Witch Monastery

In this dark underground

An extremely dangerous experiment that could even subvert the entire city is slowly progressing.

While all this was happening quietly, in the luxurious private room of a seafood restaurant in Nangang District, Hawthorne sat on a soft leather chair, looking at Xiao Wan, who had a sad expression in front of him, as if he had swallowed several flies alive. He smiled softly and said, "So, Sheriff, are you afraid that if you make such a big fuss, the higher-ups will blame you?"

Xiao Wan sighed and nodded: "Yes! After all, these more than 500 lives... Our mission is to find the cultists, but it is impossible that all these people are cultists!"

"They all use the same reason. This doesn't make sense!"

Hawthorne shook his head slightly: "It makes sense, Sheriff, how can it not make sense!"

As he said this, he took out his dimensional bag from his waist and pulled out a small booklet from it: "Here, take a look at this. Oh, this is the list you gave me, and then I also did some research based on the content above."

"Let me put it this way, Sheriff. We first obtained evidence and confirmed that they were guilty of the death penalty before we decided to take action. Look at these transaction records above. Here, and these are all evidence. Look, even if it goes to court, won't they be sentenced to death?"

As he said this, he carefully took out the evidence he had found from his dimensional bag: "Here, look, they made their own potion. To be honest, when I saw their formula, I felt that these people were truly geniuses."

However, what he said was clearly just flattering himself.

In fact, after listening to the nuns' indignant accusations, he immediately made the decision to "eliminate all the gangs on Chauvin's list." Then, after eliminating all the people, he determined that they deserved their crimes through the various goods, information, transaction records, etc. left in their lair.

In short, execution first, investigation later. Fortunately, these guys really deserved the punishment, and there was really no wrongful conviction in the whole process.

Xiao Wan opened the booklet in front of him and looked at the numerous crimes written on it. He felt shocked. If judged by the conscience of a normal person, then everyone on this book deserved to die.

but……

Xiao Wan had a complicated expression. After a long while, he nodded solemnly: "Well done, it's the right thing to do! In this way, even if the higher-ups ask about this, we will be able to fully respond, hehe..."

He smiled awkwardly but still couldn't let it go.

These five hundred people represent not only themselves, but also the five hundred families behind them. The scope involved is very wide, from elderly parents to brothers and sisters in the middle, and countless children below...

The total number is estimated to be 5,000 people, which means that they have offended these 5,000 residents of Nangang District.

This is one-tenth of the entire Nangang District’s population. If they offend these people, how will they be able to gain a foothold in this district in the future?

The revenge that will follow will completely destroy his life!

This is another concern of Chauvin, but he is a little embarrassed to say it out loud.

Chapter 418 Psychological Construction

Hawthorne also saw his worries. In fact, he himself had such worries. Poverty and crime in Nangang District go hand in hand. Many of those who initially turned to crime were poor people who could not make ends meet. There is a lot of entanglement in this, and the real situation is more complicated.

Hawthorne's action protected many ordinary residents who had always abided by the principles of kindness and had not done anything bad, but it undoubtedly offended a considerable number of people who had not committed any crime but had gained huge benefits from these criminals.

He would have to continue recruiting members in the Nangang District in the future, and he also couldn't make his reputation too bad.

Fortunately, before meeting Chauvin, he had already thought of a response strategy.

"How about this, Mr. Xiao Wan?" He suggested, "Look, after all, you are the captain of the Nangang District Security Team and the first person responsible for the security of this district. So when such a big thing happens, the greatest credit naturally goes to you..."

Xiao Wan looked at him with displeasure, thinking to himself, you killed so many people, but in the end you don't want to take the responsibility and the infamy, and you still want me to take the blame and clean up your mess?

He was very dissatisfied in his heart, but Hawthorne's next words made his eyes light up: "Well, since you have made such a great contribution and demonstrated your determination to fight crime, then I can say hello to the higher-ups and transfer you to a more important position."

"For example, the Mithril District, or the Central District, what do you think?"

In short, let's make a deal, you bear this bad reputation, and then I'll find you a good place.

Hawthorne's words were not empty promises. Although he had not yet been granted a noble title, it was unknown how much power and influence he would have in the future, and whether he could transfer a sheriff to the Mithril District to take up the post.

But, if it were just a matter of moving him to the center area, he could do it now.

He only needed to say hello to Rahman, Rahman would say hello to the guards in the central area, and both sides would say hello to the Mithril area together, and it would be easy to transfer Xiao Wan there.

Even if he was a deputy in the past, it was a demotion in public but a promotion in private, and he had a bright future.

Hearing him say this, Xiao Wan's eyes suddenly lit up and his excitement was evident in his words.

These two places, one is the administrative center

The first is the economic center. In short, it is the most developed and richest place in the entire Port of Liber.

Every position here is lucrative, and by using a little bit of authority, he can make a huge amount of wealth that he could not even imagine in Nangang District.

Therefore, each of the positions in these two districts has hundreds or even thousands of people watching over it, and normally it would be impossible for a guy like him with no background to get a job there. If he could really be transferred there, this little bit of responsibility would be nothing!

