It's the cyber age now, and you're still playing traditional villains?

People's attention was immediately drawn to it, and some people couldn't help but start shouting, "There is also the Master!"

"Hello everyone."

Xu Shi smiled and gently pressed his hand, "Is everything okay?"

But he was a little unhappy. He was called the Saint Lady first and then the Leader? Where would my face be?

Pan Ling on the side rolled her eyes silently, "Master, just be content. I don't even have a sense of existence, okay?"

“Everything is good!”

Someone immediately responded loudly, “Thank you for everything, thank you so much!”

It's obvious that this is gratitude from the heart.

“As long as it helps everyone.”

Xia Ke'an took over the conversation and said sincerely, "After all, this is the teaching of our Holy Fire Cat Cult. Seeing you get help is the best thing for me."

This healing smile made everyone's heart melt.

"...Speaking of which, Your Highness, your sect does not accept believers?"

Just when everyone was feeling happy, someone asked this question.

Everyone reacted immediately, right?

The only one they have come into contact with is the Holy See, which is trying hard to recruit believers, as if you are the only believer and your whole family will be involved.

In contrast, the Holy Fire Cat Cult was completely different. At least they never mentioned this matter until someone asked them about it.

This was a bit strange...but people soon found a reasonable explanation.

They must be so busy giving alms that they have no time to do these things... How selfless!

Great, needless to say.

"Well..."

The old lady scratched her cheek embarrassedly when she heard this. "We don't force you to do anything, but if you are willing to believe in the Holy Fire Cat God, we will welcome you."

"I want to join!"

"Me too!"

"And I!"

One stone stirs up a thousand ripples, and everyone can no longer hold back.

If they had any concerns before, they don't have to worry at all now. This is the state religion. What's wrong with believing in the state religion?

Of course, this also means that they will have to abandon their previous beliefs in the Holy See... But this is not a problem. With such a good saint and free supplies, what else do they need?

"Ah ha ha……"

The white-haired Lolita smiled, and seemed a little uncomfortable, so she asked tentatively, "In that case, then everyone will recite our doctrines with me?"

As she spoke, she clenched her fists and raised them above her head.

"The holy fire is bright, the holy light is shining."

"The holy fire is bright, the holy light is shining."

Everyone followed her example and waved their hands along with her.

"All my followers, meow meow meow!"

"All my followers, meow meow meow!"

Meow meow meow!

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 271: It’s broken, I’m a substitute!

2023-09-22

Meow meow meow, meow meow meow.

The simple, easy-to-understand and catchy cat education slogans instantly spread throughout the main city. The sound of meows was heard one after another, and those who didn’t know would have thought they had entered a large cat cafe.

Even the way people greet each other has changed, from "Have you eaten today?" to "Have you meowed today?"

It can be seen that this is a reflection of the increasing number of believers in the Holy Fire Cat Cult - the rapid expansion even forced the royal family to advance plans to build other churches.

The department in charge of construction naturally did not slack off and was extremely efficient. In less than a week, they built a new branch from scratch, and the quality was extremely high, which can be called a miracle in the history of construction.

Nonsense, if they still take advantage of the state religion that is now in the limelight and manipulate it in secret, wouldn't that be courting death? Not to mention how furious the royal family will be, they may not be able to resist the enthusiasm of ordinary people.

So, sometimes you don’t know how powerful you are unless you are pushed... Of course, this is also because there are ascenders, or "chosen ones" in this world. Otherwise, no matter how hard you try, it is unlikely to achieve such a thing in a place where large machinery has not yet been popularized.

But no matter what, the result is gratifying, and everyone is willing to spontaneously promote the Holy Flame Cat Cult.

First of all, of course, you have to bring in all your relatives and friends around you. No matter whether you have seen the great powers of the Cat Cult or not, at least fill out the form and sign up.

The reason is very simple. The free supplies are distributed per person every day. By doing this, you can get an extra egg. The Cat Cult doesn't care whether you are related or not. Just come and get it.

