Chapter 158: Prayer Network, Salute!

Shugin remained silent for a long time before heaved a sigh. With a weary motion, he removed the worn brown hat he always wore, placed it on a desk cluttered with documents, and pulled a pipe from his pocket to take a draw.

"Hoo..." He exhaled a long breath, releasing the smoke into the room. The white haze drifted, rendering Shugin’s face indistinct and flickering.

This cast an inexplicable expression upon his features. Wang Yu could see the helplessness in Shugin; the leader, one of the most vital figures of the Night’s Edge, usually projected an air of maturity and composure. Yet, in this moment, his wordless resignation was painfully clear to Wang Yu.

"Let me apologize first. If I say that even with this information, we still won't take action, would you be disappointed?" Shugin set down his pipe, looking at Wang Yu. Smoking was not the goal, but a habit he had cultivated over the years.

"No." Wang Yu shook his head naturally, his demeanor as calm and quiet as ever.

"Is that so?"

Shugin blinked in surprise. He had not expected Wang Yu to remain free of disappointment toward the Night’s Edge. The royal family’s exploitation of the organization’s members was written plainly for all to see, yet as one of its leaders, Shugin found himself powerless to intervene.

"The power held by the royal family is the most formidable in this kingdom. Without knowing their true motives, and given that they have not yet aimed their blades directly at the Night’s Edge, clashing with them would be highly irrational."

"Moreover, this incident alone proves little. It only gives me more reason to speculate on the origins of the Wall District and the Shadow of the Royal City. But the fact that the royal family created this strange Destroyer Golem does not change the fundamental truth that they are the masters of this kingdom."

Wang Yu shook his head, remaining composed. He simply relayed the information and offered his rational analysis to Shugin.

"Hmm..." Shugin nodded. Wang Yu’s calmness helped him shed the sudden, faint sense of powerlessness. True, Wang Yu was not the type of person he needed to worry about, and the facts were much as he had described.

The information revealed by those who created the Destroyer Golem essentially boiled down to this: the royal family was behind the highly mentally corruptive golems. While they had no current intention of clashing with the Night’s Edge, they harbored deep dissatisfaction with the nobility and would likely strike at them when the time was right.

Though this shattered the royal family’s facade of righteousness, that was the extent of it. The Night’s Edge could hardly go to war with their nominal superiors over this; at most, they could only feel resentment for having their members' lives treated as expendable test subjects.

"Ha, honestly, being the leader of the Night’s Edge is exhausting. Not only must I fulfill my duty to protect the people of this kingdom, but I also have to play these political games with the nobility. I almost wish the royal family would just wipe out those annoying aristocrats. It’s just that these royals don't value the lives of ordinary Night’s Edge members at all—it’s infuriating."

Shugin suddenly shed the helplessness he had shown earlier, leaning back into his chair with a touch of resignation. He began to complain to Wang Yu about the frustrations of his position.

As he spoke, this Shugin seemed like a different person from the deep-thinking captain usually seen. It was hard to reconcile the two images, yet Wang Yu understood. Even if the captain appeared steady and reliable, the pressure he bore and the considerations he had to weigh were immense.

Just like when Shugin had suddenly brought up the dual-god faith to Wang Yu, he was clearly struggling after dealing with the duplicitous nobles and managing the affairs of the Night’s Edge, leading to decisions that lost their usual rational, detached edge.

But now, although this complaining captain was unlike the one he knew, he felt real.

"Sorry for letting you see me like this. This intelligence is very important; thank you. As for what comes next, while we can't directly confront the royal family over this, now that we know the madmen of the Abyss Sect in the Shadow of the Royal City are actually puppets raised by the nobles, we can at least sweep them away. I’ll be asking our friends in the Nightfall Church for a hand when the time comes."

Having vented his frustrations, Shugin shook his head, returning to his usual composed self as he calmly arranged the next steps.

Although their options were limited for now, the Abyss Sect—which had been difficult to handle due to its mysterious nature—could finally be purged. This would benefit both the Night’s Edge’s layout in the Shadow of the Royal City and the expansion of the Nightfall Church.

"Agreed. I will notify the believers of the Nightfall Church. If we can contribute, it would be for the best. Number Seven Black Street is indeed becoming a bit small for the current scale of the Nightfall Church’s base."

Wang Yu smiled. Shugin’s words were clear: he intended to purge the Abyss Sect, and asking for the Nightfall Church’s help was effectively a way to cede some of the sect’s territory to the church for their own development.

"Knock, knock, knock..." A knock sounded at the office door. Shugin checked the magical device on his desk, which displayed the hallway, and saw a weary-looking Gilbert. He had arrived quickly after Wang Yu’s notification.

"Come in," Shugin said. Wang Yu opened the door, allowing the Night’s Edge member, who had just walked through the gates of death, to enter.

Shugin’s office door, like those of Zig and Father Fang, was connected to the Rift. One could enter directly through the spatial link or walk in from the normal corridor.

Gilbert entered and bowed to both men; nominally, both Zig and Shugin held much higher ranks than he did.

"You’ve worked hard. No one expected this incident to involve the royal family. You did well, and it was no small feat to bring this crucial information out."

"Keep this information quiet for now. It could easily cause social unrest at a time when we are at war with Sevintan. I will have trusted individuals conduct an investigation later."

