With the noise of the exploded RV, the zombie monsters didn't imdiately notice the people in the cabin.
But according to the laws of horror movies, soone was bound to do sothing stupid at a ti like this.
"Ah—!"
Sure enough, accompanied by Jules's shriek, the zombies discovered the living humans nearby.
Subsequently, these monsters began lumbering toward the cabin.
Curt reacted quickly. He grabbed a piece of chopped firewood from under the eaves and charged forward.
With a dull thud, the wood smashed brutally into the head of one of the zombies.
But the next mont, surprise flashed in Curt's eyes.
He knew he hadn't held back just now. The force he used was even greater than when he threw a football, yet the zombie before him remained completely unmoved.
Grab.
While Curt was stunned, the zombie suddenly grabbed the piece of wood. He instantly felt an inhuman, trendous force.
Frowning, he looked up, eting a gaze as dead as still water.
At this mont, Curt realized the monster before him was simply not sothing he could handle.
Simultaneously, the wood in his hand was suddenly wrenched away.
Before he could do anything, Curt felt a heavy blow to his face, followed by a sensation of weightlessness, and then he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, Jules's face was right in front of him.
"Jools, dis tings ish vewy dangeous!" (Jules, these things are very dangerous!)
Curt imdiately tried to warn his companions, but then realized he couldn't even speak clearly, and his face throbbed with pain.
Right now, in Jules's eyes, Curt's entire face was swollen, his nose crooked to one side. Compared to his previously handso face, he looked like a completely different person.
She wiped away her tears and looked at the figure in the black cassock by the door.
Unlike the others, William's expression was calm.
Three rings of golden patterns surfaced in his eyes as he continuously scanned back and forth among the zombies, looking deeply thoughtful.
"William! We have to leave now, or it'll be too late!" Dana's tone was frantic.
Earlier, when Curt was sent flying back by the zombie, it was this priest who caught him. Otherwise, Curt would have smashed bodily into the wooden wall and might have lost his life.
After that, the group had wanted to flee, but this priest told them to wait a mont.
Now, the zombies in the clearing were getting closer and closer. They could no longer suppress the fear in their hearts.
Just as the group was about to make a move, William finally spoke: "It's extrely dangerous to go out right now."
His tone was calm.
"Judging from the RV being blown up, it's clear soone doesn't want us to leave. And the parchnt from earlier ntioned there are many kinds of monsters. Perhaps the dense forest is already overrun by them..."
"If we rush in blindly out of panic, we'll highly likely be surrounded by monsters."
Hearing this, looks of despair washed over the group's faces.
"You're saying... soone did all this intentionally?" Marty caught a key piece of information.
William nodded: "The cellar, the exorcism ga, the exploded RV... there are too many coincidences."
Prompted by his reminder, the group quickly realized the connection between these events.
"Who is so cruel! What did we ever do to provoke them!" Dana gritted her teeth.
"That's not important! What's important is how we get out!" Marty frowned.
The next mont, the group unanimously turned their gazes toward William.
If anyone present could be considered a professional, it was only this priest.
This was exactly the effect William wanted.
Judging from the appearance of the zombies, the Church was clearly getting impatient.
And he still needed to use this opportunity to find the location of the Source Power passage, so he couldn't let this so-called sacrificial ritual conclude too quickly.
Therefore, he needed these volunteers to follow his instructions completely.
But William couldn't guarantee these classic Arican Horror Story archetypes would listen obediently.
That's why he allowed Curt to act earlier, letting them tangibly experience the danger of evil existences. So far, this plan had been very successful.
"Rember that piece of parchnt? It detailed the thod to purify evil. I think we can try that first," William said, pointing toward the clearing again.
"As for these monsters, they have great strength, but their movents are exceptionally slow."
During their conversation, the zombies seed to have slowed down even more, simply staring continuously at the group under the eaves.
William rubbed his chin: "Perhaps those people did this on purpose. Their goal is to give us enough ti to complete the purification."
His calmness quickly infected Dana and the others. When they looked at the zombies again, they indeed noticed the anomaly.
Thus, the group quickly sprang into action.
William's deductions weren't fabricated nonsense. Before coming here, he had learned the ritual's activation thod from the North Arican officials.
Although the Church hadn't explicitly stated many of the details, combining the intel with the situation at the scene made it easy to deduce.
As if to cooperate with his deductions, the zombies at this mont were practically standing still.
Simultaneously, Marty volunteered to jump down into the cellar and brought up the five holy artifacts.
These items had various shapes: an amulet, a crucifix, a silver longsword, a tal staff, and a Bible.
