The gods' self-isolation is indeed a good thing for vulnerable mortals, but in essence, the gods are also considering their own practical interests.
Although gods do not rely on food and drink to survive, they need the faith of mortals. The human world is like wheat fields and pastures to them.
Unless a god doesn't want to live like that, no god would come to the mortal world and cause trouble.
Even if a god occasionally wants to come down for a stroll, he will descend as an incarnation rather than his real body, because the gods have joined forces to impose restrictions on the entire mortal world and will exclude those whose strength exceeds a certain limit, unless he chooses to seal himself like the winter god Ajax.
However, in addition to these powerful orthodox gods, there are also some evil creatures in this world who claim to be gods but are not qualified to enter the realm of gods.
Most of these inferior gods were born out of some folklore, or were ancient and special monsters. They were generally called "false gods" by traditional churches that believed in orthodox gods, and some of them also had some god-like characteristics, such as absorbing faith and bestowing blessings on believers.
Decent people generally do not believe in these strange false gods. Some of the false gods are themselves vicious and cruel evil spirits, and thus gradually become what people call "evil gods."
Dick felt that if nothing unexpected happened, the situation of the Deer Head Gang would be roughly the same.
It is worth mentioning that Karacho confessed to Dick that he and the boss of the Deer Head Gang, Karacho, are actually related. Karacho's grandfather is Karacho's grandfather, and the two are cousins.
It is said that Caraccio's ancestors were also nobles, but they fell into decline several generations ago. Their family has the blood of berserkers, and their bodies become stronger due to anger.
The reason why Caraccio killed the evil governor in anger was because he was forced into a desperate situation where his family was almost destroyed. His house and land were taken away, and his wife and two youngest children were killed by the governor. So Caraccio, in extreme rage, holding two battle axes, chopped down the evil governor and his group of personal guards in the street.
It's a pity that Karajo has no talent in martial arts training and is only at the level of a low-level warrior. Otherwise, his combat power would be even stronger with the blessing of his bloodline.
Caraccio had no affection for his cousin at all, but instead hated him deeply.
Back then, Caracho took his three remaining sons and hid in the mountains as savages. At that time, Karem, who was already the leader of the Deer Head Gang, wanted to win over his cousin who was famous for killing the governor. But Caracho knew that his cousin believed in some very evil things, so he always kept his distance from him.
Karem, who was unwilling to give up, saw that his cousin Karacho was unyielding, so he turned his evil ideas to his three nephews. As a result, he deceived Karacho's second son into going astray, and in order to become stronger, he sold his soul to the Deer-Headed God, and finally ended up with a tragic death.
Because of the hatred for the murder of his son, Karajo broke up with Karem completely. He tried to take revenge several times but failed every time. This was because Karem's strength was not inferior to his, and he had the blessing of the Deer-Headed God, so several challenges ended in failure.
Later, Caraccio's eldest son died of illness. The Berserker, who was already in his twilight years, seemed to have lost all his spirit and could no longer get angry.
Ironically, when Caraccio no longer sought revenge, a certain cult leader thought that his stubborn cousin had finally come to his senses and accepted his fate. In order to fight against the new governor's anti-bandit campaign, he actually sent people to contact Caraccio and wanted to unite with the Nameless Valley. Even after Caraccio clearly refused, he wanted to use disgusting and despicable means to force him to submit.
With new hatred and old grudges added to hiss, Caraccio chose to join the governor.
As for how to deal with the Deer Head Gang, Dick's idea is to first find out the details of the Deer Head God.
Compared to the destroyed Vulture Gang and Blood Wolf Gang, the cultists of the Deer Head Gang actually possessed some special abilities. For example, if Dick had not been prepared for this assassination and had not been surrounded by so many experts, the guards around the governor might not have been able to stop the evil black shadow man.
So after thinking for a while, Dick, who was cautious by nature, decided to seek help from outside.
……
"So you're plotting against me, wanting me to take action, right?"
Inside the cave where Behemoth was training, the old magician looked at the gift that Dick presented to him with a smile, his eyes narrowed as if he saw through everything, but there was no anger at all between his brows.
