Chapter 211 - Heresy’s Undercurrent (1/2)

The soldiers sealed off all the main passages and had surrounded the trade house that was opened by the gray elves. However, this wasn’t able to stop rumors and slanders. Among those rumors were tiny bits of truth that were rapidly brewing in the mouths of these ordinary people. Soon enough, there were countless rumors about dark and bloody sacrificial rituals conducted by evil heretics that started spreading out in the town. The skeletons that were carried out from the trade house deep in the night had already proven everyone’s conjectures.

Under the protection of the soldiers, Duke of the West, Baldwin Franklin was escorted and arrived at the scene with a low-profile. He frowned as he felt extremely terrible as he looked at the trade house that was still constantly drifting out with the faint stench of blood, while he could also see those ignorant masses that were extending their heads and looking over.

It wasn’t necessary for a duke to personally visit and pay attention to the happenings of a small town. However, when the incident happened, Baldwin Franklin happened to be in the midst of a winter hunt in the vicinity of Golden Woods Town.

Recently, the evil heretics had been wreaking havoc at the borders of the kingdom, and the King had also sent information to the duke to be careful of the heretics. The western borders did have plenty of disturbing and horrific incidents that had happened. Duke Baldwin Franklin was worried about this; therefore, he chose to conduct a winter hunt in this secluded place to relax a little. However, it seemed like the evil cults were specially targeting him and had actually revealed themselves in front of him at this critical moment.

“Your Excellency.” A trusted aide leaned over and whispered, “Do you wish to disperse these lowly commoners?”

“They are simply ignorant and don’t know what horror is.” Baldwin was feeling unpleasant as he said, “I asked the soldiers to seal the passages in order to protect these foolish people’s lives. Since they are so foolish and cannot understand this point, just let them gather on another street, and don’t let them affect this place.”

“Yes, Your Excellency. Your benevolence is truly touching.” The trusted aide lowered his head again and asked, “Are you going to enter personally… and take a look?”

“I am here for this purpose.”

Baldwin opened the doors of the trade house and was immediately welcomed with a rush of the concentrated stench of blood.

There were dried up patches of dark red blood that could be seen everywhere in the trade house. It was on the floor, the walls, the roof, and every table and chair; every decoration and every window was splattered with blood. It was truly bone-chilling as it seemed just like a lunatic dipping his hand in blood before carefully smearing each surface.

In between the solidified marks of blood, one would be able to see human-shaped impressions that were of a darker color, and it was extremely eerie.

“What are these impressions?” Baldwin Franklin was able to sense subtle magic waves from impressions.

“It is due to corruption, Your Excellency.” An individual in priest attire walked out from the group of people that were sorting out the scene. He bowed to the Duke of the West with the etiquette of a Holy Light follower and answered respectfully, “According to the marks at the scene, people who were influenced or the participants of the evil cult ritual first entered this hall and conducted a frenzied self-mutilation, smearing their blood in every corner of the hall. They then gathered in these locations and started to boil and corrupt their remaining blood with the influence of the evil magic. The blood and flesh that flowed down from their bodies then formed these corrupted impressions. Therefore, when we entered this place, we could only see skeletons.”

The Duke of the West appeared to be angry as he said, “I do not wish to know so many details, I just wish to know who did it.”

“This is the classic sacrificial ritual of the Oblivion Association,” the Holy Light Priest replied. “They advocate the mutilation of living limbs and the embrace of death. According to my judgment, the heretics that conducted this evil ritual are among the skeletons collected here. For such a scale of blood sacrifice, the heretics will choose to sacrifice themselves with the sacrificial goods to achieve their objective to the greatest extent.”

The Duke of the West looked at the Priest’s eyes and asked, “Their objective? What is their objective?”

“They are probably planning to create a plague and to spread the plague to the western borders of the kingdom and inside the Moss Woods.” The Priest pointed at the nearby wall, and on those walls that were tainted with blood, one would be able to see a faint golden Holy Light rune that was flickering. Traces of black aura were rapidly dispersing under the illumination of the Holy Light. “When I rushed here, the entire building was already overflowing with the presence of plague, and it is fortunate that the Lord guided me to discover the heretics’ schemes in advance. I was then able to immediately dispel the evil magic that was able to take form and also set up a cleansing boundary. Your Excellency, there is no need to worry about the plague now.”

“These degenerated and warped freaks! Their souls should truly be taken by the devil, never to escape from hell for eternity!” Baldwin Franklin was rarely so enraged, but he strived to maintain his image. He nodded to the Holy Light Priest and said, “Father, you have rescued this small town and all the lives in the vicinity! You have to receive my thanks and compensation.”

“Cleansing evil is the path given to us by the Lord.” The priest spoke in a tone that was grieved at the fate of mankind. “As compared to individual gains, I am more worried that those demented heretics would attack places that aren’t able to receive the Lord’s blessings.”

“The Church of the Blood God is just in the vicinity of this trade house, but those priests didn’t feel the evil that happened right beside them.” The Duke of the West shook his head and said, “The first to arrive was actually the Holy Light Clerics that you led…”

“You cannot blame the envoys of the Blood God,” the Holy Light Priest responded immediately. “It just so happens that their theurgy isn’t suitable for this occasion. The God of Holy Light’s power is specialized in eliminating evil, and it happens to be within our duty.”