This must be the power of demons.
Recalling the terrifying power of demons, Will and most of the peasant soldiers could no longer heed orders and fled in all directions.
This was not strange, for in medieval Europe, peasants often lacked knowledge. Their only faith was in the Holy See and the deities within it.
The deities of the Holy See were naturally beyond mortal reach, and the Holy See's scriptures were beyond the comprehension of illiterate peasants.
Thus, the clergy in the churches, the priests, who were frequently encountered, established sole interpretive authority of the Bible among the peasant class.
No peasant could understand what the Bible said, but they could understand what the priests said.
When priests spoke of demons and witches, identifying those possessed by demons or those who were witches poisoning people, the peasants would believe the priests.
Precisely because they had received such education regularly, upon encountering an ability they could not comprehend, peasants would all conclude—this child must be possessed by a demon!
Moreover, ordinary demons could not possess such power. Will had seen demons directly vanquished by priests, and none of them could wield such strength. Often, a single knight, or even a few peasants, could capture these possessed individuals.
Therefore, the demon possessing this child must be a great demon, one of the seven archdemons of the Seven Deadly Sins from hell.
Faced with such a great demon, the peasants' first reaction was naturally to flee immediately.
They were incapable of dealing with beings possessed by such powerful demons; it was better to return and ask the priests to deal with it using holy water.
As for deserting in the face of battle, would there be consequences? Normally, there would be consequences, and the lord would settle accounts later. However, the current situation was that the lord had seen several knights, knights cultivated for over a decade, die so easily. The child, no, the demon, appeared relaxed, as if unharmed.
Who could fight such a great demon!
The lord and nobles were also terrified, their faces paling, and they had already fled first.
Since even the noble lord had fled first, there was naturally no need for these peasants to stand their ground.
If everyone else was fleeing and one person did not, they might be killed by friendly soldiers supervising the battle before they could escape.
But now, it was like a rout. The noble lord had fled, the knights were either dead or had also fled upon seeing the situation.
In such a situation where everyone was fleeing, no one would be held accountable for running, and an action for which no one was held accountable was an innocent act.
Although peasants lacked knowledge and could not read, it did not mean they did not understand this principle. They fled one after another.
Soon, besides Fang Ming, everyone else had fled.
Fang Ming stood on the ground, lost in thought.
Although language was a barrier, perhaps cultivators could solve the problem of language barriers—for example, the immortal script, which anyone could recognize, was a miracle.
The content of "Yi Qi Gong" could be understood by the illiterate. Fang Ming had not tried it, but he believed that if he gave "Yi Qi Gong" to anyone in this world, they should be able to understand it.
This was a miracle created by cultivation civilization. Cultivation script directly conveyed meaning to the soul.
With this miracle, Fang Ming had no doubt that cultivation civilization possessed spells capable of translating different languages.
This was because, theoretically, creating a script that directly conveyed meaning to the soul should be more difficult than creating spells to translate different languages. Since the more difficult task could be accomplished, there was no reason why the easier task could not be.
However, although he was certain that such spells existed in cultivation civilization, Fang Ming regrettably had not found any such spells in the private trade market of Baiyun Sect.
Therefore, suffering from the disadvantage of not being able to descend the mountain with the spiritual farm,
Fang Ming could only reluctantly navigate this world despite the language barrier.
"So troublesome. Next time, I must obtain the ability of language synchronization in the cultivation world, so I don't have to learn languages anymore."
Fang Ming thought to himself.
...
In Neo Town.
A wail of grief arose.
This was the crying of the families of the fallen knights.
As if their sorrow was immense, the crying was very loud, audible not only outside the houses but even carrying to distant places.
Clearly, the families were deeply saddened.
This sorrow stemmed partly from familial affection, and partly from the involvement of interests—in fact, this latter reason was the greater part.
The death of a knight was like the sky falling for their family.
Although knights held noble titles and served the lord, their own titles were not hereditary.
This meant that while knights were majestic and could act superior to peasants during their lifetime, upon their death, their families might be reduced to the same fate as peasants.
Thinking of their past comfortable lives and their future tragic ones, the mere thought could bring these knights' families to the brink of despair.
And because more than one knight had died, the crying spread further and further.
In the local Holy See of Neo Town, the priest's expression was extremely solemn.
As a member of the clergy, his status in the town was extremely high. The priest was well aware of the noble lord of Neo Town launching a war against another noble lord.
This was naturally due to a dispute over interests. The two lords had irreconcilable differences on certain matters, and these minor conflicts had escalated into war.
In this era, such occurrences were common.
The death rate in war was not actually high—or rather, the death rate for nobles was almost zero.
The same applied to knights.
On this land, many noble lords were related by blood. Even if they captured each other alive during wartime, they could not harm their lives, as they would face the collective wrath of all noble lords.
Not only could they not harm the lives of the defeated noble lords, but they also had to entertain them in various ways, ensuring their dignity. Even in defeat, noble lords possessed decorum. Anyone who showed the slightest lack of grace would be gossiped about by all nobles and subtly ostracized.
The right to life of nobles was protected, and the right to life of knights was protected. Even if they were defeated on the battlefield, they would not die—losing face was the greatest concern. As long as they paid a ransom to the victor, they could return gloriously as noble lords and knights.
Therefore, in wars, only commoners suffered casualties, only those temporarily recruited as soldiers, the peasants, or those who had undergone actual years of training. But regardless, the lives of knights and noble lords were extremely precious.
Let alone one war, even ten wars would generally not result in the death of a single knight, while peasants, on the other hand, died in the hundreds and thousands.