A priest in North America, what the hell is the Demon Gate system?

Seror was a lively young man, dressed no differently from other Amish youths.

"You really came from outside to convert?" Serio asked as he walked, his steps light.

"Yes, I've heard that the lifestyle here is closer to nature." Li Ang nodded.

"Ha! That's what outsiders think." Serio kicked away a pebble on the road.

"We're just living life the old way."

The center of the community was quieter than Li Ang had expected, with houses scattered along the road and large fields between each household.

Next to some houses stood windmills, their blades turning slowly in the overcast sky. The world without power poles was unusually quiet; only the sound of the wind, the distant calls of livestock, and the sawing of wood could be heard.

"That's Miller's woodworking shop," Serlior said, pointing to a larger shed.

The door was open, and you could see piles of wood inside. Two men were working together to lift a thick plank onto the worktable.

The woodworking shop smelled of sawdust, and the floor was covered with a layer of fine shavings. Various hand tools, including planes, chisels, and handsaws, hung on the walls, all in excellent condition.

"Good day, Uncle Miller," Serio greeted the older man.

The man looked up; he was in his fifties. He glanced at Li Ang, nodded as a greeting, and then continued adjusting the position of the wooden planks with his companion.

"Do you need any help?" Serio asked.

"No need, child." Miller waved his hand and took a breath.

"This oak is so heavy... There used to be plenty of this kind of material, but now you have to go to a logging camp 30 miles away to buy it, and the price has doubled."

Li Ang noticed several pieces of finished furniture piled up next to the worktable: a dining table, four chairs, and a small cabinet.

The workmanship is very solid, the mortise and tenon structure is clearly visible, and the surface is only coated with a layer of clear varnish, revealing the natural grain of the wood.

"Are these going to be sold in town?" Li Ang asked.

Miller glanced at him, his expression somewhat complicated. "It used to be like that, but now... everyone in town is buying plywood furniture; it's cheap and looks fancy."

After saying that, he ignored Li Ang and went back to work.

Serreol led Leon onward, and as they passed a vegetable garden, they encountered an old man tidying up a fence.

"Grandpa Abraham!" Serio called out.

The old man looked up, squinted for a moment, and then recognized Sergio. "Oh, Sergio, and who is this?"

"The new guy is called Lyon. He wants to learn our way of life."

Abraham nodded, supporting himself on his knees as he slowly stood up: "Study hard... but in these days, who knows how long I can live even if I study hard?"

Li Ang noticed that the soil in the vegetable garden was a bit off in color; it wasn't the fertile dark brown, but rather a grayish-yellow.

The vegetables were sparse, with yellowing leaves and small size.

"This soil..." Li Ang squatted down, grabbed a handful. The soil was very light and not sticky in his hand, falling through his fingers in a soft rustling sound.

"It's no use. We've been planting for forty years, and it's getting worse every year," Abraham sighed.

"Last year, we used a new corn variety recommended by the seed company, which they said was disease-resistant and had a high yield."

He shook his head, somewhat helplessly: "They grow fast and produce big ears of corn, but the taste is wrong. The chickens don't like to eat them."

Suddenly, the distant sounds of horses neighing and wheels screeching came from afar.

Li Ang turned his head and saw a horse-drawn cart loaded with vegetables on the other side of the field. One wheel was stuck in a mud pit, and the cart was tilted. The two horses pulling the cart were struggling to move, white breath coming out of their nostrils.

Several men were rushing over from different directions; some were carrying planks, and others were dragging thick ropes.

"Let's go take a look," Li Ang said.

The carriage was stuck deeper than it appeared; the left rear wheel was completely submerged in the mud, and the axle was flat on the ground. The driver, a young man in his early twenties, was covered in mud and sweating profusely as he frantically pulled on the reins to get the horse moving.

"Don't pull it! The horse will get hurt! Unload the cargo first!" a middle-aged man shouted.

The young man jumped off the vehicle and hurriedly began unloading the vegetable baskets. Seven or eight people had already gathered around, all offering suggestions.

"We'll need another vehicle to haul it."

"Whose carriage is empty right now?"

"The elder Jacob's house is in the barn, but the wheel broke today and hasn't been fixed yet."

Li Ang stood on the periphery of the crowd and quickly assessed the situation. The mud pit wasn't too large, but it was very sticky. Lifting it by hand would definitely be difficult, but if enough force could push it from the right spot...

"Let me give it a try," Li Ang said.

Everyone turned to look at him, curious about this stranger's appearance. Sergio waved his hand: "Lyon, this car is heavy..."

"I know." Li Ang took off his coat and handed it to Sergio, then rolled up his shirt sleeves.

After his physique improved to 4 points, he hadn't properly tested where his limit was yet, and now was the perfect opportunity.

