Chapter 14: Conspiracy
Huo Yuhao set out from Holy Water Village with a small bundle on his back, treading through the morning dew. The road to Thunderclap City wasn't particularly rough, but for a boy barely past ten, the journey still felt long and lonely. He clutched the straps of his pack tightly, glancing back now and then toward a village already long out of sight, his heart heavy with worry for his mother's illness.
After walking for the better part of half a day, the sun grew steadily more punishing. Huo Yuhao wiped the sweat from his brow and was just about to rest in the shade of a roadside tree and have a drink of water when he heard a clamor approaching from behind. Turning cautiously, he saw a group of twenty or thirty people making their way up the dirt road—young and old alike, looking like entire families on the move.
At the front was a tall, burly middle-aged man in worn leather armor, a long blade at his waist, cutting quite the imposing figure. He noticed the lone boy by the roadside and slowed his pace.
"Kid, traveling all by yourself?" The man had a booming voice. He looked Huo Yuhao up and down. "Where are you heading?"
Huo Yuhao stood up, a little nervous, and answered quietly, "Thunderclap City."
"Hey, what a coincidence!" The man broke into a grin. "We're headed there too. Visiting relatives?"
Huo Yuhao hesitated, then shook his head. "I'm going to the Church of the Water God... hoping to find work."
At these words, several people's eyes lit up. A woman clutching a child immediately piped up, "The Church of the Water God? We're headed there too! We heard they give out food and distribute those holy relics that can cure sickness!"
An old man nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes. My grandson's already six—we're counting on the Water God's people to awaken his martial soul for him!"
The burly man let out a hearty laugh and clapped Huo Yuhao's thin shoulder. "Good eye, kid! The name's Shi Meng. Rank 22 assault-type Soul Grandmaster. I used to scrape by working for a small escort bureau, but I heard the Water God Church was recruiting with good pay, and that their Pope is a kindhearted soul. So I rounded up these folks to try our luck together." He gestured at the group behind him. "It's not safe traveling alone. Stick with us!"
Huo Yuhao hadn't expected to run into traveling companions so quickly, and all bound for the very same place. He nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Uncle Shi!"
With the group, the road felt much lighter. Shi Meng was a straightforward, cheerful man. As they walked, he regaled Huo Yuhao with all the Water God Church rumors he'd picked up—the delicious cakes, the miraculous pills, the impartial white-haired envoy, and that Pope who was supposedly as beautiful as a goddess and just as kindhearted.
"I heard that a few days ago, men from the City Lord's Manor came looking to stir up trouble. That envoy shut them down with just a few lines—they slunk off with their tails between their legs!" Shi Meng spoke with lively relish. "If you ask me, this Water God Church has got something real going on. Setting up shop in Thunderclap City and gaining ground so fast? That's no small feat!"
Huo Yuhao listened in silence, his hopes for the church growing bit by bit. If things were really as Shi Meng said, perhaps he truly could find work there—maybe even... buy the medicine that could cure his mother.
When they stopped to rest, Huo Yuhao pulled out the flatbreads he'd brought. He hesitated, then tore off a big piece and offered it to Shi Meng. "Uncle Shi, would you like some?"
Shi Meng blinked. He looked at the dry, rough flatbread in the child's hand and let out a booming laugh. He pulled several strips of dried meat from his own pack and pressed them into Huo Yuhao's hands instead. "Eat mine! You barely have enough provisions for yourself, and you're still trying to share? You've got a good heart, kid!"
And so the group pressed on, stopping and starting, until the silhouette of Thunderclap City finally came into view on the evening of the second day.
At that very moment, inside the Thunderclap City Lord's Manor, the mood was far less cheerful.
"Useless! All of you—utterly useless!" City Lord Lei Bao had smashed yet another teacup. This time it was a precious set of blue-and-white porcelain. "You can't even deal with one cult of charlatans! What do I keep you for?!"
The subordinates kneeling before him trembled in terrified silence. The advisor steeled himself to explain: "My lord, please quell your anger... This Church of the Water God is truly a tricky affair. When we sent men to cause a disturbance, those wretched paupers actually banded together to defend them! When the tax office went to audit the accounts, that white-haired envoy brought out ledgers so meticulously calculated he was more professional than our own tax men! Thugs sent to vandalize the place at night were caught before they even reached the gate..."
