The old man's tone was very calm, as if he were simply telling a story, and he just happened to appear in that story for a while.

"Sorry, I tend to talk a lot when I get old," the old priest smiled, looking at Vanna, and said, "Do you have friends from other sects?"

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

"A follower of the Wisdom God, huh… That's normal. Their creeds usually require a college degree or higher to understand, and sometimes you even need to pass a high-level mathematics test," the old priest nodded, taking it for granted. "In comparison, the followers of the God of Death are the easiest to deal with – after all, we're all going to die."

Speaking of this, the old man paused and looked at the neatly arranged files behind Vanna with some curiosity: "Inquisitor, can you tell me, what are you looking for?"

Vanna suddenly hesitated.

She didn't know whether to tell the old priest the secret in front of her. The fire that had been concealed was very likely to point to a very dangerous shadow, and she couldn't be sure whether that "shadow" was monitoring the city-state through some means, nor could she be sure whether the old man in front of her could really help her. If she rashly revealed the truth, it might startle the snake.

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 archive was a staunch warrior who stayed here to provide assistance to visitors in this situation.

"I'm looking for a file – though it's not quite 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 fire, but the relevant information has been erased."

"A fire in 1889?" the old priest pondered. "I don't remember any fire…" He suddenly stopped and looked at Vanna thoughtfully.

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

"At least it includes people's memories," Vanna nodded slightly. "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 human or ghost. She launched an investigation based solely on her own thoughts, which was very different from her usual calm and steady 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 beneath the floor, followed by the creaking of gears and connecting rods.….

….The door of the archive closed, and part of the bookshelves inside began to move slowly. Some of the bookshelves moved closer together and closed, and in the empty area, pillars depicting many complex runes slowly rose from the floor.

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

"…There's no need to make such a fuss," Vanna was a little at a loss because of the old priest's actions. "This is just a preliminary investigation."

"Past experience tells me that there is no such thing as a 'preliminary' when it comes to investigating a great threat," the old priest slowly walked towards Vanna. He raised his mechanical prosthetic hand made of brass. "And I believe that something that can interfere with cognition on a large scale, and even erase specific historical events, is a 'great threat.'"

"…But your rashly sealing off the archive might attract a lot of people."

"No, the archive is randomly sealed off several times a month to allow the sacred devices and bookshelves here to move around," the old priest smiled, revealing a set of uneven teeth. "Don't let the ancient books be quiet for too long – that's the rule."

"Then I have no questions."

"You've been looking at a lot of information just now. Judging by your expression, you must have discovered something, right?" 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 scattered, I think something is wrong," Vanna said frankly. "Those heretical worships have common characteristics and are concentrated in the first half of 1889, and stopped abruptly after the factory leak in the Sixth Block…"

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 acts of heretical worship. The closing reports for all cases seem normal. Those who should be caught were caught, and those who should be sentenced were sentenced, but I think each of these cases actually… wasn't investigated thoroughly."

"For cases of this scale, catching and trying the people involved is already equivalent to a thorough investigation, but you're right, when several similar incidents are stacked together… the situation is different," the old priest frowned as he looked through the files. "All the people who held sacrificial activities were 'inexplicably bewitched,' but the source of the bewitchment couldn't be found…"

He muttered and suddenly looked up.

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

"Yes," Vanna nodded and immediately realized, "You mean…"

"Your incident did happen in 1889, but have you ever considered that these strange heretical worship cases didn't necessarily start in 1889?" the old priest said quickly, and then looked up at the other rows of bookshelves. "Earlier records are here, the three rows counting from the bottom up, you can browse them all." Vanna immediately walked to those files and began to check the records in the case files together with the old priest.….

….Vanna immediately walked to those files and began to check the records in the case files together with the old priest.

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

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

"There's a record here too… a sacrificial incident 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 something.

"Did you find something?" Vanna frowned immediately and asked 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 directly after 1884 is 1886…"

"Let's stop here," at the edge of the Sixth Block, Duncan looked back at the direction he and Shirley had come from, and breathed a slight sigh. "There shouldn't be any more gains from investigating here."

They had spent a long time in that small church, but with their current level of mysticism, which was "less than a dog when the two of them were added together," it was obviously not enough to crack the strange space-time lockdown phenomenon in the underground sanctuary.

Before they left, the underground sanctuary had returned to its original state, and the nun who was between ash and living person was still praying piously 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.

But 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 uneasy but mixed with an inexplicable hesitation.

"Of course you can, I have never restricted your freedom to leave," Duncan smiled and rubbed the other person's hair, although Shirley's age was similar to Nina's, but the girl's too petite and thin body always made him treat her as a younger child. "Today's investigation is over, you can go home."

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

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

Ai Yue Shu Xiang

"Ah, no, no, no!" Shirley quickly waved her hands when she heard this. "I just… just when we investigate next time…"

"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 it's not just about the investigation. If you encounter any other difficulties, you can come to me for help directly."

Shirley blinked, always feeling that something was weird, but finally nodded lightly. But before turning around to leave, she couldn't help but ask curiously: "Then… then what are your plans next?"

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

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

Shirley opened her mouth for a long time, and finally managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Ah… A'gou said, you have to do something that a subspace invader should do…"

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

The next second, the shadow disappeared – obviously A'gou was afraid of being seen if he showed his face outside.

Duncan: …

He held it back for a long time, and finally squeezed out a helpless smile: "Okay. Then the subspace invader is now going to buy a bicycle for his niece – let's say goodbye here.".

.

Yuan Tong reminds you: Remember to bookmark after reading