Chapter 1,240 Free People

The Goddess of Life cultists gathered by Lilina from various major temples in the empire have already begun busy work, rescuing the wounded and treating those infected with fatal diseases due to radiation and high fever. This should be able to minimize post-war losses. In this small village where the sick and wounded are being treated intensively, another kind of busy craze has set off: the wonderful magic performed by the believers of the religion through prayer astonished everyone. This magical power can even resist the organization. Most regular army soldiers have never seen it. Of course, among the slave races named by Merova, there are also civilizations that can use magic, but the slaves on this planet are completely isolated, and they have actually seen very few things. Therefore, the medical treatment provided by the members of the Cult of Life also played an unexpected role: the magical "magic show" greatly eased the pain of the injured, and also allowed the children who were frightened by the war to finally smile. After discovering this phenomenon, several church female knights who had treated the injured happily started "performances" and used magical magic and healing magic to attract the children of the whole village - this would at least allow these children to The children temporarily forgot about the devastated home they left behind.

Anulili and the resistance fighters around her were astonished. They looked at the saints wearing luxurious church robes or armor, and their whole bodies shrouded in divine light, sitting on the ground without a care in the world. A dirty little boy came to greet him and performed various interesting tricks for the children; he watched those servants of the true God, the disciples who should have been enjoying the worship of mortals in the temple, running among the injured, holding up their arms. Sweating on her sleeves while helping others; watching a holy girl wearing a flower crown and a white divine robe, who was revered as a saint, being covered in blood by the children, but she smiled and congratulated the child's mother and told her Her children have recovered to health - compared to the moment when the mask of the false god Merova was taken off, the unimaginable scene in front of them was even more difficult for them to believe. Anulili looked doubtful at me, because just now, I told this girl that these believers who are coming on the aurora are the followers of the true God. What they follow is the god that the Merova people once dreamed of becoming.

Obviously these people are very different from the saints in the minds of local people.

"Don't be surprised. The word 'god' is not supposed to have a negative connotation. It's just that the Merovans ruined the name in front of you," I smiled. Look at the one curled up in the palm of your hand. The little goddess who held one of my thumbs and used it as a blanket covered her body. Dingdang was sleeping soundly and talking in her sleep, "There are many gods. They manage the endless world. They create the world and create life, thus turning the world into reality." and mortals as their own children. They don't care whether mortals worship them, nor do they care whether mortals build temples for themselves - they don't even care whether the beings they create know the existence of gods. If they can treat their children They don't even mind if mortals preach "atheism" at a certain stage, and then hide aside and silently watch their own development. The gods I know are a bunch of such strange guys. Although many guys have personalities Weird, but when it comes to dealing with mortals, they tolerate a lot of things like the worst naughty children. The Merova people think that God is a kind of power and a status that matches this power, but in fact, God is A position, and the responsibilities that match this position. They got this wrong. So they sat on the empire's property and had a higher starting point than any other race, but they have been stuck in the dead end of self-expansion for tens of thousands of years. Not going."

Anulili listened to what I said with an expression of surprise. It might take her a long time to fully understand what I said, now. She just asked a question out of curiosity: "Then...is this the truth of the world?"

"Absolutely, a small part," I laughed. "There are many things you don't know. You will know them all after you have formal contact with the empire for a while. The truth of the world... maybe the world is more sinister than you think. But life is definitely much better than you think. In fact, you know, the empire is also a branch of the Gods..."

Anulili and the two resistance fighters who were watching were stunned: "Huh?"

I was particularly embarrassed and scratched my hair: "Ahem...I know I don't look like me, but you haven't noticed that except for me, the rest of us are quite impressive...at least the troops we brought are quite impressive. Of?"

I wanted to say it was about the remaining people, but after thinking about it, the existence of the independent duo of Guang Qianqian and Lilina was enough to kill everyone's average impression score, so I quickly changed my mind.

Anulili continued to remain stunned, seemingly not paying attention to what I was saying. At this time, I felt very confused: How do you introduce this? Is it really the same as Lilina did back then, when she saw people she would say: "Hello, this is Crow God, this is Crow God, her second uncle, this is Crow God, her uncle and grandma..." I feel like if I really have to introduce myself like this, then I I really have no image at all...

Maybe when I have time, I should go to Bingtis to learn from it, and learn how the gods in the Star Territory come into contact with mortals, and how they are both majestic and cute...

