He lit the candle with a match, and the flickering candle flame immediately emitted a dim warm yellow light, barely illuminating the small room.
Then the killer turned around and closed the wooden door, walked to the window in the corner and pulled the curtains.
The so-called "curtain" is actually a piece of old cloth strung on a wooden pole. It is very thin and covered with patches and messy and rough seams. It looks like it was recycled from some old clothes.
The already attenuated silver moonlight seeped through the gaps in the inferior fabric, making the entire curtain appear to be glowing, like a shadow play screen.
After doing all this, the killer returned to the small wooden table without saying a word, pulled out a stool and sat down.
Then he reached into the chest of the nightgown and pulled out a metal brooch engraved with a circle surrounded by radial lines, and held it in the center of his palm.
The killer's spiritual energy began to surge, ready to strike, but he did not immediately inject it into the brooch to contact his unknown employer.
Instead, he used his other hand to roll up his sleeve, revealing a bracelet around his wrist.
The shape of this bracelet is very simple. It looks like a circle made of wire, and it is not completely closed, but leaves a small gap.
The bracelet is very thin, and the surface is engraved with various mysterious and complex runes and patterns. Their lines are rounded and smooth, very bold and can give people an ambiguous impression.
The bracelet fit tightly to the killer's skin, leaving almost no gap. It seemed to be stuck and could not be taken off.
But he pushed hard with his free hand, causing the bracelet to deform. The small gap was stretched wide open, so the bracelet was easily pulled off.
After the bracelet engraved with mysterious runes was taken off, the killer relaxed his fingers and it returned to its original round shape without any damage, and seemed to be very elastic and tough.
Putting the strange bracelet aside, his eyes returned to the metal brooch on his palm.
This time, nothing went wrong. His fully mobilized spiritual power flowed towards the brooch. He quickly and forcefully injected a portion of his own spiritual power into it, activating this communication equipment.
The moment his spirituality entered the brooch, the brooch immediately changed and emitted a dazzling spiritual light.
However, that light was completely different from the cool, icy silver color...
It is a red light as bright as blood, extremely violent and greedy!
The killer had clearly only injected a small portion of his own spiritual energy into the brooch, but the brooch was like an insatiable black hole, constantly pulling at all the spiritual energy in his body.
He tried to resist, concentrating all his energy to defy the strange attraction, but his resistance was like a small sailboat in a whirlpool, so powerless that it could not withstand a single blow!
"Well!……"
The pain of having the soul extracted cannot be expressed in words. Even though this body had long lost consciousness, the living creature's instinct for survival still caused his face to twist in pain, his mouth opened exaggeratedly, as if he wanted to scream.
There was only a gurgling sound in the throat.
In just a few seconds, all the spiritual energy in his body was absorbed by the metal brooch in his hand, and his struggle stopped completely. His body lost all strength and he collapsed on the table.
His breathing and heartbeat also calmed down at this moment.
After absorbing all the spiritual power of a transcendent being, the scarlet light of the brooch became more and more vigorous, and then it exploded with a large area of tangible red light, covering the entire body of the killer.
This strange bright red light lasted for more than ten seconds, and then suddenly shrank and returned to the brooch.
"Deng Deng..."
The brooch fell onto the wooden table, bounced a few times with little amplitude, and finally stopped moving.
The scarlet light on its surface had completely disappeared, returning to its original delicate and cold image.
The body of the killer who was originally sitting on the stool disappeared at this moment, as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth.
There was only a thin pool of black, sticky substance on the stool and the table, which was half liquid and half solid, just like human vomit, and it gave off a stench that was not too strong but very unpleasant.
The flame on the candlestick flickered and the light dimmed, as if it was afraid of what had just happened.
The dead silence in the empty room lasted for more than ten minutes, but was broken by a slow knock on the door:
"Tuk, Tuk, Tuk."
"Sir, I'm coming in."
A slightly mature and experienced voice came from outside the door, and then the door handle was turned, and the rusty and inferior bearings made an extremely harsh friction sound.
The man who appeared at the door was over 50 years old. There were several wrinkles on his face, but they did not make him look too old. Instead, they added a touch of elegance and experience.
He stood straight, wearing a well-fitting dark suit with a printed vest underneath. His thick hair was evenly gray and combed neatly, and he had a slightly funny mustache on his upper lip.
He is very capable and cultured, yet witty and humorous.
After seeing the scene in the room, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he walked slowly into the room, as calmly and leisurely as a gentleman returning to his home.
As he walked towards the small wooden table, he scanned every corner of the room, as if looking for something, but he didn't see what he was hoping for:
"It seems that your mission has failed."
