Edited by Jules
Holding the money, the pleased youth left.
Xiao Lan and Luo switched to another remote, abandoned house and opened the leather suitcase.
There were a lot of materials in the suitcase. They first filtered out what they already knew.
They then eliminated a few rumours that simply lacked in IQ, for example, ‘If infertile, look for Sara’, ‘Believe in Sara today, become prosperous tomorrow’, ‘Believe in Sara during the day, forget about ‘her’ at night’, and so on.
Very soon, a stack of photos and a few sheets of paper drew their attention.
The photographs looked a little old and were already faded and yellowed. The first was of a simple and average-looking little church.
On the back of the photograph, however, it was written that this had been taken in Mona Town 30 or 40 years ago.
Xiao Lan looked at the photo. “They believed in God back then? I thought they had always been like this.”
He then flipped through the other photographs, which had captured many scenes of Mona Town’s previous church.
The people in the photos had intact limbs and seemed to be of normal sound mind; it was completely different from the situation right now.
Luo also looked at other papers, then suddenly picked up a few sheets and said to Xiao Lan, “Sir, look here. Records about Sara only appeared 33 years ago.”
Xiao Lan took a look.
It was from a pastor’s diary; the pages had probably been torn out from the book. The papers were also already brittle and yellow, and written clearly on it was the year and day.
The diary recorded how he gradually started hearing a strange noise.
He thought he was hallucinating it at first, but later, he began hearing the noise more and more often, which made him start to doubt himself.
When he questioned the people around him, he realised there were some people who were hearing the same thing, but some others said it was someone singing, while some said that they didn’t hear anything at all.
At the start, no one thought much of it.
Later, the pastor who wrote this diary gradually felt that the noise was becoming more and more pleasant, and seemed to sound like singing.
After that, people started to act strangely or develop abnormal mindsets. The church started gathering residents to solve the issue through prayer, but it was useless.
The content of the diary at the end turned bizarre; it looked like runes or diagrams, whose meanings were hard to decipher.
The pastor who wrote this diary had probably also been affected.
Xiao Lan looked at the materials. “I’m afraid that this Sara appeared in the town suddenly, then used Their ability to forcefully affect the townspeople. Their influence varies from person to person, however; some are affected more severely, while some aren’t affected at all.”
Luo said, “Are you talking about that guy who sold us the leather suitcase?”
Xiao Lan nodded. “That’s right. He’s from the town, but after living here for so long, he hasn’t been affected very much. It was probably the same with that neighbour he mentioned. People like them might all have chosen to leave this place, which is why there are so few people in the town now.”
Xiao Lan then saw a bloody piece of cloth.
Nestled inside the folds of the cloth was a piece of paper, with words that said — “30 years ago, a mysterious sacrificial offering was held in Mona Town. The whereabouts of all the participants are unknown, suspected dead, but their bodies have yet to be discovered.”
“Offering…” Xiao Lan rubbed the paper in his hand. “Could it be that altar?”
At that moment, resourceful little helper Luo dug out a hand-drawn diagram from the pile of materials.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Oeb qjrrfv tlw atf wjq. “Ktlr lr j yiefqglca bo atf qgfnlber mtegmt. Ufgtjqr kf mjc ub atfgf jcv rff lo atfgf jgf jcs miefr.”
Ktf akb kjixfv abkjgvr atf ibmjalbc vgjkc bc atf yiefqglca.
Pa kjr j mbgcfg bo atf abkc. Ktf reggbecvlcu yelivlcur tjv mbiijqrfv jcv wbra tjv yffc fcueiofv lc kffvr; qfgtjqr atlr jgfj kbeiv rbbc yf rkjiibkfv eq ys atf obgfra.
They figured out the location of the building with great difficulty, and eventually found the location of the original church.
The roof of the church had already collapsed, the crucifix had disappeared, and no statue of God could be found.
The ruins with its lost roof stood silently in the weeds, radiating a somewhat desolate feeling.
Xiao Lan was just about to enter and take a look, when a nearby bush rustled.
Not long after, a figure crawled out of the yellow underbrush.
It was a man with matted hair, who was covered in bits of grass and looked like a beggar.
