novelraw Chapter 465: Divine Transformation of the World
Chapter 465: Divine Transformation of the World
The events that transpired in Seattle were merely the tip of the iceberg for this vast nation.
With the rise of the Church, the most foundational group of people in this country was slowly beginning to radiate their own light.
No matter the country, no matter how dilapidated, chaotic, or destitute it might be, the true foundation always lay with the lower class—the ordinary families who had been nurtured by traditional culture and simple values since the nation's founding.
They rarely voiced their opinions and almost never made a splash on the world stage, acting as if they were completely invisible.
Yet, they were the most hardworking, stable, and harmonious demographic in society. Their simplicity and sincerity were the nation's greatest wealth.
In ancient China, such families were often referred to as respectable family members, producing the finest soldiers and the truest patriots.
But in the former America, these were the people who suffered the most. They had to pay the terrifying taxes levied on producers while receiving none of the welfare provided to the absolute bottom rung of society. Aside from toiling every day just to maintain a shred of dignity, their lives were likely filled with nothing but pain.
Moreover, the risk tolerance of such families was incredibly fragile. Exorbitant taxes and soaring living costs left them with absolutely no savings.
The golden era where a single worker could support a family, own two cars, and keep a dog was long gone. All that remained was the harsh reality of the entire family working grueling jobs—even pregnant women afraid to take a day off—just to barely scrape by.
And this fragile equilibrium was often shattered by a single job loss, an unexpected accident, or a severe illness. After all, this was a system meticulously designed by capital to manufacture homeless people.The moment you lost your lifeline and your income dried up, the bank would swoop in to seize your home. Without a house, finding a stable job became impossible. Without a steady job, you could not pay for insurance. And without insurance, your life would rapidly deteriorate into a spiral of illness and starvation...
It was an inescapable downward spiral—a vicious cycle engineered specifically to create a homeless underclass.
Furthermore, to ensure these homeless people could never climb back up, the system designed agonizing hurdles alongside bare-minimum survival guarantees. Sometimes, they even actively supplied them with drugs!
Yes, drugs. They used narcotics to control the homeless, plunging them into addiction so they could never stand on their own two feet again!
Countless individuals profited from this chain of interests. They operated under the guise of charity, proclaimed themselves welfare providers, or simply exploited the need for cheap, disposable labor.
These people—driven by the desire to cut costs, maximize profits, or merely leach off the colossal behemoth that was America—collectively forged this system of vagrancy.
Through a series of financial and administrative maneuvers, and even by rewriting the law, they coerced or lured the citizens of this country—whether willingly or unwillingly—into ultimate destitution.
This mechanism of pushing people into the abyss had effectively become the unspoken rule of the nation.
But with the expansion of the Church, and with the ascension of the compassionate Cardinal named Angus Bennett, this rule was fundamentally rewritten!
The operating principles of the Catholic Church had long since shifted from choosing to go with the flow and get tainted or merely to look after oneself, transforming instead into forceful, dominant intervention.
The bishops and priests who had endured the trials of the Precepts to become resolute Catholic warriors were no longer passive observers; they were now true overseers and enforcers!
They did not opt to forcibly change the world or rewrite the law, as doing so would have actually been detrimental to their cause.
Instead, they simply walked into the courthouses, entered the government buildings, visited the predatory lending companies, and approached the debt-collecting banks...
They went to these places not to show off, but simply to demand fairness!
Many priests knew full well that America's legal system was actually quite robust. Over the course of two centuries, the nation had perfected its laws—yet the enforcers had twisted these very laws into man-eating monsters.
However, under the power of Divine Spells, the principle of the Equality of All Sentient Beings prevailed. When the priests, invoking the name of The Lord, demanded that these enforcers repeat their previous orders, many panicked.
After all, their past orders had been driven by self-interest. But if they dared to spout such nonsense directly to a priest's face while under the scrutiny of The Lord, it would constitute outright blasphemy.
In a world where the Supernatural definitively existed and Angels had descended to the mortal realm on multiple occasions, no one truly dared to commit blasphemy.
This was especially true once they learned the grim fates of the clergy who had been tried by the Religious Tribunal!
What exactly was Holy Light Judgment? What was Hellfire Refinement of the Heart? And what did a Heavenly Baptism entail?
They sounded like normal, even benevolent terms. But if you harbored a guilty conscience, enduring such punishment was tantamount to having your heart and lungs brutally torn out!
