The lobby of the city-state's official residence is luxurious and elegant, with thick scarlet carpets spread from the entrance to the steps of the city lord's chair.
Lu Ming was currently sitting on the city lord's large chair, receiving a group of outside adventurers.
It seems that the reputation of the "Third City-State" is gradually spreading.
The first ones to come here to find out what's going on are naturally the adventurers.
The adventure team composed of six members does not have the number and strength of Jack Spinner's team at its peak, but its adventurous spirit is sufficient.
There are three types of adventurers. One is a small group that has no fixed place and can only wander around to stay warm. The second type is a group of people who are sponsored by the business group and serve as bodyguards when the business group is on the move. They usually travel to the map for the business group.
Armed teams; the third type is Jack Spinner, which is actually a mobile robbery group. They only started looking for the Lost Land after accidentally finding the treasure map.
The six-person adventurer team at the foot of the stairs is undoubtedly the second type.
Because their clothing and weapons and equipment are the kind that can always be maintained in large settlements, wandering adventurers with no fixed abode are resisted by any settlement, let alone allowed to enter the settlement.
However, the "Camellia House", which allows any man to enter, may be the only exception.
Of course, this is from the extreme south region. Going north, there must be similar settlements that are open to anyone to obtain various benefits among the settlements that have no rumors at all in the extreme south region.
"Lord of the city-state, it's an honor to meet you!" The six-person team was led by a blond young man, who was stroking his chest and bowing slightly. He was wearing a coarse cloth robe that looked like sacks, just like a commoner in the European Middle Ages, and his robe was exposed underneath.
His legs were stained with mud, and he could faintly see a short dagger-like blade hidden in the cloth robe.
The six people met with the city-state lord. The more conspicuous weapons were temporarily put away by the slave guards, but the various hidden weapons such as short blades hidden under the clothes were not moved. This involves the adventurers' unique secret skills, life-saving skills, etc.
Allowing it to be carried also demonstrates the strength and confidence of the third city-state.
The leader of the six adventurers calls himself Arthur, and was entrusted by the "Blackwood Forest" settlement to find out whether the trade route is blocked.
Heimusen is the largest settlement in the Far South. It is located in the northernmost part of the Far South. It is about two thousand miles away from Hedong Town. The reconnaissance airship sent by Lu Ming is active in the surrounding area for hundreds of miles, and has not yet touched any farther.
Area.
Heimusen is a trading settlement. Every year before winter, business groups come to the southernmost area. Once a year, they sell some materials to survive the cold winter and daily necessities made by Heimusen craftsmen at high prices. None of the southernmost settlements produce daily necessities.
The abilities, such as pots and pots, need to wait for the Heimusen merchants to sell them once a year, and the musketeers will replenish gunpowder and iron sand. Although most of them can also make earthen gunpowder and polish some iron and lead to make do, but
It is far inferior to the authentic gunpowder and bullets produced by Heimusen.
Before Heimusen comes to trade every autumn, a team of adventurers will set out in advance to check whether the trade route is blocked, whether there are any wandering beasts active on the original trade route, or whether it is the season for the proliferation of beasts.
, that is to say, occasionally a group of ferocious beasts will mutate and give birth to a large number of cubs in certain years. The flooding season of such ferocious beasts is a huge crisis for the settlements that live not too far from the ferocious beasts' lairs, and it may also block the original growth of the ferocious beasts.
Trade routes where merchants fixed routes.
The Arthur Six were hired as the outpost of the caravan, but they did not expect that after contacting some local settlements, they learned about the legend of "city-state people" and came to Hedong City.
"Has your caravan already set off?" Lu Ming asked.
"Yes, Lord of the city-state! Because the journey is long, according to convention, the caravan will be on the road half a month after we set off." Arthur also showed a trace of anxiety on his face, because this city-state seems to have all kinds of supplies.
It is extremely sufficient and is ready to supply surrounding settlements.
Moreover, as far as the entire continent is concerned, it has never been heard that the ferocious beasts in the ferocious beast towns have been expelled and the city-state has been recovered.
The Hedong city-state was the first and created a miracle.
It seems that these restorers have unknown secrets, so they can occupy the city-state and become the city-state people who are already aloof in the traditional culture of this continent. Not to mention, this is the first time that city-state people appear after the outbreak of the Great Collapsing Lie Sun Beast Tide.
, in this desperate world, the shock it brings can be imagined. The larger the settlement, the more complicated the emotions will be.
