coming in and out went through a procedure with Yang and then were carried to the foot of the wall and lined up head to head and feet to feet.
The courtyard was not particularly spacious but not small either. At least even if dozens of carriages were parked there, it would not seem crowded. However, within a dozen minutes, it was already packed...
The undead who were carrying the person in couldn't find a place to step, and when Yang instructed them to carry the person into the town government building for temporary "parking", the three court mages were already unable to make any expression.
"This is just... the believers within the town?" Fire Mage Lamantha murmured in a dream.
"It seems that the undead are not just in Rob Town. They are active in a large area and have also gone to the villages in the surrounding towns... to capture them." Illusionist Weber said with difficulty, "The sacrificial supplies that the undead gave to Yang just now... don't look like the offerings of Lady Joy."
Lady Joy, like the Eternal Sleeper, is one of the oldest gods in the continent of Nabarron. Before her fall and exile, she was a sub-goddess of the pantheon of life, and her dominant divine power was reproduction and survival.
Because the divine power of reproduction is related to sexual intercourse, Lady Joy is still fanatically worshipped by some people even though she has been exiled in the endless void for endless years. Her cult was restored by fanatics thousands of years ago, and her sacrificial items and statues have been published in many occult books. This is considered to be the easiest cult to identify.
Waver tried very hard to save the dignity of Tachia, but even he himself could not feel relieved by these words...
After searching only the territories of three or two towns, the undead were able to arrest so many cultists and seize so much of the cultists' accumulated property and evil sacrificial implements. It was not unfair at all that the Tachia Territory was overwhelmed by the undead army!
Even Weber himself now had the urge to join the Undead Army on the spot, storm the capital of Tachia, Creek City, and drag out all those feudal nobles to hang on the city walls - what the hell are you bastards doing!
Fire Mage Lamantha had a blank expression on her face. It was estimated that her thoughts at that moment were similar to those of Weber .
The undead who carried the captives into the hall found three court mages standing by the window, and each of them cast identification spells on the spot with the quality of a player.
The mental strength of the two sides differs by more than ten times, so the players naturally cannot identify anything.
"This stupid game is wasting resources on useless high-level NPCs!"
The players, who were extremely envious of the Third Court Mage's equipment, which they knew was definitely not of ordinary quality even with the naked eye, but who were indeed no match for the NPC mage, walked away cursing.
By the time the players had completed their quests, almost all of the empty rooms on the first and second floors of Rob Town's town hall had become temporary cells.
After giving out a bunch of game coins and reputation, Yang Qiu calmly returned to the hall and sat down. He drank some tea to moisten his throat and raised his hand to rub his shoulders: "It's really a bit tiring to deal with so many things by myself."
The three court mages, their hearts boiling with anger, used great willpower to keep a blank face: "..."
Spellcasters are the most curious group.
Weber, the oldest and most stable of the three, felt as if his heart was being scratched into shavings by a cat's claws. He really wanted to scream at the top of his lungs why those undead were willing to do so much for Yang in exchange for a small amount of coins made with exquisite craftsmanship.
Worried that this might involve the secrets of Yang's unique black magic, Weber could only suppress his curiosity and asked indirectly: "How do you plan to deal with these believers?"
Yang Qiu's face instantly became solemn, and he said in a serious tone: "This is exactly what I want to ask for your help. As you all know, in most evil god sects, the lowest-level believers are just ordinary people who are bewitched and used. Most of them don't get much benefit and are often used as consumables. I think that these lost people should be treated separately from the evil believers. The latter should be judged according to the Rhine Constitution, while the former should be guided and redeemed."
"Although my undeads are good at arresting people, they are not good at identifying their identities. In order to avoid any more trouble, can I ask the three of you to help me identify the identities of these believers?"
After a pause, Yang Qiu added solemnly, "Of course, it would be best if we could get a confession from the sect's top leaders. The local cult's pope and other top leaders are still on the run. To prevent these fanatics from retaliating and harming innocent people, it is best to capture them as soon as possible."
As for the detail that the Pope of Joy had actually been exposed and the undead in the town had already received the mission to capture this famous person... Yang Qiu omitted it for the time being.
If these three are not dragged into the "experience", these court mages who are used to being high and mighty will have no idea of the hard work of the undead regime in fighting against cults!
Weber's face froze.
Sadier and Lamantha, who were standing beside Weber, had slightly distorted facial features.
It is indeed much easier for a spellcaster to do the interrogation work than a night watch investigator. Monitoring the other party's mental fluctuations with the mental field is the best way to identify lies. When encountering stubborn elements who resist to the last, they can also use powerful mental power to impact the other party's mental field and achieve the goal of defeating the other party's defensive will.
The only problem is... there are thousands of cultists imprisoned inside and outside the town government building.
If it were divided among the four people present, each of them would be responsible for the interrogation of more than 200 people.
Weber really wanted to slap himself in the face - why couldn't he control himself and had to say such a mean thing!
