Chapter 156

"My boss, Liu Chengzhe, gave it to me—he's a high-ranking member of the Mind Sect." Song Canhui said, his eyes flickering.

Affected by the turbulent modern history, South Korea enforces religious freedom; on its narrow land of one hundred thousand square kilometers, underground religions are as numerous as blades of grass—such as the Seolri Church, which selects brides globally, the Rescue Sect, which organizes mass suicides, and the Baby Garden Church, whose founder claims to be a three-year-old infant.

Strange and varied, too numerous to list, they have become part of South Korea's social machinery.

The business world funds religions; religions provide votes for politicians; politicians offer policies and protection to both business and religion. The four parties collude, their interests deeply intertwined.

Jiang Wanyong's smartphone search history contained information about the Mind Sect—a recently emerged Japanese underground church that rapidly expanded and spread into South Korea.

"Unlike other underground churches that primarily recruit ordinary people, the Mind Sect's followers include many well-known Japanese and Korean businessmen, scholars, and politicians. These people donate hundreds of millions, even billions of won to the church."

Song Canhui said: "After Liu Chengzhe joined the Mind Sect, he forced us subordinates to follow suit, mandating that we drink talisman water every month and carry paper-cut talismans on our persons."

Even in the Transcendent World, the law of conservation of energy holds true. Many paper spirit talismans mean vast amounts of transcendent energy.

Li Cheng asked: "Why did Liu Chengzhe have you transport the corpse? Where? And where was the corpse's original owner?"

"The corpse's original owner?"

Song Canhui's expression was stunned—he truly didn't know Jiang Shaoxi's "corpse" was a mannequin. "I—I don't know. When Liu Chengzhe summoned me to the Chengzhe Group headquarters building, he said this woman was a goddess descended from heaven, and ordered me to handle her with utmost care."

Goddess? From this, Jiang Shaoxi may not be dead—perhaps she's being held somewhere.

Seeing Li Cheng fall silent, lost in thought, Song Canhui realized something and pleaded: "I've told you everything I know. Please don't kill me."

"I won't kill you,"

Li Cheng shifted slightly, making way. "But she might not be so merciful."

The door opened slowly, and Hui Yu walked in, her hands caked in blood, her face twisted in a cruel grin. Compared to writing elementary school essays, she clearly preferred simple, brutal killings.

Amid the screams in the background, Li Cheng opened his phone map—the Chengzhe Building was only twenty minutes away by car.

————

"Mr. Liu, I entrust you with the Seoul Peace Forum. The cost may be high, but I guarantee it will all be worth it."

"Your Holiness is too kind—we serve only the Goddess."

In the opulent reception room on the upper floors of the Chengzhe Building, three men—an elder, a middle-aged man, and a young man—sat drinking.

The elder was the head of the Mind Sect; the middle-aged man was Liu Chengzhe, owner of the building and the Chengzhe Conglomerate; the young man was a promising Seoul prosecutor.

"So far, confirmed to deliver speeches via video at the Peace Forum are one former British prime minister, one former Japanese prime minister,"

Liu Chengzhe said with no small pride: "and one former president of the United States."

The former Japanese farmer who now led the Mind Sect was astonished: "You even got the former president of the United States?"

"Of course." Liu Chengzhe smiled. "With enough money, nothing is impossible."

Major underground religions in South Korea all favor top-down strategies—using inspection fees and paid conferences to infiltrate European and American political circles, securing endorsements from authorities to expand influence and ultimately recruit more grassroots followers for profit.

For example, the famous underground religion, the Unification Church, donated tens of millions of dollars to events like the Women's Federation for World Peace and the World Congress of the National Architecture Museum, securing endorsements from former U. S. presidents George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford, even Mikhail Gorbachev.

"By the way, Prosecutor Kim."

Liu Chengzhe suddenly remembered something and turned to the young prosecutor. "The Peace Forum is the day after tomorrow. No mistakes allowed. Please suppress the investigation into the shipwreck."

"Hmm."

The young prosecutor nodded stiffly. The accident Liu Chengzhe referred to was the Sewol ferry disaster that had shocked the world months earlier.

A 6,800-ton passenger ferry sank about three kilometers southwest of Gwanmei Island in Jindo County, South Jeolla Province. Only 172 people were rescued; 296 died; 142 were injured; eight remained missing. Many were high school students on graduation trips.

Throughout the entire incident, South Korean authorities displayed astonishing incompetence, inaction, and cruelty.

