absurd deduction game.

The Faceless Ones only appear at night.

Like the old gravedigger in the cemetery, unless you enter the cemetery between midnight and 2 a.m., you will miss the chance to meet him—the Faceless One is also an existence that cannot be found during the day.

Therefore, although Yu Xing really wanted to explore its special features, she could only wait until night.

When Yu Xing returned to the Carlos Detective Agency carrying the pitifully light bag of bread, the atmosphere in the living room was quite pleasant.

Carlos remained nestled on the sofa, but the newspapers had been put away and replaced with several sheets of paper with simple maps and symbols drawn on them.

On the single chair opposite him sat Zeng Lai, his brown curly hair drooping and his face pale, as if he had been exhausted from treating the wounded that afternoon. The die was being tossed up and down in his hand, exuding an air of utter misery.

Suddenly, he twitched his nose twice, and his eyes lit up: "Smells good!"

"Here you go." Yu Xing tossed the oil paper package to Zeng Lai.

Zeng Lai hurriedly took the package, opened it to see only a few small round breads, coughed lightly, and cautiously asked, "Are they all mine?"

“I’m not hungry anyway,” Carlos said first.

They can go without food for days without any problems, but Zeng Lai's soul is injured, so he can eat whatever he wants.

Zeng Lai: "Thank you, family."

"How's things going with the church?" Yu Xing walked to the sofa, picked up a map of Yolikev Town in front of Carlos, glanced at it, and asked casually.

Zeng Lai swallowed the bread in his mouth, thought for a moment, and said, "The number of people left behind is about two-thirds of the original number, but most of them are low-ranking deacons, clerks, and newly recruited guards, with limited combat strength. Originally, everyone was hoping that the archbishop could lead the main force to victory today and thwart the secret cult's conspiracy in one fell swoop, but who would have thought..."

“I went to see it secretly,” he shook his head, “Now that the news has come back, the people who stayed behind are disheartened and in chaos. They don’t know what else they can do but desperately pray to the Mother Goddess.”

Just then, a soft footstep came from the stairs.

The group looked up and saw Qu Xianqing slowly walking down from the second floor.

She had changed out of her blood-stained clothes and put on a clean, dark long dress, with a neat short jacket over it.

A neat white bandage was wrapped around her slender neck, completely concealing her previous fatal wound.

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow and looked down at her neck.

Carlos followed his gaze and explained with a grin, "While you were out buying bread, she fixed the 'shell' herself, so don't worry too much."

"I wasn't worried," Yu Xing insisted, then asked Xiao Ququ, "Why is it still wrapped in bandages?"

Qu Xianqing and the fake archbishop's group returned to town around the same time. However, she kept a low profile and went straight to the office as soon as she returned. The terrible wound shocked Yu Xing, who was present at the time, and then her anger soared.

It was only after Qu Xianqing personally comforted him that his worried brother returned to normal, and then he went to his room to take care of his "body".

At this moment, Qu Xianqing walked to the sofa and naturally sat down in the empty seat opposite Zeng Lai.

She raised her hand and gently touched the bandage on her neck, then smiled and explained to Yu Xing, "It's almost healed; the tear hasn't completely closed, but it won't affect my movements. To avoid scaring unrelated people, I've decided to cover it up for now."

Her gaze shifted to Zeng Lai, and she asked, "How are the deacons and guards who were brought back by the paper figures?"

At this point, Zeng Lai perked up: "After they learned that they and their companions had been framed and betrayed, they were so angry that they wanted to rush over and fight the Tantric cultists to the death. I have already appeased them as planned, and they have sworn to the Mother Goddess that they will endure for the time being, cooperate with our actions, and join the battle at the most critical moment tomorrow to catch the Tantric cultists off guard."

A surprise force composed of the church's core members might be able to turn the tide of battle at a crucial moment, provided that... they take good care of themselves on their last day.

Since all four of them were present, they each summarized the intelligence.

Yu Xing obtained the exact time of tomorrow's ritual, the ninth day of the dungeon, from Defit and Evan. The High Priest of the Secret Cult would begin the ritual at 6 PM tomorrow. Once the ritual started, all members of the Secret Cult would receive a signal and engage in acts of harming nearby living people around their respective locations in order to increase chaos and disturb people's minds.

