“Chevrolet thought that the Sword of Thunder could intimidate the Pandorn Empire, yet he didn’t know that Prince Gao Di had already summoned his courage, preparing for a nuclear war, determined to overwhelm him with mature technology and a greater number of nuclear warheads…”
Wu Ming sat inside a stretched limousine, flipping through recent intelligence on various reincarnators: “Also, the Cercis Federation and Golden Oak Kingdom are frantically manufacturing nuclear weapons, even going so far as to directly exchange raw materials from the Primordial God Space—truly…”
He always had a feeling that these nations were racing down a path of self-destruction, accelerating further and further away.
“Anyway, no need to worry about them for now. Let’s deal with the matter in Caspar City first!”
Wu Ming stepped out of the limousine and arrived at a construction site.
This was a large plot of land purchased by the Church of Redemption on the outskirts of the city. Legally speaking, as long as it didn’t violate the kingdom’s laws, Wu Ming could do whatever he wanted on this land.
“Your Holiness!”
Kart wiped the sweat from his face and walked out from among the steampunk machinery, saluting Wu Ming: “The construction of this massive underground shelter has already begun. As per your instructions, it’s designed with earthquake resistance and insulation layers. The stockpiled food and water supply should theoretically sustain tens of thousands of people for a very long time…”
His voice carried a barely concealed note of worry: “So… is the apocalypse really coming?”
Although purchasing land for a shelter was perfectly legal in the kingdom, it was still difficult to prevent unease among the people.
Especially for Wu Ming, who in the eyes of the believers was practically the representative of a god—if he spoke even one wrong word, it could potentially cause a catastrophe.
“Still, we must keep this place secret. Publicly, we’ll just say we’re building an underground warehouse… As for whether disaster will come…”
Wu Ming blinked: “I can only say… better safe than sorry!”
In reality, in his heart, the Primordial God Space was the safest place. If the world truly underwent drastic changes in the future, becoming unsuitable for human survival, he planned to relocate his family and close aides like Kart entirely into the Primordial God Space.
After all, even if nuclear strikes were devastating, could they possibly cross spatial boundaries?
Having the Primordial God Space meant he had a completely secure fallback plan, giving him more confidence in planning for the future.
“But there’s still a little more needed…”
A gleam of sharpness flashed in Wu Ming’s pupils: “The Primordial God Space still needs a bit more to upgrade, allowing it to directly draw power from this world and the Sea of Chaos, reducing its reliance on faith…”
This was also an issue he needed to consider. Otherwise, if the apocalypse truly arrived and the planet’s population drastically declined, reducing the amount of faith, the Primordial God Space would eventually encounter problems too.
“Hmm? Seems like a few pesky little fish are trying to oppose me? Lucius from the Federation… sigh… and other national powers and families. Indeed, allies are the most unreliable…”
Some images and information arrived, immediately causing Wu Ming to frown, shaking his head helplessly soon after.
…
“Although the Church of Redemption appears massive, with over a million followers, how many of them are truly devout believers willing to shed blood for it? This is indeed an interesting question!”
On the train, Lucius looked at Professor Luther with a smile: “Ordinary people, even devout believers, won’t mind attending church services every week or making donations, but when it comes to shedding blood for religion, they’ll definitely think twice. And if it means risking their entire families against the government?”
“Out of a million people, ten thousand would be a good number, maybe even fewer…”
He spoke confidently: “The clergy of the Church of Redemption has never exceeded five thousand. Although it seems powerful and develops rapidly, compared to other churches, it’s still too new. Its faith hasn’t had time to settle, and it can’t cultivate truly fanatical believers… The reason it appears so terrifying is only because of two points: first, it has the support of the upper echelons of the Golden Oak Kingdom, and second, it has a group of genuine adepts, and perhaps now must be added that Crimson Hand…”
Needless to say, Lucius had thoroughly studied the Church of Redemption: “Our mission this time is like pruning a garden—start with the branches first, and finally deal with the trunk.”
“Prune the branches?”
Professor Luther was somewhat surprised.
“Exactly. I’ll make those in the upper echelons of the kingdom abandon the Church of Redemption first, then the peripheral organizations, followed by its clergy, and finally that Archbishop Steven…”
With Lucius’s excited words, a sinister plan quickly took shape.
“Ah…”
Luther sucked in a breath of cold air: “Won’t you fear retaliation from them?”
“Retaliation? How?”
Lucius blinked: “You forgot where the foundation of the Church of Redemption lies? Even if things go wrong, it won’t be us who suffer!”
