Ling Feng quickly took Hu Jian and He Xue to Ling Corporation, and their onboarding paperwork was done in minutes.

Since there were dedicated dorms here, the two of them could move, so Hu Jian and He Xue headed back to their rental to pack.

Ling Feng, on the other hand, took Li Fei’er to Lingyun Island.

When they arrived at Ah Min’s office and saw his grinning face, Ah Min immediately put on a guarded look. "Boss, you’re trying to rope me into something again, aren’t you?"

"What are you talking about? Am I that kind of person?" Ling Feng said helplessly.

Ah Min nodded. "Yeah, you are!"

"..."

Ling Feng was choked speechless, then chuckled. "It’s not anything that hard. It’s just a list. I want you to help me analyze it and see what common traits they have, so we can figure out why these people were picked as senior brothers."

"Oh, that’s all? In that case, sure."

Once Ah Min realized it was serious business, she immediately nodded.

Ling Feng took out his phone and forwarded her the list Han Wancheng had sent over. Then Ah Min created a spreadsheet on her computer and imported the information of more than a hundred people.

Ling Feng watched from the side. "How long do you need?"

"Hard to say. There’s not much in the files. If we want a thorough check, we’ll have to look them up one by one," Ah Min said.

"Then do this: immediately transfer some people over from Gu Li’s side. Everyone splits up and digs. I want even which elementary school they went to dug out if possible," Ling Feng said.

"Okay, then I’ll need at least twenty people. Boss, go help me get the manpower from Gu Li," Ah Min said.

Ling Feng didn’t hesitate. He nodded and went straight to Gu Li’s office.

Very soon, a dedicated analysis team was formed. Each person was assigned five targets, and everyone began the investigation at once.

Everyone was busy working, so Ling Feng naturally couldn’t just run off to hold the baby. He stayed there, keeping a close eye on the progress.

But since it was nighttime, some things couldn’t be checked. After all, both schools and companies were off work.

As for the police stations, they could call and ask, but there were only duty officers at night, so they probably couldn’t check things in such detail.

In the end, everyone worked until ten at night, then temporarily wrapped up and decided to continue tomorrow.

After sending everyone off to rest, Ling Feng sat down with Gu Li and Ah Min. They drank tea while chatting about this phenomenon of people preaching everywhere.

"Boss, this isn’t an isolated case. The whole world’s like this. Especially in Country A-San—heard there are over a thousand new cults popping up over there, even crazier than in Huaxia," Gu Li said.

"Then putting the whole world together, wouldn’t that be tens of thousands of different cults?" Ling Feng asked.

Gu Li said "Exactly," then continued, "It’s like the old days’ e-commerce wars. To grab users, everyone released a ton of apps. Once the traffic had been fought over, everything slowly merged into one mobile app, or they just bought those app companies. In the end, all the users still belonged to the same parent."

"That actually makes a lot of sense."

Ling Feng nodded. "Whatever the case, whoever’s behind this and whatever their goal is, we have to get to the bottom of it."

"Don’t worry. No matter how deep they hide, we’re confident we can dig them out," Gu Li said with a smile.

After chatting for a while, seeing it was getting late, Ling Feng told them to go back and rest, then he went to the family quarters on the island as well.

...

...

Another day passed. By the next evening, the analysis team compiled the investigation results and placed them in front of Ling Feng.

This time they investigated a total of 107 people. Excluding nine whose identities were wrong or who had no household registration data, the remaining ninety-eight all had detailed information.

After analysis, they found three common points among these people.

First, they all had a family history of illness, specifically psychological or mental disorders.

Second, they all had low education levels and relatively poor self-control.

Third, they had all experienced unhappy childhoods.

When this result came out, Ling Feng fell into deep thought after reading it.

The second and third points weren’t all that representative—only the first one was.

Ling Feng felt this was very likely the key condition for them to be selected as senior brothers in charge of spreading the faith.

In other words, these people’s minds were different from others’, easier to breach, and then in their sleep those people behind the scenes turned them into their first die-hard followers.

After reading, Ling Feng looked up at Gu Li. "Looks like the next direction of our investigation should be studying these people’s brains."

"Boss, you’re not thinking of doing human experiments, are you?" Gu Li asked.

Ling Feng glared at him. "Am I that kind of person?"

Gu Li chuckled. "Then what are you getting at, Boss?"

"We need to find out how they were assimilated."

Ling Feng thought for a moment, then said, "I feel like this is a kind of ability similar to the Mind Soul Art, but clearly much more powerful than mine. They can actually turn someone into a die-hard fan just through dreams, and even make them proactively go out preaching. That’s impressive."

"Brainwashing in the invisible. That really is impressive."

Gu Li nodded, then said, "Boss, I also had people check the living environments of these folks. Guess what they found?"

"Just spit it out. Don’t play suspense with me," Ling Feng said.

"They all live in urban villages—densely populated areas with poor environments. And the key point is: every one of their villages has a Land Temple," Gu Li said.

"Huh?"

Ling Feng was stunned. "Every single village has one?"

"Yeah."

Gu Li nodded. "You’d call that a pretty unusual pattern, right?"

Having a Land Temple in the countryside wasn’t anything rare. In Huaxia’s folk traditions, a Land Temple protects the local area. During holidays, villagers go burn incense and make offerings, praying for a year of peace.

Hearing this, Ling Feng couldn’t help being very curious, and said in a low voice, "Then we should pick a place and go see whether there’s anything strange about the temple first."

"Sure, that’s definitely a good investigation angle," Gu Li said with a nod.

Ling Feng gave him a look and said with a smile, "Forget treating it as a hideout. You’ve never even seen a Land Temple, have you? It doesn’t really count as a proper temple at all. They’re usually tiny—some are smaller than a sofa."

"That so? Then won’t they be hard to find?" Gu Li asked.