Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

At this moment, Lydia's expression appeared somewhat melancholy.

Faced with Sam's doubts, she could only force a smile and give him a perfunctory one.

After meeting Ren and the others, she inevitably learned the truth about her father's death and Zhang Renfeng's true identity. When she heard these words, it's no exaggeration to say that her mind went completely blank, and she almost lost her balance.

Immediately following was a series of rapid, labored breaths, as if all the internal organs had shrunk into a ball.

When news of her father's death spread, his body was never found. The tombstone in the cemetery held only a cenotaph. Even so, on the day of his burial, Lydia tearfully vowed to make the Red Army pay for her father's death and to erase him and everything related to him from this world!

At that time, she was so angry with Hongzhong that she said all sorts of things.

Now, with the passage of time and the revelation of the truth, she cannot reconcile the Zhang Renfeng before her with the Hongzhong she remembers. Especially when she learns that her father died voluntarily, her complex emotions reach their peak, leaving her unsure how to communicate normally with Zhang Renfeng.

Let's just stop communicating for now and maintain a safe distance.

----

"It's here!" Zhang Renfeng exclaimed in surprise. "I remember this place!"

They traveled by train, battling their way from Pike Town and across the Great Lake Demon. In the midst of a cataclysmic hurricane, the last two carriages were on the verge of derailing. Zhang Renfeng had to climb onto the roof to forcibly detach them from the train, preventing the entire train from being pulled down.

Just as he came to the outside world, he caught a glimpse of this "palace"—standing on the edge of a cliff, with nothing but the clear sky behind it.

At that time, the whole world was dominated by gray and black, making this building seem even more isolated from the world, like Noah's Ark, the only one floating on the sea when the flood destroyed the world.

Approaching the building in the sunlight, one finds it quite ordinary, lacking both the grandeur of the Roman era and the refined elegance of the Victorian era. Its color scheme is monotonous, its structure simple, resembling a rural church found in an ordinary city, perhaps even less noticeable.

The rectangular main building, topped with a somewhat dilapidated pointed clock tower, is entirely a lifeless white, washed clean by rain. There are no stained glass windows; only above the main entrance are three frosted glass panels, long since obscured, which at first glance look no different from the brick wall.

The group circled the church but couldn't find any secret passage—to put it another way, trying to dig a tunnel underground in a location on a cliff is a rather absurd thing.

Above the main gate is a line of Latin inscription, which has been weathered by wind and rain and is now difficult to decipher.

"Verbum Supernum Latet."

Lydia narrowed her eyes and strung the words together one by one, “'The Word is hidden here'.”

"W-what do you mean?" Zhuo Ge shrugged. "I don't quite understand. Normally, shouldn't there be words on buildings like this?"

“I don’t think he’s a believer in God,” Sam said in a deep voice. “Just look at Oak City. A man like him wouldn’t respect God. Besides, even if there were a one in ten thousand chance that he felt guilty, he would have countless ways to deal with it. He wouldn’t go to church at all.”

“…Alright.” Zhang Renfeng rubbed his hands together. “I guess we’ll find out soon.”

……

"boom---!!"

They didn't have the key, but that wasn't a problem for Zhang Renfeng.

Light streamed into the dusty, enclosed chamber, which, judging from the marks, hadn't been visited for some time. Unlike Oakwood, which always strives for pristine condition, this church was old and dilapidated. With Samuel's wealth, even hiring someone to maintain it daily wouldn't have been difficult.

But this place seems to have deliberately preserved the real traces eroded by time.

There were no paintings, no sculptures, no gold or silver jewelry, and no dazzling high-end artworks.

The walls on all four sides are faded.

A confessional room partitioned off by wooden boards.

Two rows of benches.

An unusually large preaching platform, entirely made of stone, resembles an open fan when viewed from this angle.

The church was quite small, and with so many people suddenly arriving, it felt rather crowded. A quick glance revealed everything that should be visible. To the right, stone steps led directly to the second-floor bell tower, but judging from its appearance, it was unclear how long it had been since the bell had been rung.

Amidst this cool color scheme of black, white, and gray, the only thing that caught their eye was a reliquary placed in an offering position.

"call……"

Zhang Renfeng slowly stepped forward, blew away the dust from the sacred relic box, revealing its true form—a sacred object nearly ninety centimeters tall, made of soapberry wood, covered inside and out with a layer of refined gold, inlaid with gold teeth around the edges, and fitted with four gold rings. Even the soapberry wood handle used to pick it up was covered in gold and adorned with dazzling rubies and sapphires.

Logically speaking, anyone with a strong belief should tremble at the sight of this thing.

However, apart from Sam and Lydia, all the other members of the team are foreigners and have no religious issues whatsoever.

