Chapter 240: Chapter 240

Chapter 240: Espionage (4)

After giving Dam Bin a brief explanation, Il-mok turned his head to look ahead.

Baekyeon and Sohyang were still on the floor with their heads bowed low, waiting for his judgment.

He couldn't see their faces, but he could tell they were terrified by the way their bodies were shaking.

When the two terrified women raised their heads, Il-mok spoke in a serious tone.

"You've recognized your own wrongdoings and confessed them in pursuit of redemption. Therefore, I shall forgive your sins."

Moisture gathered in Baekyeon's eyes, and Sohyang reached out to clasp her hand, trying to calm her friend down.

After watching them for a moment, Il-mok added more.

"However, just because you confessed doesn't mean your sins just vanish; not all sins can simply be erased. For the sake of atonement, I'm going to assign you a task."

"Wh-what task would that be?" Baekyeon asked in a tense voice, her hand clasped with Sohyang's turned white from how hard she gripped it.

"Soon, we'll be gathering new believers who have come to follow our Maitreya Luminous Cult and providing education at a Faith Education Center. You'll receive education there, and while you are there, you are to watch over your fellow disciples. If you spot a person of the Hao Clan, report them secretly to the instructors.”

"...Are you planning to kill them all?" Baekyeon asked with trembling eyes.

Il-mok gave her a gentle smile.

"You'll see when the time comes."

For some reason, that smile felt more terrifying than any threat Baekhyeon had ever seen.

A few days later, a letter arrived for Ouyang Mun.

He found its contents rather peculiar and tilted his head in confusion, but figured that if it was from Young Master Il-mok, there must be some plan behind it.

'Whatever. This works out. I can go back sooner.'

He was desperate to get back to Jin Hayeon in Lanzhou, so he decided to just do it without asking questions.

That night, the waiter and the villagers were at the gathering as usual, singing hymns and listening to the preacher like good little believers.

That’s when Ouyang Mun pulled a mask from his robe and stepped out of the shadow.

As the gathering reached its conclusion, he boldly walked up to the crowd.

"Ohhh! Incarnation of Maitreya!"

The evangelist who spotted him first bowed and welcomed him enthusiastically, and those gathered at the assembly also began speaking in tongues or bowing to greet Ouyang Mun.

Ouyang Mun waited for them to calm down, then spoke. "I came because I heard there is a new believer here who has accepted Maitreya’s light.”

As soon as he said that, everyone turned to look at the waiter.

The waiter's eyes briefly showed a hint of tension, but he skillfully concealed it by bowing his head.

"I'd like to invite you to the Faith Education Center that our Maitreya Luminous Cult has newly established. The Faith Education Center is a facility we've created to teach new believers like yourself who have recently come to follow our faith."

While the residents showed various reactions to Ouyang Mun's explanation, the waiter carefully replied. "While it would be a great honor, I barely make enough money to survive, so I don't think I can afford to travel there and back."

"Hahaha. Don't worry about that. It won't cost you anything. In fact, we'll even pay you for your time once you finish the training."

Suddenly, everyone in the crowd was on the same page.

"You should go! They're paying you!"

"You won't get a better chance than this."

With the crowd pressing him to go, the waiter turned to look at the owner of the Yunhua Inn.

"B-but if I leave, who's going to run the inn..."

"Hahaha. I ran this place by myself before you showed up. I'll be fine for a few days."

Even his boss was telling him to go.

"A-alright then. I'll go."

With his mission target captured, Ouyang Mun addressed the other residents.

"Also, to help our new friend adjust, we're going to pick one existing believer to go with him. And yes, they'll get paid too."

This was one of the two things that had puzzled Ouyang Mun when he read Il-mok's letter.

Why bring a regular believer along with the suspect?

The other question was why they were bothering to spend money, prepare an estate, and gather these people.

'Just killing them would be so much easier.'

For better or worse, Ouyang Mun was a Demonic Cult warrior through and through.

Starting with Ouyang Mun and Ju Seo-yeon, the martial artists of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult toured various parts of Gansu Province and began inviting outsiders to the Faith Education Center.

And a few days later, about fifty people gathered at a place that had been converted from a renovated estate in a remote area of Gansu Province.

Half were new believers, and half were existing believers.

They couldn't just kidnap every stranger in the province, so they only brought the ones who were interested in the Cult or had just joined.

"Six people will share one room, and we've grouped together those from the same region, so follow me this way."

Several warriors from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult were leading them as managers and instructors of the facility.

"Take about fifteen minutes to unpack and rest. Then we start class."

An hour after finishing the orientation, they gathered all fifty-some people in one place and began conducting various educational classes.

Even though the place was full of suspected spies, they didn't do anything special.

"As the Prophet once said, on the day when the world is full of evil, Maitreya shall descend..."

They listened to the same sermons they heard at the gatherings.

"Oh, thank you Maitreya. For giving us the Light."

They also spent time memorizing and singing various hymns together.

After four hours of sermons and singing, the believers were sent back to their respective rooms.

Even though they were paired up with someone they knew, an awkward atmosphere lingered since there were strangers mixed in among them.

And to break the awkward mood, they started making small talk.

They started with names, ages, and where they were from, but the conversation naturally drifted to one thing.

Strangers always look for common ground, after all.

"So how did everyone come to believe in the Maitreya Luminous Cult?"

Most of them were strangers meeting for the first time, but they all shared the common trait of being believers in the Maitreya Luminous Cult.

