Gospel of Blood

Dark Healing and Mental Soothe are not very advanced spells, even when converted into divine spells.

However, Charlotte found them quite useful for missionary work.

The former is a genuine healing spell, always a popular type of divine spell in various churches, while the latter is a powerful tool for preaching.

After all, seeking spiritual solace is a crucial reason why many people choose to believe in God.

The blood divine power spread, enveloping many believers.

Feeling the strange power within their bodies and the divine spells newly ingrained in their minds, the chosen believers were excited and prostrated themselves again.

“Praise you, Great God Nyx!”

Charlotte did not “promote” too many priests.

Among the more than three thousand believers, only fifty or so, who had the closest connection to her faith, were granted divine blessing and became priests capable of casting divine spells.

This ratio is quite large. In the Holy Court, even a village of several thousand holy believers would only have one or two priests at most.

In comparison, Charlotte’s ratio is roughly one priest for every sixty believers.

Of course, appointing so many priests is not just for these few thousand believers.

The believers designated as priests by the werewolf Luff, besides being lucky to have received Charlotte’s power, also met the requirements for missionary work.

These priests would become the main force in Charlotte’s missionary work in the North.

However, Charlotte did not plan to increase the number of priests for the time being.

Casting divine spells consumes divine power, even if it’s heavily diluted divine power, it still represents a cost.

Charlotte estimated that with the current number of believers, the divine power she collected from them through their bloodline would just cover the cost of the priests’ divine spells.

In other words, she could maintain a balance between income and expenditure of divine power.

“A ratio of sixty to one. From now on… we can maintain this ratio, increasing priests as we expand the number of believers.”

“As the number of believers grows, gradually lowering the ratio of priests, until the cult can self-sustain and continuously replenish my divine power.”

Charlotte calculated in her mind.

Speaking of which, the cults in Myria are somewhat like companies in her previous life.

Believers meditate and train, enhancing their bloodline power under the protection of their Gods, just like employees using company equipment to work.

Gods are the “bosses” of these “companies” and the “capitalists” who “exploit” the believers, with the “exploitation” being the increase in believers’ bloodline power.

However, while “exploiting”, Gods also provide protection to their believers, fulfilling their duties.

The difference between righteous and evil Gods is…

probably the difference between conscientious enterprises and unscrupulous companies.

With this analogy, Charlotte could understand why Nice often complained that Gods were parasites.

After the divine blessing ceremony, Charlotte felt a bit tired.

Although her divine power reserves had greatly increased, the consumption of 『True Ancestor’s Liberation』 was still too high. So, after appointing the priests, she dispersed the power that had descended upon the altar through the divine symbol.

Seeing the miracle above the divine symbol gradually dissipate, the gathered believers fervently worshipped once again.

Until… everything returned to peace.

On the other side, Charlotte withdrew the projection, and her consciousness returned to her body.

Her “miracle” had ended.

The remaining work was handed over to Sebastian.

The seeds of faith had been sown, and she had personally pointed the believers in the right direction. Sebastian should be able to compile the scriptures smoothly from now on.

With priests, missionary work could further unfold.

Of course, although she intended to officially place the cult on Myria’s stage, Charlotte knew that openly preaching under the Holy Court’s nose was practically inviting them to “come and fight me.”

So… even for missionary work, it was necessary to avoid the Holy Court’s sphere of influence and be as low-key as possible.

Thinking of this, Charlotte pondered for a moment and then, through the contract link with Sebastian, conveyed her thoughts to him.

“Prioritize missionary work in villages far from big cities. Avoid direct confrontation with the Holy Court. Also, consider expanding north into the Northern Grand Duchy.”

“No need to slander the Holy Court. In fact… it might be beneficial to somewhat agree with their doctrines.”

Hearing the voice in his mind, Sebastian was startled. He thought for a moment and then respectfully asked in his mind.

“Master, do you… want to shape our cult into a ‘righteous’ one?”

Charlotte nodded and replied meaningfully in her consciousness.

“That’s right. After all, the Holy Court is a multi-God church, and it’s not entirely extreme.”

The Holy Court was a massive entity. Trying to develop faith next to such a behemoth was undoubtedly difficult.

