Most people in Valunia Port didn’t feel anything special about becoming citizens of New Castiria, after all, in the world of Solun, people in some places can change their nationality three times a day, as long as they can survive.
Or perhaps in this era, there are hardly any countries that can clarify their household registration systems since everyone is essentially working the land for the nobles; usually, only local nobles know how many people are in their territories.
Aside from the fleet docked at the port, the harbor seemed no different from usual; people were still busy at the docks, and the number of passenger ships coming and going appeared to be more than usual, making the harbor seem even more crowded.
If there was anything different, it might be that the empire’s priests and sisters had begun preaching at the port.
“May the Goddess protect you.”
In an open space surrounded by various equipment and stones, a priest nodded and bowed to a beggar, unkempt and dirty, before handing him a chicken egg.
“Thank you, thank you.”
The beggar wanted to kneel and kiss the ground by the priest’s feet, but he was quickly assisted to stand up by the priest.
“No need for that; our sect and the empire do not require acts of kneeling.”
The priest then continued, “We plan to build a church in the harbor. If you have nothing to do, please come here tomorrow; there will be things you can help with, and we will provide meals for you.”
Upon hearing there was work and food, the beggar was momentarily at a loss, continuing to say in a hoarse voice, “Thank you, thank you.”
He didn’t know many words and could only repeatedly express his gratitude to the priest.
In this era, a church that gives away chicken eggs can be said to be a form of overwhelming advantage. It doesn’t matter in low-productivity Solun; even in M Continent, this strategy is virtually unbeatable.
However, most of the people attracted are superficial believers, some might not even be believers, but merely came for the chicken eggs. Nonetheless, this is of little concern to the followers of the Goddess, as what they want now is to expand their influence first.
Unlike the Solun Continent, which lacks divine magic, the priests and sisters felt that the gaze of the Goddess was watching this continent, and thus these clergy were not in a hurry. Even if many undercover agents appeared among those who came to apply, they would still accept them without hesitation.
How did the Dragon Church quickly defeat the local religions to become the largest church on the Solun Continent? Unlike other religions, which do not truly possess gods, the Dragon Church genuinely has dragons.
The Goddess Church is the same; its clergy truly has a divine entity that has awakened and is becoming increasingly active.
Some local factions in Valunia Port are gathering manpower, preparing to cause trouble at the Goddess Church. After all, the church shows immense disrespect to local gangs, and those gangs, lowering their status to cooperate with the Goddess Church, find that the Goddess Church does not even bother to acknowledge them, not to mention that shops believing in the Goddess Church have even begun to refuse to pay protection fees.
If this continues, the local factions will truly be left to endure the wind from the northwest.
The air in the harbor is filled with the salty sea breeze and the chaos emanating from the taverns. Black Shark had just brought his gang to drink a bit of inferior liquor at the tavern; although the liquor was tasteless and everyone knew it was diluted with who knows how much water, that psychological suggestion was all they needed; having had some drinks, those thugs would seem to become fearless.
At this moment, Black Shark was on the street, constantly fiddling with the firearm in his hand. Although he is a professional, his rank is not high, and for him, it is still merely a tool.
“Let’s go, brothers, let those pretentious fools see our might!”
He could not comprehend the complexities of the empire’s fleet and New Castiria; Black Shark only knew that he was ordered to ruin those missionaries’ affairs, so that’s exactly what he would do, just as usual.
Black Shark led a group of grim-faced subordinates out of the alley, armed with clubs and knives, with very clear targets not being the missionaries, but ordinary civilians receiving eggs and the strange materials and stones prepared by the missionaries for constructing a temple.
After all, they might still need to cooperate with these missionaries in the future, and harming anyone would not be good.
“What, what do you want?”
A peasant woman in line to receive an egg just asked, but immediately realized who these ruffians were. As she prepared to flee, she was grabbed by them, brutally thrown to the ground, where her eggs from earlier were also tossed and stomped on, and her vegetable basket was snatched away by several thugs.
Chaos quickly spread; this group began to smash and grab from ordinary civilians, as well as the materials and stones. Black Shark knew that as long as he stirred up chaos, the people at the harbor who had just received eggs would quickly join in the looting, and as long as the public was involved, the others could not resist. A few more episodes like this, and the church would no longer be able to operate at the harbor and would have to cooperate with the higher-ups.
Just at this moment, the sharp crack of a gunshot seemed to pierce through the crowd, causing everyone to halt their movements.
Soon, more and more gunshots began to ring out, accumulating to a point that left Black Shark somewhat incredulous, as their firearms were meant to be fired one by one and then reloaded.
With the screams of the crowd, Black Shark quickly saw the scene ahead.
His subordinates were all lying on the ground, moaning, riddled with bullets, with some already dead on the spot.
A priest still held the sacred book in his left hand, while his right hand had already completed a one-handed reload, blowing out the smoke from the muzzle as he said, “Who preaches without firearms?”
The priest lifted his head and immediately spotted Black Shark.
“You see?”
At this moment, Black Shark noticed that this group of missionaries seemed unprepared, but in reality, everyone was fully armed.
“Right, right,”
With a face full of meat, Black Shark showed an awkward smile and stopped fiddling with the firearm in his hand, quietly placing it behind him.
“Who, who preaches without firearms?”
Not only were the empire’s merchants armed with firearms, but unexpected circumstances revealed that the empire’s missionaries were also armed, and furthermore, these missionaries’ firearms seemed to be more terrifyingly advanced; the missionaries themselves were more thoroughly trained than those merchants.
A sister in a red robe appeared among the priests and sisters, saying, “Gather the injured civilians to treat them; they must be compensated well, and let them feel the Goddess’s grace while we are at it.”
Then, the red-robed sister pointed at Black Shark in the distance and said, “Hey! You, go deal with the bodies!”
Upon hearing himself being singled out, Black Shark shivered for some unknown reason.
“Alright, yes, my lord.”
Not long after, a storm against the gangs erupted in the harbor; the anticipated sabotage and benefits for the local factions did not materialize, and countless gangs were wiped out in shootouts. The empire began a bloody cleansing of those who did not comply, killing those so-called local factions until they obeyed. Some speculated that the Gray Robe National Master had acted, and the bolder among those present saw only a red-robed sister and several heavily armored soldiers at the scene.
