The reason she did this was, firstly, she didn't want to invade the privacy of innocent people without reason, and secondly... there was such a huge amount of perceptual information that she couldn't handle it all by herself.
After all this time, Gary's family will soon reach their destination.
In front of them, at the end of the street, there appeared a building, three stories high, also in a matchbox style like the other buildings, with not very large glass windows.
Its color tone is dark. In the center of the first floor there is a double-opening wooden-framed door with frosted glass panels inlaid.
Just above the gate, probably on the third floor, a huge three-dimensional logo hangs on the outer wall. It is the symbol of the official government of the Plantagenet Empire:
Three bright and gorgeous broom flowers bloomed angrily, gathering together in a regular pattern, together supporting a vague, indistinguishable, strange shape.
Above the strange shape, a golden setting sun half appeared on the horizon, revealing a dusk scene.
"The holy emblem of the 'Setting Sun Spiritual Society', the state religion of the Glorious Plantagenet Empire," Qi Ji looked at the colorful emblem and pondered in his heart, "--'Twilight Servant'."
Two days ago, the evil god who called himself "the first creator" tried to descend through the sacrifice ceremony of Augustus. As a result, he was blasted to ashes by the starry sky vision inadvertently created by Qi Ji due to the awakening of some of his sealed memories.
In other words, it took Qiji two days to travel from Stio through the Great Forest of the East, which served as the border of the Holy Templar Empire, to the Glorious Plantagenet Empire, and arrived at the town that was as small as a village to rest.
If she just wanted to sneak across the border, it would only take her an hour or two at most, and it wouldn't take that much time at all.
The reason it took two full days was because she did other things before settling in that small town.
That is... through various means, I have acquired some basic common sense knowledge about this world.
He mainly broke into the family library of Baron Hodge-Tonzhongkai of Stio and secretly read books all night. Afterwards, he disguised himself and asked Stio and passers-by in the town in a natural way.
This deepened her understanding of the world. At least she was no longer as ignorant as a newborn baby as she was when she first arrived in Stio.
So, she recognized at a glance the various components of the badge... and the symbolic meaning behind them.
In this world where multiple gods most likely exist, almost every major country has its own gods.
The general belief of the Holy Templar Kingdom is the "Goddess of Grace" Perrinni, the "Goddess of Grace", and the church under this goddess is the "Church of Grace".
There are a total of nine similar churches and corresponding gods, which are called the "Nine Major Churches" and the "Nine Lords".
The dominant church that glorifies the Plantagenet Empire is the "Spiritual Society of the Setting Sun", and the deity is another one - the "God of Ferry" whose name is "God of Dusk and Decay": Amon!
The holy emblem of the Setting Sun Spiritual Order is "the vague shape in the twilight" - "the Server of the Dusk"!
The three broom flowers clustered under the holy emblem of "Twilight Servant" represent the three components of the political system of the glorious Plantagenet Empire:
The royal family, the technocrats, the church.
It is worth mentioning that the heights of these three broom flowers are equal, which means that the political status of the "royal family", "aristocracy" and "church" in the empire is also equal.
This is different from the Templar State. The supreme ruler of the Templar State is only a member of the Grace Church. No matter the royal family, nobles, businessmen or technicians, they are all responsible to the church and are its vassals.
The difference between the two countries in this regard can be seen from the height of the buildings.
The church of Stio is located in the center of the entire city, and it is the tallest, like a stabilizing force inserted in the core of Stio. Even the majestic and tall lord's mansion is a little shorter than the tower inlaid with a big bell.
But the city of Loen is not so particular. The layout of the church and the city hall has no obvious religious considerations. They are simply set up in places with more traffic.
The tallest building in the city is not the Church of the Setting Sun, but rather those skyscrapers that are more than a dozen stories high. These skyscrapers are office buildings privately built by businessmen and technical bureaucrats.
“A whole new social landscape…”
Qi Ji made a silent judgment out of curiosity and watched Gary and his family push open the door and walk into the entrance of the "Super Management Bureau".
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Last update today, I really can’t move anymore QAQ
Chapter 122 Bloody Conversation (Part )
In the suburbs of Loen City, under an inconspicuous villa.
In the not-so-spacious basement, dim candle lights flickered.
The warm yellow light barely illuminated the space within a few meters, but was soon swallowed up by the darkness that was so thick that it became a substance, making it impossible for the entire space to be illuminated.
With only a few lights, the horrifying bloody ceremony was vaguely revealed.
Neatly cut stone bricks were laid flat on the ground. The color was as dark as ebony. The rough surface did not reflect a single luster. There were a large number of rough and wild patterns on them, like those cut by knives and axes.
