Ch35.1 - The Divine Punishment’s Fire (Part One)

Cui QiChao came to the church in Northumberland. Compared with the cottage farmers’ houses built with grass, mud and a little wood, the church was more luxurious, having been built with stone.

Cui QiChao even felt a little envious when he saw it, because although his castle was also a building made of high-quality stone, his castle was too airtight.

Priest William’s house wasn’t far away from the church. It was time for him to preach today, so all the farmers here were listening to him.

Witnessing Cui QiChao’s arrival, William adopted an excellent attitude toward him. Although the priest didn’t live in the castle, the Lord Baron never failed to send him a piece of meat whenever he cooked meat. It wasn’t in vain that he regarded the Lord Baron as one of his own people. 

As a matter of fact, William had also heard about the recent uproar in the fief. There was a dung thief in the fief, but the stewards couldn’t seem to find them, so he intended to preach what God says about thievery today. Stealing other people’s property was a grave crime. The stolen manure wasn’t some animal manure that could be seen lying everywhere on the ground or manure that they had pooped themselves. It was manure that the Lord Baron bought with beans. This was private property.

Deep in his heart, William still felt a little confused about his arrival. There was a chapel in the castle, so the Lord Baron had no need to pray with these farmers.

But soon, William figured out what Cui QiChao was doing when the servant behind Cui QiChao took out wheat and meat and put them into the offering box.

Afterward, the Lord Baron asked in front of the peasants, “Priest, I would like to ask a question. If a person commits the crime of theft and does not atone for it, will he receive retribution?”

This was a very basic doctrine, but it was also something the serfs might not know. But how could the Lord Baron, who is an aristocrat, not know this? So when he asked this, William understood his aim. He did this in order to warn the farmers present and scare the culprit into turning themselves in.

William sighed in his heart. This wasn’t so easy to accomplish. These farmers might seem simple-minded, but amidst their foolishness, they were actually shrewd as well. If they had a chance to do something, then they would immediately realize how to best take advantage of it. How could the thief be so stupid to admit their crimes after being scared?

However, William said honestly, “This… God is full of love for the world. He pities the good and punishes the evil…” He initially wanted to be naggy. No, he wanted to clearly explain the consequences of people doing good and people doing evil, and under what type of circumstance the evildoer would face their retribution. The divine trial might arrive late, but it would not be non-existent. However, seeing the look in Cui QiChao’s eyes, he thought of the wheat and meat Cui QiChao had brought and said immediately, “They will surely receive retribution. There must be one.”

“Well, I believe in God, and I pray to God that God will respond to me and punish the thieves. All the soil that the thief had scattered with the stolen goods will be surrounded by Hellfire,” Cui QiChao said in a seemingly devout manner. 

Wasn’t he just blatantly cursing someone? Still, William acted very solemnly on the surface. “Lord Baron, thank you for your generosity. God bless you.”

Cui QiChao sat inside the church for a while before leaving in a hurry. His evil black cat was still outside because it couldn’t come in.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Cr rbbc jr tf kfca bea, tf rjk WljbDjl ucjklcu bc ugjrr. Pa kjr qgbyjyis ublcu ab rqla bea j tjlgyjii rbbc.

Ktf jaafcvjcar atbeuta atja atf Obgv Djgbc ageis tjv abb vffq bo j mbcagbi bnfg atja fnli yijmx mja. Lf fnfc ifoa atf mja bearlvf, yea atf mja kjr abb jogjlv ab gec jkjs. 

Then the Lord Baron performed the skill that always made everyone in the castle sigh in amazement. He pointed at the cat and said, “Get out of here.”

The black cat rolled on the ground, took the initiative to walk to where the Lord was, and lowered its small head. The Lord bent down and grabbed it.

Meanwhile, inside the church, the farmer Michael who was sitting in the corner felt somewhat uneasy.

He heard the Lord Baron’s curse with his own ears, together with the others. He felt guilty inside, which caused his calf to tremble. If he wasn’t sitting down, he would have collapsed to the floor. 

