Chapter 1 Relying on Two Figure-Eight Copper Rings

Relying on two figure-eight copper rings, Guan Huan and Bi Xiaoqing descended from the cliff top in a standard rappelling posture, taking only two breaths. After retrieving the ropes, they quickly ran towards the designated rendezvous point, where their people were waiting. They didn't even need to desperately evade capture; they just had to hide in the carriage and avoid the Daoming Sect's search range during this most tense period. No matter how the Daoming Sect later explained things based on what they found, it couldn't negate the fact that Guan Huan and Bi Xiaoqing had carried out a successful operation. After the Dharma Assembly, the believers would disperse anyway, and in a few days it would be the New Year, with everyone rushing back to reunite with their families. And among them were some not-so-devout believers or pseudo-believers who were only there to receive the Daoming Sect's relief grain to celebrate the New Year at home, and they wouldn't stay even for a second to wait for the investigation results. By the time the Daoming Sect's investigation results were released, in this era without radio or television, it would be impossible to influence these believers, who already had preconceived notions. And even if those explanations reached the believers' ears, based on the common people's psychology of "seeing is believing," the persuasiveness would be questionable.

Since Ye Tao and his group had already moved away, they weren't in a hurry to catch up. Anyway, they had agreed to reunite within Dongping territory.

Ye Tao, however, was not relaxed on the return journey. Although leading the internship was a bit anticlimactic, this close encounter with the Daoming Sect's religious organization, the contact with believers and clergy, and the interaction with ordinary Xiling citizens who weren't believers, still yielded many gains and insights. On the return journey, since there was nothing to do while hiding in the carriage, Ye Tao took some time to start writing a report.

In Ye Tao's view, the social stratification in Xiling was far simpler and more distinct than in Dongping, with a more significant gap between the rich and poor and a greater disparity in social status… which meant that social conflicts in Xiling were more acute. The events surrounding the Li family castle, the temporary headquarters of the Leiyin Demon Sect, also proved this point. After the Li family was completely annihilated by a sudden force, and after Zhuo Xianchen began to greatly reduce the economic burden on the tenant farmers and others who were dependent on the Li family, the surrounding area immediately stabilized. And when Zhuo Xianchen later left, and the newcomers quickly reached an understanding with the local government, the tenant farmers and farmers who were still observing began to regard the people controlling the Li family castle as good landlords. Even under the encouragement and persuasion of the released farmer, some had already sworn allegiance and begun to accept the Leiyin Demon Sect's leadership without hesitation.

The rise of the Daoming Sect, on the one hand, used religious doctrines to ease sharp social contradictions, which relieved the rulers of Xiling, especially the local families who felt the social contradictions most deeply. But at the same time, it was also greatly related to the powerful economic strength that alleviated the survival difficulties of some people. The Daoming Sect couldn't maintain long-term economic assistance to the poor and helpless people, and the initial religious salvation complex was quickly broken by more realistic economic pressures. The Daoming Sect had to continue its relief and propaganda for the poor people on the one hand, and seek the support of large families and the Xiling government on the other. They constantly accepted donations from large families, and constantly used the donations they received more efficiently in missionary activities. In addition, they constantly controlled financial resources through fanatics and various other channels, and finally achieved a relatively good dynamic balance. In such a process, the Daoming Sect gradually grew into a religious force that was vaguely combined with the Xiling regime. This combination did deviate from the Daoming Sect's initial goal of saving the world, but it allowed the Daoming Sect to taste the sweetness and become unstoppable. The question is, how much influence does the Daoming Sect actually have on Xiling now, and how much does the ruler of Xiling trust the Daoming Sect?

In Ye Tao's view, the Daoming Sect has many problems:

The first is that their combination with the regime forces them to seek a transformation from an ordinary religion with persuasive power over the people to a orthodox religion that can absorb the attention and belief of all social strata. There are many factors that will cause pain to the Daoming Sect.

They need to constantly build temples, shrines, and more magnificent landmark buildings, instead of casually gathering congregations for meetings. They also need to make concessions to the Xiling regime in many aspects, and even need to control their own power while carrying out this difficult task, so that the Daoming Sect's power doesn't arouse the vigilance of the Xiling rulers before it is strong enough to do anything, or even force them to take decisive action. But their balance in this regard, at least for now, seems to be going well. The Guardian Army they established provided cover for the army in Yunzhou, greatly reducing the losses of the defeat. Moreover, with the almost tragic achievements of extremely high casualty rates without collapse, they won unanimous praise from the Xiling court and allowed further expansion of the Guardian Army's scale. Naturally, as they gain more power, and with the powerful weapons they control to bewitch people, they have more bargaining chips to win the support of more forces in Xiling, or even their allegiance.

