Forces of Temptation

After an hour of searching the church, a comatose Pastor Keith came to life.

After realizing that he was kidnapped by someone he hired, his ancient poker face did not cause any decent fluctuations.

Nanzhou didn't intend to knock him out again.

Keith was arguably the only one with the big picture.

If they wanted to ask him more things, they couldn't just knock him out.

It's a pity that Keith himself didn't have any desire to talk. He lay on the bed like a zongzi, staring at the ceiling with dead fish eyes, and put on the posture of being slaughtered quite well.

They left Hua Sisi behind and stared at him to prevent him from escaping.

Before leaving, Nan Zhou handed a wooden stick to Hua Sisi.

He said: "If necessary, knock him out."

Hua Sisi grinned: "It's too violent. What if I get killed."

Nan Zhou said solemnly, "Then take it easy."

After sending Nan Zhou away, Hua Sisi sat by the bed, embraced the wooden stick, and looked at Pastor Keith who was like a piece of paper on the bed.

He knew what the task Nanzhou entrusted to him was, and he also knew why Nanzhou spoke harshly in front of Keith.

One sings the red face and the other sings the bad face.

"It's okay, I'm a pacifist, I don't beat people casually."

Hua Sisi was originally a lively and kind-hearted young man, and his role as a comforter is also convincing.

He winked playfully: "Don't worry."

Pastor Keith rolled his dark eyes and looked at Hua Sisi.

Hua Sisi touched his cheek and grinned: "Do you want to talk to me?"

Pastor Keith stared at Hua Sisi's face, and answered the question: "...You are not enough."

Hua Sisi patted the back of his head: "..." Huh?

Although he didn't understand what Pastor Keith meant, he could vaguely guess that he thought he was not qualified to talk to him.

Hua Sisi was not depressed.

As long as the other party does not completely refuse to communicate, there is hope.

……

On the other side, Nan Zhou opened all the locked doors with the keys he found from Keith.

Everyone thought it was a simple dungeon, so they kept a happy and relaxed mood and searched one by one, but the efficiency was not low.

Strangely, however, they did not see any treacherous magic circles, or the evil items necessary for the sacrifice.

Even Banhang's firm theory that "Keith might be a vampire" could not find any evidence.

In those locked "mysterious" rooms, there are either broken prayer chairs, rotting bookshelves, broken wooden ladders, or gardening tools that are not usually used.

And Pastor Keith's office, which is not easy to show to others, only contains his daily theological books.

Any evil images that had ever appeared in their minds could not be found in this chapel.

There are no hidden compartments, no secret passages, and no secret rooms.

The church was strangely clean and eerie.

The more you search, the more confused you become.

Song Haining touched the slightly damp bookshelf in Keith's office, and muttered in a low voice, "This NPC doesn't even provide us with any mission props?"

She believes that the essence of the copy is similar to the escape room or script killing they play in reality.

Why would you leave them some clue cards or mission props symbolically?

All the clues they have are plausible, which is very headache.

They secretly observed the correspondence between these three days, and they could only see a few things:

The duke is seriously ill.

The pastor has a cure and is planning it.

The relationship between the duke and the pastor is very close, it can even be said to be ambiguous.

However, from inside the church, they couldn't find the "cure" that Keith called.

...Could it be that the words were just casually said by the pastor to relieve the seriously ill Duke Shelley?

Song Haining thought, maybe their relationship is not that good?

Song Haining began to brainstorm.

Duke Shelley is a local lord with extraordinary dominance, so the priest has to pretend that he has the cure, but in fact he is just dealing with it casually?

Combined with the fact that they didn't find anything, Song Haining thought more and more that her idea was reliable.

Duke Shelley didn't send anyone to deliver the letter today, maybe he was seriously ill again, the castle was too busy, and their teammates couldn't get away.

Maybe tomorrow, the Duke will send someone to ask the priest for a cure.

If the pastor can't come up with a solution, he will definitely be accused of deceiving the Duke.

And as a part of the church today, they must eat and hang up with the pastor.

The dungeon expressly stipulates that they are not allowed to cross the bridge, perhaps it is a deliberate restriction to prevent them from escaping.

Unless they can kill all the people the Duke sent.

When the time comes, this will be a copy of force flat push.

If this is the case, they don't have to be afraid at all.