Several polygonal columns of the same material and color are scattered randomly in the empty basement, supporting the ground and the ceiling over three meters high.
These pillars are of different shapes, sizes and diameters, and there is no regular pattern in their distribution. The extreme irregularity and asymmetry create a disturbing impact.
Everything in the room, whether it was the rough black floor tiles, the irregularly distributed stone pillars dotted with candlelight, or the high ceiling...
All of them have a sticky and greasy touch and exude an ominous smell.
The basement is generally rectangular in shape, and the stairs leading to the ground are located on the shorter side. On the wall adjacent to the stairs, there is an extremely horrifying picture.
Several rusty and twisted iron rods were deeply nailed into the stone wall, and countless human... intestines were hanging on it in large clumps like noodles, reflecting a pink color.
On the ground below, dozens of heads were neatly stacked into a small "pyramid", including those of men, women, young and old, in varying degrees of decay. Some seemed to have just left their owners not long ago, while others were left with only eerie white skeletons.
A large number of white maggots were moving vigorously between the rotten cheeks and eye sockets. Their twisting bodies were nourished to be as fat as macaroni, and they were greedily gnawing at the increasingly diminishing flesh and blood.
A little outside the Skull Jingguan, a trench was chiseled out in the stone brick floor, parallel to the wall, more than two meters long, and nearly twenty centimeters wide and high.
The interior of the crude ditch was filled with blood as red as paint, filling nearly two-thirds of the space.
The blood lay quietly in the ditch, without a ripple on the surface. No one knew how long it had been there, but the only thing that was certain was that it was very fresh, the bright and dazzling scarlet color was extremely uniform, without any dullness or coagulation.
"...nature, harmony, balance, night..."
In the dim darkness, a series of low, obscure, mysterious words mixed with a foul smell came out slowly in an almost eulogistic tone, breaking the silence filled with the fishy smell of blood and flesh.
Along with the chanting that contained mysterious power, in the ditch... the blood that was as calm as a mirror began to ripple, and as time passed, it quickly became more violent, forming small whirlpools that wandered restlessly on the liquid surface.
"The blood of all living things is used to worship Mother Ren! Now that the Liangqu Canal has been built, it will connect with my soul! Descend here and reshape my flesh and blood!"
As the chanting became more and more excited, countless bubbles the size of eyeballs appeared in the abundant blood, which rose to the surface and quickly burst, splashing out countless scarlet droplets as if it was boiling.
The smell of blood, strong enough to make a person temporarily lose their sense of smell, rose up and spread rapidly, almost dyeing the air with an uneasy crimson.
"I issue a command in my own name: The dead disciples who have been granted new life shall become my slaves!"
With the loud declaration, the surging blood fell down, as if it had lost all its energy and returned to calm.
But after a few seconds, the blood started moving again.
Two-thirds of the blood that filled the ditch slowly rose against gravity, climbing up the inner wall of the ditch little by little as if it had life, and came to the black stone brick floor, gradually approaching the terrifying skull.
Compared to its previous restless and aimless state, its movements were now slower and more determined.
Not long after, the blood, which had spread out in a thin layer on the ground, touched the skull and immediately seeped into it and disappeared.
This process lasted for several minutes before the blood in the ditch completely dried up.
Only a part of the blood merged into the skull casing, while the other part bypassed the casing and spread to the base of the wall where the intestines were nailed.
The wall was covered with various marks of varying depths. Some were straight as if cut by a knife or an axe, while others were round and twisted. They seemed to be entangled together without any rules, as messy as a tattered spider web, giving people a feeling of irritation.
But if you look at it as a whole from a distance, you seem to be able to find some patterns in it, as if there are some profound and obscure metaphors and meanings hidden in it, waiting to be discovered by some capable person.
The blood spread to the corner of the wall and climbed upwards along the dense and complex lines. Before long, it covered every corner of all the lines, forming a strange picture composed of messy scarlet lines, which was extremely weird.
The silence lasted for a while, and then the voice in the dimness once again chanted in a low voice:
"...nature, harmony, balance, night..."
“Crash!——”
The blood in the veins on the wall leaked out and lost its original luster in a few seconds, becoming extremely dark and dull, and the red and black blood clots also quickly coagulated.
"Boom!—"
At the same time, the skull that was fused with blood suddenly exploded without any warning!
It wasn't that it was blown up from the inside by some force, but rather that the flesh and bones themselves exploded!
In an instant, the horrifying Jingguan turned into countless extremely fine pieces of meat and blood, which scattered all over the place. Even the pink intestines hanging on the wall burst with a loud bang, like a punctured balloon filled with water.
