Forces of Temptation - v2 Chapter 256

    As they rolled out to search the church for an hour, the fainted Pastor Keith woke up.

    After realizing that he was kidnapped by someone he hired, his poker face did not cause any decent fluctuations.

    Nan Zhou did not plan to knock him out again.

     Keith is arguably the only one who has the big picture.

    If they want to ask him more, they can’t just knock him out.

    Unfortunately, Keith himself didn’t have much to talk about. He was lying on the bed like a zongzi, staring at the ceiling with dead fish eyes.

    They left Hua Xixi behind and stared at him to prevent him from escaping.

    Before leaving, Nan Zhou handed a wooden stick to Hua Xixi.

    He said, “Stun him if necessary.”

    Hua grinned: “It’s too violent. What if you kill him.”

    Nan Zhou is serious: “Then take it easy.”

    Sending Nan Zhou away, Hua Sisi sat beside the bed, holding a wooden stick in his arms, looking at Pastor Keith who was like a piece of paper on the bed.

    He knew what the task Nan Zhou had given him, and also knew why Nan Zhou spoke harshly in front of Keith.

    One sings the red face, the other sings the white face.

    “It’s okay, I’m a pacifist, and I don’t hit anyone casually.”

    Hua Sisi is a lively and kind-hearted young man, playing the role of comforter is also convincing.

    He winked playfully: “Don’t worry.”

    Pastor Keith rolled his dark eyes and looked at Hua Xixi.

    Hua 偲偲 touched his cheek and grinned: “Do you want to chat with me?”

    Pastor Keith stared at Hua Xixi’s face and answered the question: “…you, it’s not enough.”

    Hua 偲偲 touched the back of his head: “…” Ah?

    Although he did not understand what Pastor Keith meant, he could vaguely guess that he thought he was not qualified to talk to him.

    Hua Si Si is not depressed.

    As long as the other party does not completely refuse to communicate, there is hope.

    …

    On the other side, Nan Zhou opened all the locked doors with the key found from Keith.

    Everyone thought this was a simple copy, so they kept a happy and relaxed mood, and searched them one by one, but the efficiency was not low.

    However, it is strange that they did not see any strange magic circles, or the evil objects necessary for sacrifice.

    Even Ban Hang’s firm theory that “Keith might be a vampire” has not been able to find the slightest bit of evidence.

    In those locked “mystery” rooms, there are either broken prayer chairs, rotten bookshelves, worn wooden ladders, or garden tools that are not usually used.

    The office, which Pastor Keith does not show easily, is only filled with theological books he uses every day.

    Any images of evil that ever appeared in their minds were not found in this chapel.

    No secret spaces, no secret passages, no secret rooms.

    The church was strangely clean and strange.

    The more you search, the more confused you are.

    Song Haining touched the slightly damp bookshelf in Keith’s office, and whispered, “This NPC doesn’t even provide us with any quest items?”

    She believes that the essence of the copy is similar to the escape room or script killing they play in reality.

    Why do you also leave them some clue cards or mission items?

    All the clues they have at hand are specious and give a headache.

    They secretly observed the correspondence of these three days, and could only see a few things:

    The Duke is seriously ill.

    The pastor has a cure and is planning.

    The relationship between the duke and the priest is very close, it can even be said to be ambiguous.

    However, from the church, they couldn’t find what Keith called “the cure”.

    …Is that just a casual remark by the priest to relieve the seriously ill Duke Shelley?

    Song Haining thought, maybe their relationship is not that good?

    Song Haining began to supplement her brain.

    Duke Shelley is a local lord, and his ruling power is extraordinary, so the priest has to pretend that he has a cure, but in fact he is just dealing with it casually?

    Combining with the fact that they didn’t find anything, the more Song Haining thought about it, the more reliable her idea became.

    Duke Shelley didn’t send anyone to deliver the letter today, maybe he was seriously ill, the castle was too busy, and their teammates couldn’t leave.

    Maybe tomorrow, the Duke will send someone to ask the priest for a cure.

    If the priest can’t give a way, he will definitely be charged with deceiving the Duke.

    And as part of the church today, they must eat and hang with the pastor.

