absurd deduction game.

Yu Xing was a little curious.

He sat down by the window, seemingly to rest, but in reality, he quietly sent an extremely subtle, almost invisible sensory tendril, like a ripple on the surface of water, toward the archbishop's office.

His senses carefully bypassed the sacred barriers and warning runes along the way, like the most cunning shadow, silently seeping back into the room filled with bookshelves.

Then, his eyes "opened" on the branch and saw the scene inside the office—

The archbishop did not sit at his desk, which was piled with dossiers and other utensils.

He had already opened the painting tube, seemingly having already seen the painting still bearing traces of star pollution. However, judging from his expression, the archbishop, as expected of a high-ranking member of the Orthodox Church, was unaffected by the pollution.

At this moment, the archbishop was holding the painting that exuded an ominous and vast aura, and walked steadily toward the inner side of the office, to a seemingly ordinary, huge bookshelf embedded in the stone wall.

Yu Xing's gaze followed him.

The archbishop then switched to holding the painting with one hand, extending his free left hand. Instead of taking any books, he placed his palm directly on a barely noticeable wooden relief on the side of the bookshelf, carved with delicate wheat ear patterns.

He murmured a short, ancient-sounding prayer.

As the last syllable of the prayer faded, the enormous bookshelf silently rotated inward from its central axis, as if opening a heavy stone door to reveal the hidden space behind it.

Oh wow.

There was a secret room inside.

A scent mingled with aged spices, candle wax, and something more ancient and tranquil wafted from behind the door, leading to a small prayer room, a stark contrast to the bustling offices outside.

The walls of the prayer room are made of smooth white stone, polished to a very flat finish, and are carved with intricate and exquisite symbols of the Mother Goddess of Harvest—heavy ears of wheat, full grapevines, and surrounding star patterns.

The ground was paved with dark jade, with a permanent purification array etched on it that continuously emitted a faint, soft white light, making the entire space appear exceptionally solemn and clean, completely isolated from the disturbances of the outside world.

Yu Xing guessed that this was probably a secret place where the archbishop conducted important prayers or handled extremely sensitive matters.

His branches peeked out again.

I didn't see how the archbishop operated it, but the painting "Starry Night" had already been unfolded and was suspended in the very center of the purification circle.

On the canvas, the writhing dark purple and eerie green deep space, the twisted and rotating eerie stars, and the enormous shadows lurking behind the colors are uncontrollably emitting dense, almost tangible, distorted fluctuations, attempting to corrupt everything around them.

Even when transmitted through the senses, the cold, insane babbling carries a power that shakes the mind.

The archbishop stood before the painting, donning a more solemn white-gold robe embroidered with golden runes.

The staff in his hand, inlaid with a huge piece of amber, was now radiating an unprecedentedly brilliant golden light, like a small sun, illuminating the entire prayer room in splendor.

Below the painting was a sacred object that Yu Xing did not recognize, but could only make out that it was a badge that looked very ancient and was made of some kind of dark gold metal.

The emblem features a teardrop-shaped milky-white pearl at its center, with what appears to be flowing mist inside, radiating a gentle yet firm sense of "protection" and "purification".

"In the name of abundance, grant the reality of the journey home." The archbishop's deep and majestic prayer echoed in the prayer room, his staff pointing towards "The Starry Night."

Golden divine light, like a living torrent, surged towards the painting. The distorted colors and stars seemed to be scorched, violently churning and struggling, emitting silent screams. The corrupting power instinctively resisted the divine erosion. At the point of contact, even dazzling, electric-arc-like sparks of energy erupted, and the air in the entire prayer room trembled.

But the archbishop's power was clearly superior.

Under the archbishop's skillful manipulation, the golden light, like the most nimble weaver, forcibly wove stable and bright "paths" composed of sacred runes into the chaotic and frenzied rules of the starry sky. These paths were like bridges and chains, both restraining the raging pollution and guiding it to a specific "direction".

