Chapter 335: The Unclean Nun (Part 1)
"Is there more? I'll take it all!" Mark's tone was sincere, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on William.
"You can have as much money as you want. As long as you ask, I can help you find anything."
William couldn't help but look at Gail beside him.
But the next moment, Mark straightened his shoulders and stepped between the two.
"Her... no!"
"Mark!" Gail's expression looked a bit unnatural, and she then said, "Let Mr. William finish speaking first!"
The former nodded, but kept his body blocking William's line of sight.
William found it somewhat amusing inwardly and shook his head secretly.
Previously, he thought the Light of Humanity was like other organizations, purifying evil merely to expand its own power.
But after hearing Gail's words and witnessing the equipment in the research institute, William actually felt some respect for the Light of Humanity's ideals.
"To ordinary people, evil existences are indeed very dangerous, but so-called 'righteous' powers don't seem much different either..."
Now that he had been expelled from the Church and became a widely known "apostate" in North America, even walking normally on the street could bring trouble.
All of this, in the final analysis, was for the sake of profit.
"Perhaps supernatural powers shouldn't have existed from the very beginning..." William pondered the Will of the World's words.
And to completely close the Source Power passages, he needed to find powerful items containing various elemental powers.
This process would certainly consume a lot of resources, making it very difficult for William to accomplish alone. Therefore, cooperating with the Light of Humanity was indeed a good choice.
Thinking of this, he looked at the two of them.
"Things like this are extremely rare and only exist in special places..."
"No problem!" Mark agreed immediately. "You can utilize any resources of the Light of Humanity, as long as it's to find Source Power!"
One week later.
Europe, Romania, a remote town.
Rolling mountains stretched into the distance, and at their base lay a vast plain covered in lush green grass as far as the eye could see.
A wide road extended in both directions, with quite a few farmhouses built along the sides.
Clatter—
A carriage drove along the country road.
William, Gail, and Mark sat inside, their bodies swaying gently with the carriage.
Suddenly, the metal wheels rolled over a pothole in the road, instantly splashing up a spray of mud.
Gail momentarily lost her balance and fell to the side.
William immediately reached out and steadied her: "Are you alright."
Gail shook her head: "Thank you."
And beside them, Mark stared at the two with a resentful gaze.
Subsequently, he got up and squeezed between William and Gail, staring at the former with a look of "curiosity": "Father Will... Mr. William, are you sure that thing is here?"
Mark glanced at the driver, not speaking the words "Source Power" out loud.
William nodded.
After reaching a cooperation agreement with the Light of Humanity earlier, he began searching for places where "Legendary Items" might appear.
Relying on the Book of the World, the locations of the Source Power passages were no secret to him.
But Legendary Items were different.
These things were often incredibly precious, so most were kept hidden by those organizations, making them very difficult to obtain.
However, William thought of another route.
He had once taken on the commission for The Exorcist. Back then, to seal the demon, the Church used an Apostle Silver Badge as the main sacrifice.
And the guarding forces at that sealing location were incredibly weak, basically lacking any powerful Holy Clergy Members, which would greatly reduce the difficulty of obtaining the legendary holy relic.
Of course, remembering this clue was purely coincidental; it involved no personal grudges whatsoever.
Therefore, William immediately began searching for Source Power passages related to demons.
Soon, he found an interesting location.
The passage there belonged to the 72 Pillar Demon Gods but bordered a human town.
More importantly—it was located in Europe, the place where the Church rose to prosperity.
William immediately selected this location, leading to this current trip to Romania.
And the destination for the three of them was a village called "Bièrtan."
Half a day later, the carriage stopped outside a village.
After paying the fare, William jumped down from the carriage first, and Gail and Mark quickly followed.
Immediately after, the three felt many gazes upon them.
At this moment, William had taken off his priest uniform and changed into a dark wool coat. He also wore a wide-brimmed fedora that obscured most of his face.
Gail was also wearing a form-fitting thick coat, but her striking face and tall figure still stood out.
Mark carried a pitch-black briefcase.
The three clearly didn't look like locals, naturally drawing a lot of attention.
"Mr. William, will the Source Power... be in the village?" Gail asked softly.
This place looked peaceful and tranquil, not looking like it harbored any supernatural power.
"I only know the general direction; the specific location still requires an actual investigation," William adjusted his hat.
"Let's go to a crowded place in the village first."
