Chapter 48: Among the Flowers

The flowers shone bright under the night sky. Jin Yi gently rested her head on the crystal pillow. A pair of mandarin ducks were nestled close together, with a few plum blossoms scattered around. Luo Yanqiu lay beneath Liu Yu. Though utterly exhausted, she still tried her best to please this young man: “Liu Lang, you truly are the reason for Yanqiu’s demise.”

Her bones felt weak, yet she clung tightly to Liu Yu’s waist, savoring the intimacy after climax, indulging in the lingering scent of sweat, and staying close to this young man.

Liu Yu also held tightly to the delicate and feeble Luo Yanqiu, who was like a melting iceberg. As soon as his fingers gently traced her back, she reacted immediately: “Stop, stop, Liu Lang! I’m about to faint again.”

She was now completely different from that icy-hearted Luo Yanqiu—perhaps that’s just how women can change so much. Which one was the real Luo Yanqiu? The one who always kept others at a distance as the leader of her sect? Or the one who boldly looked at him and brought herself to bed? The one who forced herself on him, examined every inch of his body, and caressed him thoroughly? Or the girl who, though seeing a man’s body for the first time, pretended to be bold?

Was it the one who took advantage of the situation but still looked radiant and beautiful? Or the one who cried out in pain after her maidenhood but insisted on sitting on him and swaying her waist? Perhaps it was the delicate little spirit who allowed him to take control, sometimes begging for mercy, sometimes moaning softly, reaching heights countless times?

All of these were Luo Yanqiu.

She was now my woman.

Holding Luo Yanqiu tightly, Liu Yu once again transformed into a man. He felt his shoulders grow heavier, even feeling guilty toward Jiang Ningxue. “I’m sorry. No man can resist such temptation. Ningxue, I will treat you well.”

Luo Yanqiu’s face turned red as she trembled under Liu Yu’s caresses again. “Good Liu Lang, I really have no strength left. Please spare your little wife…”

She had thought that at twenty, she was still young, while Liu Yu was only fourteen. But the true pleasures of intimacy exceeded her imagination. The exhilarating sensations were beyond what she could have imagined. Her initial determination drained her strength, leaving her at Liu Yu’s mercy.

She never expected the young Liu Yu to possess such skill, strength, and prowess. Even Liu Yu doubted if he had become stronger due to the time travel. But he didn’t want to miss the chance to tease Luo Yanqiu. He placed his finger on her delicate cheek. “Little wife, call me ‘good brother’!”

“Liu Brother!” Luo Yanqiu clung tightly to Liu Yu, wishing to freeze this moment of happiness. “My dearest Liu Brother, Yanqiu is your little wife. From now on, I’ll obey you. I’ll even give birth to children for you.”

“Really, Liu Brother? Good Liu Lang.” Luo Yanqiu continued to beg him. She saw Liu Yu as her husband, not just that boy. “Let’s secretly have a baby.”

Liu Yu smiled happily. “Let’s have a baby openly. In ancient times, the Black Bird gave birth to King Shang; Jiang Yuan became pregnant after seeing the footprints of a giant. In Christianity, the Virgin Mary gave birth as a virgin—these are all miracles. The child born would be a holy son of the faith.”

