152: Chapter 152 One is missing

Guided by Chen Mo, the journey that originally would have taken an hour was reduced to just 10 minutes.

They arrived accurately at the church entrance.

In a normal church, when night fell, candles should have been lit as vessels to receive blessings from the gods.

In some fantasy novels, candles are also tools used to ward off evil spirits.

If something like a vampire were to descend at night, they would be repelled upon approaching a formation of candles arranged in a special pattern.

Yet at this moment, the entire church was pitch black, and due to the unique construction of the windows, almost no moonlight could enter.

Chen Mo and the others peered inside from outside the window, but they couldn't see anything at all.

"What should we do, Chen Mo? Should we go straight in?" Lu Chengfeng asked.

"The clue points to the church; we have to go in."

With that, Chen Mo and the others took the initiative to push open the church doors.

The church doors were heavy and required two men to push from both sides simultaneously to open them.

As the doors swung open, the moonlight from outside cast inside.

Like spreading vines, it crawled slowly along the dark red carpet in the center, illuminating the rows of pews inside the church.

Everyone immediately walked inside.

But just as they stepped inside, with a "Bang!", the church doors shut on their own.

Meng Zhou, who was walking last, raised his elbow and slammed it hard against the door panels, but there was not the slightest reaction.

"The door seems to be locked, by something invisible!"

The doors closed, blocking out the moonlight.

The surroundings returned to chaotic darkness.

Everyone could only hear each other's heavy breathing and unknown murmurs.

A gust of cold wind suddenly blew, and countless bloody handprints appeared on the church's window glass, slapping against it with a "slap-slap" sound.

They seemed desperate to get in.

At the same time!

At the edges of the pentagonal space of the church, everyone saw pairs of eyes filled with spirals open, followed by unknown footsteps.

Those eyes were very bright and growing larger, as if they wanted to surround them completely.

They were walking toward them, step by step!

The carpet suddenly arched, and a pair of ghostly hands reached out from underneath, instantly grabbing Little Fatty by the neck and lifting him high into the air.

Little Fatty's face gradually turned purple, and his legs kicked wildly in desperation.

Violent coughing sounds came from above everyone's heads.

"Use the candles, hurry! Everyone, light a candle!" Chen Mo roared.

Chen Mo was quick-witted and agile; he immediately took out his lighter, grabbed a candle from the long wooden table beside him, and lit it quickly.

The fiery red candlelight flared up, and then Chen Mo held the candle in front of a ghost shadow that was about to approach him.

That ghost shadow instantly became distorted and retreated repeatedly.

To buy time for the others, Chen Mo swung the candle in a circle, forcing all those anomalies back.

Lu Chengfeng immediately lit candles and distributed them to everyone.

Now that all the candles were lit, everyone held one, and they placed them in a circle on the ground, keeping the anomalies at bay, as they dared only to watch from a distance and not approach.

Chen Mo jumped onto the wooden table, raised his candle, and aimed it at the ghost shadow that was choking Little Fatty.

The ghost shadow was immediately torn apart by the candlelight from the middle, turning into two masses of wriggling black mist before dissipating.

Little Fatty also fell from the air, and with a "crack" sound, it sounded as if he had sat on something and broken it with his butt.

Chen Mo grabbed his candle, quickly went to his side, swung the candlelight in a circle, and dispersed the anomalies that were approaching him again.

At the same time, he used the candle wick to light another candle and had Little Fatty take it.

"Thank you, Brother Chen. If it weren't for you... I would have died just now!" Little Fatty's eyes were filled with gratitude.

"My butt hurts so much, it feels like it was pricked by needles."

Upon hearing this, Chen Mo held the candle in his hands and shone it toward the spot where Little Fatty had just fallen.

Everyone also looked in Chen Mo's direction.

They were standing on the red carpet in the very center of the church, and with the candlelight forming a circle, they could only barely make out the surrounding scene.

But at this moment, Chen Mo was holding the candle and was directly inside the aisle of the seats where the worshipers had been during the day.

The faint sparks were just enough to illuminate the area within 1 meter.

The candlelight flickered, faintly causing people to hallucinate.

Chen Mo rubbed his eyes, looking at the scene before him in disbelief.

He saw that what Little Fatty had just broken was nothing else but a human head.

That head was lying right at Chen Mo's feet, round like a ball, with a ring of dried blood at the neck where it had been severed.

Upon seeing this, Little Fatty immediately curled up his body and hurriedly hid into the safe crowd.

Chen Mo turned his body, moving the candlelight onto the person in front of him.

He saw a headless male corpse sitting upright in front of him, palms pressed together, as if wanting to rest them against his forehead to pray.

Chen Mo turned the candlelight again, shining it toward the surroundings.

Everyone also saw clearly that at this midnight hour, the church was still full of people, exactly the same as it was during the day!

"Ho-how can this be! Who prays in a church in the middle of the night!" Little Fatty trembled.

"The priest lied to us; there is absolutely no one in this town!" Chen Mo gritted his teeth.

"The people we saw praying during the day are just this group of wax figures sitting here!"

Upon hearing this, the group felt as if struck by a thunderbolt, and everyone widened their eyes.

Unable to calm down for a long time.

"The priest? You saw the priest too?" the couple asked in confusion.

"During the day, when we were at Wang Family Village, we also saw a priest. After he led us to the cave, he disappeared."

"At the time, we thought it was so strange that a Westerner was standing in a Chinese-style temple!"

"Moreover, during the day, we failed to pass Zhu Zhanji's test. He wanted to kill us at the time, but he suddenly stopped in the end and even gave us a leave slip."

"Later, when I saw you, I understood. You must have passed the test, so we also received the reward together."

"The scene we saw then was also different from this night."

"Because in the palace where Zhu Zhanji resided, there were actually two Western angel sculptures. In that era, although maritime trade was already very developed, on the walls of an ancient emperor's court..."

"...having two angel sculptures is clearly unreasonable."

"Right! I remember now. Those two angels were two infants, one boy and one girl, just as written on the note. The baby boy was lying on top of the baby girl, just like that pair of siblings!"

At this moment, Chen Mo looked up again, purple light clinging to the surface of his pupils.

He tried aiming the candle at the ceiling, looking at the inverted demon sculpture on it.

Only to discover that of the two conjoined demons, one was missing!

"Damn it." Chen Mo was also startled by the scene before him.

The originally conjoined demons, face to face, looked as if they had been forcefully cut in half by someone with a knife.

The remaining demon had a clear break on its face.

"What's wrong?" Lu Chengfeng asked in confusion.

"It's nothing. The number written on Su Qing's note is 12-6, which should represent 12 rows and 6 columns of wax figures, or 12 columns and 6 rows."

"Everyone else stay put. Lu Chengfeng, you and I will split up to search."