Chapter 670: Strange Movements of the Orthodox Cult

Chapter 670 The Bizarre Movements of the Orthodox Church

Swish!

With one hand braced against the car seat, the woman executed an agile side flip, her other hand flicking out a pistol that slid smoothly into position, its muzzle aimed directly at Kaelen's forehead.

Kaelen remained in his seat, looking at the dark muzzle without the slightest hint of fear in his heart.

This was a spell pistol, capable of firing bullets with elemental attributes, but judging from its construction, it had likely been modified on the black market; moreover, to ensure compatibility with multi-attribute ammunition, the structural design of the frame had been downgraded, severely weakening both its performance and durability.

When Kaelen first officially became an off-staff member of the Whip of Order squad, the lowest-tier spell pistol he had received under Fannie's guidance was of much better quality than this one, and back then, Fannie had remarked that this entire set of equipment, aside from the divine robe, could be fenced on the black market.

One could only say that although both belonged to the bottom tier, the difference between the bottom tier with official status and the bottom tier without it was vast indeed.

The woman now had two choices: to fire or not to fire.

Firing meant walking a path into total darkness, while not firing... she actually qualified for the highly privileged treatment accorded to a wanted rogue demon turning herself in.

After all, how many wanted fugitives could claim the right to surrender directly to the Head of the Enforcement Department of the Whip of Order?

The woman abandoned her deliberately seductive posture, swallowing hard with a struggle raging inside her.

The small refrigerator with its built-in array was a luxury item that Neo had specifically installed to show off, but anyone qualified to indulge in such ostentatious configurations was absolutely no ordinary priest.

After all, how much was a normal Inquisitor's stipend anyway?

Looking again at this handsome man who maintained a natural composure before her dark muzzle, without the slightest hint of putting on a front, the woman had a premonition that the moment she pulled the trigger, her end would be unimaginably miserable.

Sometimes, a person's life or death really hinging upon the choice of a single instant, forcing one to rely on mere intuitive perceptions.

Clack!

The woman tossed the spell pistol onto the adjacent seat.

Immediately after, she asked in a deeply humble tone, What should I do next?

Get up.

Understood.

The woman rose from Kaelen's lap, not daring to maintain even a trace of her charming allure before him.

Kaelen reached out to pick up the bottle of red wine, retrieved a glass from inside, and with a flick of his finger, popped the cork:

Pop.

After pouring a glass of red wine, he handed it to the woman.

A smile immediately surfaced on the woman's face, taking this as a hint, and just as her coquettish manner was about to manifest once more, she heard Kaelen's voice:

Hold the wine, get out of the car, and kneel.

Oh.

Holding the wine glass, the woman opened the car door, stepped out, and closed the door behind her.

At this moment, she was faced with another choice: to truly kneel... or to run?

She drained the red wine in her glass in a single gulp, instantly recognizing the immense value of this vintage, and then without a shred of hesitation, she chose to kneel down.

The refrigerator had been Neo's doing, but the beverages inside were Alfred's responsibility, and this bottle of red wine was of no low vintage—it could even be called expensive—but Alfred knew his young master disliked drinking, so this bottle was actually not considered costly, as it could theoretically serve as a long-standing fixture on the shelf.

Kaelen poured himself half a glass of ice water and took two sips.

From behind, Inquisitor Dark, Richard, and four divine servants came rushing over in a hurry.

Their pursuit had not been entirely smooth, but it could not be called a failure either, because Kaelen could sense the aura of Richard's Little Jerry on the woman, meaning Richard had clearly marked her.

It was often said that combat was more likely to stimulate potential, and since Little Jerry began following Richard, he had indeed proven the reliability and truth of that saying.

Dark pointed at the woman and shouted, Take her down!

Two divine servants immediately stepped forward, restraining the woman with specialized shackles.

Kaelen opened the car door and stepped out.

Dark immediately stepped forward, Department Head Kaelen, sorry to have troubled you.