Shugin informed Gilbert of the plan: secrecy was necessary. If the royal family learned that the Night’s Edge knew of their schemes, unnecessary conflict might become unavoidable. It was better not to let the royal family aim their hostility at them just yet.

"Understood." Gilbert nodded. Though he felt some dissatisfaction with the result, he was willing to follow the arrangements of a leader he trusted.

His comrades remained in a deep coma; the mental shock had left their wills, far more fragile than Gilbert’s, battered and scarred.

Although the mental corruption had abruptly vanished at the end, preventing their anchors from the Heavens of Gloom from being triggered—which meant there was a chance they could be saved—the trauma remained severe. Even if they recovered, they would likely never make further progress in their strength.

That the culprits—those suspected to be the royal family—could not be brought to justice left Gilbert feeling both angry and helpless. He understood, however, that even with this knowledge, it was difficult to hold them accountable.

Suddenly thinking of something, Gilbert hesitated but decided to voice his question. He turned to Wang Yu, asking the question that had plagued him on the way over.

"Mr. Wang Yu, I would like to ask: why was it you who responded when I prayed to the Lady of the Night? And did the abrupt disappearance of that mental corruption have anything to do with her?"

After confirming with the old military doctor that his mind was intact, Gilbert had rushed to Shugin’s location, wondering throughout the journey where the corruption had gone and why Wang Yu had answered his call.

He could not fathom the latter, but regarding the former, he could not help but link the disappearance of the corruption to the Lady of the Night, as the last thing he had done was pray.

"Hmm... I was actually planning to inform you of this. It should be quite good news."

Wang Yu rested his chin on his fingers, pondering. He decided to take this opportunity to reveal the system—which only Charles and Avia had known about—that used the Tree of the Night Sky to allow communication between believers. He had just discovered a remarkable new use for it.

"I am the Archbishop of the Nightfall Church, and I am somewhat unique. I don't know the limits of my mental resistance, but I can withstand a face-to-face encounter with a deity like the Lady of the Night. In a sense, I can speak directly with these gods."

Wang Yu’s first statement shattered Gilbert’s perception of reality. Speaking directly to a god was unimaginable—it was as incomprehensible as a commoner staring at an Outer God and commenting on its disgusting appearance.

This nearly caused Gilbert’s brain to crash. His first reaction was disbelief, but remembering how Wang Yu had responded to his prayer, he was forced to accept the impossible as fact.

Shugin already knew of Wang Yu’s uniqueness, but he was curious about what would follow. Wang Yu had responded to a prayer meant for the Lady of the Night? And he was eager to know how Wang Yu had obtained the information from Gilbert.

"The Lady of the Night granted me authority over a portion of her power. This authority concerns the connection between her and her believers, and I have made some adjustments to it."

"First, I made it easier for members of the Night’s Edge to gain the ability to cast divine arts from the Lady of the Night. Second, by utilizing this power, I’ve transformed the vertical connection between believer and god into a horizontal connection between believers, enabling communication through prayer."

Wang Yu summarized the "programming" he had performed on the Tree of the Night Sky, presenting this "prayer communication network"—a prototype that was already functional—to Gilbert and Shugin.

When Wang Yu mentioned that he had diverted the Lady of the Night’s divine resources toward the Night’s Edge, both Shugin and Gilbert were stunned. It spoke volumes of the status Wang Yu held in the eyes of the goddess that she would entrust him with the authority to distribute her power, even if only partially.

And when Wang Yu explained his further modifications, their astonishment deepened into contemplation of the network’s value.

A real-time communication method that required no magical devices, was immune to interference, and, as far as they knew, could not be eavesdropped upon—with no barrier to entry—was of strategic importance for both intelligence gathering and tactical deployment.

Shugin opened his mouth to speak, but Wang Yu continued after a brief pause. Shugin held his tongue, listening while mentally deepening his thoughts on the potential applications of the network.

"And Mr. Gilbert’s prayer at the final moment accidentally connected to the 'prayer communication network,' which led me to discover a greater use for it regarding the Night’s Edge: the diversion of mental corruption."

"You mean... the mental corruption that erupted from the Destroyer Golem was absorbed by this?" Gilbert couldn't help but ask.

"More accurately, through the 'prayer communication network'—this vast web connecting all believers of the Lady of the Night—the corruption was distributed and shared among all believers, allowing nearly ten thousand people to clear it away."

Wang Yu corrected Gilbert’s assumption. He had already learned from the Lady of the Night how the framework he built handled the corruption, and he believed its utility within the Night’s Edge would be maximized.

"I believe this network will be of great use to the Night’s Edge. As long as one is a believer of the Lady of the Night, they can share the burden of corruption. This means that Night’s Edge members on missions can offload the mental corruption they suffer onto members who are not facing it."

"With a large base of believers, this corruption will pose no threat. As the number of believers grows, the network’s capacity to handle corruption will further increase. Although one must be a believer to use it, becoming a believer of the Lady of the Night is quite easy."

Wang Yu explained the new function of the network. Once he finished, Shugin’s office fell into a long silence. Neither Gilbert nor Shugin spoke.

"Bang!"

It was the sound of heels snapping together. Almost simultaneously, Shugin rose and Gilbert stood at attention. They turned toward Wang Yu and performed a solemn, grave salute—the highest gesture of respect in the Night’s Edge, one that was rarely used under any circumstances.