CH 68

The unique dyeing process of the Anas Empire has its own advantages.

For example, the cloth won’t fade in a short time. It can also maintain the softness of the fabric, so it won’t become dry and hard from soaking. It’s not unbearable to wear or irritate the skin.

However, this process also has obvious shortcomings, such as single color and cumbersome steps…

After Boris ordered his people to send the dyeing technology to his territory, Xia Zuoyi asked Adai and the alchemists in the alchemy tower to study and improve it.

The key areas for innovation are the dyeing materials and streamlining the steps to improve efficiency.

Xia Zuoyi continued to expand on the original dyeing materials.

Natural minerals and plants… Some rare colors require artificial research and experimentation to re-synthesize.

After that, the materials that don’t easily fade, have beautiful dyeing effects, and can maintain the original touch of the fabric are selected from a large number of raw items.

He also focused on improving the disadvantages of Anas Empire’s backward dyeing technology and monochrome textiles.

For this reason, Xia Zuoyi exchanged his reputation value for many books on cloth dyeing and used his sleep time at night to immerse his mind in the system interface for reading and learning.

From the time he first came to this world to now, this way of reading has almost become his daily necessary habit.

If one night, Xia Zuoyi doesn’t read a book before going to bed, he will definitely feel very uncomfortable, as if he’s missing something, even to the point that he couldn’t fall asleep no matter how he tosses and turns.

After all, he has been here for several years now.

The reading and study time every night is not an act that squeezes his sleep and rest and was forced onto him in order to survive.

Instead, it has become a method that can not only increase insight and knowledge but also the most effective way to help him sleep.

Xia Zuoyi enjoys filling himself with a wealth of information.

And when he uses the knowledge he has learned to practice and show it, what he gets is another kind of satisfying pleasure.

In the dyeing process, there is a transition from primary colors to another, from single to multi-color to obtain different secondary colors, and so on.1

For example, a mottled or gradient color for a set of clothes.

Cyan blue includes royal blue, navy blue, and azure; green includes emerald green, fruit green, dark green…

Xia Zuoyi enriched the color spectrum of the fabric on the basis of the original colors.

The alchemists in the alchemy tower were simply busy to death during this period, but they did enjoy it.

Alchemists believe that everything is connected, just as they also study metals and natural minerals, trying to find out the secrets contained in them.

Natural minerals are one of the raw materials for dyeing.

In the process of getting to know them, they did learn a lot of knowledge that was helpful to alchemy experiments.

The alchemists studied and improved the dyeing process under the constant “encouragement” of Xia Zuoyi. They both felt pain and happiness.

After enriching the color spectrum, they once again delved into how to innovate the sewing process on the fabric into the technique of painting, jacquard, and manual printing on cloth.

In the Western Continent, people’s understanding of the decoration and cutting skills of clothes and fabrics is very scarce.

Whether it is wool weaving or sewing patterns, it takes a long time to make. The clothes or fabrics produced in this way are so expensive that there is no way to achieve mass production.

In order to solve this problem, pulp mixing technology, manual printing, and dyeing, etc. must also be improved.

After giving sufficient exploration direction, Xia Zuoyi let the alchemists scratch their ears and cheeks to ponder the experiment.

He continues to complete the sequel to the Story of the Gods.

This time, “Story of the Gods 2” involves not only the gods, but also other life forms—dragons, elves, orcs, giants, dwarves, and mortals. All six races came on stage one by one.

With their debut, Xia Zuoyi also ordered the people to attach character illustrations to the books, so that each race has an exact and specific image in everyone’s minds, and the characters’ personalities are also fuller.

—The dragons are powerful but arrogant. They look down on other races, especially humans. Sometimes they don’t even give a face to the gods. They are rude and insolent.

Orcs are the most numerous race among the seven life forms. They are ruled by the Beast King, but they are violent and savage and often in civil strife.

The elves are kind, beautiful, and outstanding in appearance. They have the friendliest relationship with the gods.

The giant race is powerful but greedy.

Dwarves are optimistic and smart but suffer discrimination and humiliation because of their short stature.

The human race has the least description in the story and has a very low sense of existence. It is also the most oppressed race among the seven life systems…

It is different from the beautiful holiness of the gods in “Story of the Gods 1”.

In “Story of the Gods 2”, conflicts between races began to erupt, as well as the deception and bewitchment from the devil in the abyss.

The first to get caught is the dull-minded race—the giants.

At the end of “Story of the Gods 2”, the entire race was dragged into the abyss by the devil.

—Their normal skin color gradually turned gray. Inch by inch, they turned into the shape and touch of rocks, and their appearance became more and more ugly, with strange patterns on their faces…

These are the traces of being polluted and assimilated by the abyss’ demon energy.

And, on the last page of “Story of the Gods 2”, Xia Zuoyi also ordered someone to carefully draw a picture of a giant contaminated into a demon, which is very impactful and can make the people who have just finished reading it be stunned for a long time. 

Immediately, it will give rise to an eager desire to continue reading.

This idea quickly began to spread from Wissas, and it didn’t take long for the entire Desinian Territory to erupt a great deal of discussion.

The masses are surprised that the gods are not omnipotent. The indifference of the God of Light and the powerlessness of the Moon God, even the God of War and the Goddess of Wisdom cannot prevent the downfall of a race.

