I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha

The surrounding crowd was shouting so loudly that Roland could barely hear Old John's cries for a long time.

He followed Old John's finger and looked at the statue behind him, his face becoming extremely strange.

He noticed that there was something wrong with the statue behind him, and also, there seemed to be a few more scarecrows in the crowd.

After thinking carefully, Roland immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

The surrounding crowd was still grabbing money, and Roland carefully squeezed through them, coming to Old John's side.

He whispered, "How could these people have re-carved the statue so quickly?"

Old John was also impressed. He looked at the empty hall behind Roland and said, "Master, there's no one there! Don't go crazy, it's scaring me!"

As soon as Roland heard this, sweat poured down his face.

He turned his head and looked at the main hall again, then his whole body swayed slightly, his face pale.

This was not a magnificent cathedral at all.

This was the skeletal remains of a building that had been burned down by a fire.

How could anyone come here to worship?

Apart from those few scarecrows, Roland didn't see a single person.

No matter what magic he used, he couldn't detect anyone.

The benches, curtains, and chains in the hall were slowly swaying in the wind.

They became quieter and quieter, and gradually, the hall returned to silence.

Roland was numb at this moment, and a thought flashed through his mind—everyone was watching him!

Because the money had been distributed!

He hurriedly threw out a few more handfuls of silver coins, and then the wind increased, and the curtains and chains began to sway again.

Roland breathed a sigh of relief.

The mystery here is essentially a kind of human desire.

This used to be a town full of various desires.

The lord here was greedy, the townspeople were greedy, and the bishops and priests were even more greedy!

The bishop was a very clever man. In order to build such a magnificent church in this small, broken place, he joined forces with the lord and the townspeople to come up with a wonderful trick.

This trick was called 'Straw for Gold'.

In Roland's words, it was 'pyramid scheme', 'pig butchering scam', or 'Ponzi scheme'.

Subsequently, the magnificent church rose from the ground, and the residents of the town also lived in three-story detached villas with high pointed roofs.

This 'Straw for Gold' movement became bigger and bigger, and the bubble became bigger and bigger, almost affecting the entire small kingdom.

A real wizard was attracted here and built a wizard tower in the distance of the town.

Gradually, the people of Straw Town accumulated more and more wealth. The people of the kingdom could almost only use straw as gold and silver.

But the people in the kingdom firmly believed that straw was gold and silver, and tried every means to bring the surrounding kingdoms together for 'Straw for Gold'.

But as long as you are a little sober and can maintain a little sanity, how can you believe in the dream of straw for gold?

The surrounding kingdoms naturally did not believe it.

This absurd bubble was shattered with a light touch.

Suddenly, wails of misery were heard throughout the kingdom, and angry people rushed into Straw Town and burned it to ruins.

Afterwards, the wizard planted a prison seed.

This prison seed was planted in the souls of the thousands of Straw Town residents who died in the fire.

Then, he gathered all the stories related to 'straw' in the kingdom over the years, as well as all the desires of the people, and poured them into this prison seed.

The prison seed took root in the thousands of burned townspeople as soil, and grew vigorously in desire and obsession.

As a result, Straw Town slowly became a place of disaster and evil.

Fortunately, a Black Abyss wizard passed by here and fought with that Twilight Wizard. As a result, the prison seed did not grow.

Seeing that the prison seed had grown wastefully and his apprentice had failed to become an immortal, the Twilight Wizard knew that this seed was useless. He beat his chest and stamped his feet while fighting with the Black Abyss Wizard for a long time, and was finally driven away.

However, he left behind a huge mess.

That Black Abyss Wizard couldn't handle this mess by himself, so he called a group of friends.

So, a group of Black Abyss and White Chess tower masters gathered together and came up with many crooked ideas, quietly containing this 'disaster' into the mirror in the Straw Town Church, and then sealing the mirror in the church in a subtle way.

The whole process of containment and sealing is simple to describe, but in practice, it is very complicated.

Crab Eye Elephant Tower Master 'Goderick' had so few hairs left that he pulled them all out.

The scales on Snake Tower Master 'Usack' also pulled off a lot of himself.

However, this group of great powers can be regarded as living up to their mission. The Straw Disaster had not yet developed and had not affected anything, so it was dealt with by everyone at the smallest cost.

