Chapter 16 Construction

Not long after Guan Haishan arrived in Xiling, the construction of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect's temple began. This was the first time the Thunder Sound Demon Sect had built a dedicated religious building since developing its influence in northern Xiling. Before this, although the Thunder Sound Demon Sect had established branches in many towns, they were all purchased existing courtyards, slightly modified, at most converting the original main hall into a shrine. The priests and members of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect could live in these courtyards, and although conditions were difficult due to accommodating so many people, everyone felt that the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, which had always been simple and practical, should be this way. In addition, these courtyards often had to receive ordinary believers from all over the place, and the utilization rate of these courtyards after they were bought was always very, very high.

In fact, the local Xiling believers initially had some controversy over whether to build a temple complex like Thunder Sound Hall. Although the Thunder Sound Demon Sect had always been able to receive funding from Yun Province, they could not appear wealthy, at least on the surface. Because the Thunder Sound Demon Sect implemented a very strict membership management system, in the early stages of development, when the number of believers had not reached a certain number, especially when the donations of believers were still quite limited, the management costs of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect were quite high. Those courtyards set up in various places, for the finances of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, at least on the surface, still had considerable pressure. Even if everyone decided to build a temple, where to free up this expense was a problem.

However, what finally made everyone determined to build the temple was the annual grand ceremony of the Daoming Sect. Although Guan Huan had killed the people of the Eagle Hall in full view of everyone behind the Zhujun Hall last year, accusing the Daoming Sect's Eagle Hall of tyranny, greatly打击(dǎjī - dealt a blow to) the Daoming Sect's influence in the north. Afterward, the Daoming Sect assisted the government in suppressing the people, and other behaviors made the Daoming Sect increasingly untrusted, and these also allowed the Thunder Sound Demon Sect to seize the opportunity in a short period of time to be able to compete with the Daoming Sect in northern Xiling. However, by the end of the year, the Daoming Sect's grand ceremony, which was even larger than last year, still attracted a staggering number of believers to gather together, and in a fanatical atmosphere, they cheered again and again for every word of those Yushi (羽士 – Daoist priests) who preached the scriptures of the Daoming Sect. In that atmosphere, even the most rational person could not help but feel their heart swaying, doubting whether they should abandon their original doubts and devote themselves to the many believers of the Daoming Sect, become one of them, and become one of the people pursuing great truth and eternal life. In that atmosphere, even the believers of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect who went to observe the Daoming Sect's evangelism near the Zhujun Hall were somewhat shaken.

The process of evangelism is indeed similar to selling a product, especially in the absence of innate factors such as country, ethnicity, and family. Religion is a kind of sustenance, and it is also a consumer behavior that uses one's own spirit, time, and money to obtain psychological security and expect some kind of "well-being" to occur. Since this is the case, ordinary people naturally have to compare prices and see which god is bigger, which religion's rhetoric can move them more, and which religion has more power to protect them. Even though the Daoming Sect's original credibility among the common people was really not high, the power displayed during this kind of large-scale ceremony, especially compared to the Thunder Sound Demon Sect's simple to crude small courtyards and simple activities, was obviously more able to capture people's hearts. This is the same reason why large investments in advertising by modern enterprises can obtain equally large returns.

The achievements of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect in just one year had allowed them, who were nominally a sect of the Daoming Sect, especially those among them with relatively high status, to see a different vision. The highest levels from Dongping were naturally rejoicing that the Thunder Sound Demon Sect had gained a foothold, was able to exert a certain influence on local government affairs through its own organization, and had gathered many people from all walks of life who were increasingly dissatisfied with the increasingly decaying system of Xiling; those devout believers experienced all kinds of joy and a sense of accomplishment that could be brought to themselves by gathering more believers and helping more believers, as if the road to heaven was at their feet; and those who entered the Thunder Sound Demon Sect with some ambition saw more and more of the power and wealth they could master through more and more believers... Even those ordinary believers were unwilling to let their revered Thunder Sound Demon Lord be so shabby, only able to dwell in a crude shrine.

The previously unresolved funding problem was fully implemented in less than a month, most of it from donations from senior members of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect. Lei Huang originally wanted those poor low-level members and peripheral believers to keep some money in their hands, so as not to make their lives miserable because of donations, but he did not expect that this instruction would become the first instruction in Lei Huang's ever-wise history to be understood but resisted... And what Lei Huang did not expect was that the last piece of the Thunder Sound Hall's budget was filled by a high-ranking Xiling official: Sun Boping, the Taizhou Administration Commissioner.

