Chapter 385: Chapter 385: Punitive Expedition against Jiao Wen

It took Lin Xiao almost four days to trek through the mountain forest. On the third day, he stumbled upon a small thatch hut that appeared to be a hunter’s resting place. Following the tracks to find a way down the mountain, he wandered around for half a day before finally discovering a path used by people.

Fortunately, he had prepared a set of leather armour. Had he worn heavy plate armour, even with his current constitution, it would have been quite choking.

When he passed through a thicket, he found himself in front of a wilderness overgrown with waist-high weeds. Looking into the distance, he could vaguely see the shadow of a thatched cottage and wisps of faint blue smoke.

“There’s a village!”

After tidying himself up a bit, he trudged through the weeds towards that direction.

This wilderness was truly desolate, teeming with insects and venomous snakes; on his walk, he feared he had stepped on no fewer than ten venomous snakes.

The snakes weren’t the real issue, as his leather boots had such high defenses that their fangs couldn’t penetrate them. What really troubled him were the tiny bugs that always managed to crawl into the seams of his leather armour unnoticed.

In any other plane, he could have emitted totemic aura to deter these bugs, but in this non-magic plane, Totem Power was utterly unusable. Any Totem Master in this place had their talents or abilities disabled. Only the strong physique and strength gained from becoming a Totem Master could be used.

Physical strength was the most universal power across all the realms and would never be disabled in any Crystal Wall Universe.

It could be used even in worlds where one could only exist as a soul or spirit, but the precondition was that you have a physical body in that world.

Nearly hacking his way through the underbrush, he approached the vicinity of the village, where he was spotted by two militiamen with linen clothes and wooden spears atop a wooden watchtower at the village entrance. Seeing Lin Xiao fully armed, they raised their spears and shouted as if facing a great enemy:

“₤#@#@%#…….?”

He quickly raised his hands and shouted back:

“₤#@#&₤”

That was the language of this world, and Lin Xiao could understand a little. He had crammed the common tongue of this world for half a month while he was in the fortress.

But with limited time, he had only learned the basics and could understand only a small number of vocabulary words. Thus, using these words and combining them with his current situation, he guessed the militiamen were saying something like ‘stand still, do not come closer’.

Lin Xiao sheathed his Horse Chopping Knife to signal he had no ill intentions and took out a Wooden Carving from behind his back, presenting it in front of his body. He then hacked together the world’s common tongue with gestures and drawings, and the two militiamen looked on, utterly perplexed.

Fortunately, his action of sheathing the knife also symbolized a gesture of goodwill in this world. The militiamen managed to restrain themselves and tried to listen to his awkward phrasing and constant gesticulating. After a good while, they finally seemed to respond with partial understanding.

After much effort communicating, he finally gained permission to enter the village nearly half an hour later. However, he was only allowed to stay at the entrance and was not permitted inside the village itself; clearly, they still harbored a considerable amount of wariness towards him.

Lin Xiao didn’t mind at all and took out two silver coins. Again with gestures and drawings, he managed to buy some utensils and tools from the villagers and decided to settle down temporarily.

A village, that was a standard starting point.

It wasn’t about spreading faith right at the start. He wasn’t planning to rush into spreading his faith until he had a clear understanding of the situation. Instead, he was considering whether he could hire some strong lads here to form a small squad first.

Of course, although he wasn’t in a hurry to spread faith, it was still necessary to make some preliminary preparations.

After buying tools and utensils with silver coins, in front of many watching villagers and children, Lin Xiao discreetly took out a ring and put it on. Then, he set the empty utensils on a table and performed a standard prayer ritual, one he would do before meals for his Clan, filled with a sense of religious ceremony that piqued the interest of the villagers and children immensely.

After the standard prayer ritual, he secretly activated the ring’s Summoning Table Spell. In a flash, as if by magic, the previously empty plates were suddenly stacked with a variety of fragrant and appetizing foods, causing astonishment among the onlookers.

Ignoring their shocked and incredulous gazes, Lin Xiao distributed most of the summoned food to the surrounding villagers, keeping only a small portion for himself.

He had learned during his high school years about missionary work and managing faith that when spreading faith in the initial stages, different approaches were required for different intelligent beings.

For instance, when dealing with a scholar, you could talk about knowledge, about truth. As long as you overwhelmed them in their field of expertise with absolute advantage and instilled awe in them, with gentle persuasion and presenting allurements, it was possible to convert them into believers.

If faced with a warrior of great strength, then it was about martial prowess and power. In most Alien Worlds, martial strength usually represented power and wealth.

Here, Lin Xiao faced farmers, so talking about grand theories or boasting was useless. Tempting them with plain food was the way to go.

And you don’t tell them that believing in a god will bring food; words were of no use. You show them that sincere belief in the True God brings food, which was far more effective than saying anything else.

As a result, once the watching villagers actually tasted the food and confirmed it was real, the news spread rapidly throughout the village.

