This bald giant is of course Gerrard.
He led the team out this time for military training.
Any territory needs a decent army. Although the pace of territory construction has been slowed down due to various accidents that have occurred before, the army construction work cannot be delayed. So under Sui Xiong's arrangement, Gerrard brought a group of young people who had performed well in previous trainings to the Gold Coin Federation for actual combat training.
The targets of their training are naturally the bandits.
The Gold Coin Federation is a good place with hordes of bandits. As long as you leave the city gate and wander around, you can encounter bandits. If you follow the caravan, small or large groups of bandits will come to visit basically every night.
Under such circumstances, young people have accumulated practical experience rapidly and their strength is constantly improving.
Of course, if Gerrard hadn't led the team, perhaps they would have suffered heavy losses, but with Gerrard, a legendary strongman, leading the team, the risks of the battle were well controlled. After one winter, although Many people have large and small scars on their bodies, but the number of injuries or even deaths is still zero.
For example, in this battle, the man nicknamed "Iron Claw" has extraordinary strength, and even experienced adventurers may fall into his hands if they are not careful. But his final result was just to seriously injure a soldier, who was then turned into a pile of suspicious mosaics by the giant ax smashed from his head. The seriously injured soldier has mostly recovered after receiving timely treatment, but he will leave a rather terrifying scar on his body.
These scars were left by Gerald deliberately so that young people could always be alert. They couldn't always live under his protection. Sooner or later, they would have to stand alone. He only hoped that through this method, these young people could get practical and reliable lessons and avoid unnecessary dangers in the future.
Seeing that the business was gone, the adventurers who came from afar were a little frustrated. After they greeted Gerald, they all left, only Qiao Xiu stayed.
"Big man, what you told me last time was not a joke, was it?" He sat down next to Gerald very familiarly and asked.
Gerald was stunned for a moment, then remembered that he had mentioned "territory construction" to him before, and nodded: "Of course not, can you joke about this kind of thing?"
Qiao Xiu's eyes suddenly lit up and he asked in a low voice: "Is there really a true god in your territory?"
"Can this kind of thing still be a joke?"
Qiao Xiu nodded slightly. Indeed, in this world, making fun of gods is really no joke. Maybe that god will remember you because of this and cause you a little trouble or something...
"Then when you told me last time that I was welcome to join, were you serious?"
"Of course!" Gerald said without hesitation.
Qiao Xiu obviously thought about it carefully, nodded again, and said seriously: "Then let's make an agreement. When do you really start to take action, call me. I will definitely go over to help!"
Gerald laughed, patted him on the back, and handed over his wine bottle.
"Well done! You won't regret it! Come on, drink!"
Qiao Xiu held the giant wine bottle that was almost bigger than his head with both hands and took a deep sip, his eyes getting brighter.
Sui Xiong, who saw this scene with the help of his soul link, couldn't help but smile.
Ever since he discovered this Qiao Xiu, he had been curious and quite interested in this handsome barbarian guy.
Qiao Xiu's strength is extraordinary, and his way of dealing with people is also quite tactful. But that's just it, that's not surprising. What Sui Xiong really finds strange is the thread of faith on his body.
Anyone with clear faith in this world can see the thread of faith on their body. Both gods and high-level priests can see the thread of faith, so there is no way to fake faith. Those who pretend to have faith to deceive people can, at best, deceive middle- and low-level people. In front of the target, it simply doesn’t work.
The thread of faith on Qiao Xiu's body points to the goddess of snowfields and blizzards in the North, who is also known as the "Queen of the North." He is the god king of the "Extreme Cold Alliance" god system. He is slightly stronger than the goddess of the sea and on par with the god of storms. Under his command are the god of snow mountains, avalanches and snow monsters, also known as the "Snow Mountain Master", and the god of glaciers and ice giants, also known as the "Ice Lord". In addition, he has two allies who, although not directly affiliated with him, respect him as their leader. They are the goddess of winter and the north wind, the "Frozen Maiden", and the god of ferocious beasts in the snow, the "Ice and Snow Overlord".
The system of five gods is not large in terms of number, but the power of these gods is concentrated in the North, and their influence is much greater. Therefore, even if the barbarians have their own patron saint, the influence of the god known as the "Elder Bear Shepherd" is far from comparable to that of the gods of the Extreme Cold Alliance.
For example, Qiao Xiu, as a barbarian, does not believe in his own patron saint, but believes in the Blizzard Goddess.
