Chapter 134, Grand Priest, Twisted Kingdom, Brave One (two in one)
When it came to the end, Rat War led the Eastern Expeditionary Force to the barren mountains.
The grand sacrifice has entered the preparation stage.
For this grand sacrifice, the killing started early.
Every day, countless slaves were beheaded as sacrifices in front of the temple of the gods.
The corpse was thrown into the blood lake, but before the blood mushrooms could breed on the corpse, it was hurriedly fished out.
The Western Expeditionary Force and the Central Expeditionary Force brought back 1.15 million slaves of various races.
Of the 1,150,000 slaves, only 500 will be sacrificed to the gods on the day of the grand sacrifice.
And this number suddenly dropped to three hundred as the rat war brought back the dragon's body.
So what about the rest?
What will the remaining slaves be used for?
The answer is preheating.
Rat people are never stingy with their sacrifices to the gods and are extremely generous.
Don’t choose the type either.
Among so many slaves, naturally most of them are weak guys.
Among them, the rabbit men hiding in the mountains and forests alone contributed nearly 200,000 slaves to the Central Expeditionary Force.
The huge central expeditionary force paused for a long time in the mountain forest where the rabbit people were entrenched.
The rat priests took slave rats with them, and meticulously and painstakingly searched and captured these large numbers of rabbit men.
Along the way, no matter whether they are strong or weak, they are all sacrifices, all are sacrifices.
At the same time, the rat people treated this batch of sacrifices very well.
A large number of cave mushrooms were taken out of the mouths of the slave rats to feed this extremely large number of slaves.
For this reason, the food provided to the slave rats was severely lacking.
After such intense work, these poor slave rats didn't even have a bowl of mushroom soup.
Famine began to spread throughout the Skaven Empire.
The bad news is a massive famine.
Good news, great famine only among slave rats.
This situation was completely ignored by the rat priests. Even the big-clawed priests who were closer to the slave rats were also extremely indifferent to this situation.
Slaves were sacrifices, gifts to the gods, something to be cherished.
And the slave rats.
These poor guys, not many priests would even take them seriously.
Just useless guys.
No, it still has some uses.
The rat priests will select strong slave rats to provide food for the slaves of the carnivorous race.
Slave rats are treated far worse than real slaves.
The killing begins after the gods send an oracle.
From dawn to dusk.
Strong, weak, old, young, there is not much difference.
If you are strong, it means you will land one more blow. If you are young, you will save more energy. If you are covered with carapace and have a tough skin, you will need to be more meticulous and spend more energy.
But in the end, floating on that bright lake will be your final result.
Although this brings a lot of problems.
The blood lake cannot bear so many floating corpses.
As a result, young rat priests were mobilized one by one.
Non-stop fishing.
There is no break in the killing and sacrifice.
Countless lives disappeared deep underground and were buried in the bright red lake water, creating an intoxicating bright red color.
As for the corpses that were salvaged, they were thrown into the deep abyss like garbage.
There were too many bodies piled up, too many.
But fortunately, this deep crack deep underground is wide enough.
However, as these corpses were being piled up, something strange happened. The corpses that had been soaked in the blood lake did not rot normally. Instead, as time went by, they entered a state that was like dissolving, and were crushed in the water. The corpses at the bottom of the towering pile of corpses, flesh and blood falling off the bones like running water.
And after a brief period of activity, it fell silent and turned into a kind of pale, dead soil at the bottom of this deep abyss.
This time, the corpses abandoned by the rat people were too many.
Moreover, they were all corpses soaked in the blood lake. Some strange changes appeared and began to brew in the piled corpses.
But this did not disturb the long claws that lived at the bottom of the abyss.
This even brought him some convenience.
These piles of corpses attract hungry slave rats.
These slave rats carefully devoured the flesh and blood on the piled corpses.
It gave him a little more life in this infamous abyss, and also made it easier to capture the test subject.
Some deformed monsters were released by him.