At the same time, the sacred object suspended below emitted a soft, milky-white halo. This halo acted as a protective film, covering the surface of the painting, especially the "paths" that had been forcibly carved out, ensuring that while guiding the corrupting forces, it also protected them from direct erosion of the human spirit to the greatest extent possible.

This is an extremely delicate and dangerous process, like walking on the edge of a cliff or embroidering in a storm.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on the archbishop's forehead. His arm holding the staff was as steady as a rock, but the taut muscles showed that he was under tremendous pressure.

Yu Xing saw that the scene in the painting was undergoing a slow but obvious change. The originally disordered and writhing deep space background was gradually being imprinted with a complex door-shaped outline drawn by golden light.

Those distorted stars were bound by an invisible force, flowing around the door along specific trajectories, like a guardian or an array providing energy.

The overall aura emanating from the painting gradually transforms from pure chaos and madness into a dangerous, bound, and specifically targeted aggregate of power.

After an unknown amount of time, when the last sacred rune was successfully engraved deep within the rules of the canvas and perfectly linked with the power of the relic—

"Buzz!"

A deep, resonant sound, seemingly emanating from the realm of rules, rang out.

All the strange phenomena in the painting vanished instantly.

The distorted colors remain, the eerie stars still exist, but the golden door-shaped outline is firmly established in the center of the canvas, radiating a stable and mysterious aura. "Starry Night" has briefly become a tool, a dangerous "key" that exudes an ominous aura yet is bound by divine power.

The archbishop let out a long sigh of relief. The golden light on his staff slowly receded. He carefully manipulated his power, rolled up the modified "Starry Night" painting, and put it back into the painting tube. At this time, he also temporarily added a few sealing runes to the surface of the painting tube, just in case.

After doing all this, the archbishop wiped the sweat from his brow, a tired but satisfied look on his face.

He closed the prayer room and called Ivan, who was outside the door, "Go and call the three investigators here."

Ivan looked at the bishop with some concern: "Are you alright?"

Starting in the morning, the archbishop presided over a ten-hour teleportation ceremony and used sacred objects to transform the contaminants... The archbishop is getting old, can his spirit really hold up!

"Ahem..." The archbishop coughed lightly twice. "It's nothing, just a little tired. Go on, child."

Ivan's abilities were average, and he couldn't offer much help, so he could only obediently reply, "Okay, I'll go right now!"

Yu Xing pretended nothing had happened and withdrew the sensory tendril, turning her head to admire the increasingly dim sky outside the window.

It looks like it's going to rain.

The sky above the courtyard was now piled high with thick, leaden-gray clouds, completely swallowing up any remaining rays of the setting sun. The sky was an ambiguous, dim twilight, a momentary stalemate between day and night, with night gradually gaining the upper hand.

Qu Xianqing had walked to the window at some point, her hand lightly resting on the glass as she gazed intently outside. The silhouettes of the trees in the distance appeared blurry and stiff in the gloomy light, like silhouettes. The meticulously trimmed shrubs and flowerbeds in the courtyard had lost their usual vibrant colors, shrouded in a gray shadow. The air seemed to stagnate, carrying the suffocating oppression and dampness characteristic of the period before a downpour.

There was no wind, but one could feel an invisible pressure gathering. The clouds hung low, seemingly within reach, and in their leaden gray depths, an ominous, brewing darkness hinted at an impending storm.

She blinked, her figure slender and upright.

"It feels like it's going to rain for a while." She frowned, then turned to Yu Xing and said, "Come and take a look, isn't the sky a bit strange?"

"Hmm?" Yu Xing raised an eyebrow and immediately stood up.

Qu Xianqing's perception is usually very poor because her "true form" is hidden in another space, while her body is just a closed shell.

But now, he vaguely saw a figure in a red dress lurking behind Qu Xianqing, which was a manifestation of her soul taking the initiative to appear.

The actors also looked over here.

After a moment of contemplation, he went to another window and looked up at the horizon.

He saw a patch of gray.

Wait, that's...

The performer slightly widened her eyes, and at the same time, Yu Xing's gaze also fell in the direction Qu Xianqing was pointing.

Eh?
On the horizon, the rain clouds looked unusual.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a writhing, indescribable, enormous shadow!

