When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

Raindrops slowly slide off the bare branches of the ginkgo trees, creating ripples in the puddles below.

The fine rain mist sometimes gathers and sometimes disperses in the wind. The muddy road is full of puddles of varying sizes and depths.

The cold rain of early winter chills to the bone. The refugees shivering by the riverbank struggle against the cold wind and rain.

Rain falls on their hoods or straw capes, creating a pattering sound, while their straw sandals, with exposed thumbs, splash mud as they step into puddles.

Their destination is the long bridge not far away. At the end of it, the Salvation Army and local Beastmen are building a floating bridge using rafts.

Standing on a large stone by the shore of Nanze Lake, rain lashes against Horn's face. He squints as he gazes toward Autumn Dusk Island.

Amidst the rustle of rain on Autumn Dusk Island, sporadic gunshots can be heard.

These are the Holy Gunmen still clearing the long-haired zombies on the island.

Horn stretches his hand out in front of him to shield the rain, noticing the glow of lightning above the island.

In this rainy weather, Jeanne is almost invincible.

Whenever gunshots and lightning are heard, the Beastmen who volunteered to help Horn with camp construction can't help but flinch.

Earlier this morning, when the corpses of long-haired zombies were brought back to the shores, many Blood God Priests fainted after the blasts.

The Beastmen completely lost their will to resist. Once Horn reassured them, "As long as they don't cause trouble, the Salvation Army will not turn their guns on them," the great division of the northern and southern Beastmen Kingdoms finally unified under Horn's leadership.

However, after the Blood God died, the Beastman kingdoms fell into a crisis of faith, but this issue was quickly resolved by the revived Blood God Priests.

When the Moon God died, didn't they switch to the Blood God? Now that the Blood God is dead, shouldn't they follow the Huo God?

The Blood God is dead, long live the Huo God!

So the Blood God Priests swiftly changed roles to Huo God Priests.

Horn hasn't noticed this yet; he needs to focus his primary energies on military matters—training the new army.

"Once this rain stops, it'll likely be winter," Horn said with a tinge of reflection, watching the Beastmen fishing under the cold rain on the lake.

Busak looked up at the overcast sky: "This rain stops and starts intermittently; it might last seven or eight days, but heavy snow is expected after mid-December. We still have time."

Even though Daze Village is a swampy area, it still snows annually. Once it snows, perch and carp from the relatively shallow Beize will move to the deeper Nanze.

As the weather gets colder, the water surface becomes colder, and deeper waters are warmer, so fish in the lake dive deeper to avoid the cold.

Although it snows at Daze Village, Nanze rarely freezes, so the fish in the lake can't be caught by the fishing boats.

Due to technical limitations, there are no nets deep enough to catch fish, and if one were to be made on-site, neither the time nor the materials are available.

This is why Horn urgently seeks fishing and salt production.

After securing Autumn Dusk Island and the Beastmen, Horn can now operate in areas that were once battlegrounds; he set up stake nets at several river mouths.

The cold weather is causing the local fish to move toward Nanze.

According to Dong Pia, "You could practically walk across the river on the backs of fish over there."

Horn sneezed and rubbed his nose, asking, "How's the flu in the camp these days?"

"The number is increasing, we're somewhat unable to control it. Some refugees simply don't listen, shouting or running around..." Busak complained, "We've told them that whether it's flu or Divine Favor, it's not a big deal."

Upon hearing this, Horn understood the refugees' perspective.

In this era, for a common farmer, the flu is indeed a deadly threat. Their long-held habits make it difficult for them to control their actions.

Additionally, outbreaks of Divine Favor and flu are occurring simultaneously, and their symptoms are so similar, it's unclear how to treat them.

Forget it, better check on the salt field.

Mounting his horse, Horn, Busak, and a group proceeded along the swampy and river terrain.

After traveling a short distance, they saw hundreds of Beastmen and Salvation Army members, shovels in hand, excavating marshland on the shore.

A group of workers braved the rain, swinging picks high, repeatedly loosening the dense marshland soil.

Another group of workers inserted their shovels into the loosened marsh soil, pushing them deep with their feet, forcefully digging out the soil and dumping it into wheelbarrows behind them.

When the wheelbarrow was full, a dozen strong men pushing empty wheelbarrows walked from the end of the dirt road, placed the empty carts in place, and pushed the wheelbarrows filled with swamp soil towards the simple peat refining workshop at the mountain foot.