Running on the piles of flesh and blood, wantonly chasing and killing the slave rats who were greedy for flesh and blood and arrived here for food, the performance was observed and recorded by him.
At the same time, he also became somewhat curious about the corpses whose flesh and blood were melting and flowing in a strange state.
This greedy rat is trying to grab any knowledge that comes before it.
Although what he doesn't know is that the person who caused all these changes is currently in this deep abyss.
He was looking greedily at the beating heart.
Such strange changes are Xiaochun's way of preserving food's freshness in order to cope with the food that becomes less delicious as time goes by.
However, although Long Claw aroused curiosity, he currently did not have much time to study this strange scene.
Especially after hearing that Rat War brought back a complete dragon.
After a long absence, he decided to leave this deep abyss.
For the dragon corpse in Rat Zhan's hands.
Perhaps that naturally powerful dragon could become the lock to the key in his hand.
Although he has no dealings with Rat Zhan.
………….
This grand sacrifice has entered the countdown preparation stage.
Little did the rat people know that this sacrifice was related to the path of their great god.
But they still tried their best and prepared seriously.
The towering blast furnace, the metal that is continuously being smelted, is not the first thing that feeds back to the army, war, or even many other aspects.
And more were used to make sacrificial knives for the priests in the temple.
The number of sacrifices was so huge that even metal knives could not sustain the rapid wear and tear.
It can only be forged quickly from the industrial center on the surface of the barren mountain range and transported in batches.
It's enough to consume.
As for why the sacrificial knives produced in the industrial area with a fairly good metal output were only enough for the temple.
Perhaps it is because these picky temple priests require that the Big Claw priests in charge of the industrial area must engrave exquisitely and without any mistakes on every sacrificial knife.
This is a difficult task.
But for that grand sacrifice, everything was necessary. At least in the eyes of the rat priests themselves, these tedious little details were necessary.
For this reason, endless fatigue not only entangled the big-clawed priests in the industrial center, but was also directly attached to the slave rats who gradually became sluggish in the repetitive work.
The pain of industry is vividly displayed in the Rat Man.
The result is rapidly expanding productivity.
In the barren mountains, the metal production of the Skaven has surpassed that of the Wild Boars in a very short period of time, and it is still growing rapidly with the construction of blast furnaces and the mobilization of slave rats.
Although this comes at a cost.
For example, those slave rats were being wasted rapidly.
The Big Claw Priest here is really using the slave rats like screws.
Boundless pain gathered on the slave rats working in the industrial area. These cowardly and humble guys even broke out several riots in this very short period of time.
All were ruthlessly suppressed.
There is no comfort, no relief, just the cold whipping and the indicators that keep rising as time goes by.
Similarly, the big claw priests in this industrial area are not much better, with the same red eyes.
The only consolation may be that the transparent bells that echo in the barren mountains when light and darkness meet every day can give these numb and tired slave rats a sense of peace.
That is a gift from God.
The great He gave the divine object, the swaying holy bell, the bell that rings at a fixed time every day, the cold and transparent bell, which can cleanse the souls of these humble guys and bring the only remaining peace.
At the same time, it brings a steady stream of faith.
The slave rats worshiped the gods devoutly amidst the ringing of the bells, taking a moment to breathe.
In numbness, faith fills everything.
Every day, in this industrial area, slave rats transform into big-clawed priests.
Then he held the long whip that weaved thorns, and with his red eyes, he whipped his former self crazily.
Whipping the cowardly and humble slave rats in front of them.
In this twisted and deformed country, there has never been a second choice provided to these humble rats, who make up the majority.
Pray to that great god devoutly and from the bottom of your heart!
Only faith! Only faith can save you!
………….
A break during preparations for the grand sacrifice.
Longpaw found RatWar.
Shu Zhan grinned and looked at the guy in front of him who was not against him.
He has no dealings with Long Claws.
To be precise, Rat War cannot deal with all rat priests.
Although the Western Expeditionary Force's conquest of the wild boars did not go as he expected.
