The mastermind behind this started by creating a strange story

After saying that, Arthur ignored the look Melina was giving him and strode towards the team, telling them not to be alert about the surroundings and that it was time to move on.

The people around gathered together and followed Shaq who was leading the way. This time the journey was not far and they arrived in a few minutes.

But before Shaq could say anything, Arthur and Melina suddenly stopped and stretched out their hands to stop the people from moving forward.

"Do you feel it?" Arthur's face was serious, and the holy light was flowing from the ring on his right hand. As long as he thought about it, the holy light curry stick would appear.

"Yeah, I felt it too." Melina clasped her hands together, ready to deploy the Holy Light Field at any time, but she added at the end: "Before you."

"What did you feel?" Shaq, who was standing aside with a face full of question marks, asked. He didn't see anything.

"Zombie!" Arthur looked towards the center of the forest, "A zombie with dark power!"

"Dark power?"

"I'll try to catch it, and you guys follow. Melina knows my direction!"

After he finished speaking, Arthur shot out and his figure flashed before everyone's eyes.

"He... this..."

Shaq next to him was dumbfounded. What did he see? A living person just disappeared.

"Let's go, let's follow."

Melina did not explain, and the military team behind her did not raise any questions, as if Arthur's sudden disappearance was normal and it was Shaq who was abnormal.

Shaq looked at the group of people who had no questions and his mind was a little stuck. Could it be that he was really making a fuss out of nothing?

"Hey, wait for me."

Seeing that the team had started to move in one direction, Shaq hurriedly followed. He didn't want to fall behind.

After walking for a while, Melina felt a little surprised that Arthur was still running. According to his strength, he shouldn't have been able to fight for so long.

Are there any other discoveries?

Sensing the light that was like a little sun, Melina did not stop, but led the team forward.

After a while, at the foot of the mountain.

After going around in circles for a long time, they returned to the foot of the mountain, but this was the other side of the mountain. It was equivalent to climbing a mountain during this time.

Arthur had already stopped and was waiting for them somewhere at the foot of the mountain.

After a while, the team came to an area with dense bushes and vines. In Melina's perception, Arthur was in the pile of vines.

Without hesitation, Melina sent people forward to chop through the bushes and vines. With the alloy dagger, no matter what kind of plant it was, it could be cut with one stroke.

When the troublesome plants disappeared, a dark cave suddenly appeared. The cave was behind the vines and bushes, and was just blocked by the natural barrier.

Arthur was leaning against the wall of the cave with his eyes closed. At his feet was a deer tied up with vines.

But it was obvious that this deer was not a good one. How could a deer have a mouth full of fangs and a piece of fur was missing from its body?

"You finally came. I thought you were lost."

The moment the light shone into the cave, Arthur opened his eyes.

Chapter 300: Holy Fool

"Arthur, is there anything strange about this cave?"

Melina walked forward and looked around the cave. It was slightly damp, covered with moss, and had a rotten smell.

This is a natural cave with no signs of human carving.

"Of course, because after this zombie deer encountered me, it fled towards this side madly. This place is most likely a zombie den!"

"I believe you felt it the first time you came in." Arthur touched the damp wall of the cave, feeling the chill inside.

"The darkness in the cave is so dense that it seems to be overflowing. Although it is a little worse than that of a vampire, um... it's like the difference between ordinary ink and ink mixed with water."

“Although it looks the same black, the quality is actually completely different. The darkness here is ink mixed with water.”

"Do you want to go in?" Melina walked up to Arthur and asked.

"Of course, otherwise why would I wait for you? Acting alone is a taboo, so let the two of us take the lead this time."

These words were not only spoken to Melina, but also to the team members who were entering the cave. Although twenty people were not a large number, they naturally seemed crowded in the narrow cave.

The cave is only wide enough for six people to stand in a row. If you want to move around without crowding, you can only stand in five rows, with four people in each row. This way it doesn't seem crowded and you can also take care of the people behind you.

And there is no need for Shaq to lead the way here, just let him blend into the team.

A moment later, the team, led by Arthur Melina, followed by the arranged teams, prepared to explore the dark cave in depth.