Luo Yanqiu never expected Liu Yu to be so bold. She said softly, “Yanqiu will do as you say.”
Now that they were a family, Liu Yu became even more intimate without any restraint: “Yanqiu, I’ve written some manuscripts. You can help me establish a new religious doctrine when the time comes.”
Luo Yanqiu was also an exceptionally talented person; knowing Liu Yu must have deep intentions, she replied, “Yanqiu will follow your words.”
After an unforgettable night, when they got up, Liu Yu indulged in her once more, leaving Luo Yanqiu utterly exhausted. It was only after a long time that she got up and found some manuscripts on the table—probably those he had mentioned the previous night. Dressed in the men’s clothes Liu Yu had left behind, she forced herself to get up and carefully examined the manuscripts. After reading just two pages, she was overjoyed, realizing that her efforts would surely yield great rewards. “Xiaoyu Lang, Yanqiu will truly follow you from now on.”
This was not surprising, as Liu Yu had put a great deal of thought into writing these manuscripts.
He had a thorough understanding of Vietnam’s religious history and could naturally write insightful works.
In the future, Catholicism in Vietnam remained the dominant religion with the support of French colonizers. Even after the end of the colonial era and the establishment of separate states in the North and South, hundreds of thousands of northern Catholics migrated to the South, controlling the South Vietnamese government for a long time. Ngô Đình Diệm was a typical example of a South Vietnamese Catholic president who regarded Catholic interests as supreme. As a result, there were constant incidents of monks setting themselves on fire in protest during his reign. Even decades after the end of the Vietnam War, despite repeated setbacks, Catholicism remained the leading religion in Vietnam.
In historical Vietnam, in response to the spread of Catholicism, two new religions emerged spontaneously in the 20th century: Hoa Hao and Caodaism. Strictly speaking, these two sects were forms of heterodox Buddhism, influenced by Buddhism and quite powerful. Before the end of the Vietnam War, they even controlled their own regimes, especially Caodaism, which had a significant influence.
Caodaism was founded in 1926 by two minor colonial civil servants. Its teachings were simple and easy to spread, and it worshipped many deities, such as Laozi, Christ, Guan Yu, and even Sun Yat-sen. After its establishment, the sect became extremely popular, with millions of followers. Liu Yu drew many useful teachings and organizational structures from it. For Luo Yanqiu, it was like a religious sect proposing the idea of Laozi converting the barbarians, thus establishing a solid theoretical foundation.
But something even more terrifying existed. Liu Yu knew that in the 1990s, a heretical cult called “The Lightning from the East” had emerged in the country, causing great harm. In some areas, the government’s crackdown on it was even more severe than that on certain other cult leaders.
This cult was a Christian heresy that believed in the rebirth of a female Christ in the East. It was skilled at brainwashing and spread its teachings like locusts, leaving nothing untouched. Even other underground cults were terrified of it. Its key advantage lay in its advanced missionary tactics—“sheep stealing.”
While Christianity referred to its followers as lambs, The Lightning from the East did not focus on building its own churches. Instead, it relied on taking over existing congregations by any means necessary. It often infiltrated other churches to carry out covert operations, using seduction to lure away clergy who led large groups of followers, thereby destroying entire organizations completely.

A certain cult, claiming to have millions of followers and ranking among the top underground sects in the country, was completely taken over by Dongfang Shining Lightning, which kidnapped dozens of its leaders under the pretext of “study.” Although they were forced to release them under pressure later, the high-ranking members had already been brainwashed by Dongfang Shining Lightning, resulting in the entire cult collapsing within a year—its organization and grassroots members all vanished, leaving no trace.

To resist this kind of coercion, even a major conflict between cults emerged within the country, leaving dozens of people dead. Yet this heretical cult, Dongfang Shining Lightning, has now spread beyond China to the whole world.

What Liu Yu is teaching Luo Yanqiu now is a complete strategy for coercion. Taking advantage of the weakened prestige of Catholicism in Shanxi, they aim to completely destroy its organization and grassroots, brainwashing its followers and clergy once again to turn them into pawns they can control.

Luo Yanqiu grew more and more delighted as she read. Under the new doctrines of the Flower Sect, Christ and God were nothing but minor deities of the fourth rank. She finally understood what Liu Yu meant earlier—her being childless was considered a miracle. The doctrines were not eternal; the rise and fall of the sect depended entirely on Liu Yu’s word.

This young man of hers was definitely someone who could soar to great heights. She had thought that keeping the doctrines up to date was already a very insightful approach, but after reading this document, she realized how shallow that was.

As the document stated, whether a sect was righteous or not could only be judged by force. A thousand followers meant it was a fringe sect; ten thousand meant it was on the wrong path; a hundred thousand meant it was a cult; a million meant it was the Harmony Sect; ten million meant it was the Soka Gakkai; a hundred million meant it was the Lutheran Church; a billion meant it was Islam; and two billion meant it was Western civilization—Christianity.

She remembered Liu Yu’s words at the beginning of the document: “For the kingdom, power, and glory belong all to Me.”

……

Red River Outpost.

The captured Yellow Flag Army soldiers were still dealing with their comrades’ corpses. They simply could not believe such a fact. With only eight hundred men, they had attacked a small outpost and suffered a crushing defeat. Even more humiliating was that the enemy lost only two men and injured eleven.

Their weapons might have been weaker, but weren’t they all seasoned warriors? Could it be that the Black Flag Army was too strong?

Recalling the scene of countless deaths under a hail of bullets, they couldn’t shake off this nightmare. Beneath their feet lay piles of corpses—brothers who had eaten and drunk together just a few days ago, now separated from the living forever. Yet now, they didn’t even dare think of revenge. They could only admit that the Black Flag Army was far too powerful.

“Are there really only thirty-seven of them?”

Shen Sheng still couldn’t believe it. “Are there really only thirty-seven of them?”

As an experienced soldier of the Flower Flag Army, he knew well that the number of defenders was always exaggerated, never understated. He risked the stench to find a Yellow Flag Army soldier and asked, “Brother, how many did you send this time? Really eight hundred?”