Although the North was an area where the Holy Court’s influence was weak, if they truly took notice, sending a judgment squad to purge them was not impossible.

However, the Holy Court did not annihilate all strange cults.

According to the history Charlotte knew, apart from obviously evil cults and newly resurrected Gods, the Holy Court’s mainstream approach was to absorb and incorporate cults and Gods with positive doctrines that had grown to a certain scale.

Clearly, she was no longer as isolated as when she first transmigrated, and she had initially grasped the power of myth.

A cult of three thousand may not be large, but with direction and divine oracles, rapid expansion in the North was foreseeable.

As long as they remained low-key and developed to a certain scale before the Holy Court noticed, she might avoid being exterminated and instead be “recruited.”

Of course, with her bloodborne ties, if her true identity was exposed, the Holy Court would definitely not choose to “recruit” her.

Charlotte didn’t truly intend to become a subordinate God.

This was just a way to buy more time.

During this process, Charlotte could even use her identity as the “Wild Saintess” to further mislead the Holy Court’s judgment.

Once the Divinity Descent Day arrived, and the Gods awaken, it would be time to stir the waters.

Although the Holy Court was the largest power in Myria, being the largest also made it the target of many. Even with numerous subordinate Gods, it would face more unknown Gods.

How to survive in the cracks and quickly grow the cult was what Charlotte needed to consider.

After hearing Charlotte’s words, Sebastian seemed to understand.

After a long time, he solemnly replied respectfully in his mind.

“Sebastian… understood.”

“Also, convey to Luff that starting today, every six months… no, every three months, let’s say, every three months, we will hold a divine blessing ceremony. Select suitable believers to participate, and I will bestow the power of priests.”

Charlotte spoke to him again in his mind.

…

Having completed her instructions to Sebastian, Charlotte withdrew from the mental world.

The cult had begun to take shape, and she couldn’t be a hands-off leader. At least… until a self-sustaining mechanism was found, appointing priests might require her personal involvement.

A frequency of once every three months was manageable, with the only issue being if she fell into a deep sleep during her advancement, which might last more than three months.

That would be an uncontrollable factor.

Regarding this, Charlotte planned to have Nice, her assistant, come up with a solution.

“Meow meow meow? Increasing priests while you are asleep? Lady Charlotte, you’re overestimating me. As a God, if even you can’t solve this problem, how could I?”

The black cat, dragged off the silk recliner by Charlotte, complained.

“How do other slumbering Gods manage such things?”

“Well… I don’t know. I’m not a God. Haven’t… haven’t you fully recovered your past memories? You can already cultivate priests! You are the True Ancestor of Blood!”

Nice couldn’t help but complain.

Charlotte shook her head.

“Even as the True Ancestor of Blood, ‘I’ had no history of large-scale cultivation of believers like a God.”

Saying this, she asked.

“So… do you have any suggestions?”

Nice thought for a moment and then hesitantly said,

“Suggestions… well, more like a hypothesis…”

“For instance, the Creator God and the God of Contracts, even when in slumber, can respond to believers periodically. If you can’t respond while asleep, then… you would need a substitute.”

“My idea is that you could pre-place appropriate artifacts, with solidified divine spells for bestowing divine blessing, and set up the ritual in advance.”

“In this way, even if you’re asleep, the priests could use the artifacts you left behind to cultivate more priests.”

“Using artifacts with solidified divine spells to cultivate priests…”

Charlotte fell into deep thought.

She thought of the Faceless Statue.

With the characteristics of the Faceless Statue, this method might indeed ensure the operation of the cult during her sleep.

The only problem was that she initially planned to merge the Faceless Statue in her possession after the Ancestral Recognition Ceremony of the Roman Sword.

If used to set up solidified divine spells, she couldn’t merge with it.

Wait… that’s not right…

Who said she only had one Faceless Statue now?

As if thinking of something, Charlotte looked up and down at Nice.

Being stared at with such meaningful eyes, nice felt uneasy.

“L… Lady Charlotte, please… don’t look at me like that, it makes me a bit scared.”

He swallowed nervously and said.

Charlotte smiled.

She smiled warmly at the black cat before her, her tone suddenly becoming gentle.

“Speaking of which… Nice, your body should also be equivalent to an artifact, right?”

Nice: …