American Zombie Detective

After the illusion was dispelled, Tong Kaihu gradually regained consciousness. He curled up in the trunk, his cloudy old eyes staring in terror at the person in front of him.

"There's something I need; can you help me figure out where you put it?" Qin Jin was very direct.

"I have an old parchment manuscript with a cross and scales on the cover, but no text. Tell me, have you ever seen it?"

Tong Kaihu's eyes were filled with disbelief, and he trembled as he said:

"Who...who sent you? That book isn't worth much, I can give it to you! I can even give you a lot of money, just let me go..."

"Sizzle—!"

Qin Jin grabbed his hair and ripped out a lock. "That's not right!"

Tong Kaihu trembled all over in pain. The lazy man in front of him was colder than he had imagined. He dared not provoke Qin Jin's bottom line any further and stammered:

"In the room to the right of the ancestral tablets in the ancestral hall... there are many shelves inside, on the left, the shelves on the left are all full of books."

Tong Kaihu's voice was hoarse and filled with fear: "What you want should be up there."

Qin Jin nodded, turned around, and just as Qingyin was about to drag Tong Kaihu out and kill him, Qin Jin stopped her and turned to instruct Alessa:

"Tie him up and take him back."

After all, it had been a long time since they had brought a living person to the paper bride; all they had brought were blood from the Tong family. Since they had the opportunity this time, they might as well make her happy.

It must be said that Qin Jin is quite good to his friends, provided... you are useful to them!

Alessa took out ropes and cable ties from the doll and began to tie up Tong Kaihu. Qin Jin only gave Qingyin a brief reply:

"It's still useful." That was the end of it.

Qingyin pouted and muttered under her breath, "What a hassle." But she didn't insist any further.

When the Chevrolet circled around to the vicinity of the Guandi Temple again, they could see flashing police lights and police tape being put up in the distance, and the police seemed to have just arrived at the scene.

What's even more eye-catching is the group of Chinese people outside the police cordon. The guy they're surrounding is a young man in his twenties with a fierce look in his eyes. He's having a heated argument with the police chief.

Young people continued to arrive from all directions, joining the Chinese community in the standoff with the police.

Unfortunately, the battle didn't seem to have any effect on the statue; the divine light above the Guandi Temple remained, and Qin Jin and Qing Yin still couldn't get in.

The Chevrolet was parked in the shadows a little further away, and Qin Jin was somewhat troubled.

At this moment, the residents who had been awakened also came out to watch, wearing clothes and pajamas, and the number of people at the scene was increasing.

At this moment, several ambulances arrived at the scene, and paramedics rushed into the temple with stretchers and medicine kits.

Qin Jin glanced at the driver left in the car, a thought struck him, and he whispered a few words to Qingyin.

Qingyin nodded and got out of the car, heading straight for an ambulance that had just stopped, where the driver had jumped out to smoke.

The middle-aged white driver had just lit a cigarette when he saw a woman of Asian descent walking towards him. Her eyes looked a little strange. He paused for a moment, and the woman had already walked up to him, leaning in and whispering something to him...

The driver's eyes went blank for a moment, as if the signal had been interrupted, but this state only lasted for a second or two before his gaze returned to normal. However, something suddenly lingered in his heart.

He didn't look at the woman beside him again, but tightened his reflective vest and rushed into the temple at top speed, quickly disappearing into the cordon.

Qingyin turned around, walked briskly back to the car, and started the engine: "Okay, let's go wait up ahead."

The Chevrolet Suburban started up again and drove away quietly, stopping at the next intersection to wait patiently.

A dozen minutes later, the ambulance sirens blared, and one ambulance after another arrived with flashing yellow lights. Just as one of them was less than five meters away from the Chevrolet—

Snapped!

Qingyin snapped her fingers lightly!

A brief moment of blankness flashed across the ambulance driver's eyes. The next second, he jerked the steering wheel, and the ambulance veered off the road!

"Squeak—Bang!!"

The ambulance crashed violently into a concrete utility pole on the side of the road, as if it had gone out of control! The front of the vehicle was instantly deformed, and the siren blared!

The driver, whose eyes still looked somewhat dazed, stumbled out of the car and stood to the side. A parchment book fell out of his clothes and landed on the roadside.