"Well, this topic is not important. Anyway, our branch of the divine system has not opened yet," I curled my lips and ended the somewhat weird topic in front of me. I saw that the believers of the Life God Cult around me had already completed the treatment work. More than half: The divine power of life is simply a bug when it comes to curing diseases and saving people. Except for Brother Xinchun and directly worshiping Dingdang, it is really difficult to find a more efficient treatment technique than this. "These believers are only a small part, and there are more believers. Queuing up in front of the portal to rescue trillions of wounded and sick people from thirteen worlds is a big project, ah, and there are also the subsequent problems of genetic adjustment and the sequelae of nerve agents... Anyway, now the Melova people are also It's over. I guess I have to bring over all the shamans, druids, interstellar medical soldiers and the like in the country to help. You still have to be busy. I hope you can take charge of the response work, and the response staff of other slave races will be left to Let their own independent organizations worry about that.”

I am thinking that many things that will follow need to be prepared now. Post-war support for the indigenous civilizations of these worlds is just the simplest step of all: because now that the war is over, many related matters can be safely handed over to our servant army, and the tree elves should be the most suitable candidates. , there is no one better at this kind of work than them. What the imperial ministry and administration need to worry about are mainly the problems of more than a dozen directly governed worlds. Thanks to the Melova people's construction for so long - the empire now has thirteen more directly governed universes with infrastructure at once. This is a huge result, and I think it is as big a surprise as the batch of royal starships that were unexpectedly obtained. Now these thirteen worlds must be integrated into the empire's territory, otherwise it will not be the empire's style. Next, we need to activate the Garden of Death, "pull" these worlds into the empire's territory, and reprogram them with specific coordinates. Whether it should be regarded as an inland area or a remote area, let the guys from the military department worry about it.

In addition to the issue of world organization, there is also the question of how to recruit local indigenous residents with certain combat effectiveness and civilization potential, and whether to incorporate them into the servant army. There are so many races and their situations are all different. Some of them have strong resistance to continuing to become servants of higher civilizations. Anulili's hesitation in facing this topic also proves this situation, but there are also some civilizations that should still be able to be incorporated. During the slave resistance war, there were many rebel troops fighting in coordination with the imperial army. It can almost be said that they have already "practiced" in the position of the imperial servant army, so I think these thirteen worlds should still be able to organize a new batch of servant armies.

Then the Military Command will be very busy again.

It can be seen that truly governing the country is a very troublesome matter. Every step you take is followed by at least ten times more details, and every issue requires more or less personal intervention. Those who regard the imperial war as a fight between two gangs, and think that after each pulls a team to fight, grab things and go home, everything will be fine... you can go to sleep.

I looked at the time and found that it was getting late, so I mentioned to Anulili another thing that brought everyone here:

"We are here to take away Turazzo. He should still be in the Earth Center Sanctuary."

Hearing these words, Anulili's expression changed immediately. She was very smart and knew what I meant, but she also knew very well. There is nothing I can do at this time.

Turazzo is a Merova: More than 90% of the Merova are mortal enemies of the slave race, but the remaining few percent are just the opposite. Turazzo is the most special one among them. To Anulili and her people, Turazo was a mentor and a protector for over a thousand years. He is the benefactor who allowed his species to retain the last bit of seeds and persist until dawn today. This was true even for other slave races who had recently gained their freedom. It is undeniable that among the slave race there may be revenge factions that advocate indiscriminate and extreme revenge on all Merovans, but those familiar with the real resistance organization know that. Their living space and the weapons they obtained during the battle were all secretly supported by the conservative Merova people. These conservatives stood with the local indigenous people at the beginning of Merova's invasion of these universes, and have always insisted on providing the resistance organizations with the help they can after being suppressed by Barian.

They didn't care whether this part of the Merova people had betrayed the Xiling Empire.

I know that Anulili is one of the people who respect Turazzo the most, and her expression also reveals her current mood.

"Teacher... what will happen?" Anulili tried her best, hoping to make her voice sound calmer.

"He will be sent to a military court to stand trial for treason committed seventy thousand years ago," I sighed. "To be honest, I personally don't hate him anymore, but he made a big mistake against our empire back then..." According to the Imperial Code, treason is punishable by death.”

Anulili's eyes widened instantly.

"But I think that he and other conservatives will have their sentences reduced as appropriate," I thought for a moment and said with relief. "They are different from the radicals. The only thing they need to be responsible for is their treasonous decision back then, and they betrayed the country back then." The emperor is still there today, that is my sister, and I understand her current character - she is a very gentle person, not much interested in revenge. In addition, the conservatives took the right position in this war, And he has great military exploits, so the prospects for conservatives are actually quite optimistic.”

"I don't know what happened to my mentor back then," Anulili lowered her head, her voice was not loud, but every word was spoken with great force, "I just hope... that his years of atonement will not be in vain, okay?"

I smiled as broadly as possible and patted Anulili on the shoulder: "Give us a teleportation permission - in this way, the Empire will not break in and arrest him, but walk in and take him out, you understand I mean."

