World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 93 Blood-Red Church

Head west?
Lin An took out the dangling artificial crystal. Under the influence of the "prophet," he no longer knew whether the decision he was making was actually what he originally wanted.

However, now that they have received the blessing of an auspicious day, their luck should gradually reach its peak.

Therefore, the "thinking" in this situation might just be some sudden whims that can bring "good luck"?
Why don't we go take a look?
After so many boring days in the West, it's rare to find a mysterious person who is somewhat interesting.

Lin An activated the communication device in his ear and contacted Simon first.

The captain asked, somewhat surprised, "What's wrong, Lin?"

"I just want to confirm that while we're in contact, you can still get my location from the cloud? Is it because it's too remote and the signal hasn't been lost?"

"of course."

“The barbershops in this town are a bit far from the center, and the security isn’t great,” Lin An said with difficulty. “As an ordinary college student, if I’m separated from Mishibari and the others, I’ll look like an easy target.”

"What are you afraid of? You have a gun." Simon chuckled.

"I have always lived in a peaceful and civilized society. If I were to encounter a real villain, I would probably be so scared that my legs would go weak. How could I dare to fire a gun?"

"Okay, if there's anything you need, then get in touch quickly."

With Simon's double guarantee in place, Lin An shut down the communication.

He gripped the artificial crystal tightly with his fingers and, following the inspiration that welled up in his heart, walked toward a specific location.

The town was still bustling at night. Men and women wearing straw hats strolled through the streets, homeless people huddled in abandoned cardboard boxes, and a musician played his flute in the darkness, the melodious sound echoing with his own enjoyment.

At a street corner, an elderly woman slices cooked beef brisket, places it under boiled corn kernels, drizzles it with a slightly spicy sauce, wraps it in newspaper, and sells it to passersby.

The enticing aroma from the food stalls attracted several tourists taking a stroll. Just as they took out their wallets, they heard the sound of a motorcycle coming from the roadside.

"Woo——"

Before they could react, two burly men with bare chests rushed out of the alley, shoved them aside with their shoulders, snatched the wallet, and sped off on a motorcycle. The old woman also took the opportunity to push the motorcycle away.

The tourists were left standing there, completely bewildered.

Sigh, what a mess.

Lin An took everything in, shook his head helplessly, and continued to follow his intuition.

The road became increasingly remote, until the dirt road turned into a sparsely populated alley, and then into the deserted suburbs. Lin An faced the pitch-black night sky and the boundless plain, his lips twitching.

This is completely wilderness!

However, a premonition still compelled him to venture even further.

After a moment's thought, Lin An returned to the town. The group of burly men who had robbed the wallet were now eating corn on the cob around the old woman. They were indeed in cahoots.

Impressive motorcycles were parked unattended on the side of the road.

Lin An pulled out his pistol, shot the chain, flipped over, mounted the chain, and rode away.

The burly men were shocked and gave chase.

"Damn it, you little thief! If I don't kill you, you son of a bitch, you'll dirty my car seat!"

After saying that, they pulled out several decent-looking handguns and fired at Lin An from behind.

"Ping! Ping! Ping!"

Lin An gripped the handlebars with one hand and held the gun in the other, firing wildly behind him. At the same time, a strong gust of air swept towards the burly men, causing all the bullets to deviate from their trajectory and none of them hit Lin An.

"Pfft!"

On the contrary, Lin An's bullets were incredibly accurate. One of the chasing men had a split in the thigh, another had a hole in the shoulder, and the others couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines. They all stopped and watched Lin An's figure disappear into the night.

"Holy crap, we've run into a real thief today!"

Lin An shook off the group, listening to the curses carried on the wind, and a smile appeared on his lips.

The auspicious dates are activated quite quickly.

It's unclear how long this will last.

Riding his powerful motorcycle, Lin An sped through the wilderness. The stars and moon were dim, and dust filled the air. There were no roads here, and he freely decided on his next direction based on one inspiration after another.

If it weren't for the faint smell of blood in the air, this journey could have ended pleasantly and easily.

The inspiration ended at a sheltered spot on a plain, where the ruins of a collapsed base lay scattered on the ground. The occasional wooden sticks and rags that flashed by reminded Lin An that a hundred years ago, this might have been a settlement where cowboys and bounty hunters rested.

In the abandoned settlement, the only well-preserved low-rise building came into view.

Lin An stopped his motorcycle, and after taking only a few steps, the dark clouds suddenly dispersed, and the moonlight illuminated the "lively" scene.

This used to be a church. Several vultures perched on the dusty fence, and the carved exterior walls were covered with unrecognizable images of the Messiah and his apostles. Crows sensed the approach of strangers and fluttered away.

The smell of blood grew stronger.

A damp cloth blew in his face. Lin An lifted it up and found it was a piece of skin still attached to the hair roots.

I go.

I go! ! !

Even Lin An couldn't help but shudder at the sight of such a disgusting and terrifying scene.

"System, use [Listen to Invisible Breathing]."

"There are 0 mysterious people around you." "Through the use of mystical arts, the radiation value of the [Mystic Encyclopedia] has increased by 0.2%."

Has the murderer left?