"Enough!" Lei Bao roared, his face so dark it could drip water. He paced the hall, back and forth, like a caged beast.
The Water God Church's reputation had swelled to the point of nearly overshadowing him—the legitimate city lord. The common rabble now mentioned the church with nothing but gratitude and praise, while their faces twisted with contempt at the mere mention of the City Lord's Manor! How could he stomach this?
What was even more infuriating: those miraculously effective pills and foods of theirs—they should have been his golden goose! And now they were lining the pockets of some woman who'd popped up out of nowhere and her pathetic little sect!
"Go!" He halted abruptly, a cruel light flashing in his eyes. "Summon Boss Li, Master Zhao, and the rest! Tell them Lei Bao has matters of great importance to discuss!"
Within half an hour, the reception hall of the City Lord's Manor was filled. All minor nobles and wealthy merchants of some standing in Thunderclap City had gathered. They exchanged uncertain glances—none of them knew what had prompted the city lord to convene them so suddenly.
Lei Bao swept his gaze across the room and cut straight to the point. "Gentlemen, I trust you've all heard of this 'Church of the Water God' that's sprung up in our city recently?"
Nods all around, though expressions varied. Some looked dismissive, some frowned with worry, and some had a calculating glint in their eyes—clearly eyeing the church's "business opportunities."
Boss Li, the city's largest medicinal goods dealer, was the first to speak up. "Lord City Lord, those pills from the Water God Church pose a genuine threat. Sales of my shop's basic wound salves have dropped thirty percent this month!"
Master Zhao chimed in: "Indeed! And they're offering free awakenings, free healing! How are honest businessmen like us supposed to survive?"
But not everyone held the same view. One relatively young merchant ventured cautiously, "Yet... the Water God Church has truly helped many of the poor... and their medicines are genuinely effective..."
Lei Bao pinned him with a freezing glare, and the man clamped his mouth shut at once.
"Effective? What good is 'effective'?!" Lei Bao slammed his palm against the table. "What about the rules of Thunderclap City? What about taxation? What about the social order? Are we going to let some foreign cult climb on top of us and do as they please?"
His eyes swept the room, his voice dropping low but thick with menace. "Consider this, all of you: today they steal Boss Li's medicinal business. Tomorrow it's Master Zhao's grain trade. The day after? The day after that? Once all those paupers have flocked to their side... who will really hold power in Thunderclap City?"
These words hit home for many in the room. What nobles and wealthy merchants feared most was the overturning of the established order, the damaging of their profits.
The advisor added fuel to the fire at just the right moment. "Furthermore, according to our investigations, the source of the Water God Church's pills is highly suspect—likely not of legitimate origin. And these so-called 'holy relics'—if someone falls ill from eating them, who takes responsibility?"
Whispers and murmurs rippled through the room. They were clearly being swayed.
Lei Bao saw the moment was ripe and finally laid out his scheme. "So. We must join forces. If we can't strike openly, we'll strike from the shadows!"
A cunning, ruthless light gleamed in his eyes. "First—cut off their supplies! Boss Li, you have the widest network. Find out where they're sourcing their medicinal ingredients! Master Zhao, you're in charge of contacting the grain merchants. Anyone who dares sell provisions to the Water God Church makes themselves an enemy of us all!"
"Second—we create a few... 'accidents.'" Lei Bao sneered coldly. "They can heal, can they? Then let them try to heal a few patients who can't be healed! Advisor, this one's yours. Find a few terminally ill cases—or simply... you understand. Make it clean."
"Lastly." He turned toward the representatives of the soul master families present. "Clan Head Wang, I'll trouble you to dispatch a few skilled men to... 'test' the Water God Church's mettle. I hear they've recruited a handful of low-ranked soul masters? Let's see what they're really capable of."
A conspiracy against the Church of the Water God was silently taking shape in this clandestine meeting. And at that very moment, Huo Yuhao was stepping through the west gate of Thunderclap City alongside Shi Meng's group, full of hope, heading in the direction of the church.
The boy hadn't the faintest idea that the place he was about to enter was not merely somewhere offering work and hope—it was the heart of a vortex soon to be engulfed in a storm.
Even if that storm wasn't, in truth, all that big...