Chapter 167: Off Course

"I have an impression." Wu Chang nodded.

Just based on your name, I couldn't forget you even if I wanted to.

Seeing that Wu Chang remembered him, Park Changmin's smile grew wider, so wide it became sycophantic.

"In recent years, President Li, you've been busy taking over Xing Tian Group, swamped with affairs, and never had the chance to invite you to visit our Xinyuzhou Sect. Our Sect Leader has always deeply regretted this."

Park Changmin paused, then said: "It happens to be the time for our sect's annual team-building event right now — a gathering on this very ship. President Li, would you do us the honor of coming to take a look around?"

Wu Chang sized up Park Changmin, marveling at how thick-skinned these people really were.

The Li Zaishi he was disguised as — was that a lack of time to visit? It was outright disdain!

In the original host's memories, he had always believed that the various bizarre religions rampant in Gao Mu were, at their core, nothing but swindles of the ignorant masses.

They exploited the unrest and fear of the ignorant, along with their gradual marginalization in society — being slowly overlooked, even ignored — to manufacture a false sense of security and being needed, then seized the chance to plunder what little income and savings those people had.

Li Zaishi had always looked down on Park Changmin's lot — harvesting the very bottom rung who could barely feed themselves, what kind of skill was that?

Their Xing Tian Group harvested the middle class and young people — groups with spending power.

If it weren't for the votes, popular reputation, and money-laundering channels in the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect's hands, Li Zaishi would have considered even glancing at them beneath him.

If it were still the original Li Zaishi, he probably wouldn't have given face to this. But now that the person inside was Wu Chang, of course he'd seize the chance to probe the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect's depths.

"Sure. I've actually been wanting to visit your sect as well. Right now?"

Wu Chang's initiative left Park Changmin at a loss. He had already prepared himself to pester relentlessly after being refused, but before he could even deliver his pitch, the other party turned out to be more eager than he was.

"If it's convenient for you, there's no time better than now."

The place where the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect's believers lived was on the fourth deck of the Star Leap. The team-building event's content was rewarding outstanding believers, and to let promising new believers feel the community's atmosphere, the believers had brought their whole families — over three hundred people in total.

To this end, the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect had booked out the left half of the cruise ship's fourth deck.

When Wu Chang arrived, the entire left half had already been decorated with a religious atmosphere; wherever the eye looked, the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect's insignia was everywhere.

The massive buffet restaurant on the left half had been temporarily converted into a giant chapel.

The teppanyaki chef's grilling station — where he once showed off his technique in front of diners — had become the holy table for the priest's prayers. The refined seating had been removed and replaced with plain, simple long tables and connected benches.

If some half-asleep tourist wandered in, they'd surely think some church was handing out free lunches.

However, the buffet's ingredients and chefs had been kept on, not swapped out for the free food the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect usually distributed.

After all, the meal costs were already included in the ticket price — even the leeks the church harvested couldn't be stupid enough to suffer for no reason.

Passing through the chapel-style restaurant, Wu Chang followed Park Changmin to the deck, where the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect's priest was leading the believers in prayer.

The praying believers all wore smiles on their faces, exuding a satisfaction and happiness that radiated from the bone.

Judging by the scene alone, no one would think the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect had any connection to the Judade Sect.

But Wu Chang could not sense a single trace of peace from the scene before him, because he could see with his naked eyes that every believer present had been implanted with an occult seed.

Each time they prayed for a stretch, a patch of skin on their bodies would crack open. The cracked skin would tremble, writhe, and finally tear apart to both sides, revealing an extra eye.

Every believer in the field had five more eyes than a normal person. The moment Wu Chang stepped onto the deck, thousands upon thousands of eyes had already turned to look at him in unison.

Such a dense gaze would be enough to make a social anxiety sufferer shut down on the spot.

Park Changmin turned to look at Wu Chang, like a child showing off his perfect score on the final exam: "President Li, what do you think of the prayer we're holding?"