After all, their original purpose of coming to this mountain was to find the source of the zombies, but before going in, there was one more thing they had to test.

"Melina, try to see if this kind of zombie can be killed by holy light."

Arthur kicked the bound zombie deer. If the zombie deer didn't look so fierce and ugly, it would be quite cute.

"If the holy light can kill the zombie deer, then you will have some self-protection power, and I won't have to protect you all the time."

"Well, I can let go now."

"I know, I know." Melina lowered her eyes in frustration, her tone a little depressed, "You just dislike me for being a burden and getting in the way, I understand, I understand."

"Hey, that's not what I meant." Hearing this, Arthur became a little anxious, "I don't dislike you, I just..."

But Melina ignored Arthur's explanation, turned around and left behind a lonely back. When Arthur couldn't see, the corners of Melina's mouth slightly raised, and even the ends of her hair behind her jumped.

"Just let me give it a try."

Looking at the zombie deer with black eyes, green face and fangs, Melina took off the holy cross on her chest and held it in her hand.

Seeing this, Arthur, who was still chattering, had to stop talking, hold his breath and wait for the result.

After seeing this scene, Shaq, who was originally in the team, came over curiously. However, he was not a soldier and did not need to follow the rules completely.

"Whoo~"

With a light breath, Melina communicated with the platinum holy light in the bracelet, then condensed and released it through the cross!

A platinum light suddenly appeared, and the heavy darkness suddenly dissipated. The illuminated zombie deer in the cave did not even make a trace of life, and turned into a pile of black ash.

Melina was a little surprised when she saw this scene. Even she herself didn't expect the effect to be so good. She had just guided out the holy light and it was over.

Arthur on the side thought that this was normal. How could darkness face the endless brilliance? Under the shining of holy light, the only outcome of darkness was to dissipate.

"The effect is so good?"

Melina looked at the shining holy cross. The holy light was not ordinary light. It did not hurt her eyes when she looked at it directly.

"Okay, put it away. Now that we have come to this conclusion, there is no need to waste Holy Light energy."

Arthur patted Melina on the side, picked up the vines that were originally bound by the zombie deer, and prepared to throw them out of the cave.

But Arthur, who had just turned around, saw Shaq standing there in a daze. The child seemed to be frightened.

Arthur patted Shaq on the shoulder with some amusement, asked him to return to the team, and then dragged the vines to throw them out.

After being hit like this, Shaq came back to his senses with a start, looking at Arthur's back as if he was looking at a ghost. Only now did he begin to understand.

It turns out these two are not human!

The ordinary person only has himself.

Come to think of it, how could the person who can lead this team be an ordinary person? I seemed to have heard the word holy light just now. Could they be the secret warriors of the church?

Thinking of this, Shaq hurried back to the team and decided to just be an ordinary person who needed protection. It turned out that he was the burden.

After a moment, Melina cast a tenth-level holy light spell as a light source, guiding everyone into the cave.

To put it simply, it's called illumination. It can neither heal wounds nor provide any special buffs. Its only function is to act as a light source, emitting white opalescent light. It doesn't consume much energy, but it's still not as fast as her recovery.

The same style as the strongest Maia who only knows Holy Light.

Under the illumination of the Holy Light, the cave was as bright as day. However, what was strange was that they did not see any insects or bats. They did not know if there were none to begin with or if there were other reasons.

After walking along the cave for a while, some pale bones gradually appeared in sight. There were traces of blood on the bones, which meant they should have died not long ago.

Judging from the shape of the bones, they should be animals from this mountain.

The crowd did not stop but continued to advance inside. These bones just confirmed Arthur's idea that there must be zombies here.

About two hours later, the cave had not yet reached its end, but several zombies had been encountered along the way, all of which were killed by Arthur with one sword.

But everyone wanted to see what was at the end, so they didn’t go back, but continued to move forward.

After another hour, the cave suddenly became clear, and a space of dozens of square meters appeared at the end of the cave!

The air here did not become turbid, but was similar to that at the cave entrance, which means there must be other exits here to maintain air circulation.