Before getting out of the carriage, he had already observed the village's situation. On the surface, there was no evil aura at all.
But before entering the village limits, he still tossed a holy artifact into the tall grass nearby.
Not long after the three entered, another carriage stopped outside the village.
A man and a woman jumped down from it.
"Irene, the gentleman who reported the case lives here," a middle-aged man spoke.
Standing beside him was a young, beautiful woman wearing a green woolen coat.
Irene nodded.
She was a novitiate nun from a convent along the Mediterranean coast.
Following Father Burke to Bièrtan village this time was for a murder case.
Not long ago, the Vatican received a report that a nun had hanged herself in a Romanian convent.
In the Church, any suicide was considered unclean, and the soul of a Holy Clergy Member would not be able to enter Heaven after death.
Therefore, to the Church, this was something "unacceptable" on the surface.
So some suspected that there might be an inside story to this suicide, such as... it being related to an evil existence.
Based on this speculation, the Church assigned Father Burke to investigate.
He also hailed from the Mediterranean coast and was currently studying at a seminary, specializing in handling such incidents.
Originally, this matter only required one person to complete, but since the incident location was a convent for women, a male entering would cause many inconveniences.
Therefore, the Church assigned Irene to accompany Father Burke.
Although the former was a novitiate nun, she had come into contact with evil existences before.
Not long ago in Los Angeles, North America, Irene had assisted two Holy Clergy Members in caring for the injured who had been attacked by evil.
She had a deep impression of those two, especially one of the priests.
At that time, the church was attacked by many evil spirits, but that priest single-handedly fended off the assault.
Although the two had no further interactions afterward, Irene resolved to become someone like him, and this case was an opportunity.
Before officially entering the Church, she still had to complete the "Vow" ritual, and whether she ultimately passed depended on her performance this time.
After retrieving their luggage, the two quickly headed toward the agreed-upon address.
On the other side, outside the Bièrtan village tavern.
"The detection equipment is set up. As long as there is an anomaly, this thing will sound an alarm immediately," Mark shook a remote control device in his hand.
Gail also spoke: "The mental reconnaissance device also shows everything is normal. So far, the people we've encountered haven't been invaded by evil."
The Light of Humanity truly lived up to its name as a famous exorcism organization. Although their means of purifying evil were very weak, they had a complete set of anomaly screening procedures.
"We haven't completely mapped out the village's terrain yet. I've marked a few suspicious points on the map, we can prioritize checking those..." Mark continued to suggest.
But William pointed at the tavern: "Before that, let's go ask around at the intelligence center."
"Intelligence... center?" Gail and Mark looked at each other, confusion flashing in their eyes.
"Heh... it seems you don't understand," William smiled slightly.
"For a village, every gathering place is a high-speed information transmission bridge."
"Here, you can find out the exact location where a certain dog took a dump in a field; you can also learn the detailed process of someone's affair."
"Rumors and slander, fanning the flames, the warmth and coldness of human nature..."
"This is the place that truly decides whether a village remains peaceful."
Gail and Mark felt a profound sense of awe, and the way they looked at the tavern changed.
Creak—
William pushed the wooden door open, and the former noise vanished instantly.
A crowd of villagers quietly sized the three up, occasionally exchanging hushed whispers.
William had sharp ears and caught words like "illegitimate child," "affair," and "threesome."
But more people's gazes were focused on Gail, and the vocabulary flowing in the air became even more outrageous.
He walked calmly to the bar and set down a banknote: "A glass of whiskey."
The bartender was a burly man with stubble. Seeing the banknote, he sized the three up; the value of this money clearly far exceeded a glass of liquor.
"What do you want to ask?"
The bartender was also a professional, only asking after pouring a glass of liquor.
"I wonder if any strange things have happened in the village recently, for example... someone suddenly exhibiting incomprehensible behavior, or a certain place feeling a bit off," William smiled.
Hearing this, a strange look flashed in the bartender's eyes, but it quickly returned to normal.
Subsequently, he took out some change and handed it over: "Sorry, I can't answer your question. Nothing has happened in the village."
Seeing this, William raised an eyebrow.
The other party's behavior was clearly off; looking at it this way, he indeed hadn't come to the wrong place.
As for the bartender refusing to answer, it was also within William's expectations.
After all, this was also an old tradition in American Horror Story—locals not daring to speak up due to some taboo, only realizing the severity of the situation after something happened to themselves or those around them.