    The copy clearly stipulates that they will not be allowed to cross the bridge, perhaps it is a deliberate restriction to prevent them from escaping.

    Unless they can kill everyone the duke sends.

    At that time, this will be a copy of the force level push.

    If this is the case, they don’t have to be afraid at all.

    They have Nanzhou, and there will not be too powerful long-range firearms in this era…

    However, she just said to Jiang Fang who entered the study, “Nothing of value was found”, Jiang Fang asked her directly: “What about the correspondence between them?”

    Before their arrival, they apparently corresponded on a daily basis.

    So what about the letter?

    Song Haining is responsible for searching Keith’s study.

    Hearing this, she was stunned for a while, and affirmed: “I didn’t find it.”

    Jiang Fang continued to ask: “What about the letters for these three days?”

    Song Haining also continued to shake her head: “I didn’t find it.”

    Jiang Fang did not doubt Song Haining’s judgment.

    Song Haining has always been attentive.

    She said she couldn’t find it, that is, she touched the floor seam.

    Jiang Fang turned his attention to a small fireplace in the room.

    He walked over, leaning over and groping in the silver-white ashes.

    Song Haining: “I have touched it, but there is nothing hidden in it.”

    Jiang Fang blew the dust off his hands: “Touch again.”

    Song Haining followed the instructions obediently, and groped around again.

    But she did not find anything in the loose ashes.

    She looked at Jiang Fang inexplicably.

    Jiang Fang said: “There is ash.”

    Song Haining: “…”

    She was a little confused at first.

    Of course there is ashes in the fireplace.

    This question is as confusing as “why is there trash in the trash”.

    But after her eyes stayed on the ash in the fireplace for three seconds, her eyes slowly changed.

    It’s summer, and even if there’s ashes in the fireplace, it must be a few months ago…

    Jiang Fang reminded her: “Church log.”

    Song Haining woke up like a dream, trotted out, and took several large piles of materials.

    These days, all they can get in touch with are church affairs.

    Church journal is one of the information they have access to, which faithfully records the affairs of the church every day for several months.

    This log can be said to be stinky and long, and reading it means not reading it.

    At first, Ban Hang yawned without turning two pages.

    Song Haining endured boredom and read all the logs for the past year.

    In the end, she only got a boring message—

    Before, the Duke came to church every week.

    Since the beginning of the winter last year, the Duke suffered an illness and was lingering on the bed, and he never came back.

    After getting the log, Jiang Fang just flipped through it and didn’t take it as an important prop for research.

    But he noticed a detail early.

    —In the log, according to the temperature table in the church, the daily weather and morning and evening temperatures are recorded faithfully.

    Pastor Keith’s character is quite straight-forward, and he has never missed a day of this boring data record.

    Song Haining hurriedly flipped through the records of the past six months at a very fast speed, and found that the climate here is humid, the winter days are extremely short, and even the coldest time is above six or seven degrees below zero.

    Not to mention that it is already a lush summer.

    It stands to reason that as early as February, there is no need to burn charcoal for heating in the church at all.

    Especially this study, with no sunlight and no windows, is a suffocated cage.

    The ashes in the fireplace are probably long overdue for agglomeration due to the abundant moisture brought by the surrounding lush vegetation.

    Like the bookshelf that smells of wood because of the humidity.

    And this gray color has a clean feeling.

    Not the color of firewood or charcoal.

    It’s like…paper.

    Song Haining understood what Jiang Fang meant.

    After inspiring Song Haining, Jiang Fang got up and gave a concise instruction: “Look again.”

    Song Haining said: “No problem, boss.”

    Jiang Fang walked out and said at the same time: “Also, don’t treat Keith as an NPC. NPCs can provide you with clues, but people will hide and destroy clues, treat him as a person …”

    Speaking of this, he suddenly paused and thought of something.

    He touched his lips with his fingertips, but said nothing, turned to look for the next person.

    …

    Song Haining is not the only one who is in trouble.

    Banhang found a locked attic.

    The entrance to the attic is on the ceiling of a room, which is firmly locked by a baffle of the same color as the ceiling.

    The bell-like lock hangs in the air, as if hiding a secret that needs to be explored by others.

