novelraw Chapter 314: A New Kind of Literary Inquisition
Chapter 314: A New Kind of Literary Inquisition
Alvin's words piqued Bai Yang's curiosity.
In the very next second, they bypassed Vespucci Town and San Diego, arriving straight in Luo City.
Only upon arriving did Bai Yang understand what Alvin meant by the Charlie situation.
The situation was quite simple. A young man named Charlie, Golden Hair's close friend, a prominent party leader, and his current mouthpiece, had been assassinated.
Normally, this would have been a minor blip. In an era where Transcendent power frequently surfaced and every major family and faction was scrambling to secure supernatural abilities, an ordinary assassination warranted zero attention.
However, Golden Hair, sitting in the White House, made a massive spectacle of it, elevating the man's death to the status of a state funeral.
Flags across the nation were flown at half-mast, public opinion was strictly censored, and speaking ill of the deceased was forbidden. He demanded a period of national mourning.
Furthermore, to curry favor with Golden Hair, Qian Si employed an incredibly inflammatory strategy: launching a nationwide reporting campaign!
Anyone could report individuals they found being disrespectful to Charlie's memory. They even built a dedicated website just for this purpose.
Once a person's name ended up on that website, their career and personal life were effectively ruined.This opened Pandora's box. People quickly realized they could use the reporting system to ruin their personal enemies, sparking a frenzied wave of accusations.
They reported people for using hateful speech, targeted those they simply did not get along with, and took down arrogant or abusive neighbors.
In short, the whole affair devolved into a nationwide festival of a modern literary inquisition across America. The situation escalated even further in Luo City!
Due to previous events, California's Governor Nuland and Golden Hair had formed a temporary truce. Naturally, Luo City became the primary battlefield for culture and public opinion, turning the events there into a surreal farce.
One renowned host, a veteran of several decades who had interviewed countless high officials and prominent families, faced the indefinite suspension of his show. His crime? Quipping, "This isn't a president mourning a friend; this is a four-year-old mourning his dead pet frog."
Countless individuals found themselves sued or imprisoned over similar infractions. Insiders, outsiders, left-wing, right-wing—everyone was caught in the crossfire of this massive purge!
The most absurd incident involved someone being reported for mourning without enough sincerity. Even more absurdly, the police actually accepted the report and promptly arrested the suspect!
Bai Yang gleaned this information from the high-dimensional information channel and swiftly pinpointed the mastermind behind the chaos.
He did not even need to guess. It was indeed Golden Hair. In this nation, only his unbridled executive power could push such an initiative forward.
"Sometimes, the dead really are more useful than the living!" Bai Yang could not help but remark. Anyone with common sense could tell this surreal situation was not born from some erratic emotional outburst. Golden Hair was exceptionally shrewd; every single action he took during his term was heavily calculated.
Whether those calculations were for the nation or his own personal gain, the underlying motives were undeniable and glaringly obvious.
Therefore, Bai Yang quickly figured out what the man was trying to achieve!
"He is using this critical juncture to filter out his core support base!" Bai Yang said, understanding it instantly. Every action was an extension of political identity. The death of a key ally and the mounting pressure from recent supernatural events had finally pushed Golden Hair into initiating an emergency loyalty test!
Essentially, before making his next move, he needed to see exactly who was a genuine ally and who was an enemy, using a blunt and brutal method to separate those who would follow him from those who would not.
This drastic filtering and aggressive polarization of public opinion made even the previously dominant purges by the Church seem trivial in comparison.
"Crown, why does it feel like this man is also trying to compete for faith?" Alvin asked curiously, sensing the underlying shift.
"It is not just a feeling; it is the truth!" Bai Yang replied with a smiling expression. "While we were away, the Church was recuperating, but the people in the White House have been stirring up major trouble!"
"Because Jose Carmen, the Solomon Cult Archbishop we originally placed in Miami, is currently in Washington D.C.!"
Upon receiving Alvin's intelligence, Bai Yang actively connected to the high-dimensional information network, scanning the Earth's data layer for any relevant news he could access.
In this world, apart from him, absolutely no one could acquire information from a high-dimensional level, nor did any factions exist that could profit from altering it. It should be noted that in the Dylan Continent, even Chief Gods wielding Powerful Divine Power could not access high-dimensional data. The information there had long been warped beyond recognition by deities, legendary powerhouses, and saints.
