On the western outskirts of Star Luo City, a gray-white church with a pointed spire stood silently in the night.
Candlelight flickered inside the hall, where dozens of white-robed believers knelt between the pews.
Their hands were clasped before their chests and their heads bowed as they recited prayers over and over.
At the very front of this fanatical congregation stood a brass offering box half a person's height.
People kept rising to their feet, trembling as they dropped Gold Soul Coins they had saved for most of their lives, or even the deeds to their homes, into the box, all for a chance to enter the Divine Kingdom and receive baptism.
Xu Jiawei wore a voluminous gray-black cloak, its hood pulled over his head to conceal his face completely in shadow.
He skirted the ignorant masses kneeling on the floor and walked straight toward the priest distributing holy water beside the sacred statue.
"The holy light forever shines upon souls willing to offer everything." Without raising his head, the priest recited a prayer and offered him a bowl of murky liquid.
Xu Jiawei did not accept the holy water. "But only the soil in the darkness can nurture the sweetest fruit."
The priest's hand stopped in the middle of distributing holy water.
He slowly raised his head, his gaze lingering beneath the hood for half a second. Every trace of holiness and compassion vanished from his face.
The priest silently turned and pressed a hidden compartment in the statue's base three times.
With the faintest whir of machinery, the stone wall behind the statue slid apart, revealing a dark passage leading underground.
Xu Jiawei stepped inside without expression. The stone wall closed behind him, completely shutting out the prayers and the clear clinking from the offering box.
Moisture beaded