Although there was no one else around, his voice was neither loud nor soft, and he didn't sound like he was talking to himself.
"Well, that's normal," the man smiled, walked to the small wooden table, and reached for the brooch that restored his calm, "Then, as a penalty for failing the mission, I will accept your spirituality."
After picking up the brooch, he noticed the rune bracelet placed nearby.
"Is this...his spiritual equipment?"
A hint of interest appeared on the man's face. He picked up the bracelet and held it in his hand to observe it for a while.
Suddenly, his figure quickly became transparent and his body outline blurred, eventually turning into a few inconspicuous light black strands.
Then, a chaotic, unregulated, and illogical wind suddenly appeared, whistling in the room and extinguishing the candles in an instant.
"Well, that's right. No wonder a martial artist with tempered skills can have so many strange abilities. It turns out that he has this ability. I'll take it as well." The man's slightly mature voice sounded again, but it came from all directions, as if there was no source:
"Fortunately, he took it off before activating the 'Spirit Cup', otherwise the power of the 'Spirit Cup' might have damaged it."
"call--"
The mature voice carried a hint of relief and joy, and as the words fell, the strange and gloomy wind suddenly dissipated.
And those few black filaments that were vaguely floating in the center of the room disappeared at some point.
The room without candlelight returned to the deathly silence. The sticky, smelly black slime on the tables and chairs lay lifelessly, as if waiting for dawn.
Chapter 147: Deep Blue Church (Part )
"Miss Yaoliuliu, what are we going to do in church?"
Looking at the dark blue church gradually emerging among the buildings, Mrs. Gary asked Qi Ji in a low voice, half confused and half hesitant.
It was noon now, and the scorching golden sun was hanging high in the sky, pouring out endless light and heat.
The four members of the family were not dressed coolly, most of them wore long-sleeved long skirts, especially Gary, who not only wore dark straight trousers and a long-sleeved shirt with a stiff collar, but also a brown vest.
Besides, they all carried luggage. Wearing this kind of clothes, walking in the jungle of cement, asphalt, and bricks with twisted and rippling air, and under the scorching sun, it was hot just to look at them.
However, there was nothing unusual on the faces of the four men, their breathing and pace were quite steady, and there was not much sweat on their skin and clothes.
It was as if they were not in a scorching city, but in a cool and refreshing autumn countryside.
If there were a transcendent with strong enough inspiration observing carefully nearby, he would find that there was a strange spirituality surrounding the bodies of the four people.
Quiet, balanced, peaceful... just like clear, almost transparent lake water, without ripples, exuding a magical power to calm restlessness and soothe people's hearts.
This is naturally Qi Ji's work.
She walked beside Daisy, and in response to Mrs. Gary's questions, she just nodded slowly and smiled without saying a word.
The family of four slept from three or four in the morning until noon, which shows how tired they were. They fell into a deep sleep as soon as they relaxed a little.
Especially the couple, they were like in a coma, not even their sleeping position changed during the whole process, not even twitching a finger.
This is enough to show how much psychological pressure the two of them are under.
It was not until the strong sunlight at noon pierced through the mediocre curtains and illuminated the room too brightly that they gradually woke up, sat up with frowns, and rubbed their temples and the back of their heads.
Once they woke up, they didn't even bother to relieve the headache caused by their deep sleep, but immediately got out of bed and packed their luggage, seeming to be very eager to leave Loen City and return to Sunset Harbor.
By the time Daisy and Youer woke up naturally, the parents had already arranged everything.
Although the temperature outside was very high and it was definitely not a suitable time to travel, Gary still insisted on setting off immediately to find a travel agency willing to develop a magic train voucher for them.
"Why are you so obsessed with the magic train?" Qi Ji looked at the determined expressions of the couple and couldn't help asking, "Can't we just take the carriage? Although it will be slower, it will save a lot of trouble."
According to the couple, the magic train is an extremely convenient means of transportation. It uses specially made spiritual equipment as its power core and runs along a specific track. It not only has a large passenger capacity, but is also very fast.
It takes less than two days to travel from the city of Loen on the border of the empire to Sunset Port in the central area of the empire.
The most important thing is that its transportation time is very stable and is almost unaffected by road conditions and weather. If the schedule says one day, it is one day, and the deviation will basically not exceed half an hour.
To put it simply, it is similar to the green train on Earth.
But the problem is that, for some special reasons, tickets for the Magic Train cannot be purchased with just an ID card like on Earth. Instead, they need to go through a rather complicated review process and meet many conditions.