Of course, there are also people with bad intentions. They take advantage of the vastness of the main city and start looking for people who are not familiar with the Cat Cult. They offer conditions like "I will introduce you to collect the money, and you will return 30% to me after the success."

Obviously, this is highly overlapped with those who made profits by speculation in the Poseidon Stone transaction at that time, and they were all people who tried every means to exploit loopholes to make money.

However, this time they hit a wall - the compensation for losses was very formal, and several outlets had dedicated personnel to answer everyone's questions. In addition, the speed of the spread of the Cat Cult was very fast, so such a trick would naturally fail.

The city defense army was also ruthless. They arrested several typical speculators, publicly punished them heavily for fraud, confiscated their gains, and sentenced several of them to death. This allowed the public to watch a good show of fighting the rich for free.

Everyone is happy to see this. After all, the majority of people suffered losses in the Poseidon Stone incident, so they naturally cannot bear to see speculators making huge profits from it, and they can't wait to spit in their faces before leaving.

Everything is going on in an orderly manner.

"Sir, what do you think about this matter?"

In Grand Duke Gu Jian's mansion, some people were worried about this and carefully asked Cheng Gu Jian for his opinion.

"How? With your eyes."

Cheng Gujian was not in a hurry and even made a rare witty remark, "Isn't this a good thing that benefits the country and the people?"

What he said was absolutely right. The reason why the Holy Fire Cat Cult could become popular among the people so quickly was, after all, because people were willing to invest.

After all, for most people, the greatest pursuit is to have good food, good clothes, a wife, children and a warm bed. Although Xu Shi's approach is simple and crude, it really hits the bull's eye.

This alone may have surpassed 10% or even 90% of leaders.

As for benefiting the country, it is also easy to understand. The previous Poseidon Stone incident caused panic among everyone, but now people's hearts are at peace, which is the best thing.

The royal family's reputation was also greatly improved - after this incident, the approval ratings that had dropped due to the Poseidon Stone trade began to recover, and coupled with the fact that they were not greatly affected during the campaign against Poseidon, the royal family's reputation was now better than before.

"I naturally know this, I am just worried about your..."

Butler Chen, the elder brother of the royal Knight Commander Chen, naturally understood these principles, but what he was worried about was not these, but Cheng Gujian's own status, which now seemed to be slightly loose.

This is inevitable. After all, Dongfang Xiao is the one who does all the work for the Maomao Cult, and Duke Gu Jian has become the mascot - it is not wrong to call him the mascot. After all, in this matter, his biggest role is to express his stance.

With him here to keep an eye on things, no matter how many opposing opinions there are, no one dares to voice out.

But on the other hand, everyone has some doubts about him, because this is inconsistent with his usual style. How could you not do such a big thing personally?

With this sign, rumors began to spread, such as he was injured, sidelined, and even suspicions that he was dying. If it weren't for his iron-fisted methods in the past, his reputation would never have been so weak.

Not to mention the matter of Xu Shi, a foreigner - the royal compensation was channeled through the Maomao Cult, which inevitably took away a portion, or even a large portion, of the reputation and public support brought about by it.

Although it seems that they did pay the lion's share of the money, allowing an outsider to gradually step onto the political stage of the Hualan Empire is definitely not a good thing.

In particular, they are of course well aware that this is a trick of taking advantage of the situation, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are getting something for nothing.

Given so many factors, they certainly wouldn't just sit there and watch.

However, unexpectedly, when Cheng Gujian heard him say this, he raised his head and looked at him with interest.

"Is this something you should be concerned about?" he asked.

Grand Duke Gu Jian's tone remained calm, but it gave Butler Chen a chill.

As a close minister who had served the other party for many years, he could distinguish the subtle changes in Cheng Gujian's tone very well.

And now, it was obvious that the other party was a little unhappy, and this unhappiness naturally came from his questions.

The answer given by Cheng Gujian was also reminding him whether he was overstepping his authority.