A more realistic problem is that the supplies brought by the caravan based on past judgments may be unsaleable in large quantities.
Moreover, the premise is that this "third city-state" allows our caravans to enter its sphere of influence and trade with each settlement.
If the people of these city-states refuse their own caravans to enter their sphere of influence, the possibility of unsalable goods will be out of the question.
Ever since he was allowed to enter this city-state, Arthur has been observing carefully.
He soon learned that Heimusen should not be its enemy, but if the city-state wanted to monopolize local trade, the elders of Heimusen would definitely go to war with it unless they could come and see it with their own eyes.
This city-state is powerful, but the journey is long and dangerous, and the elders have never traveled far.
Looking at the city-state, there are probably dozens of musketeers, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
"Well, we are on the road, and you can't contact us now. If you want to go back now, you can meet up with the caravan. The caravan at that time has also reached the halfway point." Lu Ming pondered slightly, "Then come, I'm very happy too.
I look forward to seeing all kinds of good things made by Heimusen. I originally hoped to exchange information, but we can only wait until next time, or our caravan goes to Heimusen."
Arthur secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "Yes, thank you for your magnanimity."
Lu Ming looked at him and smiled: "Is your team dedicated to serving Heimusen?"
Arthur immediately realized something, his eyes flashed, and he hurriedly said: "No, but Heimusen has many tasks and the living environment is not bad, so we six brothers have settled in Heimusen the year before last.
"
"So, have you been to the area north of Heimusen?" Lu Ming asked calmly.
Arthur nodded slightly, "I have been there before. The density of settlements in the northern part of Heimusen is larger than that in the southernmost part. There are also several settlements larger than Heimusen, but I heard that further north, there are thousands of miles.
The desolate area where ferocious beasts are rampant completely blocks the road to the central part of the continent, but this is just a rumor, I have not been to such a far area."
Lu Ming thought for a while, "When Heimusen's caravan arrives, your mission will be completed, right? We will talk about it then."
Arthur bowed slightly: "Okay, sir!"
At this time, Zhuge hurriedly came in from the side door and whispered a few words in Lu Ming's ear.
…
The Ottoman settlement has now set up more than a dozen or twenty simple tents.
Among them, the Ottoman settlement leader's tent is the same style as the tent of Jack Spinner, the liaison officer of the third city-state. It is much larger than the simple tent, with about twenty square meters of space inside.
Lu Ming walked out of Jack Spinner's tent, followed by Sekhmet, who was bright and cold in green armor.
Sekhmet had a chivalrous heart that could defeat the strong and help the weak, so Lu Ming brought her here.
"Ah..." A small figure ran over. It was the girl who became the sacrifice. She should have been hiding near Jack's tent, waiting for those city-state people who were like gods to come back. She was very sensible and knew
Only this Lord God can possibly drive away those terrible religious messengers.
I also heard the adults talking mysteriously and secretly, saying that this magical tent was the passage through which the gods came to this world.
In the tent, two teams of slave musketeers and assaulters filed out and guarded Lu Ming.
The girl did not dare to run to Lu Ming's side. She stopped a dozen steps away and looked timidly at the sudden appearance of Lord God and his guards.
In front of the Ottoman tent room, there were two people wearing strange masks and linen robes, revealing their muddy calves and dark bare feet, but they had tattered boots. This was just like the big men.
Most settlements are different. For example, the Ottoman tribe, including the lord Osman, has always been barefoot. His feet are covered with calluses. He has become accustomed to being barefoot for a long time, so the calluses on his feet have formed a thick protective layer.
Lu Ming walked slowly over and figured out that the two masked men were the envoys of the Fly God Cult from the Terror Mountains.
The two envoys quickly turned around and looked over. The first thing they noticed was the slave musketeers and assaulters surrounding Lu Ming and Sekhmet. Although they were wearing masks, they could still feel their shock.
.
In this barren settlement, a dozen musketeers and a dozen warriors covered in steel armor suddenly appeared. The musketeers were all so neat from their hats to their shoes, and the muskets all looked brand new.
But soon, when the guards were neatly divided into two rows, and Lu Ming and Sekhmet came out, the greedy eyes of the two envoys were completely attracted to Sekhmet, and their throats were trembling slightly.
He was swallowing saliva instinctively.
It seems that in the Terror Mountains, women are probably no different from those in other settlements. The concept of "beauty" does not exist, because everyone is dirty, and the mud is part of the protective layer. Finding women is just a simple matter.
