Chapter 47: Church of the God of the Dead, the Mysterious Stone Ball, Permission Granted

The patrol Town Guard who had been following Jier automatically stepped forward to help them knock on the door ring of the church.

On the sturdy wooden gate, there hung a metal ring used for opening and closing the door as well as knocking to call people; by using it to strike the gate, those inside could hear that there were visitors.

In fact, there was a special pull-ring for a bell next to the gate, embedded in the stone door frame; by pulling the recessed cord, a bell hanging inside the church gate would ring with a jingle, and the Novice Priest on night duty would come forward to open the door.

However, the Town Guards were not visitors, and they were accustomed to knocking directly on the door to call people.

Very quickly, a hinged door the size of a human face opened on the wooden gate, revealing half of a young Novice Priest's face. The other party looked exhausted, with two large dark circles hanging on his face; it was clear that in these days, even a Novice Priest like him had been too busy to get enough rest.

"Everyone, what is the purpose of your visit? Whose family in town has died? Natural decay, or a brawl and murder? Could it be that the Monster has attacked again?"

The young man's words became increasingly outrageous, so Jier hurriedly stepped forward to explain: "It is like this, I am Knight Jier who only arrived in town this evening; you might have heard about me from others who just returned to the church."

"There is such a matter, you look truly young," the youth said, looking with envy at Jier, who was not many years older than him.

"I just went to attend the Sasi Family banquet, and I did not expect that while my team was setting up camp, it would allow one of my pet foxes to slip away from everyone's eyes. It seems to be the first time it has come to such a Human town, so it was a bit excited and panicked, and it ran out."

Jier pointed to the three people of Weier following behind him; these three were wearing different kinds of Plate Armor, which was very different from the Town Guards beside them who did not even have a set of Leather Armor.

"My subordinate Warrior chased it all the way, and finally saw it crawl from a small hole by the street into your church." Jier curled his lips: "After all, it is a small animal caught from the wild as a pet; I reckon it must have smelled some of the corpses stored inside your church, so it ran in."

"Ah! You want to come in to catch it! Am I guessing right?" the young Novice Priest said.

Jier nodded: "See if it is convenient, would you mind notifying the other Priests of your church to let us come in and look for it?"

The young Priest looked reluctant; he glanced at Jier and the Town Guards and others outside the door, nine people in total, and all of them were tough guys carrying weapons, which made him a little afraid. He was not afraid of corpses, but he was uniquely afraid of those people who could turn others into corpses.

After all, to the Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead, corpses, living corpses, or Undead were often vulnerable when facing them, so there was nothing to fear, but living people were actually very dangerous.

Unlike Priests of other churches, most Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead could perceive the Death Aura stained on a person; it did not mean that if this person had a thick death aura they were about to die, but rather how many deaths this person had caused.

Unlike his subordinates who carried more or less death aura, Jier's body was completely clean, without a trace of the kind of Death Aura they often spoke of, which was actually a very terrifying kind.

Because this young Priest had heard his elders mention that only those powerful Knights who had killed many people needed special Magic Potion to clear the Death Aura from their bodies, because they killed too many, causing the Death Aura on their bodies to often rise to a level that interfered with a person's consciousness.

And no matter how one looked at this young Knight Jier, who was not many years older than him, it seemed to be this kind of situation.

"I... I will go find someone to ask, you all wait a moment! Wait a moment!" After saying this, the young Priest did not even close the small hinged door on the gate and ran away in a hurry; it was unknown what there was to be afraid of regarding Jier and the others.

"He was scared," Jier muttered, then turned his head and pointed at Bawei, saying: "It must be you, making such a fierce and evil look, scaring the person away."

Bawei scratched his head in embarrassment; he had just smiled at the other party, who knew he would scare this little young Priest away.

Without saying two more words, everyone saw three adult Priests come behind the door, pull back the bolt, and open the church gate.

"Please come in, everyone please come in, if you do not mind." The leading Priest was a middle-aged Priest whom Jier had not seen at the Sasi Family banquet, but the two young Priests following him were ones Jier had seen.

Therefore, Jier nodded to these two, and they also nodded to Jier, and whispered to confirm to the middle-aged Priest that it was indeed Knight Jier who had not been in town for long.

"So it is Knight Jier, I just heard that Novice mention you and thought he had lost his mind. I did not expect it to really be you coming to the door; it is the pet fox that got lost and ran to our place, right?" The middle-aged Priest nodded and greeted everyone to come inside to talk in the front courtyard of the church.