Wu Chang maintained his aloof domineering-CEO persona, meeting the gaze of thousands of eyes without changing his expression, then nodded:

"Not bad. Very atmospheric."

Park Changmin said with a face full of devotion: "Such a peaceful atmosphere all comes from the Lord's greatness and majesty. We, sheltered by the Lord, need not fret over worldly suffering, and naturally can pray with calm hearts, at ease and content."

Wu Chang expressed agreement with Park Changmin's words. By the standards of the Revelation, the seeds on the believers in the field had already reached maturity — the soil was buried up to their hairlines — so indeed they need not trouble themselves over worldly matters.

After showing off, Park Changmin made an inviting gesture, inviting Wu Chang to the fifth-floor reception room to rest for a while.

In the fifth-floor reception room, after serving coffee to the group, Park Changmin said:

"President Li, you've seen our Xinyuzhou Sect Sect's activities. Religious activities — when expressing admiration for the Lord — inevitably make a bit more noise. If it disturbs you, we hope you'll understand."

Wu Chang sat on the sofa, looking through the floor-to-ceiling window at the praying believers below, toying with the Secret Art Trial Insignia in his hand.

The Xinyuzhou Sect Sect hadn't even begun to act yet — just the prelude of prayer — and sitting here, he could already feel occult contamination flooding into his body like a backwash.

As with Transfer Task One, the occult contamination still started from the head, with the eyes as the starting point.

In the time spent waiting for the coffee, one of his eyes had already completed a third of its modification.

The initial modification of setting the reality anchor only let him see occult energy. After the deep, thorough modification, occult energy in his eyes was no longer a colored block, but took concrete form.

For instance, the prayer being held on the fourth-deck appeared in his modified eyeball as a tangle of complex threads.

Each eye on a believer's body was the head of a thread; these threads intertwined with one another, then finally dispersed to various parts of the Star Leap.

Like a giant net, wrapping the entire cruise ship within it.

No wonder the moment he boarded, he could feel the entire ship saturated with occult energy.

Based on how the threads intertwined, he could faintly make out the nodes of the occult ritual. The prayer ritual on the fourth deck had extremely complex thread interweaving — even if it wasn't a core node, it was an important sub-core node.

At the current pace, he didn't need to do anything — just listening to these believers pray on the deck for ten days would let him easily complete Transfer Task Two.

"President Li, are you all right?"

Wu Chang's attention was pulled back by Park Changmin's voice. He turned to look at Park Changmin and said:

"Watching them pray, my heart felt especially peaceful. I was lost in thought for a moment and looked a bit longer."

Park Changmin breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "If you can accept our prayer, then what I said earlier shouldn't affect you, I suppose."

"What did you say?"

Park Changmin repeated: "I said that during this voyage, we'll hold a grand prayer. According to the Pontiff's calculations, this year's spiritual energy has reached a peak not seen in nearly a century. The prayer may trigger certain anomalies — I hope it won't disturb you."

Prayer?

More likely a sacrifice.

Wu Chang said indifferently: "It won't disturb me. But on the day of the prayer, I'd like to join in and observe up close."

The day the Xinyuzhou Sect Sect activates the occult ritual must be when occult energy reaches its absolute peak.

Participating in it—whether completing the second job-change quest or seizing the chance to sabotage their plans—would make things much more convenient.

Park Changmin's face flickered with a trace of surprise; he hadn't expected that after watching the believers pray just once, Li Zaishi, who had always looked down on them, had actually become addicted to watching the prayers, as if two more sessions would have him joining the faith on the spot.

So our religion is actually this attractive.

Had I known it would be this easy, I wouldn't have made so many arrangements against the Xingtian Group earlier.

"Of course you may. As long as you're willing, the Xinyuzhou Sect will open its doors to you at any time."

