Chapter 54: Dead Infant Legend

Cecily sang loudly, her voice drifting in the hollow swamp, reaching a resonance with the horn that shook blood and bones.

This scene gave Su Mian goosebumps. Both vision and hearing reached the threshold, making one unconsciously brought into the illusion of antiquity and divinity.

Everything was like being in a medieval oil painting, shocked by divinity and civilization, completely unable to speak.

The team walked slowly into the cave, and the environment suddenly became wrong. The light of the torches was swallowed by the endless darkness.

The wind whistled, and the sound was like the heart-piercing screams of infants or wild cats.

Deep in the hollowed-out dome, the ruins of half a tower were hidden. The stone materials and mineral veins were eroded by water, long since blurred and hard to distinguish.

"Merciful Lord, we entrust the soul that has departed at this moment into Your hands."

Cain's voice echoed in the Anvil Fortress. "We ask You to embrace her with eternal love and forgive all her transgressions, washing away the dust and pain of the human world."

"Take away the plague, take away the casualties."

The shadows on the ground were illuminated by the light of the torches, trembling as the wind blew. Su Mian slowly lowered her head and immediately frowned.

"Sera—"

She wanted to remind Sera about the shadows on the ground, but saw the person beside her with her eyes closed tightly.

Is she that scared?

Forget it.

Su Mian sighed, brought the torch close to the ground. The shadows changed as the light source moved, but... on her shoulder, a blurry shadow never moved its position.

Is it the infant of that dead old Saintess?

She shifted her gaze and found that many people's shadows were like this, with a shadow resembling an infant appearing on their shoulders or arms, and she could even see the outline of the infant's arms.

She got goosebumps and secretly noted these positions.

Third in the first row, ninth in the first row, eighth in the second row...

Just as she was about to finish noting them, the prayer reached its climax. With a blast of the horn, Cain closed the Bible, placed his hand on his left shoulder, and bowed deeply forward.

Everyone followed suit.

The moment vision was lost, a loud noise came from the top of the cave, like the sound of rocks falling.

In an instant, the sound of tearing and heavy thuds intertwined, cold liquid exploded, and the mine fell into silence in an instant.

With a scream, the players slowly stood up, all wearing terrified expressions.

Right behind Cain, the position where the Saintess had originally stood was pierced by a huge rock, leaving only a pitiful bit of red blood flowing out through the cracks in the rock.

The gamey smell drilled into everyone's nostrils, and anxiety and terror filled everyone's hearts.

"Ahhhhhh—!!!"

"The evil spirit is angry! The evil spirit is angry!"

"Hell! Truly hell! I don't want to die here."

"Saint, Saint, Saintess... please forgive us, wuwuwu God."

Cain turned slowly, stared into the distance, and sighed, bowing deeply to Cecily's corpse.

In this absurd and terrifying atmosphere, Su Mian looked at the place where the rock had fallen from high above, took a long time to withdraw her gaze, and rubbed her cold fingertips.

Her eyes became listless because she had been staring at a certain place for a long time, and a stinging pain came from her pupils for a moment.

She rubbed her eyes, and her gaze gradually focused on the absurd scene of the priest and the bleeding rock.

In the mud pierced by the great force, Su Mian saw the red feathers that had been crushed. Her pupils trembled slightly, and her throat felt a bit astringent.

That was the white dove she had let go yesterday.

––

"While waiting for the City-State Knights to arrive, we will temporarily stay by the Mill River."

The priest had already changed his clothes, still in a black suit robe.

"After the questioning, everyone will be dismissed. Please do not panic."

"Even the Saintess's life was taken; is there really no way to end this plague?"

"God... please give us a way to live."

The exhausted and terrified nuns returned to the farmers' homes in groups, and the players gathered at the long table in the fire-burning room, the atmosphere freezing for a moment.

Cain, as the DM, summarized the course of events, but since almost everyone was present, there was no need to say more.

"Let's sort out the known information first."

Charlie stood up and walked to the front of the long table.

"Saintess Cecily died this morning at the Anvil Fortress by the Mill River, crushed to death by a suddenly falling boulder. Currently, a total of 25 players participated in the purification rite."

"There are five players directly related to Cecily: Nun Sera, Nun Yifening, best friend Adele, servant Oli, and monastery dean Philip. Among them, Adele and Dean Philip did not participate in the purification rite."

"We hadn't even seen Cecily before coming to the countryside; why do you say we have a direct relationship?"

Sera spoke in a low voice after Charlie finished speaking. She showed more nervousness than anger.

"You saw Cecily the day before the purification rite."

This one sentence left Sera speechless. She wanted to ask Su Mian for help, but found the girl writing and drawing on parchment, not listening to their discussion at all.

"Yifening! We've all been treated as suspects; why aren't you defending us?"

Once these words were out, everyone looked at Su Mian. Sera realized her voice was too loud and quickly covered her mouth, looking at Su Mian with an apologetic expression.

"Did you find anything, Yifening?"

Tiffany pressed her straw hat, her gaze probing.

Su Mian walked to Charlie's side. Charlie took two steps back, letting all gazes focus on the girl.

She held up the parchment in her hand and unfolded it from top to bottom. The players leaned forward, looking left and right, unable to make heads or tails of it.

"What, what does this mean?"

On the drawing were several black shadows, barely recognizable as human shapes.

"I don't know if you observed the shadows under your feet when the priest was reciting the prayer."

Su Mian pointed to the man standing third in the first row during the purification rite; he was a monk.

"An extra shadow appeared on your shadow, resembling a curled-up infant."

The player pointed at widened his eyes slightly, unable to believe it.

"Fake... fake, right?"

"Everyone was looking straight ahead at that time; how did you have time to look at the ground, and you even remembered so many?"

A player showed suspicion. Once these words were out, others followed suit.

"Exactly, how could you remember the positions of all the shadows and the people? It's a bit too miraculous, right?"

Amidst the questioning, a boy silently raised his hand; he was Cecily's servant, Oli.

"I... I saw it."

Oli stood up, looking at Su Mian with full respect.

"I secretly looked at my own shadow at the time, and it was exactly the same as what she drew in her hand."

Since he had said so, those players couldn't say anything more. Su Mian was just about to roll up the parchment in her hand when Charlie keenly discovered that some text was also recorded on the back of the parchment.

He asked curiously, "This back is..." ===== CHAPTER 55 =====