Chapter 374: New World


    It took Lin Xiao nearly four days to make his way out of the mountain forest. On the third day, he discovered a small thatched hut in the woods, which seemed to be a resting ce for hunters. Following the traces downhill, and after much winding about, he finally found a path that people had trodden.


    Fortunately, he had prepared a set of leather armor; if he had chosen thick te armor, even with his current constitution, it would have been stifling.


    As he passed through a thicket, there was a wastnd overgrown with weeds about waist-high before him. Looking off into the distance, he could vaguely see the shadow of thatched huts and wisps of pale smoke.


    “There’s a vige!”


    He tidied himself up a bit and waded through the waist-high weeds towards that direction.


    It was truly a deste in—filled with insects and poisonous snakes, and along the way, he must have stepped on no fewer than ten poisonous snakes.


    The snakes were not much of an issue; his boots provided high defense, and their fangs couldn’t prate them. What really bothered him were the tiny insects that always managed to crawl into the gaps of his leather armor unnoticed.


    If he were in another ne, he could release the aura of the totem to intimidate these little insects, but in this non-magic ne, the power of the totem couldn’t be used at all. Any Totem Master’s talents or abilities were disabled here; only the strong physique and strength gained from bing a Totem Master was usable.


    Physical strength is the most universally usable power across myriad worlds. No matter the Crystal Wall Universe, physical strength can never be disabled.


    Even in worlds where only the soul or spirit could exist, that strength could be used, but the prerequisite was having a physical body in that world.<div>


    Nearly hacking his way through the underbrush, Lin Xiao approached the vige. Before getting close, he was spotted by two militiamen wearing sacking clothes and holding wooden spears in a wooden watchtower at the entrance of the vige. Seeing Lin Xiao fully armed, they raised their spears, seeming to face a great enemy, and shouted:


    “￥#@#@%#…?”


    Lin Xiao hurriedly raised his hand and shouted back:


    “￥#@#&￥”


    This was thenguage of this world. Lin Xiao understood a little of it; he had crammed the world’smonnguage during his half-month stay in the fortress.


    However, due to the short time, he had only learned the basics and could understand only a few words. Drawing from these few words and the current situation, he guessed the militiamen were probably saying something like, ‘Stop, don’te any closer.’


    Lin Xiao sheathed his Horse Chopping Knife, signalling his peaceful intentions, and then took out a wooden carving from behind and held it in front of him. Using the unfamiliarmonnguage of this world along with gestures, hemunicated with the confused militiamen.


    Fortunately, his act of sheathing the knife was also considered a gesture of goodwill in this world, and the militiamen were patient enough to watch him converse awkwardly with gestures and broken words, responding after a good while with something that was almost but not quite understanding.


    After much effort inmunicating, the vigers were stirred, and arge crowd gathered to watch the spectacle. Nearly half an hourter, Lin Xiao was finally allowed into the vige.


    However, he was only allowed to stay at the entrance of the vige and not to go inside, showing that they still harbored a considerable amount of wariness towards him.


    Lin Xiao didn’t mind at all. Taking out two silver coins, he mimed and gestured again, this time to purchase some utensils and tools from the vigers, settling down there for the time being.


    A vige is a standard starting point.


    It wasn’t about spreading his faith just yet. He wasn’t in a rush to propagate his beliefs without understanding the situation first. His n was to see if he could hire some sturdyds in the vige to form a small squad.


    Of course, while not eager to spread his faith, he still needed to make some preliminary preparations.


    After buying tools and utensils with silver coins, Lin Xiao discreetly put on a ring in front of many onlookers, both vigers and children. He then neatly arranged the empty utensils on the table and performed a standard prayer ritual of his n before meals, making every move with the sense of a religious ceremony, much to the amazement of the vigers and children.


    After the standard prayer, he quietly activated the Summoning Table Spell embedded in his ring. Like a magic trick, the previously empty tes were suddenly piled high with appetizing food of various colors and fragrances, immediately eliciting exmations from the onlookers.


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


    During his first year in high school, he had learned about missionary work and faith management. The lessons had mentioned that in the early stages of propagating a faith, different strategies were needed for different intelligent beings.


    For example, when facing a schr, one could discuss knowledge, the truth. If you could overwhelm them in their area of expertise, causing them to feel awe, then through gentle persuasion and leading them to curiosity, it might be possible to convert them into a believer.<div>


    If facing a warrior with great strength, then force and authority should be the topics of discussion. In most Alien Worlds, strength often signifies power and wealth.


    At this moment, facing peasants, no amount of high-minded talk or boasting would be useful; temptation with straightforward food would suffice.


    There’s no need to tell them that following the True God will provide food; words are useless. Showing them that devout worship of the True God brings food is much more effective than any words could be.


