Pawel arrived in Yao City with a deflated belly, hungry and tired.
The sixteen year old outsider boy stood in the street, bewildered and nervous as he watched pedestrians come and go.
Everyone here was dressed in linen clothes, leather armour, woollen coats or long black robes, and every one of them seemed to have status and decency.
Pava was naked, with only a dirty black cloth covering his waist and thighs.
He was covered in blood scabs, with rope calluses and abscesses on his wrists and feet, and a branding iron scar on his back that symbolised slavery.
The occasional stares from the pedestrians around him made Pawar feel ashamed, and he couldn’t help but want to run away from the place.
But to what?
Leave this holy city. There are slave traders everywhere out there.
One would only be captured again and sold to another slaver to continue being whipped and tortured.
He remembered the tall man’s words.
“Don’t get caught by a slave trader again, you won’t see me next time.”
The man called himself the Copper Sea and led a group called the Northern Templars. The slave traders gnashed their teeth at them, calling them pirates, thieves, and executioners, yet they feared him to death.
Pava clenched her fists.
He was not going anywhere, and he was going to die in this holy city. He would never again be whipped like a dog or pig, burned with fire, speared, drunk on driving rain, and fed on pig’s food.
Pawel raised his eyes and saw the tall, holy building.
The temple.
This is the original temple of the gods and the place of the earliest miracles.
Pawar made his way down the street.
Next to the alabaster-like shrine, knees were filled with people who had come here to pray and worship the god.
These included scholars in robes, hunters and adventurers in leather armour, farmers and fishermen in sackcloth, and out-of-town islanders and mountain folk in strange clothing and of varying skin colours.
They spoke different languages, but all faced the same temple.
Here, language is not a barrier.
It is clear to all that they are all the same. They are all devotees and insignificant followers before the gods.
Pawar also followed their example and bent his knees to the ground.
Would the gods answer?
He doesn’t know.
Pava’s hometown was on a small island in the south, where there was no temple, but the gospel of Lord Yaojin was also circulated.
He had heard that the gods had not sent down miracles and gifts for many years.
Even the gods’ closest attendants, the several apostles, had basically disappeared. Only a King of White Bones would occasionally show up to rescue people harmed by monsters.
Paiva closed her eyes and prayed silently.
The omnipotent god-sama ……
Pawar asks You, to give me guidance so that I don’t become a slave again.
The young islander prayed devoutly.
There was nothing else he could do.
As long as he could not be a slave, live and be fed, he could do whatever he was told to do.
Hunger and thirst made his brain foggy, his eyes black, and his body as limp as a clam.
Pawel felt himself being helped to his feet and water flowed into his lips.
He swallowed the sweet water greedily, more water, more water, drinking water would fill him up.
A voice came to his ear.
“O pious one, you need to rest and eat. The gods have graciously given us much food in the hope that we will not go hungry.”
He opened his eyes to find an eccentric old man standing before him.
The old man was shirtless and tanned like himself. He wore a ring of garlic strings around his neck and a smile on his thin, weathered face.
The other man handed himself a wheat cake, “Eat, eat to have strength.”
Pawel wolfed down the wheat cake.
The other nodded, “That’s all I have. Good luck, young devotee.”
Seeing that the old man was about to leave, Pava grabbed him.
“Your, your, name.”
Pava’s continental language wasn’t very good, and no one ever taught slaves to recognise words and speak. Instead, he heard it so much that he could understand what people meant.
“I am an ascetic, just like you, I am a servant of Yao God.”
The old man smiled a little, revealing uneven teeth, before turning to leave.
Pawel had never encountered anything like it.
It was surprising that someone would give himself help for no reason, just because he was worshipping the temple.
This must be divine guidance.
Pava looked up at the dazzling white shrine for a few moments in a trance.
The god had heard his plea, and that was why the ascetic had appeared and given himself food.
Another passer-by stopped and asked him, “Are you an escaped slave?”
Pawel’s heart tightened and he lowered his head, pretending not to understand.
The other person changed his pronunciation a few times and finally actually spoke the dialect of the island where Pava lived. This took Pava by surprise, and his body couldn’t help but shake a little.
This made the other party laugh, “So you’re from the island of Kalobuza, raise your head my friend, there will be no slave traders to take you back.”
“Yao City prohibits slave trading, capturing and storing slaves. I originally lived on Chubinini Island not far next to Kalobuza, and I’m sort of from the same place as you.”
Eh?
The other side is also from the Southern Islands.
Pava raised his head cautiously. The opponent was dressed in black and wore a cotton on his chest, a Templar symbol that signified to him that he was an official scholar of the Templar Society.
“My name is Chubirole.”
The black-clothed scholar said, “Please don’t worry, this is a holy city. No one will be trafficked here, and as long as you have devout faith in Lord Yao Shen, you will be accepted here. What is your name?”
“Pava.”
“Pava, go to the temple meeting. It’s right outside at the entrance to the side hall, and someone will give you a blanket, and will help you find a job where you can get food, so you don’t have to starve anymore.”
“Until then, you can live in the hut-shed outside the side temple.”
Chubilor and himself came from the same place and were of similar age.
But while he himself had become a slave, the other was a decent scholar of stature.
This made Pawar feel even more groundless, and his body burned with bruises.
Simply because, the other party had left their hometown and came to Yao City, while they themselves were sold as slaves to Salt City.
“Why?”
Pawel asked in dialect, “Why help me?”
Chupiroor smiled and didn’t answer.
Pawel wanted to cry a little for a moment.
He didn’t know why, it wasn’t fear, it wasn’t jealousy. It was something indefinable that made his eyes sore and his heart extra hard.
Suddenly, a white light lit up the tower in the distance. That white light was gentle and warm, like a giant oil lamp that shone warmly on one’s body.
Then came a second light, which lit up on a tall stone monument in the centre of the square.
Pawel craned his neck in shock for a moment.
The citizens and devotees around them, however, looked up one by one with undisguised smiles on their faces. The whole street echoed with the loud cheers of the people.
“A miracle from the gods, a gift from the gods!”
“The great gods have returned!”
“The ancient monument has finally been blessed with a miracle!”
“The Divine Academy, the Divine Academy has been recognised by the Divine Lord, this is a divine commendation.”
……
Pawel looked puzzled.
“Why do you want to help others? Let me tell you, Pava.” Next to him, Chupilore said slowly.
“Because we are the firstborn sons of the gods!”
The young scholar pointed to two buildings in the distance that were glowing, confidence and certainty all over his face, “That means, we are the best city.”
“No matter how the epochs change, we will keep the glory of the Holy City!”
……
Lu Yao yawned.
Unfortunately, the lighthouse collapsed on its own during the Era Change. Only Yao City’s monuments and seminaries could be transformed into wonders.
Faith-8000 in the upper right corner.
This is the first time Lu Yao has taken the initiative to build a spectacle.
Only the first wonder to be built had a discount, with the monument consuming 3000 faith and the seminary behind it consuming 5000 faith at the original price.
Lu Yao was initially more optimistic about Yancheng. The economic base there was strong, and the citizens were enterprising and ambitious from top to bottom.
But it turned out to be an internal collapse.
In the first season of Pixel World’s Tale of Two Cities, the cohesive Yao Cheng had the last laugh.