As they gazed, the chaotic shadow on the horizon began to writhe.

The color was a chaotic mix of bruise and dark green, with pale, fluffy substances rolling around the edges like rotting viscera. These fluffy substances intertwined and devoured each other, then expelled new, viscous threads.

It has no fixed form, resembling a huge, living, ever-expanding slime mold, relentlessly "climbing" across the sky at an illogical and unsettlingly slow pace.

At that moment, countless shocked exclamations rang out inside the church, and the voices of the church members reached Yu Xing's ears through the walls and doors.

"Mother Goddess, what is that?!"

"Is it a monster? In the sky?"

"Wow... God, is this real?! Quick, go ask the archbishop..."

"The archbishop is busy with other matters with the three investigators today. Never mind, this thing seems more terrifying. I'll go find the archbishop now!"

This monster appeared without warning; there had never been such a high-profile and enormous being before.

A subtle commotion broke out inside the church.

Yu Xing could clearly see that countless short, wriggling pseudo-legs extended forward from the bottom of the chaotic mass. These pseudo-legs were composed of thick shadows and churning filth, gripping the edge of the sky tightly, and then the entire massive mass was dragged forward.

Wherever the pseudo-foot passes, it leaves a brief, viscous trail on the sky, like dried pus, before being submerged by the encroaching chaos.

It climbs slowly, yet with an unstoppable, despairing constancy.

The sky is like a giant canvas, being slowly devoured and covered by this indescribable filth.

The light was swallowed up, the color was stripped away, leaving only the heavy oppressive feeling brought by the ever-expanding, writhing shadow, which almost crushed the soul.

Wherever it passed, even the twilight was stained with a layer of filthy grease, and a low-frequency hum, as if from the depths of the earth or beyond the starry sea, began to subtly vibrate the air.

As that chaotic shadow finally devoured the last sliver of sky, drawing ever closer until it completely enveloped the church—

There was no thunder, no lightning.

Only drops of viscous, heavy liquid, unlike rain, began to fall from behind that writhing chaos.

Wow…

Raindrops fell on the church dome, the stone slabs of the courtyard, and the withered flowers and plants, making a dull, teeth-grinding "plop, plop" sound.

The rainwater didn't immediately disperse and flow away; as if it had a life of its own, it briefly clung to the surface of objects, wriggling slightly, emitting an indescribable stench mixed with rust, rotting seaweed, and some unknown sweet and cloying fishy smell.

As the light of dusk faded, the entire town of Yolikev was quickly enveloped in a deeper, more ominous darkness under the eerie yellow-green raindrops.

[Side quest triggered: You witnessed the "Chaos Rain"!]

【"Chaotic Rain": This is a living chaos. Its appearance is always accompanied by disaster. The airspace it traverses will be filled with a day-long downpour, in which pollution and calamity breed.】

This monster is indestructible and cannot be communicated with. It appears at most once every fifty years in the same area, resembling a natural phenomenon, and may cause mental distress to viewers.

As the system announcement sounded and then ended, the chaos had already disappeared from Yu Xing's sight.

“Chaos Rain…” Yu Xing pondered the name. “Does this mean that the disaster in Yorickf Town is about to worsen?”

Is it related to the clues they found today about the city of terror?
Rain fell on the glass in front of him, the murky liquid flowing down. Behind him, there was a knock on the door of the lounge. Ivan, looking somewhat bewildered, opened the door: "The archbishop has prepared the key. Please come in."

He was clearly on orders to find someone and hadn't been able to see the sky outside, so he was puzzled by the church members' reactions. He was carrying out his orders while listening intently to what was happening outside.

"Heh, that's interesting." The actor's eyebrows curved slightly. "Let's go over there first. The church might get busy soon, and the archbishop might not have many opportunities to talk to us."

Yu Xing nodded, and the tendrils that snaked out of the house seemed somewhat displeased when they touched the raindrops falling from the sky.

A faint whisper of consciousness emanated from the branches.

They said that kind of murky energy was also food, but it didn't taste good. (End of Chapter)