The center of the earth shelter is still in its original place. This huge steel city was once a battle fortress in space, but it was severely damaged in the war a thousand years ago. After being transformed into an evacuation facility in the center of the earth, it lost the ability to leave this place. Anulili opened the teleportation permission for us, but she did not follow us: she probably did not want to see her mentor being arrested.

Only a few of us arrived at the underground base, following a familiar route through the outer zone. The ring city in the inner area is completely different from the last time I saw it.

The city's buildings are still there. But now it is empty. Everyone in the shelter has returned to the surface. Now it is a completely empty city. There are no busy aircraft above the city now. In the Grand Canal surrounding the city, the water flow has also stopped, and everyone is greeted only by the empty and lonely wind blowing from all directions. It should be that the last owner of this shelter knew that the time to leave had come. Now the city's energy system is gradually shutting down, and the ring city is turning off the lights clockwise. As it dimmed little by little, we looked at the city in the center of the earth that was gradually falling into night, feeling that a giant beast that had been lingering for a thousand years was gradually dying.

When we came to the sky above the core area, the sky projection equipment also stopped running. With a buzzing sound that resounded throughout the world, the blue sky a few kilometers above us flickered, and then disappeared, revealing a gray-black The metal roof - what this shelter really is, an ancient and aged steel wreck.

We found Turazzo in the main control room in the core area - actually. It was he who brought everyone here.

The main control room, which is as wide as a football field, is still brightly lit. It is the only place in the shelter that has not cut off the energy. The once busiest area is now empty. All operating terminals are running automatically, and each projection screen is being processed smoothly. Switch to standby mode. Turazzo was standing under the central control tower. He heard a voice coming from behind him. He turned around and gave us a faint smile. His voice was very calm: "Please wait a moment. I still have one last bit of work to do."

We waited quietly and watched as Turazzo turned off all the equipment here. Finally, he placed his hand on a metal column in front of the control tower and paused: "A thousand years ago, I activated the key here..."

The metal cylinder was rotated once and slowly pulled out. The hum of energy down-frequency came from all directions. The lights in the main control room dimmed. An orange-red standby light replaced the normal lighting, which always came from under the floor. The weak vibration finally stopped completely.

"Now it can go off duty." Turazzo turned around and raised the key in his hand. "Can I take this with me? It should be a souvenir. This shelter will melt down in an hour. Can I keep it?" This is the only one left.”

"Of course," I nodded, "What else do you have to pack?"

"No, everything here does not belong to us. We have occupied these things for too long. It is time to leave in a clean slate." Turazzo exhaled slowly, came to us and stretched out his arms, "Give it to me Put your chains on, I'm sorry it took so long."

"Actually, you don't need that thing," Qian Qian couldn't help but mutter, "You can't run... I feel weird."

"Put it on. I'll feel better. Besides, when I leave... I hope to see people outside."

It wasn't too much of a request, and although it might have caused a bit of a fuss, we nodded in agreement.

The coordinates teleported to the surface were next to Anulili, and hundreds of members of the resistance organization had gathered behind her. These were all the comrades she could find in this area. When we appeared in front of everyone with Turazzo in chains, there was silence.

Turazo looked up at the sky of the surface world and shrugged: "Long time no see."

"Mentor..." A resistance fighter couldn't help but stepped forward, as if he wanted to do something, but Turazo waved his hand to stop him: "Go back, you still have a mission - so do I." He raised his arm to signal. The shimmering chain: "This is of my own free will."

He turned around and turned his back to the soldiers of the resistance organization. In front of him were civilians occupying most of his sight. These former slaves looked at the shackled Merova man in front of him with surprise. Then many people remembered what they had heard from the resistance organization. Complex looks came from all directions. Some of them were friendly, but there were also looks full of anger and hostility. Turazzo was completely unaware of this. Silently looking around at these scarred people, and then——

He knelt down.

Slowly but firmly, the old man knelt in front of the newly freed slaves, then bent his upper body deeply, his shackled arms fell on the dust, and his forehead was pressed against the chains. The whole world seemed to fall into silence at this moment.

The slaves and the fighters of the resistance organization were in a commotion, but what surprised me was that the one who stepped forward to help Turazzo up was Pandora, who had always had a straight face. She helped the old man up, her gray-white eyes falling without focus. On the other side: "Let's go."

The old man was finally relieved at this moment. With a heartfelt smile, he looked at the chain in his hand: "Now, I am finally free."

Yes, freedom - behind us are countless ragged and scarred slaves who have just been freed; beside us are old men in shackles preparing to go to the imperial court -

He had also just been freed.