When his wife saw it, she stepped on Michael’s bare foot and warned him through her gaze.

Michael breathed slowly, clutching his eldest son with one hand. The eldest son kept his head down and froze before relaxing. In silence, they exchanged looks to comfort one another.

Now that it had already happened, they shouldn’t be afraid of any kind of divine trial they would be subjected to in the future.

For more than a week after that, Michael’s mind was filled with the cold but decisive Lord Baron’s curse. Every word the Lord said dragged on and echoed from time to time in his mind, but he had to work hard to hide it from others. 

This went on until the tenth day. When Michael went to his share of the field to pull the grass, he squatted down and noticed that the leaf of a wheat seedling was a little yellow and wilted on the edges.

Was… Was there a bug? Or was it because it was too hot? That shouldn’t be. The weather had been cool recently.

The Lord Baron’s curse flashed through his mind once again, but Michael comforted himself that it was impossible. No, how could the divine trial descend so quickly? His father told him that he had stolen the previous Lord’s wheat before and was not judged until ten years later when his leg was broken.

Michael remained flustered until the next day. When he visited the field, he became even more flustered. The leaves became more yellow. Some leaves even rolled up, and even the stems turned yellow. 

These wheat seedlings did not even rapidly grow after fertilization as he had expected. Up to now, his crops and the other farmers’ crops were about the same height. However, now that he compared it again, his crops were wilting and seemed to be shorter.

His eldest son also observed this and revealed a look of panic. “Father…”

Michael was in a trance and didn’t pay attention to him speaking.

The eldest son continued, “Father, do you think this… Doesn’t this look like the plants have been burned?” 

Michael jolted up with a look of extreme fear. Yes, that was true. Didn’t this curly yellow leaf look like it had been burned by fire?

What did the Lord say when he was cursing them? Soil that was covered in the stolen goods would be surrounded by Hellfire!

Michael sat down on the embankment of the field and hugged his head.

“My God, what do I do?!” he exclaimed. 

His eldest son looked around in a fluster. Did anyone notice? He supported his father and said, “Father, why don’t we just dig them all out!”

“Yes, yes.” Michael raised his head almost immediately, displaying an expression of relief as though he had been saved. That was right. Just dig up all the stolen goods. Maybe the divine trial would be over.

But they couldn’t do it right away. They could only stay up after the sun had gone down and everyone in the field was already gone. They even had to stay on guard on the chance that the others discover that many seedlings in their field weren’t growing right.

It took Michael several days to fertilize his share of land with the manure. But now, he had to dig it out at night. 

When he went to sleep, he felt so lethargic, and yet, he was still plagued by nightmares.

What was worse though was when the nightmares came true.

Even after he dug up all the stolen goods, the Hellfire was still destroying his crops, and the situation only became more and more serious. His wheat seedlings had almost stopped growing, and the whole area had turned yellow.

He couldn’t hide it any longer even if he wanted to. People nearby had already found out about it. 

Everyone’s eyes were wide open. “…My God, why does Michael’s wheat sprouts look like they were burned?”

“Do you remember what the Lord said about how the dung thief’s land will be burned by Hellfire? This is God’s response to the Lord!”

“That’s right, Michael is the dung thief. His family lives near the dung pit!”

“That’s why I said Michael seemed to be in a bad mood some time ago during daytime…” 

“The Lord’s prayer has come true!”

The farmers spread the news with fear and excitement.

Michael’s family, on the other hand, lost all their strength and sat on the ground until the village head came to grab them and beat them with sticks.

Michael’s heart was filled with regret. He shouldn’t have stolen Lord’s manure with an optimism bias! 

He didn’t know that at the moment his crime was revealed and broadcasted to the audience, his face and body were covered by the commentary barrage, where countless people were calling him names and shouting:

[Drop dead, Michael!!!!]

The onlookers previously still felt a little jealous, but now they thrived on schadenfreude. Besides, who didn’t hate people who stole things? If their own things were stolen, they would also show the same attitude. “I’ve said for a long time that people who steal the Lord’s things won’t have a good end!”

