Chapter 374: The Ritual
Xu Zhi did not recklessly charge ahead to investigate. Instead, she waited for the rest of her thralls to rendezvous with her. She needed the cat’s ability to pull off a cleaner “infiltration,” and she also needed both thralls present to maximize her combat strength.
After all, a place like this was clearly anything but simple, and the guards stationed inside were bound to be highly capable.
The level of danger and temptation in the Lost Lands intensified the deeper one ventured. At her current location, it was virtually impossible for weaker Extraordinaries to make it this far.
Once an Extraordinary advanced to the Named rank, almost all of them would choose to enter the Lost Lands. Consequently, the weakest Extraordinaries were actually the rarest sight here. The further one traveled into the depths, the more one would encounter powerhouses who were seldom seen in the outside world.
Therefore, it wasn’t hard to imagine that the sudden appearance of frequent human movement in such a remote location meant the people gathering here were by no means ordinary.
Furthermore, the fact that Xiaozhen had been detected immediately proved that someone was keeping watch around the clock.
“Let’s wait.”
Once her thralls returned to her side, she would have the confidence to probe deeper and find out the truth.
Fortunately, none of her thralls had drifted into the absolute deepest parts of the Lost Lands; they were all scattered across the mid-tier zone. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to wait for them to return anytime soon.
While waiting for her thralls to regroup with her, Xu Zhi shifted more of her focus to the progress of her spirit flesh clone.
Just as she had planned, her clone had followed behind the priest to “seek refuge” with another [Grail] aspect cult in the industrial district. This cult was clearly much larger, its numbers already expanding to around thirty people.
Over the past few days, the clone had already maneuvered herself into the new cult’s decision-making circle. Naturally, this was also because her strength was exceptionally outstanding. As for the original priest, he could no longer maintain his priestly authority in the new cult and had no choice but to follow submissively behind Xu Zhi as a lackey.
However, no matter how unified [Grail] aspect Extraordinaries appeared on the surface, they still harbored selfish motives and internal factions. Although the industrial district cult hadn’t rejected Xu Zhi and her group, different factions had split off because of their arrival, and Xu Zhi and the priest were visibly labeled as the “outsider faction.”
Xu Zhi didn’t particularly care about these internal power struggles. The only thing that caught her attention was that even with the addition of the industrial district cult, their group of refugees, and several new members converted over the last few days, none of the nearly forty believers had shown signs of complete insanity like those in the Federation.
Though some of the less-refined individuals clearly suffered a drop in intelligence, they could still understand human speech. At a glance, they really didn’t look much different from ordinary people.
But… for a forty-person heretical cult to live quite comfortably in the industrial district without causing any public panic, even after killing at least twenty people, was bizarre.
Even if tens of thousands of workers slaved away in this single industrial area, it still wasn’t enough of a reason for a [Grail] cult to fish in troubled waters and live so comfortably.
Xu Zhi suspected that the surveillance and regulation regarding the [Grail] at the grassroots level was simply too lax.
Yet, even if it was lax, being negligent to this extent was still rather strange.
Right now, the entire world was on high alert due to the resurgence of the [Grail]. Why did Lian City look as if it were completely oblivious to the threat?
Nevertheless, this attitude certainly favored the expansion of the [Grail]. Almost every day, this small cult would gain a few new members. They hunted workers who were usually quiet, friendless, and lived alone, killing them and turning them into blood meals to convert new members.
“How strange. Why hasn’t the fog descended yet? It’s been nearly half a year, hasn’t it?”
On this day, a believer looked at the recent weather forecast, feeling somewhat perplexed.
His words drew agreement from the other believers nearby. “Yeah, I didn’t even notice until you mentioned it. Why has the interval been so long this time?”
“Before this, it was three months at most, right?”
“Could it be that the fog will never come back?!”
Xu Zhi listened to their conversation, silently thinking that it wouldn’t be a good thing if the fog stopped appearing. She was intensely curious about the fog of Lian City.
However, counting the changes that had occurred during this period, Xu Zhi felt a faint premonition. Perhaps the fog hadn’t stopped forever, but had merely been delayed for some reason.
Perhaps when the fog of Lian City descended once more, some monumental shift would take place.
“Stop worrying about that. Is today’s prey not processed yet? The ritual is about to start soon.”
Someone spoke up impatiently. A lower-ranking believer quickly replied, “This prey’s heart has a problem. It was fitted with a mechanical device that’s integrated with other organs. To avoid tearing the other viscera, processing it has been a real hassle.”
In this world where almost everyone was fitted with cybernetic implants, though they weren’t doctors or cybernetic technicians, they had long become well-acquainted with handling cybernetics. Still, encountering such a tricky case left them a bit out of their depth.
“The cult’s influence is slowly seeping into the workers. More and more workers know about us. It’s going to be impossible to keep hiding this from the guards and the factory owners forever.”
During that night’s assembly, someone raised a concern.
Although all sorts of strange and bizarre faiths cropped up constantly at the bottom of society, factory management generally disliked seeing the emergence of a faith with such strong cohesion.
Once the management sent people to intervene, they would highly likely discover the anomalies within the cult. If it was reported, a purge would inevitably follow.
“Why don’t we strike first and bring the factory management into our ranks as well?”
This proposal quickly won the approval of the other cult executives present. Following that, this group of [Grail] believers meticulously plotted how to build a flesh-and-blood factory belonging to the [Grail] once the factory management became their own.
Over the following week, Xu Zhi’s main body continued to wait within the Lost Lands. Meanwhile, her spirit flesh clone watched the cult slowly expand, successfully launching ambushes on the factory managers and smoothly assimilating them.
As the situation developed with increasing speed, they caught a lucky break—one of the assimilated managers turned out to be a slightly higher-ranking believer whose mind remained largely intact. With his assistance, they quickly and sequentially assimilated the rest of the factory’s management class. If this continued, a thousand-man [Grail] aspect cult would likely emerge here in less than a month.
Now, seeing the cult grow day by day to a scale of three hundred people, the highest-ranking believers gathered to deliberate. It was time to hold a grand ritual.
“We need stronger companions. We need to converse with the Lord again to guide our path forward.”
“Now, we must decide who will receive the ritual.”
The individuals looked at each other, the greed in their eyes plain to see.
A grand ritual would inevitably consume a vast amount of materials and the vitality of low-level believers. This was their only opportunity in the short term.
Suddenly, Xu Zhi, who had remained silent all along, controlled her spirit flesh clone to raise a hand and throw back her black hood. Exposing her crimson eyes and long hair, she stared directly at the “kin” present and said, “I’ll do it.”
When someone questioned by what right she claimed it, Xu Zhi replied directly, “Whoever tries to snatch it ahead of me, I will kill them.”
