"The underground gangs have martial artists and ties to the city's higher-ups. The police department doesn't dare touch them."
"So you turned to the cult."
"Yes. After I sought refuge with the cult, the gangs stopped going after my chamber of commerce. But over the past year, I've donated countless wealth and goods, begging the Cardinal to step in and avenge me."
"And the cult didn't help you?"
"The Cardinal said the time has not yet come."
The man named Du Pont spread his hands, his face contorted in agony. "I'm willing to trade everything I own just to hear those bastards scream, but a whole year has passed, and they're still living well."
"You saw that I sheltered a cultist, so you came begging me," Ye Huan said with a faint smile.
He glanced at the man. Immediately behind the tag over Du Pont's head, an Identity Achievement materialized:
*Foremost in Devotion.*
—*Forget it.*
*I'm not touching that achievement.*
Still, he couldn't afford to overlook the details and had to examine the full description.
Ye Huan took a sip of his drink and stole another glance above the man's head.
*Black Tide Cult Priest.*
*Identity Achievement: Foremost in Devotion.*
*Identity Challenge: Compile a complete roster of everyone you know. During every cult festival, randomly select two individuals from the roster and offer them to the cult as ritual sacrifices.*
*Success will grant an achievement settlement.*
*Begin challenge?*
*You have already completed a challenge today. Please try again tomorrow.*
*Thanks, but no thanks.*
*I won't be trying tomorrow either.*
"Investigator, sir," Du Pont sighed deeply, "to be completely honest, I wouldn't care if I died right now. I just want your help, and I'm willing to give you everything I have."
He popped open a leather briefcase and set it before Ye Huan.
Inside lay stacks of property deeds, bank cards, chamber of commerce registration certificates, as well as business licenses and contracts of various kinds.
"Please, help me," Du Pont pleaded.
"To do what?"
"Take down those gangs."
"Why not hire assassins?" Ye Huan asked.
"When the gangs tried to seize my business back then, they brought in people from an assassin syndicate to kidnap and murder my wife and daughter."
"That assassin syndicate is one of the main culprits!"
"Not to mention, those assassins are deeply entwined with the underground gangs. They do plenty of business together—they'd never take a contract from me," Du Pont said.
Ye Huan glanced at his phone.
All the information regarding Du Pont quietly surfaced on the screen.
There were even archived records of the police report he had filed a year ago.
The case details matched his story almost word for word.
*Truly marvelous.*
*He pulled this off so seamlessly.*
A pure cultist going to such lengths to deceive him—what kind of dedicated spirit was this?
"If you come to me, what about the cult?" Ye Huan asked.
"I can't wait any longer—every single day I live is torture. The moment I close my eyes, I can hear their weeping and screams," Du Pont sobbed.
"Why seek me out specifically?" Ye Huan pressed.
"You helped someone who was marked for death. Actually, everyone was waiting for her to die because she stole the spotlight from the Cardinal. Lately at the gatherings, everyone has been staring at her," Du Pont explained.
"Luosha? She seems to be just a newcomer," Ye Huan remarked.
"Luosha is bound to die," Du Pont answered.
"How did she steal the spotlight?" Ye Huan asked.
"She—she simply showed up."
"Just by showing up?" Ye Huan found that hard to believe.
"Good god," Du Pont sighed. "Even a layman like me could feel the 'divinity' radiating off her during the gathering. That's a power we only ever sense when the Great Being descends—yet she doesn't even realize it herself."
Du Pont shifted the subject back, pleading, "Please, help me. I have been struggling in the dark for so long."
Ye Huan remained silent.
To think a single move of his had utterly shattered An Qi's "authority."
Half the credit belonged to Luosha.
She had made them waver.
The other half was that he had terrified them with his slaughter.
Du Pont rose, walked over to the dining table, and dropped to his knees. "I am willing to trade everything I have to send those people to hell. I beg of you."
"Now is not the time," Ye Huan flatly refused.
The man froze.
He had never expected Ye Huan to give him the exact same line as An Qi.
Ye Huan, however, was running through the situation in his mind.
First, the gangs had backing, and it was still unclear who was behind them.
Second, the Great Being had explicitly said to keep quiet lately; he couldn't afford to anger it.
Third, his own strength was still insufficient. Right now, the most crucial objective was ensuring his personal safety. He would never take reckless risks for someone else.