Zhang Renfeng grabbed the sacred bone box, shook it, and heard a clicking sound coming from inside.

"What is this thing now?"

Chapter 803: Table of Contents

"Zhang, be careful..."

Sam changed his tone and said softly, "Judging from the materials it is made of, it should be a reliquary containing the remains of a saint."

"What?!" Zhang Renfeng looked utterly bewildered. "An urn? Are all the urns here made this extravagant?"

“Although I don’t know what happened, you must have misunderstood again.” Lydia sighed, rubbed her forehead, and explained helplessly, “This is a standard reliquary.”

She spent some time explaining yet another difference between Eastern and Western cultures, and emphasized to Zhang Renfeng that the reliquary did not contain ashes, but rather "sacred bones".

The reason for its elaborate decoration is that, in their belief system, "gold" is not merely a precious metal, but also a gift given to kings. It represents holiness, nobility, and the arrival of heaven. It is a bridge connecting the kingdoms of humans and gods.

As for the "saint's remains" inside the box, they are genuine bones, but it's hard to say exactly which part they are.

"In the reliquary of St. Fova, there is an ancient head, possibly belonging to an emperor of the late Roman Empire; in the reliquary of the thousand-year-old hand bone, there is the right arm bone of Charlemagne, who used this arm to wield his sword and scepter during his lifetime... Now they lie quietly in the reliquary for posterity to admire."

Zhuo Ge squinted at the sacred bone box in Zhang Renfeng's hand and said viciously, "...If anyone dares to take a piece of my bone after I die and lock it in this dark little box, I'll curse their ancestors to death!"

Ren nodded, seemingly agreeing wholeheartedly.

Within East Asian cultural circles, the idea of ​​"resting in the earth" is generally accepted, with the belief that after a hundred years, one should return to the soil to find peace. Zhang Renfeng, in fact, also found it difficult to accept the practice of taking a portion of a bone, placing it in a box, and exhibiting it to the world, though he didn't express it as directly.

and……

“It’s not a big problem.” Zhang Renfeng shook the sacred bone box again, and a light, crisp clinking sound came from inside the box. “There are no bones inside.”

"Really?" Sam's eyes widened. "But this box looks quite valuable..."

"I know a lot about human bones, believe me. If it were bone colliding with metal, it would never make this sound."

For some reason, everyone present thought that these words sounded exceptionally convincing coming from Zhang Renfeng.

Gold is a relatively soft metal, and the reliquary made from it wasn't as sturdy as it appeared. Zhang Renfeng studied its structure and easily disassembled it.

Inside was a right shoe.

The craftsmanship is excellent, and the quality is superior, but its presence here seems somewhat out of place. Aside from being damp from being soaked in rain, the shoes have no odor; by their nature, shoes are consumables. However, if no one wears them for years, and they are merely kept as exhibits in this golden box, they won't deteriorate no matter how long they're stored.

“Professor Henderson just mentioned that Samuel’s father was a shoemaker, and it seems that’s true,” Lydia remarked. “The son of a shoemaker, to have achieved so much… no matter the outcome, he truly is a legend.”

At seventy-nine, he had climbed to the pinnacle of power, an old man who could command the winds and rains. Perhaps for Samuel, this shoe was his "saintly remains."

"Clang!"

Zhang Renfeng turned the shoe over, and a key slipped out and fell down unnoticed.

If there's a key, there must be a lock.

The church was so small that they didn't even need to search separately; they quickly found the lock beneath the stone pulpit. Thinking about it, the inscription on the door, "The Word is hidden here," was already a perfectly straightforward clue. But even without that clue, in such a small space, it wouldn't have been difficult to find.

At this point, Samuel no longer set any challenging obstacles that required mental deciphering; everything was done directly.

Zhang Renfeng could even imagine him walking into this small chapel, placing his hat, cane, and other belongings aside, and casually choosing a seat. He might look at the reliquary, or he might not; his thoughts, like wild grass, would slowly grow within this confined space.

He believed Henderson's claim that the church was indeed his own territory.

"Click!"

The latch has been opened.

This was originally designed for a person in their seventies, so it doesn't require much effort.

Before it was actually opened, everyone couldn't help but wonder what kind of treasure this party leader had gone to such lengths to hide here.

First, cash is out of the question; it's safer to keep cash in a bank. Second, gold and jewelry are also impractical; they require a much better environment for preservation.

However, when they actually saw the interior of the preaching platform, everyone was still surprised—it was a box, an almost sealed iron box.

Zhang Renfeng disliked bending over, so he simply carried out the iron box. Inside, there was another iron box. Like peeling an onion, he opened two or three more, finally reaching the heart of the secret. Stacks upon stacks of documents covered in writing were piled up like bricks, quite tightly packed.