After getting Hawthorne's assurance, Xiao Wan, who had been full of sorrow just now, suddenly smiled, and the wrinkles on his face were gathered like a chrysanthemum: "Father, that's not true. Fighting crime is my unshirkable responsibility. Even without your assurance, I will not fall behind in fulfilling my duties!"

Being transferred to work in those two districts was his fundamental purpose to please Hawthorne, and he even gave him the list and betrayed his old friends and partners.

The opportunity is right in front of him, what reason does he have to refuse?

Of course I agreed immediately!

Seeing his expression change so quickly, Hawthorne smiled softly: "I have always thought so. Then, I will trouble Sheriff Xiao Wan to take on such a great achievement!"

……

After coming out of the seafood restaurant, Hawthorne and Xiao Wan both had satisfied expressions on their faces. No matter what the specific process was, at least they got what they wanted.

Then, Xiao Wan returned to his guard team, and Hawthorne turned around and went straight back to the monastery. After ending the exchange of interests with outsiders and taking off the hypocritical mask, he now wanted to spend more time with his own people.

The nuns under his command.

When the door of the monastery was opened, the whole monastery was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop, as if there was no living person. But Hawthorne did not find it unusual. He ignored his lunch break, as his lunch with Shawan had been delayed for too long. He turned around and walked towards the third study room of the monastery.

This was specially prepared for the nuns so that they could learn literacy, doctrine and magic. Although it was only level one and the improvement in efficiency was not that obvious, it was enough.

And now, it's crowded.

When he pushed open the door of the room, the overwhelming sound of reading came like a tide, almost pushing Hawthorne out.

In the room, the fourteen combat nuns under his command were now sitting neatly in two rows. In front of each of them was a simple desk with the copied first chapter of the Goddess's teachings on it, which they were now reading aloud.

Most of the nuns were young girls aged 16 or 17, or at most 18 or 19. They wore the same nun uniform, sat in neat rows, and read aloud.

In a trance, Hawthorne felt as if he was not in another world, but back in the high school classroom.

At the end of the study, Sister Die, who was also reading a magic book and supervising the nuns' studies, looked up and smiled gently when she saw it was him.

Hawthorne also nodded slightly in response.

At this moment, the automatic wall clock rang twice, indicating that it was time to rest.

The voices of the girls who were reading aloud just now gradually stopped. Then a few restless nuns turned their heads and looked. Seeing him standing at the door, their expressions were immediately filled with surprise: "Father, you are back?"

"Father, is your work going well?"

"Father, when will our confinement end?"

……

The girls' voices were heard one after another, and the last one to speak acted pitifully, hoping to win his sympathy.

After wiping out the evil forces in Nangang District, Hawthorne suddenly issued a curfew, requiring the nuns to stay at home and stay in the study every day to study the goddess' scriptures and learn to read and write.

The girls had no complaints about this. After all, this was the general rule of the monastery, and nuns were not allowed to go out easily. They had prepared themselves mentally for this before joining the monastery.

But after a long time, there were always a few girls who couldn't stand the loneliness and couldn't help but ask questions.

In response, Huo Sang, who always showed a gentle attitude, had a very serious expression at this time, and continued: "It will end. When everyone completes the study course of the first chapter of the sutra and recognizes all the words on it, the ban will end."

The first chapter he was talking about was a must-read for beginners of the Church of the Goddess of Life, and it contained the essence of the Goddess's teachings and beliefs.

Because its core idea is roughly similar to Hawthorne's, and its content is easy to understand, and it uses common words in the common language, without any abstruse content, so now he lets Die use it as a teaching material to carry out literacy training for the nuns.

At the same time, it also serves to cleanse and strengthen their faith.

However, the content of this scripture is indeed rich, and it really takes a long time to learn it all. Hearing him say this, several of the girls suddenly became aggrieved, and some were dissatisfied with his arrangement.

Hawthorne was able to sense their emotions, and his expression remained unchanged. He continued, "If anyone is dissatisfied with this arrangement, they can give up the power bestowed by the goddess and leave the monastery."

"We are a team that follows the goddess. Although we long for the team to grow, we value the purity of our faith more than that."

The faces of several nuns suddenly changed, they lowered their heads and said no more. They had just tasted the power, the feeling of wantonly crushing their enemies, how could they be willing to go back to the past?

Go to a weak state?

Naturally, as soon as these words were spoken, everyone at the scene fell silent, and no one expressed any objection.

Seeing this scene, Hawthorne sighed in his heart, knowing that he still had a long way to go to correct some things.

But he did not rush into it, his expression gradually softened, and he continued: "We are followers of the goddess, and the confinement is temporary. It's just that the events of the past few days were too heavy, and our thoughts are inevitably shaken."

What he was referring to was the purge they had initiated before. Such a large-scale killing not only caused an uproar in the Nangang District, but also caused many complex effects within the monastery.

After all, this is the death of more than 500 lives. No one can face the passing of 500 lives calmly without any waves in their mind.

Even Hawthorne himself couldn't help it. Even he couldn't help but tremble at the blood on his hands, wondering if he had gone too far.

