Battle Imminent

Within Ralte, the hammering from repair workshops, the work chants from newly reclaimed fields, and the clear recitations drifting from night schools intertwined into a symphony that was far from harmonious, yet brimming with life.

The "Propaganda Department," originally established to infiltrate Ralte, had its functions and scale quietly spread like vines under Zhou Beichen's deliberate or inadvertent indulgence and Lorgar's tacit approval, exceeding the bounds of its original role as a "machine for sowing ideas."

During Ralte's successful internal uprising, the Propaganda Department's abilities in organization, agitation, intelligence gathering, and covert operations made Zhou Beichen clearly realize that it was far more than a propaganda agency. After the fighting subsided, he did not disband it or fold it back into the administrative or military system. Instead, he granted it even greater autonomy and preferential access to resources.

A group of people with vastly different backgrounds was brought in. Former drifters skilled at disguise and infiltration became professional spies; meticulous clerks with exceptional memories handled the organization and analysis of intelligence; former low-ranking priests and key uprising members who were eloquent and persuasive formed professional propaganda teams. No longer relying solely on secret gatherings, they began openly or semi-openly preaching the doctrines of the New Covenant Church throughout Earthly Heaven's controlled territories and surrounding regions, painting a picture of Earthly Heaven, expanding their influence, and even secretly winning over grassroots civilians and low-ranking officials in Covenant Church-controlled areas.

As he watched the organization gradually reveal traits that were efficient, secretive, and... unscrupulous, Zhou Beichen wore an exceedingly complicated expression one day while reviewing its expansion proposal. It was a mixture of appreciation, wariness, and an intense sense of déjà vu born from distant memories.

He picked up his pen and wrote three large words on the proposal's cover page in the common script of this world.

"Lackeys."

When that annotation reached the Propaganda Department's newly appointed director, he stared at those three words in confusion for a long while—after all, no creature called a "dog" existed here. He did not understand the term's precise meaning, but instinctively sensed that it was not entirely complimentary, while carrying a peculiar implication of recognition from the highest level.

Before long, the title "Lackeys" spread throughout the organization without anyone needing to promote it. At first, it carried a trace of self-mockery, but as the department's power and influence grew, the name gradually took on a frightening edge. They were everywhere, yet impossible to pin down; they spread hope, but also fear. They were both Earthly Heaven's sharpest spear, probing the truth and falsehood of the outside world, and perhaps an invisible sword hanging over its own people. Zhou Beichen neither approved nor objected, as if tacitly accepting this name born from his own twisted sense of humor.

Yet the Lackeys soon brought back troubling news.

Reports cross-verified through multiple channels were compiled into a thick dossier and placed before Zhou Beichen and Lorgar. Its core message was cold and weighty: Ralte's great victory was no longer a minor irritation in a border region. It had thoroughly drawn the attention of the Covenant Church's highest ranks. An intense, nearly unified hostility was spreading outward from the core territories under Covenant Church rule.

"The Covenant Church's machine of rule has finally begun to bare its fangs for real." Zhou Beichen set down the report and rubbed his brow. Intelligence showed that several major dioceses were carrying out large-scale military mobilizations.

Unlike the ragtag punitive force assembled against Ralte before, this time they were deploying the Covenant Church's true core forces—the well-equipped, rigorously trained, fanatically devout Faithguard Army, along with combat priest orders said to wield certain powers of "divine arts." The scale of the mobilized troops was far beyond what the Southern Highlands settlements and the newly integrated forces of Ralte could confront head-on.

More worrying still, Lorgar's existence as the "Son of God" seemed to have produced an unexpected effect.

The Covenant Church's various factions, which had long remained divided and consumed by internal strife over doctrinal details and territorial power, displayed a rare, superficial unity in the face of the enormous shared threat posed by Earthly Heaven and the Son of God.

Every propaganda machine was in motion, portraying Lorgar as the ultimate heretic who had blasphemed the Father God and bewitched the people, while denouncing Earthly Heaven as a land of sin that had to be thoroughly purified. An atmosphere of shared hatred was taking shape among the Covenant Church's upper ranks.

"We've become the best glue," Zhou Beichen sneered. "We've temporarily stuck all those bishops who want nothing more than to kill each other onto the same boat."

Pressure descended like a mountain. Although Earthly Heaven was developing rapidly, time seemed to be on the side of the Covenant Church, which possessed far deeper foundations. Zhou Beichen and Lorgar had little time left to consolidate their strength, reinforce their defenses, or even find a way to break the deadlock.

Yet amid this gloom, Zhou Beichen's eyes—accustomed to finding opportunities through data and analysis—caught an unusual crack in the more detailed intelligence sent by the Lackeys.

The Covenant Church had ruled this planet for centuries. Its tangled web of interests and power structures was by no means a solid monolith.

The spies infiltrated by the Lackeys, along with low-ranking officials who had been bribed or turned, sent back subtler information. Although the bishops of every major diocese loudly clamored for a crusade and gathered troops, several major Faithguard Army legions were strangely remaining near the borders of their respective dioceses, holding their positions without advancing.

Communication between them was unusually frequent, yet filled with probing, suspicion, and buck-passing.

One secret report had even directly intercepted fragments of encrypted correspondence between two archbishops from neighboring dioceses. It was filled with doubts about the other's "loyalty" and petty wrangling over the division of benefits after the war.

"Do you see it?" Zhou Beichen said to Lorgar, pointing at the locations marked on the map where the Covenant Church's main legions had assembled. "The troops are gathering, and their fangs are bared, but none of these beasts wants to pounce first. They're all waiting for..."

"The first bird out of the flock." Lorgar picked up the thought, understanding flashing through his violet eyes. Under Zhou Beichen's influence and through his own experiences, his insight into human nature was no longer what it had once been.

A suddenly appearing Son of God might make them temporarily set aside their differences and unite against a common enemy, but it could never erase the deep-rooted conflicts and hunger for power accumulated over centuries.

Whoever struck first might have to endure Earthly Heaven's fiercest counterattack and deplete their own strength, only to be swallowed after the war by the other "allies" watching them like hungry tigers.

"Exactly. The first bird out of the flock." A coldly calculating smile touched Zhou Beichen's lips. "No one wants to make someone else's wedding dress, especially not among this pack of old foxes. Our existence is a threat, yes, but isn't it also an excuse for them to scheme against each other and preserve their strength?"

"We need to use this opportunity." Zhou Beichen's finger struck a buffer zone between several major dioceses on the map. "While they glare at each other and wait for someone else to make the first move, we need to do something... either find a way to make them fight each other, or make this 'first bird' fly out the way we want it to, and then..."

He raised his head and looked at Lorgar, his eyes gleaming with the familiar light of a venture capitalist—the excitement and caution of discovering a high-return opportunity.

"Turn it into our first piece of... seed capital for acquiring the Covenant Church's core assets."