After the two reached their agreement, Wu Chang stayed in the lounge for over another hour. Only when the believers on the fourth deck grew tired of praying and went to the dining hall to eat did he leave, reluctant to part.

In less than two hours, his eyes and ears had already been thoroughly contaminated by mysticism.

Too bad he realized it too late. Had he known that even without activating the ritual he could achieve this effect, he would have called over every lackey from the Xingcai Gang, blocked the Xingyue at the harbor, and forced Park Changmin and the others to pray for ten days and ten nights first. Returning to his suite from Park Changmin's place, Wu Chang saw that Xiang Jianxing and the Negotiation Master had already come back.

Judging by the looks on their faces, they probably hadn't found any valuable leads.

Since there were no leads, he'd help the two of them out and give them something to do.

A chaebol household doesn't keep idle people either; they can't just use the bodyguard label to slip aboard and do nothing at all.

He called the two into the office inside the suite, took out a photo of the Xinyuzhou Sect's emblem, tapped the photo with his fingertip, and asked them:

"Have you ever heard of the Xinyuzhou Sect?"

The instant Xiang Jianxing and the Negotiation Master saw the photo, their eyes went wide. As members of the Management Bureau—especially Xiang Jianxing—they were all too familiar with this emblem.

They had spent an entire afternoon soaking in the third-floor bar and hadn't dug up a single piece of solid intel, only to return and find Wu Chang delivering such a grand gift.

Xiang Jianxing replied, "I've heard of them."

Wu Chang said calmly, "What's your impression of them? I need the truth."

In the eyes of two veteran players like Xiang Jianxing and the Negotiation Master, the moment Wu Chang asked that question, a yellow exclamation mark might as well have popped up above his head.

Isn't this a living, breathing quest-giving NPC?

!

The two exchanged a glance, leaving the answer to the Negotiation Master, who was the better liar.

"As for whether this organization is good or bad, we can't draw any concrete conclusion. But from what we know, wherever this organization goes, disaster and chaos follow—without exception."

Wu Chang interlaced his fingers, leaned back in the boss's chair, and said in a noncommittal tone:

"On the fourth deck of the Xingyue, a large group of Xinyuzhou Sect believers are holding a team-building event. The content of the team-building seems to be some kind of ritual. Go investigate."

Hearing Wu Chang's words, excitement flashed in the eyes of Xiang Jianxing and the Negotiation Master.

He's really giving out a quest!

"Understood, Boss!"

The word "Boss" came from the very bottom of their hearts.

To run into a planar native in the Abyss Game who had real strength, could grant conveniences, and could even provide leads toward completing the main quest—let alone calling him Boss, they wouldn't hesitate even if asked to swear a blood oath of sworn brotherhood.

Watching the two walk out of the office full of drive, Wu Chang stretched luxuriously.

The Silent Voyage was an adversarial instance, meaning more than one faction existed within it. He needed to coordinate the whole picture and didn't have time to keep staring at Park Changmin's side.

As the boss, this kind of small matter naturally had to be handed off to the subordinates.

At half past eight in the evening, a server delivered an invitation, asking Wu Chang to attend a banquet in the seventh-floor banquet hall.

The seventh-floor banquet was different from the performances held in the third- and fourth-floor halls; only VIPs residing on the sixth and seventh floors were qualified to attend.

For other players, this was an invisible threshold—without some tricks up their sleeve, they couldn't get in here at all.

If this were Li Zaishi, he'd surely come out with something like, "What class are they, to attend the same banquet as me?"

But the one in this body now was Wu Chang, so of course he wouldn't pass up this chance to gather intel.

Sure enough, the moment he stepped into the banquet hall, he instantly became the focus of everyone present.

The upper-class guests now threw aside all pretense of decorum, crowding around him, racking their brains to leave a good impression on this heir of the Xingtian Group.

The chaotic scene left Wu Chang with no time to single anyone out for conversation and gather intel.

