Chapter 889

A group of priests in black robes arrived at the scene. The lead priest, wearing a small cap and sporting a thick beard, scanned the police present, nodded slightly, and patted Sheriff Oliver on the shoulder: "We need to examine this alone!"

The sheriff gave the group of solemn-faced priests a bitter smile and could only order his men to withdraw.

The priests from the Faith Appraisal Association, under the Holy Church's Department of Faith Theory, pulled leather gloves from their black briefcases and put them on cautiously. The bearded priest approached a subordinate with lips as thin as blades and a slightly pale complexion, and asked in a low voice: "Is it heresy?"

The subordinate took out a tape measure, carefully measuring the relative distance of each corpse, and sketched it out in his notebook.

Thirteen corpses surrounded the Bai Lang Coppola, arranged in a neat circle.

The subordinate measured the dimensions of each corpse and used a complex formula to calculate their centers of gravity... then, a solemn expression appeared on his face.

"It looks like a kind of sacrificial secret ritual..."

"Their centers of gravity are perfectly maintained; even with their bodies kneeling and heads tilted back, the center of gravity has remained at the most stable central point. And the center of gravity of every person maintained a perfect distance from the main sacrifice surrounding the center—everyone is precise to the smallest fraction!"

"The person who set up this scene is truly possessed of a precise and accurate mindset. He is either a pervert obsessed with mathematics who holds himself to high standards, or he really is treating this as a kind of sacred work."

"So, yes... I believe this is a secret ritual."

"And it is a secret ritual highly correlated with astrology. I drew an auxiliary line through their gazes and discovered that they did not intersect at that blood-lamp, but rather at a point beneath it! If that blood-lamp marks the sun, the position they are staring at is where the moon will be in twelve days. And that day happens to be when the moon is closest to the ground..."

"So many complex circumstances—this certainly isn't a coincidence!"

The black-robed, bearded priest stared at the lamp stained red with blood.

It was an oil lamp engraved with the Lamp Father's mark, and its form was that of a carriage lamp commonly used on wagons.

But the lamp oil inside had been replaced with blood. The killer mixed the oil and blood; because castor oil has a lighter texture, the castor oil floating on top would be ignited, reflecting the fresh blood and turning it into a blood-lamp...

The bearded man's expression grew even more serious. He opened his mouth slightly, looked around, and then lowered his voice: "Is it, is it heresy?"

"A blood-lamp?"

The subordinate frowned: "The heretical faiths of the Lamp Father include the Eastern Continent's Ming Sect that worships celestial bodies, the Xuanzhen Sect, the Bai Lian Sect, the Hongyang Sect... these are the Lamp Father's celestial-sect heretics; in addition, there is the Savior Sect, which denies the Trinity and believes the Savior is the only God; the Savior Re-advent Sect; the Lamp Father Only Sect; and the Three-Body Original Sin Sect."

"But there has never been a heresy that worships a blood-lamp!"

The bearded priest stared at the scene, which was filled with a strange aesthetic, pondered for a moment, and said: "Could it be some new emerging heresy?"

The subordinate shook his head: "There are many heresies that use blood as a symbol; the most famous is that group of Cup Mother heretics—the Blood Cup Church."

"It is precisely because of this that they would never tolerate the authority of the Blood of Original Sin being usurped by others. A new heresy might escape our eyes, but it would absolutely never escape the Blood Cup Church's pursuit!"

As he spoke, the subordinate opened his black briefcase and took out a roll of leather, slowly spreading it out to reveal row upon row of gleaming sharp blades.

The bearded priest made the sign of the sacred triangle, which counted as a prayer for the dead.

Then he watched as the subordinate decisively dissected one of the thugs...

"All the blood in his body has vanished without a trace..."

"And it wasn't drained by someone through a wound in the carotid artery, nor was it the Blood Cup Sect's favorite Boiling Blood Method, which uses the power of the Blood Cup secret ritual to ignite all the blood in the deceased's body, evaporating the essence of the blood medicine to merge into the heart. If that were the case, one would only need to take out the heart and grind it into powder to get high-quality blood medicine... but the deceased's heart is completely intact."

"Hmm! He was killed by someone snapping his neck with great force. The technique was clean and efficient; you need to consider that the killer might possess immense strength!"

"Someone fed him a rigid object, which scratched his throat; it wasn't until that thing entered the neck that it was sliced open by a sharp blade, and all the blood was greedily absorbed by it. I discovered shriveled blood vessels in the surrounding area; it drained the essence of the blood almost in an instant, yet it retained ninety percent of the moisture, which is why these corpses didn't turn into mummies!"

"Xiu?"

The bearded priest clearly trusted this 'Xiu' very much. Seeing him shake his head, he said: "Not the Blood Cup, not the Abyss, not the Plague Witch, not the Shaman Sect, not the Voodoo Sect, not the Dark Court... this is a new opponent for us!"

The bearded man stared at the oil lamp smeared with blood and said solemnly: "If what they worship is truly a lamp, then the main sect might take this very 'seriously'."

