Work Prophet
Chapter 263 - 21: Battle of Public Opinion

Chapter 263: Chapter 21: Battle of Public Opinion

Flipping through medieval history, religious wars were ever-present.

The most famous of these were undoubtedly the Crusades, which occurred a total of nine times over nearly two hundred years, resulting in the deaths of millions of people, followed by the Thirty Years’ War that swept through the nations of Europe.

As for the religious wars in the Arab World, they were even more frequent, stretching from the seventh century all the way to modern times.

When the conflicts between different religions, or different sects within the same religion, grew too large to reconcile, one side often sought to completely purify the other physically.

With so many precedents, Li Yu was not unprepared for the war that the Silver Moon Church was about to launch.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been nurturing Miss Rabbit all this time, even persuading her to hold on a bit longer when she hesitated about converting to Sabbath.

Even if it was just nominally staying on the side of the Silver Moon Church, it could buy the Double Rest Sect some precious development time.

However, after slaying the dragon, Li Yu and the Double Rest Sect’s prestige surged once again, and the Silver Moon Church had surely felt the crisis intensifying. This, followed by Ireya’s declaration of conversion to Sabbath, finally determined their resolve to go to war with the Double Rest Sect.

Li Yu was also not planning to let the Lady waver back to buy more time. For one, this would impact the prestige of the Double Rest Sect, and secondly, it wasn’t very useful.

The Silver Moon Church was not foolish; they had long known exactly where Ireya stood, and their ultimate decision to wage war was because the Double Rest Sect was developing too quickly.

Now, going to war was also the best timing for Li Yu and the Double Rest Sect.

The Silver Moon Church had ruled the western territory for many years, but if they had a soft spot, it was that they never had a military force entirely their own.

Of course, this was their own choice, made so as not to threaten the major noble families of the western territory. This decision allowed them to maintain a good relationship with the rulers of this land for thousands of years.

Moreover, the Silver Moon Church always actively recruited talented youths from the major noble families, and as time passed, the ties between them grew increasingly close. The Silver Moon Church could even influence the political and military decisions of these families to a certain extent.

This also gave them the illusion that they, too, controlled thousands of troops.

However, as it turned out, influence was just influence, and it was different from truly having a large army.

For instance, now the Double Rest Sect and the Arias family held the moral high ground. In addition, the two had previously joined forces and had taken down an Evil Dragon, and had also resisted David together with the Lady at Rock Snow City. Most nobles did not want to offend the Arias family and the Double Rest Sect at this time, let alone confront them in battle.

Li Yu deduced that the Silver Moon Church might still have some thugs for dirty work, like the Black Armored Cavalry he had encountered previously, but their numbers would not be too many.

Beyond this, there were likely some small noble families completely controlled by the Silver Moon Church, yet even they wouldn’t have many troops.

In other words, the Silver Moon Church could not directly suppress the Double Rest Sect by mobilizing large armies, but could only rally the power of the civilians, meaning directly inciting their followers.

Therefore, at the beginning of the war, what the two sides really contested over was the battleground of public opinion.

This explains why the Silver Moon Church initially chose to target two monks from the Double Rest Sect, first naturally to establish the impression among the nearby villagers that all the monks from the Double Rest Sect were bad people, and secondly to instill a sense of panic among the other monks.

After all, with two already killed, those remaining would definitely feel apprehensive when going out, and might even avoid preaching out of concern for their safety.

But Li Yu already had corresponding countermeasures in place.

Early the next morning, he returned to Bratis. Once the dizziness had subsided, Li Yu immediately spotted Miss Rabbit sitting across from him.

She was biting her nails, looking somewhat anxious, and as soon as he appeared, the girl sprang from her chair and rushed over to him in a few quick steps. Without a word, she began to feel him all over to ensure that Li Yu was unharmed before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

"It’s good you’re okay. I was really scared when I heard you’d been attacked."

"How are the others?" Li Yu asked.

"Two of the Black Armored Cavalry warriors died, one is disabled, another is severely injured and currently has a high fever and is delirious. The rest have only minor injuries."

Li Yu nodded. The outcome was much better than he had expected. It seemed the new equipment and weapons had worked. He paused and then asked, "Has the severely injured person been medicated?"

"Uh, I had the pharmacist in the territory treat him, but as for the Divine Medicine from the Double Rest Sect, Hera didn’t agree to use it."

"Why?" Li Yu was surprised.

"Because the severely injured person isn’t a member of the Double Rest Sect."

A name flashed through Li Yu’s mind, and he raised an eyebrow, "Anton?"

"Correct."

"When I left, I remember telling Jerry to look after him."

"Jerry is also at Teacup Castle now. He’s very worried about your safety. I told him you’d be back tonight, so he stayed. I’ll have someone call him over so you can ask him directly."

When Tom saw Li Yu, he first rubbed his eyes, then almost tried to touch him as well.

Mainly because he had watched those Black Armored Cavalry charge at Li Yu. Although Li Yu managed to put some distance between himself and his pursuers by using the small stream down the hillside, two legs ultimately couldn’t outrun four.

Furthermore, the sudden withdrawal of the Black Armored Cavalry in the middle of their pursuit, apparently having achieved a great gain, was noteworthy.

Yet now, here was Li Yu, unharmed and standing before him. Coupled with what Li Yu had instructed him just before leaving, it made Tom’s belief system jump a couple of notches.

It took Tom a while to digest the shock Li Yu had brought him. Then he remembered something and hastily handed over a leather bag he was carrying.

Li Yu found his cell phone and several other items inside, all accounted for, and then listened to Tom recount what had happened after he had left.

He then learned that Anton had gone over to the other side by himself.

However, after thinking it over, he said, "Tell Hera to send the anti-inflammatory medicine anyway, no matter what, the person was under my watch."

Tom nodded, and then a look of concern appeared on his face, "The issue with the Black Armored Cavalry has already spread. The Sabbath members are generally very worried; recently, when they go on missions, they can distinctly feel the villagers’ hostility towards them.

"But we don’t have enough manpower to provide protection for every monk, and given the strength the Black Armored Cavalry has shown, we would need at least two teams to match them.

"Hmm, it’s about time I tried a new method of preaching anyway. The previous one was too slow," Li Yu said lightly.