The captain, while the ship was tilting, broadcast orders for all passengers to remain in place and wait for rescue, then fled secretly. The Korean Coast Guard dawdled on the scene, refusing to enter the ship to rescue passengers, forcing them to save themselves. The Coast Guard even ate instant noodles while blocking civilian boats from approaching, citing "do not obstruct rescue efforts," and watched as passengers inside the hull sank into the sea.

Prosecutor Kim was ordered to investigate the accident, but the more he investigated, the stranger things became—such as the ship suddenly changing captains before departure; the chairman of the Cheonghaejin Shipping Company, Yoo Byung-yeon, mysteriously dying two months after the disaster; the presence of numerous animal remains inside the hull; and President Park Geun-hye vanishing for seven hours on the day of the disaster, her whereabouts unknown.

'Evidence is still insufficient.'

Prosecutor Kim clenched his fist, his fingernails digging into his flesh. He wanted to arrest them all, but when the Blue House was involved, he needed solid evidence before he could strike.

For now, he could only continue to play along with Liu Chengzhe, helping him "cover up" the close business ties between the Chengzhe Group and Cheonghaejin Shipping, and using Liu Chengzhe's connections to gather more evidence.

"Breaking news: A fire broke out in the basement of a bar in Gaepo-dong, Gangnam District, Seoul, killing over twenty people and injuring more than forty. Here is live footage."

The television, which had been playing an entertainment program as background noise, suddenly switched to live news.

Firefighters were carrying out foreign laborers on stretchers, dressed only in underwear—they were still alive, but their expressions were terrified, as if they had suffered extreme shock.

Liu Chengzhe's eyes widened; he leapt to his feet. The bar and its basement were his property; the fire would expose the drug factory hidden below.

The only good news was that he had always been cautious, using multi-layered management and one-way communication.

The entire drug factory had only one person who knew his true identity as the boss: Song Canhui, the former police officer. As long as Song Canhui wasn't caught, he remained safe.

Vibration—

His backup phone in his jacket pocket buzzed. Caller ID: Song Canhui.

After a moment's hesitation, Liu Chengzhe opened a voice-modification app, then answered the call. "Hello."

Song Canhui's voice trembled with fear: "Director! Disaster! A group of unknown people attacked the underground factory—I barely escaped!"

Liu Chengzhe paused, then reacted. "Wait—someone attacked? Where are you now?"

"I'm already at the base of the Chengzhe Building."

"Don't come up. I'll have someone drive you to the safehouse." Liu Chengzhe interrupted.

Song Canhui lowered his voice. "But I have something critical I can't discuss on the phone—I must report in person. About the Goddess."

Liu Chengzhe looked up at the Mind Sect's head and Prosecutor Kim. The former looked stunned; the latter shook his head in confusion—the prosecutor had only accompanied the transport of the mannequin disguised as a corpse and knew nothing of what followed.

Liu Chengzhe frowned, then finally said: "I'll send someone to bring you up. Sixtieth-floor conference room."

Plan successful.

On the first floor of the building, Li Cheng—wearing Song Canhui's face—put away his phone and passed through the security checkpoint under the gaze of the building's guards.

The fiftieth floor of the Chengzhe Building would host the so-called Seoul Peace Forum the day after tomorrow, attended by numerous domestic and international political and business elites, so security was exceptionally tight—armed guards could be seen everywhere, checking for threats.

Two guards, a man and a woman, received instructions via walkie-talkie and escorted Li Cheng into the elevator lobby.

The elevator car ascended steadily; the two guards chatted and laughed. Through the glass panel inside the car, Li Cheng saw they both wore dried cherry blossoms pinned to their chests—the symbol of the Mind Sect.

"Sorry, something came up suddenly, I need to go to the fiftieth floor."

The male security guard pressed the button for the fiftieth floor. The moment the elevator doors opened, he saw many staff members with dried cherry blossoms pinned to their chests still busy at work, decorating the resplendent venue — the behind-the-scenes patron of the Seoul Peace Forum was the Heart Spirit Cult, so those helping to prepare and organize the forum were mostly Heart Spirit Cult believers.

The male security guard, under the bewildered gazes of his companions, forcibly pushed her out of the elevator. The instant he stepped out of the elevator doors, the male security guard abruptly turned around, drew the pistol at his waist, and pulled the trigger at Li Cheng inside the elevator.

Clang!

The bullet was deflected by a rusty cleaver that appeared out of thin air, hitting the elevator button panel dead center.

"..." Li Cheng's face emerged from behind the blade. He stared at the male security guard and frowned: "Where did I give myself away?"

