Empire of Shadows

The crucified Lord had a look of sorrow on his face, but also some mercy and forgiveness. It seemed that at the moment of his suffering, he had already forgiven all the sinners.

It was just unknown whether, at this very moment, he had also forgiven the priest.

The priest, feeling something in his heart, slowly turned his head, looked up at the crucifix with its face bowed towards him, and then turned his head to look at the supervisor.

“If you want to pray and confess, you can wait until tomorrow during the day. It’s night now, and I need to rest.”

He appeared quite calm, but the hand clenched in his sleeve clearly told him that he was not as calm and strong as he had imagined.

The supervisor looked at him with a smile. “They have already confessed.”

“Confessed what?” he asked.

“Confessed that you, as a cadre of the Holy Bell Party in Tomato Town, are controlling the town’s evil criminal activities of liquor, prostitution, and human trafficking.”

The priest’s face became very ugly. “This is an unfounded accusation. Can you produce evidence?”

The supervisor showed a very strange smile. “We are not the police, Father.”He leaned forward, his knuckles rapping on the surface of the lectern. “We are the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Hazardous Materials. We can arrest people first, and then talk to you about the evidence!”

He even directly stated some things. “Actually, it’s not impossible to forge some. You know, we are professionals in this area.”

“Even a judge might not be able to tell!”

After he had finished speaking, he returned to his original position and then shook his head. “Arrest him and tell him his rights.”

Soon, the agents behind the supervisor had pinned the priest down and handcuffed him, and had also read out what he could do.

The priest remained silent throughout the process. He kept reciting the Bible in his heart, hoping that the Lord would grant him the strength to fight against these evil people.

“Ah…”

“I’ll talk…”

In less than half an hour, he was willing to cooperate. It seemed that the Lord didn’t care much about him either.

Of course, it was also possible that the Lord’s gaze had not fallen on him.

Torture to extract a confession is always the greatest enemy of judicial justice, but sometimes, when dealing with some evildoers, it is very necessary.

Under the effect of the torture, the priest, who had not been in so much pain for decades, could not hold on for long and gave up.

The Lord had taught him many things, but the one thing he had not taught him was how to endure pain.

All his persistence seemed not to be as important as himself. At this moment, even the faith he believed in had to give way to himself!

With the priest’s confession of all the criminal acts of him and the members of the Holy Bell Party in the town, the sound of police sirens in Tomato Town did not stop all night.

They kept knocking on the doors of some houses, taking some people out, and covering their heads with their own clothes or with prepared hoods.

More criminal details were being learned by the people. Some reporters from the newspaper had already arrived at the scene. They were eager to know what other terrifying content there was in this organized crime case led by a priest!

Dale had done a very good job, and had been very accurate, or rather, Lance had provided him with very necessary clues.

The assistance of the state police also made the sorting out of the entire case and the arrests smoother. A large amount of news material was gathered by different newspapers. The reporters of these newspapers, as if they had taken a stimulant, were sorting out these materials almost without sleep, and then looking for a news point that could make the newspaper sell like hotcakes.

Four or five days after Dale had begun to fully promote the arrest of these criminals, after a careful review, a large number of newspapers began to report on this matter, as if they had arranged it.

It is worth mentioning that the headline on the front page of the Tide Newspaper, the largest newspaper in Likalai State, was no longer the huge, occupying the entire front page, and even giving the impression that it was about to burst out of the newspaper, breasts, but a criminal in a clerical uniform, sitting in a cage.

This was a rare moment for the Tide Newspaper to report on such a serious matter!

Although this was not what people were looking forward to, they still bought a large number of the Tide Newspaper, wanting to confirm what on earth it was that even breasts were no match for!

They didn’t know until they saw it. They were shocked when they saw it.

Many of the crimes related to the Holy Bell Party were disclosed, and then a large number of “bell deserters” began to appear in the northern region of Likalai State.

Some of the socialites who had had a good relationship with the Holy Bell Party before began to refuse to answer any questions raised by the reporters who had come to their door. Some were even very extreme and directly stood on the opposite side of the Holy Bell Party—

For the reporters, giving celebrities a hard time was definitely more entertaining than doing the same to ordinary people. They loved watching those stars make fools of themselves — after all, it could easily boost the newspaper’s sales.

The celebrities’ reaction speed was also very fast. The concentrated media reports made them feel the seriousness of the situation. Those with a keen sense of smell made a decision at the first opportunity.

For a time, the entire Likalai State, and even the entire Federation, began to discuss this matter!

“Bang…”

With a Bible smashing a stained-glass window in a flurry of “swish swish swish” and “thump crackle snap,” Joshua’s temper seemed to have finally subsided a little.

His study was already in a great mess. Some things were thrown everywhere.

The silver wine glass on the floor was still swaying back and forth, and there was not much wine left in it.