His clothes were extremely tattered, and the colour and style were no longer discernible. He was dirty all over; just a little bit closer, and they could smell an extremely foul odour.
“Foreigners, why are you going into the church?” The person opened his mouth; his voice very hoarse.
When Xiao Lan met his eyes, he realised that the man’s gaze was extremely clear; he didn’t seem affected by Sara at all. Moreover, there were no signs of deformity on his face.
Xiao Lan said, “Hello, we want to know some things about the church. May we ask your name?”
That man looked at the two and took a couple of steps closer. “I’m John; I’m a pastor.”
“A pastor?” Somewhat surprised, Xiao Lan looked at the man’s faded clothes. “We heard that 33 years ago, Mona Town was Catholic. Can it be that you were the pastor back then?”
John nodded. “It was once like that. Back then, the residents of Mona Town often came to the church to pray and for the worship service. Our lives were stable and peaceful; it was completely different from now.”
He looked at the practically collapsed church, his gaze filled with pain and nostalgia.
John walked over the church steps and sat down, then raised his head to look at Xiao Lan and Luo. “You’re also here to investigate Sara, right? Foreigners are always very interested in Sara.”
Xiao Lan nodded. “That’s right. Could you tell us about Them?”
John laughed. “I won’t refuse such a request from foreigners, although telling you won’t change anything…
“Sara suddenly appeared 33 years ago. At that time, many people in town heard a strange noise, but it felt different to every person.
“Back then, the bishop was the very first to hear singing. He described it to us as the most beautiful singing in the world, and said that it must be an angelic chorus. For a while, we thought this was a miracle, and only devout believers would be able to hear the singing.
“Heh…” John’s laugh was bitter. “We were wrong. Sara is not some god…”
Xiao Lan asked, “What about you? What did you hear?”
John said, “I didn’t hear anything at all. I could only vaguely hear some static, and I felt nothing at all. That was probably luck.
“Gradually, we realised the bishop had changed. He no longer prayed, and wasn’t interested in the Holy Bible at all. He would only spend all day repeating ‘Sara’, to the point that the other pastors saw him hide away and mutilate himself.
“Similar changes were also slowly happening among the townspeople; more and more people began displaying this strange reaction. We prayed to God, but it was useless, as matters kept getting worse.
“Later, they became more and more insane, so much so that they tore down the statue of God and established an altar for Sara underground.
“Then everyone in town began harming themselves like they had gone mad, sinking into the crazed worship of Sara that you see now.
“Some people felt scared and started to leave town, and never came back.”
Xiao Lan was puzzled. “What about you? Why didn’t you leave?”
John’s eyes were determined. “I want to guard my Lord. I cannot retreat, even if I am the only one left.”
Xiao Lan asked about the information he had read. “I heard that they even held a sacrificial offering.”
John’s expression grew solemn. “That’s right. The bishop took the most fanatical Sara believers with him to perform the ceremony, but not a single one of them returned. I’m not clear as to what happened.”
Xiao Lan: “Then do you know where the sacrificial offering was held?”
John pointed downward with a dirty and haggard finger. “Right under here. Under the church is a path that leads to the altar; after that, they created another path and no longer used this one, but it still exists.”
Xiao Lan asked, “Then, have you met Sara?”
John shook his head. “No. It’s not just me; it’s possible that not a single person in town has ever seen Sara. I even suspect that Sara does not truly exist.”
Seeing that it was still bright, Xiao Lan turned his head and asked Luo, “Want to go down and take a look?”
Luo smiled. “If you wish. I will always be by your side.”
John looked at them. “That place is very dangerous. I tried to enter before, but something inside attacked me. I couldn’t go too deep. It’s best if you guys don’t act so offhand about it.”
Xiao Lan said, “Thank you, but we have a very important objective we must complete.”
John did not try to persuade them again. He softly said, “May God bless you.”
Xiao Lan also said to him, “And may you have a smooth path.”
Xiao Lan and Luo followed John’s directions and went under the church.
Xiao Lan planned to scout out the path first. After all, they were all advanced players and there was no need to band together over every single danger. If it was really dangerous, he could just go back to assemble his comrades.