    So, once the onlooking vigers actually tasted the food and confirmed it was real, the news spread quickly through the vige.<div>


    At this point, a normal person would seize the opportunity to y the role of a preacher, but Lin Xiao didn’t do that. Instead, he drew his Horse Chopping Knife and split a vige entrance stone pir taller than a person in half, and with a gentle voice, he declined the unreasonable demands of the vige leader.


    Lin Xiao had his own unique methods and talent in managing the Power of Faith.


    This unconventional approach did not anger the vigers; instead, it inspired awe in them, especially the stalwart youths of the vige, who worshipped him unceasingly after seeing him slice a rock with a single blow and effortlessly lift a boulder weighing several thousand kilograms single-handedly.


    “Lord Rore must be a mighty knight, I bet even Baron Gibson isn’t that strong,”


    Several robust youths sat in the shade of a tree, watching from a distance as Lin Xiao wielded a huge stone sword, over two meters long, carved from stone, swinging it about as if it weighed nothing, their admiration growing even deeper.


    The best way to impress these young men was to demonstrate martial strength, and it didn’t even have to be of a high-end variety, just the initial transcendence of mortal strength was enough to astonish them as celestial beings.


    After practicing a set of swordy techniques he had learned before bing a Totem Master Apprentice several times, he stood with the sword at his side and exhaled a white breath on the wooden stake with a ‘snap’ that still shocked the watching youths, even after having seen it many times.


    He ced the stone sword, weighing several hundred kilograms, on a rack and waved to the youthful men not far away.


    “Is Lord Rore calling us?”


    An athletic young man ran over excitedly, drew a white cloth from his side, wiped his hands, and casually asked,


    “Do you want to learn?”


    The youths’ eyes widened, thinking they had heard wrong, and after a moment, they nodded eagerly,


    “We want to learn!”<div>


    “Good,e to me every morning from now on.”


    Half a monthter, as dawn was breaking, Lin Xiao got up leisurely, opened the door, and found a dozen young men of varying ages practicing with wooden weapons on the t ground outside.


    By the well, there were already basins filled with water and wet towels for washing faces and rinsing mouths. Carrying his sword, he came to watch them practice in the open space.


    In just over ten days, they hadn’t learned much, still there was some semnce of form.


    During this half-month, he hadn’t taught anything substantial, just a simple routine that served mostly to exercise the body and didn’t involve any other powers.


    The main purpose of these days was to temper their will and to select youths with a certain amount of willpower.


    After watching for a while, he returned to his house to move out arge stone beehive and severalrge bags filled with herbs that he had asked the vigers to gather for him.


    Of course, these herbs were of no real use, nor were they part of any specific form; he just had the vigers gather them at random, mainly to disguise the pills he was preparing to maketer.


    If all went well, this group of young men would be his first subordinates, and naturally, he needed to enhance them a bit.


    In addition, many vigers in this vige had begun to imitate his actions in a decent manner after seeing him summon food daily for half a month, praying before meals each time.


    Although it was of no use and he had not yet sensed a trace of the Power of Faith, it was a good start.


    From asional interactions with the vigers, he had learned that during this half-month, he had taken the time to scout the surrounding area and now knew that the vige he was in was ruled by a family of Barons named the Gibson Family, with the Baron being Herman Gibson. The family ruled over a small town and eight viges, along with arge expanse of wastnd, a forest, and a small iron mine.


    The Gibson Family had a castle between the town named Gibson and the iron mine, and it was said to house five knights, more than forty full-time warriors, and when called to battle could muster over one hundred and fifty strong men. In terms of strength, they were considered average among the territories of Barons.<div>


    So-called knights, like most knights in Alien Worlds, meant someone with a physique and strength far exceeding that of an ordinary person.


    In a world devoid of Supernatural Powers and so-called battle qi, he had quietly visited Baron Gibson’s castle and met with the so-called knights, who were just elite warriors with a constitution and strength more than three times that of a normal man, equipped with exquisitebat skills and armor, who indeed could overpower ordinary farmers effortlessly.


    Now, Lin Xiao had two paths before him: one was to peacefully cultivate belief, finding ways to preach from the ground up before influencing the Aristocrats through religious channels.


    The other was to spread belief through military force, forcibly imposing faith on themon people with his strong martial might. Put simply, he would be a powerful Lord andpel his subjects to adopt the faith.


    Both paths had their merits and difficulties, but it was certain that spreading faith through force would be more challenging.


    Yet, under present circumstances, this was the best choice; after all, this was not a safe world, with sixty-six Children of Nightmare and Children of the Spirit Realm lurking and waiting to eliminate him at any moment. He had to have sufficient martial strength to protect himself.


    Therefore, he could only take the path of spreading faith through force.


    Of course, this didn’t mean that he had to train an army to defeat the Baron and be an Aristocrat himself, which was indeed one way, but too troublesome. Conflicts between Lords had always beenplicated.


    Lin Xiao nned tobine the Church with military force, protecting the faith with martial might and then using faith to unite the many Aristocrats.