This space was clearly visible under Melina's Holy Light. The most eye-catching thing was a stone platform at the end and a figure sitting cross-legged on it.

"Is there anyone here?"

The moment she saw the figure, Melina screamed, but Arthur shook his head: "This is not a living person, it's just a dried corpse."

As he spoke, Arthur asked the team to check the space at the end and take a rest here. He and Melina were fine, but ordinary people would not be able to hold on after walking for so long.

He and Melina went forward to examine the mummy sitting cross-legged on the stone platform.

The mummy had its eyes closed and its limbs were shackled as if it was bound here, but with just a glance, one could find that the shackles only bound the limbs and did not confine the mummy here.

You can leave at any time if you want, but for some reason the mummy just sits here and dies.

"Holy Fool?"

Shaq, who followed over, exclaimed in surprise. The soldiers in the team had gone to check the surroundings. He originally wanted to rest on the spot, but seeing that everyone was working, he felt embarrassed to rest alone.

He followed the two secret warriors of the church to observe the mummy, but he did not expect to see this shocking scene.

Chapter 301: Cave Wall Carving

“What is a holy fool?”

Seeing that Shaq seemed to know the mummy, Arthur asked curiously.

"The Holy Fool is a unique figure in our Russian Orthodox Church. Aren't you the secret warriors of the church? Don't you know?" Just as he was about to explain, Shak suddenly thought of something and asked back with a strange look on his face.

"...When did we ever say that we are the secret warriors of the church? Did you make it up in your mind and take it seriously?" Melina explained speechlessly.

"Ah..." Shaq was a little dumbfounded, "But you have supernatural powers, and I also heard the word holy light. You have nothing to do with the church?"

"Hiss~ How should I explain it?" Hearing this question, Arthur took a deep breath and thought about how to give a reasonable explanation. Telling the truth didn't seem right, but lying didn't seem good either.

"Tsk, why are you asking so many questions? Just explain your holy foolishness." Seeing Arthur's conflicted look, Melina was speechless. If she didn't know how to explain, why not just not explain?

It's the same principle as if you can't answer a question, then you should solve the problem of the person who asked the question.

"Oh... okay." Seeing that Melina didn't want to explain to him, Shaq didn't ask any more questions. It was out of kindness that the other person took him with him. If he continued to ask about everything, he would be ungrateful.

"Just like what I just said, the Holy Fool is a unique figure in our Russian Orthodox Church. He is also called a crazy monk or a feigned lunatic." Shak thought about the knowledge he had looked up out of curiosity.

"They were usually filthy, half-crazy, naked vagrants with shackles on their feet. Some of them could hardly speak, and their voices were interpreted as oracles."

"These ascetics were canonized, and the most famous holy fool in Lucia was Saint Basil, whose full name was Vasily Brazheny, after whom the Cathedral of Saint Basil in Moscow was named."

"As for why I could tell it at a glance..." Shaq pointed at the tattered clothes on the mummy and the shackles that bound it, "These features are too obvious."

"Holy fools live in caves, forests, and mountains. They are practitioners of hermitage, which is also a form of Christian asceticism."

After listening to Shaq's explanation, Arthur and Melina instantly stood in awe of the mummy sitting cross-legged on the stone platform. This was a senior who had practiced sacred cultivation.

Although they didn't know much about it, after all, this kind of ascetic practice was not popular in Romania, and according to Shak, the Holy Fool was a kind of practice culture unique to the Russian Orthodox Church.

"It's just..." After Shak finished explaining, he looked at the mummy sitting cross-legged on the stone platform, "Why is there a Holy Fool in this place, and it's so hidden."

"And there is no sign of life here. It's as if this holy fool chose to die here on purpose."

Hearing Shaq's question, Arthur and Melina looked around. Indeed, there was nothing here except the stone platform, and there was no sign of life at all.

Did this holy fool really die here on purpose? And how to explain this thick darkness? There is no source of zombies here.

Could it be...

"Report, we have made a discovery!"

However, a soldier interrupted his thoughts and attracted the attention of the three people next to the mummy.

"What did you find?"