They are just physiological needs. For men, their function is just to vent their instinctive needs. Therefore, Yaoyao and Nana have made the men in the settlement fully realize that the opposite sex can be so beautiful, let alone
Talk about Sekhmet.
"Honorable envoys, these are the adults from the third city-state!" Osman's heart beat quickly. The two most powerful and mysterious organizations in the region finally faced each other.
But he didn't know what direction things would take next, so he didn't dare to say anything.
Seeing Lu Ming's slight nod, Wheelrunner Jack immediately took two steps forward and said to the two messengers of the Fly God: "You two, why don't you be polite when you see our Lord?"
The two envoys seemed to turn a deaf ear. Whether it was what Osman said to them or Jack's condescending reminder, they did not react at all, and just faced Sekhmet's direction.
A hint of anger flashed across Sekhmet's pretty face.
Lu Ming made a gesture.
The slave captain standing next to Lu Ming shouted loudly: "These two are rude to the master, take them down!"
Each of the ten slave musketeers elected a captain and a deputy captain, who were named "Captain of Ten" and "Deputy of Captain" by Lu Ming.
These twenty people are all receiving training on automatic rifles, grenades and other modern ordnance in the Northern Territory, but they will not be organized into a group, but will be scattered among ten slave musketeers in a group of ten, serving as captains and deputy captains.
Amidst the captain's shouts, several armored commandos swarmed forward.
When the two envoys were alert, the shields hit their faces hard, leaving them with almost no chance to resist. The two of them had been subdued to the ground. At this time, they shouted in shock and anger, "Who are you?"
What did you do?!" "You will regret it!"
Ignoring that side, Lu Ming smiled at Sekhmet beside him and said, "It seems that I will have to take you out to meet people less often in the future!"
Sekhmet curled his lips and said nothing.
Osman came closer carefully and looked at Lu Ming eagerly.
He was extremely happy, but he didn't dare to show it.
The people of the city-state were still so arrogant after all. Even the messengers of the divine religion didn't care at all and they arrested them as soon as they asked.
Does this mean that our settlement has finally received the protection of this powerful city-state?
Lu Ming nodded: "Let me ask about the situation in the Terror Mountains first."
Osman did not dare to say more, "Yes." No matter how happy he was, he did not dare to call the lord of the city-state "master".
…
When the two envoys of the Cult of the Fly were being interrogated in the tent, Lu Ming sat aside, and it was Jack who conducted the cross-examination and torture.
The masks of both messengers were taken off and thrown aside.
In fact, they are two middle-aged men with very ordinary faces. Their faces are also covered with dirt. Their hair genes should be golden. However, due to long-term malnutrition and lack of trace elements, their hair color is pale, but originally
The black mud was stuck together and could not be seen. Now Jack soaked his head with pepper water and the two of them coughed violently, and the original appearance gradually appeared.
At first, the two of them were very arrogant and their words were full of threats.
Jack used a set of torture instruments, and the two of them immediately cried like ghosts.
"How many followers of the Cult of the Fly are there in the Terror Mountains?" Next to Jack was a red stove, and he slowly used a soldering iron to stir the coals inside.
"I, I don't know..." Those who could still answer were those who were still conscious.
The other one was choking on the pepper water, his face was filled with snot and tears, and he just screamed and sobbed.
Jack picked up the red soldering iron and slowly walked to the more determined man.
Lu Ming coughed, stood up and walked out.
Understand Jack's strategy, no matter if the stronger-willed person doesn't answer the correct answer, he will be tortured, which will make the other person's will completely collapse, and then he will answer all questions.
I have to say that Jack often followed Zhuge and learned a lot about the dark side of human nature.
If we say that the people of this post-apocalyptic continent have actually degraded to the level of beasts in terms of morality and other aspects, the exploration of the darkest parts of human nature only exists in the civilized world.
…
In the evening, Jack came to Lu Ming's tent room.
Today, many tents have been erected outside the Ottoman settlement, and hot-air balloon lookout posts have risen in the sky.
Five teams of musketeers came, that is, fifty people, and fifteen teams of assaulters came.
There is an additional tank at the outermost edge, controlled by Yuan Qing and Yuan Ba.
If you capture the opponent's envoy, you must of course be prepared for a war with the Fly God Cult.
"Master, according to that coward, there are thousands of followers of the Fly God living in the Terror Mountains."
