I was a charlatan in India

Under the merciful gaze of Heaven, flies buzzed around the corpse.

That was a Dalit, and he looked very young, probably not even twenty years old.

He had been dead for some time when the Divine Punishment Army arrived.

Under the combined effects of rigor mortis and the low nighttime temperatures, his body quickly hardened, and then rapidly thawed and decomposed due to the bizarre temperature difference during the day.

In Varanasi, the death of a few untouchables is insignificant.

A few people will die every day.

But they are usually collected and disposed of before sunrise.

It has some meat, which is shredded and fed to cheap, inferior dogs.

Those that are skin and bones need to be chiseled into pieces and mixed with garbage, which will then be disposed of by scavengers.

Nature is so harmonious and beautiful, and life goes on endlessly.

But this time, the body was deliberately displayed for a long time, a rare occurrence as it was exposed to the public eye.

"Sigh, this is the third one this month."

A member of the Divine Punishment Army frowned.

That's clearly nonsense.

Let alone this month, more than three people have died even a single day.

Varanasi is a populous city; how can three deaths be considered a problem?

It's not like we're a small group!

"Shut up and get to work."

The commander of the Divine Punishment Army kicked him in the butt.

Then, frowning, he swept his gaze across the onlookers: "What are you looking at? Get lost!"

With another flick of his sleeve, he barked an order at his subordinates in a harsh voice: "What are you all standing there for? Get out of here!"

Upon receiving the order, his men began to push and shove the crowd.

They went through the motions but didn't put in the effort.

Normally, with the physiques of these lowly people, they could be knocked down with a single slap.

Then, after a few lashes, they ran faster than the skilled cotton pickers.

But today, they pretended to be weak and started arguing with the lowly people in front of them, attracting more and more onlookers.

Once the number of people was almost complete, he drew his curved sword with a clang and shouted fiercely.

"Get out! Get out of here! If you join in the fun again, I'll turn you into corpses too!"

Seeing the cold glint of the blade, the crowd regained their fear and scattered in a chaotic mob.

The same rotten things are also emerging around Varanasi.

The teams responsible for handling the incident were a motley crew, including the Divine Punishment Army, Surya's personal guards, and the regular army of the river defense.

Different victims, different investigation teams, but what they all have in common is the stereotypical inefficiency and the flawed performance.

Furthermore, rumors quickly spread surrounding these seemingly trivial deaths.

The rumors came in various versions, with contradictory details, but they all accurately pointed to the greed and injustice of the cult.

"Have you heard? A Vaishya wanted to join the order, but refused to pay a bribe. He was beaten to death and all his property was taken!"

"What? You have no idea. I saw it myself. That person was so thin he was skin and bones. He was obviously not a Vaishya."

"I heard he was a Dalit who stole his master's cowhide to join the cult, but after being discovered, his limbs were broken, and he froze to death!"

"This new cult is something else; you have to give gifts for everything. If the gift isn't right, they won't do anything for you, even if they don't say no..."

At first, the rumors were somewhat plausible.

It even coincided with the actions of the group that originally spread the rumors.

In the alley, several men wearing tattered robes were squatting in a group.

"Boss, the scandals surrounding the Mahakala Cult have been spreading lately."

"Even without our intervention, entirely new versions will emerge."

This is theoretically a good thing, but the leader always felt something was off.

This wasn't the first time he'd spread rumors; it simply hadn't escalated so quickly.

Unless there are other people besides them who are talking nonsense.

"Yes, I just heard another version that says Surya plans to deal with the Vaishya merchants one by one."

"Dana who died a while ago, and that fat guy who died this morning, they were both..."

"Huh? The one that died this morning was clearly just skin and bones!"

Some people raised questions.

"Where did you hear that? I was there this morning and saw it with my own eyes. He was clearly a fat man."

"I was there too! How come I didn't see you!"

"Hey, you're trying to stir up trouble, aren't you? I was at the dye shop back then, and after watching the show, I even bought a piece of cloth. Look..."

As he spoke, he actually pulled some strips of cloth out of his pocket.

It's obviously a discounted scrap.

"Wait, a dye shop? Where did you see the dead body?"

"South of the city!"

"I saw it in the west of the city!"

Ok?

The leader's secret passage is wrong.

They weren't talking about a murder case.

This is such a coincidence.

These things are almost identical.

It's not surprising that a few people die in Varanasi, but it's very strange that the lower classes see it so frequently.

Because it was not the rulers themselves who were responsible for these dirty jobs, but their subordinates.

Normally speaking, allowing the underprivileged to see the dark side is undoubtedly a dereliction of duty.

The fact that such blatant dereliction of duty occurred so frequently could only mean that it was at the behest of Surya.

But why did he do all that?

Logically speaking, this should be very detrimental to controlling the situation.

With just a little provocation, they can spread very bad rumors about themselves.

Yeah, it's like waiting for him to come knocking on our door and instigate us.

Is this a bait to lure someone into causing trouble, so that they can be labeled and forcibly suppressed?

Following Surrey's line of thought, he naturally arrived at a line of action that perfectly aligned with the young master's logic.

Simple and straightforward.

It seems that those so-called divine messengers and Mahakasyapa are all just empty names.

Since the higher-ups dare to cause trouble, it means they're not afraid of Suliye arresting people.

If they really do that, at most they'll take out a few brainless peripheral members, then give others a handle to escalate the situation and create even bigger trouble for Surya.

However, it's advisable to lay low for a while.

After all, this "brainless peripheral member" is basically someone below him in rank.

"Tell the men below to take charge."

"Hehe, this young master Nasurie is clearly trying to fish for us, we can't just throw ourselves at him."

His tone was full of sarcasm.

"Even his acting is so fake. Do you think he thinks his plan is perfect?"

"Tsk tsk... Next, a large number of hotheads will seize the opportunity to commit crimes against the wind, and he will catch them all in one fell swoop!"

His subordinates were taken aback for a moment, but quickly understood what he meant and echoed his sentiments.

"Hahaha, just like what that young master planned!"

"I heard he was banished here because of his dissolute behavior in the capital!"

Surya's consistent image, in the eyes of his enemies who knew him well, had become the best camouflage for the cult.

Most of the enemies thought that if it were that young master, he really could do such rough work.

After all, Varanasi's policies have been absurd for quite some time now.

The left and right hemispheres of the brain often clash, and decisions are frequently changed.

Such stereotypes take years to form and cannot be developed overnight.

Because the plan was so crude, the fish spreading the rumors in the city suddenly became highly coordinated and all dived into the water, with only a very few remaining active.

Whether these people were simply stupid or if the enemy had left a loose end for Surya, remains unknown.

Because they never intended to arrest anyone.

The three of them sat inside the house.

Not far away, his subordinates looked at baskets of books, which were marked with the approximate time when the rumors in each district would stop.

The three men were gathered around a sheepskin map. Mahata was rubbing incense ash between his fingers, and each time his subordinates called out a point, they would poke a mark on the map.

As the reporting ended, five sets of circles clearly formed on the map.

Mahata pointed to the center of the circle: "These are the places where they will meet."

Upon hearing this, Surrey slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly.

"Men! Gather your troops and get them to me..."

"Wait a minute."

Mahata quickly stopped him, saying, "This is a small matter, no need for Lord Surya to personally intervene. I will handle it."

Just kidding. If this young master were to take action, he'd probably send people to show off his power and then capture a few insignificant nobodys.

Then why did he clear this place out?