Kaelen shook his head, It is nothing, she ran into me herself.

Hearing the title Department Head, the woman was instantly stunned, and she immediately cried out, I have something to say, I have something to say!

Kaelen looked at her, raising his hand to signal the two divine servants preparing to escort her away to pause for a moment, feeling she deserved a small reward for her previous obedience.

I am innocent, I have committed no crime! I did cause the deaths of a few vagrants, and I did extract their blood and essence, but before that, I asked for their consent, I treated them to a sumptuous meal, and they agreed to trade their lives for one final moment of pleasure before their end!

I am innocent, they were willing, they were even very grateful to me, truly, I swear it!

This sounded like a highly self-consistent logical justification for exoneration; the lives of vagrants were already full of hardship, many of them bankrupt, and entering winter was already incredibly difficult to endure, so rather than freezing or starving or dying of sickness in some dark night to come, it was better to have their fill of food and wine and indulge in pleasure while they were still lucid.

If this were a secular court, faced with such a narrative, the judge, the jury, and public opinion would likely sway, because everyone could empathize with it.

But this line of logic was completely useless here with the Church of Order.

Within the Regulations of Order, there was a clause: It is forbidden to use spellcraft to harm ordinary people.

This female rogue demon had caused substantial harm to ordinary people, which constituted a violation of the Regulations of Order.

As for those vagrants, the Church of Order would not offer them succor; many of them would indeed die silently tonight, tomorrow night, or before the arrival of spring, but Order did not permit them to be killed by rogue demons or church believers.

Even if they were willing.

This sounded somewhat cold-blooded, cruel, paranoid, and dogmatic, but willingness or lack thereof was not a critical defense here.

Because once such a loophole was opened, the secular upper classes would find a thousand ways to make the lower classes surrender what was needed of them in a voluntary manner, packaging it so nicely that the lower classes would believe it was for their own good, actively helping them break the shackles that restrained evil.

In the previous epoch, the God of Samsara had constructed the Gates of Samsara, and in order to fill it with souls, he had even brought about a catastrophic event where more than half the population of a secular nation committed collective suicide within a single week just to enter the beautiful afterlife ahead of schedule.

Were they willing? Indeed, they were willing.

Even as they committed suicide, they carried smiles on their faces, and then they became the first batch of inhabitants within the Gates of Samsara... no, the souls of ordinary people inside did not even qualify as inhabitants, they could only be considered soul fertilizer.

Later, there were records of the God of Order approaching the God of Light to lodge a complaint against the God of Samsara, while the God of Light simply tried to smooth things over.

Theological history research experts within church circles generally believed that it was precisely these successive incidents that caused the rift between Order and Light to steadily widen, ultimately leading to the severing of ties between Order and Light in the latter half of the previous epoch.

Kaelen spoke, You are guilty.

With that, Kaelen waved his hand, signaling that she could be taken away.

Seeing this, the woman seemed to resolve herself to a desperate measure and immediately cried out, I want to redeem myself through merit, I have information to report, I have been working for the Abyss Church!

Upon hearing the Abyss Church, Dark's expression shifted slightly; a grassroots Inquisitor like him would still subconsciously exercise caution when facing a diplomatic incident.

But the individual standing beside him... possessed rich experience in using diplomatic incidents to dance.

Kaelen lowered his head, looking down at the woman kneeling before him, and asked, Are you trying to use the Abyss Church to threaten me?

The woman immediately shook her head and said, No, I am reporting them, the reason I am collecting blood and essence here is to fulfill a mission for the Abyss Church.

At this moment, Richard, standing behind, nudged Inquisitor Dark's waist a few times with his hand.

Inquisitor Dark stumbled, nearly falling forward.

Richard turned his head to look at the streetlamp beside him, puckering his lips to whistle silently.

Inquisitor Dark finally caught on and said to Kaelen, Department Head Kaelen, why don't we escort her back to the Inquisitorial Office for interrogation first?