What if they claimed they were not Christians? Hah! In a country founded by Puritans, a nation where even the Great Leader had to swear upon the Bible during his inauguration, who would dare utter such a claim? If you had an excuse, you could go try explaining it to the Inquisition!
While the Religious Tribunal still offered a semblance of mercy, the Inquisition was a genuinely terrifying organization whose very name could stop a child from crying in fear.
Tales of this organization had circulated across the European Continent for a millennium and were still spreading today, striking a deep, bone-chilling dread into anyone who heard them.
Under this combination of deterrence and intimidation, almost every city dominated by the Catholic Church began to undergo such a transformation. Ordinary, previously obscure Catholic priests stepped forward one by one, emboldened by the Precepts they carried.
The most obvious change was that merely adjudicating cases according to the bare minimum principles of the law saved over eighty-five percent of people from ending up in absolute poverty.
Simply adjusting prices to reflect a moderate profit margin allowed more than twice as many people to regain access to hospital care.
And the lawful recalculation of taxes, daily necessities, and social resources finally granted proper dignity to countless families who previously had to starve just to survive!
The normalization of wages, consumption, and the legal system brought about a positive, warming recovery for the entire nation!
The people were astonished to discover that their struggles were not due to a lack of effort. Instead, it was because far too many parasites had been leeching off the benefits they rightfully deserved, stripping them of almost everything that should have been theirs.
Because of this realization, the vast majority of ordinary citizens began to vote with their feet!
In this moment, they clearly recognized the sheer hell they had been living in. They saw exactly how utterly miserable their futures would have been without the dominant intervention of the Church!
Consequently, the Catholic churches scattered across America following All Saints' Day experienced what was likely their most bustling period since the dawn of the new century!
Particularly in the current Luo City, which had practically transformed into an ocean of Catholics!
Bai Yang and Alvin strolled outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, watching the bustling crowds with a profound sense of gratification.
"During Mario's era, there were about sixty-two million Catholics in America. Now, barely more than half a year has passed, yet the number of Catholics in this country has surged to one hundred and seventy million, surpassing half the nation's population!"
Alvin murmured softly into Bai Yang's ear, relaying the data. "Because of this, the Stable Faith Power we harvest has skyrocketed threefold during this period, reaching an incredibly exaggerated figure!"
"How exaggerated?" Bai Yang asked casually.
"This Stable Faith Power is enough to sustain the current Heavenly Kingdom. Under the infusion and manipulation of the Divine Flame, we can slowly Materialize Illusions and turn it into reality without needing any additional investment on our part!" Alvin explained.
"Whoa!" Bai Yang looked up in mild surprise. "That really is quite staggering!"
The Heavenly Kingdom was the Divine Kingdom they had designed. It was also the very first Supernatural realm established using the exact methodology of the Dylan Continent—forged through a complete system of Divine Flame, Godhood, and Divine Kingdom. The Wish Power required for such an endeavor was originally an astronomical figure.
Initially, Bai Yang had planned to rely on half of the planet's 1.4 billion Catholics to supply the Wish Power needed for this realm.
But he never imagined that relying solely on this country's 170 million believers would actually be enough.
"Is the quality of their faith that high?" Bai Yang inquired.
"Of these people, over a hundred million are truly pious believers, and there are even more than three hundred thousand Fanatics!" Alvin said with a sigh of amazement. "Although hundreds of years of this nation's cultivation have mostly produced parasites, this small fraction of Fanatics has still managed to shoulder this terrifying rate of consumption!"
"No wonder the deities of the Dylan Continent placed such heavy importance on Fanatics!" Bai Yang instantly understood. The Wish Power generated by three hundred thousand Fanatics outweighed that of the remaining seventy million casual believers. Such was the sheer power of Fanatics!
"Doesn't this just prove that our Divine Transformation of the World is moving in the right direction?" Bai Yang smiled, a clearer vision already forming in his mind. "The populace is a group with very low demands. As long as you ensure they are well-fed and well-clothed, they will be eternally grateful to you!"
"Capital requires profit to sustain itself, but all we need is Wish Power. There is no reason for us to perform worse than they do!"
"Give them a better standard of living, and they will willingly bear children to provide for the Gods—this is our true objective!"
Bai Yang could clearly feel that the continuous supply of this Wish Power was causing Yahweh's Divine Flame to surge in his hands, seemingly pushing it toward a critical breaking point.