America: The Cremator

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the sunlight pierced through the windshield, illuminating the rough asphalt particles on the Seattle suburbs.

Elena drove a Mercedes-AMG G63 along the winding forest road into the Cedar Ridge community.

The tall, dense evergreen trees on both sides of the road cast large shadows on the road surface.

The Cedar Ridge Community Church appears at the end of the road.

This is a typical pointed-roof wooden structure building, with large areas of white paint peeling off the exterior walls, revealing the gray-black wood grain texture underneath.

The wooden cross at the top of the building is tilted to one side at about 15 degrees, and the joint at the bottom is covered with black mold.

The vehicle was parked on a gravel open space overgrown with weeds outside the church.

Surong, Elena, and Pastor Samuel got out of the car one after another and walked toward the rusty black iron gate in the churchyard.

Just as the three were about to step forward, the church's iron door was suddenly and violently pushed open from the inside.

Two young clergymen in grey uniforms grabbed a tall man and shoved him forcefully onto the sidewalk.

The man was nearly 1.9 meters tall with a broad frame. He was wearing a worn-out military green parka that was seriously ill-fitting, with the hem torn into several strips of cloth and covered with dried mud and unidentified stains.

His hair and beard were tangled together, forming greasy, hard knots that covered most of his face.

The man fell heavily onto the rough cement pavement, scraping his palms and drawing dark red blood.

He made a muffled gurgling sound in his throat, which didn't sound like he was crying out in pain, but it was impossible to tell what it meant.

The man slowly got up from the ground, turned around and tried to push open the tightly closed iron gate, but he couldn't budge it. He turned away as if he couldn't see the three people beside him, and walked shakily into the dense forest not far away.

The two priests also saw the three old pastors at that moment. One of the clergymen exclaimed with delight, "Pastor Samuel, you're finally back! And these two are...?"

Samuel nodded and introduced, "These two are my newly hired exorcists. Open the door."

Upon hearing this, the clergyman quickly glanced at the man in the distance, then quietly opened the side door: "Reverend Samuel, you two exorcists, please come in quickly, lest that fellow barges in again."

Su Long stopped and stared at the burly man who was walking with a limp.

"What's wrong with him?"

Samuel looked at the homeless man, his wrinkled face showing obvious signs of fatigue: "He's a madman who's lost his mind. Two weeks ago, he went to the church and claimed that his daughter had gone missing nearby and that he was convinced we had hidden them."

"We allowed him to search the entire church, but he found nothing."

Samuel's gaze shifted to the shadows behind the main church building.

"A few days later, late one night, while the night watchman was dozing off, he climbed over the wall and sneaked into the backyard, even going down a rope into the well."

"The next morning, we found him unconscious at the wellhead, but when he woke up, he looked like this."

"He would just wander outside the church every day, trying to break back in to find his daughter."

Su Long narrowed his eyes slightly, carefully observing the disheveled man's departing figure.

His posture was mechanical and stiff, making him seem less like a middle-aged or young person and more like an elderly and slow-moving man.

Elena stepped forward, pushed open the small door next to the iron gate, and stepped inside first.

Su Long withdrew his gaze and followed closely behind through the overgrown courtyard.

The three of them bypassed the main building and arrived at the church's backyard.

The backyard was small, surrounded by a high red brick wall. Sunlight was fragmented into dappled pieces by the shadows cast by the buildings, with only the central area bathed in light.

An old well made of bluish-gray stones sits in the center of the courtyard.

The well opening is about one meter in diameter. There are no obstructions or winches for drawing water installed above it. The surface of the stones around the edge is covered with cracks caused by weathering, and dark green moss grows in the crevices.

Su Long walked to the well and looked down into it.

The well water level was very high, less than half a meter from the wellhead. The surface of the water was calm and still, reflecting the blue sky above, which was cut into squares.

Su Long focused his mind, a glimmer of light appearing deep in his eyes.

The once clear well water now has a thin layer of grayish-black mist rising from its surface under the spiritual vision.

Instead of spreading outwards, the mist clung tightly to the water's surface, slowly rotating in a counter-clockwise direction.

A cold and malicious aura emanated from the water.

Sulong attempted to extend his spiritual vision to below the water's surface to investigate the structure at the bottom of the well.

But the dark gray mist formed a dense barrier, completely blocking his senses above the water's surface, preventing him from seeing even half an inch below.

Surong dimmed the glint in his eyes and turned to look at Samuel, who was standing a few steps away.

"The surface of the well water is heavily polluted by a strange contamination; my senses cannot penetrate the surface," Su Long stated, recounting his discovery.

Samuel stepped forward, stood on the edge of the well platform, and looked down at the calm water.

"This is what the well looks like during the day, overflowing with water, and it looks no different from an ordinary well."

"But at midnight, the well water recedes at an extremely fast speed, revealing a deep passage leading underground."

Samuel pointed to several fresh scratch marks on the inner edge of the well platform and continued to add information.

"The four exorcists who accepted the commission went down the passage after the water level dropped at midnight and never came back up."

After saying this, Samuel sighed, "Before the seal loosens, this well can produce pure water containing a faint divine power. We bottle this well water and sell it as holy water to believers in the surrounding area and some small exorcism organizations."

"This is the core source of funding for Cedar Ridge Church to maintain its daily operations, repair the building, and distribute relief food."

Samuel reached out and stroked the rough stones at the edge of the well platform.

"After more than a decade, the seal began to weaken, and the well water gradually became polluted and deteriorated, losing its original purification effect."

"In order to maintain the production of holy water, we have to borrow high-level sacred objects from all over the place and hang them in the well water."

"Using the power of sacred objects to suppress pollution and forcibly purify water, Mr. John's wine jug is one such example."

Su Long looked around, and apart from the well and a few dead birch trees, there were no other noteworthy clues in the backyard.

"Take us to the main church; perhaps we can find records about that seal," Suron suggested.

Samuel nodded in agreement and led the two out of the backyard, into the main church chapel through a side door.

The interior of the chapel was dimly lit, with only a few beams of sunlight streaming in through the stained glass windows high above. The air was filled with the mixed smells of aged wood and damp paper.

Sulong's gaze swept along the central passageway to the walls on both sides. The walls were painted with a series of continuous religious murals, the paint of which had faded severely due to the age of the murals, and the surface was covered with fine cracks.

He walked to the left wall and carefully examined one of the relatively well-preserved paintings.

The background of the mural is a desolate wilderness shrouded in darkness, with a stone well in the center that is exactly the same as the appearance of the backyard.

Above the well, a priest in a black robe, his face obscured, is holding up a thick book.

The book's surface radiated a golden light, which transformed into tangible chains that extended downwards, firmly suppressing a humanoid black shadow beneath the well water.

Samuel walked over to Suron and followed his gaze to the mural.

"This is a mural recording the deeds of the church's first chief pastor."

"A hundred years ago, he came to Cedar Ridge and used the Bible in his hand, which had been blessed by a high-ranking person, to suppress a powerful demon at the bottom of a well. He then built a church there and guarded the seal for generations."

Sulong pointed to the glowing book on the mural and confirmed it with Samuel.

"Is the Bible used to seal it still at the bottom of the well?"

Samuel gave an affirmative answer.

"Yes, it's down in the well."

"It is said to be one of the most powerful relics in the entire West during that era."