"Just follow Lady Luna's instructions." The leader snapped out of his thoughts and gave the order in a deep voice.
"We're hiding in the starport; we don't need to actively contact the Tithe Fleet."
"Just proceed according to the original plan!"
Although the crowd still had some doubts, they dared not disobey the order and nodded in agreement.
Over the next two days, strange rumors began to circulate quietly throughout Singapore.
First, during a casual conversation among the sailors at the supply depot, it was mentioned that some of the recruits waiting to board the ship seemed to be members of a cult, and that their prayers had nothing to do with the Emperor.
Then the soldiers on guard were talking amongst themselves, saying that they had caught several people behaving strangely, muttering strange words like "purification of the world" and "rebirth".
The rumors spread like wildfire, from the lowest-ranking sailors to the ordinary soldiers, and then from the soldiers to the ears of junior officers, growing ever more outlandish with each passing tale.
The first person to confirm this was an army corporal in charge of patrolling the Starport.
That day, he was patrolling the waiting area for boarding the ship with two soldiers when he spotted several new recruits dressed in coarse cloth clothes squatting in a corner.
They stood in a circle with their heads down, their right hands pressed against their left chests, their fingertips gently drawing circles, and they muttered incantations.
At first, he thought he was praying for the Emperor's blessing, since he was about to go to the battlefield and fear was inevitable.
But when he took a few steps closer and heard what those people were muttering, his expression changed instantly.
The phrases "purifying the world with fire, rebirth after the epidemic" and " God-Emperor protection, crossing the sea of suffering" don't mention the Emperor at all.
"What are you doing!" the corporal shouted, raising his Lasgun and aiming it at the group.
"Stand up and raise your hands!"
The recruits were startled. Their scavenging habits from the Lower City made them instinctively want to run, but they were immediately tackled to the ground by the patrolling soldiers.
They struggled desperately, constantly crying out that they were innocent.
Without asking any further questions, the corporal ordered the men to be executed on the spot, in accordance with the regulations for dealing with heretics.
After the Lasgun fired its muffled blast, several corpses lay in pools of blood.
The corporal spat, cursed "heretic," and ordered the body to be dragged away and burned.
This kind of thing is all too common at the bottom of the Hive City.
The Lower City is a melting pot of all sorts of cults, large and small, and they are everywhere. If you arrest and kill a bunch of them, they will soon disappear.
The officer in charge of Starport's defense simply waved his hand after hearing the report, not taking it to heart.
But they soon discovered that things weren't so simple.
In the following days, among each batch of conscripts boarding the ship, people with similar behavior were caught.
Some of them didn't recite prayers, but instead quietly made a gesture of pressing their right hand to their chest and drawing circles with their fingertips while queuing.
Some of the clothes had inconspicuous gray fabric pieces sewn inside, with twisted runes printed on them.
They never huddle together, but are scattered in various corners of the crowd, and do not communicate with each other, yet they have the same movements and marks.
"This is weird, why are they everywhere?"
As they dealt with more and more heretics, the soldiers gradually realized that something was wrong.
More and more people were talking about it in private, and the rumors were getting worse.
Some say that this sect called "Purification" has a huge influence in the Lower City, and half of the soldiers recruited this time are believers.
Some say this sect is not an ordinary cult at all, but is inextricably linked to Chaos, otherwise how could it have developed so quickly during the plague?
These rumors quickly bypassed the level of ordinary soldiers and reached the ears of the Ecclesiarchy.
Bishop Venka was a high-ranking priest who accompanied the Tithe Fleet, and was responsible for the fleet's blessings, purification of thought, and supervision of faith.
He wore a heavy red robe embroidered with golden holy symbols, held a jewel-encrusted scepter in his hand, and his white beard was meticulously combed.
He exuded the rigidity and strictness characteristic of Ecclesiarchy.
In his view, these soldiers, chosen by the God-Emperor and about to dedicate themselves to the Imperium, should have the purest faith in the God-Emperor.
To board the Tithe warship with heretical beliefs is the greatest stain on the God-Emperor.
"Absurd, utterly absurd!"
After listening to his subordinate's report, Bishop Venka slammed his scepter heavily on the floor, making a dull thud.
His face was ashen, his brow furrowed with rage. "What exactly happened in Brevis Lower City?"
"The plague is bad enough, but to allow heretical cults to grow to this extent! Is this how Governor Kerry Von governs his territory?"
"Your Excellency, we have already executed dozens of heretics who prayed openly, but we still can't catch them all," the subordinate said cautiously.
"They are very well hidden; on the surface, they are no different from ordinary people, making them difficult to distinguish."
"Can't tell the difference? Then torture them severely!" Bishop Venka's eyes were icy.
"Arrest a group of suspicious individuals and beat them to death."
"I want to see just how far this 'Plague Cleansing Cult' really comes from, and what kind of filth it hides!"
He immediately ordered that personnel be drawn from the Ecclesiarchy Guard to cooperate with the Star Harbor Security Force in conducting a comprehensive screening of all conscripts awaiting boarding.
Anyone bearing sectarian markings or making special hand gestures was arrested and placed in solitary confinement.
The interrogation room was brightly lit, and the torture instruments were still stained with blood.
The captured believers initially gritted their teeth and endured the tortures inflicted by the Ecclesiarchy, but few could withstand them.
In less than a day, some believers with weak willpower could not hold on and confessed intermittently.
"Yes, it's the Plague Cleansing Cult..."
" The Lower City was full of their followers; they distributed food, cured diseases, and saved many people..."
"There's Priest leading the way, and many, many powerful monks."
As the fragmented testimonies were pieced together, a large heretical sect entrenched in the Lower City gradually came to light.
When the interrogation record was delivered to Bishop Venka, he looked at the words "in the tens of millions," "spread throughout the entire Lower City," and "the identity of the core leader is unknown" on the paper.
His face was so gloomy it could drip water.
How could such a large cult have grown to such a scale in Brevis, and yet the Governor's Lower City hasn't made a single move?
Was Lynn truly overwhelmed by the plague and unable to attend to it, or did he know from the beginning, or even deliberately condone it?
Bishop Venka gripped his scepter tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white.
He looked out the window at the endless stream of transport ships in the starport, his gaze growing colder and colder.
This matter will not be left like this!