But what puzzled William was that he hadn't detected any evil aura here.
Even now, inside the tavern, he hadn't stopped observing his surroundings, yet the people here were equally normal.
Just as he was feeling puzzled, a commotion suddenly erupted outside the tavern.
"Has anyone seen my daughter! She's missing!"
Bièrtan was originally a small village, so any incident would draw people's attention.
Therefore, before William's trio could move, the other patrons had already swarmed outside.
They quickly followed.
Outside the tavern.
The person yelling was a middle-aged man wearing an old suit jacket, his face full of anxiety.
"Luca, what happened!" someone in the crowd asked.
"My daughter, Lisa, is missing! A few days ago, something happened in Andy's crop field, and he specifically asked me to go take a look, so I brought her along," Luca's voice choked with sobs.
"But after coming back, she became reticent. I thought she was just a bit tired, but I didn't expect..."
Hearing this, discussions immediately broke out in the crowd, with "crop field" being the most frequently mentioned term.
William keenly noticed this and asked the bartender watching the commotion nearby.
The latter's face was solemn, and after hesitating for a moment, he finally spoke: "Five days ago, Andy's crop field turned into ash overnight. All the crops inside were gone. His whole year of labor was completely wasted..."
William raised an eyebrow: "Do you know the reason?"
The bartender opened his mouth, then finally leaned close to his ear and whispered, "It must be the demon, that demon living in the convent!"
Gail and Mark's eyes lit up.
William was about to ask more, but the bartender refused to say another word, only indicating that Luca's daughter was probably also in grave danger.
Seeing this, William pondered for a moment, then walked toward the farmer named Luca under the crowd's watchful eyes.
"I can help you find your daughter," he said.
Luca was like a drowning man clutching at a straw: "You... you know where Lisa went?"
William shook his head: "I am a private detective from Great Britain, and these two are my assistants."
He pointed at Gail and Mark.
"We came here precisely to investigate the cause of the anomalies appearing in the village."
As soon as these words came out, the crowd of villagers instantly quieted down, and the way they looked at the three became strange.
It was a look reserved for dead people.
Only Luca looked hesitant: "But... but I don't have any money."
"We don't charge money. We only ask that you answer a few questions for us afterward," William patted the man's shoulder.
Luca clenched his fists, then nodded a moment later: "Alright!"
"William..." Gail pulled William aside. "Did you find a clue?"
The latter shook his head.
"Then... what if we can't find her," Gail took out a piece of equipment. "So far, the instruments still show no anomalies."
Mark also squeezed between the two: "Same for me."
William shrugged and said, "Then we run."
"Run... run?" Gail was somewhat surprised.
"I specifically wore clothes that are easy to move in," William opened his coat, revealing the black sweatpants underneath, looking somewhat out of place.
He then walked toward Luca: "Please take me to the scene of the incident to take a look..."
The two quickly left in a certain direction.
The crowd of villagers followed closely behind.
They wouldn't miss such a "major event." Presumably, for the foreseeable future, this matter would once again become the topic of conversation on everyone's lips.
Before long, Luca's house.
"This is Lisa's room," Luca pushed open a door and said.
William merely observed from outside the door, while Mark and Gail took the initiative to enter.
It looked very normal inside, with no signs of a struggle or mess, indicating that Lisa was at least calm when she left the house.
Soon, the two walked out of the room.
They both shook their heads; it seemed the equipment data still showed no problems.
Seeing this, three circles of golden patterns surfaced in William's eyes, and he quickly raised an eyebrow.
He saw a thin trail of black aura accumulating on the floor, extending from inside the room all the way outside.
What surprised him was that this aura was continuously gathering and shrinking, seemingly vanishing little by little.
During the time the group had arrived, a portion of the aura in the room had vanished again.
"No wonder no anomalies were found at first," William understood inwardly.
He immediately stopped waiting and followed the black trail.
Seeing this, the others were curious inwardly and followed closely behind.
Before long, they arrived at a barn not far from the house.
Luca took the initiative to step forward and open the barn door: "We searched here earlier, but there was no..."
He froze in place before he could finish his sentence.
He saw a petite figure standing on a shelf in the barn.
At the moment the door was opened, that figure jumped down. But the other party did not land; instead, her feet dangled in mid-air.
"Lisa!" Luca widened his eyes.
Uncertain if it was an illusion, William saw an aged face on that girl's visage.
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