Sun Boping actually did not want to have any contact with the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, or groups such as the Daoming Sect, which still occupies the mainstream in most areas of Xiling, but he could not withstand the tender offensive from his daughter, Sun Meier. When Sun Meier was traveling around Taizhou, she happened to come across a rare lecture meeting personally conducted by Lei Huang. Sun Meier was only curious as to why so many people were gathered together, and ordered the carriage to stop by the roadside, but after listening to only a small section of Lei Huang's lecture, she was firmly attracted by Lei Huang's passionate yet simple and approachable sermon.

Lei Huang was not as arrogant as those Xiling officials and children that Sun Meier usually came into contact with, always looking down on people, and if he were not standing on a high platform, wearing the costume of a senior priest of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, if it were not for the fact that he was also wearing a black cloak over his simple attire, he would look almost like a shop assistant. But once Lei Huang began to speak, began to say his words, half prepared and half improvised, little by little, there was a kind of bewitching power in them.

Lei Huang's words were not at all bookish. If it were Ye Tao or Tan Weixin, they would say very accurately and fashionably that it was the language of the working people. Lei Huang told the stories of those ordinary people themselves in a娓娓道來(wěiwěidàolái - detailed and unhurried) manner, especially those somewhat absurd things, which often made the ordinary believers present with similar experiences laugh with tears and empathize with each other. Lei Huang could easily use the various dialects, slang, and folk songs of northern Xiling as materials in his sermons without any effort. He even composed a sixteen-line limerick, each line of which could only have the best effect when recited in a dialect or slang. This seemingly ordinary Lei Huang was able to make everyone present constantly change their emotions according to what he said, from sorrow to joy, from low to high, from disappointment to hope... And when he recited a once-popular folk song in a painful tone, the voice seemed to echo in everyone's ears, making the venue, which had gathered two or three thousand people, so quiet that everyone's own breathing seemed abrupt.

"Old God, you are old,
Your ears are deaf and your eyes are dim,
You can't see people, you can't hear words!
Murderers and arsonists enjoy glory,
Vegetarians who read scriptures are starved to death!
Old God, you can't be God, you should collapse!
You can't be God, you should collapse!"

—Right after reciting this folk song, Lei Huang's tone became激(jī - intense). The audience was mobilized by Lei Huang, and they roared "No" again and again at the injustices mentioned by Lei Huang, and bowed their heads in shame again and again under Lei Huang's questioning for their cowardice and inaction. Throughout the sermon, Lei Huang did not even mention the Thunder Sound Demon Sect many times, or ask everyone to believe in the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, but asked everyone to believe in themselves and start with small things... And such a Lei Huang could not help but make everyone trust him.

After listening to such a sermon, Sun Meier became a fan of Lei Huang. Relying on her status as the daughter of the Administration Commissioner, she repeatedly sought to see Lei Huang, and as she continued to contact Lei Huang, she became increasingly infatuated with this young "Pope". After several long talks, although Sun Meier also realized Lei Huang's perfunctory attitude because of her status and position, she also felt Lei Huang's understanding and sympathy for the lives of the people, as well as Lei Huang's unique ambition to benefit the world.

With a daughter who was an openly declared believer of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, Sun Boping's status was extremely embarrassing. Even with a father like Sun Boping, Sun Meier was not able to receive any special treatment, and still underwent the normal assessment for ordinary believers to become members. After meeting Lei Huang twice, Sun Boping did not know whether he really liked this simple and pragmatic young man or was also bewitched by Lei Huang's words. He himself developed a strong interest in the Thunder Sound Demon Sect and began to find those simple printed materials to study. And when Sun Meier begged her father to take out a large sum of money to fund the Thunder Sound Demon Sect's construction of the temple, even knowing that this would cause great dissatisfaction from the Daoming Sect and would also give the court ammunition to attack his rapid promotion to this position with plenty of kickbacks and power, he still easily agreed after Sun Meier's several requests. Not only that, because Sun Boping was still relatively optimistic about Lei Huang, and felt that it was not a good idea for his daughter to always be mixed up with Lei Huang, and also that the rise of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect might not be his own opportunity in the future... Just after the new year, a few days before the Thunder Sound Demon Sect's temple on Lion Mountain welcomed its chief engineer, Sun Boping asked someone to formally propose marriage to Lei Huang, wanting to marry Sun Meier to Lei Huang.

And this question really stumped Lei Huang. He was not just the Pope of the Thunder Sound Demon Sect, he was a Dongping spy.