Blackrock Stronghold.
Beneath the towering steam-powered city walls, the city gates—never before so congested—were now on the verge of bursting.
The crowd surged like a sea, their voices thundering to the heavens.
"Make way! We've come to join City Lord Punk and fight in the Anti-Scam War!"
"We're here to resist that unscrupulous merchant god, the 'Mother of Rebirth'!"
"That damned vixen Sally! She tricked me into trading my family heirloom for catnip! If I don't get revenge for this, I swear I'll stop being a cat!"
Atop the city walls, City Lord Punk and his sister, Lilina, gazed down at the seemingly endless line of "apostates."
They exchanged glances, their expressions so strained and colorful they looked like a dye workshop had exploded.
The fanatical emptiness of cultists was gone from their eyes, replaced by a fiery mix of anger, humiliation, and a thirst for revenge—the aftermath of being scammed.
Everyone passionately recounted their stories, tearfully describing how some traveling merchant had swindled them out of their fortunes and emotions with absurd excuses and so-called "sacred relics."
The variety of merchant races was so vast it could fill a World Encyclopedia of Scammers on the spot.
And the so-called "sacred relics"—ranging from high-purity catnip and secondhand, spiked teething sticks to hallucinogenic mushroom-infused chili water—were so numerous they could stock an entire "Museum of Scam Paraphernalia."
Amidst everyone's tearful accusations, one name was repeatedly mentioned, shining like a beacon in the dark night.
Lin Qingyue.
"Brother," Lilina said, pressing a hand to her forehead, her delicate face a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
"Since when did our recruitment posters have such precise lead-generation capabilities?"
City Lord Punk's mouth twitched.
His face, already darkened by the sting of being scammed, now completely lost its composure.
"Lead generation? This is way beyond lead generation! This is the enemy's reserve forces, complete with their organizational structure, being airdropped right to us!"
"Even if I tied all the city's best recruitment officers together, their combined efforts wouldn't match Lin Qingyue's alone!"
Before he could finish, a guard scrambled up the city wall, his voice cracking with excitement.
"Lord City Lord! Her Highness the Saintess! The registration office is overwhelmed! In just one day, the number of people demanding to enlist has already surpassed three times the size of Blackrock Stronghold's standing army!"
"And... and they all claim to be recruits developed by that hero, Lin Qingyue, and are vehemently demanding the formation of 'Lin Qingyue's Anti-Fraud Assault Team' to fight for her!"
Before he could finish, another scout rushed up, his face ashen as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Latest military intelligence! The main force sent by the Mother of Rebirth to attack the city, originally scheduled to arrive in three days, has barely covered half the distance after nearly three days!"
"Why?!" Punk's spirits lifted, and he took a step forward.
The scout swallowed hard and said in a near-trance-like tone, "Because... the road is packed with 'repentant' believers, just like the ones at our city gates."
"They've completely blocked the road, clinging to the legs of the vanguard soldiers and weeping. The scene is... very intimate."
"Intimate?" Lilina raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, very intimate."
The scout's face twisted in agony, as if enduring immense psychological trauma.
"A soldier from the Werewolf Vanguard is being held by his second uncle, who's wailing about how the family's heirloom hunting axe, passed down for three generations, was scammed for a secondhand, doctored teething stick."
"A Snake-man Scout is being hugged around the waist by his cousin's aunt, who's furiously denouncing the 'God-Blood Potion' she bought for a fortune, which turned out to be just chili water mixed with hallucinogenic mushrooms."
"Their regular army may have unwavering faith, but they can't bring themselves to attack their own aunts and uncles, who are sobbing and snotting all over them, can they?"
"Right now, the enemy's vanguard commander is surrounded by a crowd of fellow villagers, forced to listen to a town hall meeting about 'investment projects gone bust'... Traffic is completely paralyzed."
Punk and Lilina exchanged a glance, seeing utter shock and absurdity in each other's eyes.
They had expected Lin Qingyue's Squad to cause trouble for the enemy.
But they never dreamed the trouble would take this form.