Only in a nascent world like this could such a pristine network exist, making the information he gathered incredibly accurate.
Take the Transcendent Beings Bai Yang had shaped, for instance. He could clearly pinpoint their locations: Bennett Angus and Caroline were in Luo City, Leon and George were in New York, and Chris was in Illinois. These were the known coordinates of America's various Transcendent Beings.
As for the supernatural monsters, the vampire Vlad the Great was still wreaking havoc in the central region, predictably selecting Chicago as his hunting ground. The demon Lems Oconnor and his Werewolf legion had already begun their migration and expansion across the East Coast. The only anomaly among them was Jose Carmen!
This man had deviated from the region Bai Yang had mapped out for him and traveled north, right into an area swarming with supernatural activity!
To uncover the man's motive for entering this territory, Bai Yang gathered a bit more information, and everything quickly became clear.
During the previous Giant Snake Crisis in Miami, the appearances of Alex Sheffield and Bennett Angus allowed both sides to harvest a massive amount of faith. Aside from the unfortunate souls who perished in the disaster, it had been a triple win for Bai Yang, the Church, and the Original Inhabitants!
However, among these factions, another individual had also won, but because everyone else's victories were so overwhelming, his existence had been completely overlooked.
That person was Jose Carmen. During the crisis, he had saved the governor, presenting those politicians with an alternative path to Transcendent power—one that belonged entirely to them!
Naturally, these politicians were completely devoid of anything resembling a conscience or genuine faith. They were driven solely by their own interests!
Thus, upon witnessing this miracle, their immediate thought was whether this phenomenon could be leveraged to serve their agendas!
Driven by such calculations, the Solomon Cult established by Jose received massive backing from Sanders Rodriguez, the sitting Governor of Florida, after the crisis subsided.
Even as the Church's faith spread like wildfire, the Solomon Cult managed to expand secretly throughout Florida and even across the entire conservative heartland!
Sanders, being a devoted follower of Golden Hair, naturally wanted to pass this incredible advantage to his boss, securing his own political advancement in the process!
Jose, true to Sanders's expectations, stood directly before Golden Hair. Over the course of three months, he demonstrated his supernatural abilities and power with absolute clarity!
In particular, Viam Inveniam aut Faciam, the systematic Brick Text Deconstruction Art of the Tower of Babel, was treated as a priceless treasure by American officials. Consequently, Jose's status skyrocketed within the capital!
At the very least, within the Shadow Department, which was the American Special Affairs Bureau, he had achieved a rank equal to Austin and Baron. Furthermore, thanks to his Transcendent nature, the majority of the supernatural soldiers had effectively become his subordinates.
It had to be said, Jose truly understood the art of restraint. He possessed the ability to manipulate emotions and glimpse fragments of the future—gifts bestowed upon him when Bai Yang fragmented a portion of his authority!
Theoretically, he could have used these two abilities to completely dominate the political arena, becoming the puppet master of America.
Yet, he refrained from doing so. Instead, he hid behind figures like Golden Hair, quietly preaching his doctrine to the highest echelons of American leadership and converting them into his faithful followers.
"Cultists really are full of tricks!" Bai Yang exclaimed. To think this guy actually decided against confronting the Church head-on, opting instead to hand his power over to the government. He had to admit, it was a brilliantly played hand!
As long as his ambition remained unchecked, even if the Church discovered his existence, they would have to weigh their actions against America's geopolitical stance.
After all, divine authority and secular politics were two completely different domains. Especially under Pope Mario's strict policy of political non-interference, the government had somehow managed to forge a unified front using a cult.
"No wonder Golden Hair has the nerve to enforce a literary inquisition. He is holding several distinct Transcendent forces in his hands, all of which are gradually establishing a solid foundation. Of course he can afford to be bold!" Bai Yang evaluated.
Golden Hair now possessed the Church's endorsement, the demon hunter system represented by Leon, the genetically modified super dragon-blood soldier squadrons acquired from the Nordic region, and the supernatural congregation of the Solomon Cult. Looking at his hand, he definitely held enough power to orchestrate a nationwide purge!
"Then, Crown, what should we do?" Alvin asked. "Continue fanning the flames?"
"No, we need to force them to unite and clash head-on with the Original Inhabitants in the South! The covenants of the gods may have been established, but ancient hatred is not so easily erased!" Bai Yang declared.
"War is the ultimate catalyst for Transcendent forces!"