Chapter 1 The old man’s tone was very calm, as if he were telling a story, and he just happened to appear in this story for a while.

"Sorry, I tend to ramble when I get old," the old priest smiled, looking at Vanna and said, "Do you have friends in other denominations?"

"…I have a friend who is a clergy member of the Academy of Truth," Vanna thought for a moment, "but she doesn't often talk to me about the teachings of the Wisdom God, Raheem."

"A follower of the Wisdom God, huh… That's normal. Their tenets usually require a college degree or higher to understand, and sometimes you also need to pass a higher mathematics score verification," the old priest nodded matter-of-factly. "In comparison, the followers of the God of Death are the easiest to deal with—after all, we are all going to die."

At this point, the old man paused, looking curiously at the neatly arranged files behind Vanna: "Inquisitor, can you tell me, what are you looking for?"

Vanna suddenly hesitated.

She didn't know if she should tell the old priest the secret. The fire that had been concealed was very likely to point to a very dangerous shadow, and she couldn't be sure if that "shadow" was monitoring the city-state in some way, nor could she be sure if the old man could really help her. If she rashly told the truth, it might stir up trouble.

But after a brief hesitation, she decided to reveal some information.

This was the deepest part of the Deep Sea Church, the sanctuary favored by the Storm Goddess, and the old priest who guarded the archives was a steadfast warrior. He stayed here to provide assistance to visitors in this kind of situation.

"I am looking for a file—or rather, it's not accurate to call it a file, because it probably never existed in the first place," Vanna said slowly, carefully considering her words. "Strictly speaking, it's a clue that happened in June of 1889, possibly pointing to a major fire, but the relevant information has been erased."

"A fire in 1889?" The old priest pondered. "I don't remember any major fire…" He suddenly stopped, looking at Vanna thoughtfully.

"So, the erased information also includes our memories, right?"

"At least it includes people's memories," Vanna nodded gently. "I don't have enough evidence. Apart from my own 'cognition,' I have no way to prove the existence of that fire. I'm not sure what power is manipulating this matter. I’m just… suspicious."

She suddenly felt a little embarrassed. As an inquisitor, she was used to questioning and investigating, but this time the situation was completely different from the past. She didn't know who she suspected, and she wasn't even sure if the target was a person or a ghost. She launched the investigation based solely on her own ideas, which was very different from her usual calm and composed style.

However, the old priest in front of her just nodded calmly: "Your piety and character are the evidence, Inquisitor."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old priest quickly walked to a pillar near the bookshelf and tapped a few specific protrusions on the pillar with his mechanical prosthetic hand. The next moment, a low rumbling sound came from deep in the floor, followed by the creaking of gears and connecting rods. The door of the archive closed, and some of the bookshelves inside began to move slowly. Some of the bookshelves moved closer and closed together, and in the empty area, pillars depicting many complex runes slowly rose from the floor.

As the pillars rose, the subtle sound of sea waves gently echoed in Vanna's mind.

"…There's no need to make such a fuss," Vanna was a little flustered by the old priest's actions. "It's just a preliminary investigation."

"Past experience tells me that there is no such thing as a 'preliminary' investigation into a huge threat," the old priest slowly walked towards Vanna, raising his brass mechanical prosthetic hand. "And I think something that can interfere with cognition on a large scale, and even erase specific historical events, is a 'huge threat.'"

"…But your rashly sealing the archive may attract a lot of attention."

"No, the archive is randomly sealed several times a month to allow the holy devices and bookshelves here to move around," the old priest laughed, revealing a mouthful of uneven teeth. "Don't let the ancient books be quiet for too long." This is the rule.

"Then I have no questions."

"You just looked at a lot of information. Judging from your expression, you must have discovered something?" The old priest nodded. "I can help."

"I found some records about 'heretical worship'—although it's not directly related to the event I'm investigating, and the records themselves are very fragmented, I feel like something is wrong," Vanna said frankly. "Those heretical worships have common characteristics, and they are concentrated in the first half of 1889, and stopped abruptly after the factory leak in the Sixth District…"

The old priest listened carefully to Vanna's description, and then found the corresponding file information under the other party's guidance.

"It's these," Vanna pointed to the documents that had been found. "Sacrificial rituals that should be invalid, substantial mental damage, although the scale is small, they are all real heretical worship behaviors. The closing reports of all the cases look normal, those who should be arrested have been arrested, and those who should be sentenced have been sentenced, but I think that each of these cases is actually… not investigated in place."

