The next morning, students preparing for the trip met downstairs.
Yawning, Eleazar casually scanned the crowd around him with a slight frown. It was hard to wait for the teachers to finish their roll call and for the students to disperse and get ready to board the bus, but he walked quickly over to the Astronomy Department.
Grabbing the small, fancy-colored backpack in one hand, he yanked a bewildered Lingyin to her feet.
"Ouch, what are you doing!"
She turned and glared at Eleazar with an uncharacteristic glare.
"What's that look in your eye!"
Lingyin crossed her arms, tilted her head aggressively, and said, "Why do you make it sound like I lost Fina."
"Hey, you two!"
The teacher came and urged, "Hurry up and get in the car!"
The driver happened to be honking his horn as well, and on the windows, the students hung their eyes curiously.
Eleazar's words trailed off and he only stepped into the Astronomy Department's bus obediently.
Go to the back row and find a seat.
Once seated, Eleazar looked viciously to his side.
"What's wrong with Fina!"
Lingyin returned lightly:
"She had feverish symptoms after the game yesterday, thanks to you being the boyfriend, you don't care about people at all."
She's sick...?
Then go and play a spawn!
Eleazar stood up and was ready to go back.
"Ka-ka-ka-ka~boom!"
There was a sudden shaking of the floor, and a sense of weightlessness surged in as the car's engine started.
"Sit down quickly, classmate!"
He sat back on his butt as the teacher chided him.
Eleazar stayed in his seat.
It's too late. He can't go back.
Lingyin gloats at him.
"You now have good news and bad news."
Eleazar squinted at her.
"The good news is that now you can hook up with as many leprechauns as you want..."
Lingyin held up a finger and shook it with a smug look on his face, "The bad news is, I'll tell Fina the truth about everything you've done!"
Eleazar doesn't even bother with this idiot.
...
Under the gaze of countless envious and jealous gazes, seven buses drove out of the school gate in great numbers.
The convoy, carrying nearly 500 students and teachers, set off.
The destination is the famous city of Shaye, located south of Celine, a city with a rich history and four pleasant seasons.
After a long time, the curtains of the student council office were suddenly pulled open, and a holy figure stood silently behind the window.
Qishi looked down at the cold campus below and asked softly, "How long have they been gone?"
Frid speculated on how fast the car was traveling and glanced at the time.
"It's probably already left Daron City."
Qishi looked at the telegram he had just received in his hand and mused for a moment.
[Another case of a missing teenage girl in Shaye City has been confirmed as a Dark Sequencer performing a sacrifice ritual...]
"The caravan will refuel and resupply in the town of Rilla, do we need to send a message ahead to recall them?" Frid suggested.
Qishi thought for a moment and shook his head, "Forget it, they go out once in a while."
"But what if ..."
"Rest assured, with two Divine Punishers following them, they will definitely be fine during the journey, and when we arrive at our destination over there, we will call for the branch's help to take care of it, so it will be foolproof..."
"Well, it would be best to notify the branch churches now to give pressure so that the other side will have to press on for a couple of days, and then conduct a city-wide manhunt when our people come back from their happy travels."
"Okay." Frid quickly got up and went to send a telegram.
Qishi hugged his arms and looked at the sky that was so gloomy that it looked like it was going to rain, and asked again, "How's the handling of that nest of ghouls in the south of the city going?"
"The spread of the epidemic has been contained, they're now completely blocked in the cellar, and it probably won't be long before they go berserk."
"Let's go then."
Qishi suddenly turned and headed out the door, looking as if he was ready to run to the scene.
Frid froze and rushed after her, "Your Highness?"
"Someone is manipulating the weather, let's go see what those people are planning."
...
"Whoa-"
It didn't take long for it to rain heavily in Daron.
Southern district of the city, a three-story residential building.
The acolytes have completely surrounded the place.
"Go check the sewers and watch out for contaminated rainwater flowing into the city!"
"Yes!"
"Keep dropping the bait and see how long it holds out."
A group of people stood in the pouring rain, their bodies glowing with a hazy shimmering light that insulated them from the rain.
Qishi sits in a sedan, looking faintly through the window at the distant scene.
Back came Frid bending down.
"That nest of ghouls hasn't fed in five days..."
"There was also no reaction to the bait that was dropped, so the situation is indeed a bit bizarre."
"Yeah." Qishi narrowed his eyes.
Frid pulled out the scythe from the trunk and slowly lowered her head.
"Your Highness, let me go finish them off..."
Qishi looked at the young girl who had also been robbed of everything by the ghouls.
Nodding softly, "Be careful."
Receiving permission, Flydd instantly smiled brightly.
In the reflection of the scythe, a sickly face shifted.
The nun, clad in a white cloak, walks slowly towards the residential building, carrying a scythe.
The acolyte on the scene was about to say something, but glanced back at the limo and just had to swallow back all the things he wanted to say.
As the other approached the lair, the nun suddenly leapt forward, first a bright flash of a blade cut off the rainwater, and then the entire residential building instantly collapsed.
With the lair in such a state of commotion, the monsters were almost ready to come back out, and the acolytes were instantly put on dark alert.
"Whoa-"
The scene was quiet for a moment as the rain fell relentlessly.
The ground began to shake slightly and everyone looked down.
"Coming..."
The ground quickly cracked, and then a huge object broke through the ground.
The acolytes were taken aback.
"No wonder it didn't react to the bait, it's secretly evolving, it's devouring all of its kind!"
"It has evolved into a giant ghoul!" It was a hideous monster nearly 3 meters tall, shaped like a giganticized human with no outer skin tissue, legs folded back and sprawled on the ground like a giant beast, creepy spikes protruding from its back and joints, and its head was a mass of swollen brain tissue with no visual organs, its head tilted up for a deep sniff, and its scent was atrocious and insane.
A monster of this level is a plague that can quickly infect a city into a capital of the dead if there are no Transcendents to stop it.
Sure enough, someone was in the dark.
Qishi narrowed his eyes and watched as the giant ghoul was sliced into a roiling mass of flesh by a dazzling burst of blades, the nun still not relieved as she continued to whip the corpse, letting out a crazy laugh.
Enduring the slaughterhouse-like commotion over there, the acolytes spread out in all directions and went into the ruins to look for clues.
Even a dead person wouldn't turn into this kind of monster for no reason, there must be something contaminating it.
Someone found a broken picture frame and picked it up to look at it.
It's a family photo, framing a family of five full of happy faces.
But if Eleazar had been here, he would have recognized that the man in the photo was the same truck driver who had hit him with his car a week earlier.
...