Nightmare's Call Chapter 532 - Plotting: Part 2

532 Plotting: Part 2

Most of the partygoers were ordinary people, but there was no lack of soul hunters, too.

Many ordinary folks, for so reason or other, would choose to do this.

The moral degradation of the soul hunters had been a concern. Ansel knew this problem, but it was not sothing he alone could change. Since the soul hunters were still relatively weak, the Darksider groups always found fault with and suppressed them.

Among the more self-indulgent soul hunters had several powerful ones. So everybody just had to groan and bear it.

Ansel andered in the streets, scanning the goods that were spread out for sale on the ground. There were precious jewelry of the past, expired instant noodles, and also various weird-looking stones and woods.

The Blacktide was not static. It moved like a sea with low and high tides. So many people, to get so food, would wait for the tide to recede and salvage anything they could find useful near the edge of the Blacktide.

Ansel called them the scavengers, the number of which had increased recently.

He frowned when his eyes swept over a scavenger stall. There were few things for sale today. Asides from so stones and woods, there were only so food and water they scavenged from the abandoned buildings.

Many of these things were not consumable because of the contamination. But the soul hunters might have ways to purify them. They looked for the clerics, the believer of the holy light, to purify the things, separating the edible part from the non-edible part, which could be regarded as food.

Ansel was looking for a popular scavenger stall where he usually found the things he wanted. But today, the scavenger was not here.

“Where is Sola? I don’t see her around today?” he asked the other stall owner.

“Sola will not open her stall anymore. She has beco a mber of the Cult of Salvation. There is food and drink there and she won’t give a rip about this little money.” The stall owner sounded sour grapes.

“The Cult of Salvation?” Ansel was a famous soul hunter leader around here with a dozen soul hunters in his group. One of the group mbers had joined the Cult of Salvation, and he had never heard from him again since then.

“What? The Salvation thing is growing that fast?” Ansel was surprised.

“They were neither here nor there last ti. But for the past week, they have been growing. I heard that they were giving out food. The benefits are wonderful!” Another stall owner said enviously.

“Benefits are wonderful? Where do they get the food? Are they all from the holy cities?” Ansel was surprised.

“Holy cities? Who knows? They might be forces like the holy cities growing their down line,” one said in a low voice.

Ansel said nothing. People will find excuses, no matter what, if they want to deceive themselves.

Those stall owners started to waffle away about the Cult of Salvation. One particular sentence caught Ansel’s attention.

“It’s said that there are Salvation cultists in the holy cities!”

“The holy cities...” Ansel mumbled to himself. He had a bad feeling about it.

...

Khadula was walking in the drizzle with an umbrella in hand on the street of Shermanton.

It had been over two weeks since her original body was in cultivation. Within these two weeks, she and her avatars would roam around, patrolling the streets to make sure the city was in order. The city was safe and peaceful because of her.

Khadula Beauty Center was not just a taboo na but a hallmark.

“If you don’t listen, I’m going to send you to Khadula Beauty Center!” It was not just sothing parents said to make their kids toe the line.

“If you cry again, I’m going to ask Khadula to take you away!”

This was a phrase so parents like to use. These words just vividly showed Khadula had an upright image in the holy city.

Whoever found to have floated the law, especially those who willfully exploited the loopholes of the law and walked in the gray area, would be given a beauty package by Khadula for free. Of course, she was not making their faces but hearts better.

Using so whitewash technique exclusive to the Sanctum, every custor coming to Khadula Beauty Center would co out like a breath of fresh air. They were willing to drop everything and join the big family of Khadula Beauty Center, becoming part of Khadula.

“This is my plan to showcase my sense of aesthetics,” Khadula recalled what she had done and was proud of herself.

“My original body is in cultivation, I, as his brothers and sisters, should be helping each other. The beauty center not only beautifies people but also the city. I’m not only giving a facial but also the facial of the heart to the people of this city.”

Khadula felt a heavy sense of mission and responsibility. People might find her scary, but that did not make her dislike it.

Walking past a newly opened bakery, she looked inside the shop through the glass entrance. A shopkeeper with a morbid face was explaining sothing to a few custors. Despite they were a dozen ters away from her, separated by a thick glass door, Khadula could make out their conversation.

There were terms related to the Cult of Salvation ntioned occasionally, as the woman shopkeeper explained. She seed to try to persuade the custors to join the cult. They would get to buy bread at a 90% discount if they joined.

Ninety percent? That was as good as giving it out freely. Two custors were seemingly moved.

Khadula stood outside the entrance, quietly observing what was going on inside.

She used to hear about the Cult of Salvation, which seed to be a harmless civilian society. It had even filed a record at the Sanctum for their activities.

It was all legal, no hanky-panky of promoting evil thoughts or riot. What they were doing was only one thing: collecting materials from the Blacktide at each tide interval and then reselling them to the mbers at dirt cheap prices.

Khadula did not give a hoot who this tiny cult survived and who they did recruitnt. All she was concerned about was whether there was anything fishy going on with them.

Still standing outside the door and listening, she made sure there was nothing unusual in their conversation. After that, she moved on and headed to other places.

However, unknown to her, after the two custors consud the food that the shopkeeper gave them, their pupils started to undergo very minute changes, unnoticed by the custors. They were genuinely glad that they were able to purchase so bread at an extrely low price.