As for the location of the ceremony, the two did not tell him. Yu Xing tried to probe indirectly and found that even Defit and Evan did not seem to know all the arrangements of the High Priest. They only said that after the ceremony began, due to the large fluctuations of the unclean energy, everyone could find the location of the ceremony at a glance.

At that time, the Church of the Harvest Mother Goddess will definitely gather people to stop them, and Yu Xing's mission will begin then. He will blend into the ranks and betray the church to delay it.

Having already received death certificates from both the Secret Church and the Church of the Mother Goddess, Qu Xianqing was now free to move about amidst the chaos.

But when it comes to this, they can't help but think of the performers who also staged death in public.

Although this deduction involved a competitive system like a contribution ranking, the deducers' general goals were the same: if the ancient god's kingdom descended, it would be detrimental to everyone except the esoteric cultists and believers of the ancient god. Yu Xing did not believe that the musician would join the esoteric cult under such circumstances—that would be too pointless and inconsistent with the results obtained from all his previous performances.

Therefore, the actor should not become an enemy in the main storyline. As for what other plans he may have, Yu Xing is too lazy to care.

He asked Carlos, "Did the real archbishop tell you when the reinforcements he requested from other orthodox churches would arrive?"

Qu Xianqing and Zeng Lai also looked at Carlos.

Carlos, who was fiddling with the papers, paused.

"Hiss, when did I tell you I had contact with the archbishop? Did I mention it?"

"...Stop talking nonsense, we're not stupid." Qu Xianqing scoffed. "You've had Yiqing contact the Archbishop many times, haven't you? If you and the Archbishop hadn't planned this all along, you would have been shouting that you were going to the church to rescue the Archbishop long ago."

Zeng Lai: "...Yes, the reinforcements from the Church of the Righteous God are the key to completely ending the influence of the esoteric rituals. The archbishop is so calm. Even if he didn't contact you, he would have contacted another strategist. But I think you broken realms wouldn't give this opportunity to others, so I've never doubted this point."

Yu Xing stared at Carlos with a look that seemed to say, "Don't treat everyone else like fools."

Carlos: "..."

He shrugged, a helpless expression on his face: "Sigh, alright, alright, I have indeed been following up on the Archbishop's line. After all, you guys have all been involved in the important missions. If I don't find something fun, how am I supposed to keep up with the contribution points?"

Zeng Lai raised his hand: "I didn't participate in any key tasks."

Carlos ignored this temporary ally and said, "The appeals for help from other orthodox churches were sent out as soon as the archbishop realized he was being targeted by the cult. Although he has been pretending to be suppressed by the cult and confined to a small room, he has never actually cut off contact with the outside world. He knows everything that is happening in town." He flipped his finger, and the [Azure Dreamscape] appeared in his palm. A thin layer of azure mist spread out, but Yi Qing was nowhere to be seen.

"The archbishop originally wanted to stop the fake bishop from plotting to ambush the main force of the church, but we just happened to propose the plan of using paper dolls to take the fall, which could turn the disadvantage into an advantage and reduce the vigilance of the cultists. After discussing it with the archbishop, he also decided to play along."

"That old man's thinking is much more flexible than you imagine. In order to destroy the Tantric sect in this operation, he can accept even a temporary decline in the church's prestige and allow Tantric practitioners to spread rumors. He even personally promoted many of the rumors."

Carlos laughed and said, "If you ask me, Sister Tian, ​​as a cultist who has been hiding in the church for many years, has never been able to outwit him. She really does get smarter with age... Yi Qing should be the one who feels this most keenly."

Although they had suspected it beforehand, getting confirmation from the magician made everyone present feel more at ease. Qu Xianqing crossed his arms and immediately started stirring things up: "Can I take that as you referring to Elder Yiqing?"

Carlos: ?

This is not something that can be understood.

That Green Demon isn't a magnanimous person... not a magnanimous ghost at all. If he heard that, who knows how he'd make things difficult for him afterwards.

