Eighteen: The Colorful Empire of Natural Disasters and Man-made Calamities (Part 2)

  On the continent of Ferelden, there was a group of green environmentalists who took it upon themselves to protect the ecological environment. They worshipped earth mother goddess Mythal, forest and ranger goddess Morrigan, nature god Cullen, sprout goddess Flemeth and other natural deities, and under the guidance of these deities, they worked hard to resist the destruction caused by the development of civilization (mainly opposing deforestation).

  Unlike the Greenpeace organization in another world that only parades, fasts and launches mass signature campaigns, the environmentalists on the continent of Ferren have powerful magic as their backing force, like to use attack magic and weapons to speak, often restricting countries' reclamation and mining activities through military conflicts. This overly advanced concept has made governments and people of various countries extremely angry, calling these guys barbarians who oppose civilization - the development of civilization is always accompanied by the development and utilization of the natural environment, and only when it reaches a certain level can environmentalism be practiced. If you give up the development of civilization in order to protect the ecological environment, it's no different from starving yourself to death, and it also goes against the interests of the vast majority of intelligent life in this world.

  Among these nature-worshiping deities, the Earth Mother Goddess Chian'yu has gradually transformed her divine duties into agriculture, thus reaching a compromise with various countries (any country that wants to survive must vigorously develop agriculture). The churches of the Forest and Ranger Goddess Merikai and the New Bud Goddess Hioniria insist on protecting the forest, but are also willing to find a balance between civilized development and natural protection. Therefore, governments can at least negotiate with them, obtaining their tacit consent for developing forest resources by promulgating some environmental decrees, such as reforestation after logging and returning cultivated land with severe soil erosion to forests. After all, everyone has to live on the same earth, so these compromises actually protect the fundamental interests of governments, plus coordination and consultation between deities. In recent years, although there have been constant contradictions, there haven't been many serious conflicts.

  But the followers of Sivanus, also known as the Oak Father, are a completely different story. If the followers of Panopea are like agricultural associations, and those of Mielikki and Tapio are like armed environmentalists and forest rangers, then the followers of Sivanus are simply green terrorists - and the most unreasonable kind at that, who love to act rashly and recklessly.

  "The servants of the Oak Father are good and love peace." Though the followers of Sarenrae often boast such, in truth the servants of the Oak Father are extremely cruel, savage, and callous. They believe that everything in the world is part of a great cycle - the elegant "Balance" within which all things exist. And the sacred "Balance" exists beyond any good, pity, tolerance, or righteousness. Maintaining this balance is the justice of the Sarenrae druids - supreme justice.

  If that were all, it would not be much different from the followers of Melicar and Xylonia, but the problem is that Sifanas' followers are uncompromising violent elements who only believe in the universal principle that fists are supreme. In their view, fighting is undoubtedly easier than negotiating. Hunting humans is undoubtedly more reliable than signing contracts. Therefore, the Church of Sifanas still decided to use force to protect the environment and regarded it as a holy war to defend world order.

  Here is the translation:

  Take a simple example, if you want to protect a forest from being cut down and destroyed, the followers of Mellyka and Xylonia will issue warnings in advance and negotiate with the loggers. In some cases, they will also make concessions. Even if the loggers enter the forest without permission, they are usually just driven out;

  But the followers of Cygnus X-1 would not hesitate to take the initiative and attack as soon as they heard the news, flattening the town or village that planned to cut down the forest, killing all humans who had this intention, even if it was later proven to be a false message. Because maintaining the sacred "Unity of All Things" does not require considering any cost.

  Here is the translation:

  Let's take another extreme example. Suppose a group of refugees fled to the forest and barely survived on tree bark and grass roots. The followers of Merykai and Xylonia would try their best to help them find a way out while minimizing the harm caused by the refugees to the forest. On the other hand, the followers of Sivannas would ruthlessly slaughter all of them and bury their bodies in the ground as fertilizer - because they disrupted the balance of the forest.

  Many times, the followers of Xivon would attack towns without any reason and slaughter their residents. This was because they believed that the town had developed too much and must be reduced to wilderness in order to restore nature's balance. With the joining of the Harpist Alliance and the increase in world population, such terrorist attacks increased, naturally causing extreme hostility from governments dedicated to national development.