"... Killing aura."

The male security guard retreated as he spoke, his voice strained: "Around you, there's a great deal of killing aura — that's a characteristic that only appears after recently killing large numbers of humans."

On the male security guard's shoulder, a half-spirit-body animal shaped like a raccoon gradually materialized, trembling all over, its face showing fear as it stared at Li Cheng. Its name was Shikigami · Tanuki.

"Tch."

Li Cheng clicked his tongue noncommittally. His current physical fitness and the lavishness of his equipment and props far exceeded the average level of an lv11 player. The only shortcoming was probably the lack of a power system similar to internal cultivation, the Force, or spells,

to help make up for shortcomings like "concealing one's aura" and "the ability to damage spirit bodies."

'Come to think of it, my body probably has nothing to do with a normal human anymore. If I tried to cultivate an internal cultivation manual, wouldn't my qi and blood go haywire and I'd enter qi deviation in minutes?'

Li Cheng drifted off in random thoughts as he walked out of the elevator.

The security personnel and Heart Spirit Cult believers on the entire floor, hearing the gunshot, all gathered around.

Some held walkie-talkies and shouted, reporting the abnormal situation on the fiftieth floor. Some raised their guns high, telling Li Cheng to raise both hands and not resist.

Some were nervous and uneasy, instinctively moving toward the emergency exit.

Others, however, wore expressions of wild, ecstatic joy. To offer themselves to the faith in their hearts, they deliberately bit through their tongues, slit their palms, smeared fresh blood on paper cutouts, and summoned different types of shikigami —

Kappa, Fox Fire, Nekomata, Mermaid, Snake Belt...

All manner of bizarre monsters appeared in the modern high-rise venue. Some shikigami, too large in size, had no choice but to crouch on the ground.

Countless pairs of eyes watched Li Cheng's every move.

He raised his palm and pressed the button on the electronic pet egg.

Hiss—

The liquid-metal robot dropped to the ground. Ash Rain looked at the hall full of monsters that required no friend-or-foe identification, his eyes lighting up. Both arms transformed into two great axes, and he said excitedly: "Heaven gives birth to the myriad things to nourish mankind; mankind has not one thing with which to repay Heaven!"

The two axes scraped against each other, sending blinding sparks flying.

Beside him, Li Cheng casually unzipped the jacket that had once belonged to Song Canhui, revealing the set of Shark-type individual exoskeleton worn underneath.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

The indicator lights on the exoskeleton lit up one after another. The panel at the shoulder-blade area automatically popped open, and two small quadcopter drones flew out from inside, heading straight out the window and circling the outside of the building, taking in the full view.

Four mechanical arms extended from the shoulders and ribs respectively. Without hurry, Li Cheng took four pump-action shotguns from his backpack slot and mounted them on the mechanical arms.

An intense sense of foreboding descended over the hearts of all Heart Spirit Cult believers. They couldn't spare a thought, and hurriedly issued commands, sending their shikigami swarming forward.

Facing the surging horde of demons, between the bangs of Li Cheng's hair, faint electric arcs suddenly flashed.

【Skill Name: Instant Thunder】

【Effect: Thunder Flash Frenzy. Uses one's own bioelectricity to stimulate the spine and limbs, briefly gaining mobility beyond one's original physiological limits】

Electric energy flowed along the spine, filling the limbs and body. Every muscle was engaged, excitedly and violently dilating and contracting.

In the Heart Spirit Cult believers' line of sight, Li Cheng's figure suddenly vanished from where he stood; their retinas could only catch one or two fleeting afterimages.

Using the shoulders and heads of the shikigami monsters as stepping stones, he leaped into the center of the venue, landing on one knee like a superhero.

Hmm—

The Shark-type individual exoskeleton emitted the high-speed whirring of servo motors. The four mechanical arms rotated in different directions, automatically aiming and locking onto those utterly dumbfounded Heart Spirit Cult believers.

The two drones outside the window had already scanned the active targets on-site via AI program, listing all units except Ash Rain as "enemies against whom lethal force is permitted."

Automatic aiming is no fantasy; all the mechanical arms needed to do was simply pull the trigger.

Bang bang bang bang!

The four pump-action shotguns fired simultaneously toward the front, back, left, and right, the spray of pellets like a rainstorm reaping one fresh life after another.

The surrounding space instantly emptied. Li Cheng stepped forward half a pace, the rusty cleaver in his hand tracing a semicircular arc, slicing a two-meter-tall Red Oni — together with the kappa standing behind it — clean in two at the waist.