The steward came to report the matter with awe. “My Lord, the thief who stole manure has been caught. Divine punishment befell his land, and the Hellfire burned his crops, causing them to wither.” 

In this age of ignorance, the black cat was the devil’s pet, while the weeds were products left by the devil. When Cui QiChao’s prayer came true, it was undoubtedly considered a miracle.

Since it came from the Lord of their fief, no one looked surprised.

In the depths of his heart, the steward sighed and viewed this matter as if it was just an everyday occurrence. This was a relative of the archbishop! He was much closer to God compared to the common people!

Cui QiChao also sighed in his heart. During the past few days, the man who stole the dung had not admitted it. 

Such a situation was inevitable.

The reason why he wanted to keep the serfs in anticipation for a while longer was because the composting process was continuous. With new manure, composting could be carried out again. The earliest compost had been used to fertilize a large area of cultivated land. It would take some time for the composting to finish.

Moreover, fertilization wasn’t as simple as turning manure into the soil. The concentration and amount used must be suited to each individual piece of land. Watering was also necessary.

Michael didn’t understand the principle and drew a tiger using a cat as a model. Moreover, he didn’t manage to finish drawing the entire picture. He even applied too much fertilizer because of greed. 

For crops, when several illnesses erupted at the same time, the cytoplasmic walls of the crops’ cells would separate, and the water loss would be quite serious, causing plants in this state to look as if they were burned. This phenomenon wasn’t called the Hellfire curse but fertilizer burn.

Ch35.2 - The Divine Punishment’s Fire (Part Two)

It had almost been a week since the incident of Michael excessively fertilizing the field was reported to Cui QiChao. He judged that it was about time that everyone found out, and he was right. Such a big problem couldn’t be concealed from the public, where even a chicken laying extra eggs would become the talking point.

The Lord wanted to judge Michael’s family personally. The stewards all suggested that they should be punished severely by hanging Michael and punishing his family to become slaves.

Cui QiChao took a glance at Michael who was bawling while lying on the ground like a slug.

He used to be a good farmer who only planted for himself, but because of his greed, his whole family would now be involved and made into slaves. There was no possibility of them turning over a new leaf, even for generations to come. 

Cui QiChao sighed, “Do you know what you did wrong?”

Michael didn’t dare to look up at the Lord as he cried, “Lord, I’m repenting my sin. I shouldn’t have been greedy!”

Cui QiChao’s voice remained cold, “All of you will be my slaves, and your fields will belong to me, understand?”

Michael looked up through his tears in surprise.

The punishment for stealing was that he at least had to become a slave. But on top of theft, he also stole so much manure, and allowed naysaying to spread in the fief. The stewards suggested that the Lord should kill him.

Soon, Michael began to cry again. If everyone were to know of this punishment, they would think that the Lord was being merciful, but being a slave was no better compared to death!

At this time, Michael didn’t know that the slaves in the castle were secretly working for the Lord, but Cui QiChao didn’t intend to let him know.

Michael’s reaction made the stewards even more angry, “Lord, please allow me to express my dissatisfaction—he committed such a big crime, are you just going to punish his family as slaves?” 

If they were to become like slaves of the past, the stewards might be able to accept it, as they had to work from morning till night, but now the people in the castle all knew that the slaves were taking turns to work on crafting something for the Lord.

“The crops in their fields have been burned to death. This is the judgment given by God. If I add too much punishment, it is not appropriate.” Cui QiChao had his own reasons.

He felt that punishing these people to work for him for free for a few years was already more than enough. He respected the rules of the middle ages and felt that this incident could serve as a warning. After he left this virtual plane, all slaves would also be given freedom.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Ktf rafkjgvr kjcafv ab rjs wbgf, yea ktfc atfs atbeuta jybea atf qeclrtwfca bo Lfiiolgf, cb bcf vjgfv ab rjs atja atfs xcfk Xbv’r klii yfaafg atjc atf Obgv, rb atfs delmxis rtea eq. Ktf rafkjgv kjr jogjlv atja ktja tf tjv pera rjlv kjr abb yieca. Lf jvvfv, “Tbeg fraffwfv bcf lr atf klrfra.” 

