My transformation into a beautiful girl started with a hemorrhage.

“Really? That’s wonderful,” Yoneya continued. “We thought something terrible had happened to you.”

She leaned closer to Kouta and whispered, "You know what? Things haven't been peaceful lately. A few weeks ago, there was a murder around here. Although it wasn't reported on the news, a lot of people saw it that night. And you know the Uehara family in the market, right?"

"Uehara, oh, I know her, I even bought seafood from her."

"Yes, that's the family. Their daughter, Kanako Uehara, has gone missing. It's been three days since they reported it to the police, and there's still no news. I'm afraid it's probably... sigh."

“I see. We have no choice but to trust the police,” Kouta agreed.

……

Chapter 456 Explosion

Kouta went to the market to buy groceries and accidentally discovered that the Uehara family's seafood shop was closed, with a "Shop for Sale" sign posted on it.

He glanced at it and then looked away, putting the matter out of his mind.

……

Time flies, and evening arrives.

The sky was overcast, and soon it began to rain. It wasn't quite rain; it was more like a mixture of rain and snow, swirling and dancing in the air like a curtain, obscuring everything.

As Christmas draws closer, Sapporo suddenly turns cold. The rain from the sky is damp and chilly, with the wind carrying snow. This kind of rain is extremely cold, and when it falls on your skin, it feels like a knife cutting into your body.

At this moment, an indoor venue near the outskirts of Sapporo was brightly lit.

This indoor venue is enormous; it looks like it could fit three basketball courts. On the four walls hang pictures of a man dressed in an ancient white robe.

The interior space is very large, without supporting columns. Instead, it is supported by a steel frame structure at the top, which is also equipped with many lights, making the interior as bright as day.

The wooden floor of the venue was dotted with cushions, which divided the venue into squares like a chessboard.

More than three hundred people sat on the cushions in turn, their eyes filled with respect.

A new initiation ceremony for the True God Church is being held here.

These hundreds of people are recent converts. They come from all walks of life, including doctors, teachers, bank clerks, tram ticket collectors, cooks, university students, supermarket employees, cleaners, and so on.

Security personnel dressed in black were also present in the corners around the indoor venue to maintain order.

At this time,

A foreign man with a high nose and brown hair entered through the entrance of the indoor pavilion.

His name is David Egbert, and he is a video blogger.

He recently discovered the key to wealth: filming the interiors of new Japanese religions and showcasing their tricks of bewitching and fooling people to a global audience.

As is well known, Japan's religions are mainly of three major systems: Shinto, Buddhism, and miscellaneous sects.

Leaving aside the first two, the third miscellaneous faction is numerous, diverse in name, extremely poor in quality, and 99.99% of them are tools for the church's high-ranking officials to amass wealth.

These religions have an average lifespan of only one year, and their so-called doctrines are just a paragraph or two that someone randomly copied from the internet. Then, they rely on professional marketing and brainwashing techniques to squeeze the last drop of blood from these believers.

Foreign audiences seem to be very interested in the internal activities of these religions.

Or perhaps, they just wanted to see how foolish these Japanese were, completely fooled by such idiotic rhetoric...

David Egbert has chosen the True God Cult today, a behemoth that has grown to millions of followers in just a few short months.

Today, he's going to show everyone how this religion, whose very name sounds incredibly outdated, has managed to fool millions of people in such a short time.

The security guard at the entrance stopped him and asked about his background. He said that he was also a follower of the True God Cult and was preparing to join the cult today.

So the security guards stopped stopping him and didn't even try to restrain him.

This surprised David Egbert, who was prepared to be arrested. He had been subjected to strict searches when filming religious events, and was prohibited from bringing any electronic devices.

This True God cult seems very confident and not at all worried about being secretly filmed by those with ulterior motives.

Suppressing his doubts, he followed the example of the believers and found a corner to sit down.

He was wearing a thick black down jacket, with a high-resolution miniature camera hidden in one of the buttons. He also wore a black scarf around his neck, inside which was a very sensitive microphone.

This time, he plans to broadcast the True God Cult's initiation baptism ceremony live to a global audience.

"Hello everybody, I've successfully infiltrated."

He paused for a moment, then gave a self-introduction.

"If this is your first time seeing me, then welcome to David Egbert's channel, and welcome to the new episode."

“My name is David Egbert, and this is a live stream that will take you on a tour of the inner workings of the new Japanese religion.”

"This time, the religion is the True God Cult, which is currently very popular in Japan."

"I'm currently at the initiation ceremony of the True God Cult. As you can see inside, the environment is quite formal, and there are many people of all kinds..."

David Egbert, head bowed, spoke quietly in English to nearly a million viewers into a microphone hidden in his collar.

After a while.

Inside the room, the speakers around the room began to emit a distant "ding-ding-..." sound.

The indoor lights suddenly went out and then came back on.

The sudden switching of lights on and off blinded everyone in the room, causing them to instinctively close their eyes before opening them again a second later.

After everyone opened their eyes and regained their light, a collective gasp of amazement rang out in the arena, as if they had been trained before.

