Begin the Merger and Integration

Time seemed to freeze at the entrance to Stone Gorge.

Korfalon's corpse lay on the sand, the charred little hole between his brows like an eerie period, ending his ambitious chapter and opening a wholly unknown page. The air reeked of ozone and blood, stinging everyone's nostrils.

The dead silence lasted less than three seconds.

"Drop your weapons!"

Zhou Beichen's voice was like cold metal scraping against stone, shattering the silence. The laser pistol in his hand was steady as a rock. Its muzzle shifted from Korfalon's corpse and swept precisely across the attendants who had yet to recover from their shock. There was no post-killing frenzy or discomfort in his eyes, only a pure, unquestionable threat.

"Get on your knees! Hands on your heads! Or you'll end up like him!"

The Faith Guard finally reacted. Though they too had been stunned by Zhou Beichen's sudden ruthlessness, their long training and loyalty to the Godchild and Zhou Beichen spurred them into action. Several crude spears and rusted machetes immediately leveled at the remaining eleven attendants, forming a half-encirclement.

The attendants' faces went deathly pale. They looked at the priest's body on the ground, then at the strange weapon in Zhou Beichen's hand that could fire deadly beams. Faced with an absolute disparity in strength and such sudden death, their will to resist swiftly collapsed. They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with terror and confusion. Amid the clatter of metal hitting the ground, they threw their loaded pistols and machetes onto the sand, then obeyed and dropped to their knees with their hands on their heads.

Lorgar stood where he was, his tall body seeming somewhat rigid. His violet eyes remained fixed on Zhou Beichen, then slowly shifted to Korfalon's corpse before finally settling on the attendants kneeling in surrender. His lips parted as though he wanted to say something, but it felt as if something had lodged in his throat, leaving him unable to make a sound. Zhou Beichen's words about corporate warfare, followed by that cold-blooded killing, had pierced the worldview built from both compassion and shrewdness within him.

Father... he... killed someone?

So easily?

Zhou Beichen did not immediately address Lorgar's shock. Maintaining his armed guard, he said to the captain of the Faith Guard in a low voice, "Disarm them and search them. Make sure they aren't hiding any weapons. Then tie them up and take them to the old warehouse for detention."

"Yes, Pastor Beichen!" The captain of the Faith Guard suppressed the turmoil in his heart and immediately led his men to carry out the order.

Only after dealing with the prisoners did Zhou Beichen turn his attention to Lorgar. He saw the shock, confusion, and even a trace of distance in Lorgar's eyes. He understood the reaction, but he had no time to slowly soothe him.

"Come with me." Zhou Beichen's voice allowed no refusal. He holstered the laser pistol and turned toward the church. His steps were steady, as if he had merely swatted an annoying fly.

Lorgar silently followed behind him. One before the other, they entered the crude little church that had become the center of power. Sunlight streamed through cracks in the dome, illuminating the floating dust in the air and the utterly unruffled expression on Zhou Beichen's face.

"Do you think I was cruel? Unreasonable?" Zhou Beichen got straight to the point. With his back to Lorgar, he began checking the laser pistol's remaining energy. His movements were practiced, like those of an old soldier.

Lorgar was silent for a moment before speaking in a deep, restrained voice. "He... didn't deserve to die. We could have... reasoned with him, or driven him away..."

"Reasoned with him? Driven him away?" Zhou Beichen let out a scornful laugh, turned around, and fixed him with eyes sharp as blades. "Lorgar, I taught you to see the essence of things. Was the way Korfalon looked at you the gaze of a man seeking reason? That was the gaze of a predator! He didn't represent some scholar who had lost his way. Behind him stood the Covenant Church, a vast, exclusionary monopoly!"

He stepped closer and stared Lorgar down. "He discovered you, an anomalous being capable of miracles. By the Covenant Church's rules, you would have been taken away, studied, and reformatted by orthodox doctrine! And all of us who knew about you, all us heretics, would have only one ending: purification and silencing! Just like disposing of defective products or temporary workers who know core secrets!"

Zhou Beichen's voice echoed through the empty church, cold and brutal.

"Interrupting me and insisting on seeing you was his due diligence! Once the investigation was finished and he confirmed your investment value, the next step would have been a hostile takeover. And us original shareholders? We wouldn't even have scraps left!"

Recalling Korfalon's appraising, greedy gaze, the faint moral discomfort in Zhou Beichen's heart began to give way to a colder sense of reality.

"I killed him not out of anger, but as the most rational form of risk avoidance." Zhou Beichen's tone eased somewhat, though it remained firm. "I was eliminating an unbuyable competitor who posed a direct threat to our survival. This was called... a necessary operating cost."

He walked up to Lorgar and patted his solid arm, his tone carrying a hint of guidance. "Now tell me. From those fragments, what did you see about Korfalon? Any information could be useful."

Lorgar closed his eyes. His thick lashes trembled slightly as if he were struggling to recall and sort through those chaotic visions of the future. Several seconds later, he opened his eyes, and a flash of understanding crossed his violet irises.

"He... really was excluded... from the core. He longed to return, longed for... power. He saw me as... a key." Lorgar's precognition had now become an excellent source of intelligence.

"As expected." A mocking curve formed at Zhou Beichen's lips. "An exiled priest desperate for a comeback. He wanted to offer you to the Covenant Church's upper ranks in exchange for his own return and status. A standard backdoor listing."

His mind raced as a new, bolder plan began to take shape. Crisis—danger contained opportunity. Korfalon's death was a crisis, but the information and manpower he had left behind were an opportunity.

"We can't just sit around and wait to die." Zhou Beichen looked out the window, as though his gaze had pierced the rocks and sandstorms to reach the distant center of the Covenant Church. "Korfalon found us, which means we've already drawn attention. Hiding and defending ourselves will only end with us being crushed by a stronger force."

He turned around, his eyes gleaming with the shrewdness and fervor Lorgar knew belonged to an investor.

"We have to take the initiative. Before the news has fully spread, before they know Korfalon is already dead..."

"We're going to make a reverse acquisition."

Lorgar paused in slight bewilderment. "A reverse acquisition?"

"That's right." Zhou Beichen walked to the table and traced lines through the sand covering its surface with his finger. "Korfalon's identity, his attendants—we'll use all of it, consolidate our resources, and then... march on the center of the Covenant Church."

"We will replace Korfalon. Not by becoming him, but by becoming something stronger and more orthodox than he ever was. We will make you, Loga Aurelian, no longer merely the Godchild of some remote region, but the very divine revelation that the entire Kolchis Covenant Church cannot ignore, and must even look up to!"