Chapter 360: From Hell to Heaven

The early morning light shines through the thin clouds onto the earth, and is outlined by the dust floating in the air like mayflies. The wind blows through the Bohemian grassland, and the green grass leans back in the same direction layer by layer, like endless waves. The wind blows all the way to the end of the grassland and crashes into the thick Bohemian forest. The branches and leaves of hundreds of kilometers in radius rustle, and the shapes of light and shadow also shake...

The wind blew the green leaves hanging on the branches into pieces, and the wind itself was also pulled by the swaying branches. When the wind reached the end of the forest, it was already at the end of its strength and could hardly move forward.

But it finally reached its destination. It started from the green Bohemian grassland and exhausted everything in the vast forest, just to reach the rich basin on the Danube.

Vienna is now the largest city in the entire European continent. It is located in the center of the entire Europe. People and things from all directions gather in this city through the muddy road network in spring, but Vienna is not the heart of the entire Europe.

The heart of Europe is in Vienna, but Vienna is not the heart of Europe.

The three major families need a city that can fully control the European continent as a base, and this place can only be Vienna. But the three major families must maintain a certain degree of mystery. As a huge organization that integrates military, political and religious trinity, it is not suitable to squeeze into the bustling urban area of ​​Vienna. Therefore, a small castle nearly ten miles north of the urban area of ​​Vienna was fortunately selected, and it suddenly became the heart of the entire Europe from a small place with nothing but a monastery.

This is Klostenburg, the current headquarters of Klostenburg.

It was originally just the location of Klostenburg's institutions. In addition to the castle parliament, the three major families, and some other organizational personnel and their families, the entire Klosten population was less than 10,000. But as time went by, the power of the Mandate of Heaven became more and more prominent, and the institutions and personnel became more and more bloated. All kinds of business travelers and hawkers rushed to Klosten from all over Europe like sharks smelling blood, which made its scale soar several times, even compared with Vienna.

But Vienna is Vienna, and Klosten is Klosten. Vienna is a magnificent building and a colorful dream, while Klosten is black and gray at a glance. The cumulonimbus clouds over the whole city have obviously dissipated, but it still seems to be pressed by something heavy. Once you step in, you will feel heavy and breathless.

The muddy road under your feet is soft and sticky, and the air is full of the unique coolness after the rain. Perhaps for this reason, the streets of Klosten today are almost empty. Occasionally, housewives holding bread, vegetables and meat pass by, and they are all in a hurry, as if they are afraid of being entangled by something.

"Crack"

The thin and crisp paper sank into the mud, making a slight sound. Mikael bent down and picked up the guessed paper. It was about the size of a palm, and it was densely covered with characters:

[Indulgence

Everyone is born with original sin, and you are muddle-headed in the world. You may do good deeds, but you can't escape evil deeds.

Now the Lord has granted me mercy. This ticket alone can offset all sins, exempt you from the suffering of hell after death, and let your soul go directly to heaven to listen to the Lord's voice - Amen! 】

"It's started."

Mikael's lips opened and closed, and the sound was so small that Mobius beside him could hardly hear it.

He turned his wrist and saw a line of scribbled big characters on the back of this "indulgence" - **squid (one of the ten ancient mythical beasts)!

"Haha."

Mobius took the indulgence and looked at it, and couldn't help but sneer twice.

"Let's go and see what kind of good show you're talking about."

Continue walking forward, you will see a stall occupying half of the road at the empty corner. There are two large pottery jars on the stall. The salesman in a bright red robe is leaning on the plain wooden chair behind the stall. If it weren't for his too wretched appearance, you would really think he is a cardinal at first glance.

Seeing someone coming, he raised his head and glanced quickly. There were two figures, one tall and one short, whose whole bodies were hidden under black robes, and even their faces were blocked.

The salesman shook his head. He was not an internal staff of Tianming, but a contractor of indulgences. He usually does all kinds of business. Just one look and you know that these two people are not easy to mess with.

It's hard to say whether they are local people in Klosten - how can local people wear such black robes that cover their whole body when they go out on the street? Almost only assassins and mercenaries who lick blood on the tip of the knife will dress like this.

The more the salesman looked at them, the more he felt that his guess was right, especially the figures of the two men. The tall one was strong and powerful, and could beat at least ten of himself in a head-on confrontation. It was hard to say about the petite one, but it was perfect for carrying out assassination missions, such as drilling a chimney or a cat or dog hole.

Such people have experienced life and death for many years, and their mental state must be very unstable. The salesman didn't want to provoke them, but then he thought that there were also devout believers among them, and after experiencing so much killing, they must have committed many "sins"...

So, out of professional ethics... or maybe it was a fluke mentality, he still shouted:

"You two, do you want to buy indulgences? You can get a discount if you buy together! When the coins you use to buy indulgences fall into the pottery jar, the souls of you or your relatives will come out of the flames of purgatory!"

