Found an excuse and bit everyone indiscriminately—especially within Nanwu County, every single person who could possibly have anything to do with the Church or Professionals, all the foreigners without exception got "invited" back for tea.

Not everyone, after taking such a heavy hit, gets the kind of treatment Gauss did.

If any of these guys, who Cai Qidong saw as unstable elements, truly hadn't broken any laws, or they couldn't catch a trace of wrongdoing but couldn't figure out what the hell they were here in the Divine Land for, they were all kicked out of the country using this incident as an excuse.

If they'd actually done something, or got caught up in anything, they just got detained—end of story.

If you want to curse anyone out, go curse those Church missionaries. Has nothing to do with us here in the Scorching Sun Department. Our own Minister's so freaked out about this, he can't eat or sleep.

Every time he closes his eyes, all he dreams about is an enraged Dragon King, bringing along a bunch of Water Gods from the West River Water System, who have never suffered such humiliation, kicking off a cataclysmic flood and drowning everything along the West River in one go.

You know, basically every urban area in Nanwu County is built by the water, or has grown up right by the riverbanks.

Our Minister's so stressed, his hairline's receded two centimeters in just two days.

Who'd dare to gamble in our shoes? For all we know, some of you might be trying to start a war or straight up manufacture a disaster. We can't risk it.

We're forced into this—we have no choice but to play it safe, super cautious.

If you guys really are a problem, still not our fault. Go curse the foreign guys—curse their sons to be born without assholes.

If you're not the problem, then you should all be cursing those outsiders with us. They're the ones plotting to ruin your life as it is now—and they almost pulled it off, too.

You're really blaming us, not them?

Well then, you must be hiding something!

Church types have always been pretty sensitive. Actually, things are usually pretty easygoing here in the Divine Land—as long as you're not openly preaching anywhere public, and as long as you're not a cultist, you can pretty much believe in whatever, even the ancient Five-Kernel Mooncake Sect if you want.

This time, Cai Qidong finally got his chance. All those not-so-important notations in his little book from before? He's digging them all out to settle accounts, going on a crackdown spree.

It's basically open, shameless retaliation—and on the outside, there's not a single report about it. Professionals at playing blind.

Wen Yan's head was buzzing when he got this news.

But thinking it over, there actually wasn't anything all that off.

That Dragon God really isn't too well-behaved, and doesn't give much of a shit about the Scorching Sun Department either.

Still, thinking about it, that Dragon God would put up even less with someone trying to preach right in his face.

Honestly, even the Scorching Sun Department would never try something like that—it's just way too humiliating.

Usually, the Scorching Sun Department doesn't just storm up to someone's door and order, "On your knees!"

Even when it's time to appease the Water Gods, it just means reading out some policies, telling them what's allowed and what's not, and most days not even bothering them.

If you do good deeds, you get rewarded; if you mess up, you get punished. Treated the same as anyone else.

Wen Yan thought about it, and finally felt a little relief.

He figured, if those foreigners really had succeeded, it would have been a straight-up disaster.

But that Dragon God at least had enough pride not to play lapdog for the Scorching Sun Department, so he sure as hell wouldn't suck up to foreigners either.

Wen Yan actually approved of Cai Heizi's frantic yapping and biting at everyone these days.

Moments like this call for someone just like Cai Hei—wait, Minister Cai—to do the barking. Anyone else, someone might still try to save face, but Minister Cai loses it, and no one gets special treatment.

Wrapped up the usual training, drifted through another day.

That night, Gauss finished eating, brought a bottle of Maotai over to Wen Yan's place, saying he wanted a drink with Wen Yan.

Wen Yan was pretty surprised by this—Gauss had fit in fast. Clearly had something to say, but he was already learning to show up with a bottle in hand.

Of course, Wen Yan didn't call him out on it—Gauss was picking things up quick, already learning to be subtle. Not bad.

He ordered two dishes, fried up a plate of peanuts himself, and kept Gauss company for a few drinks under the moonlight.

Watching Gauss with such a heavy look on his face, after a few drinks Wen Yan decided to break the ice.

"Something on your mind? What's up, wanna talk about it? Don't bottle it up, just say it. I'm tight-lipped, I swear, I won't blab."

"Yeah, there's something. I think I failed my tribulation—these last few days I've been really down, just couldn't pass Heaven's test."

"Hang on, what tribulation? Take it slow," Wen Yan scratched his head, genuinely surprised—having Gauss use Divine Land terms was enough to muddle even him.

Gauss finally opened up, telling him how the other day he went for a foot massage, then ran into a missionary who seemed to recognize his identity and all that. He couldn't hold back and used a bit of Devil's Power to invite that missionary to drink some West River water.

Gauss gestured with his fingers.

"Seriously, it was just a little bit of power. I never thought he'd be that weak. I meant just to expel him."

"You call that expulsion? Not exile?"

Gauss thought about it for real, then shook his head.

"No way—I don't have enough Power to exile someone. That's high-level magic, and I don't know it. The Church used to have people who did, and maybe a few witches still can."

Wen Yan scratched his head; he honestly hadn't expected the whole thing to start with Gauss.

Even the Scorching Sun Department hadn't noticed Gauss in all this—they really thought that missionary was just some workaholic fanatic who jumped in the river to find the Dragon God for preaching, and got himself killed by the Dragon God.

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