Chapter 1413: Chapter 586: We Are the Orthodox

“Take a look.”

After reading it, Wang Tao directly handed the letter to Zhao Yaru.

“Uh… are we supposed to read this?”

This letter was from the previous leader to the current leader, and Zhao Yaru and the others had just agreed to fully support Wang Tao as their new leader, so strictly speaking, they were not supposed to see this.

“Take a look, you should know this.”

Wang Tao explained.

Since he said so, the others did not hold back and immediately looked at the envelope, curious about what the old leader had left for the new one.

To their shock, everyone was astounded by what they saw, feeling their beliefs crumbling.

“The Bishop wants us to drink poison? To kill us?!”

“The leader stopped us? He didn’t let us drink it!”

“The leader’s wife and child died from drinking the poison…”

“What are we even following now…”

“…”

They were saved by Wang Tao today and witnessed the “Blessings of Dusk”; their devotion to the Dusk Church had turned into fervor.

But now they were told that the Dusk Church they believed in was a cult? And that the revered Bishop was not a good person?

In that moment, everyone’s faith collapsed. They couldn’t accept it, but the handwriting on the letter was indeed that of the leader…

However, having survived the Apocalypse, their mental resilience was stronger than ordinary people. Whether their faith collapsed or not, the letter also mentioned not to trust other members of the Dusk Church!

This tone of the previous leader was clearly meant for the people of Zizhu Base.

But now, there was another member of the Dusk Church among them–Wang Tao!

And Wang Tao had previously asked them if they had ever taken that black potion…

So… should they not trust Wang Tao?

The crowd looked at Wang Tao subconsciously, their expressions a mix of confusion and wariness.

The previous leader wouldn’t harm them; they knew him well, especially since he had hidden the poison and had not let them ingest it. His character was undoubtedly good.

But it seemed Wang Tao had no intentions of harming them either! Not only did Wang Tao help them kill the Giant Zombie, but he also brought them back safely. If Wang Tao wanted to kill them, he would have done so already; why would he wait until now?

But the letter left by the previous leader said not to trust other members of the Dusk Church, and Wang Tao was the one who showed them the letter…

Everyone felt their minds were in chaos, unsure of what to do.

…

After handing the letter to Zhao Yaru, Wang Tao looked at the other two pieces of letter paper.

The letter consisted of three pieces of paper. The first was the previous leader’s instructions, and the second was the recipe for the “Holy Medicine.”

The letter also stated that while the core ingredients of this recipe remained the same, other ingredients could be altered. The Bishop had been researching the formula, and it’s unknown how far he has gotten now. Therefore, the Holy Medicine might vary slightly from place to place.

Wang Tao was naturally interested in this formula; he discovered that the Holy Medicine was made of Mutated Herbs, something Wang Tao had not heard of before, but there were pictures. After pondering the images, Wang Tao realized he had seen these Mutated Herbs before. But because these Mutated Herbs had no name, Wang Tao had treated them as ordinary grass previously and hadn’t paid much attention… Now that it was so cold outside, these Mutated Herbs were probably not to be found…

The formula mentioned that the potion was meant to enhance physical fitness, but it had some side effects, so it was recommended for use by Ordinary Believers. For the more powerful Believers, like Deacons and Masters, such a small increase in physical fitness was not very useful.

As for what the side effects were, the letter didn’t specify, only mentioning that the side effects were minor. For the purpose of increasing survival probabilities in the Apocalypse, such side effects were acceptable.

“Does the Bishop really not know how severe the side effects are? Or is he deliberately deceiving?”

Wang Tao felt it was the latter.

The Bishop had preached in many places, and many people had consumed this potion; he couldn’t possibly be unaware of the side effects!

What puzzled Wang Tao was why the Bishop would do such a thing, as it seemed there was no benefit to him.

If it was said that the Bishop wanted to control other Believers through the potion, that would be more reasonable. But these Believers would die from taking too much of the potion!

What good would their deaths do the Bishop?

Wang Tao couldn’t figure it out, but all he needed to know was that the Bishop was not a good person. If there’s a chance to confront him in the future, he must capture and interrogate him to find out his true intentions.

As for the potion recipe, Wang Tao decided to keep it. He would let Qu Shilin study it and see if they could discover anything.

After storing the recipe away, Wang Tao looked at the last piece of letter paper.

This piece was a hand-drawn simplified map of the city, marked with areas where supplies were likely to be found, where dangers might lurk, which areas were already explored, and which were still uninhabited…

The former leader was a local who had lived in this city for decades and knew it like the back of his hand. His summary was still very valuable. Although it was not very useful to Wang Tao, it would be very useful to Zhao Yaru and the others.