Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 835 - 82 At the Same Time on West Spring Mountain

The Thousand-Year Dynasty World, West Spring Mountain—what was once Sun Family Town has now undergone tremendous daily transformations.

Ever since the Platinum Dragon Paladin fell, the Dragon Worship Church’s settlement quickly fragmented. A faction of stubborn fanatics seized most of the settlement’s living resources and began migrating toward the faraway depths of the wilderness.

Another group of followers joined forces with various nomadic tribes, arriving at West Spring Mountain to worship Chu Jiang as the new Dragon God, even volunteering to build the temple for free.

This, however, led to fierce clashes with the Mechanical Sect, which had already come to the area earlier.

"What are those Dragon Worshippers saying?"

"They’ve started calling this place Alphos, which in Ancient Roman means ’the City of the Other Shore.’ They believe it’s the Land of Divine Protection foretold in their holy prophecy, where the Primordial Dragon God fell and then was resurrected."

"Alphos? Seriously? Why don’t they just call it Jerusalem?"

Shen Qingxi took a big sip of her iced cola, wiped the sweat off her forehead with a towel, and rolled her eyes at the words.

Ever since Mountain God Chu Jiang dragged her to the new temple’s construction site, her days had been consumed with relentless hard labor.

The life of backbreaking toil was bleak beyond measure—there was simply no other way to describe it. But what could she do? It was all part of the mission plan assigned by the Special Service Bureau.

To her surprise, the Mechanical Sect had actually shown up. Who knows how they managed to cross half the globe and countless dimensional barriers to reach this godforsaken place.

Shen Qingxi had her own convoluted story about getting here. She was sucked into the Mechanical Sect’s summoning ritual for Alpha during her car accident. And when she managed to escape back, it was only via some highly confidential channels she couldn’t disclose.

As for these mechanical cultivators... they arrived by ship from the Real World, taking months to painstakingly crawl their way here.

Seeing those familiar faces suddenly appear, Shen Qingxi felt a mix of emotional conflict—some joy, some apprehension.

Although she left a letter behind back then explaining herself thoroughly: "A baby must leave its mother’s embrace and learn to walk on its own. Alpha illuminated the path for you (which was basically just fixing the food-producing machine); the rest of the journey is up to you..." 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

But still, running away is running away.

Shen Qingxi had her own side of the story: A youthful, adorable young woman like herself somehow summoned thousands of miles away to Lanton’s underground district, surrounded by starving lower-class citizens who barely resembled people anymore, along with dubious zealots, all calling her Alpha and demanding she guide their way.

Guide them to what exactly? Crap?

What really broke her spirit was the food issue. The organic nutrient paste made by their food machine was so beyond human dietary norms that not even Tianmen City’s most infamous dish—the sour milk with sizzling pancake flavor—could compare.

Even dogs wouldn’t eat that garbage.

But she severely underestimated how much these mechanical zealots revered her as their manifested Alpha.

Believers are like that. Their brain circuits just don’t operate in a normal fashion.

Even after being abandoned by Alpha, they weren’t angry at all. They packed up their town’s best gear and traveled across countless miles, eager to seek guidance from their Saint.

Watching them bow and scrape before her, Shen Qingxi could only sigh inwardly.

"You fools, you’re completely under someone else’s control."

All that nonsense about the Book of the Sage... These people followed the prophecy in the book across the vast seas to find Alpha, not realizing Shen Qingxi herself was stuck in the Special Service Bureau’s Containment Department at that time, weeping over her daily rationed cornbread.

She had no clue what was happening outside during that period. Looking back now, it seems the Special Service Bureau deliberately isolated her so they could finalize their plans before letting her out for further discussions.

Truly terrifying—utterly terrifying.

Thanks to the arrangements made by the Special Service Bureau, Shen Qingxi felt confident enough to promise these mechanical cultivators they could use this place as a settlement, enjoying food, water, and safety.

Of course, they’d also have to work.

"As long as you put in the effort, perform well enough, getting a Ming Country visa in the future won’t be out of reach."

The arrangement somehow held echoes of God instructing Moses to lead the Joshua People into the Promised Land...

This godforsaken place might not flow with milk and honey, but compared to Lanton Underground City, it’s leagues better. At least there’s no heavy industrial pollution here.

Upon hearing that Dragon Worship Church survivors wanted to participate voluntarily in the temple construction, Shen Qingxi couldn’t help but have her doubts.

"Could this be part of some elaborate staged plan?"

"Is it to prevent the Mechanical Sect from monopolizing power, or was the conversion of the Dragon Worship Church foreseen, prompting someone to introduce the Mechanical Sect’s presence as a counterbalance?"

The scheming behind all this was unfathomable.

"Does the Mountain God know about this?"

"Logically speaking, he should already know."

Mogred, now transformed into Alpha Sage’s exclusive maid and part-time accountant, took Shen Qingxi’s towel and cola bottle and provided a relatively cautious response.

"After all, those Dragon Worshippers have already worshiped Chu Jiang as the new god. If they didn’t have Chu Jiang’s consent, they wouldn’t dare act so recklessly."

"That’s not necessarily true. You’d better go ask Chu Jiang personally about the specific arrangements for these Dragon Worshippers. Tell the truth—I can’t figure out what they’d do other than making things worse."

Of course, Shen Qingxi was qualified to speak bluntly. Under her organization, the Mechanical Sect’s cultivators had already built a moderately-sized construction materials factory beside the new temple’s site.

With mechanical assembly lines in full operation, bricks were being mass-produced in kilns, flooding the construction site with boundless supplies...

In such circumstances, the overall project hardly required much human labor anymore.

With modern industrial technology on their side, building a mere temple didn’t take too much effort. If the conditions allowed, Shen Qingxi wouldn’t even mind completely renovating the massive slum atop West Spring Mountain.

But of course, there’d have to be compensation.

A favor is one thing, but beyond that, it becomes business negotiation.

...

Meanwhile, Li Mumu was secluded, cultivating and refining the Demon Core.

She was aware of the changes happening on West Spring Mountain but had no interest in interfering.

Gods are meant to be revered and worshiped—not to serve as laborers for their followers.

West Spring Mountain wasn’t her personal property anyway. At best, it was just a "practice site" for her cultivation. Her own cultivation didn’t depend on incense offerings from others. In fact, it was the other way around: these people needed a deity to worship in order to fill the void in their spiritual world.

Wendy had her hobbies, Li Yu had his ambitions, and the Special Service Bureau had its additional plans. None of these concerned Li Mumu. As the master of West Spring Mountain, she only needed to safeguard peace in this world to consolidate her own cultivation. There was no need to meddle in mundane affairs or petty complications.

Regarding the arrival of the Dragon Worship Church survivors, Li Mumu was long aware. By her own reasoning, there was no need to care about these people’s existence. She could simply issue an edict to drive them out of the area.

But during the process of refining Paladin’s Dragon Crystal into a Demon Core, she glimpsed a trace of something not belonging to this realm.

This Dragon Worship Church—there might actually be more to it than meets the eye.