  Of course, when they do these things, they usually first carefully disguise themselves as bandits or sponsor and entice real bandits to take action, replace them to gather intelligence, purchase weapons, plan attack strategies, act as guides, open city gates, etc. In order not to destroy their own image.

  But their opponents were not fools either, and the governments of various countries started up their propaganda machines, loudly denouncing the hypocrisy of the Cygnus Knights. As a result, they tore off their last layer of fake masks and began to openly kill and burn under the slogan "For a green and clean world". This would naturally lead to the joint strangulation by various countries, but just at this time, the "Great Spirit Invasion" began.

  The limited number of elf troops, in order to stabilize the occupied areas, carried out widespread slaughter and looting in the invaded human countries, massacring various "alien tribes" under the policy of "reducing mouths". Moreover, in order to ensure the economic superiority of their homeland (Elyria), the elven army also forcibly destroyed all industrial foundations in the occupied territories, so as to reap the benefits of price differences and eliminate the basis for resistance in the colonies (no military industry).

  As a result, the cities in the occupied territories of the elves were reduced to ruins, the arable land became wilderness, and white bones were scattered all over the ground. The civilized nations were gnashing their teeth with hatred, while the Western Church regarded them as bosom friends. As time went on, the population increased sharply, and the arable land was also opened up on a large scale. At the same time, the emerging industry began to cause damage to the environment. In the eyes of the Western Church, these situations had already seriously affected the "unity and balance" and must be restored through extreme means similar to slaughter. The elegant elves who loved nature and liked to live in the forest were the best maintainers of "unity and balance", much more suitable than greedy humans, evil trolls or rough dwarves.

  Thus the Harpist Alliance, or the Church of Sivvianas, quickly formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Spirits, becoming a key accomplice in the Spirit Army's aggressive war to return the continent of Ferren to its wild state. As for the Spirits' destructive behavior polluting the environment of Elyria due to industrial production, the followers of Sivvianas turned a blind eye, pretending not to know.

  Thus, as the arch-nemesis of the Church of Cygnus, the Nefelri Empire immediately became a key target for attack. In DR 1990 and DR 1991, it suffered heavy losses due to the ruthless actions of the Harp Hand Alliance.

  "This time I came to Beijing specifically to ask for your help." Sitting

  In the official residence of Governor Gan Melier, Ilmester the Great bowed his head and said, "I know you're also having a hard time here, but Shadow Valley is really struggling to hold on. Please, for my sake as your teacher, allocate some grain to them."

  "Teacher, what's going on? If it's something I can do, would I not agree to it?" Ganeliel was taken aback by Ilmuster's sudden seriousness. "But what exactly happened in Shadow Valley? Although the weather has been bad everywhere, I recall that last year's harvest was good thanks to your magic adjustments, Teacher. How did things go wrong so quickly?"

  "It's not like your teacher, that boastful good-for-nothing, let the Lute Player Alliance thieves burn down the granary." Lavok, sitting beside him, snorted in disdain, interrupting the Great Sage's words. "Originally, because the Lute Player Alliance was burning down granaries everywhere to create famine, the people of Shadow Valley gathered all the harvested grain outside this guy's magic tower, hoping for peace. Who would have thought that your teacher is as stupid as a pig and too confident in his own magical defenses? He actually got lured into the forest by a few attacking Shadow Druids. By the time he came back, not only was the grain gone, but even his house had been burned down by the Lute Players! So now he's too ashamed to show his face and has come to you for food, that's all there is to it. See if you can think of a way out."

  Irmgard's old face flushed slightly at Lavoock's sarcastic remark, but he still spoke with some embarrassment. "That's why the remaining rations in Shadow Valley can only last a month at most, and the famine in nearby areas is even more severe than in Shadow Valley. I've run out of ideas, so I had to swallow my pride and come to ask for your help."

  Gan Meireil furrowed his brow, scratching his golden locks - although he was a lich, his magical abilities were actually quite poor, so he had always relied on others to cast permanent transformation spells for him to maintain the appearance of a young man, and had never returned to his true skeletal form. "Teacher, you also know that the central government's granary has only been depleted since last year, and has been repeatedly attacked by the Harpists, and is now more than half empty. However, the frontline troops and the starving refugees everywhere are all relying on this bit of stockpile to eat, so it's not easy for me to squeeze some out either - may I ask how much you need?"