There were also some utensils, glass fragments, everywhere.

Joshua had vented his anger fiercely. The pressure from outside was so great that he couldn’t raise his head at all.

Just a few days ago, he was still the saint of the Holy Bell Party, representing the will of the Lord.

A few days later, he had become the “leader of a criminal organization with strong concealment and deception, entrenched in the northern region of Likalai State.”

Fuck!

How could they be so fickle?

What made him feel even more angry was that those damn, many of the big shots who had cooperated with him before, had all begun to stay away from him.

Remaining silent and refusing to admit to knowing him was already the most decent response of these people. Some people had even directly opened fire on him, as if only by killing him could they prove their innocence!

He was panting, looking around with a hurt expression on his face.

He couldn’t help but be angry, and he couldn’t help but be hurt.

On the newspaper at his feet was a photo of Executive Committee Member Dale of the State Prohibition Committee, and two other committee members standing in front of an empty warehouse.

Behind them, a mountain of wine was being moved out of the warehouse by a forklift. There were also many staff members who were counting the liquor. The headline was named “The Demise of a Super Warehouse.”

One warehouse, millions of dollars’ worth of wine was just fucking destroyed like that. His heart was bleeding!

And this was just one warehouse!

He turned his head to look at another wrinkled newspaper on the ground, full of footprints. On it, a municipal councilman raised his hand to stop the reporter’s camera and quickly left. It could be seen that he was a little embarrassed now.

The headline of this report was “…Councilman Refuses to Admit Connection with the Holy Bell Party.”

They were not just connected. There were also transactions, and many other things.

On a half-dragged newspaper on the desk, a socialite claimed that the Holy Bell Party was a disgrace to Likalai State.

But the person who said this had forgotten that he had also attended a special party held by Joshua!

These sons of bitches!

They ate his, drank his, took his, and now that something had happened, it was all useless.

Joshua stumbled and fell onto the sofa, his hands supporting his head. His whole person seemed very lost, very confused.

Where was the road ahead? He seemed to be unable to see it clearly anymore.

Not long after, a knock came from outside the door. “Saint, they have arrived.”

“They” referred to the high-level cadres in the gang. They knew too much, so Joshua had had them all withdrawn.

Instead of gambling that these people had not yet been discovered, had not been betrayed, it was better to first stabilize the situation.

He said, “I see,” and then stood up, supporting himself with his legs. He did not go out immediately. He needed to adjust his state.

After about seven or eight minutes, he opened the door and quickly went out. His whole person looked no different from usual, and perhaps the aura he gave off felt even stronger!

He came to the high-backed chair that represented supreme power, turned to face the people below the steps, placed his hands on the armrests, and slowly sat down.

The small chapel immediately became quiet. The people greeted him, and he returned the greeting one by one.

His gaze constantly swept over these people, paying attention to some of them. He even had a little distrust of these people now!

Who the hell knows if any of them have already been bought?

He had never thought that one day, he and his Holy Bell Party would be in such a difficult situation.

The small chapel had been quiet all along, because no one had spoken first.

This gradually solidifying atmosphere lasted for about two or three minutes before Joshua raised his hand and patted the armrest. “Some of you also think that we will lose in this matter.”

“But I will prove that it is just a small bump in our process of growing stronger, like a stone that can block us from moving forward.”

“What we need to do is just to smash it and then throw it away!”

These words, it is unknown how many people believed them. Anyway, he himself did not believe them. Even if this crisis was passed, the power of the Holy Bell Party would find it very difficult to return to what it was before.

In the past, they could use some things to please these landlord classes in the north.

The towns outside the city scope were mostly formed around the surrounding economic construction. For example, some small towns would appear near some of the more distant factories.

A large number of workers lived in them, and perhaps some of their families. Then some people appeared to provide supporting life services for these residents. In the end, it evolved from a residential area to a small town.

Here, all the towns basically served the agriculture and animal husbandry industry. It was either that they had their own fields, pastures, or that they played the role of farmers or cowboys, working for other agricultural and pastoral farms.

So if you could handle the farmers, you could basically make these people turn a blind eye.

They could do it, and Joshua even knew that some people knew what they were doing, but those people didn’t care much.

He could do worse things, provided they weren’t exposed.

Because those who could tolerate it were only a minority. More conservatives could not tolerate the things they did.

If it weren’t for the suddenness of this change, and someone had really been discovered, they also had countermeasures.

But what was bad was that it had broken out too quickly and too violently. By the time he knew, several high-level cadres had already been arrested, and two of the warehouses had also been taken down, and a large number of gang members had been arrested.

Things had developed too quickly, so quickly that before he had reacted, the situation had already collapsed beyond control!

In addition, with the abandonment of those socialites, he once again tasted the taste that his father had once experienced.

Loneliness, pain, hatred, disgust, cold!