Lin An breathed a sigh of relief and walked into the church. The sand still bore a few lines of footprints, whether from coyotes or wild dogs, scattered haphazardly towards the brick and stone ground leading to the front courtyard of the building.

The dried, brownish-purple bloodstains, mixed with mud and chunks of flesh, lay on the ground, filling the cracks in the broken stone slabs. They flowed down the steps once used by believers, and the surrounding area was littered with traces of scavengers, the stench of decay filling the air.

Flies and maggots swarmed over the exposed, decaying flesh of the corpse, crawling between the shrunken eyeballs.

"quack……"

A dead body lay at the doorway, with two vultures perched on it, their cold eyes casually staring at Lin An. He reached out to shoo them away, and they screeched a few times before flying to the rooftop, continuing to watch him.

What the hell is going on here?
Having been exposed to "Commons" energy for so long, this was the first time Lin An had witnessed such a purely brutal, bizarre, and disgusting scene.

While in Dietrich, the Foundation mentioned that the witch's followers had performed some sacrificial rituals involving dismemberment. Although Lin An had not witnessed these rituals, based on photos and records, he deduced that the church was no less terrifying at this moment.

Lin An picked a few withered leaves, leaned against a pillar in the front yard, and used the sticky liquid to stick them to the soles of his shoes.

Upon entering the church, the floor was covered in purplish-red bloodstains, which had congealed into a pudding-like state, leaving almost no clean place to step.

The moonlight transformed into beams of light, slanting down from the holes in the walls and several high windows without glass.

The church had very few chairs and other furniture that would get in the way, and they were all askew. The spacious hall, about seventy square meters, offered a clear view of the bloody scene.

There were about a dozen unrecognizable corpses piled up in the distance—this was Lin An's initial deduction.

Some of them were partially eaten by scavengers, while others were simply turned into a pool of murky flesh, leaving only empty skin and broken white skeletons, with a bloody smell so strong it was almost dripping with water.

Looking around, the walls were riddled with bullet holes and some faintly discernible bloody handprints.

The bullet holes created an eerie atmosphere, quite unlike the atmosphere surrounding the corpse.

One of the mysterious figures appears to be using a gun.
It's somewhat similar to [Magic Bullet Shooter].

And the deceased were... all ordinary people?

As Lin An strolled through the church corridor, he approached the overturned altar. Traces of the battle remained: some photo frames hung crookedly on the wall, and the statues of the gods were broken.

Crows flew in through the arched window at the very end, scrambling for pieces of torn entrails.

"Squeaky..."

After chasing away the crows, Lin An picked up a stiff piece of cloth and wiped the dust off the photo frame. The blurry photo showed about seven or eight people, all of whom were wearing half-masks, veils, and black lipstick.

Among them, a person wearing a golden tassel veil and of unknown gender appeared repeatedly. Lin An speculated that this person was the "leader" of these believers.

He then turned to the broken statue, which further confirmed his suspicions.

Because the statue and the person in the photo looked very similar, Lin An deduced the gender of the cult leader based on the scattered fragments—she was a woman in her fifties or sixties, and if he wasn't mistaken, she was holding something that looked like a stone slab in her hand.

Lin An couldn't find her in the pile of corpses just now, so this cult leader is probably still alive somewhere.

The cold desert wind blew in through the window, dispelling some of the suffocating atmosphere. Just as Lin An was about to dial the communication device on his ear, he suddenly felt a surge of heat in his chest.

It was a pipe that the moose had given him.

This must be considered the good fortune of the "auspicious day" coming into play, right?

Exploring this blood-red church... was certainly not the most "lucky" thing Lin An could think of.

Lin An took out his pipe and lit the licorice he had prepared beforehand with a lighter. The medicinal smoke rose up and blew eastward.

The dawn star of the East, the Sand Clan, the Muskrat?

Lin An took a deep breath, focused his energy in his dantian, raised his hands, and shouted, "Hey—ah—hey!"

Once they leave the environment of their native tribe, whether they are dancing the sun dance or calling upon the local gods, they are accompanied by a strange sense of shame.

Will muskrats really appear?

The next moment, a rustling sound came from all directions, and a beaver-like animal phantom nimbly stepped over the sharp shards of glass in the window, its bloodstains still wet, the moonlight illuminating its gleaming fur.

Its body was about the size of a house cat, and its bald, powerful tail brought up a refreshing breeze, stirring up the bloodstains and dust from the altar. A clean sand painting suddenly appeared out of thin air, depicting patterns exactly like those of the animal.

The two phantoms merged together, and the real muskrat appeared in its physical form, staring at Lin An with eyes the size of mung beans.

It seems that "Listening to the Invisible Breath" cannot find the source of the mysterious being.

The thought flashed through Lin An's mind, and he greeted them aloud.

"Brother Mouse, it's you."

The muskrat shook its fur, shedding sand from its body. A strange "rustling" sound rang in Lin An's ears, like rain falling on leaves, or like the collapse of a desert, transforming into a meaningful phrase.

"I am a woman."

"Sister Mouse?"

"What a weird name, it's awful."

The beaver gracefully groomed its face with its two paws, and unlike a normal muskrat, its claws were painted with the original colors.

“My real name is ‘Tent Guardian.’ You must be Lin An, the one Shen Mi mentioned. Is there anything I can help you with, kid?”

(End of this chapter)