They have the South Ark, and there will be no such powerful long-range firearms in this era...

However, just after she said to Jiang Fang who entered the study, "I didn't find anything of value", Jiang Fang asked her directly, "Where are the letters between them?"

Before their arrival, they apparently communicated on a daily basis.

So what about letters?

Song Haining was in charge of searching Keith's study.

Hearing this, she was stunned for a moment, and said affirmatively, "I didn't find it."

Jiang Fang continued to ask, "What about the letters from these three days?"

Song Haining also continued to shake her head: "I didn't find it."

Jiang Fang did not doubt Song Haining's judgment.

Song Haining has always been as careful as dust.

She said she couldn't find it, so she had touched all the seams on the floor.

Jiang Fang turned his attention to a small fireplace in the room.

He walked over, bent over and groped among the silver-white ashes.

Song Haining: "I've touched it all, and there is nothing hidden inside."

Jiang Fang blew off the dust on his hands: "Touch again."

Song Haining obediently followed the instructions and groped around again.

But she did find nothing among the loose ashes.

She looked at Jiang Fang puzzled.

Jiang Fang said, "There are ashes."

Song Haining: "..."

She was puzzled at first.

Of course there was ashes in the fireplace.

This question is as confusing as "why is there rubbish in the trash can".

But after her eyes stayed on the ashes in the fireplace for three seconds, her eyes slowly changed.

It's summer now, and even if there is ashes in the fireplace, it must be a few months ago...

Jiang Fang reminded her: "Church log."

Song Haining woke up like a dream, trotted out, and fetched several stacks of materials.

These days, all they can get in touch with is some ostensible church affairs.

The church log is one of the messages they have access to. It has faithfully recorded the affairs of the church every day for several months.

This log can be said to be stinky and long, and reading it is equivalent to not reading it.

At first, Ban Hang yawned without turning a page.

Song Haining endured the boredom and read all the diaries for the past year.

In the end, she only got a boring message——

Before, the Duke would come to the church every week for worship.

Since the beginning of winter last year, the Duke's illness had flared up, and he stayed on the sick bed, and never came back.

After getting the log, Jiang Fang just flipped through it casually, and didn't regard it as any important props for research.

But he noticed a detail early on.

——In the diary, according to the temperature gauge in the church, the daily weather and morning and evening temperatures are recorded truthfully.

Pastor Keith's character is quite rigid, and he has never lost a day in this boring data record.

Song Haining hastily checked through the records of the past six months at a very fast speed, and found that the climate here is humid, the winter is extremely short, and at the coldest time, the temperature is six to seven degrees above zero.

Not to mention that it is already midsummer with lush vegetation.

It stands to reason that as early as February, there was no need to burn charcoal for heating in the church.

Especially this study room, with no sunlight and no windows, is just a closed cage.

The ashes in the fireplace should have been agglomerated by the rich moisture brought by the surrounding lush vegetation.

Like the bookshelf that gave off a strange woody smell from the damp.

However, the ash in the fireplace has a loose structure, and it is obvious that it has been used all the time, so it has not become agglomerated.

And this gray color reveals a sense of cleanliness.

Not like the color of firewood charcoal.

It's more like... paper.

Song Haining's thoughts changed sharply, and she already understood Jiang Fang's meaning.

After inspiring Song Haining, Jiang Fang got up and gave concise instructions: "Look again."

Song Haining said sharply, "No problem, boss."

Jiang Fang walked out and warned at the same time: "Also, don't treat Keith as an NPC. NPCs can provide you with clues, but humans will hide and destroy clues. Treat him as a person..."

Having said that, he suddenly paused and thought of something.

He touched his lips with his fingertips, but he didn't say anything, and turned to find the next person.

……

Song Haining was not the only one in trouble.

Banhang found a small attic that was locked up.

The entrance to the attic is on the ceiling of a room, which is firmly locked by a baffle of the same color as the ceiling.

The bell-like lock hangs in mid-air, as if hiding a secret waiting for others to explore.

The locks were embedded in the ceiling, long since decayed.

Strangely, the whole church, only this small attic has no key.

Banhang found a bench to step on, and pulled it again and again. Since he couldn't find a point to rely on, he simply used brute force, yanked it here and there, and pulled the entire baffle off abruptly.

