One hundred and eight. The light and unnamed place
Villagers believe in the poison of knowledge.
This kind of belief is one-sided wishful thinking. The poison of knowledge does not exist in thinking, nor does it care about belief.
Although it never killed the villagers and seemed to protect them, the root cause of everything was simply that these villagers had no "knowledge".
The poison of knowledge will turn knowledge into brain plasma for it to suck, but before it becomes brain plasma, it will just wait.
When Lu Li, who was pretending to be unconscious, was carried away, he noticed that the village was established more than ten years ago.
The poison of knowledge that cannot think is apparently very patient.
and the "principles" belonging to evil spirits.
In order to survive, the villagers inherited the dogma of "do not master knowledge" and only retained or left the most primitive instinct: worshiping powerful beings.
As villagers with knowledge die and pollutants suppress their thinking, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to realize the truth. Even if there are a few aliens who think, the poison of knowledge lingering here will regard them as delicious drinks.
This forms a kind of abnormal symbiosis: the villagers abandon knowledge in order to survive, and the evil spirits wander around for food. The aura of evil spirits around scares away the approaching weirdos, and the villagers are protected.
What makes people laugh is that becoming a devout believer will inevitably increase "knowledge", leading to ritual death by evil spirits, and the villagers believe that this is a gift from the gods.
Ignorant people and the poison of knowledge form a harmonious logic at this moment.
Therefore, the villagers Lu Li and others met were clumsy, slow, and their language functions had deteriorated.
This is one of the costs of abandoning knowledge.
Everyone was silent after listening to the story.
Without the protection of gods, the human settlements scattered across the earth will survive in their own way.
This silence has nothing to do with sympathy, as the reason why the villagers seized them is presented: to sacrifice the outsiders to the gods.
Lu Li finally cut the merchant's rope. It didn't faint, but it didn't resist either.
Merchants rarely take the initiative on anything other than trading.
"Fortunately, you stayed awake." Katarina said fearfully.
"It's okay to be in a coma. Sister, her head is still there." Lu Li replied.
The button eyes on the eldest sister's head popped out of the hood.
"Give me back the dagger." Katerina asked for the dagger left by her mother and looked at Puseus, who was shaking his limbs like a newborn lamb.
"Are you okay?"
At this moment, footsteps approaching could be heard outside the door.
There is only one.
After a brief exchange of opinions, everyone who had escaped from the trap returned to the wooden pile and hid their hands.
Puseus could no longer be tied to the stake, so he had to stand upright and pretend to be still bound.
Villagers are not too smart to notice changes in location.
squeak
The guard who had recently left returned to the cell.
He found everyone waking up, but they were indifferent and stood guarding.
"Do you know about the resurrection of the dead?" Catalina suddenly asked.
The guard's rolling eyes showed that he was still thinking. After waiting for a moment, the guard replied in a muffled voice: "I don't know..."
"You tell us that we will offer sacrifices voluntarily, and your gods will be more satisfied."
After a long wait, the guard told them intermittently what he knew.
Guard's poor expression and language skills make the content like a puzzle with missing pieces, but he can still barely distinguish the outline of the puzzle.
Waiting for him to finish everything, Catalina stepped forward, the dagger turned into an afterimage, and stabbed into his chest.
Killing without resistance is simply like practicing with a dummy.
"If you have 'knowledge', you can spot my lies."
Looking at the fallen body that was bleeding, Catalina whispered with pity, wiped the blood off the dagger, and looked back.
"We've got the clues you want, it's time for us to leave."
"It's too late!"
Suddenly, an evil shuddering scream sounded nearby.
"The evil spirit is coming!!!"
The smile that appeared on Katarina's face because she succeeded in her little cleverness disappeared.
"I'll try to hold it back, and you can run as far as you can."
"Can you stop it?" Catalina asked hurriedly.
"cannot."
Evil Fall gave a short answer, cursed and drove away the people who did not leave: "...get out of here!"
When I left the cell and went outside, the sky started to get dark.
Night is coming.
Chaotic shouts rang out in the distance on the street, which was the direction from which the evil spirit was approaching.
But the situation is different from what they thought.
A bloated, fleshy tumor with hundreds of eyes growing out of its body squirmed on the streets. Villagers held weapons to resist its invasion, but neither wooden sticks nor rusty tools could harm it.
Every time it splits its body, one of the besieging villagers will be swallowed.
"They are the suffering people."
"The suffering masses."
Lu Li and Evil Fall said at the same time.
"Let's leave quickly before it notices us."
Katarina whispered, turned in the opposite direction, and her body suddenly froze.
A slender black shadow like a snake appeared at the end of the street, as if swimming in water, floating.
Evil spirit, the poison of knowledge.
Two evil spirits appeared at the same time.
Although to the villagers, one of them is a "god".
"Attack the suffering people."
Lu Li's whisper rang in the ears of the stunned people.
Catalina and others regained consciousness and followed Lu Li towards the villagers and the suffering people.
Before the evil spirit approached behind him, he followed Lu Li's instructions and picked up stones and threw them at the suffering people.
"Then what?"
With her scalp numb, Catalina could hardly resist the urge to pull out the black thorns.
"Do nothing."
Lu Li calmly spoke and nothing happened.
The poison of knowledge was suspended more than ten meters away, receiving the villagers' kneels, but it did not come close, and their heads did not turn into brain matter.
The two evil spirits are locked in a strange, temporary confrontation.
When they realized that if they didn't attack the suffering people, they wouldn't be devoured, the villagers stopped and retreated to the Poison of Knowledge, surrounding it.
"God... is watching us... offering sacrifices..." an old man whispered vaguely.
Dozens of villagers, old people, young people, children, holding torches and weapons, approached the "sacrifice".
What's worse is that the disappeared feeling of powerlessness reappears deep in the body.
"Whatever you can do, hurry up. I don't want to faint again right now."
Katerina gritted her teeth and whispered.
Lu Li, who always remained rational at all times, suddenly said: "The poison of knowledge, its ritual makes knowledge have weight..."
The villagers passively listened to Lu Li's words, and some people held their heads in pain one after another.
"What are you doing...? Stop...Stop!!!"
The light of the torch illuminated Lu Li's face, which made people feel mysterious and calm.
Lu Li did not stop: "The ritual of the suffering people is to fight back against those who have caused harm to them..."
Words possess knowledge, and knowledge brings death. The villagers staggered and fell and never got up again.
The middle-aged man who claimed to sacrifice Lu Li and others stumbled towards them. The weapon in his hand had long since slipped, leaving only his ridiculous faith to support him moving forward.
The next moment, thick and turbid brain fluid gushes out of his nose, and the miserable man falls forward, making no sound anymore.
Burning torches on the ground illuminate the dimly lit streets.
There is no fire to purify the filth, only the poison of joyful knowledge lies on the heads of the villagers, drinking freely.
This is a sumptuous banquet of the poison of knowledge.