They had done it too quickly, without even considering, they had made a decision.

This also made him realize again that no matter how well he was doing now, in the past, he could not change the fact that he was at the very bottom of society!

As long as he was at the bottom, he had nothing that could make others have any scruples when making similar decisions.

“We are facing the most terrible crisis since the founding of the Holy Bell Party, bar none.”

“Just like Judgment Day!”

He slowly opened his mouth. As soon as he opened his mouth, it was an allusion from the Bible. The cadres, members of the Holy Bell Party in the small chapel, also quieted down.

Joshua still had a high status in their minds. He had always played the role of being omnipotent, so they were somewhat blindly believing in him.

Those who had already started to think, in fact, had not come. They were already looking for a way out for themselves.

He changed his sitting posture. Seeing that everyone’s attention was focused on him, he continued, “Destruction is accompanied by new life.”

“This is a catastrophe, but at the same time, for us, it is also an opportunity, a new life.”

“If we can get through this catastrophe, we will welcome a new evolution. We will become stronger, more indestructible, we can defeat everything!”

He looked at these people and spat out a name, “Lance White!”

Now, there were almost no gang members in Likalai State who did not know this name. A “genius young gangster” who had instantly lit up the entire Likalai State, and even the entire Federation, had appeared out of nowhere.

Distance could no longer stop people from knowing him!

Only Lance had this ability to do this, and only Lance had such a great hatred for him.

In fact, he himself had also inquired. The person who had presided over this operation was the newly appointed executive committee member of the State Prohibition Committee, Dale.

Dale was Lance’s man. He knew this.

To ask if Joshua had a little regret now, then he definitely regretted it.

Originally, he had thought that he and Lance were on the same level, both were gangs, both were seeking a better development.

But who would have thought that Lance had already taken more than one step ahead?

If he had known that Lance’s power was so great, he would definitely not have assisted Charles to fight against Lance.

Let alone a market of 200 million, he would not even touch a market of 500 million.

Lance was his ideal form.

While he was still playing the games of the very bottom of society, Lance had already begun to use the high-level power of this society to deal with him.

This was also him, Bandy, and many who longed to be whitewashed and go higher, what they longed for, their ultimate goal!

Many of them took this as their Federation dream, and would fantasize that one day they would be wearing a suit and having a cordial conversation with the big shots on those grand occasions.

It was just that these people, or the dead ghosts, had not thought that the Federation dream was really, as the federal government had said, a day when it could be realized.

Someone in the small chapel stood up. “I’ll go and kill Lance.”

Joshua looked at the person who had stood up, looked at him for a full ten seconds, and then nodded. “You alone will definitely not be enough. This person, Lance, is very cautious. Take some more people with you.”

“If you can kill Lance, I guarantee that the seat closest to my right hand will be yours.”

The person who had stood up had a flushed face and bent down. “Please wait for my good news!”

Then a dozen more people stood up, left the small chapel with him, and they, with a determination to win, were going to pull Lance down!

The people outside might not know, but in fact, Joshua was more or less a capable person!

Joshua, by pretending to be a god and a ghost and using religion combined with a gang to quickly grow strong, he had to find a way to “enslave” these people.

Religion ran through the entirety of the Holy Bell Party. These people were not just gang members. A portion of them were also quite superstitious.

So superstitious that Joshua claimed that the seats on his left and right represented a chance to go to heaven. As long as someone could sit in the twelve seats on his left and right, then in the future, these twelve people would go to heaven with him to enjoy happiness and peace!

Some did not believe, some were skeptical, but there were also some who really believed!

Those who did not believe were eventually marginalized and then slowly disappeared.

Those who were skeptical, in the firm belief of others, gradually and unknowingly also believed.

In the end, those who remained were all those who believed in his set of rhetoric.

Seeing that the self-recommended person had left with his men, Joshua gradually calmed down. “We need more countermeasures. We can’t just pin our hopes on Lance not caring about his own life…”

“At the same time, we also have to be prepared. Lance has used so many connections to deal with us. It’s definitely not just to ruin our reputation.”

Although they were already very stinky, being a little more stinky actually made no difference.

He paused for a moment and then said, “He wants to eliminate us!”

“We have to be prepared to fight back. If he really dares to come, then in front of the Lord, kill him!”

After arranging some of the tasks that he himself did not know if they would be effective, he returned to his own room, and then took out a phone book, found a number on it, and dialed it.

The call was quickly answered. This was the person with the highest status that he could currently reach.

A state senator.

He just stated his name. The other party didn’t even notify the “master” to ask if he wanted to take the call, and just hung up the phone.

Before hanging up, he even warned him not to call this number again, at least not for a short period of time!

The originally somewhat calmed emotions had once again stirred up some waves.

He walked back and forth a few steps and dialed a number he didn’t really want to dial…

(End of a Chapter)