Of course, all these points rested on one premise:
Du Pont had to be someone like Luosha.
Everything he claimed to have experienced had to be real.
Yet after checking his tag and Identity Achievement, Ye Huan already knew he wasn't.
In that case...
In that case—
"You have great courage, Mr. Du Pont. Standing on the side of justice at a time like this warrants a promise from me:"
"I will consider this matter in the future."
"I'm not brushing you off."
Ye Huan spoke in all seriousness.
"Off you go. That concludes our conversation. Don't disturb my meal," Ye Huan said, lifting his chopsticks to pick up food.
*I'm on vacation today.*
*Don't stir up trouble.*
*Tomorrow, I'll be even stronger.*
Du Pont remained kneeling on the floor. After a long silence, he spoke up abruptly:
"Sir, is there anything I can do for you?"
Ye Huan raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"I'm willing to do anything for you, if only it makes that day come a little sooner—even if by a single minute, a single second, I will give my all." Du Pont's voice was firm and resolute.
He stayed kneeling, refusing to get up.
*Tsk.*
*My food is more important.*
Ye Huan finished eating, washed it down with his drink, wiped his mouth, and finally stood up to help Du Pont to his feet.
"Sit. Let's talk slowly," Ye Huan said.
"Yes, sir."
"How do you want me to help you, Du Pont?"
"Sir, I am a priest for West City. I can sponsor newcomers into the cult."
"Why would I join the cult?" Ye Huan asked.
"Don't you want to wipe out those evil gangsters in one fell swoop? I'll surrender everything I own to request that you take action as a fellow cultist—that way, they'll just assume I persuaded the Cardinal to intervene," Du Pont said.
"If the Cardinal dispatches someone to act, they wouldn't dare retaliate?" Ye Huan asked.
"Exactly."
"Then let's do it," Ye Huan said.
Du Pont stood stunned.
He couldn't fathom it at all.
—This ritual executor, this fiend like a god of slaughter favored by the Great Being, was renowned throughout the cult.
Du Pont had prepared all sorts of arguments.
Yet the man had agreed just like that?
"You must go through the ritual prescribed by cult doctrine to ensure procedural validity. Is that acceptable?" Du Pont asked.
"Fine by me," Ye Huan said.
"It's very simple. Please wait a moment."
Du Pont hurried behind the counter.
—This restaurant belonged to him as well.
Before long, Du Pont returned carrying a box draped in black cloth.
First, he produced a candle from the box, lit it, and set it before Ye Huan.
"Do you truly yearn to join the Black Tide Cult, Ye Huan?" Du Pont asked solemnly.
"I do," Ye Huan said.
"Are you willing to serve our Lord, even if it requires offering sacrifices of your own kind?"
"I am."
"Are you willing to lead more people under the banner of the Great Being and receive the divine will?"
"I am—please make me a ritual executor," Ye Huan said.
"The Great Being will surely answer your prayer," Du Pont replied.
Suddenly, the candle's flame shot up two to three meters into the air before snapping back down.
Now that was novel.
Meeting Ye Huan's gaze, Du Pont lowered his voice. "Only the Cardinal is permitted to use holy candles infused with the power of the Great Being. The candles we priests use are handmade, with a fast-burning section in the middle."
"Must not be easy," Ye Huan whispered back.
"It really isn't. You have to coordinate the pace of your speech with the candle's burn time. Can't be too early, can't be too late," Du Pont explained.
He put the candle away, then retrieved a copper basin filled with water from the cloth-draped box.
"May you be bathed in divine grace."
"May you be reborn from this day forth."
"May you walk the divine path upon the earth."
Du Pont dipped his fingers into the water and flicked a few droplets toward Ye Huan from a distance.
Ye Huan kept his Hunyuan field active the entire time, not missing a single nuance of the man's movements.
Sure enough, this Du Pont was an ordinary person with zero martial foundation.
To think he had the nerve to pull a stunt like this.
*If I don't set an example today, people will go on thinking I'm just an impulsive, gullible hothead!*
Ye Huan narrowed his eyes, going through the ritual with an earnest expression.
The copper basin was carried away.
That concluded the second phase of the ceremony.
Next came the third phase—
Du Pont took a smartphone from the box, powered it on, and tapped open an app.
"Give me your contact number. I'll add you to our group," he said.
Ye Huan paused in silence for a moment, unable to resist asking, "Is it really this convenient nowadays?"
