The group wasted no ti. Driven by their speedrun ntality and pragmatic approach, they quickly left the lounge and headed into the church to find information about the Evil Infant Inquisition's staff.
Ideally, they'd split up to cover more ground. But for Zhang Jizu, efficient intelligence-gathering was trivial compared to his real purpose for being here. He prioritized safety above all else—so he stuck right behind Cheng Shi.
Scorpio, seeing both big shots traveling together, wasn't about to wander off alone either. He followed suit.
Gao Ya's whole objective was to avoid being isolated, so she wasn't leaving the group.
In short—four people beca conjoined twins.
Cheng Shi was exasperated but resigned. He'd just have to be more creative with his questioning techniques to make up for the lost efficiency.
Although the Inquisition looked abandoned, the church staff clearly knew about the institution and understood how it operated.
So Cheng Shi identified a church worker who looked gullible, posed as a colleague, offered petty incentives, pulled him into a secluded corner, and extracted everything he knew about the Inquisition.
"The Inquisition was never dismantled—but it's not operating normally either."
"There are indeed so staff mbers living inside. But take my advice: no matter how curious you are, don't go in and disturb them."
"Why?"
"You really haven't heard? That shouldn't be possible. On your first day in the church, the old-tirs should have warned you. Did you... also join just for the paycheck?"
"Huh?" Cheng Shi blanked, then nodded hastily. "You read people well!"
"Reading people is the foundation of surviving in the church. I could tell from the start you're not a devout believer. But don't worry—I won't rat you out. Because I'm not one either."
"Don't look at
like that. Loyalty matters. I respect anyone who's not devout. The people behind us have long lost themselves in fanatical faith—abandoned their wisdom. People like you and , who just go through the motions insincere—we're the truly independent, truly free ones!"
"After all my years in the church, I've co to one conclusion:"
"Humanity, wisdom, and faith—you can only have two of the three."
"You and I both abandoned faith, chose wisdom and humanity. So we're the smart ones."
"But smart people need to eat too. Putting on a mask of devotion to eat—I don't think that's so unreasonable. Do you?"
Cheng Shi was stunned. He'd thought he'd randomly picked a fool, but this man turned out to be a surprisingly eloquent philosopher.
'Master, you speak the truth. I'm enlightened.'
Under Cheng Shi's increasingly worshipful gaze, the "philosopher" got carried away. He babbled on, spilling secrets:
"That person in there is a cursed sinner. You could ask anyone else and no one would tell you—because barely anyone knows."
"If I hadn't... shh, you can't tell anyone. If I hadn't snuck into the Head of Church's room, I wouldn't know either."
"The Inquisition's founding actually had nothing to do with so-called evil infants. It was a decision made a hundred years ago by a certain Head of Church—out of a sliver of personal compassion."
"The institution wasn't originally called by that na. It was called the Blasphemy Confessional. Explaining the connection between the two is sowhat complicated. Break ti's limited, so I'll keep it short."
Cheng Shi nodded to himself, thinking this man was admirably forthcoming. But he soon realized the man wasn't forthcoming—he was an incurable chatterbox.
He hadn't shared his secrets with anyone in ages. The mont he found an interested listener, he grabbed Cheng Shi and talked the entire afternoon.
Cheng Shi didn't want to interrupt, because the man's words genuinely contained substance. It was just buried under mountains of nonsense—roughly at a 10:1 ratio: ten sentences of filler per one sentence of history.
Cheng Shi's head was pounding, but he endured it all. Finally, as the sun was about to set, he pieced together the full story of the Evil Infant Inquisition.
Coincidentally, he was sowhat personally connected to it.
Rember the female citizen who'd used the God Reproduction technique to have a baby—the one Cheng Shi had delivered?
Though Cheng Shi's deliveries were rely in-ga projections of Life Era history, in true history, that woman really did give birth to that child. And that child grew up to beco the Head of Church the chatterbox philosopher had described.
As the child matured, he gradually recognized himself as an Uda Rioter. But he felt zero resistance to this identity. In fact, he leveraged the God Reproduction technique to steadily raise his standing among [Birth] followers, successfully infiltrating the church and becoming its rising star.
He used every ans to broadcast his devotion, while simultaneously scattering offspring across the city. The church believed he was physically embodying [Birth]'s will. In truth, he was only expanding the Uda bloodline.
Years later, this Uda Rioter at the peak of his prestige was elected Head of Church. But it was then that his and his kin's identities were accidentally exposed—not to the public, but to the holess, perpetually wandering Uma people beyond the Dol Empire's borders.