Apparently after listening to Dick's story, he also became somewhat interested in this deer-headed god.
"Uncle Master, I dare not be arrogant in front of you. This time I really want to ask you for help."
"You were right not to act rashly and come to me first. Otherwise, you would have suffered a great loss."
"Uncle Master, do you know this Deer-Headed God?"
"I haven't heard of it, but these evil gods that hide in remote areas and grow secretly have few followers, so they usually like to encourage their followers to perform blood sacrifices on living people. This way, they can gain a lot of faith at once. If you lead your troops to attack them directly, you will definitely be used by them."
Dick also understood Behemoth's warning.
Generally speaking, when encircling and suppressing cultists, we should avoid violent attacks and try to capture them alive.
The reason for avoiding killing is not out of pity for the cultists, but because they are afraid that they will be used by the cultists and regard killing as a sacrifice, which will lead to the evil gods believed in by the cultists being strengthened and summoning something deadly.
Similar situations have occurred within the empire.
A lord of a small place was unaware of the various benefits and found that a group of cultists were entrenched in his territory. He immediately led his troops to encircle and suppress the cultists, and a fierce battle broke out with the cultists. As a result, during the fight, the cultists' altar lit up and summoned a big demon on the spot!
This situation is disgusting. The cultists deliberately set up ritual arrays for sacrifice in their hiding places. The army came and fought fiercely with them. Whether the soldiers killed the cultists or the cultists killed the soldiers, their flesh and souls would be indiscriminately used as sacrifices.
Some cults that have become powerful will even draw sacrificial circles on the bodies of cannon fodder and then incite them to die.
If nothing unexpected happens, the Deer Head Gang should also be preparing to use the same method to deal with the Governor's Office's encirclement and suppression troops. The wild people captured by them will be both cannon fodder and sacrifices.
After asking his uncle Behemoth for help, Dick took him back to the outpost. The captured assassin was also transferred from the valley village to this side and was under strict surveillance.
When Behemoth saw the little monster for the first time, he smiled and said to Dick, "You caught something very interesting."
“This is a servant of God.”
"Servant of God?"
"They are believers who have received special gifts from the gods and have been 'upgraded'. Orthodox religious servants usually receive the blood of the gods, and the sect will give them more respectable titles, such as sons of god, saints, or child prodigies. As for this (pointing to the cage), looking at its miserable appearance, you can tell that the deer-headed god they believe in is not something that can be put on the stage. This cannot be considered an upgrade, it's more like a mutation."
Behemoth looked at the little monster carefully with a look of disdain.
When the little monster saw the old wizard's eyes, he immediately started cursing in a voice that Dick couldn't understand. Unexpectedly, Behemoth also spoke and cursed back in the same voice, which stunned the little monster.
Only then did Dick realize that the little monster was speaking an ancient elven language, and it was a rare dialect of a remote clan, which was very different from the orthodox elven language.
Although Behemoth didn't think much of this ghost thing, he roughly guessed the level of the Deer-Headed God based on the mutation state of the little monster. It might be about the same as his strength, that is, between the saint level and the sub-god.
And considering that this guy relies on faith, if he really fights one-on-one, he should be slightly stronger than Behemoth.
But as the old saying goes, there is no need to talk about chivalry when dealing with these evil people.
Neither Dick nor Behemoth had ever thought about having a fair fight with the cultists from the beginning!
048. Dead or Alive
The Deer Head Gang's lair is located in the core hinterland of the western mountains. There is an ancient forest surrounded by towering mountains and huge fir trees in the forest. The Deer Head Gang built a black stone altar in the center of the forest to worship the "Deer Head God" they believe in.
At this time, around the altar, there were thousands of people kneeling on the ground.
In addition to the original members of the Deer Head Gang, there are also the surrounding "villages of believers" who were originally obedient to them, as well as many wild people who were forced to come by them.
Karem, who is both the bandit leader and the high priest, is dressed in traditional orc shaman attire and is performing a ritual dance on the Blackstone altar.