"For cases of this scale, arresting and judging the people involved is already equivalent to an investigation in place, but you are right, when several similar events are superimposed… the situation is different," the old priest frowned as he flipped through the files. "All the people who held sacrificial activities were 'inexplicably bewitched', but the source of the bewitchment cannot be found…"

He muttered, then suddenly looked up.

"Inquisitor, you only checked the files from 1889, right?"

"Yes," Vanna nodded, and then immediately reacted, "You mean…"

"Your matter did happen in 1889, but have you ever thought that these strange heretical worship cases may not have started in 1889," the old priest said quickly, then looked up at the other rows of bookshelves. "The earlier records are here, the third row from the bottom are all available for reading." Vanna immediately walked to those files and started checking the records with the old priest. Vanna immediately walked to those files and started checking the records with the old priest.

And after only a moment, they almost simultaneously found similar records of heretical worship events in the files they were browsing.

1888, 1887, and even all the way back to 1886.

"There is also a record here… a sacrificial event that took place in the port area, and here, only two months apart from the last record!"

Vanna quickly flipped through the file book in her hand, feeling her heart pounding. She looked up and told the old priest about her discovery, but suddenly found that the old priest was standing still in front of the bookshelf, staring at a certain place without moving.

"Did you find anything?" Vanna frowned immediately, asking a little nervously.

"There are no records from 1885," the old priest said softly, as if talking to himself. "It should be here, in this row, after 1884… but now after 1884 it goes directly to 1886…"

"Let's stop here," on the edge of the Sixth District, Duncan looked back at the direction he and Shirley had come from, and took a slight breath. "Investigating here any further probably won't yield any more gains."

They had lingered in that small church for a long time, but with their current level of mysticism, which was "less than a dog's when combined," it was clearly not enough to crack the strange space-time lock-in phenomenon in the underground sanctuary.

Before they left, the underground sanctuary returned to its original state. The nun who was between ash and living person was still praying devoutly in the main hall of the church, with no reaction to Duncan and Shirley's departure.

The exterior of the church was still dilapidated, and the area around the church was still empty and deserted.

However, Shirley didn't really care about what secrets were in the church anymore. "I… can I really go home?"

She looked at Duncan rather nervously, her tone hesitant but mixed with an unspeakable hesitation.

"Of course you can, I have never restricted your freedom to leave," Duncan smiled and rubbed her hair. Although Shirley's age was similar to Nina's, her overly petite and thin physique always made him treat her like a younger child. "Today's investigation is over, you can go home."

Shirley subconsciously turned her head to look in the direction of her home, wanting to move her feet, but suddenly hesitated a little: "Then… then will we continue to investigate after this?"

"Of course, this matter is far from over," Duncan raised his eyebrows. "What? Are you reluctant to leave?"

"Ah, no, no, no!" Shirley waved her hand quickly when she heard this. "I just… just when is the next investigation?"

"I'll find a way to contact you, and you can also take the initiative to come to me," Duncan smiled and rubbed Shirley's head again. "And not just for investigations, if you encounter any other difficulties, you can come to me for help directly."

Shirley blinked, always feeling like something was strange, but in the end she nodded lightly. However, before turning around and leaving, she couldn't help but ask curiously: "Then… then what are your plans next?"

"Me?" Duncan was stunned, thought for a moment, and said, "I'm going to buy a bicycle this afternoon." Shirley was immediately stunned: "…Huh?"

"Buy a bicycle," Duncan repeated very seriously. "I promised Nina, it's been so many days, it's time to fulfill my promise today. What, is there something wrong?"

Shirley opened her mouth for a long time before finally squeezing out a sentence: "A… A Gou said, you should at least do something that a subspace invader should do…"

Before she could finish speaking, a shadow suddenly窜out from the air next to her, and A Gou's broken gong voice hurriedly shouted in the shadow: "I didn't say that!!"

The next second, this shadow disappeared again—obviously A Gou was afraid that he would be seen if he showed his head outside.

Duncan:…

He憋for a long time before finally憋out a helpless smile: "Okay. So now the subspace invader is going to buy a bicycle for his niece—we'll say goodbye here."

Yuan Tong reminds you: Remember to collect it after reading