They had just despised the Rhine royal family for watching the cult problem in Tachia worsen during the day, and now the three court mages couldn't say anything to refuse; they were dragged onto the pirate ship by Yang Qiu and interrogated all night long with lights on...
Rob Town is the territory of the Joyful Sect. Among the dozens of villages under Rob Town, more than 60% of the villages have believers stationed there for a long time, who accumulate wealth for the sect and recruit lower-level believers.
Although the Joy Sect is not an orthodox sect, it is at least a "local" sect, and the vast majority of its grassroots believers are native locals. Without a reasonable reason that can fool the grassroots believers, it is not convenient for the sect's upper echelons to order these believers to do whatever they want in their hometowns - for example, the Joy Sect cannot reach into villages where there is no excuse for interfering in local governance.
Even a cult cannot easily brainwash a large number of low-level believers into idiots. The unnamed sect in the southern mountainous area of Tachia that started with live sacrifices had to create a "holy land" and isolate the low-level believers in the mountains for a long time in order to achieve the purpose of brainwashing.
In short, among the lower-level believers assigned by the Church of Joy to the villages to collect money for the sect, not many of them had blood on their hands, and they were not extremely vicious. When interrogated by the spellcasters, many of them defended themselves with confidence, claiming that what they were doing was clearly a legitimate act to maintain peace and protect the local village.
These lost believers who can still be saved can be released back into society after repairing local roads for two or three years and educating them to recognize their mistakes.
However, the believers who are generally strong and can be used as thugs are more or less evil villains who have done things that bully men and women.
Some of these people truly believe that worshiping evil gods and doing things for them can benefit themselves; others are very clear that worshiping evil gods is unreliable, and they just sneak into the group of believers to enjoy the "privilege" of bullying others without having to bear the consequences alone.
For those with more serious nature, Yang Qiu would stamp them with the pork stamp of serious criminals and take them to the second floor for isolation and detention. When the main force came up, they would all be taken to the depths of Tarantan.
The interrogation lasted until midnight, and the army of players who had been persistently digging almost three feet deep into the entire town of Robe finally caught the fleeing Pope of Joy.
Yang Qiu, who was interrogating a believer, immediately opened a reverse subspace barrier to cover the town hall, to prevent the three court mages from noticing the movement outside and finding excuses to slack off.
Next... Yang Qiu left a projection of himself in the interrogation room and left quietly.
The Joy Cult is different from the cults that players have dealt with before. It has a complete cult, highly organized followers, a stable territory that has been developed for more than a hundred years, and a legacy - the current Joy Pope is already the fourth head of the Joy Cult.
The transition of a cult pope is not as peaceful as that of an orthodox sect, especially a sect with a complete cult scripture... The new pope will often inherit the seed of God's favor from the previous pope.
The God of Joy, which has been cultivated for more than a hundred years and passed down for more than four generations, is still very different from the God of Joy obtained by the Pope of the Orthodox Sect, but it is still not something that players can deal with.
When Yang Qiu arrived, the battle scene was indeed horrific...
In the eastern block of Luobu Town, a large section of the middle of a row of two-story houses collapsed, and broken wooden beams, bricks and tiles almost covered the entire street.
If players hadn't never cared whether NPCs were sleeping or not when they "forced door-to-door", harassing all the residents in the town; and if they hadn't gathered in large numbers after discovering the "red-named BOSS", scaring away the residents living nearby... it wouldn't just be the buildings that were tragically destroyed, and it wouldn't just be the property that was lost.
The players who completed the evacuation by their own strength naturally had no awareness of "serving the townspeople NPC". At this moment, the embarrassed players were scattered around the damaged buildings, all cursing.
"Is this a BOSS that can be designed by a human?!"
"Did the artist and modeler both get cuckolded again?!"
"I sacrificed my lunch break to play games, just to be beaten by the boss?!"
"I'm going to use the planner's head as a sacrifice to the gods!!"
Yang Qiu who just arrived: "..."
With an expressionless face, Yang Qiu took out a large number of joy sacrifices that he had previously collected from the players from his space ring and crushed them all with his mental power.
From the broken statue of the Lady of Joy and the numerous indescribable offerings, there gushed out a cold malice that was visible to the naked eye and as thick as liquid.
In this neighborhood where all the residents had fled, the space within a hundred meters was instantly covered by wet, sticky, cold and thick water vapor, and the temperature dropped sharply.
The player's skeleton body could not feel the temperature change, but it could feel the weight. The little undead that were originally jumping and cursing in the street were all crushed to the ground by the sudden increase in the density of water vapor in the air...
At the collapsed building, the monster that still retained its sanity after being deformed... no, the God of Joy, slowly turned its huge head towards Yang Qiu.
On the terrifying head with a pointed oval top and six pairs of vertical pupils arranged from top to bottom, twelve eyes all looked at Yang Qiu.
Yang Qiu floated out from the shadows, appeared above the players who were lying on the ground in confusion, and smiled at the evil god's messenger who had revealed his true form.