After the dance, Karem waved his hand and his followers escorted the ten sacrifices onto the stage.
These people were all captured savages who were unwilling to convert to the Deer-Headed God. Karem took a sharp knife and a black, foul-smelling stone bowl from a servant, then cut the necks of the sacrifices one by one to let their blood, and soon the entire stone bowl was filled.
At this time, something strange happened. The blood in the stone bowl suddenly boiled and quickly turned from deep red to pitch black. Seeing this, Kareem was overjoyed. This meant that the Deer-Headed God accepted his sacrifice of flesh and blood and gave them a gift in return.
So Karem waved to a boy about fourteen or fifteen years old in the first row below the altar, motioning him to come to him.
"Child, you have been chosen by the gods. Drink it and become the new messenger of the gods."
As Karem spoke, he stretched out his hand and pinched the boy's cheek to force the disgusting black blood into his mouth. The moment the black blood entered his mouth, the boy seemed to have lost his mind. His eyes rolled back and his whole body twitched. The black blood was like a living thing. The boy did not drink it, but "crawled" in on his own initiative!
Soon, a whole bowl of black blood went into the boy's mouth. Then the child fell to the ground, making a roar that was not like that of a human. His body was mutating at a speed visible to the naked eye. His skin turned bluish-gray and felt as dry as tree bark. A pair of antlers grew on his head.
Looking at the boy who was mutating right in front of him, Kareem laughed wildly under his mask.
At this time, on a cedar tree trunk a thousand meters away from this evil sacrificial activity, the three female ninjas were hiding in the shadows, secretly observing this terrible consciousness.
If Hongye hadn't stopped them, Xia and Ayane would have almost lost control and would have fought.
"Sister Hongye, are we just going to watch?"
"That Kareem is right there. If the three of us join forces and attack together..."
"You two, do you remember what the master told us before we set out? Our mission is to scout the enemy and bring back useful intelligence, not to act on our own. And that altar... is weird!"
Because she was a dragon priestess of Hayabusa-no-Sato before traveling through time, Momiji's perception of evil forces is stronger than that of Kasumi and Ayane. Therefore, even from a long distance, she can sense the evil aura emanating from the altar and its surroundings.
Hongye had experienced the scene of a Taimanin sneaking into the evil demon's lair and being ambushed by a monster once before she traveled through time.
If Dick hadn't summoned her to this world when she was in danger, she couldn't imagine what terrible end would happen to her if she fell into the hands of those monsters.
Under the persuasion of Hongye, a "veteran", Xia and Ayane did not choose to act recklessly. The three of them used the tall cedar trees around the camp to find a commanding height, and after a round of reconnaissance around the periphery, they quickly drew the latest layout of the Deer Head Gang camp, and then returned safely to the rear to inform Dick of their latest findings.
"So, that Kareem is mass-producing elite monsters?"
After listening to Hongye's description, Dick immediately thought of the little monster that came to assassinate him. Behemoth was now studying that ghost thing, thinking about how to turn it back into a human.
In addition, during the retreat, Hongye and the others also discovered that many deer-headed spirits appeared in the cedar forest.
These monsters roamed around the outskirts of the Deer Head Gang's camp like sentinels. When Hongye first went into the mountains to scout the Deer Head Gang last year, he had not encountered these monsters.
In other words, these deer-headed spirits were called in to help.
"From this perspective, the Deer Head Gang has been hiding its strength."
"That's normal. This kind of cult group doesn't dare to be high-profile, fearing that they will attract suppression from the government and orthodox religious groups."
As Behemoth spoke, he came in from the door, looked at the three graceful female ninjas, and his eyes moved back and forth between them and Dick, as if he had discovered something.
Dick waved his hand, asked the three to go and rest first, and then asked Behemoth to sit down.
"Uncle Master, do you have any new discoveries?"
"I came here to tell you this. I had been arguing with that little servant for an hour, and he suddenly started coughing up black blood. Then the evil god's aura on his body weakened a lot, and his vitality also began to decline significantly. But he can speak human language now."
