Chapter 21
Chapter 21: God Himself Is Hungry
“What do you mean by that curse you mentioned?”
The old butler looked at Ye Qiyan’s young face, which showed no trace of fear, and momentarily froze in surprise.
“Aren’t you… afraid?”
Ye Qiyan stood up and looked toward the solid wood staircase leading to the upper floors of the castle.
“Forgot to tell you, besides being a sheriff, I also moonlight as a priest. Now that something like this has happened, of course, I won’t just leave easily.”
He pulled the mithril sanctuary cross out from his chest.
The soft holy light dispelled the surrounding darkness, and amidst this radiance, Ye Qiyan seemed to have become the spokesperson of the deities.
The old butler widened his mouth, rubbing his eyes hard as he looked at the young man before him in disbelief.
Stunned for quite a while, until the light dissipated and Ye Qiyan gave a couple of light coughs, did he finally snap out of it.
“Praise the Heavenly Gods! We are saved!”
Armed with the identity of a part-time priest, Ye Qiyan quickly learned the secret of this manor from the old butler’s mouth.
The first owner of this manor was a bloodthirsty madman in secret. Once, when a prey escaped to the police station, the manor owner used his own maid as a scapegoat and threw her into prison, where she was tortured for days by the sheriff who was in cahoots with him, forced to confess, and then executed by firing squad.
Over the next few days, the manor was enveloped by a stormy rainy night, and all contact with the outside world completely vanished. When the rainy night passed, the vegetable delivery boss discovered that everyone in the manor had met a violent death, including the sheriff who had been committing adultery with the manor owner’s wife at the time.
In the thirty years since, the manor changed hands over a dozen times, with every single owner meeting a violent death during a rainy night.
The current manor owner, Ravi, did not believe in ghosts and gods. Though quite wealthy, he was a miser. Upon learning that there was such a huge manor available at a very cheap price and even exempt from taxes, he bought it immediately.
And then…
“As you can see, a rainy night, communication cut off, death… The only difference is that we successfully contacted the outside police station once and brought you here. Perhaps you really can break the curse.”
“Where did that maid die? I mean the maid of the first master.”
“It should be the clock tower at the very top of the castle.”
Ye Qiyan already knew what to do.
The so-called curse was roughly something similar to an earth-bound spirit.
Then, as long as his cross could defeat that earth-bound spirit, this mission could be easily resolved.
He didn’t dwell on what would happen if he couldn’t; that would be meaningless.
Carrying an oil lamp, Ye Qiyan led by the old butler continuously moved upward along the castle’s stairs.
A chilly aura echoed through the castle, and the ticking sound of leaked rainwater was filled with an eerie atmosphere.
Until they reached the topmost clock tower, the cross gripped in his palm unconsciously radiated waves of heat.
“It’s right here.”
The old butler didn’t dare to enter. Ye Qiyan gritted his teeth and stepped into the clock tower alone.
The moment he entered the clock tower, he immediately felt himself locked onto by something rushing over at lightning speed.
“Coming this fast? Get out of my way!”
The mithril sanctuary cross released a soft glow that illuminated the clock tower.
A shrill scream pierced the night sky.
Clang—
Ye Qiyan lowered his head and saw a smooth, translucent skull fall to his feet.
“…?”
Just like that, it’s over?
Ye Qiyan always had an unreal feeling. He pinched his thigh; it hurt, so he wasn’t dreaming, or was this some kind of hallucination? He searched around here for a bit longer, and apart from that smooth skull, there was nothing else.
In other words, it really was over.
Looking at the cross in his hand, Ye Qiyan suddenly wondered if he had slightly underestimated it.
Without a doubt, if anyone else had come to explore this Mission Station, it would have been absolute danger.
But it just so happened that the person who came was Ye Qiyan, and it also just so happened that Ye Qiyan held a Sublimated sanctuary cross.
Just think about it, if he didn’t have the ability of Sublimation and hadn’t turned the level 2 mithril cross into the current sanctuary cross, then when facing such eerie phenomena, he would have had no ability to resist at all.
“Hoo…”
Ye Qiyan let out a deep breath. Anyway, although this stop was about to end so hastily, what’s wrong with that?
Picking up the smooth skull on the ground, although he didn’t know what it was used for, since it dropped, there was no reason not to take it with him.
“You, you’ve come out?”
The old butler waiting outside wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Hearing the noises inside the clock tower and looking at the skull in Ye Qiyan’s hand, he was so frightened that he took several steps back.
“No need to be afraid. The curse in this manor has been resolved by me, and this skull is the core entity of the curse.”
“Heavenly Gods bless us, Heavenly Gods bless us! Thank you for your arrival to save us!”
Leaving the top floor with the old butler, the thunderstorm outside still showed no signs of weakening. This was normal; an earth-bound spirit that could be instantly killed was not the culprit summoning the thunderstorm weather.
Conversely, it was precisely because such weather appeared that that earth-bound spirit was created.
The manor’s seal was lifted, but Ye Qiyan didn’t have any plans to return immediately.
How long had passed? Less than an hour.
What kind of place was this?
A wealthy man’s manor.
Although there were no weapons and no Train Coins, this place possessed something important that other stations didn’t have.
Food.
Not compressed biscuits, but genuine vegetables and meat.
Although White Forest Fruit was delicious, if you ate it every day, you would eventually get tired of it.
As a normal human being, Ye Qiyan also missed normal meals.
“Mr. Priest, this is your reward for saving us.”
A red gemstone without the slightest impurity was retrieved by the old butler from the safe.
“This is a treasure the master obtained when he was young, priceless, and the most precious thing in this manor that I know of. Please do not refuse it, Mr. Priest. Of course, if you have your eyes on anything else in this manor, you can take it freely as well, since there is no longer a master here.”
This was precisely the sentence he had been waiting for.
Ye Qiyan accepted the gemstone and casually weighed it a few times in his hand.
It was smooth, ice-cold, like a block of ice.
“I will be heading down the mountain soon, but before that, I need to resupply some materials. Can I take some food and water with me?”
“Of course you can.”
Walking into their kitchen, Ye Qiyan saw a huge pile of fresh meat, eggs, and vegetables in the refrigerator. Filling up the backpack he had brought with him, Ye Qiyan hurriedly headed toward the Train.
Making a round trip every twenty minutes, he threw the items into the Train and immediately turned back.
The old butler, who was tying up the crazy security guard with ropes, was startled when Ye Qiyan suddenly returned.
“Mr. Priest, is there still some problem with the curse?”
“No problem, it’s just that God Himself is hungry and asked me to take some food back. That’s fine, right?”