Ultimately, no matter what topic they started with, the conversation always ended with praise for the Maitreya Luminous Cult.

It might have been different if it were just a bunch of newbies. But half the people there were already hardcore believers.

And that’s exactly why Il-mok had instructed them to mix in half existing believers.

He wanted to make sure they were talking about the cult even during their free time.

The whole Faith Education Center scheme is basically a giant echo chamber brought to real life with the purpose of drilling the cult’s doctrine into their brain.

Il-mok actually picked up this trick from stories about modern cults, where old members pretend to be new recruits to help brainwash people.

And so the education continued for several days.

They'd wake up early in the morning to exercise together, offer dawn prayers, receive morning and afternoon classes, and were given free time from the evening onward.

And even though it was called the Faith Education Center, they also played random games and had classes for reading and music, rather than just teaching doctrine or singing hymns.

They even provided three square meals a day, so the days are pretty much productive.

The only rule was that no one could leave the estate.

And whether it was mealtime or free time, every conversation would always end with how great the cult was and how thankful they should be.

Because the program is actually pretty good, the existing believers had no complaints whatsoever.

Most of the new believers didn't complain either. At least, not openly.

In this seemingly peaceful atmosphere, Baekyeon and Sohyang secretly made contact with the managers of the Faith Education Center.

Over the past few days, they had observed their fellow students and compiled a list of suspicious individuals.

And the next day, several of those they had reported, along with a few they hadn't reported, were selected and summoned by the managers. This included the waiter that Ouyang Mun had been watching.

"Those whose names were just called have shown disappointing attitudes during the past few days of education, so you will undergo additional education separately."

Watching this scene, Baekyeon and Sohyang swallowed nervously.

They thought those people were going to die because of them.

But then, something surprising happened.

Surprisingly, everyone who was taken away came back alive.

“Glo~ ry! Glory! O’ Divine Cult!!”

"The Advent of Maitreya!! Salvation for All!!!"

And they came back with far more fervent faith than before they were taken away.

The additional education the managers mentioned wasn't anything special. It was literally just extra classes.

The only difference was that there were music lessons or free time. Except for sleeping, they did nothing but study doctrine and sing hymns all day long.

Even during meal times, a manager stood in front of them to continuously preach the doctrine or sing the hymns.

"Repent. For Maitreya is merciful. Even sinners can be forgiven, brothers and sisters."

"If you confess the demons hiding in your mind, you can be saved."

Between those sermons and hymns, they kept pressuring them to confess through constant subtle nudging.

Eventually, some of them broke and admitted they were Hao Clan’s spies.

"Through what channels are you sending information to the Hao Clan?"

And the managers would extract information about the Hao Clan through them.

On the other hand, for those who refused to reveal the truth until the very end...

"Hmm. Despite receiving additional education last time, your attitude remains poor. You need to take the class again."

They are basically stuck in summer school from hell until they break.

In a somewhat shabby-looking brothel in a quiet village, a middle-aged man was drinking alone before he spoke to the empty air.

"How are things progressing?"

At the man's question, a figure in black emerged from between the shadows and answered.

"We've lost contact with most of the agents we sent to Gansu."

"Hmm. Lanzhou aside, their surveillance of the other counties seems quite thorough as well. Are they all dead?"

"That's likely the case. All those who were taken were individuals attempting to infiltrate as believers of the Maitreya Luminous Cult, and they were all dragged to a place called the Faith Education Center."

The middle-aged man replied with a sneer.

"Heh. Faith Education Center. What a ridiculous name."

When the black-clad figure maintained his stoic expression despite the man's laughter, the man spoke with a deflated look.

"It's a shame we lost those rats, but it's not a total loss. They're probably killing innocent civilians along with our rats in their effort to catch them."

"Then shall we keep sending rats in one by one?"

"Hahaha. Let's do that for now. Once the body count gets high enough, we can spread rumors that they're massacring innocent civilians. That should be fun."

"As you command, Clan Lord." ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novel~fire~net

And so, the Hao Clan kept sending spies into Gansu for a while.

About a month later, just when they had almost forgotten about the first batch of guys who got taken to the Faith Education Center—

"...Clan Lord. A letter has arrived from one of the rats who was taken to that facility."

Surprisingly, one survivor had appeared.

"Someone came back alive?"

The Hao Clan Lord extended his hand with a puzzled expression, and the black-clad figure carefully handed him the letter.

The Hao Clan Lord unfolded it.

—gLo~ rY! gLOrY! o’ dIvINe cULt!! gLO~ Ry! gLoRY! o’ DiViNe cUlT!! gL o~ rY! gLoRy! O’ dIvInE cULt!! gLo~ rY! gLoRy! o’ DiViNe cULt!! rEpENt. RePeNt. rEPeNt. rEpEnT. gLo~ rY! gLoRy! O’ dIvInE CuLt!! gLo~ Ry! gLoRy! o’ dIvINe cUlT!! gLO~ rY! gLoRy! O’ dIvInE cUlT!! gLo~ rY! gLoRy! o’ dIvINe cULt!! i aM a sINnEr. I Am a sInNeR. i aM a sINnEr. I aM a sINnEr… tHE aDvENt oF mAiTrEyA! sALvAtIoN fOR aAlL!

Reading the insane rambling, a cold sweat ran down his back.

(TL Note: Il-mok is suffering from success lol)