The claimed three thousand soldiers of the Xiliu Camp must have been greatly inflated. Even these eight hundred, he doubted. To his surprise, the other soldier burst into tears: “Pity us, eight hundred brothers! Most of us died in just one battle.”

Shen Sheng felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him. Even without eight hundred men, the scene before him—filled with corpses and blood—was something he had seen with his own eyes. Everything within his sight was red; corpses piled up like mountains. The Yellow Flag Army had lost hundreds of men this time, and there were already over a hundred captives tasked with burying them. It was terrifying.

He slapped his thigh in frustration. It was a stroke of luck that such a force was cooperating with the Tiandihui. How could he have been so indecisive and turned them away? Last time, it was Cai Yunan who came to seek cooperation from him on behalf of the Xiliu Camp. He had blamed himself for being hesitant and insisted on waiting three months to see the results of the Xiliu Camp’s training. Three months passed, and it happened to be Chinese New Year. He still hadn’t made up his mind and only wrote a letter to Cai Yunan. But this time, after hearing that the Xiliu Camp had defeated the Yellow Flag Army, he finally realized the severity of the situation.

Thirty-seven Black Flag Army soldiers had stopped the attack of eight hundred Yellow Flag Army soldiers at the Red River outpost, while over a hundred Black Flag Army soldiers had defeated Li Yangcai’s entire battalion of infantry. As an experienced soldier, he knew what this meant. Both the Yellow Flag Army and Li Yangcai’s forces were among the best in Tonkin, yet they were easily defeated by the Xiliu Camp. It was even said that Catholics had cooperated this time, but Liu Yu set fire, scaring the foreign missionaries into fleeing to Hanoi. The combat strength of the Xiliu Camp was likely the best in Tonkin. Even if the French forces in Hanoi and Haiphong fought against them, it would be hard to determine a winner. It was necessary to bring in fresh troops from Cochinchina.

The more he thought about it, the more regretful he became. “Gathering the strength of the whole country only to make such a huge mistake!” He had let such a great opportunity slip away. Providing help in times of need was completely different from adding extra glory. But thinking about the Tiandihui’s strength in Tonkin, he felt slightly relieved. After all, the Tiandihui had thousands of members, and no other sect or gang in Tonkin had such strength. “Right, I still need to go through Cai Yunan.” Cai Yunan was the leader of the Tiandihui in Haiyang, so there was a natural bond between them. Last time, when he begged him to cooperate with the Xiliu Camp, he had left a door open.

With this in mind, he rushed to the Xiliu Camp’s main camp with a few subordinates. The camp was still under strict surveillance, but not a single Vietnamese soldier was in sight. After asking around, he learned that even the Vietnamese army had suffered losses. What surprised him even more was that this time, the governor of Shanxi had conceded. Although it was the Xiliu Camp that had fired first in a rude manner, the governor of Shanxi personally came to the camp to apologize, disregarding all sense of dignity.

Wrong! Wrong! This young Liu Yu was truly extraordinary. The camp was heavily guarded, but thanks to his resourcefulness and his claim of coming to see Cai Yunan, he was allowed in. As he walked along, he grew more and more regretful. “What a pity! What a pity!” It was only now that he realized the Xiliu Camp used Western-style tactics—everything from sentry duty to marching was done in the true Western manner. They even had foreign advisors, along with breech-loading firearms. Such a powerful force, and he had failed to see it.

