Chapter 158: Chapter 158

Although she planned to investigate the “Greenwild Orthodox Church,” Lianna had no intention of telling Louisa anything related to it. After all, her identity was special—she was a monster in human skin—so the best option was to act under a false name from start to finish, never letting her friend sense a thing.

To better cover herself, Lianna also asked her sister to buy her a magitech device and inscribe two spells of light-and-shadow magic into it: “Distortion” and “Shadowmeld.”

The former warped the light and shadow around her, turning her into a blurry smear of color—as if a frosted-glass filter had been laid over her. The latter was Yvette’s classic technique: anywhere there was shadow, she could slip into the darkness and be nearly invisible.

Lastly, she threw on a yellow hooded raincoat, and the following night, Lianna set to work on her investigation of the Greenwild Church.

The early stages weren’t hard. The Greenwild Church was a legal sect native to the Jadeite Continent with many believers in Garde City. It was easy to learn they worshiped a deity called the “Root of the World”—a derivative take on the creation god of local Jadeite mythology, the “Greenwild God.” They had churches in every district of Garde and organized services on weekends.

As the investigation deepened, though, the difficulties mounted. Lianna was a girl on the cusp of eleven—she didn’t have her sister’s worldview, insight, or hacking skills, so the best she could think of was infiltration and eavesdropping.

Perhaps she hadn’t picked a core church, because after more than a month she still hadn’t uncovered any deep secrets—yet from the church’s grassroots operating model, she caught the scent of something off.

She discovered that although the Greenwild Church had been around for less than two years, it was expanding at a staggering pace, and the reason was—

Nor was that all. Within the church, even donations had fixed tier caps corresponding to different reward sizes.

Once you hit the highest cap and still wanted to more, you either had to bring in enough believers to rise in rank within the church, or you had to take part in a mysterious “Offering Rite” to gain the opportunity to keep donating.

Combining what she’d learned from Louisa with the fact that the Greenwild Church was Lingman Corporation’s black glove, Lianna guessed that this so-called “Offering Rite” was human experimentation disguised as a religious activity. Louisa’s parents had disappeared, most likely because they wanted to raise their donation cap and volunteered their bodies to Lingman’s labs—and then something went wrong in the experiment, and they vanished without a trace.

That night, Lianna reported her findings to Yvette.

She wasn’t the type to swallow pointless hardship for the sake of “independence.” Every day, she told her sister her findings and next steps. That way, if she made some rookie mistake or ran into trouble, Yvette could respond at once.

“I see. Lianna, let me tell you what the Greenwild Church really is—” After listening to Lianna’s report, Yvette smiled and gave her a primer on the Ponzi Scheme.

Then, seeing Lianna’s startled face, she went on: “So the believers here aren’t ordinary religious followers or simple victims—they’re more like gamblers. They know the score. They know what happens when they rope people in, and they know the darkness behind it. They just believe they can cash out before the bubble bursts. Some even bet their lives, thinking they can survive Lingman’s human experiments and make more money.”

She paused, then added, “I think that if Louisa’s parents were still alive, they’d definitely stop you from digging further—because it would threaten their income.”

Lianna opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but gradually fell silent. She had thought this was a simple tale of good and evil—like the slave traders in the Rustbone Free State, a classic example of predatory crime.

She hadn’t expected the perpetrators to bind interests with the victims and form an unbreakable alliance.

If she wanted to stop this, she wouldn’t just be facing the perpetrators—she’d have the victims lined up against her, too.

“Sister, what do you think I should do?” Lianna asked on instinct. For a ten-year-old girl, this was still too complicated.

Yvette thought it over. “This isn’t a question of what you should do. It’s a question of what you want to do.”

“If I were you, I’d choose to do nothing. In my eyes, everyone who bought in is a willing gambler—so they should accept the loss.”

“You could also choose to pop the bubble early to save more potential victims. But understand this: once you make that choice, the potential victims won’t thank you, and the existing ones will hate you. Their hatred might burn hotter than the perpetrators’.”

“You’ll spend a lot of time and energy, get dragged into lethal risks, maybe even get targeted in the shadows by Lingman—and in the end, most people will hate you. You won’t get gratitude or a good name. You’ll find you did something with a massive cost and a net negative return.”

“Can you accept that, Lianna?” Yvette watched her with real interest, waiting for an answer.

She figured Lianna would be lost—no one wants to do something with negative returns. Online, most creators who chase hot topics and claim to speak for justice pick that lane to get famous, to be admired, to feed their spiritual needs on others’ praise—and sometimes make a little money.

Doing good without leaving your name—how is that any different from wearing finery in the dark?

Even for someone like her—the famed national hero of New Eden, “Nameless”—there was no way she’d waste so much time and energy on something with zero return, unless it was the kind of thing you settle with a flick of the wrist.

But the Greenwild Church clearly wasn’t solvable with a flick of the wrist. Their influence wasn’t small, their leadership had ample layers of security, and they were tightly linked to Lingman. The time, energy, and risk it would take to deal with them would daunt anyone.

Yet, to her surprise, Lianna answered very quickly. She blinked and said on reflex, “I can—”

“You can? Have you really thought it through?” Yvette suspected the answer hadn’t even passed through her brain. “The Greenwild Church is tied to Lingman. The risks are huge. Even if you succeed, those so-called ‘victims’ won’t thank you—they’ll hate you more, thinking you cost them money.”

“But I don’t need anyone’s thanks. As long as I can use my power in the right place, that’s enough.”

Yvette couldn’t help looking up to meet her eyes. In Lianna’s sapphire gaze, she saw a lake clear to the bottom—everything within so clean, without the slightest falsehood—like a flawless, exquisite gem. Get full chapters from novel·fiɾe·net

She suddenly realized she’d been overthinking it—her mind had gone a little off-track.

As an adult, from the day she’d entered the dream mists, her subconscious had kept repeating that she was here to “search, strike, and withdraw,”

and she’d started, instinctively, to calculate her gains and losses—and the countdown to the dream’s end.

That underlying mindset had become its own peculiar pressure, breeding anxiety—like any working adult squeezed by marriage-and-mortgage expectations, unable to stay calm in any corner of life. Of course, the reason she still slept in or procrastinated was plain laziness; that didn’t mean the pressure wasn’t there.

But Lianna was still a ten-year-old girl, with the purest kindness of her age. She didn’t care about returns, fame, or profit and loss. She cared about right and wrong—and was willing to pay dearly for it, even if it meant being despised or risking her life.

Understanding that, Yvette felt a stab of shame. So young, and Lianna’s scope already exceeded hers, making her seem like a dirty adult by comparison.

Then she smiled faintly, lifted a hand to ruffle Lianna’s hair, and said gently, “Then go do it. No matter what you run into, I’ll always be right behind you.”

Lianna shook her head, nuzzled Yvette’s hand, her eyes crescenting with delight. “Okay, Sis!”