He didn't have much hope, but after he shouted, he saw the tall one stopped and walked to his stall.

He reached out and knocked on the clay pot on the table. The clay pot filled with gold and silver coins made a sound like silver bells, and like fine raindrops, crisp and sweet.

This action startled the salesman. For a moment, he thought that the man in black was planning to steal all his hard-earned money in broad daylight.

Fortunately, the other party was not so rough, or not so bold. The salesman saw him raise his head slightly, revealing the corners of his mouth that were raised for no reason, and then a calm and indifferent male voice came:

"How to sell it?"

"Ah...ah?"

Mikael took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his voice slightly louder:

"How much does one cost?"

"Ah...ah...oh!"

When he heard that a customer was coming to the door, the smile on the salesman's face instantly bloomed, until his two big yellow and black teeth turned out like rabbits.

"Well, sir, this is your first time buying indulgences, right? Hehe, these are not sold by the piece!"

"Huh? What's the button?"

"Uh... this gentleman, it depends on the sin you want to atone for, ahem -"

He cleared his throat, probably feeling that what he was going to say and do next was a sacred work. After all, indulgences can wash away people's sins and allow souls that should have fallen into hell to ascend to heaven. Then the Lord should Watching every indulgence issued...that's weird! What a ghost!

"If you take another person's life, you should pay eight gold groschens. If you harm your parents, brothers and sisters, it will be six. If you commit adultery in the church, it will be six. If you forge another person's document, commit fraud or treason, it will be six." …”

"If the life of one's own family is taken, should it be counted as an eight-gold groshin, or an eight-and-six-gold groshin?"

"Uh...this...this...eight..."

The amount of information was a bit overwhelming, and the hair on the back of the salesman's head was suddenly soaked in cold sweat. But when he thought of the crisp sound when gold and silver coins were thrown into the clay pot, he gritted his teeth, lowered his head and said:

"Eight plus six!"

"That's it..."

Mikael stood still in front of the clay pot. Mebius couldn't figure out what he was thinking, so he could only hold his hand tightly.

In fact, Mikael was just performing the simplest addition and subtraction operations. Not to mention the special nature of the Herrscher of Reason, even an ordinary adult would not be able to perform simple addition and subtraction for long. But maybe I have lived too long and my brain is a little rusty, or maybe I have too many debts, and it takes too much time to count them out one by one. Until the morning light becomes dazzling and hot, the salesman in front of me can't even breathe lightly. Just waiting for Mikael to speak.

"Eight plus six... times one, two, three... eleven..."

He waved his sleeves, and one by one the large silver coins (Jinggroshen had gold characters, but they were actually silver coins...) fell into the clay pot like beads. At first, the salesman could count them, but then he could only count them mechanically. The ground trembled with the crisp sound of money——

How many people were killed? Are they all family members?

The crisp sound of the silver coins finally stopped, and the sunlight reflected by the silver coins almost overflowed from the clay pot. The salesman was still in a trance, and saw Mikael reaching out his hand again and throwing twelve gold groschens into it. Then he raised his head, revealing a boyish face that had nothing to do with his voice.

Their eyes met, and he swore, swore by the memory of selling thousands of indulgences that he had never seen such pious eyes.

It stands to reason that people who buy indulgences do so in order to avoid the punishment of hell, so that themselves or the souls of their deceased relatives and friends can ascend to heaven. They should be extremely devout believers. But of course this is not the case. At least in the special city of Klosten, no one thinks that buying indulgences is the Lord's will.

The reason why they are willing to pay is because they know that this is Destiny's way of making money. Taking the initiative to subscribe now may save them a lot of trouble. As for those who don't have money to buy or simply don't want to buy, the salesman knows very well that they will definitely give in within two days. It's just hard to say whether they come on their own initiative or if the Knight of Destiny knocks on their door.

Of course, the population of Klosten is close to one hundred thousand, and the people are mixed, good and bad. If there are people who are really determined to believe that indulgences can really atone for sins, the salesman has not seen them.

But even among those people, no one has ever been as pious as the young man in front of him.

Just piety, without any fanaticism, without any excitement, without any excessive expectations, and without any worries about gains and losses, just devoutly praying that one's sins can be redeemed.

"Gulu——"

The salesman swallowed hard, put his sweaty palm into another clay pot, and took out a thin piece of paper between his fingers.

"This is your atonement, you..."

The salesman's movements froze in place, because there was no one in front of him again.

He quickly grabbed the pottery pot on the other side. Fortunately, the pottery pot was full of gold and had not decreased. It seemed that he wanted to use this method to prove the real existence of the man in black.

Of course, the salesman would not think about the issue of "existence". He just lay down on the wooden chair, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and kept mumbling:

"It's good as long as the money is still there...It's good as long as the money is still there..."