"what?"
According to Behemoth's judgment, the little monster's ability to speak the ancient elven dialect was the result of being corrupted by the evil god's power. This was probably also the language used by the evil god himself.
But the reason why the evil god is called the evil god is that the power it bestows often comes with many strong side effects, and it can only bring you pleasure for a while. After the pleasure is over, you will have to pay with your life.
In comparison, orthodox gods will not easily bless mortals, but once they do, there will basically be no side effects, and the life of the blessed person will not be endangered.
In view of this, Behemoth judged that the blessing of the deer-headed god was time-limited, and its power would gradually weaken over time, and would impose a considerable burden on the person who bestowed the blessing, eventually leading to his loss of life, and this was most likely the intentional act of the evil god.
"Come to think of it, didn't you contact those orthodox churches?"
"I contacted them, but they don't want to come. What can I do?"
Dick spread his hands and showed a helpless expression. He had contacted the nearest Holy Light Church in Shannan before, saying that he had discovered a cult group here and asked them to send people to support him. As a result, the head of the church wrote back, declining the request due to the long distance and inaccurate information.
After reading the reply, Dick sneered in his heart, thinking that these charlatans were really hypocritical.
It's not that they are unwilling to provide support, but they don't want to provide support immediately. On the one hand, they are "hinting" Dick to donate money to the church, and on the other hand, they hope that when the cult group really starts to cause damage to Laguge, their knights will appear as the savior.
This will gain more gratitude from the locals, and more faith and donations.
It is an act that has been "tacitly approved" by the gods above.
But as the governor, Dick cannot wait for those cultists to become powerful and allow them to threaten his fiefdom.
The previous governors dared to do whatever they wanted because they all had backers who were willing to cover up their mistakes and exaggerate their achievements in front of the Duke. Sometimes pillow talk is more effective than any advice.
But Dick can't do that. If he wants to keep his position secure, he can't afford to make any mistakes.
At least at this stage, absolutely not!
In front of Behemoth, Dick frankly confessed his current situation. The Deer Head Gang was the finale of his second phase of anti-bandit operations. Not only did he have to win, but he also had to win beautifully!
Behemoth hesitated for a moment and then said to Dick.
"I have an idea..."
Two days later, Dick assembled a "large army" of 1,600 people at the outpost. In addition to 400 regular soldiers from the private army, the army also included 1,200 temporarily recruited militiamen, including more than 100 former savages from the valley village.
Afterwards, the team set out in a mighty manner, heading towards the deep mountains where the Deer Head Gang was located. The troops marched no more than a dozen miles a day, and their formation was as loose as a slow-moving slime.
This cobbled-together army was extremely consistent with the characteristics of this era in all aspects, and there was constant noise in the messy military camp.
This kind of march, which was like a picnic, naturally had no concealment at all. If the spies of the Deer Head Gang wanted to find them, they could hear the movements here from hundreds of meters away.
Upon learning that the Governor's Office had assembled a large army to encircle and suppress the bandits, Karem felt that something was amiss, because this was very different from Dick's previous style of suppressing other bandits. It felt like a master had suddenly fallen in level and become a rookie.
But it is undeniable that the other party's behavior of setting up such a grand formation and coming to his door was exactly what he wanted.
When they thought about nearly three thousand people fighting in the Black Forest, although they were outnumbered, they had the help of a dozen deer-headed spirits summoned by the Deer-Headed God. It would inevitably be a bloody battle, and all these killings would become a sacrifice to the Deer-Headed God.
"Humph! You came just in time. I was worried they wouldn't come!"
Although the Governor's army marched slowly, they made steady progress every day and soon reached the outskirts of the ancient forest in the hinterland.
The army did not encounter any attacks until they crossed the canyon and reached the outskirts of the forest. In addition, they had a large number of people, which gave them courage, so their morale was very high.
Not long after everyone finally saw the rumored "Black Forest" and saw the towering giant fir trees connected like a city wall, many people couldn't help but shiver and felt a chill down their spines.
"This forest looks weird!"