Only after he witnessed the crimes of many people and was sure that they all deserved to die did he finally calm down.

If he is like this, what about these girls?

Some nuns discovered that there were many innocent people among the more than 500 people who were just coerced by the leaders and forced to commit crimes, and therefore they were now under tremendous psychological pressure;

Some people find that their power is so strong that they can decide life and death at will, and they can't help but breed a lot of arrogance and conceit in their hearts, and they don't regard ordinary people as their own kind;

Some people think that since it has come to this, why not go a step further and simply declare that they have taken control of the Nangang District and have the final say here from now on;

In short, the demise of more than a dozen criminal organizations and the ideological shock brought about by the deaths of more than 500 people have caused the nuns' mentality to become very strange.

What Hawthorne has to do is to put everything back on track.

"Whether it's cowardice, confusion, arrogance, or arrogance, none of these are what the goddess wants." Facing the confused nuns, he spoke slowly, his voice low and gentle, penetrating into everyone's heart, "But the power of language is pale. All I can do is to let you read the classics carefully and remember the cases in them."

"Only by fully understanding the truth of reality and the correct thoughts of the goddess can we clear away confusion and arrogance and establish a truly firm and indestructible faith."

Chapter 419: The Mind Flayer's Chaos Creation

The clock on the wall rang slowly, indicating that the break was over and the nuns were about to start the next round of study. Hawthorne also finished his speech, walked to the door, and pushed it open to go out.

Die picked up the scripture and first led the nuns to read aloud the content of the next chapter, and then marked the new characters and words one by one for them to learn.

Everything seemed to be back on track, but things would not end so easily. Hawthorne left the study and went into the third-level study on the other side for his personal use, not to learn new spells, but to prepare some materials.

At night, he planned to talk to the nuns one by one and specifically address the troubles, confusion or arrogance in their hearts in order to achieve the goal of rectifying the atmosphere.

This is his team, which has just been established. He cannot allow such a bad atmosphere to grow in the team so quickly.

As he was bending over the desk to write these manuscripts, he couldn't help but sigh: To build a firm and pure team is more difficult than he imagined.

This is when there are only fourteen people, which is a relatively small scale. If there is any abnormal situation, I can notice it at the first time, then supervise them one by one and talk to them to solve these problems.

But what if the team expands to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people?

He had no experience, and the more he faced such problems personally, the more he felt a deep respect for those who had accomplished this great feat.

……

In the dark and gloomy sewer, in the unknown secret lair of Shannasa, a huge beholder was suspended in mid-air, with its huge main eye tightly closed and all its eye stalks coiled under its body in an orderly manner, like the petals of a blooming lotus.

It is sleeping, or to be more precise, it is dreaming.

As its dream deepens, the reality around it is constantly distorted and rewritten.

The terrifying chaotic energy penetrated the barriers of the world and invaded the material world. Following the Eye Demon's unfixed and wonderful dreams, it was shaped into various shapes: a black snake with a head at the head and a head at the tail, a human figure as slender as a bamboo pole, a giant dragon with two heads, and so on...

In another room separated by a wall, a tall and thin mind flayer wearing a gray-blue robe was closing his eyes and using his mental magic to manipulate Shannasa's dreams.

In fact, he couldn't control it completely accurately. The Eye Demon's dream was more troublesome than he imagined. He could only give it hints and guide it to dream in the direction he wanted.

Next to this mind flayer, three dwarves, a dark elf, and a human, a total of five well-equipped senior officials of the Shannasa Guild, were standing ready.

They had serious expressions and held magic swords or staffs in their hands. If they found any bad situation, they would kill the mind flayer on the spot!

But in the end, the whole process can be considered safe and sound.

Reality, chaotic energy, etc. have all been shaped into extremely slender black creatures with extremely long bodies and limbs. They have the appearance of humans, hyenas, big cats, vultures, etc. There are more than ten of them in total, and they look extremely weird.

The Mind Flayer stopped casting spells, and the Eye Demon immediately opened all its eyes. Its huge main eye moved around, and its eyes were a little confused, as if it couldn't tell whether it was in reality or still immersed in a dream.

But then, a gentle voice sounded in its mind: "Congratulations, great Shannasa, your first dream has achieved great success. Look at the works you dreamed of, they are all excellent assassins, maybe even better than the dark elves!"

Behind it, footsteps sounded. Under the watchful eyes of several of its capable men, the mind flayer slowly walked towards him.

He loudly praised the results of this first experiment in the telepathic link, but Sanasa did not seem to appreciate it. It opened its mouth and sneered in the harsh Common Language: "Is this the only garbage you can create?"

The Mind Flayer was not angry about this, and continued to communicate with him telepathically: "They are both extremely excellent weapons. I think you have seen them in your own dreams. Oh, ha..."

"Of course, how much power they can exert in reality depends on your own performance."

The more he said this, the angrier Shanasa became, because in the dream, she was besieged by these guys, it was so miserable, and it took a lot of effort to make them all quiet down and obey.

The more it thought about it, the angrier it got. It couldn't help gritting its teeth, with magical light flashing in its eye stalks. It wanted to just kill these guys to vent its anger.