178: Wanli Jinsha (4)

"That night, I gathered all my confidants."

"Most of them were actually civilians, and many were even from the same group that had resisted the invasion with me."

"It was just that they were pulled in later when the Frigates were reorganized."

At the time, Muldra held a very high reputation among them.

When it said the words "Flip this settlement upside down," those guys raised both hands and feet in support.

Although those foolish "aristocratic classes" were willing to spend money on keeping their own non-productive warriors,

in reality, among the non-productive warriors—that is, the group known as the Frigates—

the actual treatment they received was another matter entirely.

Most subsidies, benefits, and military pay essentially went into the pockets of a few officers,

to the point where the rank-and-file soldiers carrying guns felt almost no sense of belonging toward their superiors.

So when Muldra indicated that it wanted to overthrow all the old aristocrats,

almost everyone chose to follow the group without hesitation.

Thus, that night, countless Frigates carrying torches and wearing blue armbands split into two groups.

One group stormed into those luxurious mansions, dragged out those "aristocrats" who were like flying bamboo, and detained them on the spot;

while the other team, armed with assault firepower, quickly launched operations against the gangs.

When the sun rose again and people walked out onto the streets,

they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives:

Those guys who were like flying bamboo were wearing prison uniforms, hanging from the streetlights on the main road.

When the residents took a closer look—they were actually all the big shots of the settlement!

And further back, gunfire rang out rhythmically—

"Raise guns! Aim!"

"Bang!"

That's right, those being executed in batches over there were the black-hearted gangs that had occupied the streets and alleys.

Most residents were sensible; they saw at a glance that the settlement had changed hands,

so they chose to return home at the first opportunity, waiting for fate to rearrange their lives.

Recalling that scene, Muldra continued to confess in the interrogation room:

"But managing a settlement is not easy—especially a wasteland settlement where people are generally spiritually empty and numb."

"If I let them grow wildly and ignored everything,"

"then undoubtedly, sin and barbarism would breed again on this land—and become even more rampant."

"I couldn't think of an ideal that would allow everyone to restrain themselves and strive for it together,"

"That would require unparalleled personal charisma and prestige, which I couldn't do, or rather, no one here could do."

"But I thought of a simpler and cruder method—religion."

Yes, the faith in the lord of the sand sea, which now dominates the entire planet, originated from this moment.

"It just so happened that abnormal natural disasters were occurring frequently at that time, and I took advantage of this to fabricate and promote the faith of the lord of the sand sea."

On the primitive and ignorant wasteland, it is incredibly easy for a religion with even a shred of logic to spread—

Wastelanders are all in pain.

Just as ancient people used supernatural forces to explain all the situations they couldn't explain,

faced with inherent pain, wastelanders didn't know why they had to endure it, let alone how to get rid of it.

And an "omnipotent" god who "looks down upon all living beings" could allow them to explain the reason for all of this in an instant.

Muldra used "people's self-degradation angered the gods" to explain the frequent disasters and the ever-present pain,

and then put forward the statement that "as long as one follows the virtues in the teachings, one can escape the sea of suffering and bring life back on track" to restrain the people under its rule.

The effect of doing this was very obvious,

because sometimes, deeply ingrained morality has a much more terrifying binding force than the law.

"I really didn't expect at the time that a religion I had just casually compiled based on that ancient scripture could spread as violently as a virus,"

"In fact, because I was the first to propose this faith, they even honored me as the First Apostle under the lord of the sand sea."

Hearing Muldra's explanation, Xi Hai raised an eyebrow and asked into the microphone:

"Is this the origin of the Saint?"

Muldra nodded,

"This is its earliest prototype."

The faith spread like a plague, quickly sweeping across more than half of the wasteland,

and Muldra, this "First Apostle," became the leader of an increasingly large settlement.

"What followed was the cliché of great unification."

Saying so much in one breath, Muldra's eyes were filled with emotion,

"When almost everyone began to believe in the same thing, unification was almost a matter of course—"

"Not to mention the foreshadowing laid by countless predecessors."

"There was also a little interesting thing that happened in the middle,"

"I once led a team deep into the desert to explore where those inexplicable sandstorms came from,"

"In the end, we discovered it was indeed a super-large ancient engineering machine."

"When I approached it, almost instantly, it immediately extended several flexible mechanical arms and poked around on me,"

"Then it inexplicably told me that the authorization was established."

"This matter spread more and more ridiculously, and later it even turned into a legend about some python or something."

"However, that harvest also provided huge help for our reconstruction work."

"That place, which is here, is Baghdad."

"We headed back into the universe from here..."

Suddenly, its expression became ferocious—

"But this was definitely the most wrong choice I have ever made!"

That ancient creation told them that the humans on the wasteland were only a part of humanity,

and that there were more humans living among the brilliant stars—

They wanted to go and look for them.

This search became a nightmare.

They first established their own simple industrial and scientific systems, and only then did they step into the universe.

The Gravity Conduit threw them directly onto the Empire's land.

But contact does not necessarily bring hope; it can also bring deeper despair.

Corruption and depravity followed.