Chapter 168: You're Not Planning to Unify the Continent, Are You?
Furina began leading the group on a tour of the Church of the Water God's various departments.
First were the four core departments: Finance, Law Enforcement, Operations, and Logistics. It was, however, only a cursory walkthrough—there wasn't, after all, much that needed to be said. If one were to elaborate in detail, only the Operations Department and the Law Enforcement Department might warrant a few extra words.
The responsibilities of the Operations Department caught Wang Dong and the other three quite by surprise—it was in charge of recruiting talent, helping commoners awaken their martial souls, and completing various missions. Now, it had also taken on additional duties such as patrolling.
"People still go around helping commoners awaken their martial souls these days?" Wang Dong couldn't help but exclaim.
Bei Bei nodded thoughtfully as well. This was something even the four great empires and Shrek Academy had long ceased to do—the scope was too vast, too time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly, with pitifully meager returns. It simply wasn't worth it.
Yet the Water God Church not only did it, but sent people out almost every year. Not only within the Star Luo Empire, but they also dispatched personnel to the other two great empires—only the Sun Moon Empire saw fewer missions.
There was no helping it. No matter how great the conflicts between the three empires, they were at least, in a sense, "their own people." The people of the Sun Moon Empire harbored deep-seated hatred toward the three empires; trying to help with martial soul awakenings there was simply far too difficult.
As for the Law Enforcement Department, it was primarily responsible for internal oversight—reducing or even preventing corruption—and also included a portion of public security patrol and law enforcement within the cities. Rumor had it that Neuvillette was also organizing some kind of "Tribunal"; he seemed to take this aspect quite seriously. However, while this department had its innovative points, it failed to evoke much deep reflection from Wang Dong and the others.
Bei Bei was silent for a moment in thought, then slowly spoke: "After a gap of ten thousand years, there is actually still someone going around helping awaken martial souls... This is truly a rare sight. How should I put it? It almost feels as though your Water God Church is on the verge of reviving itself into a new Spirit Hall."
Tang Ya immediately chimed in, her tone resolute: "But I believe the Water God Church will certainly do better than the Spirit Hall of ten thousand years ago! It will absolutely never become that kind of villainous force!"
She was a member of the Water God Church, and the Tang Sect had also joined the Church. At a time like this, of course she had to speak up. Besides, to date, the Water God Church had committed no wrongs that anyone could point to.
Xiao Xiao also nodded repeatedly: "This truly is a wonderful thing! This way, countless commoners are bound to benefit. And it's not just soul masters—even ordinary people can join the Water God Church and contribute, and even grow stronger through other forms of cultivation! The status of commoners will slowly rise as well."
Wang Dong spoke with rare earnestness: "Yeah, no matter how you look at it, your Water God Church's goals are good. I support you, Furina."
After saying these words, he felt an inexplicable sense of relief. Those chaotic thoughts had bubbled up in his mind again, but this time, he had successfully suppressed them and spoken his true feelings.
He had never felt so at ease.
He paused, then added half-jokingly: "Come to think of it, you're not planning to pull the same thing the Spirit Hall did and conquer the entire continent, are you?"
Furina nearly blurted out, "How did you know?"—but just barely managed to hold it in.
If Bei Bei hadn't been present, she might have actually let it slip. But Bei Bei had not yet fully given his allegiance; if such words were to spread back to Shrek, and from there to the ears of the three great empires, wouldn't that just be making things harder for herself?
When you could play on easy mode, why choose hard mode?
She answered with an expression of utter righteousness: "Rest assured, why would we ever engage in war? My Water God Church has always persuaded others through reason."
—That's right, every word she said was the truth.
Absolutely no "war." If it came down to it, just eliminate the imperial family directly, control the emperor to command the nobles—wouldn't that suffice? Did they have to follow the Spirit Hall's example and fight all over the place? That was just asking for trouble. Sure enough, the natives of the Douluo Continent had questionable intelligence—they knew to send Titled Douluo directly when dealing with the Upper Three Sects, so why couldn't they figure out how to play the same game against the two great empires?