Those few Town Guards did not follow in; although the Church of the God of the Dead was a righteous god and orthodox church present everywhere, from ordinary people down to town bureaucrats, and even the Town Guards in the middle, they all still felt that the Church of the God of the Dead was ominous, and that getting in touch with it too much or running into the church would stain one with the aura of death, bad luck, and so on. So unless their family members died and they needed to handle funeral matters, they rarely dealt with this church.

"Knight Jier! We will help you guard outside the church to prevent your pet from running away while no one is watching," they said.

Jier also waved his hand at them to express his thanks.

Several people therefore followed the church Priests to the front courtyard of the church, where the ground was paved with stone tiles, and the surroundings were all reliefs and warnings related to the God of the Dead carved from rock.

Jier also saw that in some inconspicuous corners of the buildings, there were a large number of skull-style carvings, and those skulls were performing the production and living actions of living people, just as if they were still alive.

Only then could Jier feel that this place was like a church of the God of the Dead, because since they entered, they could not even smell any stench of rotting corpses in their noses.

The air was fresh, and even the temperature inside the church was cooler than on the street outside.

"It is quite cool in here." Bawei tugged at the Armor on his chest to let the close-fitting Armor ventilate and cool down. Actually, Armor was fine in every way, except that it would be a bit hot when worn in midsummer; it was fine to stay still, but once fighting started, it would be very stuffy and hot.

Jier glanced at Bawei, which made Bawei feel quite baffled, and then Jier said to the middle-aged Priest: "What I lost is a Huimao Hu Li caught in the southern mountains and forests as a pet; that thing is very smart and quite picky about food. It likes to eat raw meat very much, and running to your place this time is probably the reason for that."

Several Priests looked at each other and felt strange: "That should not be, clearly prayers have been made for every corpse, it is impossible for any smell to dissipate."

Jier shrugged: "After all, it is a wild beast caught in the mountains and forests; who knows if it has any special little skills? Right? I know it is inappropriate to disturb you all for the sake of finding a pet fox, especially since I already knew at the banquet that you all have been very busy during this time, all dealing with the corpses of the Villagers who died in brawls outside the town a while ago."

"So, I am very sorry for causing you trouble because of this trivial matter. I express my apologies here, and at the same time, I hope you can allow us, or just me alone, to look for my pet in your church while you send someone to watch."

In fact, Jier's request was a very excessive one, and at times it was even a hostile and provocative act. But Jier, firstly, had no conflict of interest with their Yemei Town Church of the God of the Dead, and secondly, after the Priests of the church looked at each other a few times, they even felt that Jier coming with this kind of request at this time might be a small warning from Bell-Sasi about them not participating in the counterattack plan?

The leading middle-aged Priest pondered for a moment before saying to Jier: "Your request is truly, but it is not impossible; please allow me to report to the Priest who manages this place. He is a Priestess, let him decide this matter."

Jier raised his hand to signal him to go notify, and then the middle-aged Priest walked hurriedly from the side passage of the church front courtyard into the back.

Before long, he returned, holding a Black Stone Ball floating on his palm.

"This is?" Jier asked, and the other young Priests present were a bit surprised after seeing that thing.

"Oh, this is a kind of Divine Power item that can suppress the strength of the strong. To avoid you causing some trouble during the inspection process, you need to hold this stone ball throughout the whole process until it is finished before you can take it off. It might be a bit dangerous for ordinary people, but for a Knight like you, there is no risk. Will you take it?"

This middle-aged Priest held the Black Stone Ball; this thing exuded a deep and cold feeling, at least Jier did not feel anything wrong from it.

Should he accept the other party's conditions?

It was clear that Jier suddenly coming to the door at this time also made the people of the Church of the God of the Dead feel surprised, so they chose such a means to limit Jier's strength to avoid some situations they could not control.

"No problem." Jier stretched out his left hand; he was still wearing his Gauntlet, and just as he was about to take it off, the other party shook his head and sent the Black Stone Ball through the air into his hand.

Jier's left hand subconsciously gripped this egg-sized magical stone ball uncontrollably.

The next moment, Jier felt that he was not holding a stone ball in his hand at all, but was simply holding a piece of extremely cold iceberg with his bare hand.