The magician declared righteously, "I never said anything like that. What I meant was—Yiqing had the most contact with the Archbishop, and he was the one who best understood the Archbishop's shrewdness."

Yu Xing mentally put spreading rumors and stirring up trouble on her agenda, then asked, "After saying all that, where did you take my contracted ghost?"

“…He must be chatting with the archbishop,” Carlos said.

……

Few people know that the Church of Mother of Harvest also has a rather large underground space.

The light here is always dim, with only a few pieces of fluorite scattered on the walls emitting a faint green glow, barely illuminating the narrow passage underfoot.

The air was heavy and damp, carrying a mixture of musty smells, old bloodstains, and some kind of inhuman stench, making one's throat tighten with every breath.

Heavy metal doors lined both sides of the passage, each engraved with the holy emblem and sealing runes of the Mother Goddess of Harvest. Those runes, which should have been radiating golden light, were now mostly dull and lifeless, some even covered with mottled dark red stains, with fine traces of corrosion at the edges.

The thick chains coiled around the door frame like sleeping giant snakes, their icy touch seemingly penetrating the air.

This is the reason that bound successive archbishops, preventing them from leaving the church—

This underground space seals away all the monsters that could not be completely destroyed since the church was built, as well as those flesh and blood that, though lifeless, were still harmful to humans.

There are also sealed artifacts that were formed by chance, but cannot be used properly because the cost of using them is too high.

This is true of every church.

Even the churches of other righteous gods are the same.

Only archbishops who have been recognized and blessed by God can barely keep these things quiet and keep them obediently in their own cubicles.

However, this was a secret known only to deities and clergy of the rank of cardinal. Therefore, the false archbishop's departure from the church did not raise much suspicion. On the contrary, the higher-ups of the cult had been in contact with many evil gods, and they knew that the archbishop must never leave the church.

Therefore, after suppressing the archbishop, they left him here to prevent anything underground from causing disturbances and bringing many variables to their final ritual.

Even so, absolute silence still does not exist here.

Yi Qing floated slowly in the dark corridor, her crystal ornaments jingling.

Even though he had passed through this corridor many times, he was still very interested in the things in the rooms on both sides.

The sound of some kind of viscous liquid slowly dripping came regularly from behind the door to his left, while from the other door in front of him, a heavy scraping sound would occasionally come, as if something was repeatedly rubbing its hard part against the inner metal wall.

Further away, there seemed to be intermittent, distorted humming echoing, the melody drilling into the ears and sending chills down one's spine.

Purity and defilement clash fiercely here.

The remaining divine power struggled to suppress the presence behind the door, while the whispers and auras of those imprisoned beings constantly eroded this space, attempting to drag the last glimmer of light into the abyss.

At the very end of the passage, there is an exceptionally low and narrow door.

It was almost hidden in the shadows, and the sealing runes covering the door were denser than those on the other doors, flickering with an unstable light, clearly indicating that it had been subjected to additional binding power.

The space behind the door is only big enough for one adult to curl up in.

The pure darkness swallowed everything, not even the faint green glow of the fluorite could penetrate it.

The real Archbishop of Yolikev knelt in this small, dark space.

His red robe had long been taken away by Sister Tian, ​​leaving him only in a gray-white holy robe. The robe was dull and worn, and he lowered his head, his withered hands clasped tightly in front of his chest, the knuckles showing their pale outline due to the force.

Yi Qing passed through the wall and looked down at the white-haired old man who hadn't been imprisoned for very long.

Then he curled his lip in disbelief.

Every time he came, the old man prayed to the Goddess of Harvest.

His lips moved silently, ancient and devout prayers were recited in his heart, and a faint yet tenacious aura of holiness emanated from him, like the last flickering oil lamp in the night, struggling to maintain a small patch of purity in this polluted space.

But such piety was of course difficult for the Green Demon to understand. He slowly descended until a corner of his green robe landed disrespectfully on the archbishop's forehead.

archbishop:"……"

The old man stopped praying, a kind smile spreading across his face. He greeted Yiqing with a cheerful smile, "You've come again, kind ghost from the East. Please give my regards to your investigator partner." (End of Chapter)