Oh? This was beyond Lu Ming's expectation, "How do you say this?" I originally thought that it was more likely that he was pretending to be a ghost.
"It is said that their ancestors were the bodyguards of the city-lord of an extremely powerful city-state when the tide of ferocious beasts broke out. Before the ferocious beasts captured the town, they fled with a large amount of supplies. Finally, they had no way out and fled into the city where there have always been many terrors.
The legendary Terror Mountains are filled with dense swamps and miasma. It is true that ferocious beasts once entered and died inside. Their ancestors also suffered many casualties, but in the end they found a place with water and water sources in a valley in the Terror Mountains.
It is a paradise that can be cultivated, but there are some apes living in the valley. They have begun to pick wild wheat. However, they were slaughtered by their ancestors and made into various kinds of dried meat. The wheat fields in the valley were also taken over by them.
.”
"Perhaps because of this, they formed the tradition of cannibalism, and then went out to plunder the women of the settlement and came back to reproduce for them, gradually forming the current settlement of thousands of people."
"However, the terrain of the Terror Mountain Range is special. It is shrouded in thick fog for a long time, making it difficult to enter and exit. The miasma only dissipates during a certain few days in autumn every year. This way, you can get out of the deep valleys of the mountains, which is the past few days."
Lu Ming nodded slightly. He felt that the ancient god was disappointed with mankind and sent down a heavenly punishment, which was a wave of ferocious beasts. However, he still left some "Noah's Ark" for mankind to accommodate, as well as his previous life.
Some mythological stories have the same purpose.
However, in the end of the world, there is no so-called "reflection" plot for human beings, but their moral level has dropped to the same level as wild beasts. If it is true, "divine punishment" has obviously failed completely.
Why do you feel that the three original gods of this planet have moral obsessiveness? The reason why people are human, all kinds of desires are also the driving force for progress. If you ignore this, the failure of the experiment is inevitable.
Jack's report over there continued, "According to what the coward said, there are craftsmen in the Terror Settlement, but most of the gunpowder weapons left by the ancestors have decayed. It is too humid all year round, and metal products are easy to rust, and wooden products are also prone to rust.
It rots quickly, but there is a kind of black tree with almost no branches and leaves. It is not only an excellent raw material for making furniture, but after polishing, it is as sharp as steel. The main weapon of the Terror Settlement is this kind of spear, which is made of very
It's light, and it can kill people from a long distance when thrown. Thirty years ago, the largest settlement around the mountain range wanted to resist the divine religion, but they were surrounded and massacred by spear throwers at night."
"This year, as usual, the two hundred spear throwers in the settlement have left the mountains and are now gathering at the foothills. Once an envoy fails to return within the specified time or does not receive enough tribute, they will exterminate the envoy responsible for it.
Settlement.”
After a pause, Jack said: "About two hundred spear throwers, almost all the young men in the settlement came out in fear."
Lu Ming pondered for a while, then raised his head and said: "Let's go talk to the Divine Cult. Human resources in this world are the most precious. A settlement of thousands of Divine Cult members is amazing. People from the Divine Cult also understand this truth, so
They did not seize dozens of small settlements around the Terror Mountains to make dried meat, but treated them as free-range livestock herds." After a pause, "However, if the cannibals' habits do not change, they will
Another person said, this is already the bottom line of human morality."
When Jack heard the mention of "cannibals", his heart skipped a beat. In fact, he had eaten human flesh, not when he was about to starve to death, but for a period of time when he was particularly hungry for meat, and he and his companions slaughtered living people.
eat.
Now that I think about it, I feel a chill in my heart, but this is because after meeting the mysterious master, I would eat more meat every now and then. This makes me feel incredible about my past behavior.
While they were talking, Sekhmet walked in. Seeing that Sekhmet seemed to have something to say to him, Lu Ming waved his hand, and Jack hurriedly bowed and left.
"In your magic bag, do you have any shoes and clothes for a little girl?" Sekhmet asked rather embarrassedly. This was the first time she asked Lu Ming what she needed.
Lu Ming nodded: "I'll give it to you later." There really isn't any of this in the storage bag. I'll just add some in the Northern Territory later.
He also knew what she was doing. Sekhmet liked the little girl who was almost a sacrifice. He took her to take a bath and now he is preparing new clothes.
However, the thinking of these settlement people in the last days is completely different from that of normal society.
He wanted to remind Sekhmet not to invest too much emotion in that child, but after thinking about it, he swallowed the words that came to his lips.