But the chaos itself could provide some intel.

When everyone was moving toward him, those who dodged away in the opposite direction, or stood still on the spot, stood out conspicuously.

Either they had something to hide, or they had a grudge against Li Zaishi.

Wu Chang counted—one, six people in total. He told his secretary to note down these six, compile their information, and when Xiang Jianxing and the others returned, hand it off to them and have them investigate together.

Investigating these guys during the day and the Xinyuzhou Sect at night—two fine workhorses, a shame not to make full use of them.

Squeezing them this hard, the two workhorses wouldn't just not blame him—they'd even thank him for it.

Just as he had jotted down the few who didn't play along, the banquet hall's main doors opened and a woman walked in wearing a business suit with a camera hanging from her chest.

The moment the woman entered, the atmosphere in the room instantly cooled. The crowd around Wu Chang, while frantically stuffing business cards into the secretary's hands, reluctantly drifted away from him.

Attending a banquet in evening wear was the most basic etiquette; by all common sense, a reporter in a business suit would absolutely never be let through the door.

But the woman before them was an exception.

Li Yubin, the illegitimate daughter of the president of Sanshang Group, the top conglomerate of Gao Mu Nation. Though illegitimate, she had been publicly acknowledged by the president of Sanshang Group and was greatly favored—her status was no less impressive than Li Zaishi's.

The reason she was regarded as a plague god by everyone was that her childhood had been spent in the slums. Those early experiences made her hate evil as her sworn enemy, and after becoming a reporter, she was determined to expose every ugly and unjust thing.

In her three years as a reporter, the number of companies punished because of her exposés exceeded double digits, earning her the popular title of Princess of the Common People.

Any other small-time reporter would have either been dumped in the sea or locked up and broken into a plaything.

But Li Yubin had Sanshang Group behind her—no one could touch her. And her so-called exposure of scandals was in fact all within the control of the president of Sanshang Group.

Like a grand game of house. The small and mid-sized families exposed by Li Yubin were nothing but toys picked out for her, waiting until she grew tired of playing, faced reality, and came home to inherit hundreds of millions.

And the class of everyone present at the banquet fell within the scope of "toys"—which was why they all gave Li Yubin a wide berth.

Others feared Li Yubin, but Wu Chang did not. Instead, he sized up Li Yubin—and the two people following behind her—without the slightest restraint.

If his senses weren't wrong, the two behind Li Yubin were both players of the Abyss Game.

It seemed the clever little bootlickers who knew how to latch onto a powerful back weren't limited to Xiang Jianxing and the Negotiation Master.

Players gathered around her—could she be one of the factions inside the instance?

With Li Yubin's arrival, the banquet became utterly dull, and faced with the enormous camera pinned to Li Yubin's chest, everyone spoke with extreme caution.

The few people Wu Chang had jotted down in his little notebook indeed became even more uneasy in their expressions, and three of them left the gathering especially early.

Those three were circled by Wu Chang, marked as key observation targets.

After the meal, the banquet ended hastily, and Wu Chang left with his underlings.

Passing by Li Yubin, he heard Li Yubin say softly, "Be careful. I'm watching your misdeeds, and sooner or later I'll bring you to justice."

Wu Chang shrugged. "Only watching during the banquet is a bit short, isn't it? How about coming to my room and letting you watch me properly?"

Li Yubin gave a cold snort. "Scum."

Back in his room, Wu Chang set up the Inner World in the bedroom, put on the Secret Art Trial Insignia, and began completing the second class-change quest.

A night passed. The next morning, Wu Chang opened his eyes and found the outside world shrouded in gloom.

A heavy fog had risen over the sea.

Thick fog blanketed the entire sea surface, making it impossible to tell day from night aboard the ship.

Just then, a knock sounded at the bedroom door, and the secretary's voice came from outside.

"Boss, it looks like we've run into trouble—the Star Leap has drifted off course."

(End of Chapter)