  "It's probably a bit too much," Eryndor Thorne said, embarrassed. "Because the harpist contaminated a large area of arable land and poisoned the water source, Shadow Valley will not have new harvests until summer at the earliest, so about 20 million pounds of wheat or rice would be needed."

  "My goodness!" Gannemeriell was so frightened that he slid from his chair to the carpet, and it took him a while to come back to himself. He sat on the floor, facing Ilmuster with a bitter smile, "Teacher, you might as well kill me! 200,000 pounds might be manageable, but 2,000 pounds of grain? Where am I supposed to get that from? Even all the legions at the front wouldn't need 2,000 pounds!"

  "No way, Shadow Valley has 200,000 mouths to feed and they're all starving because of me." Eryndor Thorne was also helpless. "Of course, I won't take your food for nothing. Although the house is gone, there are still some valuable things here at the teacher's place." The Great Sage rummaged through his spatial pouch and pulled out a stack of magic scrolls, several protective rings, an enchanted dagger, and a magical necklace, all radiating golden light, clearly high-grade items. He turned to look at Ganeliel, saw that the governor had no reaction, and steeled himself to put his treasured sea-foam stone pipe on the table as well. "This pipe may not look like much, but I've actually imbued it with reflection magic, dimensional gates, underwater breathing, and many other high-level spells. Someone once offered 500,000 gold coins for it and I didn't sell; adding this should be enough, right?"

  Looking at the treasures on the table, Gannemariel was momentarily speechless. Ravok snorted disdainfully, "The past is the past, now is now. At present, even mages are starving to death, who can take these things off your hands? In my opinion, all of them together might sell for 100,000 gold coins, but do you know how high the price of grain is in the capital's market?"

  "How much?"

  "The worst kind of wheat, one-third of a gold coin per pound; salted meat that's already started to rot, half a gold coin per pound; and even rats are sold for five copper coins each. You do the math yourself."

  "...you're a witch who doesn't need to eat, why are you suddenly concerned about grain prices?"

  "I don't need to eat, but my students can't not eat. I am the principal of Imperial Comprehensive College now!" Ravok was clearly dissatisfied with Ilminster's attitude. "Due to famine, my students have been filling their stomachs with only potatoes and turnips for three whole months, and they didn't even have wine for New Year's. The little food allowance allocated from above has already been spent, and even the research funds were diverted to buy grain, but it's still not enough!"

  "So we came with you, wanting to let Gan Mei think of a way, who knew that one mouthful from you would be 20 million pounds! Even if we gave it all to you, we still wouldn't be able to afford it, and yet you're still dissatisfied."

  "What the...!" Erlminster was stunned by the two educators, but he soon regained his composure and cast a suspicious glance at the old wizard, "Hey, Ravock, you're not embezzling school funds like you did when you were in office, are you?"

  "You scoundrel!" Ravok was clearly enraged by these words, although he was just a skeleton frame and couldn't show specific expressions, but every bone in his body shook violently because of this. "Illuminster! Don't always look at people with colored glasses! What do you take me, Ravok, for? You have time to go to my floating city and see that I even planted potatoes in my own arcanic garden just so students wouldn't wake up hungry in the middle of the night! And Kalsa," he pointed a finger bone at the female professor, "in order to let students eat some meat during the New Year's festival, she sold her jewelry and magic wand. Moreover, she used all the spells she memorized every day to cultivate crops - it was so cold that even potatoes couldn't grow without using magic! And you, the chosen one of the goddess of magic, what have you done besides begging everywhere?"

  Yelmingster was momentarily speechless, and Gan Merill hastily mediated, "Everyone, relax a bit, don't be so hot-headed as soon as you meet." He patted the dust off his clothes and stood up from the carpet, "I didn't prepare anything here today either. Why don't we go out for a drink together? This can also be considered welcoming the teacher and washing away the dust. If anyone has urgent matters, they can discuss them later, what do you say?"

  "I'm not interested in drinking with this guy." Ravok didn't take kindly to that, adjusting his long robe and walking straight out. "Karsas, you can continue discussing the budget increase, I need to go check if the school cafeteria is serving dinner today, preferably something substantial rather than just devalued paper currency. Excuse me." The female professor could only offer an apologetic smile.