The blood and flesh fragments spread extremely quickly, like bullets crossing a distance of several meters in an instant, but they failed to dye the small basement red.
They flew less than two meters before "slapping" into the air, forming flat radial shapes, as if there was a transparent barrier in space isolating them.
"It failed again..."
In the dim light, the slightly hoarse voice sighed helplessly, but there was no anger in it.
“Knock, knock, knock, knock…”
With the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer, a figure walked out from the hazy darkness.
This is a man who appears to be in his twenties, with a well-proportioned body. He is wearing a black tuxedo with gold cufflinks on his cuffs and sleek brown leather shoes.
He has narrow eyes, a handsome face, and dark brown hair combed back, making him look very stylish and handsome.
If you take him out of this bloody and crazy scene and look at him alone, anyone would think he is a talented young man about to go to a banquet.
However, such a well-dressed and handsome gentleman appeared in such a bloody scene... Such an overly strong contrast actually highlights an extremely twisted sense of horror that makes people's hair stand on end.
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It’s Monday, you might as well give this a thumbs up before you go out~!
Chapter 123 Bloody Conversation (Part )
"Deacon Buck, failure is normal," a slightly more mature male voice came from behind him, "After all, this is 'Life Refinement'. Even the Bishop succeeded when he was promoted to a mage."
"Yes, I am just a true mage. This challenge is still too advanced for me." The tuxedo man named Buck showed a hearty smile, his voice was a little hoarse and magnetic:
"Come to think of it, Deacon Rice, by this time... 'that matter' should have been completed, right?"
"Now that you mention it, I remember it now," the slightly more mature voice in the darkness chuckled darkly, "If nothing unexpected happens, the four 'prey' are already waiting for us."
"That's good," Buck said with a smile on his face. "This way, we have something to hold over Nancy and her lackeys. I hope the Lord's plan can go one step further."
"That's right, I'll confirm it now."
After the slightly more mature voice finished speaking, there was silence for a while, and then there was a rustling sound, which sounded like the pages of a book were flipping quickly.
“Make, record, check, present.”
Low voices came one after another, and a crimson light faintly emerged from the source of the sound.
It was so faint that even in such deep darkness it could only reveal its own existence, but it could not illuminate its surroundings, nor the face of the man with the mature voice.
A few seconds later, the mysterious red light suddenly shook violently, as if the owner holding it... couldn't keep his hand steady.
"Deacon Rice, what's wrong?"
Buck noticed that the other party's behavior was unusual, tilted his head slightly, frowned and asked.
The cold silence lasted for a long time.
The faint crimson light gradually dimmed until it disappeared completely, leaving the surroundings in near-pure darkness. Then the slightly more mature male voice came out in a deep voice:
"There was an accident, Deacon Buck. The 'Afterbirth of Darkness' that the Bishop left for us... was destroyed."
"What?!" Buck's handsome face showed obvious surprise, but he quickly suppressed it and regained his composure, but his slender eyes became more solemn:
"Details?"
"The 'Dark Afterbirth' we lost was number three, which was given to Derek's gang," Rice said gloomily in a mature and deep voice. "If the Dark Afterbirth in their hands is destroyed... I have two guesses."
Buck narrowed his eyes: "You say."
"The first scenario is that Derek and his gang betrayed us," Rice analyzed. "They betrayed our Lord, converted to other forces, and relied on the power of that force to destroy the Dark Afterbirth No. 3 in order to get rid of our surveillance of them."
He paused for a few seconds, then continued:
"Second scenario, Derek failed in his mission today. Nancy and her lackeys were more cunning than we thought. They secretly sent people to protect that family. Not only did Derek fail to kidnap them, he also lost the Dark Afterbirth...
"If this is the case, then Derek and his men are most likely dead."
After listening to Rice's analysis, Buck closed his eyes gently, the wrinkles on his brows deepened, and a slight groan came from his throat, meaning that he was thinking.
"No matter what happens, we will face a new enemy." After a long while, he suddenly opened his eyes and his gaze became very cold. "This enemy is not only unfamiliar, but also powerful. He is so powerful that he can destroy the Dark Afterbirth, whose combat power is equivalent to that of a peak Righteous Warrior, in a very short time."
"Yes, if that... or those enemies are not fast enough and fail to destroy the Dark Afterbirth in an instant, it will immediately report the scene to us after suffering serious damage."
Les, whose face could not be seen in the dim light, said with both agreement and worry:
"But it didn't. The connection between the Book and it was suddenly severed. This means that its destruction was too rapid, and the spirit of the Dark Afterbirth was unable to react."
After he finished speaking, the bloody and dark basement fell into almost absolute silence again.
