Chapter 49: Bite Marks on the Corpse, the Truth of the Shapeshifting Monster's True Form

As the two spoke, they walked into the underground morgue directly beneath the church.

Directly above this place was where the church hall housed the Statue of the God of the Dead, and placing the morgue, which served the common people who made up the majority of the dead, here was quite fitting and reasonable. Just as Jier said, social status and wealth in the human world were meaningless to a powerful natural deity like the God of the Dead; every newly deceased Soul was merely an ordinary member of His Land of the Dead.

The underground morgue was filled with stone pillars supporting the ceiling; this was the first conspicuous thing Jier saw upon entering, and the second thing he saw was the human corpses covering the stone beds between the pillars.

Most of the deceased Villagers' corpses were still barely wearing the clothes they had worn in life, while some of the more miserably mangled corpses were simply stuffed into tattered burlap sacks, with limbs and heads left sticking out and stored haphazardly.

"Oh, those are some corpses we retrieved from the areas where the fighting was most severe. I heard this person was beaten into pieces by a group of villagers after he was caught invading the home of a young girl in another village's territory. It was quite difficult for us to retrieve his corpse; some villagers were even so angry they wanted to throw his body outside the trench."

Priest Nuor shook his head, telling Jier about the origins of these corpses as if he were recounting an interesting story.

"Then this person deserved to die. Those who take the initiative to commit crimes should meet such an end." Jier shrugged: "However, although everyone has the desire to do evil in their hearts, generally speaking, social stability and environmental constraints can limit the thoughts and actions of evil in everyone."

"It is just that the situation in Yemei Town is very dire now—panic, hunger, lack of water, poverty, and nothing to do. It is to be expected that strong young men would do such things. That is why Bell-Sasi is so urgent about taking people out to fight, isn't it? Otherwise, even if there were no construction work these days, wouldn't there still be many people dying from brawls outside the town?"

Facing Jier's question, Priest Nuor nodded: "You are right, that is indeed the case. It seems you mean that in order for us to have some leisure, we must also participate in Young Master Bell's counterattack plan?"

"But we truly cannot spare any men. You see, the morgue is full of the corpses of the common people, and both inside and outside the town, many people continue to die every day for one reason or another. This is far more than on ordinary days. The church only has so many hands; we are already overwhelmed."

"Overwhelmed, yet you still come to help me find my pet?" Jier asked, puzzled.

Priest Nuor frowned: "Will you leave if we don't help you? We were originally recovering our consumed Divine Power under the Statue of the God, but now we have to spare four people to accompany you to find your pet, which will delay our rest time tonight by quite a bit."

Jier pursed his lips: "Sorry, sorry, it's all my fault—no, it's my pet's fault, blame it! I will certainly fight bravely the day after tomorrow to take away the crowded commoners outside the town as soon as possible to reduce your burden."

"I hope so."

Priest Nuor said finally.

The two walked through the morgue filled with corpses; aside from their breathing, there was only the sound of their footsteps. There was not even the crackling of a Torch or Oil Lamp, because their illumination relied entirely on the blue light emitted by the Illumination Ring on Jier's finger.

To be honest, under the shine of this bright blue light, these motionless corpses looked to have an extra layer of tranquility and wisdom, as if they were not dead, but rather lying there quietly in deep contemplation.

They were like Sages, contemplating very complex life philosophies, silent and wordless, weaving the most impactful philosophical aphorisms with their silence.

"It looks strangely quiet. I thought..." Jier chuckled.

Priest Nuor took the conversation in stride without changing his expression: "You thought they would move from time to time? Or that they would wander in groups in the morgue when no one was around?"

"Is it possible that one of the functions of the Church of the God of the Dead is to prevent such situations from occurring?"

"Haha." Jier gave an awkward laugh.

Neither of them feared the corpses of dead Humans; the former had seen many due to the nature of his work and had a much deeper understanding of life and death than ordinary people, so he was indifferent to the fear of the dead. Jier was even simpler; let alone the dead, even if all these commoners came back to life and attacked him, Jier would not be afraid, so naturally, he was even less afraid of these stiff-limbed corpses attacking him.

Once one is not afraid in terms of force, so-called psychological fear is difficult to take effect.

This remained the case until Jier encountered his first Human wraith in the future; only then did Jier once again feel that sense of fear of death.

The two wandered among the stone beds filled with corpses. The stone beds were quite crowded; men, women, old, and young might not have been familiar with each other in life, but after death, they were pressed 'intimately' against one another, waiting for the church to collect fuel to burn them into ashes and bone fragments.