That would be fine if it was just like this, but the luster of Qiao Xiu's thread of faith was also very strange. It exudes the radiance of a devotee and is filled with bright red anger. The two mix into a heavy curse.
To put it in a simpler and more straightforward way, he was once a devout believer of the Blizzard Goddess, and he still believes in this goddess - but he is full of resentment and anger towards the goddess. This resentment merges with his devout faith and transforms It became a curse on the goddess.
A mortal who resents and curses the gods he believes in
Sui Xiong felt that there must be a very heavy story behind this.
He was very curious about this, so he instructed Gerald to try to absorb Qiao Xiu to his side.
Of course, if Qiao Xiu's experience was indeed worthy of sympathy, he wouldn't mind doing a favor or something.
... Anyway, according to Xuehua's estimation, when he officially becomes a god, the Blizzard Goddess will probably come to cause trouble. Instead of waiting until He brings a group of equally evil gods to cause trouble, it is better to try to weaken His power first. It's best to create some chaos for him so that he can take care of himself, so as not to cause trouble later.
Seeing that the negotiation between Gerald and Qiao Xiu had been successful, Sui Xiong smiled slightly and turned his attention to the other side.
It was in a deep and dark underground world, in a natural cave.
This world does not have the huge and complex underground world in some fantasy works before Sui Xiong traveled through it, but some large-scale caves can also be found. Most of them are located on the edge of certain mountain ranges, extending long stretches deep into the earth. Naturally, there is also a unique biological system, which has its own wonders.
Palin is leading a few adventurers to carefully explore the underground caves.
His mission is to investigate the ecological environment here and collect specimens of animals and plants, especially mushrooms, to provide reference for Akane's research.
It is not an easy task to cultivate edible mushrooms that can grow normally in a negative energy environment and are not toxic. Akane spent almost a winter and only cultivated two kinds of mushrooms that barely met the requirements.
The first type of mushroom can resist negative energy. Not only can it be eaten, but if used as food, it can also provide resistance to negative energy for a period of time. But its yield is really problematic. Even in the Akane culture room, which provides a better growth environment, its yield is far from enough to reach the level of "food".
After all...it was originally used as a medicinal material.
The second kind of mushroom can hit the negative energy to the top of the umbrella. As long as the umbrella tip is cut off, the remaining part can be eaten. However, after all, it is impossible to completely eliminate all negative energy to the tip of the umbrella, and there is still a small amount of negative energy remaining in other parts. According to the results of animal experiments, at least ordinary wild animals cannot completely resolve this residue. After eating it, their energy will decrease and their spirits will drop.
Akane didn't want to do human experiments, and neither did Sui Xiong. They could fully imagine what would happen if humans ate this mushroom. Obviously, at least ordinary pioneers would not be able to use it as food.
The experiment didn't go well, and Akane felt very sorry. But he also emphasized that research is inherently a matter of time and luck, and it is not easy to achieve satisfactory success in a short period of time.
"Then what should we do?" Sui Xiong asked, "Is there any way to make your research faster?"
After pondering, Akane said that it might be helpful if he could go to those underground caves and obtain more mushrooms growing in the underground environment as reference and research materials.
Mushrooms are a huge biological system. Even if the Pasteur family has studied mushrooms for many years, it is impossible to collect all the mushroom species in the world. They collected representative varieties because that was enough for their past research.
But if the research topic was to be set in the obscure direction requested by Sui Xiong, the Pasteur family's reserves would not be enough and they would need to find more materials.
Sui Xiong accepted Akane's suggestion and sent men to a nearby cave to collect underground mushrooms.
He sent a total of two teams. The first team was Shuang and Xue. These dragon brothers and sisters were responsible for going to a relatively distant cave. It was said that there were some more dangerous monsters there, and it might be risky for mortals to go there.
The second team is Palin. The cave he went to is a famous scenic spot, and travelers often come to explore it. For a complete team of magicians, warriors, priests, archers, and thieves, such a place should be fairly safe.
The development of the matter was similar to Sui Xiong's expectation. Palin and the others had been exploring underground for two days and had not encountered much danger yet.
Although this is due to their slow travel for safety, the safety of the cave itself is indeed quite guaranteed.
It's just that... if safety is compromised, work efficiency will be lowered. They had found several kinds of mushrooms in the past two days, but judging from the images transmitted back, they were all types that were not worth paying attention to. Akane rejected their value at a glance.
To find the mushrooms he needs, he has to go deeper underground...