From Under One Person: Sincere Journey Through the Heavens

"asshole!"

Ren Wei reacted and shoved Maria aside, about to shoot her, but Jiang Liu grabbed his hand and said, "Captain Ren Wei, don't use force. She just did something stupid in a moment of excitement. If you really think about it, you were the one who started this trouble."

After struggling for a while and realizing he couldn't break free, Ren Wei finally regained his senses and said to Jiang Liu, "You're right, you're right."

“This child understands right from wrong, unlike these rude demons and monsters,” Maria praised.

Jiang Liu: Little friend?

Ren Wei: Demons and monsters?

This Mary can "talk"!

Jiang Liu's face twitched. He looked around the church, explained his purpose to Maria, and said, "The town's water source has been polluted by bats, and judging from the appearance of the bat corpses, they don't seem to be native bats. You are nuns from a Western church, so he is on guard against you."

"I see."

When Mary heard what had happened, she suddenly realized the truth and explained to everyone, "We believe in a great and merciful God, and we would never do such a heinous thing."

"That's not necessarily true. You just tried to kill me." Ren Wei's eyes were unfriendly.

If he had previously thought of burning down the church to win Lin Jiu's favor, now that he had almost been killed by Lin Jiu, he was truly determined to burn the church down!

Jiang Liu ignored him and instead asked Maria if they could inspect the interior of the church to see if there were any bat nests or the like.

“There is absolutely no way there could be a bat nest in the church! Because the church is the dwelling place of the Lord! The existence of dark and evil spirits could never offend the Lord’s majesty!” Maria said confidently, but considering that the place had been abandoned for more than ten years before they arrived, and that this was also for the long-term drinking water safety of the town’s residents, she finally gave in and decided to let the group of people inspect it.

It seems this "Maria" isn't so rigid after all.

Jiang Liu thought to himself.

The church was not large; besides the main hall, kitchen, and bedroom, only one locked meditation room remained unopened.

Maria, however, refused to open the final meditation room: "This meditation room was where the church's former priest meditated. The priest is the true spokesperson of the Lord and possesses divine power. We must never offend the priest's dignity!"

[Divine power? It probably refers to alchemical techniques, but Western supernatural beings don't deliberately hide their abilities from ordinary people; instead, they might present themselves as "priests" or "Mothers" for worship by lower-class believers?]

According to the plot of "The One-Eyebrowed Taoist", it was the opening of this meditation room by the One-Eyebrowed Taoist that caused the bats hanging upside down from the ceiling to escape, changing the coordinates of Lin Jiuding's well and digging out the vampire's corpse. In addition, Awei's greed led him to cut off the purple gem on the cross that was piercing the vampire's heart, causing the corpse to be stained with blood from its nose, which led to its resurrection.

If things really develop this way, then Jiang Liu will definitely open this meditation room and kill all the bats inside, leaving none alive.

While he was indeed curious about the possibility of a mummified vampire corpse that could be resurrected by absorbing the blood of an ordinary person, he couldn't risk the lives of the townspeople.

If we can confirm the existence of the vampire by opening the meditation room and examining the situation inside, we can then tell Lin Jiu to work hard in private to find and dig out the vampire's mummified corpse and burn it. There's no need to give Ren Wei, that greedy and lustful guy, the chance to make things worse!

Therefore, Jiang Liu stopped Ren Wei from forcibly opening the door and clashing with Maria again, but he pretended to trip and fall, bumping into the door of the meditation room and breaking it down.

"My God!"

Mary quickly gestured and prayed to heaven: "Hallelujah! Great Lord, it's not the boy's fault, it's all my fault. If only I had chosen to repair the meditation room door first..."

After reciting the mantra, Maria entered the meditation room and saw a skeleton. She was so frightened that she backed away and bumped into Ren Wei.

"what!"

She twisted her ankle and fell directly onto Ren Wei, slamming him to the floor.

"Oh!"

