As long as there were chains binding her within her body, Tao Qingqing remained under Wen Wen’s constant surveillance. If she were to attempt to attack someone and suck their blood, she would be immediately pulled into the containment facility.
Thus, Wen Wen confidently left Tao Qingqing to investigate the suicide case on her own. He, meanwhile, made his way to a廃弃 church on the outskirts of town.
This church was about a hundred years old, but it looked as though it had been abandoned for a century as well… Su Dan Novel Network
The Church of Creation was the largest religion in the Federation, but before the Federation was established, the Washington D.C. area had no followers of the Church of Creation.
At the beginning of the Federation’s establishment, the wealthy Church of Creation had built churches in every township in the Washington D.C. area, fantasizing about bringing the faith of the Washington D.C. area into its fold.
As for the outcome, it could be seen from this abandoned church. The Church of Creation had not realized its ambition and had lost a large sum of money…
This church had remained dormant here for a century. However, because the finest stone materials were used in its construction at the time, it had not collapsed despite being left unattended.
The magical Endless Staircase was also located within this church. Legend had it that the staircase originally led to the basement. When several children came here to play, they accidentally discovered that no matter how far down they went, they could never reach the end.
Later, demon hunters from an association investigated and found that a guardian monster would appear every fifty meters of descent.
After defeating the monster, one would receive a certain reward. Although the rewards were not valuable, they were mostly interesting.
When Wen Wen learned of this Endless Staircase, over a dozen demon hunters had already explored it.
However, due to the tiger-like incident, all nearby demon hunters were mobilized to Yue Yue City, and no demon hunters had explored this area in the past few days.
When Wen Wen arrived at the entrance, he found an old man with white hair sitting there.
Upon seeing Wen Wen, the old man put on his reading glasses and asked, “Young man, this is not a place you should be coming to.”
There were traces of psychic energy on this old man. He was likely a demon hunter sent by the association to guard this place. For a containment object that could not be moved, a demon hunter had to watch over it.
So, Wen Wen presented his demon hunter identification and said, “I am a demon hunter, and I wish to explore this place.”
As soon as he saw that Wen Wen was a demon hunter, the old man smiled and said, “Of course, you can explore it if you want to enter, but it will cost two thousand demon hunter coins each time.”
“You’re still charging?” Wen Wen frowned, as he had never heard of such a rule before.
The old man said earnestly, “The land here belongs to my family. The association entrusted me with managing this place. Every time you enter, you might cause damage, so you can’t get in for free without paying.”
Wen Wen raised his eyebrows and almost wanted to hit the old man. However, he checked through the hunting terminal and found that what the old man said was indeed true.
The old man was a demon hunter native to Tian Shi Town. He was nearing retirement, so he had spent money to buy all the surrounding land, including this church.
Moreover, this business was permitted by the association, and half of the earnings the old man made had to be turned over to the association…
The old man encouraged Wen Wen, saying, “Don’t complain about the price. There’s a chance to drop good items by defeating monsters here. Plus, for every level you clear within the first ten floors, I’ll give you a refund of 200 demon hunter coins.”
“What about after the tenth floor?”
“After the tenth floor, there’s no refund. You can’t expect me to run a losing business,” the old man said with a chuckle.
Wen Wen was very displeased. The old man gave him a feeling of being ripped off. However, he had come for the Endless Staircase this time, and going back empty-handed would be even more displeasing.
So, Wen Wen reluctantly transferred two thousand demon hunter coins to the old man and walked into the dilapidated church.
Behind Wen Wen, the old man reminded him, “The deeper you go down the stairs, the stronger the monsters will be, and the environment will also cause mental erosion. If you can’t hold on, turn back immediately. The monsters here have a very small range of activity…”
After Wen Wen’s figure disappeared, a cunning smile appeared on the old man’s face:
“The strongest demon hunter who came here was a nomad hunter at the assimilation intermediate stage, and they only managed to reach the thirteenth floor. You, a kid who hasn’t even reached the assimilation realm, won’t be able to go further than the fifth or sixth floor at most, hehehe.”
Wen Wen had a habit of hiding most of his aura, so the old man did not know Wen Wen’s true strength. If he had known, his price would not have been so low.
Pushing open a dilapidated wooden door, Wen Wen saw the descending staircase. Oil lamps were lit beside the stairs, so the path below was not unclear. This dim light added a gloomy atmosphere to the staircase.
Wen Wen carefully sensed that there was no overly dense psychic energy here, similar to other parts of the town. At most, the aura here was slightly denser than that of the town.
After descending more than ten meters, Wen Wen discovered that every step of the staircase, every oil lamp, and even every brick on the wall was not repeated.
This meant that the Endless Staircase did not make it impossible to reach the end through spatial conversion, but rather it was continuously extending downwards.
It was currently the dead of winter, and the deeper it went, the higher the temperature. At a depth of fifty meters, it was already around twenty degrees Celsius, and Wen Wen saw the first monster guarding the stairs.
At the end of the staircase, there was a platform with a diameter of ten meters. The staircase continued downwards on the other side of the platform.
In the middle of the platform stood a wandering soul clad in ancient armor. The wandering soul mechanically said to Wen Wen, “Challenger, let me see your moves…”
After speaking, it attacked Wen Wen.
However, this low-level wandering soul was about the same as Qin Shuang at the beginning. Wen Wen couldn’t be bothered to make a move. He merely flicked his finger, shooting out a beam of light that dispersed its soul.
Wen Wen curled his lips and said, “Is this the first guardian monster? It’s too weak…”
“But I heard that even if I kill it, the next challenger will still see the same monster. So, is it really dead or not?”
A piece of broken iron dropped from the dissipating wandering soul, looking like an ancient coin. Although it was of no use to Wen Wen, he still picked it up.
“It actually dropped something. This is an ancient coin. It should be worth a bit of money. I wonder what will appear after the tenth floor.”
Wen Wen chuckled and continued to descend.
This time, he did not walk slowly but ran. He quickly passed the fifty-meter mark and successfully reached the second level.
The monster guarding the second level was a zombie holding a long saber. It uttered the same words:
“Challenger, let me see your moves.”
Wen Wen shot out a beam of light as usual, but to his surprise, the zombie actually blocked Wen Wen’s beam of light with its long saber.
“Tsk, this is a bit interesting.”