Before leaving the church, ALulu had placed her teacher, Zephyrinus, on his own bed.

After leading everyone into the room, the eternally slumbering old man was not seen; the bed was empty.

There were no signs of things having been moved around; even though the church was poor and had few items, there was no indication anyone had been there.

But the previous Holy Servant indeed walked out from the church.

"Teacher... where did they take the teacher?"

ALulu appeared anxious, tears welled up in her eyes.

"Let's go after them!" Zoe immediately said with righteous indignation.

Li Ang looked in the direction they had come from; as they landed, the Defender Knights Order had no intention of leaving, giving the whole situation an unreasonable feeling.

He pondered aloud, "When you left, were there any people at Thunder Mountain Church?"

"There were two volunteers."

ALulu said there would originally be people coming from nearby villages and towns; some were volunteers, while others wanted to enroll in the Divine Academy, coming to the church to chant scriptures and learn with her teacher, while also helping with church matters as self-taught monks.

People like Fan Gen also came from nearby villages and towns; they wanted to use Zephyrinus's official Priest status in the sect to gain reserve status in the Defender Knights Order, then look for opportunities to boost their reputation and be absorbed into official Defender Knights.

After the old priest passed away, Fan Gen hurriedly went to "pursue the wrongdoer" partly because they were concerned that no one would introduce them into the Knight Order.

And other people with similar motives sought other patrons; with the presiding priest gone, ordinary believers naturally stopped coming after the mourning period.

Only two kind-hearted volunteers wanted to stay and look after the old priest's remains, and ALulu solemnly entrusted them before she left.

Coming all the way in, Li Ang and the others didn't see the volunteers.

"Were they driven away?" Dorothy asked.

Finding those two might reveal what happened here.

Li Ang asked the girls to wait a bit, and he went outside to use Spiritual Driving to inquire from the nearby Defender Knights.

After he left, the Half Elf noticed Andasu looked like she wanted to say something.

"What's the matter?"

White Wolf glanced at the quietly crying ALulu and whispered, "The teacher's body has been laid out for a long time, hasn't it? Wouldn't it rot?"

"Well—"

Dorothy's iridescent eyes glanced toward the empty bed, her gaze sweeping over the yellow stains on the white cloth.

"Maybe I know something."

The Lady from the Ignis Sky Realm had long been familiar with the Wotam Sect faith surrounding her; when she first met ALulu during meals and chats, Xiaoniu mentioned that she was trying to prevent her teacher from being buried in the wild.

In the developed Fire Realm, this custom had long been abandoned, but the legend existed. Expecting unstudious Dorothy to remember these matters in ordinary times was unrealistic, but when ALulu brought it up in conversation, she recalled it.

When the topic was raised again, Dorothy quietly told Andasu: "The custom of wild burial itself comes from the legends of the Wotam Sect. It's related to her four Saints.

"According to legend, a Saint died in battle with a demon, but due to lack of means to bury him, the Goddess said, 'Leave him in the wilderness; let his body merge with this earth.'

But the other Saints couldn't bear for his body to be damaged by beasts and not remain whole, so they extracted a special spirituality-infused oil from the sap and seeds of many trees nearby, anointed the Saint's body with it, and it did not decay in the regular manner but transformed into a plant-like state, gradually merging with the natural environment.

Later on, believers would habitually refine this wood oil.

Though legend explained this custom, wild burial isn't respectable, and modern Wotam Sect followers no longer practice it.

Even ALulu, living in an isolated church, didn't want to do this, having already expressed her views when they first met.

However, needing to leave the church to make a living, she knew her teacher's body might decay.

"...So she found the wood oil and sprinkled it over him, you see, those many splash-shaped oil stains," Dorothy said to Andasu.

Zoe, with keen ears, originally comforting ALulu, also caught most of the conversation as it began.

When they finished talking, Li Ang had just returned.

"How was it?" Zoe asked immediately.

"They haven't seen any volunteers."

"They're just responsible for guarding. If the volunteers were driven away, only the first ones to enter the church might know," Andasu analyzed.

"But, there are so many people outside," Dorothy said, "Do we have to ask each one individually? How long will that take?"

White Wolf suggested, "Gather them together, let the master cast magic on them all."

She was referring to Li Ang taking out a whole group of Sandbone Group members in one go in the underground arena.

Li Ang frowned; just the Defender Knights they encountered were enough to be counted in legion units, and now the guardians outside Thunder Mountain Church exceeded a hundred.

Even if he used Spiritual Driving collectively, it wouldn't cover such a broad range; attracting attention and casting magic involves completely uncontrollable variables, and he had no idea what kind of commotion it might cause.

Their discussion did not yield a good solution.

Hearing this, Elaphia also shook her head.

After entering the church, the Blondie Douding followed on a flying sword but remained mostly silent.

"There are secrets hidden here," Elaphia said, "That Bishop is in the Excellence Realm, not weak."

"Yes," Li Ang replied.