The Michaels did not return to their wooden house. This was because they no longer owned private property and could only stay in the castle.

The steward sent someone to Michael’s house to collect all their things, which now belonged to the Lord.

When the farmers nearby inquired about the judgement of Michael’s family, they looked at each other, commenting:

“This is an end befitting the thieves!” 

“This is what Michael deserves. Let him repent endlessly for the rest of his life.”

As for Michael’s land, it was originally rented from the Lord, but now because his family was punished, everyone was wondering whether his land will be abandoned, and how long it will take for his land to recover from the Hellfire.

At this time, the Lord gave an order that the wheat seedlings in the field should be transplanted to other places.

Then, something unexpected happened. After these wheat seedlings were transplanted to the Lord’s field, they gradually returned to normal, and in the end, even the withered yellow color faded. 

This was just another proof of God bestowing punishment to Michael. Only the soil that has been splashed with stolen goods was burned with the Hellfire. The clean land of the Lord will let the innocent crops recover gradually.

Even the priest William also personally went to the field to see its condition and confirmed to everyone that this is indeed done by the hand of God. Bad people will be judged, but good people will not be implicated.

William’s reputation in Northumberland rose to a new height because of this. People looked at him with unprecedented respect. No serf dared to doze off in church. No matter how tired or sleepy they were, they all listened to the sermon.

William also wrote it on the goatskin paper and sent it back to the church to show off some of his merits. 

Of course, he did not forget to thank the Lord Baron and wrote a letter of thanks to the archbishop. Although it was a miracle, it would not have been possible if it had not been for the archbishop and the Lord.

Cui QiChao heard the news that the crops were back to normal, but he remained calm. “Alright. Flip over the original soil now. If you flip the soil, the stolen soil will be on top, and you can plant crops normally there. There is still time to sow new seeds.”

As for the seedlings that were burned, the most appropriate remedy is to water the plants properly. It will be better for these plants if they could be transplanted somewhere else, too.

. 

Before everyone knew it, November came, and with it, winter. People in the whole of the South continent were slaughtering livestock and using a lot of vanilla and salt to make dry meat, bacon, sausage and so on.

It’s too cold in winter, and a lot of livestock will freeze to death. Even Cui QiChao had to give in and accept the fact that he will have to eat pickled meat in the next few months. Therefore, he became more concerned about the meat and wanted to keep his eyes on it all the time to ensure that the food was clean.

So Cui QiChao made sure to be there when they were catching animals. He took XiaoBai along with him and rode on a horse to watch the pig herder lead the slaves and shepherd dogs to drive the pigs back to the pen first.

The shepherd dogs were well-trained now, and they also knew how to cooperate with each other, rushing to block every fork in the road and leading the livestock to run in the direction of the pen. 

Up to now, these pigs could weigh up to 40 jin. Cui QiChao looked at them from a distance and praised the shepherd dogs. Their IQ was really high, and they knew how to work in teams. Although this doesn’t sound that impressive, the truth was that many people in this era did not even know this.

XiaoBai was squatting on Cui QiChao’s shoulder. Seeing this scene, XiaoBai couldn’t help but feel its heart itch. It was also trained as a shepherd cat. Although it only herded ducks, how could its brain be worse than those dull dogs?

It was good that it was pulled apart from fighting with the dogs last time, otherwise, it would have scratched the dogs. XiaoBai couldn’t help but jump down from Cui QiChao and run forward, ready to greatly show off its might.

“Ah, XiaoBai?” Cui QiChao exclaimed in shock, “What are you doing?” 

DaBai and DaJu saw the commotion, and raised their heads from inside the hood of Cui QiChao’s cloak. Their eyes moved along with XiaoBai’s movement, and they were ready to take action.

