Jacques was absolutely determined in this course of action.

When operating in the wilderness, because the risks encountered are unknown, the itinerary is also unpredictable.

Currently, there is a merchant route between Beiqi Village and Wavetail Town, with a journey of approximately three days.

If one ventures off the established path, there's a high likelihood of getting lost or similar issues, which would prolong the travel time.

Therefore, the church branch in Wavetail Town had given him a relatively generous timeframe for his return.

Even if he genuinely exceeded the deadline, he would at most face some punishment;

being of noble birth, he still enjoyed certain privileges.

He simply couldn't bear to return in such a disgraced manner and intended to use this opportunity to shift from overt to covert operations, secretly monitoring the entire workings of Beiqi Village.

He believed that his departure would certainly make those people think they had won. In their complacency, they would naturally let their guard down, potentially revealing flaws in the process.

On the other side, Op indeed felt slightly relieved.

He stood up, his obese body concealing some black entities squirming beneath.

After a series of transformations, those black things completely lurked, ceasing their movement.

"We won't restart the whalehide ore mining for now;

we'll manage with the existing stock."

"The special medications from over there cannot be interrupted."

"Our current inventory is running low;

we still need to find a way to produce that stuff ourselves." Op sighed, adjusting his mindset.

He had originally thought he could tame the Nest Beast, turning it into his animal companion.

However, he had underestimated the wild nature of this dangerous creature.

He had been raising this thing for seven years, and it still hadn't been fully domesticated.

He had to spend a fortune purchasing special medications from the Calamity Cult to suppress the Nest Beast's ferocity.

The Calamity Cult was a group that studied earthly calamities and sought to draw power from these disasters.

According to their claims, calamities themselves weren't truly disasters but rather aspects of some true deity, only becoming calamities due to the evil conspiracies of various gods.

But such talk was best taken with a grain of salt;

all sorts of cults liked to boast about being orthodox or representing true deities.

Op would have preferred not to deal with these people, but given his current situation, not doing so meant certain death.

"This damned world, these damned cultists, this damned church... this damned old priest!!" Op's mental state fluctuated wildly but eventually stabilized.

Now the miners had been silenced, and the mine shaft had been destroyed.

Reopening it and recruiting enough miners again would both be troublesome matters.

Every day delayed meant losing a day's income.

For the past ten-plus days, that newly arrived holy knight had been running around the entire village under the guise of training runs, even exploring the surrounding mountains and valleys. Every nook and cranny that showed any trace of human activity, he would investigate.

Wasn't his purpose clearly to find their mining tunnel?

In contrast, that intern priest had been active only around the church, at most walking within the village.

Op had considered multiple times gathering manpower to resume mining operations.

But for now, he could only exercise patience.

Because he was still waiting for a signal.

On the other side, Naimes suddenly sensed something and entered his basement.

At this moment, Lia was struggling incessantly, her body covered with various marks left by the Oath Rope's constriction.

"Can the whale transformation not hold anymore?" Naimes looked at her condition and couldn't help but strengthen the Oath Rope's sealing effect again, yet the results remained unsatisfactory.

Back when the village guard had caused all that trouble, Lia had already entered the critical phase of whale transformation.

It was Naimes who later used the Oath Rope to suppress her, while also making slight adjustments during his research on Whale Transformation Disease and while enabling Pur to gain whale transformation powers.

But he still hadn't anticipated that Lia's changes had become uncontrollable, with the impulse for whale transformation growing stronger and stronger.

"Indeed, anything related to the Floating Whale is never simple." Naimes looked at the suffering Lia, though his current thoughts were about where to obtain some organs.

The village guard's homemade dried organs had long been consumed. If Lia couldn't eat such things during the whale transformation process, she would most likely die from Whale Transformation Disease.

His Oath Rope could probably maintain control for just one or two more days at most.

"She can't die yet. Once the contract breaks, the village guard probably wouldn't be usable with peace of mind either." Naimes frowned.

"Now is not the right time."

"Wait..." Naimes suddenly frowned as he thought of a problem he had consistently overlooked before.

Where had the village guard previously obtained those organs?

From Naimes's memories, Naimes realized that although people occasionally died in the village, overall, there weren't many cases of corpses disappearing mysteriously.

Most corpses would be...

"Buried in the cemetery behind the church!" Naimes's thoughts suddenly jolted, rapidly processing as various conjectures emerged in his mind.

This was a significant issue he had overlooked.

"The old priest often presided over funerals."

"Given his spiritual cultivation, whether the village guard stole organs before burial or went to the cemetery to steal them after burial..."

"He most likely couldn't escape the old priest's perception."

"Previously, my attention was completely focused on Whale Transformation Disease. Regarding the organ requirements, with the suppression seal in place, I naturally overlooked it."

"Now upon careful reflection, this was a potentially fatal mistake."

"Previously, my attention was completely focused on Whale Transformation Disease. Regarding the organ requirements, with the suppression seal in place, I naturally overlooked it."

At most, he had been curious about the other's hidden secrets, like why he came to this village or why he possessed a sacred text sword.

But now, Naimes could clearly sense the sinister nature the old priest had concealed.

"He most likely could have discovered the village guard's secret."

"And specifically stealing organs - this point would particularly expose Whale Transformation Disease."

"A priest of his age, having lived through the Whale Transformation Disease outbreak decades ago, couldn't possibly be unfamiliar with it."

"And specifically stealing organs - this point would particularly expose Whale Transformation Disease."

"All his kindness was basically a disguised product."

"Then his previous warning to me about Op's issues likely wasn't inadvertently revealed or due to his habitual indulgence and tolerance toward 'Naimes'."

"All his kindness was basically a disguised product."

Naimes couldn't help but feel how troublesome such old veterans could be. Chapters first released on novel·fire.net

"He most likely coldly observed all the major and minor events happening in the village, wearing a benevolent face daily, but in reality, he was condoning these occurrences."

"Whether it was the village guard's daughter with Whale Transformation Disease, Op's illegal whalehide ore mining, or even possibly Naimes's collusion with me, a demon—he likely knew about them to some extent."

"But this raises the biggest question: what does he want to achieve?!"