How many days had it been?
What kind of wildly successful "Bankruptcy Liquidation and Re-employment Job Fair" had they held in the heart of enemy territory?
"Miss Lin Qingyue... what kind of being is she?" Lilina murmured to herself.
For the first time, she felt her return on investment had far exceeded the limits of her imagination.
This efficiency, turning the enemy's main force into a morning rush-hour traffic jam, was something even the God of Contracts would probably have to offer a cigarette and humbly ask for advice on.
"I don't know." Punk shook his head, then his eyes blazed with a terrifying light. "But this is good! Incredibly good!"
He waved his hand, his voice booming like a great bell.
"Relay my orders! Expand the barracks immediately! Accept all defecting soldiers who pass screening!"
"If we're short on weapons and equipment, have the forges work through the night!"
"Our enemies will soon no longer be those brainwashed cannon fodder!"
"This fresh force, burning with the flames of vengeance, has arrived at the perfect time!"
-
Meanwhile.
In the deep void, a certain Great Will forged from chaotic desires was receiving a "Faith Data Stream" that enraged even His divine essence.
Within Winred, the City of Corruption, inside the temple built of flesh and desire.
Upon the throne, the Mother of Rebirth's perfect avatar emanated an extremely unstable, frenzied aura.
Her form flickered violently, the image tearing like a poor-quality projection with a bad signal.
"Useless! All of you are useless!"
A terrifying storm of divine will raged through the temple, instantly grinding several Archmage believers who had come to report into gibberish-like meat paste.
And far away, in the void where Her true body resided, the Mother of Rebirth's sensations were even more visceral.
On Her vast, nebula-like Divine Body, the two hideous wounds left by the forces of Order and Expansion had not healed. Instead, due to the mass desertion of Her believers, Her Divine Power had weakened.
The wounds actually showed signs of collapsing and widening.
"A few insects! In just two days! They've caused me to lose over ten percent of my believers!"
"My power is draining... My wounds are worsening..."
"The regular army I sent out was actually blocked by a group of traitors?!"
Faith was Her sustenance, the source of Her power.
Now, this massive "granary" was being frantically emptied by a few thieves; even the grain convoys were intercepted midway and turned into the enemy's assets!
This kind of attack, striking at the very foundation, enraged and humiliated Her even more than being hit head-on by that damned train.
She could clearly feel the mortals' auras spreading like an unstoppable supervirus throughout Her domain.
They were "converting" Her devout believers, one by one, into irreconcilable enemies.
This could not continue!
If they kept this up, She would likely become the first joke in history to fall from divinity due to "malnutrition"!
The enraged will finally coalesced into a cold, decisive command, transmitted through the avatar in the temple.
"Relay My divine decree."
"Awaken the 'Mechanical Ascension Legion'."
The icy divine will pierced through the temple, echoing deep beneath Winred in a massive alchemy factory.
There, not a single living creature stirred.
Only rows upon rows of uniform Steam Magitech Mecha, reeking of metal and machine oil.
These mecha's designs were a bizarre fusion of flesh and punk aesthetics: cold steel skeletons entwined with writhing blood vessels and nerve bundles, emitting an ominous, faint glow.
Their cockpits contained no pilots.
Only individual brains, connected by countless tubes and immersed in nutrient fluid, pulsed stubbornly on their own.
This was the Mother of Rebirth's proudest creation, and the trump card She was most reluctant to deploy.
An Alchemical Intelligence legion that had completely abandoned flesh and blood, retaining only fervent faith, having truly achieved "Mechanical Ascension"!
As the divine decree descended...
Within the factory, the eyes of all mecha simultaneously lit up with crimson light.
"Divine decree received."
"Objective: Purify all sources of faith contamination."
"Directive: Initiate 'Extermination Protocol'."
The next moment, the massive alchemy factory's roof burst open with a deafening roar!
Hundreds of Steam Magitech Mecha, spewing thick black smoke and screeching with the grating sound of metal, surged into the sky like a swarm of locusts