Chapter 4254: Spirit Possession (Part 36)

It was another night. The only difference was that in this deathly silent town, several small figures were flitting about. The agent, possessing the body of a puppet, nimbly slid down the drainage pipe and jumped directly onto the second-floor balcony.

This was Derby's house. After some investigation, the agent had found the place where this former pastor lived. He knew there would certainly be clues here. He had to hurry and search while the evil spirit was preoccupied.

Although this body was small and agile, the problem was that it was a bit too small; its speed was slow, and walking was strenuous. The agent spent a great deal of effort climbing onto the desk, and then he discovered that this guy actually had quite a few books in his home.

You have to understand, this cult opposed modern education, and besides the scriptures, nothing else was allowed to be read. Whether it was newspapers or magazines, even flyers were forbidden. Yet, this pastor had hidden quite a few books in his home.

It couldn't really be called hiding. He had simply placed the books openly on the desk. Moreover, many of the books showed signs of having been flipped through. The agent did a simple check and found they were all books on politics and economics. This was even stranger.

In the United States, ordinary laypeople wouldn't read professional books because there were too many technical terms, making them hard to fully understand. The agent also discovered that although the books had signs of being flipped through, they basically stopped at the beginning. In other words, they didn't read more than a few pages before stopping; he probably couldn't get through them.

Then he came near the desk drawer. The agent jumped in and discovered that there was actually an expensive fountain pen set inside. This was still somewhat understandable; after all, he belonged to the upper echelons of the church, so having money was normal. However, it was a bit strange that such a luxury item was a fountain pen.

Fountain pens being used as gifts was normal, but precisely because it was too normal, it seemed abnormal in this very sinister town. In a sect that had no schools and opposed all education, who would give fountain pens as gifts?

He came to the second drawer. As soon as the agent opened it, he saw several letters. He opened one of them and saw it written: "Dear son Derby, I have good news to tell you. Your father will soon be transferred to the Utah State Legislature..."

The agent's eyes widened instantly. Good heavens, this Derby had quite a background; he was actually a congressman's son. He pulled out a few more letters. The dates of the letters went further back, revealing even more information.

It turned out this guy was the illegitimate son of a former city councilman, now a state legislator. The specific reasons were complicated; it seemed the town mayor had sent a local girl to the congressman for bribery, and then she unfortunately became pregnant, eventually giving birth to Derby.

And it seemed that because this congressman had no other descendants, Derby was quite valued. His "cheap" father would send him books and pens. Moreover, the town's upper crust all knew Derby's background, so no one went out of their way to make things difficult for him.

These letters didn't contain any important content. The agent knew there was definitely more to it than this. He searched the study again, and after finding no important intelligence, he moved to the bedroom, where he discovered another letter under the pillow.

"Dear son, before my transfer, there is one most important matter that must be completed. That former circus performer Borger has gotten involved with Congressman Haws's daughter. That stupid girl told him about the discharge matter, and now he has become suspicious. I absolutely cannot let this matter become a stain on my tenure. You must find a way to protect our family. I know how much your relationship with him has deteriorated; without us, he will certainly make you die a very ugly death."

Seeing this, the agent knew this pair was also a "plastic" father-son relationship. But this clue brought a very important truth: their previous speculation was correct—Old Borger really did know about the water pollution.

His face was indeed useful; despite having entered old age, he was still a handsome old man. Plus, as could be seen in the memories, his personality was quite likable, so it was perfectly normal for someone to pursue him. And a certain congressman's daughter had revealed this matter to him.

This Derby had a very bad relationship with Old Borger for certain reasons. The agent guessed it might be because Derby relied on having a good father and completely refused to follow the rules of the sect set by Old Borger. Despite being a pastor, he didn't set any good example. In the eyes of Old Borger, who valued the sect so highly, this was a thorn in his side, a splinter in his eye, and he had to be gotten rid of.

And now Old Borger knew that these bastards in the city council had been poisoning the entire town. Then he would certainly take Derby down first. This letter seemed like a threat, but in reality, it was a warning, because Derby had no other choice—if he didn't kill Old Borger, the other party would kill him.

Now it seemed that the contest between the two should have been won by Derby. But it was actually quite strange; after all, Old Borger practiced black magic, so there was no reason he couldn't beat Derby. However, judging from Peter's description, Old Borger hadn't mastered his black magic either, and added to the fact that he was an old man, it was normal that he couldn't beat the younger Derby.

However, it was more likely that the town mayor and Derby were of one mind. Although Old Borger was the sect leader, the town mayor had people and guns. Old Borger couldn't fight off four hands with two fists.

And after Derby killed Old Borger, he discovered his research into black magic. It was also possible that Old Borger fought back with his life, not hesitating to expose his practice of black magic just to kill Derby. In any case, Derby eventually inherited the black magic legacy and also started messing with evil artifacts and the like.