"The corpses of these commoners have already undergone the work of Soul guidance. Look, each of their torsos is written with their personal information in special ink. This way, as their Soul steps onto the road to the Land of the Dead, they can see who they are, where they came from, and when they died on their Soul's body from time to time."

"I heard that a long time ago, there was no such procedure. Many deceased Souls, even after arriving at the Land of the Dead, could not remember who they were and could only wander in a daze outside the gates of the kingdom, struggling to think of their own identities. Some intelligent Souls even turned into a new profession; they specialized in providing help to Souls who could not remember who they were, assisting them in recalling their origins. The price was to owe a favor."

Perhaps because it was too quiet, Priest Nuor recalled something and began to educate Jier on some little stories and trivia about what happens after death.

Just as the two were constantly walking among the corpses, Jier suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" The priest almost bumped into Jier's cape from behind.

"This corpse... is a bit strange?" Jier pointed abruptly at a corpse with a missing head nearby. His gaze was sharp, staring fixedly at the seemingly ordinary corpse, a look of suspicion appearing on his face.

Priest Nuor glanced at it, not feeling that there was anything strange: "It's just an ordinary wound..."

"No, look closely." Jier walked over, leaned down, and touched the wound on the person's head with his hand: "It doesn't look like a wound made by a hoe, but more like it was torn by some animal."

Priest Nuor immediately explained: "Perhaps it was torn by a stray dog that had eaten human flesh before we arrived to take over the corpse? No, that's not right."

He realized it was wrong as he spoke, because Yemei Town and the trenches outside the town were currently completely packed with people; where would there be room for stray dogs to move about? They would have likely been beaten to death and eaten long ago.

And when normal Humans fight each other, they either use fists and feet or bite desperately with their mouths, but even if they bite with their mouths, they would not target the skull, nor would they be able to destroy a human skull through biting.

One must know that the human skull is very sturdy, designed to protect the important and fragile brain inside, so most ordinary attacks are fatal elsewhere, but only when hitting the head are they blocked by the skull.

So, there was a problem here.

Thinking of this, Priest Nuor, not caring about saving money anymore, immediately walked quickly to a supporting stone pillar nearby and used Divine Power to activate an illumination device that was already on the pillar.

Bright white light was immediately activated, and the white light from the Baishi illuminated the surrounding space.

With this white light, Jier also turned off the blue light of the Illumination Ring on his right finger.

Borrowing the bright white light, the priest turned the corpse's head toward the light and carefully identified the wound: "It is indeed not a wound caused by a metal weapon or tool."

He confirmed this at first glance and then examined it carefully: "It is indeed a mark of a small canine-like creature tearing at it, and it was actually able to break the head. Look, this unlucky fellow, his brain was devoured from this broken wound."

Jier's expression tightened; he immediately knew it was done by the Shapeshifting Monster he had subdued. Besides that kind of Monster, no other Monster liked to eat human brains. After all, other man-eating Monsters preferred human Viscera, or thick thighs and buttocks, compared to other human parts.

"No way, could it be that the fox bit the head open and the deceased's brain matter just flowed out on its own?" Jier immediately tried to make up an excuse.

"It's possible. The corpses of the deceased who have had the Prayer Divine Art cast upon them simply do not rot; I am not entirely sure what the brain matter would turn into during this process." The priest looked at the area around the corpse's head and found that there was indeed a lot of brain fluid that had flowed out, mixed with blood on the stone bed, creating a mess.

However, what was awkward was that in this messy environment, the footprints of some small beast were very conspicuous.

"It's right here! Look!" Jier, on the contrary, let out an excited cry. Ignoring the dead corpse, he grabbed Priest Nuor and walked quickly through the morgue. This place was about five hundred square meters, with recessed grooves dug into the walls where more corpses were temporarily stored. Furthermore, it was filled with wooden ladders to help people climb up and down; the obstruction of these things made it very inconvenient to find something the size of a fox.

Not to mention that there were many stone pillars blocking the view; if that little thing was determined to play hide-and-seek with the two of them, it would not be easy for Jier and the others to catch it.

"I've found you! You despicable little thing, come out! Look at what you've done to the church here? This is a sacred morgue for processing the dead, not a place for a wild little beast like you to feed for free. This is a desecration! You must apologize to those dead!"

Jier shouted loudly. His voice was quite loud, echoing in the enclosed space, annoying Priest Nuor so much that he had to cover his ears tightly.