Ren Wei's eyes bulged out as he struggled to breathe under Maria's enormous body. He snapped, "You fat woman, get up!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Maria quickly got up, but when she saw the skeleton, she was startled and took a step back, stepping on Ren Wei's ankle.

Snapped!

This time, her bottom landed on his head, almost making Ren Wei gasp for breath.

Lu Jin suppressed a laugh: "......"

Li Muxuan, not one to hide his laughter, burst into tears and said, "Why don't you two just get together and live together? You're a match made in heaven!"

The young woman covered her mouth to avoid laughing out loud, then stepped over the two men and jumped into the meditation room. Her gaze swept around, and she saw two framed photos of priests—

There were two priests who came here to build the church!

# Chapter 176 Are vampires actually vegetative people who can't photosynthesize?

"Brother Jiang."

The young woman took down the two picture frames, glanced at the skeleton in the meditation room, and said in confusion, "It seems that this church originally had two priests, but why is there only one priest's skeleton here? And there's a cross stuck in his chest?"

Jiang Liu's eyes narrowed slightly.

The current situation is extremely similar to the plot of "The One-Eyebrowed Taoist"... that is to say, the probability of the existence of vampires has exceeded 90%.

The moment he looked up, he saw bats hanging upside down from the ceiling, still alive, just asleep, and the noise he made when he broke down the door hadn't woken them.

"It was either suicide or homicide."

Jiang Liu lowered his head and stated two possibilities. He then circulated his Qi throughout his body, and his magnetic field naturally surged, binding all the bats on the ceiling and slamming them hard to the ground. However, he found that even if he broke their skulls, he could not extinguish their life force. He immediately said to the other soldiers, except for those who were pinned down by Maria, "Take these bats out and burn them."

The bats on the riverbank are all dead, but the bats here, even with their skulls broken, still retain a sense of life. They must not be kept; they must be burned to ashes!

"okay!"

This group was a mob; they listened to whoever was in power. Especially since they had witnessed Jiang Liu's abilities, they dared not utter any objections and hurriedly led the dead bats away.

At this moment, Maria also got up, and Jiang Liu asked, "Ms. Maria, as someone from the church, do you know anything about this?"

After getting up, Maria also helped Ren Wei up. Hearing Jiang Liu's question, she straightened her nun's habit, took the photo frame from the girl in red, and told him what she knew: "Father Franzuhas and Father Arthur came here to build a church not only to preach but also to practice divine magic and get closer to the Lord... Now it seems that they must have encountered a devil from hell. The two priests fought with the devil and sealed him here, but they also sacrificed themselves."

"Hmph, then why is there only one corpse here? I think the other priest has been possessed by a demon!" Ren Wei said with a cold laugh after getting up.

You know what!

Ren Wei might just have guessed the truth!

"Don't insult the priest!" Maria was furious, and in her emotional outburst, she grabbed Ren Wei by the neck.

"Ugh! Let go! I can't breathe... The Lord's representative is going to kill me!" Ren Wei shouted in a hoarse voice.

Mary was startled and quickly let go, praying to heaven, "Great Lord, please forgive this demon's disrespect. It's all my fault, Amen!"

Jiang Liu respected Mary's faith, and after she finished praying, he asked, "Whose remains are these? Arthur's? Or Franzohas's?"

Coming to her senses, Maria mustered her courage and stepped forward to examine the remains. She noticed a necklace hanging from the skeleton that matched the short-haired Arthur in the photograph frame and concluded, "This must be Father Arthur. What a tragedy, possessed by the devil, who, to protect the peace of the area, confined himself to his monastery and even killed himself with a crucifix..."

Such behavior is absolutely forbidden in the church!

But the Lord will definitely forgive him and guide him to heaven!

In the doctrines of God and Christianity, suicide by crucifixion is a grave sin and a blasphemy against God; no religious person would do such a thing.

In Mary's eyes, Arthur, who committed suicide by crucifixion, must have encountered an extremely troublesome devil, so much so that he had no choice but to commit suicide to protect the peace of this place. Even if he went to hell, his soul would surely be holy and pure, and would be guided to heaven!