As a result, he was stunned by the splash of ash that fell from his head, and he was hit on the head by the automatic falling telescopic wooden ladder.

However, after he worked hard, there was nothing of value in the attic.

Except for the dense spider silk, there is nothing.

Ban Hang bowed his back in disgrace, drilled a circle in the attic, coughed and coughed, but couldn't find anything.

Unwilling to give up, he poked his head out of the baffle, just in time to see Nan Zhou walking to the door and appearing ten steps away.

"Brother Nan, come up and take a look." He looked confused, "I can't trust myself."

Nan Zhou stepped up the creaking stairs in the same way, took a candle in Ban Hang's hand, and looked around the cramped and dirty hut.

A small square window let in some light.

The thin moonlight lifted the equally thin dust with a few rays of light.

Nan Zhou brushed away the dust dancing around the beams, and strolled to the only light source in the attic like flowers blowing willows.

Nan Zhou supported the rusty window edge with one hand.

Looking out of the window, Nan Zhou judged that this should be the highest point within the reach of the entire church, and even the entire east coast.

Of course, as long as you climb up the outer wall and climb up the Gothic spire, you can reach the highest place.

But there, it only looks further.

It would not be like this, just to see a window of the gorgeous castle like a dove perched in the depths of the West Bank woods.

...and the figure facing this window, staring fixedly at this side.

Nan Zhou's heart was shocked, and he blew out the candle in his palm.

The distance was too far away, even if he exhausted his eyesight, it was impossible to see whether the person over there was Duke Shelley.

Nan Zhou hid in the darkness, looking at the figure over there, his heart tightened inch by inch.

Ban Hang, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, noticed that the light in the attic had disappeared, so he couldn't help poking his head up and asked, "Brother Nan, what's wrong?"

Nan Zhou stepped back step by step, and every time he took a step back, a thought popped up in his mind.

They could hear the sound of Banhang opening the attic clearly, and it didn't even exceed 5 minutes.

Why did the other party stand in front of the window of the opposite castle, as if waiting to meet him for this moment?

Or, there is some kind of telepathy on both sides.

Or, someone has been waiting there, looking at this window, waiting for a light to come on here.

Nan Zhou took another step back, sniffing the faint smell of decaying dust here.

...But, what is the need to be concerned about here?

According to its degree of ash, it has not been used for at least half a year.

Why did Shelley send someone to stare at a room where it was almost impossible to have any lights on?

What exactly is this room for?

Nanzhou didn't know.

But he felt they had stepped into an elaborate trap.

Pastor Keith usually stays in the church and never leaves.

If they hadn't controlled Pastor Keith well, it would be impossible for them to open this completely enclosed roof chamber without alarming him.

There are no lights here at all, and you have to light them if you want to search.

If you turn on the lights, you will immediately notice that there are people in this attic.

It's like... sending some kind of signal to the other side.

If they do nothing, they may not be able to pass the level due to lack of clues at hand.

But once they acted and tried to control the church, they would inevitably find this attic that cannot be opened, and they would inevitably come up with lights to check the situation, and they would inevitably be discovered by the people on the east coast who were staring at this side.

This is a dead end.

Those who can answer the endless questions in Nan Zhou's mind, at this moment, only save one person.

Nan Zhou ignored Ban Hang's question, got off the escalator, and was about to find Keith when he suddenly heard a commotion outside.

Immediately afterwards, there was a shout with a different tone.

"Brother Nan!! Ban Hang!! Come here!!!"

It was Guan Junliang's voice.

When Nanzhou heard the sound and rushed to the room where Pastor Keith was imprisoned, Jiang Fang was squatting in front of Pastor Keith's bed, and his hand had just been removed from his nose.

There was inexplicable doubt in Jiang Fang's voice.

"……he died."

Nan Zhou stepped forward quickly.

What came into his nose at the same time was a pungent smell of blood.

Pastor Keith was wearing a dark uniform, and the cross he was wearing was inserted deeply into his heart, leaving only a little silver tip exposed.

It can be seen from the swirling folds of the clothes that the killer twisted the cross several times as it sank into his chest, making sure to wring his heart out.

A rather cruel method.

Nan Zhou looked around the crowd, and a dark cloud rose in his heart: "Where's Hua Sisi?"

Jiang Fang said in a deep voice, "...he's gone."