Chapter 11: Making the Church of the Water God Great
Furina stared at the dense, tightly packed plans in Neuvillette's notebook and felt her head swell to twice its size. Building a school, hiring teachers, expanding outposts, starting businesses... how much money was this going to burn through?! How many points was this going to burn through?!
Just thinking about it made her wince. But then again—you can't catch a wolf cub without venturing into the den. She stamped her foot and steeled her resolve. Points? She'd spend them and earn them back!
Her mind made up, she ducked back into her room, shut the door, and squared off with the system.
"System! System! I want to exchange for gold soul coins! Start with... a hundred!" Watching a full thousand points drain away in a flash, Furina felt her heart bleeding out. But when the table was suddenly piled high with gleaming gold coins in a satisfying clatter, she decided it wasn't such a bad deal after all.
"Another five hundred silver soul coins!" And there went another fifty points, straight down the drain.
Staring at her remaining balance of six hundred and thirty points, Furina hardened her heart and exchanged fifty more gold soul coins. Now she had a hundred and fifty gold soul coins and five hundred silver soul coins on hand—finally, a bit of real confidence.
But her points were down to five hundred and eighty... She stared glumly at the number, then suddenly a spark lit up in her mind—right! The pills in the shop!
"This Coagulation Powder is the work of Elder Yao himself. Even if it's only a first-grade pill, put it on the Douluo Continent and it'll be a hot commodity." She muttered to herself, her eyes growing brighter by the second. "Healing-type soul masters are so rare, and portable wound medicine you can carry around is even harder to come by..."
Gritting her teeth, she dumped every last point she had into it, exchanging them for nineteen packs of Coagulation Powder. And with that, her points were well and truly zero. Flat broke.
"All or nothing!" Dragging the heavy money pouch and the pills out the door, she hollered toward the courtyard, "Neuvillette! Get over here and lend a hand! The start-up funds have arrived!"
Neuvillette looked at the bulging cloth sack and, for a rare moment, was caught off guard. "These are..."
"Our start-up funds!" Furina lifted her chin smugly. "Is it enough? If not, I'll figure something else out!"
When Neuvillette opened the sack and saw the gold and silver coins glittering inside, along with the exquisitely packaged pills, he fell silent for a long moment. "This is indeed sufficient to launch the plan. However, where exactly did you—"
He privately wondered: had she been hiding private savings all along? He knew this Pope always had some unexpected trick up her sleeve, but this was simply too sudden.
"Trade secret!" Furina cut off his inquiry without missing a beat. "Anyway, it's all legit! Now hurry up and get things moving! Oh, and this Coagulation Powder—it's top-quality stuff. You could sell a single vial for ten gold soul coins and still have people lining up!"
Neuvillette gave the pills a thoughtful look but ultimately asked no further. "Very well. I shall dispatch people to handle it."
With funding secured, Neuvillette pushed the plans forward with swift, decisive efficiency. First came a comprehensive believer registration—everyone had to provide their name, age, address, any special skills, and the nature of their martial soul. Mademoiselle Chevaleyda was in charge of stamping, her claws gripping the seal, though each stamp required a fresh dip in the ink pad, sending her into a flustered scramble.
He also established several simple church rules: no fighting or brawling, mutual assistance was mandatory, and attendance at least once a week for church activities. Violators would be punished with cleaning duties; serious offenders might even have their "holy relic" distribution suspended.
What excited the believers most was the leadership selection. Neuvillette set up a range of positions: queue order supervisors, sanitation inspectors, basic education assistants to teach the children to read, and supply managers to oversee the stockpiles. Every position came with a stipend, and those who performed well would receive priority access to cultivation resources.
"I wanna be a leader!" a little kid shouted, bouncing up and down. "Me too! Me too!"
Watching the lively scene, Furina couldn't suppress a chuckle. Just then, a ding sounded in her head:
[New Mission: Make the Church of the Water God Great]
[Details: Develop the Church of the Water God into a proper, established organization. No more spending all day just handing out cake and offering awakening services.]