“As for if that Archbishop personally storms into the Federation, that might be the scenario I’d be happiest to see.”
Lucius sneered slightly: “The Federation allocates so much military funding every year; it should finally prove useful.”
“You…”
Luther looked at Lucius in shock, as if he no longer recognized him. When had he become such a cold person?
Was this his true nature, or was it due to changes in his environment?
“…Then what will you use to convince those nobles?”
Professor Luther deeply understood the nature of those aristocrats. Without truly tempting benefits, they would never agree to loosen their stance.
In fact, he could already guess their likely response—merely tacit approval, definitely not stepping forward to take the blame for Lucius.
“Intelligence! Regarding the Primordial God Space…”
Lucius smiled: “They place their hopes on the divine kingdom, hoping for the salvation of their souls after death? Hmph… mere deceptive tricks of religion! Who can prove the existence of the divine kingdom?”
In fact, even until now, Lucius and Luther still firmly believed that Archbishop Steven was merely a powerful supernatural being who had established this church under the guise of the Redemption Deity to expand his influence.
It must be admitted that, to some extent, they had indeed guessed the truth.
However, if they knew that the original source of the intelligence and artifacts they intended to use to entice the upper echelons of the kingdom actually came from Wu Ming himself, they would undoubtedly have a completely different expression.
…
“Your Holiness, something’s wrong!”
The power of the Cercis Federation was undoubtedly immense.
After Lucius made his move, Kart immediately rushed worriedly to Wu Ming: “Many officials in the city hall have changed their attitude toward us, keeping their distance. According to information from several believers, there’s been a change in the capital!”
“Now, not only are they delaying approvals for engineering projects, but they’re even holding up simple procedures. It’s truly too much!”
Kart was both indignant and vaguely fearful.
He had originally thought he was quite powerful, a significant figure even within the Golden Oak Kingdom.
But now, when the true machinery of the state started to operate, he realized how insignificant he actually was.
“Is the kingdom going to crack down on us?”
Thinking along this line immediately caused him to break into a cold sweat, as he realized that if this were truly the case, the church would have no better option but to go underground and lie low.
“Your Holiness!”
A female secretary also hurriedly pushed the door open: “The merchants we’ve been cooperating with have started calling, preparing to terminate agreements. What should we do?”
This elegant bishopess even showed a trace of panic.
Modern society is a massive whole, and any seemingly powerful organization or force is actually inseparable from this foundation.
Now, with the other side merely restricting material permits slightly, the entire church was already feeling quite strained, and even the upper echelons showed signs of panic. If they truly escalated, the consequences would indeed be unimaginable.
“What are you panicking for?”
Wu Ming frowned, waved his hand, and a golden divine spell spread outward, carrying the power to dispel fear.
The strength of his Church of Redemption compared to other organizations lay in having true divine powers… Well, perhaps the god itself might be fake, but the divine spells granted were undeniably real.
With this, a core group of loyal followers wouldn’t easily waver.
Lucius thought that after doing this, the Church of Redemption would disintegrate into chaos, but he was gravely mistaken.
In Wu Ming’s view, occasionally going through such a process was actually a good idea—a way to sift out the weak and test true faith, filtering out genuine believers.
“Lina!”
At his gentle call, Bishop Lina walked in.
“Your Holiness!”
She spoke with devout tone: “Although several major trading companies are preparing to terminate agreements, we’ve already anticipated this situation. Several new companies have just emerged—they’re run by our devout believers, with absolutely clean backgrounds!”
“Our believers in the city hall have already started working. In this year’s elections, the truly supportive candidates will take office, and those wavering ones will be directly voted out!”
“Very good. Overall, these two measures should be sufficient!”
Wu Ming pondered slightly: “Also, notify all clergy of the church to be cautious of sudden attacks by unknown individuals… Additionally, prepare another private vehicle. I’m planning to go to the capital!”
“Your Holiness, are you preparing to…”
Kart and Bishopess Lina asked together.
“I’m just preparing to talk with a few people, trying to resolve this issue under the premise of peace…”
Wu Ming was particularly interested in this critical moment of world advancement and naturally wouldn’t miss the opportunity to observe more deeply.
Currently, there were only a few locations capable of influencing the entire world’s trajectory—merely three or four—and the capital of the Golden Oak Kingdom was definitely one of them!
He looked toward the capital, a faint sneer appearing in his eyes.
Some people thought they were being clever, but he hoped they wouldn’t end up tripping over their own feet.
“It’s time for the world to recognize the power of our Lord!”
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