Chapter 436 Soul Interrogation

Although Hao Ren was very curious about Izhaks' "soul interrogation" process, he didn't dare go over and watch the excitement for the sake of protecting his values. Instead, he went with the others to Becky's house to see off the elves and receive some information about the Church of the Final Days. By the time he led the others back to the royal city, the interrogation had just ended.

With Oufra leading the way, the group went directly to the cathedral and met the Pope and several bishops in a simple but spacious room. The Pope looked a little haggard. Today's assassination attempt was still a considerable burden for him, but with the support of divine arts, he was recovering quickly. Izhaks and his daughter were also standing in the room, looking like their "work" was done.

The little girl Elizabeth rushed up to greet Hao Ren excitedly when she saw him: "Uncle Ren! All done! The rune of torment is so useful!"

Hao Ren patted the delicate little horn on the little girl's head—after spending some time with her, he knew that this little demon liked to have her horns touched, which meant intimacy—then looked up at Izhaks: "Old Wang, are you sure it's okay to let your daughter learn this stuff?"

Izhaks nodded in agreement: "It is indeed a little late to learn soul extraction and runes of torment at this age. But after all, this child's bloodline is impure, so it's right that she learns demonic magic later than demons of the same age."

Hao Ren: "...That's not what I meant. Oh well, I can't reason with you two about matters of worldview. What did you find out?"

"That monster was a 'fused corpse,' created by the Church of the Final Days using a 'divine art' they call 'God-given power.' It's somewhat similar to necromancy, but it creates living creatures that are not afraid of various holy powers, so I suspect that the Church of the Final Days really has some knowledge related to divine arts, but they've used it in a twisted way."

Izhaks said as he sat down in a wide-backed chair next to him, "Also, the Church of the Final Days didn't know the real situation of the banquet held in the palace today. The Radiant Church has been careful to keep the secret about the First Born and the foreigners from the beginning, and deliberately guided the external propaganda, and even released false information to some suspicious people, so the Church of the Final Days mistakenly thought that today's royal city banquet was just an ordinary noble banquet. Their assassination plan had been planned for more than two months, and even infiltrated a part of the Royal Guard and high-ranking monks. They chose to do it today because the King and the Pope were both present, and part of the soldiers on duty in the royal city were under their control, and more importantly, they got some kind of 'artifact' - that scroll. But they were unlucky, they didn't expect that the truth of the banquet was to entertain a group of alien superheroes, so they failed in such a muddle."

Lili felt that she had made a great contribution when she heard this, and wagged her tail happily: "So I'm pretty awesome, right!"

"Okay, okay, you're awesome, you're awesome," Hao Ren pressed Lili's head to keep her from jumping, "Why don't you go and recall that refreshing taste again?"

Before Lili could say anything, Vivian slammed Hao Ren in the back: "Are you trying to take revenge on society during meal times?"

Oufra's expression was unusually serious: "The Royal Guard and high-ranking monks have been infiltrated? How could those cultists do this?"

"Because they are good at controlling mental power," Izhaks replied, "They got a lot of evil spells from an evil god. These cultists are very patient, and they didn't just sit still when you were pressing them step by step."

"The evil god should be that 'Voice of the Overlord'," Hao Ren immediately thought of the information he had just learned today, "Then what? Did you dig out the list of infiltrated personnel from the monster's soul?"

A white-robed archbishop next to him shook his head: "There is no list. That monster was just an assassin. He didn't know too many details. And even if there was a list, it would be useless. After the assassination, we went to track down those guards on duty, but found that many guards had disappeared. We found some guards' bodies near the outer wall of the palace. Judging from their death poses, they committed suicide, but it is possible that they were forced to commit suicide under mental control. The fate of the other missing soldiers should be similar. Those heretics have the power to control people's hearts, which makes their every action watertight, and there is almost no possibility of being caught alive to leak secrets or of poor communication - except this time, we successfully interrogated the heretic's soul."

Hao Ren stroked his chin: "So... all the infiltrated personnel are dead?"

The Pope sighed: "We didn't catch a single one."

At this time, Lili suddenly interjected: "But how do you know that there are no controlled people among the remaining guards?"

Hao Ren didn't react for a moment: "Didn't all the mentally controlled guards run away?"

"Let a part of the abandoned pawns run out to attract your attention, pretending that everyone has evacuated after the matter is exposed, so that naturally few people will suspect the remaining guards, at most they will just do a routine check," Lili shook her head gently, "But God knows how many of the remaining guards are still controlled."

Vivian looked at the husky in surprise: "Not bad, big dog, I didn't expect you to have this kind of scheming?"

Lili crossed her arms and wagged her tail vigorously: "Nonsense, I'm a novelist after all, I still have this kind of logic. And do you think that's how those spies did it when the country was in chaos and fighting in the past? I've seen a lot of it! Let me tell you, those guys from the Central Unification and Military Unification back then..."

Hao Ren quickly pressed Lili's mouth: "Don't talk about things that are irrelevant to the topic... don't bite my hand!"

"In short, all soldiers and church monks must be investigated," Oufra said in a deep voice, holding the hilt of her sword, "The situation is far from as good as we thought. But fortunately, the problems have been exposed this time, otherwise things would really go wrong if this continues to develop."

"By the way, did you find the lair of those cultists?" Hao Ren looked at Izhaks, flicking his fingers.

"They all ran away," Izhaks shrugged, "They have a mental connection."

Vivian followed up and asked: "What about the information about that scroll? Where did the scroll come from? Who sent it? What was it originally used for?"

"This is a bit interesting," Izhaks laughed, "In the fused corpse's soul memory, that scroll came from 'beyond the sky', and was brought to the Church of the Final Days by a 'great' something from the goddess. They call that great creature the Voice of Something..."

Hao Ren reminded him: "It's the Voice of the Overlord."

Izhaks slapped his bald head: "Oh right, the Voice of the Overlord, I knew it wasn't the Voice of the Campus... By the way, you know about it too?"

"It seems to be about the same as I guessed," Hao Ren smiled, "A giant brain has come to this planet, and it also has the ability to bring things from its hometown. But it must not be easy, so the Church of the Final Days has only gotten a scroll so far, and the outer churches can only hype up the atmosphere by summoning the giant brain's descending avatars."

Speaking of this, he looked up at the Pope and Oufra: "I'm speaking quite bluntly - you can handle this matter yourself, right?"

"This is the responsibility that the goddess's people should bear," the Pope nodded slightly, "Just let us handle these things ourselves."

"Then I have to say goodbye," Hao Ren stood up, "After all, compared to a bunch of cultists, I have to deal with more troublesome things - the two lumps of steel wool dug out from your planet still have to be dealt with."

After leaving the cathedral, the group was about to go to Tanagoth through the portal in Becky's basement. The entire basement was filled with the aroma of wine: this was because the elves had accidentally knocked over a small wine rack when they came over earlier. The mercenary girl looked at the treasures in the wine cellar with a worried face: "I have to get someone to dig another wine cellar next to it, it's too unreliable to put the treasures at the exit."

"You still have to worry about keeping an eye on things here," Hao Ren told Becky before leaving, "You are also a noble now, and you can directly participate in many things. If there is any progress in the investigation of heretics here, remember to notify me as soon as possible. Also, Big Beard will stay here, you two take care of each other, safety first, if you really can't beat them, then just run away..."

Becky nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, I'm good at this."

Hao Ren: "..."

(I need to go out to do some errands tomorrow, I don't know how long it will take, so I'm taking a leave of absence in advance, I won't be able to update at noon, it shouldn't be delayed in the evening, um, theoretically it is.)