[Requirements: Reach 500 believers, establish at least 3 functional departments, achieve stable income.]
[Reward: 5000 points, Growth-type Divine Artifact "Splendor of Still Waters" x1]
Furina's eyes went wide. Five thousand points! And an upgradable divine artifact!
She practically leaped over to Neuvillette. "Neuvillette! We need to speed things up!"
Under Neuvillette's stewardship, the Church of the Water God grew more and more presentable by the day. They rented the vacant house next door and converted it into a classroom and dormitories. A frustrated old scholar of unrecognized talent was hired at two gold soul coins a month to teach the children reading and writing.
Several believers with practical skills were also discovered: an old man who could weave baskets, a middle-aged man skilled in carpentry, and a woman who had once helped out in a restaurant kitchen. Neuvillette provided them with start-up funds and helped them set up small workshops within the church.
The basket-weaver's creations were displayed for sale at the entrance. The carpenter fashioned simple furniture. The woman set up a snack stand. The church took a twenty percent cut of all income; the rest was theirs to keep.
The most popular item, of course, was Furina's "special cakes." In addition to the free standard version, she'd now developed a "deluxe edition"—more generously portioned, with noticeably better effects, selling for five to ten silver soul coins each. It wasn't expensive, but small profits on high volume turned it into a significant revenue stream for the church.
Furina even organized several "cultural performances," setting up a makeshift stage in the courtyard with a few theatrically inclined believers to sing and dance. She personally took the stage for a solo, and though her singing was nothing to write home about, the sheer spectacle never failed to draw a crowd of passersby, earning them a few new believers on the side.
The nineteen packs of Coagulation Powder sold like absolute wildfire on the market. Soul masters and nobles scrambled for them, and the one hundred and ninety vials were cleared out in no time. Even at ten gold soul coins a vial, demand far outstripped supply. They had raked in a veritable fortune.
By the end of a single month, the Church of the Water God had actually achieved profitability! Where once it had relied entirely on Furina exchanging points for money just to stay afloat, now it could finally sustain itself. The congregation had grown to over three hundred members as well.
The seven children who had awakened soul power became the primary targets of focused cultivation. Neuvillette drew up a strict daily schedule for them: academic lessons in the morning, physical training in the afternoon, with rest and meditation breaks in between. Furina occasionally gave them special attention, handing out cakes for an extra energy boost.
"Lady Pope," asked a child called Xiao Lei curiously, "when we reach rank ten, can you really help us get soul rings?"
"Absolutely!" Furina thumped her chest in assurance. "Leave it to me! But you've got to train hard first!"
She thought to herself: Anyway, the shop sells soul rings. They might be a bit pricey, but it's safer than going out to fight and kill. Besides, don't we have those three little guys? They even beat up Dai Huabin—getting a thousand-year soul ring should be doable... right?
That evening, Furina gazed at the Church of the Water God taking shape and felt a warm swell of satisfaction. The courtyard lanterns glowed with soft light. In the classrooms, children trained earnestly. The snack stand wafted fragrant aromas. Several believers were tidying up, sweeping and scrubbing.
Neuvillette approached and handed her a ledger. "This month's income and expenditure report. We have a surplus of three hundred gold soul coins."
Furina took the ledger, pleasantly stunned. "We... we're making money?"
"Yes," Neuvillette replied, a faint trace of a smile in his eyes. "Not a great deal, but it's a fine start."
Looking at the neat, orderly entries in the ledger, Furina felt a sudden surge of pride swell within her. The Church of the Water God might still be small, but it was getting better, bit by bit. And she—Lady Furina herself—was the architect of it all!
"Neuvillette," she said abruptly, "when we've got a bit more to spare, let's fix up this shabby courtyard first. At least replace that creaky old gate."
Neuvillette nodded. "It's already been included in next month's budget."
The two exchanged a smile, then continued planning the future of the church. And that system mission, without her even noticing, was already more than halfway complete. Furina had already begun daydreaming of herself wielding the Splendor of Still Waters, striking the majestic pose of the one true Water God.