But every holy artifact had a groove on it, filled with dense, tiny holes.
According to the parchnt, these holy artifacts must be activated with fresh blood to be used, and there were exactly five of them. The group understood without needing to think too hard.
Jules looked at her fair, tender palms. The thought of slicing a wound onto them made her frown involuntarily.
"Didn't we grab that box of prop blood bags!" Marty suddenly spoke up. "Let's try that stuff first!"
Jules's eyes lit up: "Right!"
But Dana shook her head and pointed at the clearing: "The RV was blown up. That box of blood is definitely gone too."
At this ti, Marty smiled mysteriously, then walked into the cabin and opened the door to one of the rooms.
The tal box containing the blood bags was sitting right on the floor, surrounded by quite a few food supplies.
"The abandoned gas station reminded , so after arriving at the cabin, I took so stuff out..."
Jules imdiately threw herself at Marty and planted a kiss on him: "You're so smart! I thought we were going to go hungry tomorrow!"
Marty closed his eyes, savoring the wetness on his cheek, before speaking: "It's a good thing William told us to buy enough supplies before we ca, otherwise I wouldn't have thought of this."
With the food secured, and the horde of zombies temporarily not posing a threat, the group's emotions quickly llowed.
Marty imdiately grabbed a blood bag and walked toward the holy artifacts.
But the next second, William stopped him: "How do you plan to use it?"
Marty looked confused: "Tear this thing open, pour it into the groove, and see if it really has powerful force, of course."
Dana and Jules were also taken aback. They both seed to have intended to do exactly that.
But William shook his head: "That's too wasteful."
"Right now, we don't know how many monsters are in the dense forest, and we only have this one box of ready-made blood bags."
He pointed outside.
"Once we use them all up on these monsters, we'll have to use our own blood next."
"Furthermore..." William changed the subject.
"These five holy artifacts have different shapes. What if their corresponding effects are also different?"
"Are different holy artifacts only effective against specific monsters? Does each holy artifact consu a different amount of blood when activated? Does the blood type affect the holy artifact's efficacy..."
He listed multiple hypotheses in a row, then spoke with a serious tone.
"Only by figuring all this out can we maximize the use of our current supplies and increase our chances of survival."
As soon as his voice fell, the cabin fell into dead silence.
Dana, Jules, and Marty looked at the priest before them in shock. Even Curt, lying on the floor, struggled to lift his swollen face.
At this mont, the exact sa thought welled up in everyone's minds— He is so fucking professional!
Even though they were all roughly the sa age, compared to this priest, the group felt like naive Muggles.
This also made the four of them even more curious about William. Dana, in particular, looked at the priest with exceptionally bright eyes.
"So priests are allowed to marry, right..." she thought to herself.
But regardless, these words gave the group a much greater sense of security and made them trust William's decisions even more.
At the sa ti, in the underground conference room.
Kalvis's face was dark as he glared at a white-robed Holy Clergy mber embroidered with a golden cross.
"Why did you have to make it so complicated!" he demanded, enunciating every word.
Hearing this, the white-robed Holy Clergy mber revealed a look of sheer disbelief.
"By the Lord above, I didn't!!" he said urgently.
"Those holy artifacts can be used as long as blood is dripped into them! They just consu a bit more volu. The different shapes were just for aesthetic purposes!"
The white-robed Holy Clergy mber forcefully poked the black-robed figure on the screen.
"I say this guy is clearly causing trouble on purpose to sabotage the ritual! Lord Kalvis, I propose we arrest him imdiately!"
The other Holy Clergy mbers also felt a massive headache regarding this wanted priest.
They stood to gain considerable benefits from this ritual. If it was affected because of this one person, it would be a huge loss!
Unlike the Church's side, the North Arican governnt agents watched the show with detached amusent.
Although the divine artifact summoned by the ritual was important to North Arica as well, the Church's earlier arrogant attitude had displeased them greatly.
Therefore, even though the guy on the screen might sabotage the ritual, the North Arican agents actually had a good impression of him.
Only the small fraction who knew of the cooperation between the two sides sighed in admiration at William's cautious attitude.
On the other side, at the ruin's stone altars.
Pence sat on the ground hugging his longsword, his upper and lower eyelids having started a war long ago.
He shook his head. He had lost count of how many tis he had forced himself to stay awake.
"Yaaawn..." Pence yawned widely, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.
He looked at the screen. The group inside was still testing the holy artifacts.
Pence sighed and looked at Hawkwood beside him: "Sir... why did the Church put a bounty on such an exorcist? Wouldn't it be better to keep him around to torture evil spirits and demons..."