David Egbert opened his eyes, stared blankly at the scene before him for a moment, and then quickly calmed down.

Above the platform at the very front of the venue, a man dressed in an ancient white robe sat cross-legged, his hands clasped together, and slowly descended from the sky.

The man appeared to be in his thirties, with an ordinary appearance and a rather short stature. At first glance, he seemed like an unremarkable office worker. However, as he slowly descended from the sky, his white robes fluttering and his long hair flowing behind him, he truly exuded the air of a hermit master.

This amazing scene is what amazed everyone.

David Egbert recognized the man as the leader of the True God Cult—Kuan Wuliang!

He looked down into the microphone and said to the millions of viewers watching the live stream, "Look, everyone, this man is none other than the leader of the True God Cult, Infinite Power!"

After he finished speaking, he started to feel strange again.

In other religions, the leaders try to minimize contact with their followers in order to maintain their mystique.

But how could the leader of the True God Cult appear so easily in Quan Wuliang?

Why use such a risky and error-prone way of making an entrance?

At that moment, he secretly took out his phone and saw that many people had left messages in the comment box below his live stream.

[Blogger, this is superpower! There's absolutely no trace of the suspension rope.]

[Yes, blogger, the lighting is so bright, it's nothing like the dim lighting you see during magic shows.]

After seeing the message, David Egbert lowered his head and explained, "Don't be fooled by this guy. Materials science has now developed a super-strong fiber that is only as thin as a hair and can suspend a refrigerator. This guy must have used this fiber, which is why there are no traces of rope."

As expected, after he finished speaking, the comments section was filled with "I see" responses.

Upon seeing this, David Egbert smiled confidently. He was a staunch atheist and did not believe in any foolish talk about gods, ghosts, superpowers, etc.

On the platform.

Quan Wuliang's body slowly floated down and finally landed steadily on the ground.

The atmosphere in the arena reached a climax, and everyone cheered excitedly.

"Lord Kami! Lord Kami...!!"

These people chanted the name of the man with boundless power, their expressions devout.

"Quiet down, everyone!" Quan Wuliang stood up, stopping the cheers, and then said solemnly, "Everyone must understand one thing: I am not a god, I am merely a human being who walks among the gods. From now on, you must never call me God again. If you anger the gods and they unleash divine punishment, the consequences will be immeasurable."

"Then what should we call you?" the young woman at the front asked earnestly.

"Just call me Lord Quan."

As soon as Quan Wuliang finished speaking, a deafening roar erupted throughout the hall: "Lord Quan! Lord Quan...!!"

This lasted for almost a minute before Quan Wuliang finally quieted everyone down.

Then he began to recount the origins of the True God Cult, its doctrines, its prophecies of the end times, and how converting to our God would bring forgiveness…

He spoke for nearly half an hour, and finally said:

"Welcome everyone to our God. I will now perform the water-sprinkling ceremony for you. Please remain seated."

After he finished speaking, two girls dressed in kimonos worked together to lift a half-meter-tall water bottle from behind the platform and walked to a spot one meter in front of Quan Wuliang. They knelt down, bent over, and then struggled to raise their hands to place the water bottle in front of him.

The half-meter-tall water bottle contained at least ten liters of water, yet the two girls held it high above their heads, perfectly steady without the slightest wobbling.

Under the curious gazes of everyone in the venue.

Quan Wuliang began muttering something in a mystical voice, then put his hands together and started forming a hand seal.

All the people understood was the last sentence: "...I am your loyal servant, I pray here, I welcome you, great God, show the world your divine grace!"

After he finished speaking, he lightly tapped the water bottle with his fingers forming a hand seal.

then,

A miraculous scene unfolded.

The water in the purified water bottle flew out of the bottle like a water snake, swirling in the air with Quan Wuliang as the center. The transparent liquid shimmered under the light, directly breaking through the last line of defense in the hearts of some skeptics present, and they completely converted.

David Egbert stared in disbelief, and explained to the audience in a trembling voice:

"Dear viewers, please don't be fooled by this magic trick. This is just a special kind of light and shadow magic. You should believe in science and believe in Newton!"

He was making his final, death throes.

"Do you all remember that famous magic trick from World War II? The magician made a tank disappear in front of hundreds of thousands of people. Compared to that, what's so special about this one?"

Quan Wuliang was enjoying the worship of the crowd with satisfaction. At this moment, he was like a god walking among men, and the water snake on his head was like a halo on an angel's head.

Then, with a wave of his hand, the water snake above his head exploded, turning into countless crystal-clear water droplets that stood suspended in the air, completely defying the law of universal gravitation.

These water droplets fly through the air, ensuring that everyone has one above their head within a few breaths.

Water droplets landed about ten centimeters in front of everyone's eyes, hovered for a moment, and then slowly moved to everyone's forehead.

This... is the water-sprinkling ceremony!

David Egbert felt the dampness on his forehead. He touched it with trembling hands, then put his wet fingers in his mouth to taste them, and then... he knelt down and kowtowed.