A normal person at this time would seize the trend to play the part of a charlatan spreading faith, but Lin Xiao didn’t do that. Instead, he drew his Horse Chopping Knife and split a stone column taller than a man at the village entrance, and gently rejected the unreasonable demands of the village chief.

Lin Xiao had his own unique methods and talents in cultivating the Power of Faith.

Far from angering the villagers, his approach actually inspired awe, particularly among the vigorous young men of the village, who were utterly worshipful after seeing him easily cleave a stone with one blow and then lift a giant boulder weighing several thousand kilograms with one hand.

“Sir Rore must be a powerful Knight, I’d bet even Baron Gibson isn’t as strong.”

A few robust young men sat under the shade of a tree, watching from a distance as Lin Xiao wielded a two-meter-long stone sword, carved from rock, as if it were weightless, their admiration growing even greater.

The best way to impress these strong young men was to demonstrate martial force, and it didn’t even have to be a high level of force; just surpassing the strength of ordinary people was enough to astonish them.

Following the swordsmanship that he’d learned before becoming a Totem Master Apprentice, Lin Xiao practiced a set of moves several times. Finishing his sequence, he stood with his sword, exhaling a misty breath onto a wooden stake with a ‘pop’, shocking the vigorous young men even though they had seen it many times before.

After placing the stone sword, which weighed several hundred kilograms, on a rack, he waved to the robust young men from afar.

“Is Sir Rore calling us?”

An energetic young man ran over, excitedly pulling a white cloth from the side to wipe his hands and asked casually,

“Do you want to learn?”

The young men’s eyes went wide as they thought they had heard wrong; a moment later they all nodded in a hurry,

“We want to learn!”

“Very well, come here every morning from now on.”

Half a month later, as dawn was breaking, Lin Xiao leisurely got out of bed, opened the door, and saw a dozen young men of various ages practicing with wooden weapons on the flat ground outside.

Next to the well, there was already a basin filled with well water and a wet towel. After washing his face and rinsing his mouth, he picked up his sword and watched them practice in front of the flat ground.

In just over ten days they certainly couldn’t master much, but at least they now had a semblance of form.

Over the past half-month, he hadn’t taught them anything substantive, just a simple routine, mostly to exercise their bodies without involving any other kind of strength.

The main purpose these days was to harden their wills and select the young men who showed a certain strength of will.

After watching for a while, he went back into his house and moved out a large stone nest, along with several large bags filled with herbs that he had asked the villagers to casually gather.

Of course, these herbs didn’t really serve any purpose or adhere to any formula; he had simply asked the villagers to gather them, mainly to disguise the medicine pills he intended to make later.

If all went well, these young men would become his first subordinates, so naturally, he needed to strengthen them a bit.

Moreover, after half a month of Lin Xiao consistently showing off summoning food, many villagers had convincingly started to mimic his actions, praying before each meal.

While it was futile at present and he did not feel a trace of the Power of Faith, it was a good start nevertheless.

From the occasional exchanges with the villagers, he learned that during this half-month he had also taken the time to scout the surroundings and found out that the village he was in was ruled by a Baron’s family named Gibson, with the Baron himself named Herman Gibson. The Gibson Family ruled over a small town, eight villages, and a large undeveloped area, a forest, and a small iron mine.

The Gibson Family had a castle located between the town, named Gibson as well, and the iron mine. It was said to be garrisoned by five Knights and more than forty full-time warriors; they could summon over one hundred and fifty strong men in times of battle, which was an average force among the Baron’s territories.

The so-called Knights, like those in many different worlds, referred to the strong individuals who possessed physical strength far beyond that of ordinary people.

Because this world had no supernatural powers and no such thing as battle auras, he had quietly visited Baron Gibson’s castle and observed the so-called Knights – they were merely elite warriors with the constitution and strength at least three times greater than that of an ordinary man, equipped with exquisite battle skills and elite weapons and armor, indeed capable of cutting down ordinary farmers with ease.

Now, Lin Xiao faced two paths before him: one was to peacefully open up the Power of Faith, finding ways to preach at the grassroots level and then influencing the aristocrats, taking the religious route.

The other was to preach through force, employing mighty martial power to impose faith upon the commoners, in essence, becoming a powerful Lord who could compel his subjects to believe in his cause.

Both paths had their pros and cons, but it was certain that preaching through force would be more difficult.

However, given the current situation, this was the best choice; after all, this was not a safe world. With sixty-six Children of Nightmare and Child of the Spirit Realm lurking around, he could be eliminated at any time, so he needed to have sufficient martial power to protect himself.

Therefore, he must take the path of preaching through force.

Of course, that didn’t mean he had to train an army to defeat the Baron and become an aristocrat himself. While that was also a possibility, it was too troublesome; lords waging wars was always a complicated affair.

Lin Xiao planned to combine the Church with martial power, using force to protect the Church and then using faith to unite the various aristocrats.