XiaoBai ran forward and directed a stray pig to move to the middle

Cui QiChao realized that XiaoBai wanted to show off his skills. He revealed a little smile. Ah, XiaoBai…

But before he could stop smiling, Cui QiChao’s expression suddenly changed. Within his line of sight, the pig who was chased away by XiaoBai seemed to lose his temper suddenly. Suddenly, the pig turned around and jumped up. 

Heavens, XiaoBai was knocked over by a pig!

DaBai and DaJu all whispered “meow”, as if they were in shock.

Cui QiChao was so scared that he immediately commanded his horse to run forward for a stretch and got off the horse. “XiaoBai?”

XiaoBai struggled to stand up from the grass, turned around twice, and ran off as if nothing had happened. He completely didn’t hear Cui QiChao calling him at all. 

Cui QiChao: “……”

He touched the white cat and the orange cat, who were still in fright and did not dare to go down. He felt deep down in his heart that XiaoBai was too strong.

Cui QiChao couldn’t catch up with XiaoBai. XiaoBai didn’t come back until the pigs entered the pen. Cui QiChao immediately grabbed XiaoBai by the back of its neck and checked it from its head to its rear.

In the middle ages, life was much more bitter than in the 21st century, and he had to pay attention to his words and deeds. But under such a situation, Cui QiChao treated XiaoBai much more intimately. If XiaoBai passed away, he didn’t think he could accept it. 

“Do you really think cats have nine lives? If you really died, what would I have to say to LJJ’s customer service? Should I plead, ‘please revive my cat that was killed by a pig?’” Cui QiChao pinched XiaoBai’s ear and complained.

XiaoBai: “……”

…Can you forget about that?

Obviously, Cui QiChao didn’t understand XiaoBai’s thinking. The cat advocated for Cui QiChao to forget that incident. Instead, he used it to educate the white and the orange cat. 

XiaoBai violently grinded its teeth at Cui QiChao’s web between his forefinger and thumb. It was then that Cui QiChao crazily rubbed XiaoBai a few times. “Be obedient, for my sake.”

Seeing the butcher pick up the pig and kill it, Cui QiChao told him to give him the whole thigh of the pig. He wanted the cook to marinate the Chinese style ham. Since all the food must be pickled, he might as well pickle something he likes. He also wanted to make some Chinese sausage.

The sausages in the middle ages have not changed as much as they did later. They were mostly made from the caecum of cattle and the large intestine of pigs, with internal organs in them. Sometimes they were mixed with oats, animal blood and other messy things, and smoked. The flavor was very different as a result, such as a few sausages made of pork having a stinky scent. Cui QiChao had seen it in the castle, and he felt that it was unacceptable.

Cui QiChao put the cats at his feet and began to stare at the cook kneading the ham. “This corner must also be kneaded. Knead the salt into the pork. You use your hands and feel the pork softening with your heart…” 

The cook’s forehead was emitting sweat. She had not used so much effort to pickle pork previously. Now, she had to give the pig a massage. However, they used less salt than they used to with this method of pickling.

The pig was such a handful to deal with. There are thick hairs on the outside and inside. Cui QiChao had to ask the cook to shave them first. As he stared at the cook, DaBai and DaJu also appear to be interested in the meat in the kitchen. They were eager to have a try.

XiaoBai slapped them on the head. Cui QiChao saw a glimpse of it but said nothing.

Although Cui QiChao warned XiaoBai not to bully DaBai and DaJu, for it to discipline them was obviously not included in bullying them. XiaoBai was happy and took the opportunity to beat its two siblings. 

“Even after hanging the meat up, you must check it from time to time. Otherwise, it may rot. You may need to deal with it in a timely manner.” Cui QiChao warned the cook. The sound of the cats shrieking could constantly be heard. He turned around and picked up a pig’s head that was as big as a basketball and put it on to XiaoBai. This caused it to stagger. “This is enough, stop it now. Don’t take the opportunity to make trouble!”

XiaoBai looked at the pig’s head. “……”

It felt aggrieved and became outraged. Cui QiChao did it intentionally!!