Chapter 43 - 33: Secret Cause Spirit Medium
“Old Days Relic… What is that?”
Leonard Churchill was immediately on guard.
Clearly, there were mysterious entities hidden within this cellar beneath the surface appearances!
He constantly monitored his Attribute Panel, ready to retreat at the slightest anomaly.
However, after a careful observation, it seemed that there was no immediate danger.
One attribute in the Trickster Entry under the Joker, was that he had a probability of understanding Demonic Whispers.
Perhaps because he had spent a long time in the cellar, hearing more and more of the eerie Demonic Whispers, had gained him some enlightenment.
He was able to comprehend some meanings: Sacrifice, Pleasure, Faith, Ancient Gods…
Not mere vocabulary, but an indescribable understanding seemingly far beyond human comprehension.
Relics?
Leonard Churchill speculated.
He didn’t understand what that was indescribable, but the effects were clear: Spiritual Pollution.
No wonder his head had been humming all this while.
Leonard Churchill hit upon an idea, he reached out and touched the card of the Clown’s Mask of All Things tucked away in the pocket of his trousers and muttered, “Release!”
The mask was resistant to various mystical powers. As this was a case of spiritual pollution, the mask would be useful.
The moment he put on this ancient relic, he immediately felt a sense of clarity in his senses.
And he made a new discovery right away.
“There really was something hidden…”
The cellar began to look different, with the indescribable external interference gone from his sight.
As if a blurring filter had been removed from his vision, within his eyes the dark energy from the bodies seemed to be drawn by a mysterious force, converging onto an unremarkable brick in the wall.
Leonard walked over to examine the brick that he had previously overlooked.
Due to the newfound understanding, it had unveiled itself.
This glance was enlightening.
Secret Cause Spirit Medium
Detailed Explanation: A powerfully concentrated entity of Dark Extraordinary Traits, spiritual medium for contacting the Old Days Relic; tainted flesh-based evil materials, with a very slight hint of divinity;
“Is this also an extraordinary material?”
Leonard might not know what the amber-like object in front of him was, yet he could see its terrifying Extraordinary Traits.
If the uncontrollable stray Extraordinary Traits energy emanating from these bodies were ranked as 1, akin to stars, then Leonard felt that this dark lump of amber material was at least 100, bright as the moon!
What startled him even more was, could the Extraordinary Traits this object possessed be directly devoured?
Leonard considered if the Feast could be applied, as he looked at the overflow of Extraordinary Traits.
He carefully reached out and lightly touched it.
His expression changed suddenly, it was as if he had discovered a new world.
The surging Extraordinary Traits flowed into his body.
‘You used Feast Devour, Physique +0.021’
‘You used Feast Devour, Strength +0.018’
‘You used Feast Devour, Tenacity +0.009’
‘You used Feast Devour, Dark Affinity +0.04’
“It actually worked!”
Leonard watched as his attributes rapidly increased, his eyes lit up instantly.
What a fantastic surprise!
The increased rate was far steeper than any body he had previously devoured, it was at least a dozen times more.
The Extraordinary Traits were purer and richer than any Leonard had ever seen!
After observing the changes after devouring, he roughly calculated that if he were to devour the entire object, attributes such as Strength, Agility, Physique, etc would have a high probability of exceeding 3.
What does it mean if almost all his attributes were more than triple his current ones?
His physical combat power could probably increase tenfold!
This was a treasure that could bring about a significant leap in his powers.
“Such a great thing…”
A thought crossed Leonard’s mind, it was the first time he had encountered such a weird and evil extraordinary item.
But poison can be used to treat diseases, this thing might be evil to others, but to him, it was a great tonic.
Seeing this Spirit Medium, Leonard now understood what was the deal with these bodies.
It seemed that the bodies in the cellar were part of some evil ritual. From this, the Extraordinary Traits from the ritual had condensed into this piece of Secret Cause Spirit Medium.
But he didn’t know why it was discovered by the company’s Field Agents, they had fled hastily, and didn’t have the chance to take the item with them.
He didn’t need to guess who set up this ritual, using live humans for sacrificial purposes was certainly not characteristic of a kind person.
Perhaps it was an evil wizard, or the Outer God Sect.
So, taking away this Secret Cause Spirit Medium would inevitably lead to big trouble.
In this instant, the lawless sins of the Sinless City, seemed to give people a peek into its dark corner.
But…
Big trouble?
No, no no.
From the moment he found the extraordinary traits of this thing could be devoured, his mind was already calculating the risks of taking this Spirit Medium.
The cellar had already been searched once, the two men outside apparently had no knowledge of it, they wouldn’t have a clue even if he took it away.
The bodies were recently dead, there must have been a sudden attack on the cellar, not enough time to transfer the Spirit Medium.
If the person who set up the ritual wasn’t dead, they would definitely know.
When they came back and found it missing, the first to be suspected would be the Field Agents from the Golden Oak Security Company.
If “that person” could somehow confirm that the company’s Field Agents didn zt take it, they would definitely suspect the Corpse Collector.
A chain of cause and effect scenarios had already played out in Leonard’s mind.
But that was not a big problem.
He had no intention of selling or collecting this Secret Cause Spirit Medium.
After all, the dirty work always catches up to the culprit.
If he absorbed it, wouldn’t there then be no evidence left?
The only uncertainty was that it would require some time to absorb it.
There was undoubtedly a risk.
But compared with the potential gains, it was absolutely worth the risk!
Leonard Churchill arrived at a decision within a moment’s consideration.