Originally, I thought it was just a remote little church, but the presence of a Bishop of the Excellence Realm indicates that something unusual is happening here.

"Then let's go and capture the Bishop," Zoe said.

"If it were up to us alone, I might really go and ask him," Li Ang said.

The main issue now is that to land on this island, they relied on the name of the Order Flame Corps. If any conflict arises, and this Theocracy makes a fuss, the Guild might hold Elaphia accountable later, and she'd have to deal with it.

The Silver Heart Sword she gifted has helped Li Ang too much in these days, so naturally, he doesn't want to make things difficult for her.

However, if there is no way, they will have to go that route, and by then, Li Ang will assist her in explaining the situation to the Guild.

"The secret I meant is here."

Elaphia raised her hand and pointed toward the ground.

She gave an unexpected explanation.

Zoe looked at the stone slab below the hovering Douding, tilted her head, and said, "Could it be a basement? Like at my house?"

"It's more than just a basement."

Elaphia shook her head, "There is a lot of metal down below. From the types of metal I can sense, there may be many decorative items, but given the total amount, there should be quite a few mechanisms."

Dorothy tugged on Li Ang's sleeve, "Is it a tomb? Similar to the kind we discovered earlier?"

"You've gone on quite a few adventures," Elaphia said in a calm tone.

The young women's words halted abruptly.

For some reason, there was a feeling that it was best not to chime in at this moment.

In any case, it's confirmed that the Thunder Mountain Church has an underground space.

Li Ang asked ALulu, "Do you know what's beneath the surface?"

Xiaoniu repeatedly shook her head, "I don't know, I've never heard my teacher mention it."

Dorothy crossed her arms and said, "Could ALulu's teacher be a high-ranking member of the Church, guarding some kind of treasure vault? Or maybe there's a crucial tomb below, and those Defender Knights and Holy Servants came to bury him in the tomb?"

What she said seemed quite reasonable, at least Zoe and Andasu seemed convinced.

"If that's the case, why didn't they come earlier?"

"Probably because they didn't find it before," the Half Elf said.

"Have any big figures ever visited this place?" Li Ang asked ALulu.

The pink-haired young girl said that such a thing had never happened before, and she had never seen so many Defender Knights.

Li Ang said, "If you hadn't stopped them, wouldn't those trainee knights have planned to bury your teacher in the wilderness?"

"Yes."

"So, this doesn't add up. The tomb is just your speculation. Although it has the imagery of burial, it doesn't necessarily mean it's meant to bury ALulu's teacher, and she's never heard of it. Why does Thunder Mountain Church have an underground tomb but doesn't use it?"

Dorothy pursed her lips and said nothing.

Her guess was reasonable. Many churches have and are near underground tombs, but you'd need to see it to know what exactly that space is.

Li Ang shook his head. He instinctively felt today's events were related to the Oathkeeping Festival time point, and earlier he saw the Thundercloud Stream appearing in the skies above Thunder Mountain, but there were no clues to connect these events.

Could it be overthinking? The Bishop and knights came here just for other matters, happened upon ALulu's teacher's body, and conveniently buried him?

Elaphia said, "Since we can't find any leads from people, we might as well check what's hidden below. It could help enhance our understanding of this place and perhaps lead us to new ideas."

Her idea made sense, and Li Ang asked, "What about the entrance? Can you find it?"

"It should be in this direction."

Elaphia stepped on the Flying Sword and left the old Priest's room, leading the group to the church's main hall.

In front of row after row of seats stood a statue of the Goddess with her hands clasped and eyes closed in prayer, behind her the only visually attractive element in this simple church—a stained glass window.

ALulu had mentioned it to Li Ang before, so he quickly discerned the imagery depicted on the window—A Goddess wielding a sharp blade piercing through a Crimson Demon, treading it beneath her long boots.

"That monster!"

Zoe, following Li Ang's line of sight, also noticed the stained glass and the demon depicted on it.

Under normal circumstances, if no one pointed it out, everyone might have thought the demon on the window was just an obscure enemy figure pieced together with red and white glass.

But since they had really faced a demon, everyone present except Elaphia simultaneously noticed the strange horns and spikes depicted, confirming that the Goddess had indeed vanquished a Crimson Demon.

"The teacher always looked over there," ALulu said, then added speculatively, "Could it be that the teacher also knew about the Crimson Demon?"

Elaphia said, "This is a highly confidential matter of the Guild; the Speaker said no more than five people in the current world know about the demon."

"Well, now there's one more," Li Ang said.

After being glared at by Blondie Douding, he said, "Nebis is full of talented individuals, and the Wotam Sect has a long history. In remote corners of the Theocracy, it wouldn't be surprising if someone inherited ancient knowledge."

Elaphia flew with the Flying Sword to the back of the Goddess statue, where a platform resided that seemed disrespectful to faith to climb, so in front of ALulu, Li Ang did not follow.

However, he craned his neck enough to see the space behind the statue.

"It's right here," Elaphia said.

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