"is it?"

Jiang Liu looked at the long-haired man in the photo frame, "Then the other person who is possessed by a demon and is very likely still alive is this Franzuhas."

"impossible!"

Maria kept shaking her head. "The souls of priests are noble. Even if they are possessed by the devil, they would never submit to him and would surely choose to sacrifice themselves!"

"Then how do you explain the fact that there is only Arthur's skeleton in this meditation room? And that there are so many bats in this secret room?"

Jiang Liu's expression was serious. "Those bats are the same type as the bats that polluted the water source before, and they are not native to our area."

If Father Arthur sealed the meditation room to trap the bats, and the meditation room indeed had no windows and broken corners, how did the bats on the riverbank appear?

There is only one possibility:

There's another person keeping these bats near the town!

Maria was somewhat at a loss, but she eventually calmed down and said, "If what you say is true, then I will definitely find Father Franzuhas who is possessed by the devil and destroy the devil!"

Jiang Liu ignored him.

Maria is just an ordinary person, and she doesn't have any "truth" at her disposal. How could she possibly eliminate a vampire?

Could it be that it's based on holy water, crosses, and garlic?

Don't you see three things on the floor of this meditation room? Except the holy water has spilled, the garlic is wilted, and the crucifix is ​​broken.

Clearly, that "vampire" is not something that can be dealt with by these things. At most, it is just that it is somewhat "allergic" to certain components in holy water and garlic, or to the materials of the cross.

Jiang Liu picked up the cross from the ground and then pulled the cross out of Father Arthur's remains, discovering that they were both made of silver.

Silver, this substance might be harmful to vampires, but to kill them completely—

It seems that, like Arthur's remains, it would have to be pierced through the heart.

Considering only the plot of "The One-Eyebrowed Taoist," Franzuhas was also impaled on a cross and buried in the ground for over a decade, becoming a mummified corpse. However, after the amethyst on the cross was cut and stained with human blood, it was as if a withered tree had come back to life, completing its resurrection.

Its vitality is truly astonishing!

Judging from the expressions in the story, combined with his current reality and his still-remembered biological knowledge, Jiang Liu suddenly realized that the vampire could no longer be considered a normal mammal, or even an animal, but rather resembled a plant.

Animals, once they become mummies and their cells lose their vitality, have absolutely no chance of reviving. On the contrary, some plants, after withering, can retain a portion of their cells that are full of vitality for a long time. When the climate is suitable and the nutrients are sufficient, they can revive and grow again.

Thinking about it this way, aren't vampires just animals with plant-like vitality?

Plants need minerals and water to grow, and the blood that vampires need contains all of these, but the latter seem unable to convert chloroplasts into photosynthetic cells within their own cells.

From the perspective of biological survival, organisms with cell walls, namely plants, have relatively hard bodies, so they cannot move and most cannot hunt. They need to use other means to synthesize the substances that enable them to grow, that is, to use chloroplasts to carry out photosynthesis to solidify energy.

Conversely, if the cells of an organism do not have cell walls, such as animals, then they obtain the substances for growth and the energy for activity by eating plants and hunting other animals.

Therefore, with very few exceptions, it is entirely possible to determine whether an organism has the ability to photosynthesize by whether it has a cell wall.

Most plants that cannot photosynthesize are quite sensitive to sunlight. They survive either by parasitizing other plants, such as dodder, or by decomposing organic matter, such as the crystal orchid.

If a vampire is an animal-type "vegetative person" without chloroplasts, the only way to maintain its physical form and survive is to "parasitize," that is, to survive by consuming nutrients from the blood of other people.

After all, neither alchemy nor qi cultivation can allow a living being to continue its physical body without eating. Even if it becomes a spirit, it still needs to exist somewhere, nourished by the qi of others!

This world—

Even in spiritual practice, the principle of energy conservation must be followed!

# Chapter 177 The Methods of Western Extraordinary People