'Goderick' and 'Usack', as two participants, have a strong sense of responsibility.

They felt that other people were unreliable, so they wanted to arrange their sons or disciples to come here to guard the contained object.

On the one hand, they regarded this matter of guarding people as a kind of honor.

On the other hand, the person who guards here can understand the mysteries of this place, which is of great benefit to those who take the path of mysterious magic.

The matter of guarding the seal has been going around for a long time, and finally fell on Roland's head.

The youngest in the family is always the most proud.

Usack was also proud of his youngest disciple.

He favored Roland and placed high hopes on him.

Usack was very confident in the seal of Straw Town, after all, this was something he and a few of his old buddies had done together.

Not to mention the villagers in this area, even if a group of wizards came, they would rack their brains and couldn't figure out how to release the things in the mirror.

Even if Master Usack came here in person, it would take some effort, at least two or three days, to release that group of things.

But Roland, if Master Usack was present today, seeing Roland facing the mirror, seeing Roland using the method of throwing money to command the straw to repair this place and other mysterious operations, he would definitely give Roland a big thumbs up and be amazed by his genius idea.

Then the master would roll up his sleeves and slap this rebellious disciple to death!

With a crisp sound, a chain in the church broke.

Immediately afterwards was the second and third.

As the chains broke, a strong wind began to rage in the hall.

Afterwards, the church, which had been burned to only a skeleton, actually returned to its original state at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The church that Roland had seen gradually appeared before him and Old John.

It is an art palace built by gathering people's wisdom.

It also gathers people's wishes for all good things.

But the flesh and blood that piled up this art palace was the blood and sweat of the people of the entire small country that had been squeezed dry.

The people who come here to worship are not worshipping any pious faith, but the desires in their hearts.

This magnificent palace cannot realize any of the beautiful things for people, nor can it clothe those who died because of it.

It is like a gorgeous bubble, empty and superficial.

It is also like a luxurious straw house, seemingly magnificent, but in reality it is made of straw!

"Master~~ How, how is this church woven from straw?!" Old John was so frightened that his legs trembled, but the master didn't let him leave, and he didn't dare to leave. He was afraid of inexplicably turning into straw like those slave traders.

"Who knows!" Roland was also so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He didn't dare to stop the movements in his hands, and kept scattering silver coins. If he stopped for a moment, the hall would suddenly become quiet.

Swish, swish, swish...

Strange noises gradually appeared in the hall, like countless dry snakes crawling on the ground.

Roland took a closer look, and immediately his eyes went dark.

He saw that a lot of straw was spreading out from the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the center of the hall!

At this moment, Roland suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"Hey! How dare you fool your lord?!"

Roland suddenly scolded loudly, he pointed to the dome of the hall above his head and said: "I said I wanted to repair the church, but you actually used straw mats to fool me?"

"You don't want a reward?"

"I, your master, have prepared 10,000 gold and 100,000 silver for you!"

"What? The materials are good? As precious as the gold and silver I threw out?"

"Bullshit!"

"Can gold and silver be burned away?"

"This church, if you light a fire, won't it be burned away?"

"Light the candles on that silver candlestick for me, and I will give you a reward!"

With a crash, a straw silver candlestick moved, and then a tuft of straw-woven flames appeared on it. Immediately afterwards, the entire church was lit!

The fire grew bigger and bigger, but this fire was woven from straw!

The straw fire spread continuously in the hall, and the seats in the hall shook in a mess, as if people were running around in panic.

Roland noticed that as the straw fire grew larger, less and less straw crawled out of the mirror!

Sure enough!

All the straw materials come from the mirror!

In just a short while, the entire straw hall was 'blazing with flames (straw)'.

Roland stopped throwing silver coins, because the desire to survive is also a desire! A stronger desire.

"Master, what, what is going on? How can straw fire ignite straw?" Old John didn't understand, but he was greatly shocked.

Little Master patted his clothes and said: "Because, that straw is desire! It is originally like fire, as long as someone stimulates it a little, it will burn up. I will tell you the details later. Let's go."

Old John swallowed hard and said, "Really okay? The straw fires in the main hall are getting bigger and bigger!"