The second problem is that, in order to serve the Xiling regime, the Daoming Sect formed an organization called the Daoming Sect Eagle Hall. Although it has increasingly powerful strength, it is somewhat incompatible with the Daoming Sect, an organization that started with religion. Judging from the Eagle Hall's eagerness to expand its power, which has caused a backlash and widespread hostility in the Xiling martial arts world, and its lack of caution in handling matters, the Eagle Hall is very likely to become a failed move that affects the Daoming Sect's reputation. For religious organizations, their fundamental strength lies in being able to control as many people as possible to serve their goals. Once the believers begin to waver, that is when the Daoming Sect's own power is in trouble. On this issue, if the Leiyin Demon Sect wants to develop, there is a lot of room for exploitation.

The third problem is that although the Daoming Sect promotes kindness, tolerance, forbearance, and treating others with kindness in its doctrinal system, it has not adjusted to a more systematic doctrine during the transition period because of the changing audience it faces. Perhaps the Daoming Sect's high-level leaders have not realized this problem, or they have realized this problem but have no reasonable solution. Moreover, in addition to the doctrine, there are no guidelines for behaviors related to the doctrine, and they are all regulated according to the personal understanding of the missionaries in various places. When absorbing clergy and believers, the standards are very broad, basically based on subjective impressions... Especially since the Daoming Sect for a period of time used the number of people they brought in as the standard for evaluating whether a missionary was qualified, completely ignoring regional differences and population density and other data, so that a large number of low-level believers entered the Daoming Sect through coercion and inducement, and the doctrine transmission rate was not high.

With these understandings, coupled with a more intuitive understanding of the composition of the people of Xiling, Ye Tao expressed his opinions in detail on how to adjust the Leiyin Demon Sect's development model. The primary rule is to adapt to local conditions, not to pursue the expansion of numbers, but to pursue the health of the organization. This can avoid conflicts with the Daoming Sect in a short period of time on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is also necessary for a strictly managed membership-based group in Ye Tao's mind. In this regard, Ye Tao especially praised Lei Huang's research on folk customs, and hoped that not only the Leiyin Demon Sect, but even the newly established intelligence bureau that is adjusting its organizational structure, should allocate a portion of non-core personnel to understand folk customs, dialects, and regional unique habits, etc. Not only for the Leiyin Demon Sect's missionary work, but even for the future governance of the conquered areas, this information can play a huge role.

Secondly, adjust the structure of the missionaries to make the entire missionary team look closer to the proportion of the natural population. Otherwise, a bunch of young and strong guys going to preach with eloquent tongues will inevitably be full of doubts when seen by someone with ulterior motives, which will cause unnecessary trouble.

In addition, some things were adjusted that were originally used by the Leiyin Demon Sect in its missionary work. For example, the printed armbands and stamped metal armbands that Ye Tao had previously envisioned, because the printing technology and metal stamping forming technology have obvious inheritance with the technology unique to Dongping, these plans need to be adjusted on a large scale. The printed armbands were changed to simple embroidered armbands, and the stamped metal badges were replaced with things made with the much more traditional mold pouring technology. …

There were other minor adjustments and suggestions, which Ye Tao recorded casually.

But when Ye Tao and his party finally returned to Dongping territory under the escort of the relieved Internal Affairs Guard, what he first received was not a commendation, but a vehement reprimand from the Dongping King Tan Xiaopei. The general meaning was that he disregarded personal safety and placed colleagues and subordinates in dangerous situations, etc., but because Ye Tao's trip to Xiling was absolutely confidential, this reprimand would not be seen by anyone other than him.

Ye Tao had nothing to say about this reprimand. However, at least this trip to Xiling can be considered to have gained something, and it was not in vain to take such a risk. Not only did he gain a lot of intuitive understanding, but he also took the opportunity to put on a good show in front of the Daoming Sect believers. Guan Huan naturally called it enjoyable. What he did and what he said gradually spread among the believers, accompanied by a great degree of exaggeration. He was no longer just a young hero, he had simply become synonymous with justice and fairness, and became the number one Jianghu rumor. Although for a period of time afterwards, he had to be Ye Tao's bodyguard for a while due to his promise to Ye Tao and the need to avoid the limelight, it was nothing compared to gaining prestige. After all, for so many years, how many martial artists had fought to the death, and it was not as much prestige as he had gained by reciting the short lines that Ye Tao had written for him.