A Demon's Journey

Other than the Vicious Lightning Paragon and the ministers in the Parliament, Yrellea came to know of another force that possessed considerable influence within the Pinhian Republic.

It is known as the Church of Mubesni. Mubesni is a Celestial God residing in the heavens.

There were other religions in the Pinhian Republic, but none of them belonged to a Celestial God. The Church of Mubesni was the most widespread religion inside the Pinhian Republic.

Yrellea came to know of this religion as she was gathering information about different ministers in the Pinhian Republic.

She found out that many ministers were actually visiting the Church of Mubesni and were sworn followers. They had even donated much of their wealth to the Church of Mubesni, stating that this was all to help the people.

However, when Yrellea tried to investigate how the Church of Mubesni used that money, she came up with nothing.

The Church of Mubesni gathered nearly hundreds of billions of Duapi, the Pinhian Republic's currency, every year. However, they barely utilized 10 million or so for the welfare of people.

The Church of Mubesni was actually hoarding the rest of the humungous amount for themselves!

This allowed the Church of Mubesni to prepare expensive offerings for their god. Through these offerings, the power of the Celestial God would increase tremendously. He would, in return, bless his followers for those sacrifices.

In a certain sense, both sides benefited greatly.

The ones who lost out were the general people. These huge donations to the Church of Mubesni were to help people, not to use for their god.

However, their influence was far too great for anyone to go up against them.

Even the Vicious Lightning Paragon didn't dare to go up against them. It wasn't their strength that worried him. It was the fact that nearly 70% of the general populace's religion was the Church of Mubesni.

If he did fight them, then all the citizens in this kingdom would revolt! This was what he didn't want.

However, the Church of Mubesni also didn't dare to go against the Vicious Lightning Paragon since this man was a hero to his nation.

The Vicious Lightning Paragon had his own followers, and all of them were extremely strong. They knew that if they truly angered the Vicious Lightning Paragon, he might decide to destroy them all.

No archangel in the Church of Mubesni could resist his fury if he was truly furious. Thus, they maintained their distance from the Vicious Lightning Paragon's group.

Yrellea gathered quite a bit of information regarding the Church of Mubesni. However, she didn't know that the Church of Mubesni was also gathering information about her and the Misty Flower Pavilion.

Fortunately, the Pinhian Republic was too far away from the new Sinyalian Kingdom's territory, so they didn't know that this Misty Flower Pavilion belonged to that nation.

The Misty Flower Pavilion caught the Church of Mubesni's attention solely for one reason. The decrease in donations to the Church of Mubesni in three cities.

During the last month, there was a massive decline in donations in three cities. When the Church of Mubesni investigated the reason for this decline in donations, the Misty Flower Pavilion's name came up.

It seemed that most of their followers were actually enthralled with such a place. And instead of donating their income to the Church of Mubesni, they were actually squandering it by going to the Misty Flower Pavilion regularly.

The Misty Flower Pavilion was similar to a pub or tavern where people could come to get some food or a drink. They also provided massage and other entertainment activities, like singing, dancing, telling stories, and even arm wrestling.

All these activities required money. People happily expended that amount because they felt that the entertainment was truly worth it.

Actually, the entertainment was part of the reason why people visited the Misty Flower Pavilion. The true reason people visited the Misty Flower Pavilion was that all members of this pavilion were exceptionally beautiful women.

These women were so beautiful, graceful, and elegant that thoughts of admiration rose in the hearts of people.

In reality, this was because all these women were cultivating an enchanting technique that belonged to the Heavenly Enchantress in the Ancient Era.

Through this cultivation technique, these women passively released special energy that could captivate a person, regardless of their gender.

This cultivation technique also boosted their beauty in the truest sense by getting rid of the impurities inside their bodies. It was said that whoever cultivated this technique to the peak would possess beauty on the same level as someone with the Absolute Beauty skill.

Through this technique and their natural talents, the members of the Misty Flower Pavilion managed to gain tremendous wealth and information. Gathering information was extremely easy for them.

The person just had to be a bit drunk, and a member of the Misty Flower Pavilion had to target him actively with her cultivation technique.

People who possessed weak willpower would speak out everything they knew. While this process had to be repeated on someone with strong willpower.

However, one thing was common. After getting enchanted, they would lose consciousness. This prevented people from even guessing that they had revealed some secret intel to someone in the Misty Flower Pavilion.

The Church of Mubesni certainly didn't like this Misty Flower Pavilion. Even though they didn't understand what the Misty Flower Pavilion was doing, they believed this company was stealing their followers and wealth.

They used their influence to prevent Yrellea from expanding her business. The ministers in certain domains wouldn't give permission to Yrellea no matter how much she tried to bribe them.

Thus, Yrellea began thinking of using one of her subordinates to seduce a high-ranking minister in the parliament.

The Minister that Yrellea chose was the head of the Industry and Businesses department. It was his approval that Yrellea required to expand the Misty Flower Pavilion.

The Misty Flower Pavilion didn't lack beautiful women. All of them possessed a nation-toppling beauty and were very loyal to Yrellea.

Yrellea chose the one with an advanced skillset and was proficient in persuasiveness and deceit. Her subordinate's name was Edna Meir.

Seducing the Minister wasn't a very hard task for Edna. She just required an opportunity.

To give her this opportunity, Yrellea sent Edna to secretly meet the Minister to bribe him. However, the contract was created in such a manner that it would require multiple meetings to resolve it.

During those meetings, Edna would use her cultivation technique and try to enchant the Minister.

Edna was sure that after the third meeting, the Minister would be completely captivated as her proficiency in this enchanting cultivation technique was quite high.

In reality, Edna was overestimating the Minister. She managed to captivate him in the very first meeting.

Yrellea received the good news and was quite delighted about it. After ten or so days, Tiana contacted her as she required a passage into the Pinhian Republic. She informed Yrellea of the fact that she was atop her Frozen Spirit Fox.

Yrellea soon contacted Edna and informed her of what she had to do.

The Minister signed on a contract that specifically stated that a spy was returning from the Lamhilhan Theocracy with a secret resources and must be allowed to pass through borders.

This was the letter that the Pinhian Republic's soldiers on the borders received.

Meanwhile, the Minister used his spies and connections in the Lamhilhan Theocracy's territory and bribed the Lamhilhan Theocracy's soldiers overseeing the borders near the Pinhian Republic.

These efforts allowed Tiana to pass through the borders without any issue.