"Keep it down, Knight Jier! Shouting so loudly will also disturb these dead. This is also a disrespectful desecration. And my ears cannot handle this volume; ah, I love a quiet environment."

He had to shout loudly as well to hear what he was saying.

But Jier's actions were effective. If the Huimao Hu Li had been hiding secretly in some corner, it would have taken them quite a while to find it, but Jier's provocation caused the Huimao Hu Li, transformed by the Shapeshifting Monster, to crawl out from its hiding place in a rage, standing on an old man's corpse and barking at Jier.

It was not the 'woo-woo' sound of a fox, but a low, deep growl more similar to a wild wolf.

To avoid being seen through by Priest Nuor, Jier immediately rushed up and grabbed the creature's head. He stopped pretending that his left hand was restricted by the Negative Energy Stone Ball, moved with agility, grabbed it, and then slammed the Huimao Hu Li hard onto the ground.

Slap!

"Woo-woo..." This time, the Shapeshifting Monster made the sound a fox should normally make—a pleading, whimpering sound.

"Hmph! Know how to be good now? Weren't you very fierce and arrogant just a moment ago? Oh, come and see what this thing in my left hand is; it's a good thing." Jier brought the Negative Energy Stone Ball in his left hand close to the creature. Unexpectedly, before even making contact, the Huimao Hu Li, which had been pleading on the ground, began to tremble all over, and the body surface that had been disguised as fox fur collapsed, revealing its true form.

Many a Shapeshifting Monster goes its entire life until death without ever seeing its own original form; in this moment, both it and Jier saw it.

It was a thing aggregated and transformed from a group of slug-like entities; Jier could only describe this thing as a "thing."

He truly had not expected that the true form of a Shapeshifting Monster would be such an aggregated lifeform, and what was even more incredible was that they themselves did not know they looked like this.

Jier immediately pulled his left hand behind his back to avoid further collapse of the other party, but he did not expect the Shapeshifting Monster to collapse on its own; perhaps its original appearance also exceeded its own expectations. This intelligent Monster had never imagined that its own body, its own intelligence, and its own consciousness were actually composed of a group of things similar to slugs.

This discovery caused it to collapse; its entire being seemed to fade in color, crumbling from the Huimao Hu Li begging for mercy on the ground into a puddle of slugs crawling all over the floor.

"Hey, hey, hey, are you alright?" Jier immediately asked urgently.

Priest Nuor, who had not yet arrived from behind, thought that Jier had slammed the fox onto the ground and caused some harm to it. As he walked over, he said, "After all, it is a beast and not intelligent enough. No matter how you try to teach it Human things, it won't understand. Actually, what it did was nothing; after all, the Soul of the deceased has already been guided and has long since embarked on the journey to the land of the dead. What remains here is merely a dead physical shell."

"After people die, to the deceased, their corpses are already things from the previous cycle of life that have nothing to do with them. Their death is their attainment of a new life! The old body only holds sentimental value for those still living, as well as causing many natural troubles if left unattended."

Jier, meanwhile, was nervously poking at the "slugs" crawling all over the floor with his right hand, trying to get them to gather together, and the Shapeshifting Monster seemed to be trying as well; under the effort of its consciousness, the body that had just disintegrated temporarily reconstructed half of a Huimao Hu Li's body, though it was somewhat crudely made and looked fake.

"Ah, yes, yes, you are absolutely right. Little guy, listen, Priest Nuor has already forgiven you. The owners of those corpses have already gone on a long journey; they were corpses that needed to be burned anyway. Don't do this again next time!"

Jier tried his best, but the image of half a fox could only remain like this.

With no other choice, Jier had to gather the "slugs" from the floor into the cloak behind him, using the rolled-up cloak to pouch the scattered "slugs," leaving only its half-transformed fox body exposed.

When Priest Nuor walked over, what he saw was half a fox, wrapped in Jier's cloak, whimpering at him.

What he did not know was that the half of the fox body wrapped in the cloak was actually still a mass of "slugs" that could not gather together.

Jier's heart was bleeding; his precious cloak! His cherished Night Ambition cloak, such a high-end cloak, was actually being used to wrap a mass of shapeshifting bugs at this moment, which really made him unable to keep his composure.

This cloak was truly ill-fated; previously, when dealing with the Great Bird Deity, it had been covered in blood and gore from the dead bird corpses launched by the Great Bird Deity. Jier had carefully and meticulously cleaned this cloak for quite a while before wearing it again.

As a result, he had originally worn it beautifully today to attend the banquet of the Sasi Family, only to encounter such a situation that very night.

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