"Because heresy is always more detestable than paganism! Claude, I know that." Xiu shrugged.

"Light the lamps!" the bearded Claude said coldly.

Every priest of the Holy Church present lit the silver lamp beside them. Their spirituality burned, and sacred white light enveloped the entire hall.

Coppola, who was surrounded by the thirteen corpses radiating blood-light, was suddenly coated in a layer of dense blood-light.

His face, on his head held high, was ferocious; his muzzle suddenly protruded, revealing the face of a werewolf under the lamplight...

The black-robed priest Claude walked quickly to Coppola, pried open his mouth to check his teeth, and upon discovering that his canines were indeed overly developed—about two inches long from the root to the tip...

The black-robed priest covered his forehead.

Claude cursed fiercely: "Damn the Night Watchers! To actually let a werewolf control three streets in the Lower City!"

Xiu took iron pliers from the leather roll, pried out one of Coppola's canines with force, and then said: "You only just realized they are a bunch of useless sacks of meat?"

"I know the Bai Lang Gang sells blood medicine, but damn it, there are over a dozen underground organizations in all of Kafas selling blood medicine; that stuff is protected by too many of the kingdom's dignitaries! The Church is no longer in the era where we could burn all witches and dark creatures just because of suspicion!"

Claude kicked Coppola's corpse fiercely: "Even the Inquisition was changed into the Department of Faith Theory..."

Xiu was somewhat gloating: "Yes, the era where you would kick down doors, plunder the property of poor widows, and tie them to the stake to be burned just because a woman was too pretty or had lived too long is over!"

At this moment, a sound of arguing came from outside.

A man wearing a gray coat with gray eyes pushed aside the weak and powerless police officers and rushed into the scene. He held up a badge depicting a face covered by two hands, with a crescent moon and a full moon drawn on the back of the hands.

"Night Watchers!"

"Why are you destroying the scene?"

The Night Watcher Anderson strode into the circle of corpses, scanned the surroundings, and swept his gaze over each black-robed priest without flinching.

The bearded Claude said calmly: "The police station notified us. This is a heretical blood sacrifice scene. It needs to be appraised by the Church to determine which sect's heresy committed the crime!"

Anderson took a step forward, leaning into Claude's face until his hooked nose was almost touching him. Five or six other Night Watchers in trench coats, most of them mysterious, also rushed in, confronting the Church's Faith Appraisal Department.

"So, have you appraised it yet?" Anderson said coldly.

Claude shook his head slightly: "This might be an emerging sect."

"That might not be a heretical sect at all, but some kind of evil secret ritual or intangible art! In a document issued by the Camelot Kingdom's Grand Council in the 580th year of the Fourth Era, it was explicitly required that all powers related to investigating mysterious crimes and transcendent beings be taken back from the Church and handed over to us Night Watchers."

Anderson did not yield an inch:

"And the Holy Church's Inquisition was reorganized into the Department of Faith Theory, which only has the power to confirm heretical faith and strike at evil sects!"

After Anderson finished his reprimand, he glared fiercely at Sheriff Oliver outside the door, then squatted down and began to examine everything illuminated by the spirituality of the 'lamp'. He reached out and touched the ground, discovering that his shadow was glowing with an extremely faint purple light.

He looked up at the blood-lamp above, only to see the blood-light inside was dim.

He lifted the lamp shade, and pure white light radiated slightly from the wick.

Everyone's expression changed!

Claude stared at that speck of flawless white light and said solemnly: "Such pure spirituality of the Lamp Father!"

Anderson looked back and scanned the priests present, sneering: "It seems some people need to avoid suspicion..."

A black-robed priest said angrily: "Are you suspecting the Church?"

Anderson said sarcastically: "I wouldn't dare, but such pure spirituality of the Lamp, it should explain something, shouldn't it?"

"A total of twenty-seven people, including a cook, three carriage drivers, and seven cats, five dogs, and twelve horses, were all killed in this warehouse area!" Anderson said with a serious expression: "Even the mouse holes in the warehouse are full of dead rats."

"Those people, there were at least three of them..."

"One was very agile, and it was he who personally pierced Coppola's back from behind, and this Sir Coppola of ours..." Anderson looked at Coppola the Bai Lang, who looked increasingly ferocious under the silver lamp's illumination.

"Is also a werewolf of the Original Sin path, Baptized Rank!"

He scanned the circle, taking in every spot where glass was broken and every trace of movement, and continued: "He is a dark creature whose vitality was so strong that he lived for three minutes even after his heart was pierced, and was killed by execution after being interrogated!"

"As for the other two, one cast several kinds of intangible arts, leaving behind traces including the Lamp and the Abyss; without a doubt, that is a wizard proficient in terrifying intangible arts."

"And the other one is the leader who directed all of this."

"He cruelly ordered people to set up this ritual, and is... searching for something!"

Anderson glanced at the office that had been ransacked, suddenly walked quickly out of the warehouse, and said to his subordinates: "Go to Coppola's home... investigate this person thoroughly! I want every clue about him!"