This guy actually ate the wild boar kingdom.
But that's right, after all, he has the support of a white rat.
Good luck guy.
Let him gain a foothold in the rat-man council.
It's just that he came to find him for what reason. Without realizing it, he had nothing to talk about with the guy in front of him.
But he didn't directly drive away the long claws.
Want to see what this guy is going to do.
Crossing his arms, a mocking expression naturally appeared on his face.
"I don't think I have anything to talk about with a nobody like you."
But it didn't make Longclaw angry at all, he said calmly to Rat Zhan.
"I want something in your hand."
"Oh! If the white rat wants it, can't he just come and ask me for it?"
"It's not the rat who wants it, it's me who wants it."
Long Claw was still so calm, but these words made the mockery on Shu Zhan's face more and more obvious.
If you don't want it, then what qualifications do you have to stand in front of me?
Just a chess piece of a white mouse.
In the arrogant attitude, the undisguised contempt appeared on Rat Zhan's face.
However, he does have such qualifications. Even though he suffered a huge defeat, he has almost reached the top of the Ratman Kingdom.
Hero, God-giver, Skinner, Commander, and the recently added Dragon Slayer.
Compared to the aging White Rat, Rat Zhan is younger.
Lucky Sheng Qi is completely incomparable.
When Rat Zhan led the second rat-man expedition towards the Wetland Kingdom, the greenness of the young rat-men had just faded away.
But he dared to lead the army to attack thousands of miles in that harsh wetland.
If it weren't for that tragic defeat, he would be far more dazzling than he is now, and even the white rats might not be able to suppress him.
He was so arrogant, and he would not take the long claws in front of him, who had always been unknown and was a priest of the Great Claws, in his eyes.
"you?"
Finally, Longclaw could no longer maintain his composure, and Rat Zhan's contempt stung him deeply.
Once, in such contempt, he pulled out his big claw.
He is indeed not brave enough.
He is indeed not brave enough!
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the experience of being reduced to a slave rat.
Everything that that experience left behind made him struggle with pain for a long time.
Instantly, the long-clawed expression turned ferocious.
But it gradually subsided.
Suppressing the resentment that was crawling in his heart because of Rat War's contempt, Longclaw regained his composure and made an offer.
"I should have something here that interests you."
As Long Claw's words continued, well, Rat Zhan did have to admit that this unknown guy in front of him still had something.
At least the ferocious giant rat with its long claws does make Rat Zhan quite interesting.
After he returned to the barren mountains, he naturally learned news about the other two expeditions. One of them that focused his attention was the ferocious giant rat.
In response to this, Rat Zhan opened his mouth without hesitation.
Just asking for everything about the ferocious giant rat, Rat Zhan naturally looked down on the ferocious giant rat provided by its long claws.
But if he could create a ferocious giant rat himself, then the situation would be different.
To this, unexpectedly, Long Claw responded.
Not even a hesitation as a price.
To grow the claws, one needs part of the dragon's body in Rat Zhan's hands.
Shu Zhan agreed without hesitation.
If he can also pull up a ferocious giant rat knight, there is no doubt that the chips in his hand will be increased.
Just like those rat priests who are dissatisfied with Rat War and have no problem stumbling upon him, Rat War is also always ready to teach those rat priests who displease him a lesson.
Although compared to those rat priests, the chips in his hand are undoubtedly scarcer.
This is why Rat Zhan inevitably felt a little aggrieved when faced with the alliance of those senior rat priests.
So he won't give up the opportunity to add more money.
And for this he only had to pay part of the dragon's body.
Although this giant dragon will be used as a sacrifice to the gods, such a huge dragon is not lacking in these two points.
If he can have a more powerful army, he can also bring more and better sacrifices to the gods!
Rat Wars agreed to the deal.
Because this transaction seems to be completely profitable no matter how you look at it.
However, what he didn't notice was, or rather, what this arrogant guy wouldn't care about even if he noticed it.
The long claws cast a malicious look in the dark.