"Mr. Lava Joray." Leo sat opposite the merchant with a stoneware wine glass.

There was a clamor outside the hotel, and the preparations for the rituals were in full swing. Every person passing by him had a certain kind of respect and pure expectation on his face.

Rava Joray looked up at him, "Is there anything wrong, Mr. Li Ou?" The merchant looked around worriedly, with black charcoal heads around him, and Li Ou's appearance was particularly eye-catching. Every Valian looked at him with a vigilant and alert look, deliberately keeping a sufficient distance from him. "You are here... so eye-catching."

"I said nothing and did nothing." Li Ou took a sip of the sour wine made from sand berries, frowned in discomfort. "They can't make trouble without any trouble. Or do some guys cause trouble indiscriminately?" He turned his head to look at the guys, and everyone hurriedly looked away, pretending to show a hypocritical look of "I'm not looking at you".

"But you are outsiders, foreigners, and so..."

"…pagan." Leo finished speaking for him.

There was a commotion in the tavern. It could be seen that they seemed to want to hug him with a cold fist and drive him out of here. However, the long sword of the alchemist's waist, which flashed blue light, awakened their sanity and made them hesitate.

Rava Joray tried to stop the conversation in fear. "Mr. Leo..."

"I just want to know something." Leo told him, "things that you all know but we don't know anything."

"I...I..." Rava Joray showed struggle and pain, "Are you punishing me?"

Because of the hidden blood? "Of course not." Leo explained, "I just don't want to be kept in the dark and can't see the situation of being inviting me, so I can't tell the difference between the enemy and me." Look around, the golden scimitar, the city gate guards, the hotel owner, every drinker here, every inhabitant outside, including camels, mules, horses, cats, dogs, and mice... The city is full of hostility towards them.

"Li Ou." Lu Yuewu walked down the stairs and walked towards them. Her long hair was folded up, revealing her smooth neck. "Are we leaving now?"

"Where is Rosie?"

Lu Yuewu said softly, "Yevela is with her."

"That's good." Li Ou breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at the merchant who came from afar, "Aren't you going to sell goods? Let's talk together."

Ribbons hung on a yellow and sandy street, and dark red and purple-gold pigments depict various pictures and symbols of the mother of the desert on the bare wall. Even though the heat was steaming outside, the residents walking seemed tireless, with water jugs or vessels on their heads, as if moving ants lined up to walk towards the square. The wide hood made them join in silently. The vendors wandering around the streets and alleys were on the ground.

Breaths of broken blankets were laid on top, with statues of the Mother of the Desert in pottery or bronze, yelling loudly at the residents of Pompedekar. Two days later, when they passed the square again, the bronze statue of the Mother of the Desert was filled with various tributes, slaughtered horses and camels, inferior wine, and vegetables, melons and melons that were more expensive than gold. A bald man in a white robe preached under the bronze statue under the scorching sun.

"Wait a minute, let's hear what he said." Leo said.

Sasha Joray shouted in annoyance, "What's the nice thing?"

"Let him hear how he bewitches you." Leo told him, "heard what doctrine is proclaimed by your God."

"... The desert is our mother, and we live here for generations... But, God's people, what have you got from the desert? There is only hunger and drought, only killing and cruelty. In the age of miracles, we believe in the god of war, the goddess of storm and thunder... What have they brought us?" The priest was in a stir under the bronze statue and asked loudly, "Tell me, what have they brought us? That's right! There is only war and blood, we are still tortured by hunger, and we will still fight for a drop of water! The children of the desert gave their faith, but they still received the contempt of the gods. In their eyes, we are just the smallest group of aliens!"

The priest's words were full of incitement. Every inhabitant present was angry. They waved their arms and issued condemnations and curses like a landslide and tsunami.

"Now, the time for change has finally come!" the priest shouted excitedly and loudly, raising his arms. "A beautiful and kind goddess was born from the sea of ​​sand. She responded to the prayers and calls of the people of the desert for thousands of years, and she was finally born before us! She will bring sweet rain to her people, lush grasslands, and endless oasis! She will bring peace to her people! Look, look at this ancient city, and the secular rulers have bowed down because of her appearance. From now on, we are free! Pray devoutly to the goddess, and give her your most precious faith. She will make the desert regain its glory and turn it into a sea of ​​flowers and water!"

The cheers of the people in the square made the alchemist's ears buzz. The unison shouts seemed to be shocking water waves, covering the entire city.

A group of ignorant fools who had lost their minds. Leo looked at the crowd surging towards the bronze statue and thought, "Go." He said, "Let's get out of here."

"He's leaving now? He's not finished." Sasha Joray said in surprise.

"When he finishes talking, we have to kneel down to him." Leo told him, "I don't want to salute a made-up god."

The dilapidated temple is located on a mound, with yellow stone bricks piled into a triangular building, like a bite of bread, revealing the black filling inside. They deliberately picked a path and bypassed the temple avenue, the heavy army guarded by the Golden Scimitar and the Guards, as if they were inanimate statues, standing on both sides of the steps paved with yellow clay boards, staring at everyone passing by in front of the temple.

The temple is very old. Looking at the statue of the god with a broken head and feet, Leo realized that it had been completely tampered with. The carvings and stone statues on the exterior walls were all worn out, revealing a brand new section of the stones. The alchemist was a little uneasy. He remembered countless cruel wars of faith in history. He moved back to his sight. "Mother of the Desert," he walked into the alley and asked the merchants beside him, "When did it appear?"