In this situation, Butler Chen naturally didn't dare to say anything more, but he couldn't help but wonder in his heart. He had clearly given the reminder out of concern, so why did he cause the Master's displeasure?

He has always been careful in what he said and did over the years, but this time he was really confused.

"...If you really have the time, go and pay attention to the movements of the Holy See."

Cheng Gujian didn't give him time to think. He stood up and ordered, "If they keep suppressing us, who knows what those bastards will do... Tell me if there is any situation."

"Yes."

Butler Chen felt as if he had been pardoned. He bowed deeply and left in a hurry.

Looking at his back, Duke Gu Jian just shook his head, then unconsciously tapped the table with his fingers, muttering Xu Shi's name softly.

"Brother Xu... heh."

……

Cheng Gujian was absolutely right. The situation within the Holy See was truly in chaos.

"Damn it, we got tricked!"

The burly Ji Bochang was filled with anger. "This despicable foreigner is so bold. How dare he?!"

"No wonder he treated us so strangely that day... It seems like he was already planning to break up with us at that time?"

Park Guk-chang echoed, his expression even more gloomy than usual, "Not to mention that the royal family actually expressed support... What exactly are they planning?"

These two people are not friendly people to begin with, so naturally they can't remain calm when faced with such a situation.

In other words, even if they really were the pro-friendly faction, they would not be able to side with Xu Shi after being teased like this - as Xu Shi himself said, this was a matter that threatened their status and even their living space, and there was naturally no room for negotiation on this irreconcilable bottom line issue.

Not to mention that the Holy See is huge and influential, the fact is that until now they have never obtained the status of "state religion", at least not officially conferred. Now that the Holy Flame Cat Cult has taken over, in name only, they have become a non-governmental organization.

It’s broken. I’m a substitute?

If their status remained the same as before, no one would actually care whether it was official or not - people coming out of the Vatican would be superior to others there, and whether it was official or not did not need to be recognized by the royal family at all.

And the royal family has indeed never done this... Now that I think about it, maybe this is the backdoor that the successive monarchs have tacitly left for themselves? If a situation like this really happens, many things will become much more convenient.

The only official one is the Knights Templar, an organization personally appointed by the royal family as a link to "establish connections with the Holy See."

But unfortunately, the Knights themselves don’t seem to have such awareness, and their butts have gone astray long ago.

At this moment, they just felt that they could not bear it anymore, they could not bear it at all, and their fists became hard.

Of course, there are still relatively rational voices, such as Lu Baiyan with squinty eyes.

"Perhaps that's why he didn't agree to our cooperation request?"

He also had a bitter smile on his face. "So it seems that he is actually quite honest? At least he is not being hypocritical, otherwise we would be even more uncomfortable..."

"Fuck you, Lu Baiyan, which side are you from?"

Ji Bochang roared, "You are always full of bad intentions, what do you mean by saying this now?"

"Could it be that you had other plans when you picked him up? Did you find a way out for yourself?"

"I am just discussing the matter..."

Lu Baiyan spread his hands and said, "If you really doubt me, then I have nothing to say."

"Okay, stop arguing."

Qin Yiyan stopped their quarrel with a cold face, "What's the point of just making a mess? You might as well think about what to do next."

As the leader of this group, she was also extremely annoyed now - she had been loyal to the Holy See since she was a child, and she certainly would not feel good facing such a situation.

Who would have thought that in just a few months, a stranger could turn this place upside down? Unfortunately, she herself was not good at making plans, and she couldn't think of any good solution for a while.

She had originally planned to call other people over to brainstorm, but who would have thought that they would start fighting among themselves first. This gave her a headache, and refraining from hitting anyone was already her limit.

Her words were effective, and everyone present immediately quieted down.

"In my opinion, we can't go on like this."

Park Guochang frowned, "The facts prove that if we keep giving in, it will only make the foreign barbarians more arrogant... It's better to be straightforward."