Chapter 43: The Forty-Third Day of Becoming Cult Leader (Part 2)

“Yes, yes, yes. You’re the most impressive.” Qin Ming helplessly stroked his fur and praised him. Only after he had praised Shen Fubai until smugness appeared on his face did he finally bring up the matter at hand. “Now we only need to carve the corresponding characters, and the movable type printing will be complete. But this is only the most basic matter. This seat’s goal does not stop here.”

Shen Fubai immediately cupped his hands. “This subordinate understands. With the Cult Leader’s schemes and strategy, you naturally would not do anything useless. This must be one of the steps toward unifying the world!”

It could be said that Shen Fubai had fallen deeply into Qin Ming’s profound foresight. As early as the very beginning, he had realized that Qin Ming’s vigorous development of movable type printing definitely could not be just for a simple idea like printing books. There had to be something even more grand and even greater that he could not see clearly!

And now, at this very moment, the Cult Leader was about to personally reveal this mystery. Shen Fubai felt all the blood in his body boiling and trembling. He did not know whether it was because of fear or because of… excitement.

Come. He was already prepared!

He gazed at the person before him with incomparable anticipation.

Qin Ming, who was in front of him, barely suppressed the twitch at the corner of his eye and was utterly speechless.

Unifying the world again…

After taking a deep breath, Qin Ming directly chose to ignore Shen Fubai’s imagination and continued, “This seat previously believed that the jianghu’s prejudice toward us is too great. Some evil deeds committed by certain Righteous Path sects are all pinned on my cult, causing the common people and other martial artists to believe them without question.”

His fingers tapped lightly on the tabletop, and his tone carried a trace of displeasure. “When one wishes to condemn someone, why worry about lacking a pretext?”

That was right. He had clearly done many good things for the jianghu, such as exposing the truth behind the disappearance case, eliminating Blood Blade Sect, and rectifying Sword Pavilion… Logically speaking, anyone who did even one of those things would be praised by the martial world as a great hero. Yet just because he was from the Demonic Cult and had been saddled with many fabricated crimes, the things he had done were completely ignored by the jianghu.

This made Qin Ming somewhat dissatisfied. He had worked so hard and racked his brains to reverse the jianghu’s impression of their Demonic Cult, but the result kept failing! If things continued like this, how could he earn more merit points?

For this, he had carefully considered the reasons. There were probably two. First, the reputation of their good deeds had not spread, and many people in the jianghu did not know it was they who had done them. Second, the jianghu trusted famous orthodox sects too much. Even if the famous orthodox sects did something bad and framed the Demonic Cult for it, they would not suspect them.

Then how could this situation be improved?

In an instant, Qin Ming thought of movable type printing.

What was the fastest way to transmit information? News, of course!

And in ancient times, without the internet or television, the fastest method was naturally newspapers!

“This seat intends to establish a Jianghu Morning Post. I want to hand this matter to you to take charge of.” Thus, Qin Ming instructed Shen Fubai in a deep voice.

“Jianghu? Morning? Post?” Shen Fubai repeated the term in confusion. He could probably understand the first part, but what was “post” supposed to mean?

Qin Ming placed two sheets of paper together and demonstrated the appearance of a newspaper to him. “…Write the latest news of the jianghu on it. Isn’t the Intelligence Pavilion collecting intelligence? Choose some news that does not involve important matters and put it on here. Do not mix in personal feelings. You only need to write the contents truthfully. As for the evaluation of the matter, leave that to the people of the jianghu.”

“Update it once every few days, print several hundred copies at a time, charge the lowest possible amount of silver, and distribute them to various commanderies and counties for people to read…”

Qin Ming roughly explained some of the matters involved, and the exceptionally clever Shen Fubai immediately understood what he meant. His eyes could not help lighting up.

Brilliant. In this way, the general trend of the jianghu would be held in their hands. The benefits would be far from ordinary!

Once the news in the Morning Post gained the trust of everyone under heaven, if they found someone displeasing, they could exaggerate and fabricate intelligence, and everyone under heaven would surely believe it without question, causing that person’s reputation to be utterly ruined.

They could also widely publicize the Demonic Cult’s good deeds and change their image and standing in the hearts of everyone under heaven. Of course, they could also freely smear the Five Great Sects… oh, now it was the Four Great Sects. In short, controlling intelligence was equivalent to controlling the entire world!

So this was the Cult Leader’s goal. Brilliant, truly brilliant. As expected of the Cult Leader. The matters he considered were more grand, more terrifying. Shen Fubai could only look up to him and submit!

The moment he thought that the Cult Leader had been carefully laying this plan several months ago, Shen Fubai admired him from the bottom of his heart. He immediately nodded and said, “This subordinate understands! In the current situation, whoever controls public opinion will be able to rule the world. That is the principle the Cult Leader wishes to tell this subordinate, correct?”