Very soon, the two came to the secret passage which led to the altar.
It was pitch black inside, so Xiao Lan could only take out 【Nuclear energy flashlight】 to light the path.
The passage was extremely crude; it was clear that it had been built without any particular care. Even the debris on the ground hadn’t been cleared away, so it was tough going.
Their footsteps echoed in the quiet passage as they walked deeper with the darkness.
Shaaa…
There was a sound up ahead, like dragging footsteps. It was slowly drawing closer to them.
Xiao Lan stopped walking and had a look.
What appeared was a human figure.
He was wearing a ragged pastor’s outfit. Perhaps he had once been one of the church’s pastors.
But his face had no facial features, as if they had blended together.
Not only that, this person’s movements were extremely strange.
He walked step by step towards Xiao Lan and Luo, but his body was a stiff as a stone statue.
He gradually approached the two, and just as he was less than a metre away, he suddenly sped up and pounced.
He stretched out stiff arms, with fingers withered like twigs and extremely sharp nails.
It wasn’t hard to imagine that the aged Pastor John had no choice but to flee in defeat in the face of a monster like this.
However, his current opponents were different. Without even waiting for Xiao Lan to act, Luo had already swiftly stepped forward.
Illuminated brightly by Xiao Lan’s flashlight, a black figure shot out from his side to suddenly land in front of this not-human-yet-not-a-monster pastor, then elegantly kicked him away.
The entire process was carried out smoothly and with no loss of beauty. As he revealed his long legs, he perfectly radiated boyfriend energy and the power in his waist and legs.
Xiao Lan’s gaze couldn’t help sweeping over that strong and thin waist and slender legs.
Mn… it looked very powerful.
The pastor’s outstretched arms were still raised stiffly in the air, but his back had already slammed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a storm of dust.
Seizing the moment that he fell to the ground, the two swiftly left his side.
When he clumsily stood back up, there was already no one around him.
The pastor turned his head, as if a little baffled.
After determining that there was no one around, however, he began to pace around sluggishly, as if he would only appear and attack any encroachers in this fixed area.
These movements were clearly on show for the two people hidden nearby.
Xiao Lan said softly, “Looks like we just need to maintain a distance, and we can break away and slip inside. We don’t have to waste time fighting.”
Luo quietly asked, “What if we’re discovered?”
Xiao Lan smiled. “Then we’ll use the invisibility technique passed down through the generations.”
A certain assassin once said, As long as the one who discovers me is disposed of, it’s a perfect infiltration.
Xiao Lan looked forward to using this sort of technique very much. Unfortunately, he was hindered by various environmental and time constraints, and often couldn’t fully utilise it at will.
Luo smiled. “As you wish.”
The author has something to say:
Luo: Sir, do you think my waist is good?
Xiao Lan: Good.
Luo: Then… want to try it out?
Pastor who was kicked to the ground: Although I’m no longer human, you guys are seriously dogs!
Baobao Notes
I’m unlocking this novel as of right now, since I really do feel bad for the less than frequent update. I’m going to just hope there wont be any issues that forces me to lock it again QAQ
thank for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter!! Xiao Lan!!!! Lolll now is not the time to be ogling your bf 😂😂😂
Thanks for the update
thanks for the chapter <3
Thanks for the chapters! I really hope they find Big Bro.
Thank you for the chapter!! <3
Our CP: opens huge bag of dog food and buries everyone around
Readers: “…. why there’s sugar?”
Thanks for the chapter ~
Thank god for the sugar at the end, felt entirely too creeped out. Thanks for the chapter!
First thank you for the chapter!
Second, small note – you should probably say the town was Christian not Catholic – there are no pastors in Catholicism (or alternatively maybe pastor should be priest?)
It’s getting more exciting >3
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
TL, I’m just a dirty minded as you apparently.
I noticed your translators note… haha. No, you do not have a dirty mind, I was thinking the same thing.
Suddenly have this urge to see Luo’s powerful and slender waist bend under Xiao Lan, though it might just be the opposite.. sighhh
Glad I’m not the only one!! Dw tho, our imagination will prevail…ahhh just the thought LOL (I sound like a perv :’x)
no one is spared from the dog food!!!