    The lock is inlaid on the ceiling and has long since decayed.

    The strange thing is that in the whole church, only this small attic has no key.

    Ban Hang found a bench foot, and pulled and pulled. Since he couldn’t find a point of leverage, he simply used brute force and slammed the whole baffle. They were all torn down.

    In the end, he was stunned by the splash of ash from his head, and hit his head by the retractable wooden ladder that automatically fell.

    However, he worked hard, and there was nothing of value in the attic.

    Nothing but a dense web of spider silk.

    Ban Hang hunched his waist in dismay, and drilled around in the attic, coughing and coughing, but couldn’t find anything.

    He didn’t give up and stuck his head out of the baffle, just in time to see Nan Zhou walking to the door and appearing ten steps away.

    “Brother Nan, come up and take a look.” He was in chaos, “I can’t trust myself.”

    Nan Zhou stepped up the creaking stairs, took a candle from Ban Hang’s hand, and looked around the cramped and dirty hut.

    A small square window lets in some light.

    The thin moonlight lifted the same thin dust with a few rays.

    Nanzhou lifted the dust that danced around the beamline, and walked to the only source of light in the attic like a flower and a willow.

    Nanzhou supported the rusted window edge with one hand.

    Looking out the window, Nanzhou judged that this should be the highest point of the entire church, or even the entire east coast.

    Of course, as long as you climb along the outer wall and climb up the Gothic spire, you can reach the highest point.

    But there, only look further.

    Not now, just to see a window of that gorgeous dove-like castle perched deep in the woods on the west bank.

    …and the figure facing this window, fixedly watching here.

    Nan Zhou was shocked and blew out the candle in his palm.

    This distance is too far, even if he exhausts his eyesight, it is impossible to see whether the person over there is Duke Shelley.

    Nanzhou was hidden in the darkness, looking at the figure over there, her heart tightened inch by inch.

    Waiting at the bottom of the stairs, Banhang noticed that the light from the attic disappeared, so he could not help but put his head up and asked, “Brother Nan, what’s the matter?”

    Nanzhou took a step back, and every time he took a step back, a thought appeared in his heart.

    Banhang opened the attic sound, they could hear it clearly, it didn’t even exceed five minutes.

    Why is the other party standing in front of the window of the opposite castle, as if waiting to meet him?

    Or, some telepathy on both sides.

    Or, someone has been waiting there, looking at this window, waiting for a light to come on here.

    Nanzhou took another step back and sniffed the faint rotten dust here.

    …But what is the need for attention here?

    According to its gray level, it has not been activated for at least half a year.

    Why would Shelley send someone to stare at a room where it’s almost impossible to have lights on?

    What is this room for?

    Nanzhou does not know.

    But he felt they had stepped into an elaborate trap.

    Pastor Keith is always in the church and never leaves.

    If they hadn’t controlled Pastor Keith, they wouldn’t have been able to open this completely enclosed roof chamber without disturbing him.

    There are no lights at all, you must turn on the lights to search.

    If you turn on the lights, you will immediately find that there is someone in this attic.

    It’s like… sending some kind of signal to the other side.

    If they do nothing, they may fail the level due to lack of clues at hand.

    This is a dead end.

    The one who can answer the endless questions in Nan Zhou’s heart, at this moment, only saves one person.

    Nan Zhou ignored Ban Hang’s question, got off the escalator, and was about to find Keith when he heard a commotion outside.

    Following, there was a changed voice.

    “Brother Nan! Ban Hang! Come here!”

    It is Guan Junliang’s voice.

    Jiang Fang’s voice was filled with inexplicable doubts.

    “…he died.”

    Nanzhou stepped forward.

     A pungent **** aura entered his nose at the same time.

    Pastor Keith was dressed in a dark uniform, and the cross he wore was deeply inserted into his heart, leaving only a little silver tip exposed.

    From the swirling folds of the clothes, the killer twisted the cross several times as it sank into his chest, making sure to crush his heart.

    Very cruel.

    Nan Zhou looked around the crowd, and a heavy cloud rose up in his heart: “Where’s Hua Si?”

    Jiang Fang said solemnly, “…he’s gone.”