Immediately after, Inquisitor Dark continued, Once the preliminary interrogation results are out, I will present them to you?

The Dark Tribunal discovered this case, but now that foreign entities were involved, its very nature had changed. Yet, regardless of how the situation unfolded, the genesis of the closing report would undoubtedly remain with the Dark Tribunal.

Richard harbored a simple intent; he hoped his uncle would seize the moment while Karen was present to press forward with the investigation, thereby swiftly securing the credit without fear of bureaucratical squabbling or having the glory divided.

This could be considered a form of seeking benefits for one's own kin.

His uncle, however, was rather obtuse. Any other inquisitor would have instantly recognized how to cling to greatness and bask in reflected glory, yet it took Richard himself to step forward and offer a reminder.

Karen naturally noticed this minor detail, but for one, he truly had nothing else to attend to tonight and was well-rested; for another, given the family ties, there was no valid reason to refuse a helping hand that required little effort, and it aligned with the Regulations of Order without violating any principles.

"Very well."

Karen nodded and climbed back into the carriage.

Inquisitor Dark, along with his subordinate divine servants, escorted the female heretic toward another small wagon.

"Chief, was that Minister Karen? Heavens, he is so young, surely much younger than I am?"

"Indeed, that aura of his—I didn't even dare look at him, I could only keep my head bowed."

Dark glanced at them and said testily, "Hurry up and drive back. We must make the most of our time for the interrogation. It wasn't easy to catch such a prize of a fish to claim credit for this time, and we don't have to worry about others snatching it away."

Richard climbed into the carriage, restarted the engine, and said, "Um, Karen, I am sorry."

"It is fine."

"I just wanted to help my uncle so he could secure a promotion. He is already at the lowest tier of inquisitors; if he drops any further, he will become an associate inquisitor, which would be far too humiliating.

Karen, you have no idea. The superior of my uncle's district, and the superior above that, the figurehead at the peak of that faction is actually a Bishop who oversees the formation department of this great region. Although my grandfather has no desire to contend with him, my grandfather's mere existence is a threat to him. Even if

Yet this was no reflection of Dark's own incompetence; rather, it was simply that the Alfred and Vick by his side were far too professional.

At last, he finished reading.

Recently, the Church of the Abyss had acquired a luxury manor in York City. This establishment opened its doors exclusively to high society, offering an array of services—sensual pleasures naturally included.

An orthodox church, unexpectedly opening a brothel?

They were no minor sect like the Church of Mills, where such practices were born of theological doctrine. The Abyss was a truly prestigious, mainstream orthodox church.

Had it been catered toward ecclesiastical circles to earn some church vouchers, it might have been easier to fathom. Instead, church insiders were barred; it was open only to common mortals.

Furthermore, they had actually deployed their own clergy to serve as staff, requiring them to utilize room arrays and storage vessels to drain the vital energy and blood of their patrons during those intimate acts.

They did not bleed their victims completely dry in one sitting, however. They extracted a mere third, following the encounter with a restorative tonic to keep the operation from being exposed.

But why orchestrate such an enterprise in York City of all places? Would it not be far safer to do this within their own territory?

Moreover, letting their own believers—no, forcing their own priests to act as servants to pleasure ordinary mortals—was the Church of the Abyss genuinely contemplating a corporate restructuring?

Most ludicrous of all was the reason this female aberration had been discovered.

Because she lacked the assistance of the arrays and specialized vessels used by the priest-servants in the manor, and had no means to provide tonics to those she harvested, her extraction fatality rate was exceptionally high.

But why was she doing this in the first place?

Because the mastermind behind the York City office of the Church of the Abyss had imposed vital energy collection quotas on every serving priest in the manor—essentially, a hospitality benchmark.

A certain priest of the Abyss, whether due to lack of ability or bound by pride, was unwilling to perform such deeds. Ultimately, she had taken the quota meant for her own shoulders and put it out for public bidding.

Thus, this female aberration turned out to be nothing more than a...

Subcontractor.