However, according to Peter, the magic array in the air-raid shelter was made by Old Borger. Now it seemed it should have been a last resort. Old Borger might have wanted to use that thing to transform his life form and then go for revenge. But unfortunately, he was killed by someone else before he succeeded, and in the end, it benefited Derby instead.

The agent was inclined to believe that Derby knew the function of that magic array. He did it on purpose, tricking the other pastor, Famino, into going over, sacrificing him, and then transforming himself into an evil spirit.

However, there were still two doubts that hadn't been resolved. That is, why did Binger and the others in the town enter a spiritual world, and why did they also gain the ability to possess others like evil spirits?

The agent guessed that this shouldn't have been Derby's doing. Although he seemed to have become an evil spirit and ruled the entire town, it could be seen that he had no way to fully control the spiritual world; otherwise, there wouldn't have been so many things happening that were outside his expectations.

More importantly, the agent trusted the judgment of the Hunter. The Hunter said that that thing couldn't be considered human, but rather like a concept. And the evil spirit that Derby had transformed into was too personified.

Most importantly, the agent felt that the evil spirit Derby had transformed into was really a bit weak and not worth the Hunter being so serious. There must certainly be something else.

Thinking of this, the agent decided to set off for the church basement. That might be where the town's ultimate secret was hidden. But the trouble was, after so long, no matter how weak Derby was, he should have found a way to deal with the seal.

They were all puppets now, with almost no physical combat power; solving that evil spirit might be very difficult, and they could only count on the few people still alive in reality.

The agent's prediction was correct. After the curse on the arm spread to the chest, the two forces conflicted with each other, and the nail deeply embedded in the chest was gradually losing its effect.

The evil spirit returned to look for Kent's corpse, but didn't find it. Thus, he could only go back to control the corpse of Aunt Kane, which he had abandoned. After all, without a human corpse, and with the puppet also snatched away, this was the only body he could barely use.

The evil spirit was very clear that with the situation developing to this point, it was impossible to break them one by one or make them kill each other as before. He had to think of some other way. The evil spirit didn't return to the spiritual world, but instead borrowed Aunt Kane's body and walked toward the church.

On the way, he looked up at the sky. At dusk, the sky was gloomy. If nothing unexpected happened, tonight would be a moonless night.

And Bruce and the others were also heading to the church. After Binger told them about the mysterious object beneath the church, they also believed that a secret might be hidden within it and needed to go over to investigate.

And just as they passed Aunt Kane's house, they saw Linda's figure flash past behind the house.

Bruce instinctively felt something was wrong. He walked over and saw Linda fiddling with the car they had driven over.

"Linda, where are you going?!" Bruce asked.

Linda sat in the driver's seat and smiled at the puppet he was possessing. She said, "I don't know how to drive, can you teach me?"

"I..."

"I'll teach you." Kate stepped out, then turned and said to the other companions, "You go ahead, I'll follow shortly."

Bruce couldn't do anything about it and could only take the others and leave first. And Linda picked up the puppet Kate was possessing from the ground and sat back in the driver's seat. She still seemed a bit clumsy, but looked very excited.

"Here are the car keys, you have to start the car first. Then prepare to shift gears, and then step on the gas..."

Linda took a few deep breaths, looking very nervous. But she suddenly turned her head to look at Kate and said, "Aren't you going to ask where I'm going?"

"That's your freedom," Kate said, "If you have nowhere to go, then go to New York. You are my cousin, you can stay at my house."

Linda gave her a brilliant smile.

Several people arrived at the church entrance and ran into the agent. The few small puppets looked at each other, all feeling a bit helpless.

"I don't think we can beat the evil spirit like this." Bruce said.

"His body isn't that healthy either." Peter said, "A mummified corpse isn't necessarily sturdier than a puppet. Besides, I made some small props; at least I can knock him down temporarily."

"If it really doesn't work, we'll just seal it up again." The agent said, "And then think of a way to slowly solve it."

"Compared to this, I think the thing under the church is a bigger problem." Binger said, "I have a bad feeling."

Binger's premonition soon came true. Because this time after they went down beneath the church, what appeared wasn't the small rooms from before, but an extremely empty, dark room.

Music could be heard faintly from the depths of the darkness. Bruce listened intently, then froze. He said, "How does this sound like... rock music???"

The music coming from the darkness wasn't the eerie and ethereal music they had imagined at all, but very intense rock music.

They followed the sound of the music and walked closer, then smelled a rich aroma. The agent sniffed lightly and said, "Coffee."

Immediately after walking closer, they finally reached the light. They saw a figure sitting at a table, listening to rock music on the radio, sipping coffee, and leisurely flipping through a magazine on the table.