He jumped up from his seat again, grabbed a large handful of silver coins from the clay pot, put it under his nose and took a deep breath. The unique smell of metal and rust entered his nostrils. He closed his eyes and let out a contented sigh. .

"I thought it was some kind of difficult customer, but it turned out to be a stupid guy with a lot of money!"

He snorted coldly, and while there were no pedestrians on the street, he half-crouched, took a breath to pick up the pottery jar full of silver coins, took two quick steps back, and poured all the silver coins into the prepared cloth bag.

"Hush--"

He put the pottery jar back on the table and blew a weak whistle. Just as he was about to continue his day of slacking off, a woman in her twenties and a little girl of five or six years old appeared in his sight.

The woman just turned the corner and saw his stall. Her first reaction was to drag the girl back along the road.

Unexpectedly, the salesman in the red robe with limited mobility was extremely flexible. He jumped up from the chair in just 0.1 seconds, and took advantage of the situation to flip over the wooden table and land behind the woman. The woman took a step and was grabbed by the wrist by him.

"Let me go, my child and I have already bought indulgences!"

"Oh? Really? Madam, are you sure you have bought indulgences?"

The salesman looked thin and short, but he was stronger than a woman who was also suffering from long-term malnutrition. No matter how the latter struggled, her wrist could not escape his iron-like claws. She also had a child with her, which added a lot of concerns.

"Madam, please calm down and talk properly. You don't want your child to get hurt, do you?"

The salesman smiled obscenely, raised his toes and pretended to kick the girl. The woman quickly hugged him and begged for mercy:

"Please be kind, please be kind, I swear to God, I really bought indulgences!"

"Really?"

The salesman's laughter was no longer concealed, just like his palm that kept wandering between the woman's waist and hips.

"Really! I swear it's absolutely true!"

"Then why did you run away when you saw me?"

"I...I..."

"Lying is also a sin, ma'am!"

The salesman pinched the woman's skin, but felt that there was no flesh, and his hand was a little painful.

But it's better than nothing, it's better than nothing...

He then threatened:

"Madam, you have two choices, six gold groschen to buy an indulgence to redeem your sins, or... hehehe!"

"You... you are adding insult to injury! Your soul will go to hell too! Bastard!"

"Ah, ah... really? Then I will buy an indulgence for myself right away, won't it be fine?"

"You..."

"Think it over, madam, I can only find a prostitute in the Miracle District for two silver groschen, and the price I offer for you is six gold groschen, which is equivalent to one hundred and forty-four silver groschen, enough for me to find prostitutes seventy-two times! Are you still dissatisfied?"

"..."

The woman bit her lip and couldn't speak, just hiding the child behind her, but this obviously didn't have any effect except making the salesman more excited.

"I know what you are thinking, Madam. Do you think I am just using a piece of paper that is not worth mentioning to cheat you of your chastity? No, no, no, for every indulgence I sell, I have to pay the money to Heaven, and they will return me one-twenty-fourth of the commission. I paid you six gold groschen!"

This is true. In theory, the profit from selling indulgences is very small. After all, it is a product used by Heaven to make up for the losses of the Eastern Expedition. The bulk of the profit naturally belongs to Heaven.

But the water here is deep - Heaven only prices an indulgence at one gold groschen, and there is no price difference caused by so many crimes.

But this group of profiteers directly doubled the price! Anyway, this is the richest place in Europe, and the indulgence contractors and salesmen in the city have already agreed on the price. If travelers and merchants from all over the country raise objections to the price, they can also argue:

"I'm sorry, brother. The people of Kolosten are generally sinful... How much did you spend on an indulgence in xxx? Oh! I'm so sorry. I'm a sinner when I come to Kolosten. Can you give me another one?"

Of course, not to mention that these people have increased the original price several times. As far as the salesman in front of him is concerned, he has just encountered a sucker who is hard to come by in a million years!

Fourteen times eleven plus twelve, a full 166 gold groschen! Throwing away the 23 silver groschen handed over to fate... rounding off, even if one gold groschen is handed over, there is still a net profit of 165!

Once a person gets an unexpected fortune, it is inevitable that he will be distracted and want to squander it. Now he is like this.

"Okay, okay..."

The woman's voice was crying, and the salesman grinned, and suddenly regretted it a little - the woman in front of him was just so beautiful, and it seemed that he was a little... at a loss?

He was worried about gain and loss, but unexpectedly, the woman gritted her teeth and took out six gold groschen from her loose and worn dress and stuffed them into his hand.

"An indulgence, sir!"

"Thank you!"

The salesman said again, and then accepted the six large silver coins with satisfaction.

"Bah! Money is better than anything else!"

Then he thought to himself that after making so much money in the past two days, the low-end prostitutes who cost two silver groschens might not be suitable for him. Otherwise... try the one with two gold groschens tonight?