Gibb, not too far away, was still busily processing the bodies under the dim light, completely oblivious to Churchill’s actions.
Such evil materials wouldn’t bother his conscience even the slightest bit if they disappeared.
So, Churchill didn’t hesitate.
He carefully picked up the Secret Cause Spirit Medium and subtly placed it in the abdomen of one of the corpses, hiding it amongst the flesh and blood.
Typically, no one would tamper with the bodies before incineration—so placing an item within a body was rather safe.
The following collection of corpses proceeded as planned.
Upstairs, Dexter and his team of Corpse Collectors didn’t have the slightest inclination of coming down to help. Leonard and Gibb were left to process the sixteen bodies on their own.
After busily working for over half an hour, they finally carried the wrapped corpses upstairs one by one.
“Okay, that’s it for today!” team leader Dexter announced to everyone.
At these words, the two men in suits who’d been standing at the doorway also ventured in.
Having counted the eighteen bodies lying on the ground, they showed no intention of checking the body bags themselves.
Just as Leonard was thinking that he’d succeeded in getting through undetected, the man in the white suit unexpectedly pulled out an antique camera and casually stated, “I’m going to take a photograph of the scene.”
Before anyone had a chance to respond, he pressed the camera’s shutter button, aiming towards the corpse collectors within the room.
“Click-”
The flash lit up the room with a dazzling light and a puff of smoke, causing momentary blindness.
Even more bizarre was the sensation that filled the room the moment the flash went off, as though some mysterious force had swept through it.
Their spirits felt as if they were floating.
In the middle of this strange state, a low, serene inquiry from the man in the suit reached Leonard’s ear: “Did you notice anything unusual while collecting the bodies?”
Dexter, his team, and Gibb all shook their heads in unison, responding as though they had been hypnotized. “No,” they said.
At the edge of the group, Leonard’s expression perfectly mimicked that of the others as he muttered his response.
However, in his mind, he grimly thought, “They really did come after all…”
On his way downstairs, in order to conceal the Secret Cause Spirit Medium he’d secreted away, he had anticipated that he might encounter some form of interrogation—hypnotic or otherwise.
That’s why he’d put on the Clown’s Mask of All Things.
He hadn’t really expected that he would actually encounter such a situation.
Yet the Enlightenment had already revealed to him what had just happened: ‘You have exempted yourself from one memory tampering.’
The mask, in addition to the Trickster Entry from Joker, could exempt him from any cognitive tampering that didn’t exceed the regulation of his engraved marks.
The preparation had paid off.
Hearing their responses, the man in the suit didn’t seem to notice anything amiss. He casually took out a card that looked like a photograph from his camera and flicked it around.
It was as if some of the Corpse Collectors’ memories had been sucked right into the photograph.
After all, they had already searched everything thoroughly and hadn’t overlooked anything.
The questioning was merely part of the standard procedures.
Very familiar with the process, the man in the suit then uttered a sentence with a strong psychological suggestion, “You only dealt with some ordinary corpses. Forget about the details in the basement. There’s nothing worth remembering.”
As if some magic had been cast, the expressions of the Corpse Collectors visibly stiffened. They nodded in agreement, seeming to be in a trance.
As the smoke from the flash slowly dispersed, a sense of focus gradually returned to their eyes.
Leonard’s professional acting skills didn’t give away anything.
Erasing memory?
It appeared to be one of the essential confidentiality procedures employed by these field agents.
Leonard could understand their reasoning after giving it a moment’s thought.
Corpse Collectors, due to the nature of their work, often came in contact with corpses and crime scenes. Some of these cases were quite sensitive. But if even temporary workers at the bottom of the hierarchy like them knew about top-secret incidents, then the whole city would potentially know.
It was normal to have confidentiality measures.
He just hadn’t imagined that there would be such a magical method as “camera memory tampering” in this world.
After taking the photograph, the man with a goatee seemed to quickly lose interest in staying in this broken-down house. He waved his hand and said, “Alright, you guys can take the bodies away now.”
Team leader Dexter, who seemed to have completely forgotten what had happened after the photograph was taken, smiled and said, “Well, Captain Lu, we’ll be leaving then.”
Field agents were officially employed by the company, a position far superior to that of the temporary Corpse Collectors. But Dexter had already submitted his application to join the field agents. In the future, they might become colleagues, so he had to become familiar with them.
Leonard played his role as a subordinate perfectly, helping to load all eighteen bodies onto the truck.
Once they were on the truck, it seemed that Dexter and the others finally started recovering from their strange mental state.
Dexter, the most powerful Corpse Collector with Curse Power at level seven, seemed to feel that something was amiss, and murmured to himself, “This is strange, it feels like I’ve forgotten something. Did we leave something behind…”
It was as if he had done something but then completely forgotten it in the blink of an eye.
The others had completely forgotten everything.
No one took notice.
The steam car carrying the corpses sped off down the streets.
Inside the carriage, Leonard sat quietly.
Only after this incident did he come to realize that the waters of Sinless City were far deeper than what meets the eye.
Also, the job of a Corpse Collector was far from ordinary.
He had previously wondered why, after dealing with so many corpses and crime scenes every day, he had never heard any of the old employees, like Dexter, mention anything about strange missions.
Looking at it now, it wasn’t that there weren’t any.
They had handled such unusual incidents; they just didn’t remember them.
With this realization, an odd look crossed Leonard’s face. Suddenly, he found this job becoming more and more interesting.
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