Chapter 535
Chapter 535 - 515: Cremation
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7 min read
"What’s going on?"
"A large number of undead have appeared in the north and west of the city, just like the ones we saw in the forest before. The knights have been sent to drive them away, but there are quite a few."
While walking up the ramp to the city wall, Lu Ping’an asked the local knight on duty.
"What about the lord?"
"They just got the news as well. But from their panicked looks, it’s probably not their doing."
Although the situation was sudden, Catherine’s spies had already given the answer.
"Panicked? Oh, I see, did something happen among the civilians?"
"...No, it seems that there have been so many fake news and all kinds of chaotic disaster events recently that people have become numb and don’t care about it at all."
Hearing this, Lu Ping’an smiled, a subtle smile.
[...The Third Disaster, the Catastrophe of the Living, the earth overturned, the poison of the dead seeping into the surface, omnipresent... When the dead return, can the awakening of the Ancient Gods be far behind...?]
Undead creatures are terrifying, but what’s even more terrifying is the meaning behind their appearance.
This is the Third Disaster of the Seven Disasters, meaning that the calamities have entered a new phase.
For ordinary residents, this is simply a new group of Magic Monsters, at most a natural disaster. But for many Informed-person, it means that Doomsday has taken another step closer.
"... There have been conflicts, some people have destroyed the grave sites of their own families, and some have even tried to destroy the communal grave sites of the civilian areas..."
Lu Ping’an just listened to this kind of news, but to actually deal with it would probably be extremely complicated and troublesome.
In fact, when Lu Ping’an and his party returned from the forest, some knights were already promoting cremation.
But obviously, in most of the world, "disgracing your ancestors" would not be a good thing, especially in agricultural civilizations where land resources (wasteland) are abundant, and burial holds an overwhelming advantage.
Use force to push cremation? Drag all the ancestors out and disrespect them? Even if there’s no evidence now, the difficulty of implementing this would be outrageous.
As for the results, half a month later, the promotion of cremation cannot be said to have made any progress... After learning about the huge number of "potential resurrectors" in the area, the informed people felt their scalp tingling, and helplessly gave up the plans to thoroughly clean up.
Upon climbing the city wall, the undead were not far away.
Lu Ping’an sighed with relief, the number was less than expected, and there were only about two hundred withered undead with only bones in sight.
Meanwhile, the royal team accompanying them was terrified.
"...How is this possible? The Third Disaster is at least a month away, why have the undead come so early!"
The astonished voice of the Rainbow Prophet reached Lu Ping’an’s ears. They had received even more detailed information, and the scene before them made it impossible for them to understand.
The prophecies of the "Seven Disasters" have been verified one by one in reality. The events in Schlei Domain are somewhat special, but it is not the only mutation. Other areas also have early occurrences of disasters.
This level of catastrophe does not label the time of each stage, but the prophets have special techniques to determine the specific stages of disasters.
Although the prophecies have become inaccurate, they continue to prophesy small disasters and the impending difficulties of certain places and people. When a large number of "Catastrophe of the Dead" occurs in an area, the Third Disaster in the prophecy naturally comes.
It has to be said that, although this method consumes a lot and is still a "preset answer" calculation, it can indeed predict the timing of disasters quite accurately.
"...It’s illogical, incomprehensible, has the Church’s prophecy also gone wrong..."
The prophet bit his thumb, lost in self-doubt.
He wasn’t this fragile before, but if the disaster really came a month earlier, all the plans would be meaningless.
Lu Ping’an looked back at Catherine and signaled her to explain... without exposing the Beast God.
The number of undead outside was increasing, and Lu Ping’an could see with his naked eyes that many guards were becoming restless and fearful, but he himself was somewhat relaxed.
He knew that if the Third Disaster had really erupted, there would definitely not be just a few hundred... not to mention the bodies covering the city walls, even the graves within and outside the city would have become new sources of corpses.
The outbreak of the Third Disaster is not a simple "Erosion from underground", but rather a more conceptual "Order of life and death" collapse. When the time comes, no one will be spared.
"Lu Ping’an Meow, there’s news coming back. It’s those who went to the forest to log, they met these Corpse Monsters and ran back Meow! They brought the Corpse Monsters back Meow!"
The new information brought by Meow was, in a sense, good news. With this, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.
The mutation did not occur within the city, and it wasn’t even on a large scale. Naturally, this was good news, but it also meant...
"Arrange a reconnaissance mission, at least we need to know the situation in the forest... Hua Xueyi, Zhi Xi, Catherine."
Forcing a breakthrough for reconnaissance now is unrealistic, but as long as the other side hasn’t developed an Air Force yet, a small flying reconnaissance team should be relatively safe.
Soon, various response measures were issued.
Some knights formed a formation to go out of the city and began to fight the demons.
At the same time, a new ban has been issued, prohibiting all people from going to the Ashen Forest.
There’s also another task that was forcibly pushed through...
"There are Evil God believers outside who are reviving the dead. Those risen corpses will attack their own blood relatives first, and eating their own family members will make them stronger."
Lies at this moment are more useful than the truth.
When the residents saw the corpses, when the victims wailed in the city, when some spoils of war were dragged into the city, it was only natural for them to accept cremation.
Especially the deliberately fabricated rumor, which directly indicated that "blood relatives" were the first target of the attack, made the residents even more determined to dig up their ancestors from the grave and burn them.
During this process, Lu Ping’an didn’t manage much of it. Under his signal, the old lord came out again to stabilize the people’s hearts. But those in the know also understood that these actions were of little significance.
"...Take these, give them a try."
Lu Ping’an took out some Magic Plants and handed them to the knights who were to go out of the city to retrieve the test data.
"This one, pluck the Fruit and throw it. It will burst into a cluster of Holy Fire after a few seconds or a few dozen seconds. It has low power, but it’s enough to kill a Mortal. Don’t hurt yourself."
𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
"This one, place it on the ground and it will attack all unnatural creatures nearby. But don’t expect too much, they’re fragile."
With only a few hundred Corpse Monsters, Lu Ping’an had no plans to take action, watching everything happening through the binoculars from atop the city wall.
On the other hand, the temporary flying team also set off. Perhaps they could bring back more reliable intelligence.
"...Perhaps it’s time to consider an escape route."
— End of Chapter 535 —