But then he thought of the prospects of cooperating with Xiliu Camp. He had considerable strength in this area. According to Cai Yunnan, their commanders highly valued the strength of the Tiandihui and wanted to rely on it as a bulwark, having not yet sought partnerships with other organizations. Once these two powerful forces joined forces, the Tiandihui would surely thrive. So were we still the first? Shen Sheng could only be grateful for this in his heart, but the next moment he became nervous again when he saw several familiar figures. “The Hongjiang Gang? They’re only about a hundred strong. How dare these opium dealers come to compete with us Tiandihui for resources?” he said indignantly. “With Xiliu Camp being such a strong force, only our Tiandihui in Beiqi is qualified to cooperate with them.” He didn’t know that someone else had already taken the lead, and the situation had already become inevitable. All he could think of was: “I need to see Cai Yunnan first. With him involved, half the job is done.” He eagerly asked a soldier by the road, “Brother, may I ask? Where is Captain Cai Yunnan? I’m looking for him.” The soldier glanced at him and replied, “Captain Cai is seriously injured and doesn’t receive visitors while recovering.” Shen Sheng’s smiling face froze. “Set a fire, sleep for a while, and when you wake up, there’s a pile of visiting cards—every kind of scoundrel shows up now.” Liu Yu carelessly threw a stack of visiting cards onto the table. This was beyond Luo Yanqiu’s imagination. She carefully flipped through one card: “From the Red River Gang?” “All of them. In this world, killing and arson earn you wealth. I’ve done a few bad deeds, and these people from all walks of life are immediately terrified.” He wasn’t enthusiastic about it: “There are those from the Tiandihui’s leadership, those who come to confess their faults, those who want to form alliances, and those who send their disciples’ cards… Sigh…” He spoke helplessly, but Luo Yanqiu wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed him, and said little: “What do you want me to do for you?” She knew very well that no matter what, her status as number one could never be erased—even Liu Yu’s virginity had been taken by her. What followed was her helping Liu Yu manage things well. As long as Xiliu Camp remained strong, the Huajian Sect would surely flourish: “You still haven’t finished writing the sect’s doctrines. That’s terrible. It’s been months since they were sent, and you still haven’t finished.” The doctrines weren’t fully perfected yet, but Liu Yu laughed: “What nonsense about sacred doctrines? It’s just whatever the two of us want to write. You write it, and I’ll just check it over.” “But it’s not enough. You need to send some people to help me!” Luo Yanqiu whispered in Liu Yu’s ear, “I can’t handle it alone.” Instead of having Xiliu Camp on guard, it was better to set clear boundaries from the start. Luo Yanqiu was more than happy to welcome those Liu Yu sent to the Huajian Sect: “Those few traitors from foreign religions from the day before yesterday aren’t enough.” After thinking for a while, Luo Yanqiu suddenly remembered that the few sect members Liu Yu had assigned to her at the Floating Bridge would be very useful in the future.

Under gunpoint, these people not only burned Bibles but also executed the believers from the same village as those in Xiliu Camp. Left with no home, they had no choice but to join the Huajian Sect. As believers, they were well-accustomed to Catholic practices, and their greatest enemy was the traitor. Since they needed to recruit followers, these people made perfect pioneers to undermine Catholic organizations and bring in many believers for the Huajian Sect. She even suspected that Liu Yu had already thought of this: “Someone must be sent to help me, preferably from the Old Liu Camp.” Luo Yanqiu had made it clear—Liu Yu could send people he trusted to the new Huajian Sect to facilitate control and command. As for those from the Old Liu Camp, they referred to people like Liu Suiyun from the Liu clan, the group Liu Yu trusted the most. “Good!” Liu Yu liked Luo Yanqiu for being smart and self-aware. “I’ll not only send people but also troops to assist you. But in Shanxi, you can just establish some religious villages there.” After all, Shanxi was just one county with limited resources. If the Huajian Sect gained too many resources, it would mean fewer resources for Xiliu Camp. So Shanxi could serve as a base for the Huajian Sect, but once they were established, they must expand outward to undermine Catholicism. “Where would be better?” “Hanoi!” Liu Yu already had an idea. Hanoi was one of the areas with the strongest Catholic influence and would later become a key battlefield in the Sino-French War. The strength of Catholicism there was unmatched by Shanxi. During the war, these believers constantly opposed the Black Flag Army, putting them at a disadvantage as outsiders. This was a plan he had long laid out: “Push toward Hanoi. If necessary, I can send troops to show force, but you need to set up hidden agents first.” “Good! When should we go to Hanoi?” Luo Yanqiu no longer acted like the shrewd and capable sect leader. She spoke softly, “So we can prepare properly.” “Although there are few religious villages in Shanxi, your strength is still weak—starting with just a hundred people. If you expand, you’ll have at least a thousand believers. It will take some time.” Liu Yu calculated, “I’ll give you seven months to prepare.” “Seven months.” Luo Yanqiu didn’t prioritize her own interests, but she knew this approach best protected theirs. Sure enough, Liu Yu smiled. “That’s good! Besides Hanoi, you can try to develop some religious villages in Xuan Guang later.” Xuan Guang was further upstream in Shanxi, a place few foreigners visited and which would also become a key battlefield in the Sino-French War. They could set up plans now, though Liu Yu also said, “There aren’t many people to recruit there.” Luo Yanqiu gently bit Liu Yu’s earlobe. “Is there anything else that’s my little wife’s job?” Liu Yu closed his eyes leisurely, leaning into Luo Yanqiu’s arms. “Anywhere the Black Flag Army doesn’t go, it will surely be my little wife’s burden.” “Brother Ayu, your most obedient little wife knows. Is there anything else?” Liu Yu ran his hands through his hair and glanced at Luo Yanqiu, finding her as delicate as a flower. “Of course. That is, to accompany me to bed…”