Rava Joray thought for a while and replied, "Eight years or seven years ago."

Li Ou translated his words to Lu Yuewu. "This cannot be a coincidence." Lu Yuewu said.

"Yes, I think so, too." He nodded.

"It was seven years ago." Rava Joray's son reminded.

"Okay, seven years ago. I can't remember the exact time." Rava Joray sighed, "I have been traveling to this trade route, and at first I heard some gossip. You know, the desert is deserted, and merchants have to pass the time by talking about it. It is here - a miracle appeared in Pompedekar. At first, who believed it? God has not appeared for thousands of years. But later, more and more people say this, and they say it seriously. Soon, about a few months later, when I passed here again, I saw a pastor who claimed to be the Mother of the Desert preaching on the trade route."

“When is this?”

"Five years ago? It should be." The alchemist signaled him to continue, so Rava Joray continued, "At the beginning, the pastors only preached doctrines normally. But few people were willing to join. But from when, the believers of the Mother of the Desert were spread throughout the sea of ​​sand, and prayers could be heard everywhere..."

"Once," Sasha Joray inserted, "I saw a priest praying in a water-deficient village, begging for a rainfall."

"Did the rain fall at that time?"

"Yes. Although it was short, everyone in the village thought it was the obvious spirit of God and all became her followers."

A clumsy trick. Leo thought.

"Then what?"

"Then?" Rava Joray smiled bitterly. "About a few months ago, they were like crazy. There were believers of the Mother of the Desert everywhere, and all those who were still believing in the gods were regarded as pagans. Swords and gallows were their final destination. If they wanted to or not, we are now believers of the Mother of the Desert. We don't want to be hung into mummies..."

"Let go, let me go!"

A cry for help suddenly sounded in a small house outside the corner.

When they rushed over, they happened to see a team of soldiers dragging a woman out of the room. The woman was in a messy clothes and struggled constantly, but the two soldiers waiting outside the door immediately rushed over, pressed her kicking feet firmly, and tied her tightly with a hemp rope. The woman saw them. "Save me, please... um..." A soldier roughly tore the woman's clothes and blocked her mouth.

"You'd better not meddling in other people's business!" a soldier warned viciously.

Lu Yuewu uncovered her hood and showed an angry face. "White Devil!" Another soldier screamed.

"pagan!"

The leading soldiers saw the long swords around their waists. The magical light that was clearly extinct was the greatest deterrent. He stopped his impulsive subordinates. "White Devil, you better pretend that you didn't see anything." He threatened with a fierce look on his face, "In this way, I will turn a blind eye to you. Otherwise, even you will catch them together. You are the same as this woman, all of them are pagans. They should be cursed and should be hanged alive!"

"Let them go. Don't worry." Li Ou chose to avoid it.

"Why?" Lu Yuewu asked angrily.

Leo met her burning flames and said calmly, "We can't save everyone, Yuewu. We can't protect everyone. This city has gone completely crazy."

The female swordsman breathed in a hurry, and her chest was undulating violently. "This is not a reason!" She roared in a low voice, staring at Leo's eyes tightly. "When did you become so slim, so weak, and so selfish?"

"Because I understand that I am insignificant; because we are not God." He looked straight into the female swordsman's eyes without any retreat. Her eyes were filled with glory and duty, and there was something that made him confused and involuntarily fascinated by it. He would never understand the persistence and pride. "If you want to go, I will definitely stop you." He said firmly.

Lu Yuewu suddenly drew out his long sword and pointed at his chest.

The sword body was shining brightly - this was the rune sword he gave her, with his name engraved on it.

Lava Qiao Lei and his son were stunned by the sudden change. "Mr. Li Ou, Miss Yuewu is this..."

Leo told them, "A little quarrel." He looked at the shining sword tip, and the pain in his heart was indescribable. He forced himself to cheer up and said bitterly, "We can't change this world. We are not the only ones for us now. The good luck of the last time may not happen again this time."

"You always say that." Lu Yuewu suddenly interrupted him, and the sword in her hand was as violent as her excited emotions. "How many times have you been, Li Ou? Every time you find all kinds of reasons, I trust you once, twice, three times... I always say to myself, you think more carefully than me. But what about? Look at yourself, when did you meet your expectations? Your failure is always covered up with various excuses." In her eyes, I am a loser? "You are a complete coward! A hypocrite who only knows his own selfishness!"

So I am so bad in your heart?

Leo looked at her angry eyes, and a deep sadness surged into her heart.

“Is there any more?”

"I really misread you!" Nothing hurts more than this one. "I actually fell in love with you!"

Her eyes will not be faked. Her eyes are colder and more harsh than the winter in the north. She is serious.

Leo lowered his shoulders dejectedly.

In despair, he grabbed a straw and shouted at her, "Don't forget, you are my guard! Since your honor is greater than anything else, you treat yourself as a sage for saving suffering, then remember your duties!"

As soon as he said that, he regretted it. However, there is no medicine for regret in the world. There is nothing to do with alchemy.

Lu Yuewu stared at him for a while. Then she threw the sword in her hand at his feet. "I always remember it." She said calmly, "It's only that."
Chapter completed!