For example, it does not accept purchases in personal names.
Those who ride the magic train are either government, royal, or church commissioners arranged by official agencies, or wealthy people such as big entrepreneurs and bankers who have obtained the qualifications to board the train through special relationships.
If ordinary people want to enjoy such convenient services, there is only one channel, that is to follow travel agencies that specialize in this industry and "group" with other ordinary people.
Such opportunities are quite rare and often require reservations with travel agencies several months in advance.
The reason is very simple. There are too many ordinary people with such needs, and it is difficult for travel agencies to obtain so many places from the official authorities. After all, this is not something that can be solved simply by money.
With the quota so tight, it is quite difficult for Gary and his wife to bypass the reservation and buy tickets in a short time.
It is not enough to just spend more money; you also have to rely on luck, because there may not be vacancies on the train route you need.
So Qi Ji’s idea was that instead of spending a lot of money to open up connections with travel agencies and “buy” places from other ordinary tourists who he didn’t even know if they existed, it would be better to just take a horse carriage back.
Going back directly by carriage would only take a few more days. If we insisted on taking the magic train, we would probably waste a lot of time, and it might not be as fast as taking the carriage.
As for Gary's vacation issue...that's not a problem at all. Qi Ji still couldn't believe that the school where he worked would make things difficult for a poor father who had been robbed and almost lost his family's wealth.
"Well, it's like this," Gary thought and explained after hearing Qi Ji's question, "We are worried that if we take the carriage, those guys will try to attack us halfway... There is no such risk on the magic train."
This is easy to understand. The restrictions on the purchase of tickets for the Magic Train will result in a large number of dignitaries on the carriages.
These people will definitely arrange very thorough security measures. In order to protect the personal safety and riding experience of their masters, the bodyguards and guards will never allow any accidents to happen on the train.
This also greatly increases the safety factor of the entire train. Even ordinary people sitting in other carriages don't have to worry about robbers or bandits, because these people have no chance of getting close to a moving train.
As the saying goes, if the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. This is what it means.
"That's it."
Although they had their own protection and their worries were completely unnecessary, Qi Ji did not object because the couple did not have a clear idea of their own strength... Well, in fact, even she herself did not have a clear idea of her own strength.
In short, under this premise, their decision is actually very appropriate and prudent.
In addition, Qi Ji was indeed very interested in this so-called "magic train". She also wanted to take this opportunity to experience it, observe it, and satisfy her curiosity.
Gary hesitated for a while, then asked with a strange look on his face, "Miss Yaoliuliu, what are your plans for going to the Deep Blue Church?"
"Of course," Qi Ji said, "I have something I want to ask the people from the Enterprise Chamber of Commerce for help... Any questions?"
She noticed that Gary seemed a little embarrassed, and she didn't know why.
"Help me... Uh, to be honest, we just asked for help from Pastor Canyang yesterday afternoon." Gary looked at the sharp dark blue roof that was getting closer and closer, and couldn't help but remind him:
"Now entering other churches... this is a bit inappropriate..."
Even though we are pan-believers, we don’t have to be shy about entering different churches. But we just asked Pastor Canyang to exorcise Daisy yesterday, and today we are going to the Deep Blue Church… The pastor has great powers, he will definitely find out, and it would be bad if they leave a bad impression…
Qi Ji heard this, stopped, turned around and looked at him:
"Then what do you mean?"
Chapter 148: Deep Blue Church (Part )
"Uh, excuse me, are you looking for personal business?" Gary asked, touching his chin.
Qi Ji thought about it and shrugged: "I guess so."
"Then, we can wait outside." Gary looked at his wife and smiled apologetically. "To avoid suspicion, we won't go in with you."
Mrs. Gary added: "No one would dare to mess around at the church door... You don't have to worry about our safety."
Qi Ji certainly had no objection. He nodded silently, asked the four people to stay where they were, and walked towards the nearby deep blue church alone.
The Deep Blue Church, as the name suggests, has an overall tone as deep blue as the sea. It has a pointed roof, but it does not have a complex Gothic tower structure. Instead, it is relatively simple without too many complicated decorative patterns.
The exterior structure of the church is symmetrical on both sides, with a tall double door open on the central axis. It is made of some kind of wood and is quite heavy and thick.
Above the door lintel, the holy emblem of the Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, “The Ship of Progress”, is sailing through the waves in the ocean of books.
Passing through the nearly five-meter-high wooden double doors, you can see that the interior layout is different from that of a traditional church. It is no longer a straight aisle with neatly arranged benches on both sides and an altar on the stairs at the end.
