Ding, ding, ding...
The next morning, Tang En woke up to the sound of melodious bells.
"Is that the sound of a bell? It seems to be coming from Xiaoshi Village."
Tang En shook his head and woke up. He walked out of the wooden house and looked at the smoke rising from the direction of Xiaoshi Village.
In contrast to Tang En, who was unaware of the situation, the villagers of Xiaoshi Village were accustomed to the ringing of the church bells every Sunday. This was the church calling believers to a prayer meeting, and believers from several surrounding villages would arrive early.
The villagers of Xiaoshi Village came out of their homes one after another. At this time, even the laziest idler in the village would get up and walk towards the church.
Gradually, more and more people gathered. Fortunately, there was an open space in front of the church, otherwise the small church would have collapsed.
After nine bells rang, Father York came out wearing a neat black robe.
"Under the watchful gaze of the benevolent God of Light, good morning, fellow believers. Today is the time for our weekly prayer meeting, and I'm glad you all are here to attend."
"Before the prayer meeting begins today, I have something to announce. Around noon today, Lord Sethman, the Quartet Inspector of the Church of the God of Light, will come to our church and bring greetings from the General Assembly of the God of Light."
As soon as Father York finished speaking, the crowd erupted in excitement, their faces filled with joy and immense excitement. The General Assembly of the God of Light—it was known as the place closest to God. The leaders of the General Assembly of the God of Light were God's walking representatives on earth.
After announcing the news, Father York began to lead the entire prayer meeting.
Tang En watched Father York's every move from the crowd. His gentle demeanor and kind expression didn't reveal anything unusual. Tang En really didn't believe Father York could be such a bad person.
The entire prayer meeting lasted about an hour. Normally, after the prayer meeting, the majority of believers would disperse. Only a few faithful believers might chat with York about their faith. But today, knowing that an important figure was coming, a large number of believers lingered inside and outside the church.
Tang En also took the opportunity to walk around the church. Xiaoshi Village Church was actually quite small. The first thing he saw upon entering was a hanging bell. Behind the bell was the bishop's hall, which contained two rows of chairs, a podium, and a confessional booth in the corner. Father York was sitting there, answering questions or offering confessions to believers.
Behind the bishop's hall was Father York's lodgings. Tang En silently apologized and quietly entered to investigate, but found nothing. Inside the room were a simple bed, a table, chairs, and a bookcase filled with religious books. So Tang En left a small secret door by the window for his next visit and exited the room.
After the investigation yielded no results, Tang En returned to the corner of the bishop's hall and quietly watched over Father York.
Throughout the morning, Father York sat in the confessional, patiently resolving various confusions for believers.
It was not until noon that Father York came out.
Father York looked a bit embarrassed at this point, as the Quartet Inspectors hadn't arrived. After another hour of waiting, Father York finally announced that the Quartet Inspectors might be staying in the neighboring city of Laiyan for another day, and asked the believers to return and await further notice.
The hungry believers had to go back in disappointment, and soon everyone inside and outside the church had left.
Father York and several enthusiastic believers who stayed behind cleaned up the inside and outside of the church. After all, with so many people coming and going, they would always bring some dust and debris.
Seeing they still needed to clean up for a while, Tang En left the church and went to the old farmer's place for lunch. The old farmer had just returned from a prayer meeting, and since he hadn't had time, he hadn't smoked the rabbit. He simply packed up some food and made do. Throughout the meal, the old farmer lamented that the important man hadn't arrived.
After lunch, Tang En slipped into the church again. By then, everyone had left and Father York was taking a nap in the backyard.
Tang En gently opened a crack through the hidden door in the window. After confirming that Father York was resting, he closed the window and wandered around the church. He finally settled on the rafters of the bishop's hall. He had spotted this spot when he arrived that morning. It offered a bird's-eye view of the bishop's hall while allowing him to see outside through the openwork window decorations on the roof. It was a perfect combination of both.
It has to be said that Tang En has learned a lot through the killer system these days. If it were in the past, even if he wanted to monitor, he would not be able to find such a good position.
Around 3 p.m., Father York got up. After a quick wash, he locked the church door and headed toward the village. Soon, as usual, he was chatting with the elderly and preaching the gospel to the village's neglected elderly.
Tang En was hanging far behind, looking at the satisfied smiles of those old people and the happy laughter coming from time to time. Tang En really felt that his surveillance behavior was despicable.
Perhaps fearing the inspector's sudden arrival, Father York did not visit the surrounding villages today. Two hours later, as the sky darkened, he shook hands with several elderly people and set off back to the church.
"Huh?" Tang En, who had been following, was suddenly stunned.