"Of course. How troublesome would it be to contact everyone individually otherwise?" Du Pont replied.
So Ye Huan joined the group.
He placed this contact group, titled "Black Tide Holy Cult Group 5," right beneath the "Lantie City Bureau of Investigation" group.
—Work chats had to stay together, kept separate from personal life.
"Is the ritual complete?" Ye Huan asked.
"Hold on. I'll have everyone welcome the new cultist, and then I just need to register you on the roster—do you want to say hi to everyone?" Du Pont murmured, tapping away on his phone without looking up.
After a brief hesitation, Ye Huan picked up his phone and posted a message to the group:
*Hello everyone, I'm new here. Please look after me.*
As soon as it was sent, a long string of identical replies flooded the chat:
*A big shot has arrived! My group status: -1.*
"..." Ye Huan.
His sharp eyes quickly picked out an anomaly amid the sea of identical messages.
It was an exclamation mark sent by an account with an adorable orange cat avatar.
*What the hell?*
*Isn't that Luosha's avatar?*
"Luosha is in the West City group too?" Ye Huan asked.
"Yeah, you didn't know?" Du Pont asked back.
Ye Huan casually sent Luosha an exclusive red packet.
With lightning speed, Luosha claimed the red packet and replied with a sticker of an orange cat bowing down: *"Thank you, Boss!"*
"..." Ye Huan.
A private message popped up immediately afterward:
*Why did you join this group?*
*I joined the cult,* Ye Huan replied.
*...Oh. Make sure to complete the final step of the ritual. You only get this chance once. It's very important, so don't miss it,* Luosha urged.
*Alright, I'll ask,* Ye Huan typed.
Setting his phone down, he asked Du Pont, "I heard there's a final step to the ritual?"
"Ah, yes! Right away."
Having finished filling out the form, Du Pont cleared his throat and said solemnly, "Welcome, child. On behalf of the Great Being, I welcome you into the Black Tide Cult."
"This is your initiation gift."
*So that's it!*
*There's a gift!*
No wonder Luosha had told him not to miss it.
Du Pont reached beneath the black cloth with both hands and retrieved two cartons, handing them over with utter solemnity.
Ye Huan focused his gaze.
They were eggs.
Chicken eggs.
Two cartons of eggs.
"...Why are you handing out eggs?" Ye Huan gestured helplessly.
"To eat, of course," Du Pont said as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "This is an extremely popular and important step in the ritual."
He lowered his voice. "In the future, if you ever want to get anything out of the cult, it won't be this easy."
Ye Huan took the two cartons of eggs in silence.
Luosha... probably loved these eggs.
He didn't cook anyway, so what was he going to do with eggs? He might as well drop them off with her.
With that in mind, he typed:
*Once I'm done here later, I'll bring the eggs over to you.*
On Luosha's end, an orange cat sticker popped up almost instantaneously, kowtowing on the floor in gratitude.
Ye Huan shook his head and set his phone down.
"Sir, now that you've fulfilled the worldly ritual, what do you plan to do next?" Du Pont inquired respectfully.
"I had plenty of plans originally, but right now my head is completely full of eggs," Ye Huan said, staring at the two cartons.
Du Pont whispered, "Don't be fooled by these two cartons of eggs, sir. The cult only gives them out once."
"...I'll try my best," Ye Huan said.
The dynamic had shifted without a sound.
Now that he had officially joined the cult, this man had stopped offering anything useful.
Instead, he was turning around to ask Ye Huan what he planned to do next.
—Could a businessman like him, accustomed to all kinds of dealings, truly lack a plan of his own?
A madman.
An uncontrollable sacrificer.
A cultist foremost in devotion.
He could kill the man in an instant, but the Great Being had warned him not to take action recently.
Besides, there was bound to be surveillance here.
Forget it.
He was done playing.
Couldn't he just leave?
He was supposed to be on vacation.
Ye Huan immediately sent messages to Song Fushan and Xia Li respectively:
*Greetings, Boss. Reporting in.*
*By a stroke of fortune, I've joined the Black Tide Cult and am now undercover.*
Song Fushan's reply came instantly:
*How did you join?*
*I saw someone handing out eggs, walked over to grab some, and ended up joining,* Ye Huan typed.
*That ridiculous? Sounds like you didn't make it up.*
Chapter 49