Hawkwood didn't speak, but judging from his tightly furrowed brow, he clearly wasn't feeling calm inwardly either.
In front of the cabin.
After so experintation, the group ruled out the influence of blood type and other factors on the holy artifacts.
As long as a certain amount of blood was poured in, the holy artifact could be successfully activated. However, the amount of blood also determined the duration of the holy artifact's energy.
Marty poured a few milliliters of blood into the groove of the crucifix longsword. The blade's surface imdiately radiated a pristine white glow, and the group instantly felt a sense of tranquility and peace.
Not daring to waste ti, he hurriedly carried the longsword out to the clearing beneath the eaves.
Lying there was a zombie whose limbs had long been severed. The remaining torso was covered in charred craters. This was exactly the research subject the group had captured earlier.
"Then only the head is left," Marty said, thrusting the sword forward.
Accompanied by a low growl, the zombie's entire head instantly turned to dust. Its body, affected by this, also began to crumble inch by inch.
In just a few seconds, the monster on the ground vanished completely.
"It really is the head!" Holding a notebook, Dana quickly recorded the result.
By now, the pages were filled with writing, detailing the damage caused by the holy artifacts to the monster under various conditions.
And only one blood bag had been opened on the table, still retaining a fifth of its volu. The rest were safely stored in the tal box.
By now, all panic had faded from their faces, replaced by an eager, raring-to-go deanor.
As the saying goes, fear stems from the unknown.
Through their previous experints, they had gained ample understanding of these monsters and naturally no longer feared them.
Seeing that the ti was right, William signaled the group to make their move.
Dana nodded, pouring the remaining blood into the crucifix, which instantly radiated white light.
Holding the crucifix, she circled to the side of a zombie and drove it precisely into its head.
Rustle... Rustle...
A pile of dust quickly scattered on the ground.
Jules and Marty followed closely behind, and Curt even struggled to his feet.
Thus, a rather unprofessional purification unfolded in the dense forest.
"Just as I thought..." William narrowed his eyes slightly.
From his perspective, after these zombies were purified, the evil aura on them flowed underground. And the Church had told the North Arican officials that this was to purify the residual evil intent of the Old Gods.
But after activating [Missionary], William saw a completely different scene.
The evil aura wasn't completely eradicated. Instead, it congregated toward a nearby part of the dense forest, where he could sense the power of a magic array.
"Planning to collect it and use it as evil material?" William's gaze was thoughtful.
Thinking of this, he quietly activated the Book of the World. Imdiately, a stream of evil power surged toward him and was quickly absorbed by the pages.
He did this because of his earlier observations.
At the ti, in order to let the group personally experience the danger of the monsters, William didn't purify the zombies imdiately.
This also allowed him to discover that the evil power on these monsters was growing bit by bit.
Although the amount increased each ti was minuscule, the speed was incredibly fast.
And during the subsequent research, the evil aura of these zombies had accumulated to an extrely dense level, even triggering the Book of the World to activate automatically.
At the sa ti, under the [Missionary] ability, the spirit threads extending from the evil aura all vanished underground, heading to an unknown location.
William guessed this was highly likely related to the Source Power passage, which was why he kept delaying the purification process.
Now, he already had so ideas.
But before going to investigate, he had to ensure the safety of these ordinary people. As a bonus, he could also let the Book of the World accumulate so more evil power.
Even though it was far inferior to a Legendary Item, the quantity made up for it. Every little bit accumulated helped.
On the other side, at the magic array stone altar.
The ditating Hawkwood suddenly snapped his eyes open: "It's here."
Pence was a bit confused, but then imdiately sensed sothing.
He saw a pitch-black substance surging from the forest floor. Upon contacting the magic array, it was quickly absorbed by the hexagram pattern.
At the sa ti, the magic array nodes also radiated a pristine white glow.
"Focus! Connect with the magic array using your ntal energy, and guide the evil aura into the designated coordinates," Hawkwood said in a deep voice.
"Whether we can attract the divine artifact's attention is up to us now."
"Yes, sir!" Henry and Pence quickly followed instructions.
The two stepped into the hexagram magic array, and nurous pristine white spirit threads extended from the ground.
These thin threads connected to the two knights, allowing them to clearly perceive the power within the magic array.
Without hesitation, the two began manipulating the evil aura according to the Church's thod.
"Huh... why does it feel like the amount is a bit small." Pence frowned.
He then shook his head. "Whatever, as long as it starts smoothly."
But as soon as his voice fell, the converging evil aura suddenly ceased.
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