Old John was worried that the raging straw fires would become stronger and stronger as they burned more and more, then catch up with the two of them, and even bring disaster to the entire kingdom.

The young master smiled and said, "No, because fire will go out. Besides, didn't you see someone putting out the fire?"

Old John: "? ? ?"

The young master sighed: "Oh, their desire to survive can't compare to their obsession with the church. Don't worry, it's okay now. Those straw fires will 'go out' after spreading to a certain extent."

After that, the straw outside the mirror disappeared.

There was one thing that the young master didn't tell Old John.

That is, the straw will not truly disappear, because they are desires, and desires are endless.

However, when the straw in the mirror grows enough, they will continue to rebuild the church for the reward money, but they will never be able to build a church that will not be burned down. So, desire is once again trapped in the church.

The church will forever repeat in 'rebuilding - burning - rebuilding'.

Because these 'scarecrows' will never remember the pain of the fire. After the fire goes out, they will think about the reward money and start weaving the church. Then weave the fire on the silver candlestick.

Once the fire is woven, the entire church will be ignited again.

Therefore, the church will continuously cycle between rebuilding and burning, and the scarecrows will be trapped in the church forever.

Mystery cannot be sealed, but they can seal themselves.

Mentor Ursack and the others used this logic to seal the straw in the first place.

The young master messed up the teachers' seal, but based on the mentors' method, he came up with a new crooked idea to patch the hole he had poked.

When the young master led Old John out of the church, he was soaked in cold sweat.

The mystery in Straw Town is essentially desire and obsession.

Fear is also a desire, a desire to survive!

And the Prisoner Seed is planted in the souls of thousands of dead people, and the souls all have a common characteristic—obsession with memories and fear of memories.

Based on these things, the young master took a gamble with his crooked idea. He escaped the disaster and walked out of the church. But he also forgot something.

Just as the young master sighed secretly in his heart, he suddenly discovered that the entire town was in ruins!

What frightened him even more was that there were several more scarecrows in the ruins of the town.

How dare he wander around leisurely in this mess? He hurriedly took out the flint and steel, and turned into fire with Old John, flying out of the town.

Beside the carriage outside the town, he folded a raven and drove the raven to hover over the town for a while.

With the eyes of the raven, he observed the town for a while, then breathed a sigh of relief.

'I said before that staying here would give you 20 silver as a settlement fee. Although those scarecrows don't know how they escaped from the church, they don't seem to plan to leave the town for this 20 silver.'

‘They are rebuilding the town.’

‘Because I said before that this place needs maintenance. It needs to be repaired. Only by doing the work well can you receive the 20 silver.’

‘They're getting nothing, after the town is built, it will be burned down.’

The young master shook his head.

This group of scarecrows used to be a group of black-hearted swindlers.

But this young lord is even more black-hearted.

In the end, the feudal lord is more ruthless, and the scarecrows are afraid that they will not be able to leave this town.

Although the scarecrows cannot leave the town for the time being, in order to prevent someone from accidentally entering the town and being harmed, and also to prevent certain passing wizards from discovering that they had poked a hole, the young master thought of a trick.

He ate a fire vine root, then took out the small silver pot and injected magic power, wanting to release the ghost mist.

But this strange object was unusually difficult to use, as if it wasn't his own strange object.

He drank several bottles of magic potions in a row before the ghost mist covered the town. But if he wanted to achieve the effect of 'Dar Town Summit' at the beginning, hiding the entire town, he would have to work for several days.

At this time, it was already dark.

This job could not be finished in one day, so he called Old John and took himself to the wizard tower.

Old John was still shivering all over, he was still afraid.

The young master comforted him a lot.

It wasn't until the two were about to reach the wizard tower that Old John's mood stabilized.

This guy is also tough enough, an ordinary person would be driven crazy or scared out of their wits by the young master and the scarecrows.

But Old John, apart from getting his pants dirty, really didn't have anything else wrong.

When the young master got out of the car, he finally said to him: "Ahem, so I am the wizard lord here. I was sent by the White Queen, that is, the 'White Moon Goddess' you believe in. My operation just now was the standard operation when borrowing the power of the Heraca Goddess. I wasn't going crazy."

Old John said: "Ah, yes, yes, yes, Master, whatever you say is right."

While chatting, the two vaguely felt that something was wrong.