These Uma people learned that their ancient kin had acquired new power in Dolgod. They flocked to him.
The Head of Church—who'd lost historical mory and retained only blood mory—took pity and sheltered them. But he couldn't override objections to feed a bunch of idle mouths with tax revenue. So he founded the Blasphemy Confessional.
Since the Uma Sinners had been perpetually atoning for their historical blasphemy, the Head of Church began using the Confessional to brainwash citizens—channeling all their non-reproductive energy into repentance, thereby maintaining social stability.
But this policy predictably enraged the populace. Under intervention from a Dol Empire Bishop, the Head of Church was deposed.
On the day of his removal, he publicly revealed his identity and furiously denounced the Dol Empire's decision as the greatest sacrilege against Him. But this only intensified the citizens' fury. They grabbed stones from the roadside and stoned him to death in front of the church.
With the Head of Church dead, the Uma Sinners he'd sheltered should have been executed too. But the succeeding Head of Church discovered the Confessional's stabilizing effect on society and found a pretext to keep them alive.
The new head tweaked the Blasphemy Confessional: universal repentance beca individual condemnation. Using the label of "evil infants" and fabricated blasphemy charges, he sentenced every dissenting citizen to death.
And so the Theocracy of Growth's golden age arrived. Dolgod experienced unprecedented stability. Every citizen respected and adored the Head of Church—because all dissenters had already been sentenced to death for blasphemy.
Later, this Head of Church was promoted to Bishop within the Dol Empire. Dolgod's Inquisition fell silent once more.
This should have been the Bishop's shaful stain—to be erased upon departure. But he unexpectedly died shortly after assuming his Bishopric. Without the Bishop's support, the Evil Infant Inquisition beca dormant. The next Head of Church knew full well how dangerous public exposure would be, yet couldn't bring himself to demolish it—given the late Bishop's lingering influence. And so the Inquisition was simply... left to decay.
Therefore: Dolgod never had such a thing as "evil infants." There had never been a life that shouldn't have been born.
Upon hearing this, the teammates behind Cheng Shi were all stunned.
Squinty-eyes widened. Gao Ya frowned. Scorpio looked baffled. Cheng Shi had a cryptic half-smile.
He regarded the "philosopher" before him and asked in an amused tone:
"All this historical insider knowledge... I doubt you got it just from sneaking into the Head of Church's room."
"Interesting. Who exactly are you?"
"You're not one of my dear teammates, are you?"
The "philosopher" shook his head, clearly not understanding what "teammates" ant. But he was indeed no ordinary church worker. Seeing Cheng Shi question his identity, he grinned:
"Honestly, it's rare for
to et soone who doesn't recognize . But even rarer to find soone willing to talk to ."
"My na is Turadin. Since you clearly don't recognize
even face-to-face, you've probably never heard my na."
"But there's another na you should know."
"My father is Berios. Ring a bell now?"
Cheng Shi laughed dryly and shook his head. The "philosopher's" expression froze instantly.
At that mont, Gao Ya behind him let out a cold snort:
"Berios. The current Head of Church of Dolgod's Theocracy of Growth."
"How interesting. Your so-called 'found a good mark for intel' turned out to be the current Head of Church's son?"
?
Cheng Shi whipped around, looked at Gao Ya, then turned back to stare at Turadin with genuine disbelief:
"You spent all afternoon bashing fanatical faith and blasphemy—and now you're telling
your father is the Head of the Theocracy of Growth?"
Turadin didn't see anything wrong with this. He shrugged:
"Precisely because he's the Head of Church, I despise everything here."
"His fanatical devotion has turned Dolgod into a hell of faith. These people see nothing but procreation. From birth to death, their minds hold one single thought: faith. They don't realize they've already died—spiritually."
"They've lost their individuality, their freedom, everything beyond religious fervor."
"This existence is suffocating and terrifying. If humans exist only to chanically worship the almighty [Birth] enthroned above—then why, when He bestowed new life, did He also grant humanity thought and wisdom?"
"So it's wrong. All of it is wrong."
"I can't articulate exactly what's wrong. But I know that continuing like this ans people cease to be people."
"I've always hoped soone would co and destroy everything here—then build, on the ruins, a new Dolgod without Him."
"And today, at last, I've found you."
"Truth is, I inducted every new recruit in the entire church. But I've never seen any of you—so you're clearly not church people."
"Who are you?"
"No—that doesn't matter. What matters is..."
"Do you need help?"
...
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