His body swayed, and for a moment he felt that he had to use at least half of his strength and Life Energy to resist the intense chill coming from the stone ball. That chill was not necessarily physically cold in the physical sense; it was mostly a feeling of probing brought by supernatural power.

As soon as Jier realized that the Life Energy in his body would be consumed rapidly in the confrontation with this thing, he could not bear to part with the Life Energy he had worked so hard to accumulate. So he immediately activated the 【Grass and Wood Source】 ability on his two ribs.

The next moment, infinite Divine Power of the God of Agriculture replaced his whole body's consumption, and the Life Energy simulated and replaced by the Divine Power of the God of Agriculture replaced Jier's own Life Energy, which allowed the strength on his body to recover all at once.

"You are?" Everyone present saw the change in Jier; that surging Divine Power of the God of Agriculture even manifested through Jier's eyes, making his eyes glow with cyan divine light.

Not like a mortal.

"Oh, nothing, nothing, this thing is amazing, I have to bring out some real skills to compete with it. It is fine, can we start looking now?" Jier answered the Priests' questions after calming down.

This answer made no sense, but none of the Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead present had actually touched that Black Stone Ball with their own hands.

That thing was actually a Negative Energy Aggregate that they had recovered and concentrated after eliminating areas with thick negative energy in previous years. This thing could be used to forge equipment, which was a rare Magic Material, and could also be used by some Mages who controlled undead Magic to cast spells; they themselves could also get rewards from the gods by offering such Negative Energy Aggregate stone balls to the gods.

But more often than not, this kind of Negative Energy Aggregate was often seen as proof of the hard work and diligence of the Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead in a certain place.

It was used for inspection personnel to see when inspecting the superior diocese, to prove that they had made some contributions when governing the place, and had driven away many negative energy areas, Monsters, and items that hindered the production and life of ordinary people in Human civilization areas.

This object can also have other uses; one of them is that after coming into close contact with it, it makes the holder perceive a threat to the essence of life, thereby mobilizing all the strength in their body to resist the Founengliang on the stone ball.

Because if this Founengliang is allowed to erode the human body, a living person will turn into a semi-undead creature.

This resistance is not something the holder can choose not to do; unless they drop the stone ball on the ground, while holding it, they cannot exert even ten percent of their full strength. In many cases, they cannot even exert one percent.

The middle-aged Priest looked at Jier's state; he did not understand whether Jier's strength was restricted at this moment or not, but seeing the Agricultural God's Divine Power emerging from Jier's eyes confirmed to him that Jier was indeed a warrior of the Agricultural God Church, and likely a warrior with some fame and strength.

It was a pity that he was not a warrior, Divine Knight, or Church Knight of their Church of the God of the Dead.

If there had been a Knight of such strength helping them in Yemei Town, it is estimated that there wouldn't have been so much trouble a few days ago, nor so many casualties among the public, which resulted in them being as exhausted as dead dogs every day now.

"Very well, let's split up to search. Each of your subordinates will be accompanied by one of our companions, and I will accompany you myself. So, where shall we start searching? A prior warning: there are some key, important buildings of our church that you cannot enter to search. We can also guarantee that your pet will not sneak into them."

Jier nodded and pointed at Weier and the others: "You all search in the front and back yards; I will go with this gentleman to the mortuary where the corpses are kept. It is highly likely to be in that place. It truly is a beast; it probably ate dead Humans while in the mountains and forests, which is why it followed the scent here. I hope it doesn't disturb the corpses of those deceased members of the public; otherwise, I would truly feel sorry for them."

Jier shook his head, feeling more and more that bringing a Shapeshifting Monster into the team was a foolish thing to do. It was fine when he was around, but as soon as he was not in the team, the rest of the group was not taken seriously by that fellow at all.

It ran off the moment it felt like it.

If it dares to sneak away now, who knows if it will crave human flesh and eat people in the future?

Regarding Jier's words, the middle-aged Priest thought more highly of Jier, feeling that since Jier was a Knight, why would he care about the dignity of those ordinary people? Especially the dignity of the dead?

When facing the living, these Knight Lords would beat, scold, or even execute them at will. They, the Priests of the Church of the God of the Dead, would then have to help collect the corpses.

However, seeing Jier's young face, he estimated it was because Jier was still young and still held onto a bit of the original kindness that ignores social status.

Perhaps as time passes and he grows older, this young man will not care about the life or death of ordinary people in the future, let alone the dignity of the corpses of deceased ordinary people.

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