"I thought it was something else, but it's all paper," Wolf couldn't help but complain. "He even built a small, dilapidated building on the edge of the cliff to store these things. He's a weirdo."

"Can these things really be turned into money?"

"Don't touch it yet!" Lydia's voice trembled with excitement as she quickly stepped forward and carefully retrieved the top portion. Overwhelmed with emotion, her fingers trembled slightly as she flipped through it, and she couldn't help but lick her lips.

"Sam!"

Sam quickly followed, he had been waiting for this moment to make his contribution for far too long. He rolled up his sleeves and took another stack from the pile that Lydia had brought out.

The portion the two took was a drop in the ocean compared to the whole. The remaining documents still lay there quietly, like a small mountain. Zhang Renfeng also wanted to see if his reading and writing skills had indeed improved, but the documents were written in cryptic language that he could barely understand, so he gave up.

In this group, only Sam and Lydia are actually literate.

Seeing that the two people's expressions gradually changed from excitement to seriousness, no one dared to disturb them, and they even became careful with their breathing.

……

"My God..."

As she watched, Lydia wiped the sweat from her forehead and couldn't help but sigh.

"Can you tell us about them?" Zhang Renfeng asked at the opportune moment. "What exactly are these things? Samuel's diary?"

“No, not at all.” Lydia composed herself, her voice filled with astonishment. “This…this…I should say, it’s a catalog.”

"Table of contents?"

"Samuel Graves, the vast fortune he amassed over his lifetime..."

"...the directory."

Chapter 804: Finally, we can begin!

"Wait a minute... a catalog?" The word was still too intimidating, and Zhang Renfeng was also shocked. He circled the thick document with his finger. "These? All of them?"

Lydia flipped through the documents in her hands, bit her lip, and nodded vigorously.

Everyone was speechless for a moment.

But Zhang Renfeng quickly thought of Oak City and understood – without an enormous amount of wealth, how could he have built such a city regardless of cost, just to satisfy his desire to play the role of a Roman emperor?

"Why would he leave these things behind?" Ren asked, puzzled. "Isn't this tantamount to putting his own incriminating evidence into a verifiable written record?"

“This country is too big. Without Henderson’s involvement, we might have investigated for a lifetime, even with twice the manpower, and never found out that Samuel’s secret was hidden in this unassuming little church. It’s built on the edge of a cliff, so remote that hardly anyone walks on this path, let alone comes here.”

As Sam flipped through the documents, he explained, "Perhaps, for Samuel, this was never intended to be a place open to the public from the very beginning."

“Maybe it’s not that complicated,” Draco said casually, leaning against the wooden partition of the confessional. “You guys said before, how old is he this year?”

"79 is old."

“An old man of this age could only exist in your ‘civilized’ world,” Zhuo Ge said, tapping his temple with a smile. “He’s old.”

"The old man's hands and feet are weak, he can't walk or carry things. The delicacies and fine wines of the past can no longer be eaten. If he chews anything hard, his teeth will wobble and chatter. When he wakes up, he may not even remember who he is."

"Yes, he is a big shot. He can still wear pungent perfume, fancy clothes and shoes, be surrounded by followers, and enjoy everything... But he knows, and the people around him know, that everyone who bows their head and looks at him with respect knows."

"He doesn't have many years left to live."

"His power may be able to conquer everything on earth, but what about after he dies? In a few years, who will remember all of this?"

Zhuo Ge shrugged. "Besides, if he doesn't write them down, he himself will probably gradually forget them."

……

Drogo is a wild and untamed man, seemingly out of place in the coming civilized world, yet his perspective accurately describes Samuel's current situation. Essentially, the problems he faces are similar to those of an emperor on his deathbed, unwilling to relinquish his throne.

His age and energy levels no longer allow him to undertake any more groundbreaking projects.

Before his memory fades, he wants to record everything he said and did in great detail.

"So, are these records some kind of bond code?" Zhang Renfeng tried to use his imagination. "I saw bearer bonds on a train before. If you go to a bank to exchange them, you can..."

“No, Zhang,” Lydia shook her head. “There might be some, but I haven’t seen it yet. Samuel’s understanding of ‘property’ is completely different from the common understanding of ‘property’.”

“For example, this,” Sam said, his voice full of surprise. “This is a series of transaction records. Without this piece of paper, even decades later, no one might be able to connect them together.”

"The Delaware Birch Trust has acquired 10 acres of farmland in Iowa at market price."

"Subsequently, they used the land as collateral to borrow $300 million from Credit Zurich for 'Panama Mining Company.' However, judging from the subsequent appendices, this mining company was likely a shell company attached to Roannock Fuel Company. When the Osborne family fell, it was not implicated."

"Then, the Panama Mining Company, through 'exploration,' discovered the Lake Superior iron ore deposit... but this is a fictitious location!"