Chapter 1858: The Human Trafficker

"Then, have you delivered children to them these past few days?" Chen Yu asked again.

"I..." Thomas hesitated for a moment, then bowed deeply: "I have brought children to them."

"Where are the Pope's people now?" Chen Yu looked at Thomas as if looking at a dead man.

Thomas stood up, found a map, and marked a location on it.

Chen Yu picked up the map, took a glance, then patted Thomas on the shoulder and turned to leave.

A look of confusion appeared in Thomas's eyes; he had just broken free from Chen Yu's control and had not yet fully regained his senses.

It was not until Chen Yu and An walked out the door that he suddenly snapped back to reality, but he immediately felt a sharp pain in his chest, followed by a mouthful of blood spraying out as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Do you know where this place is?" Chen Yu asked, pointing to the location on the map.

"The horse farm north of the small town. There used to be a Chaos Stone Array there too. What is the Pope doing there?" An was full of confusion.

"I don't know, but the Chaos Stone Array is the key. Circle it; perhaps we can find out why the Pope left it here," Chen Yu said.

"Yes, let's go." An nodded hurriedly and led the way.

The dilapidated horse farm had long since been abandoned. Behind the horse farm was a small mountain, and in front of this mountain, there were also some stone arrays.

"Have these stone arrays always been here?" Chen Yu asked.

"Yes, just like the ones by the town, they have always been here," An said. "I often came here to play when I was little, and there was nothing strange about them."

"That was because the Barrier hadn't been activated. It's different now." Chen Yu's hand brushed over the giant stones, and he only felt a faint ripple of power upon them.

"The Array on the giant stones has now been activated, and there is a faint ripple of mysterious power. There must be a reason why the Pope chose to appear here at this time."

"They aren't here to preach, are they?" An asked.

"Of course not to preach," Chen Yu sneered. "These guys who never do anything without profit—heaven knows what their goal is."

Behind the stone array was a cave. The entrance was built with bluestone, and the cave was deep and bottomless.

"This cave has always existed. The elders here say it is the dwelling of the Heavenly God. If one enters, one will offend the Heavenly God." An seemed to have some awe for this place; he slowly knelt on the ground, kowtowing to the cave entrance, while muttering something in his mouth—it was unknown what he was reciting.

Chen Yu did not see any aura of a Heavenly God inside; he only felt a ripple of power emanating from the cave entrance, and this ripple of power was much the same as the power on the stone array outside.

"I am going into the cave to investigate. You stay outside and keep watch." Chen Yu pondered for a moment and decided to go into the cave to see the situation first.

"Yes, Mr. Chen. I will keep watch right here; no one will go in," An said respectfully.

Chen Yu nodded and turned to walk into the cave.

This place seemed to have not been visited for a long time; the blue stone walls were covered with moss. The cave was not very deep, and after walking for five or six minutes, he reached the end.

At the end of the cave, he saw a huge statue standing there, and this statue held a giant scythe—it was clearly the image of the Grim Reaper.

Chen Yu looked at the Grim Reaper image before him with some confusion; he felt that the power on the stone array and the power at the cave entrance both had a dark aura.

It should be an entrance to the Dark World, but the Grim Reaper statue before him threw him off; the Grim Reaper and Dark Creatures were not the same thing.

Just then, a sound came from behind the Grim Reaper statue. Chen Yu looked up and saw an old man with a hunched back, dragging a long broom, sweeping things on the ground.

The ground was covered in blood, and some severed limbs and broken arms were vaguely visible. What he was sweeping were clearly human limbs.

And judging by the shape and size of the limbs, they all belonged to children.

"Hulse?" Chen Yu recognized the old man's identity. This old man was precisely Hulse, the Pope's Hell Guardian, from the files An had shown him earlier.

Hulse stopped what he was doing and squinted at Chen Yu. The moment he looked at Chen Yu, Chen Yu felt a jolt in his heart, and an invisible force instantly surged toward him, as if to swallow him whole.

Chen Yu stopped, closed his eyes, and cleared all distracting thoughts from his mind. A moment later, he opened his eyes, which were now perfectly clear.

These charlatans were best at mental bewitchment; that moment just now was the bewitchment released by Hulse.

"You recognize me?" Hulse stopped his movements and looked up at Chen Yu seriously.

While looking at Chen Yu, he did not forget to use his Divine Power to scan the power on Chen Yu's body, but he was surprised to find that no matter how he scanned the other party with his Divine Power, the other party was just an ordinary person in his consciousness.

His Mind Power scans had never failed, but this was somewhat impossible, because Chen Yu had just been able to break free from his mental bewitchment.

"The Pope's Hell Guardian, having guarded the Pope's dark Purgatory for decades, cultivating bitterly for decades, dealing with Dark Creatures every day," Chen Yu said with a faint smile.

"The Pope's people do not allow outsiders to investigate," Hulse said, savoring the meaning of Chen Yu's words. "Your actions are very dangerous."

"Investigate? I don't even bother," Chen Yu said. "If your Pope truly and sincerely believed in your Lord and did more good deeds, who would be bored enough to investigate you?"

"Based on this sentence alone, I can determine that you are a heretic." Hulse looked at Chen Yu coldly, a ray of light bursting from his eyes.

"I don't believe in your Lord, so you saying I am a heretic is not a problem at all. But you..." Chen Yu leaned closer to the guy: "Your body is stained with so much dark aura."

"And in your pupils, evil is already fully displayed. A believer who has been blackened, yet still so solemnly believes in the Lord—don't you feel ashamed?"

Hulse's expression changed drastically. Indeed, a portion of his power came from the Dark Abyss.

And for any believer in the Pope, as long as they had any connection to the Dark Abyss, it was blasphemy. He was now a blasphemer; if these things were leaked, he would be hunted down by the Pope and executed.

So this news absolutely could not be exposed. At that moment, the look this guy gave Chen Yu turned cold; Chen Yu could not leave this place alive.

"I serve my Lord with all my heart; the situation you speak of does not exist. We will regard groundless testimony as slander."