Because after York left the old man's sight, he quickly wiped his hands, the gentle expression on his face disappeared, and he looked disgusted and muttered a few words.
From Tang En's angle, he could just see Father York's lips, and it was clearly a curse.
Before Tang En could react to the scene before him, Father York greeted the peasant woman who was coming home from work in a gentle manner. His warm smile was still there, without any trace of disgust from before.
Tang En touched his nose. At this moment, he was not sure whether what he had just seen was an illusion.
With a puzzled mood, Tang En arrived at the church first. After hiding in the beams of the bishop's hall, Father York opened the door of the church and walked in.
At this time, there was no longer any gentle smile on Father York's face. It was not until he walked into the accommodation in the backyard that a slightly ferocious look appeared on his expressionless face.
Tang En took in York's expression from his high vantage point, and quickly jumped down from the roof beam and ran straight to the backyard.
The light was on in York's room, but strangely, Don didn't see any figure moving at the window, nor did he hear any sound. It was as if the room was empty.
Tang En gritted his teeth and took the risk to open the window through the secret door.
The room was empty... Tang En was stunned. Although it was a little dark just now, he could swear that York had just walked into the room.
Tang En simply opened the window and quietly climbed into the room.
The decoration in the room was almost exactly the same as when I came in this morning.
Could there be a secret door? This was Tang En's first thought, and also the most likely one.
If there was a secret door in this kind of room, it could only be underground. Tang En leaned over and carefully examined the floor, finally discovering traces of movement near the bookcase. Furthermore, the bottom of the bookcase wasn't directly touching the ground, but was covered in a layer of sheet metal, apparently to increase its slippage.
Tang En stood beside the bookcase. With a slight effort, the entire bookcase was pushed open, and a staircase leading down appeared in front of Tang En. At this moment, Tang En knew that Father York was definitely not an ordinary person. After all, no one would tear down the walls of their own house and dig up the foundation of their own house to make a cellar.
Tang En groped his way down the spiral staircase. After climbing dozens of steps, he could vaguely hear crazy laughter and tragic cries. The two sounds mixed together, sounding very gloomy in this narrow tunnel.
After descending the stairs, there was a corridor where the sounds of laughter and crying became clearer. Tang En saw a white light around the corner ahead. The sound also came from there.
Tang En calmed himself down, reached the corner, and cautiously poked his head out.
Inside was a large space, which was particularly brightly lit by several torches on the walls.
In the very center of the space stood an iron pillar with a black chain wrapped around it. Two half-naked little girls were locked at either end of the chain, with cries and pleas for mercy constantly coming out of their mouths.
Father York no longer looked gentle, but rather ferocious and hideous. He took off his black robe, rolled up his white sleeves, and whipped the two girls with a long whip, laughing wildly.
"Please beg me, beg me again...haha..."
"Please... stop hitting me, wuwu, stop hitting me..."
"No fight? Well, then remember what I told you last night?"
"Woo woo, remember, remember. Be good, serve the inspector well."
"Well, Mary, you remember it well. As a reward, I'll whip you a few more times...haha..."
"No…ah! Wuwu…"
"Struggle...struggle with all your strength, haha..."
Damn, this scumbag, I thought he was a good person. Seeing this, Tang En's eyes were bloodshot and he was about to rush out.
"Haha, don't worry, I won't leave any scars on your delicate skin." York laughed wildly and raised his hand. Two white lights shone on the two little girls, and the blue and white whip marks on their bodies quickly disappeared in the white light.
"Look, isn't this good? Then let's start again..."
"Stop... stop hitting me..." The two girls were clearly on the verge of a mental breakdown after being tortured repeatedly. Healing can only heal the body physically, not the mind.
The two white lights made Tang En completely sober. The environment here was bright and unobstructed, so the success rate of concealment was too low.
If he went up like this, he might not be a match for this perverted York. It would be fine if he put himself in danger, but if he didn't rescue these two little girls, he might really have a mental breakdown.
Tang En now deeply regretted not learning the killing techniques from the old butler, and instead learned an unreliable crossbow...
Huh? Tang En's mind raced, and an idea came to mind.
Tang En looked at the two little girls, gritted his teeth, turned around and ran towards the stairs. At the stairs, Tang En deliberately made some noise, and then ran straight up.
"who?"
A faint sound echoed in the secret passage, but Tang En ignored it. After running out of the secret passage, he quickly moved the bookcase back to its original position. After a quick observation, Tang En thought he had left no trace and slipped out the window again.
After leaving York's room, Tang En went straight out from the back of the church and quickly ran towards his forest cabin. The forest was just south of Xiaoshi Village, and the round trip was only about ten minutes.