"The speed is quite fast, there's no dawdling." Boned stood aside, staring blankly at these laborers, "Your overseers' whip technique is quite something."

"We don't have overseers." Horn pointed to Armand and a few Child Soldiers standing nearby, "Their main job is to motivate workers and control the process; the slackers are all in the Trinity Education Team."

"Then how are they being so diligent?"

"Firstly, I told them that every shovelful of dirt will turn into peat, the peat will turn into salt, and the salt will turn into salted fish.

The peat is used to heat themselves and their families in winter, and the salt is also for their consumption.

As for the salted fish, the soldiers of the Salvation Army who eat it will become stronger, and they will avenge and protect them on the battlefield.

Secondly, I offer them a salary that is 20% higher than the average in the labor market, and the best-performing team gets a bonus.

Since the bonus is distributed by team, they supervise each other within each group."

Horn spread his hands: "It's that simple."

After speaking, Horn shook the reins and headed towards the farther Peat Alchemy Workshop, while Boned took a few more seconds to follow Horn's pace.

Along the dirt road forward is a flat clearing, with seven or eight grass huts beside it.

Dozens of the Blessed uniformly wore black hoods, holding sticks in their hands, bouncing around a circle along the deep pit on the open ground.

In the deep pit, the dark peat gradually seeped out, and within the circle they formed, two coal shoveling workers shoveled out new peat and then turned over the old soil to reveal the new soil below.

Parked by the dirt road were four or five wagons, each loaded with four or five baskets of peat, covered with canvas and straw.

A few strong Beastmen tied hemp ropes to their chests, pulling the wagons forward in the rain.

Riding past the group of Beastmen pulling wagons, Horn and others moved forward past sparse bushes and thorns, finally seeing the Mountain Foot Salt Field.

This salt field was not far from the edge of the swamp, taking seven or eight minutes by horse from Horn and others, or at most ten minutes on foot.

It was located in a mountain hollow, surrounded by sparse trees, and the obvious stumps indicated that they were likely cut by the Beastmen.

Horn dismounted, walked to the salt well, and leaned over to look; the well opening was barely the size of a human head, with a hemp rope hanging on a reel, and a small bucket at the lower end.

"Why not make the salt well larger, so we can use a bigger bucket?" Horn asked the King's Hand of Carthage nearby.

Stepping forward, the King's Hand respectfully replied, "It can't be made larger; if it's too big, it might collapse."

Horn reached out to touch the well wall, nodded thoughtfully, and took a step outside the mountain hollow, where he had just seen the salt boiling site.

At the outer exit of the mountain hollow stood seven or eight salt kilns.

Each salt kiln was about knee-high, with a small opening at the bottom dividing it into two layers; the upper layer held peat and ignition materials, and the lower used rotating wood pieces to fan the fire, making the salt kiln burn more vigorously.

A flat-bottomed ceramic basin with a diameter of two or three meters was placed on the salt kiln, with a depth of less than half a meter; the pale yellow brine bubbled and boiled in the fierce flames of the peat.

With the King's Hand's guidance, Horn walked to a ceramic basin that was almost dry.

A Beastman circled the ceramic basin, using a wooden piece to scrape away the pale yellow well salt bit by bit.

This salt still contained many impurities and needed decoloring, but the Beastmen didn't care, they just did the work.

Next to the salt field was a temporary salted fish workshop, where several Kingdom chefs were skillfully gutting the fish, removing the innards, and placing them aside.

The two pieces of fish bodies were placed in a wooden box for curing, adhering to a ratio of ten pounds of fish to one pound of salt.

Beside the workshop was a smoking room; due to the humid climate of Daze Village, air drying was not possible, so smoking was used.

"Can the production of salted fish keep up?" After scanning the entire salted fish production line, Horn turned to ask the King's Hand.

"The time is a bit tight for a batch every ten days." The old Beastman frowned, "We might need to add more salt kilns and peat..."

"No worries, I can send more people, doing three shifts."

"Your Eminence, but we only have two salt wells; the salt kilns may keep up, but the brine won't. There's not enough time to dig a new well."

That indeed was a problem, and Horn stared at the mountain hollow for a while before taking a notebook out of his pocket, jotting down a few words, and patting the old Beastman's shoulder.

"No problem, you go ahead and expand the salt kilns; I'll find a way to solve the brine issue."