Qin Ming said, “Mm… mm.”

No, that was not it. He just wanted to improve the Demonic Cult’s standing in the jianghu. How had this become inseparable from unifying the world?

Qin Ming’s heart was very tired, but Qin Ming had already learned not to dwell on these things. He could let Shen Fubai imagine whatever he wanted. “In short, you will be responsible for this. Gather the recent news of the jianghu and first write me a version of the Morning Post. Remember, do not mention my cult too much, and do not let anyone see that this Morning Post was established by my cult. Do you understand?”

If the people of the jianghu learned that this had been established by the Demonic Cult, then certainly no one would read it at all. Shen Fubai understood this principle well and nodded repeatedly.

After Qin Ming instructed him that the Demonic Cult disciples could be mobilized by him, and that the Morning Post’s affairs were to be prioritized first, Shen Fubai left the study deep in thought.

He shut himself inside his room and, based on the intelligence Qian Xiaodou had recently grasped, kept revising on the paper. Yet he was not very satisfied with the result each time he finished writing.

There was no helping it. After three days of hard thought, Shen Fubai actually brought the half-finished Morning Post and, for the first time, took the initiative to knock on Chen Lue’s door.

Not only did the others look surprised, even Chen Lue rarely revealed a trace of confusion. Everyone knew Shen Fubai did not like Chen Lue, and Chen Lue also tried his best to avoid being alone with him. Therefore, when Chen Lue saw Shen Fubai, whose eyes were clearly dark from lack of sleep, he immediately realized that Shen Fubai must have encountered an unsolvable problem.

So he asked directly, “What sort of task did the Cult Leader give you?”

On Shen Fubai’s side, he was still feeling somewhat awkward and could not open his mouth, not knowing how to begin. Hearing Chen Lue’s words, he first froze, then immediately handed over the rough form of the Morning Post in his hand. “Look.”

Chen Lue’s wisdom was slightly greater than Shen Fubai’s, and his insight was sharp. After merely sweeping his eyes over the Morning Post, he stroked his chin thoughtfully. “So that is it… Is this a move the Cult Leader thought of? It is indeed a major killing move. If the release of all intelligence is truly controlled, that is no different from grasping the entire jianghu… Unifying the jianghu will no longer be mere words spoken aloud!”

Seeing Chen Lue understand the Cult Leader’s marvelous move so quickly, Shen Fubai, who had failed to show off, was somewhat displeased, but also a little proud. “After all, it is the Cult Leader! When he established the Intelligence Pavilion, he had already thought of what would follow. Now is the time for the dagger to be revealed after the map is unrolled. Ordinary people like us, who cannot understand the deeper meaning, can only look up to him deeply!”

“Still, I did not expect this.” Shen Fubai inexplicably sized him up a few times. “You can also understand the Cult Leader’s wisdom. Not bad.”

Chen Lue smiled. His finger swept across the newspaper and tapped it lightly a few times. “However, this… Morning Post of yours? It seems a few parts are too subjective and presumptuous, which damages its fairness.”

“This is also the reason I came to find you!” The moment this matter was brought up, Shen Fubai was filled with frustration. “When I write intelligence, I always unconsciously bring in some emotion, angrily condemning those unfair and unjust matters, and even repeatedly insulting the various jianghu sects. The Cult Leader told me to be as objective and fair as possible. I truly find that difficult.”

“That is not all, is it?” Chen Lue looked at the little essay in which he was full of praise for how wise and divine the Demonic Cult Leader was, and said meaningfully, “It also seems you especially like praising the Demonic Cult, especially the Cult Leader. It would be hard for people not to discover that you have some connection to the Demonic Cult.”

“…” Shen Fubai guiltily moved his gaze away and could not explain.

“I have received the Cult Leader’s grace many times. Wanting to praise the Cult Leader a few times is only natural.” Shen Fubai put on a righteous and awe-inspiring appearance. “Moreover, the Cult Leader is wise and divine to begin with, with strategy surpassing others. I have not exaggerated in the slightest.”

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Chen Lue also silently nodded. “Indeed.”

This scene made Shen Fubai’s eyes light up. “You also agree with my thoughts? I heard that you are quite skilled with writing. Why not revise it? Change it into fair intelligence news that does not mix in personal feelings. How about it?”

Shen Fubai had thought for a long time before coming to Chen Lue. Aside from not particularly wanting to ask this person for help, the biggest issue was that this Jianghu Morning Post would inevitably greatly expand the Demonic Cult’s influence in the jianghu. As long as the Cult Leader had even the slightest thought of destroying the orthodox sects, he could easily accomplish it through the Jianghu Morning Post.

Next Chapter >