Once the Water God Church's influence expanded enough to subtly reshape the thinking of the entire continent's populace, turning everyone's faith toward the Church... when the time was ripe, a swift coup d'état, and let's see how they deal with that.
Of course, if it really came down to it, they could also just dispatch a few Titled Douluo directly—after all, her side had a whole stockpile of potential powerhouses, and a Neuvillette to serve as a nuclear deterrent. That would be more than enough to make every faction think twice.
Bei Bei, hearing her words, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If the Water God Church truly intended to unify the continent, that would be terrifying beyond measure. Judging by its current developmental momentum, should it truly mobilize for war, it would probably be even more formidable than the Spirit Hall of ten thousand years ago.
Setting other matters aside, from the aspect of faith alone, the Water God Church was far purer than the Spirit Hall—even the common populace could benefit from it. The cultivation techniques they distributed allowed ordinary people to grow stronger as well. If these commoners became soldiers in the future, even without factoring in soul tools, they would absolutely steamroll the ordinary soldiers of the four great empires. How the hell would you even fight that?
On the combat strength side, there was even less to say. The Four Protectors, though only at the Soul Sage level, possessed such profound soul power that they could likely hold their own against an average Soul Douluo in single combat. Rumors even claimed they could use soul skill fusion techniques to contend against a Titled Douluo. And with a Limit Douluo anchoring them, that was enough to deter the four great empires and Shrek Academy alike.
How powerful was a Limit Douluo? One person could effortlessly destroy a city. Even a Rank 98 Hyper Douluo, combined with several Titled Douluo, could not prevail against one.
Even setting all of that aside—Furina, this Pope, was a peerless talent, and Huo Yuhao's talent was even more monstrous. Within ten years, they would inevitably become Titled Douluo or even Hyper Douluo, with Limit Douluo well within reach. Under these circumstances, the Water God Church would only grow stronger and stronger.
If a day truly came when they decided to unify the continent...
They would be unstoppable.
Furina led the group further forward and stopped before the entrance of the Intelligence Department.
"This is the Intelligence Department, divided into three sections." She pushed the door open, explaining as they walked.
The Intelligence Department was divided into three sections: the Espionage Section, the News Section, and the Gossip Section.
The Espionage Section was responsible for gathering important intelligence from all regions and organizing it into archives. The News Section focused on publicity—expanding the Church's influence and visibility, and increasing the common people's faith in the Water God Church. The Gossip Section, on the other hand, was rather free-spirited—specializing in producing eye-catching content, sometimes exaggerating the facts a little, and there were even people serializing novels there.
Curious, the group leaned in for a closer look and saw rows of bound volumes of "works":
My Pope Couldn't Possibly Be This Cute
Reincarnated as a God of Cooking, Conquering Deities with Culinary Arts
Waking Up One Day, I Somehow Became Her Holiness the Pope
I, the Water God Envoy Neuvillette
Help Me, Monsieur Neuvillette
Unemployed Douluo
Rebirth: I Somehow Became the Dragon God Douluo
Bei Bei couldn't resist picking up the volume titled Rebirth: I Somehow Became the Dragon God Douluo and flipping through a couple of pages. He wanted to see just what kind of stuff the Water God Church's people could write.
Xiao Xiao's eyes, however, lit up. She said thoughtfully, "I want to write a book too."
She had even thought of the title already—The Things That Happened Between My Roommate and Me.
The protagonists would be Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong. Mainly because watching how close the two of them usually were made for such natural story material.
She had already roughed out the plot in her mind: the relationship between the two gradually heats up through their daily interactions, progressing from mutual dislike to inseparability, until finally an unexpected discovery—"Huo Yuhao" is actually a girl!
And then a happily-ever-after ending, the two walking into the hall of marriage.
After all... Huo Yuhao really did resemble a girl.
The more Xiao Xiao thought about this premise, the more wonderfully brilliant she found it, and the corners of her mouth had already begun to curl upward uncontrollably.