He moved to the side of the carriage, avoiding the deepest part of the mud pit.

"What are you doing?" the young man rushing to catch the carriage asked.

Li Ang didn't speak, but squatted down and placed his palm on the sturdy wooden frame above the axle.

The surroundings quieted down, and everyone looked at the new blond youth with a mixture of curiosity, suspicion, and a hint of schadenfreude in their eyes.

Li Ang took a deep breath, slightly bent his knees, and lowered his waist.

Then he began to exert a little force, after all, Li Ang was afraid that if he used his full strength, he would overturn the carriage.

For the first few seconds, the carriage did not move an inch. "If it doesn't work, then so be it—" someone had just started to speak.

Immediately afterwards, the carriage made a slight creaking sound, and the left side slowly rose. Then, Li Ang took a step to the side and lifted the carriage directly out of the pothole. It landed back on the ground with a thud, causing the surrounding area to tremble.

A collective gasp filled the air.

The young man rushing to catch the carriage was the first to speak: "You...how did you do that?"

"Skills," Li Ang lied without batting an eye.

"Based on the lever principle, the axle is exactly where the center of gravity is."

"But that's also..." The young man circled the carriage, then looked at Li Ang with wide eyes.

Abraham walked over and patted Li Ang on the shoulder: "Good strength, back in your youth... never mind."

Others gathered around, their previous doubts vanished, someone handed him a fairly clean handkerchief, someone asked him where he learned his strength, clearly regarding Li Ang as a reliable person.

At noon, Li Ang was invited to Abraham's house for lunch. Many of the guests were from the morning crowd. The women and children had already prepared food: a large pot of stew, freshly baked bread, homemade pickled cucumbers, and a large bucket of apple juice.

"The Bayer people came again last month, saying they wanted to rent those two hundred acres of land to the north of us," said a middle-aged man named Eli, who had only torn half of his bread in front of him and hadn't eaten much of it.

"What do you say?" the person next to him asked.

"I didn't agree." Eli shook his head.

"My dad used to say that land shouldn't be rented to outsiders, especially American companies, because once it's rented out, it can't be taken back."

Another older man chimed in, "It's not just about the money. The seeds those companies give out are fine for the first year, but you can't save them for the third year; you have to buy more! What kind of nonsense is that? Who saves the soil but not the seeds?"

Li Ang listened quietly without interrupting.

He noticed that although there were many complaints, no one mentioned anything supernatural.

"By the way, doesn't Elder Bailer have any children? I see that every family in the community has quite a few children," Li Ang said casually.

The dining table suddenly fell silent.

Serreol lowered his head and took a sip of apple juice, while Eli exchanged a glance with the person next to him.

"Ellie, that child... isn't feeling well, she's been resting lately," Eli said, his tone somewhat unclear.

Sergio suddenly stood up: "I'm done eating, Mr. Lyon. This afternoon I'll take you to see the vegetable garden; the pumpkins the children planted are huge."

The topic was abruptly changed, and the afternoon visit became somewhat silent. Serreol still dutifully introduced many things, but he spoke noticeably less, and Leon didn't press for details, simply observing.

As evening fell, the community gradually quieted down. People finished their work and returned to their homes. Smoke rose from the chimneys, straight up against the gray sky; it was going to rain, and the humidity in the air increased noticeably.

Li Ang was assigned to stay in a small hut near the barn, which consisted of only a bed and a table, but Li Ang didn't mind.

Once the area around the building had quieted down, Li Ang took out the tracking compass from his storage ring, along with the horseshoe-shaped amulet Jonah had given him. He held it in his left hand, and with his right index finger lightly touching the edge of the compass, he separated a wisp of his divine sense to establish a connection between the two.

The pointer begins to spin.

It first slowly circled once, then gradually accelerated, and after a few seconds, the pointer suddenly stopped and pointed northwest.

There was a small, detached house in that direction, some distance from the other houses. The windows were closed, the curtains were drawn tightly, and no light shone through.

Li Ang silently pushed open the door. The stairs were old and would make a slight creaking sound if an ordinary person stepped on them, but after activating the Breath Concealment Technique, there was almost no sound.

The community was pitch black; the world without streetlights seemed especially profound at night. A dog barked twice in the distance, then stopped.

As they approached the cabin, Li Ang suddenly stopped and slipped behind a large oak tree.

On the side of the cabin, a figure was sneaking closer to the window.

The man was short and thin, and his movements were somewhat clumsy, clearly not skilled in stealth. He crouched under the window for a while, seemingly trying to look inside, but the curtains were drawn too tightly, and he couldn't see anything.

Then the man stood up and looked around.

A sliver of moonlight peeked through the clouds and shone directly on the person's face.

It's Seriol.