They’re also afraid of the cunning and deceitful abyss devil, but they are even angrier that the giants are so easily tempted.

Not only that, the most important thing is that “Story of the Gods 2” ended here, making them even more anxious to know the plot behind.

Some people even went to the Thorns Chamber of Commerce to ask when the third book would be sold.

The guy from the Thorns Chamber of Commerce smiled and said to everyone in the room who was asking about the sequel, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m really sorry. I don’t know when the third story will be sold.”

“Maybe the writer hasn’t finished it yet…”

There is a big guy who often comes to the establishment to buy things and is very familiar with this fellow named Matt. At this time, he asks, “Then Matt, do you know who wrote the story? Go and remind him!”

“Yeah, yeah, let him write faster. I’m willing to spend this little money.” 

The rest repeated what that person said, expressing their eagerness.

Matt just kept smiling and nodding.

Seeing that they couldn’t ask anything, they left the shop in twos and threes shortly afterward.

The enthusiasm for storybook discussions has continued.

When Xia Zuoyi first wrote this story, he didn’t deliberately publicize or conceal it, and outsiders only knew it from Grove.

After all, whether it is from the sale of the Thorns Chamber of Commerce or Grove’s behavior of going to the castle every time before the “Story of the Gods” is released…

Anyone who cares can guess that the person who wrote the story must also be inseparable from Xia Zuoyi.

But outsiders would at most think that this storybook was written by someone who was ordered by Xia Zuoyi, but they would never expect that “Story of the Gods” would be written by Lord Desinia himself.

The emergence of it is like a little “spark” that ignites people’s barren cultural and entertainment fields.

First, it mobilized the people’s enthusiasm for literacy.

Especially the young children. They no longer insisted on becoming knights and started hoping to be able to learn to read in school.

Because only by reading can they understand the content of the storybook, instead of listening from others or waiting for the monthly God’s Day. The waiting time is too painful.

This is true for children, as well as adults.

Their entertainment methods are too few, especially in spiritual enrichment and communication. The emergence of “Story of the Gods” gives everyone the support and capital to talk about together.

These two little stories became more and more widespread in the Desinian Territory and began to spread abroad.

The existence of gods was undoubtedly sensitive to the Holy See. Finally, it was soon passed on to the Saint Airo Empire by church clergy outside the territory.

…

In the holy church of Saint Airo Empire.

Cardinal Demps walked quickly to the Pope’s resting place.

Along the way, the white sacred flower belanka is in full bloom in the courtyard. Probably only the Holy See would be so extravagant in planting a large area of belanka.

Although the sacred flower is so beautiful, it is expensive to maintain.

The Pope’s residence is guarded by golden knights. No one can enter, so the surroundings are extremely quiet.

Demps could clearly hear his breathing and heartbeat when he walked in. He finally came to the door of the room, knocked under the watch of the guarding golden-armored knight, and entered after getting permission…

“Mianxia.”

Demps pressed his right hand on his chest, right where his heart is, and bowed his head respectfully, “I have something to report to you.”

Segalot sat casually by the window, one slender leg supported on the ground and the other bent.

Wearing a white robe, with his long black curly hair scattered, he was slowly trimming a bunch of flowers that hadn’t yet bloomed.

“What’s the matter.”

Demps: “Please take a look at these two books. They’re both from the Desinian Territory…”

Segalot finally gave Demps a look. He raised his golden eyes that glowed under the dazzling sunlight.

He put down the tool in his hand and Demps immediately handed over the books.

The room was quiet again, with only the sound of the pages being turned.

Demps waited patiently for the Pope to finish reading and let out an inexplicable smile, before he said, “Mianxia, I think it’s very likely that these books were written under the behest of Lord Desinia…”

“You have also seen the content of the book. The description of the gods is too realistic, and other races are no less, especially the narration about the devil luring the giants into the abyss…”

“At present, the people in the Desinian Territory are eagerly discussing this. Some people even begin to worship these false gods, which is not a good thing for the Holy See.”

“Mianxia, do you think the lord is challenging the authority of the Holy See?”

Demps’ tone was flat and justified.

As a confidant of the Pope, he knew a little about the Pope’s itinerary some time ago… When he left, he took the black panther presented by the Kadi tribe.

However, when he returned, the black panther was nowhere to be seen. It was obvious that he gave it away.

Demps wondered about the relationship between the Pope and Desinia. After speaking, he couldn’t help explaining, “Maldiz was the first to hear about this.” 

“He thinks Xia Zuoyi Desinia’s behavior had seriously affected the authority of the Holy See, so he plans to send Archbishop Paul to Desinian Territory in person.” 

Maldiz is a cardinal of his equal status and has always acted more radically.

Demps never heard the Pope’s reply, so raised his head to ask again, but was taken aback when he saw the Pope’s expression.

The corners of Segalot’s mouth were raised, and his face looked particularly soft in the warm and bright sunshine.

When he reached the last page, he turned to the first page, and moved his fingertips across a line of small words under the title—this story is purely fictitious. Even if it’s true, it’s merely an accident.

After a while, Demps heard the Pope speak.

“Since Maldiz wants to send Paul to Desinian Territory, as he thought, I hope he won’t…” 

Demps wondered, won’t what?

Translator’s Note: