A man among dragons, building a mysterious ancient church.

Chapter 264 Visiting Letters and Reports
In an old-fashioned apartment in Tokyo, Makoto Aso glanced at the time, put down his exercise book, and took out a potion he had prepared from a drawer beside him: "Grandma."

Grandma Aso, hearing her granddaughter's call, came over in high spirits.

Strangely enough, no one knows where her granddaughter found the health-preserving prescription, but after drinking this medicine regularly, Grandma Aso felt much healthier.

Before, I felt unwell all over and became increasingly disabled. After drinking the medicine, I felt comfortable all over and my whole body felt much better.

Grandma Aso skillfully took the medicine and drank it all in one gulp. Holding the empty bottle, she prepared to wash it later: "Shin, are you going to work again?"

"Hmm." Asou Makoto never told her grandmother what she was doing. She couldn't very well say, "Your granddaughter used to lead people to raid the Demon Clan at night, could she?"

That would worry Grandma, and it's not good for her health.

"You've suffered so much." Grandma Aso sighed silently, gently stroking Aso Makoto's head, just like when he was a child: "You had to take the college entrance exam, work part-time, and get medicine for me. How could you manage all that?"

"It's alright, Grandma." Aso Makoto became much more confident, letting his grandmother stroke his black hair, raising his eyebrows and smiling lightly: "You can tell from my complexion that I'm fine."

With so much time having passed, Aso Makoto had long since digested the Sequence 6 potion professor.

The ritual for advancing to Sequence 5 is also very simple. It only requires gathering enough metals, gems, and the blood of extraordinary beings to represent different lunar states during a full moon.

For Makoto Aso, who has the support of the Sumitomo Foundation and occasionally leads teams to rob the Oni Gang, these materials are easy to obtain.

He was promoted to Crimson Scholar of Sequence 5 very smoothly.

Possessing terrifying speed, unimaginable regenerative abilities, enhanced dark magic, improved potion effects, and mastery of lunar magic.

It can even summon or hide the full moon within a certain range, and appear by using moonlight. The higher the level, the better the complexion will be.

Even though she's already so accomplished, and is the Archbishop of the Tokyo Diocese of the old Japanese Catholic Church, she still reads every day, hoping to realize her long-held dream of attending university.

In fact, Makoto Aso's longing for university had diminished considerably. The reason she continued to study and do exercises was not only because of her dream, but also because it was a promise she made to Xu Jun.

Xu Lie had made a promise to Asou Makoto that if she joined the church, he would give her the money and opportunity to realize her dreams and go to university.

Now everything is just as Xu Jun said, and even beyond that. Aso Makoto, if she wanted to, could attend any university, let alone any other university. No university could possibly refuse her.

However, Aso really didn't want to use his power to go to university, nor did he want to donate money to attend university; he just wanted to get in on his own merit.

Only in this way could she feel that she would not owe Xu Lie anything.

With her current thinking speed and brainpower, getting into Tokyo University will be no problem at all.

Grandma Aso couldn't refute it. Strangely enough, her granddaughter, who had been malnourished, had recently become more and more beautiful, growing more and more charming and lovely: "She's probably an eighteen-year-old demon girl, with a flower blooming from the tea bushes."

This is a Japanese proverb that means a female ghost becomes charming at eighteen, and even a freshly brewed coarse tea can smell fragrant, similar to the Chinese saying "a girl changes drastically at eighteen."

Grandma Aso couldn't very well lie and say that Aso looked really unwell: "Then be careful when you go out."

The older generation knows very well that for a girl to be too beautiful is sometimes not a good thing, especially for families like theirs.

Little did they know, this was completely unnecessary worry. The person who should be wary was someone else, not Aso Makoto.

"Okay, I'll be back soon, Grandma. If you're hungry, there's fruit in the fridge that my workplace sent me." Asou Makoto said goodbye one last time, then changed her shoes and went out.

She didn't lie to her grandmother; the fruit really was a gift. The Sumitomo Foundation provides supplies to the former church members every day, fearing they might go hungry. Aso Makoto simply brought it home.

As soon as he stepped outside, a luxury Honda was waiting outside the apartment building. A professional driver in a suit and sunglasses ran up to open the door for Aso Makoto.

"Bishop Aso, please get in the car."

"Thank you, Mr. Tateo. Let's go to the temple." Aso Makoto said several times that there was no need to be so polite, but the driver, Tateo, insisted. Unable to persuade him otherwise, Aso Makoto simply let him be.

"Hi!" Liwei cherished this easy job. He only needed to make two trips a day to earn a generous salary. He didn't want to give up this kind of job with little work and high pay.

The car started slowly, quickly merged into the traffic without any noticeable hesitation, and headed towards the former Hie Shrine, which is now the old temple.

The original Hie Shrine was a popular and bustling place of worship, but ultimately, its financial backing couldn't compete with the Sumitomo Group. After much persuasion, it was sold to the Sumitomo Group and quickly transformed into the former Grand Temple of the Japanese Catholic Church. Aso Makoto and his associates were finally able to move out of the Sumitomo Building and officially take up residence at the former Grand Temple, which became the headquarters of the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Diocese.

The old temple was built on the site of the former Hie Shrine. The Japanese-style buildings were demolished and replaced with a bronze shrine-style building, which looks magnificent.

Many changes have also been made to the exterior, removing a series of traditional Japanese shrine items, such as torii gates and purification basins, and turning the area into a large plaza.

They even set up several locations to attract followers, giving away eggs or other things every day in order to recruit believers.

Given the old church's practice of offering a chance to see the phantom of God through prayer, residents who came to pray a few times were likely to become devout believers.

This conversion rate is the envy of other shrines in Tokyo, such as Senso-ji Temple and Meiji Shrine, but they are powerless against the old Japanese religion.

They have powerful financial backers; even if the religious community were to unite, they might not be able to defeat them.

Since underhanded tactics are out of the question, the only option is direct competition. So, Senso-ji Temple and Meiji Shrine started their own events. You old sects give away eggs? Fine, we'll give them away too.

In addition, they'll give sermons by eminent monks and bestow blessings from priests—they'll do it all.

Unfortunately, the results were mediocre. It's not that they were useless, but rather that a lot of money was spent and only a small number of believers were gained, not even a fraction of what the old church had.

In an attempt to uncover the rival's business secrets, a group of young people were sent to temples and shrines to learn from their secrets. However, the young people's mission led to a major problem.

Upon returning, he insisted on promoting the ancient gods with unparalleled piety, even claiming that the old church had no secrets and that the gods they believed in truly existed. As a result, he caused depression at Senso-ji Temple and Meiji Shrine.

Unable to compete head-on, unable to resort to underhanded tactics, and now even the heir has changed his faith—what's the point of fighting? Let's get started!
Tragically, despite all the commotion at Senso-ji Temple and Meiji Shrine, Aso Makoto, the bishop, was completely unaware of it.

They were all dealt with by the members of the old church under Aso Makoto.

Arriving at the old temple, Makoto Aso felt a mix of emotions. When she first saw the bronze temple, she was particularly happy, feeling as if she had returned to the gray mist.

But after looking at it for a long time, all that remains is a calm attitude. Only when I enter the temple and see the wrong pattern hanging high above will the corners of my mouth slightly turn up.

It exudes a small joy.

Today is not a holiday, and most people are at work or school at this time. Inside the temple, there are only a dozen or so retired elderly believers praying, hoping to see the phantom of the gods and receive divine blessings.

Taro Inuyama, who was one of the first to join the Tokyo Diocese, served as the head priest here. Upon seeing Makoto Aso arrive, he hurriedly greeted him, saying, "Bishop Aso, it's almost time for your visit to the Herikiya family."

Not long ago, the old temple received an unusually formal invitation from the Snake Clan, and the visit was scheduled for half an hour later.

Aso nodded slightly: "Just treat them well according to the standards I mentioned before. I will discuss the important matters with the head of the Snake Clan."

“But…” Taro Inuyama recalled the anonymous whistleblower letter he had received a couple of days ago and couldn’t help but feel worried: “But what about Bishop Aso, that whistleblower letter?”

Two days ago, the old temple received a mysterious tip-off letter.

Its contents are quite complex. It details that the volunteers working at the old temple, the staff who give out eggs for free, the drivers, and the 'devout' believers who come to pray every day are all actually ninjas from the Hundred Schools of Snake-Headed Eight.

These ninjas were all ordered by the Snake-Headed Eight Family to deliberately infiltrate the Old Church and steal information.

The whistleblower letter was incredibly detailed, listing the ninjas' aliases, real names, and even their specific incantations; all that was missing was a photo of them.

Taro Inuyama came from the Hebi-Hachi family, later joined the Oni Clan, and finally transferred to the Old Days Church. He didn't have a good impression of his original family.

Upon seeing the whistleblower letter, I wanted to take down these ninjas to prevent them from colluding with the Snake Clan and launching a surprise attack during their formal visit, thus creating an inside-outside attack.

However, he was stopped by Aso Makoto. Seeing that Inuyama Taro was still worried about the letter of denunciation, Aso Makoto explained again: "The only ones who can expose the Hebi-Hachi family are the Hebi-Hachi family's enemies."

"The only group in Japan that opposes the Hebi-Hachi family is the Oni Clan, so this letter of denunciation is most likely from an Oni Clan spy infiltrating the upper echelons of the Hebi-Hachi family."

"Their purpose is nothing more than to sow discord and cause conflict between our Old Days Cult and the Snake Clan. If we really become enemies and start a conflict by arresting people, we will fall into the trap of the Fierce Ghost Clan."

"We'll discuss the specifics of how to proceed in detail once the heads of the Snake Clan arrive."

　Thank you to sky, 20230226328_AC, Yinxinghui, Dongwanggong, Yangchenglong, 20230610444610, CHT_Rui, Youlingxihe, Wobenfanren_Ca, Dameng1chang, 2024070799_Ad, Fengqiaoxueyinge, Zhenxia, ​​Chengge_cA, and 20240616214459362 for your votes! OvO
　　
　
(End of this chapter)