Chapter 123: Spring Arrives

"Sir, that clergyman's attention doesn't seem to have been drawn by me. After the Azure Moon Festival, he has been hiding in the church and hasn't come out."

In the back kitchen of a certain restaurant, a handsome young man in his twenties with golden hair said in a low voice.

The handsome middle-aged man, who was deboning beef, nodded. "It seems this little fellow is a bit smarter than expected. You don't need to handle this matter for now."

"Alright!" the young man said, turning to leave.

"Wait!" The middle-aged man placed the trimmed steak on the grill and called out to him.

The young man turned his head and asked, "Please speak, sir."

"According to intelligence from headquarters, a team of scavengers from the Radiant Church has already set out from the Holy See. They will enter the empire to proselytize in the direction of Guinness and, by the way, clean up some heretics."

The young man's face instantly turned ferocious, revealing pale white teeth. "I will eliminate all of them!"

"Hear me out." The middle-aged man wiped his hands on his dirty apron.

The young man immediately quieted down, like an obedient puppy.

"This team of scavengers is not ordinary. There are four of them in total, consisting of a Demon Hunter, a Knight, a Missionary, and an Axeman, all elites of the Radiant Sanctuary. Their main target this time is neither us nor proselytizing."

The young man was taken aback upon hearing this, somewhat confused.

The middle-aged man closed the oven, sat down, crossed his legs, and said casually, "As sworn enemies, you and I are both very clear about the traditions of the Radiant Church. This time, their purpose is to find the Holy Virgin."

"Pah! A bunch of sanctimonious hypocrites!" the young man said with a disdainful expression.

The middle-aged man continued, "This time, we should try to avoid them as much as possible. They will arrive here in about two months, and our real mission is the Blood Moon Festival on April 18th. Don't create unnecessary complications."

"Understood."

...

Time passed, the snow in the city gradually melted, the weather turned warmer, and spring quietly arrived.

March 15th, 7845 of the Three Moon Calendar, temperature four degrees above zero, sunny.

Bayne City West City Police Station.

"I'll leave it to you next, Jack," Silas said, handing the documents in his hand to him with a smile.

Jack grinned, though his smile was somewhat ferocious. "Don't worry, I'm best at dealing with this kind of bastard."

Silas had just handled a serial rape and murder case. The criminal had killed four women in half a month, and his actions were extremely heinous.

Due to the case remaining unsolved, the police, under pressure, sought help from the Church.

This kind of work naturally fell into Silas's hands.

Upon arriving, Silas, through his ability to communicate with souls, questioned the appearance and name of the murderer and then performed a salvation ritual for the pitiful woman. In less than two hours, he apprehended the murderer who was hiding at home, planning another crime.

Now, he had just brought him back and handed him over to the police station.

"How has Roland been lately?" Silas asked, looking around.

Jack said truthfully, "Because she doesn't believe the Church's results and wants to continue investigating the cause of Markok's death, she has completely fallen out with her family, been disowned, and is temporarily staying with me. Her mental state is quite good; after all, she's not a weak person. But occasionally, she can't help crying at night. However, she has largely recovered."

"That's good. I hope she doesn't do anything too drastic," Silas said, then turned and left with the Husky.

Looking at Silas's handsome figure in his cassock, many of his former colleagues looked envious.

The cheerful intern detective from before was no longer on the same level as them.

Walking out of the police station, Silas slightly loosened his collar.

He wasn't afraid of the cold, but he was afraid of the heat.

It was already spring, yet he was still wearing his winter uniform.

Walking back to the Church, Silas pondered, "The Cold Church seems to have been very quiet these past two months and hasn't caused any trouble. I wonder if there are any clues in other mystical cases."

"Unfortunately, due to issues of status and seniority, I am not yet qualified to handle those cases. However, handling these ordinary cases is also good, and there's also soul salvation," Silas thought with ease.

In these fifty-five days, Silas had handled a total of six non-mystical cases that the police couldn't resolve, mostly involving theft, murder, and rape. By the way, he had also performed salvation rituals for ten pitiful souls, increasing his spiritual energy and gathering more faith at the same time.

As for how to use faith, he still didn't know.

"I can't keep being so passive. The man in black's plan and the Cold Church's conspiracy have always been a hidden danger. Now that I have accumulated a lot of strength, it's time to take the initiative to investigate."

"When I have time, I should volunteer and try to handle mystical cases. I should be considered a qualified clergyman now."

Silas, who had been learning from Ivan for over two months, had made immense progress. Under Ivan's unreserved guidance, Silas had mastered all the Cairns Runes and could independently draw magic circles within three rings (the higher the number of rings in a magic circle, the higher its level). At the same time, by using related mystical items, he could perform small mystical rituals for simple divination and mystical detection.

In these two months, Silas's main attention had been focused on these two aspects. With the blessing of the divine processor, he had not only entered the rudiments but had even achieved some minor success.

Returning to the Purple Moon Chapel, one could see that four workbenches had been placed in the previously empty space on the first floor, laden with various materials, beakers, molten metal, white phosphorus, snake blood, and other items.

On the surrounding walls, there were also many drawing boards with magic circles drawn on them with black charcoal pencils.

Most of these items were free materials requested from the Church's warehouse, and some were bought by Silas himself.

After returning, the Husky quickly ran to the washroom and soaked its four white paws in water to clean them.

Now that the snow on the streets was melting, it was muddy everywhere. This was fatal for the cleanliness-loving Husky; its four cloud-like paws would get pitch black every time.

So Silas had specially prepared a basin for it to wash its paws.

He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall; it was exactly three o'clock in the afternoon.

"Let's meditate for a while first!" Silas took off his clothes, sat down, and closed his eyes to meditate.

The main focus of his current meditation was his second profession: Evening Bell Executioner.

This profession was completely different from that of a Priest. It was a special profession derived from a certain God of Death, and all its knowledge aspects were used for combat and killing.

Due to their common origin, coupled with rich experience and insights, and the augmentation of the divine processor, Silas's progress in this aspect was astonishingly fast.

He could now generate substantial bell sounds through spiritual energy and transform these bell sounds into sonic blades capable of physical attacks.

At the same time, he could link this sound wave with the Priest's spiritual energy shield to create a shield several times stronger than an ordinary spiritual energy shield.

Of course, the consumption of spiritual energy was also much greater.

In addition, Silas's Mantra of Serenity and Mind Calming Hypnosis could also be linked with the sound of the Evening Bell.

He had used it half a month ago, and the effect was very good. It could actually calm down a hostage-taker, who then, with heavy eyelids, fell asleep.

Of course, the current situation was only effective against ordinary people. He had tried it on Ivan, and not only did it have no hypnotic effect, but it also made his thinking more agile, directly turning a debuff into a buff, which greatly puzzled Silas.