Demon Bible

Chapter 100: Suspicion

Nemus rubbed his temples, a headache forming as he realized just how incredibly wasteful these people were.

Judging from the abnormally high number of adult Whale Dung Beetles, it was painfully obvious that the vast majority of the Floating Whale's nutrients had been squandered, flowing directly into its waste.

Consequently, rather than being properly utilized, that highly nutritious whale dung merely allowed the beetles to bypass a pupation cycle or two and emerge directly as adult insects.

Any other methods of harnessing those nutrients were horribly inefficient. While there were some anomalies, they were hardly noticeable.

It was essentially giving it all away for free.

This situation vaguely reminded Nemus of a news story he had read in his past life.

A thief had broken into a warehouse and stolen over two thousand crates of beverages worth a hundred and seventy thousand. The thief then poured all the drinks out and sold the empty bottles, netting a pathetic profit of a hundred and fifteen.

The members of the Floating World Society had done exactly the same thing here, except the damages they caused were far more catastrophic, and the sheer scale of their waste was astronomical.

'If this keeps up, how am I supposed to covertly gather Floating Whale materials moving forward?'

Floating Whales were colossal entities that generally ignored minor flesh wounds. Because of this, everyone developed the same greedy mindset: taking just a little bit wouldn't cause any real harm.Driven by that exact mentality, it was almost guaranteed that this particular Floating Whale was currently riddled with injuries from head to tail.

When countless small wounds accumulated, they severely reduced the Floating Whale's lifespan while simultaneously spawning numerous unstable variables.

"For instance, Whale Transformation Sickness..." When Nemus had led his men to raid the estate, they had discovered a mass grave.

Based on his assessment of the skeletal remains inside, the vast majority of the victims had been afflicted with Whale Transformation Sickness.

The sheer number of corpses perfectly illustrated that the disease mostly surfaced as a direct result of harming the Floating Whale.

Leah had contracted Whale Transformation Sickness precisely because she had come into contact with Whalehide Ore.

"Beyond that, injuring a Floating Whale can also trigger earthquakes, landslides, and a whole slew of other natural disasters."

"The disaster itself isn't the main issue; the real problem is the distress signal these disasters broadcast to the world."

"If that happens, investigators from the Church headquarters will definitely come knocking."

Nemus currently needed time to silently build up his strength. If these lunatics ended up making a massive scene with their reckless operations and ruined his plans right as he was gaining a foothold, it would be an absolutely unacceptable outcome.

"It seems that cracking down on illegal mining will be an absolute necessity moving forward," Nemus declared aloud.

His statement was met with unanimous nods of agreement from nearly everyone around him.

"Seal off the estate. Have someone clean out this well and figure out a way to treat the wound. We cannot allow it to irritate the Floating Whale any further."

Once all the necessary arrangements were made, Nemus led his squad back to Tail Fin Town and resumed the hunt for the remaining members of the Floating World Society.

While his overarching goal was to absorb their faction, he could not allow them to keep their organizational structure intact. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an assimilation—it would be a parasite latching onto him.

"How is the apprehension of the Floating World Society progressing?"

Nemus asked three days later.

Standing beside him, Krew immediately connected to the Grid to retrieve the latest updates. "At present, the majority of the Floating World Society's members have been apprehended. However, a small number of unidentified individuals severed their ties quite cleanly, and we haven't been able to track them down."

The Floating World Society possessed a hierarchical structure, primarily led by a cult leader and several elders.

Each elder, along with the leader, was strictly responsible for their own respective subordinates. Most of the elders were completely ignorant of each other's true identities, possessing nothing more than vague suspicions at best.

The cult leader functioned more like a central liaison among the elders—useful, but not entirely indispensable.

It was precisely for this reason that the death of the cult leader hadn't disrupted the Floating World Society's ongoing operations in the slightest.

This time, by tracing the profits pocketed by the clerics operating in the Dung Path, they managed to arrest that particular noble family and subsequently uncover the estate serving as the Floating World Society's central hub.

Using that as a breakthrough point, the Judgment Squad cross-referenced the confessions extracted from the noble family to investigate anyone who had contacted the estate recently. Under intense scrutiny, the majority of the Floating World Society's elders were swiftly captured.

These elders held the rosters of the followers beneath them. While the names on these lists weren't necessarily their true identities, the physical descriptions and contact methods were relatively accurate. Many of the lower-ranking members likely hadn't even caught wind of their elders' arrests yet. As long as they remained unwary, all it would take was a fake summons for a gathering to bait them out and arrest them.

Even if they didn't show up, simply following the trail of information would eventually lead to their capture.

Individuals who could completely conceal their identities and seamlessly shift between their civilian lives and their cultist personas without leaving a single trace were exceedingly rare.

"As of now, only two elders remain at large. One of them managed to stay a step ahead of us and fled into the wilderness."

"The other elder has been incredibly secretive since the day they joined. Not even the cult leader knew their true identity. All we know is that they are definitely a spellcaster hovering near the Iron Rank."

"As for the followers serving under these two elders, there are likely only seven or eight left. Not a particularly large number."

"All things considered, the Floating World Society has plummeted from a formidable force of nearly two hundred members down to an estimated twenty survivors."

"Furthermore, many of these survivors have completely lost contact with their superiors. Even if they wanted to resume their heretical activities, they lack the means to do so."

Krew meticulously relayed all the gathered intelligence.

For example, there were currently a handful of individuals under heavy suspicion, but no concrete evidence existed to firmly tie them to the Floating World Society.

Given that these suspects held a certain degree of social standing, the Church couldn't simply arrest them without proof.

"In that case, have the Judgment Squad lift the state of emergency. Shift our widespread surveillance efforts entirely onto monitoring these specific suspects."

"Lately, the Church's operational efficiency has been grinding to a halt. We need to get things moving again."

"Understood, my lord!" Krew immediately replied.

Reaching this stage also signified that the lucrative trade of whale products was about to resume.

Thanks to his stellar performance during this period, Nemus was now entitled to a twenty percent cut of all trading profits.

It might not have sounded like much on paper, but this was a percentage of the entire whale product industry flowing through the North District.

The profits generated from just a few whale dung pills alone were enough to feed an ordinary family of three for a whole month.

As the orders were passed down, the city gradually returned to its former tranquility—or at least, it appeared to on the surface.

The Floating World Society's power had been crippled. Though a few remnants still lingered in the shadows, they were no longer capable of stirring up any significant trouble.

'However, it's highly likely that the Floating World Society was merely acting as a front to do someone else's dirty work,' Nemus mused as he reviewed the stacks of documents before him, carefully piecing together the intelligence he had gathered.

He was almost certain that a true mastermind—someone acting as a 'Guild Master' or hidden leader—was pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

'Otherwise, if they actually succeeded in refining that Golden Elixir, who were they planning to give it to?!'

Nemus recalled the ominous well hidden out in the wilderness. He then turned his attention back to the clandestine intelligence that Angel A had been secretly compiling over the past few days.

Following the fundamental logic that whoever stood to benefit the most was likely the true culprit, a few prime suspects surfaced in Nemus's mind.

Currently, within all of Tail Fin Town, there were fewer than thirty individuals publicly recognized as Iron Rank powerhouses.

There were bound to be a few more hidden in the shadows, but the total number would absolutely not exceed fifty.

Among that elite group, only two or three individuals possessed the genuine potential to break through to the Golden Rank.

'The Family Head of the Ben Noble Family—Jacquard Ben.'

'The Guild Master's Son of the Baiter Merchant Guild—Baiter.'

'And the Bishop of the Church—Rhine.'