Almost as soon as he got out of the car, the Chevrolet's door opened, and Qingyin quickly walked over, picked up the things on the ground, and turned back to the car.

Snapped!

The second snap is made by flicking the fingertip of the Qingyin finger.

The driver's confusion receded quickly like a tide. He shook his head violently, and his eyes regained their clarity, as if he had just woken up from a brief nightmare.

His professional instincts instantly took over. He immediately turned around, calling out to his colleagues while struggling to pull open the deformed rear door of the truck, and began to help his terrified colleagues and the injured escape.

Qingyin had returned to the driver's seat of the Chevrolet and casually tossed her things to Qin Jin.

Sure enough, it was the handwritten copy he had seen in the Paper Bride illusion. Qin Jin nodded: "Alright, let's go home."

Qingyin's lips curled slightly. She stepped on the gas, and the black Chevrolet shot off like an arrow, quickly leaving the chaotic neighborhood and merging into the sparse traffic before dawn, speeding southward.

The Chevrolet sped along the highway before dawn, leaving the chaos of San Francisco far behind, and Qingyin's driving remained as ferocious and violent as ever.

Qin Jin carefully perused the handwritten copy.

The booklet was thin, with few pages, and the paper was yellowed and brittle, with severely worn and curled edges.

The text above was written in faded ink, a mixture of Latin and some Old German words, in hasty handwriting, like a hastily recorded observations and notes, like the records of a church member. The content was eclectic, recording all sorts of strange tales, demon legends and exorcism rituals.

Qin Jin turned the fragile pages quickly and precisely. Finally, on the last few pages of the book, a special record caught his attention.

This text describes an event that took place in an ancient church called Castel in the Transylvania region of Romania.

About three hundred years ago, the church was attacked by demons. The local church was helpless and could only seek help from the Papacy. As a result, a knight in charge of judgment, codenamed "God's Left Hand", was sent to the area to solve the problem.

This knight possesses devout faith, immense strength, and carries a precious relic—

A sealed crystal bottle, said to contain a clot of the holy blood shed during the Passion of Jesus Christ.

The Knight of Judgment fought a desperate battle against the evil spirit in the Castel Cathedral. In the end, he successfully sealed the evil spirit's core power back into the abyss, but at the cost of his life.

In the final moments of his life, he left the crystal bottle containing the "blood of Christ" as the core of the seal, permanently in a specific location deep underground in the church, using the power of the holy blood to continuously suppress the remaining erosion of evil spirits and prevent them from rising again.

The text also mentions that because the power of the demon was so great, for hundreds of years afterward, although the Vatican wanted to retrieve the blood of Christ, it never took any action. The crystal bottle remained somewhere in the church, forever suppressing the demon there.

All the key information is here!

Romania, Transylvania, the ancient churches of Castel... that's enough!

Around noon, the Chevrolet drove back into the Canyon Precinct parking lot, and Qin Jin got out and drove his Dodge. The two cars drove one after the other into an underground parking lot.

Here, Qin Jin took the listless Tong Kaihu out of the trunk of the Chevrolet and told Qingyin that it was a day off and she could go home to rest. He would take care of the rest himself!

Of course, Qin Jin still politely thanked Qingyin for her help today.

Qingyin leaned lazily against the car door, stretched, and her curves were on full display:

"No problem, boss. Remember to call me next time you have something exciting like this."

She opened the car door, started the engine, and the black Chevrolet quickly merged into the traffic and disappeared from sight.

Qin Jin closed the trunk of the Dodge and, carrying Alessa and the cargo in the trunk, arrived at the Westham mining area.

As per tradition, summon the paper bride and give Tong Kaihu to her.

Unlike before, Tong Kaihu was the one who had witnessed everything back then. The appearance of the paper bride instantly aroused boundless hatred. A cold wind raged in the mine, and the mournful screams echoed as sand and gravel fell from the ceiling.

Qin Jin turned and left, not caring how she would handle the situation.

The next stop was again the coffee shop next to the police station.

Roger has already created the renderings, and he needs Qin Jin and Alessa to take a look so that they can proceed to the next step!