Isabella studied with peace of mind and did not show the strong aggressiveness that Jacques displayed when he left.

She knew that only by acting like this would those people gradually lower their guard.

She and Jacques—one overt, one covert—these few days were their last chance.

If nothing happened in these days, she would miss this final opportunity.

After that, she would be alone.

With no one to rely on in this village, catching those who did evil would probably take much longer.

It might even be a very long time before the other party’s crimes were discovered.

All of this worried Isabella, which was why she had not returned to her room to rest even as evening approached.

But Isabella soon detected that something was off.

“This is the smell of rot.” As a priest, Isabella had worked hard practicing meditation methods.

And meditation methods develop the soul and mind.

At the Black Stone grade, each advancement awakened certain senses.

It made one sharper of ear and eye.

One could even vaguely sense traces of energy.

By the Steel Seed stage, mental power could forcibly command the body and thus trigger the body’s potential.

In terms of reaction speed, this was not necessarily much slower than body-focused cultivators.

Their bodily perception had already been twisted into a single mental stream, allowing them to regard the world from another, transcendent perspective.

This special ability is called primary extraordinary perception.

This was also why Naimes knew that if the village guards were stealing organs around the church, they couldn’t hide it from the old priest.

Isabella’s current numerical value was around six.

Her sense of smell had basically activated and she could detect that sudden added stench of rot.

“It’s the graveyard behind the church!”

Isabella immediately noticed the problem, then slowed her steps, lightened her movements, and quietly headed toward the area behind the church.

A priest’s combat ability depends on circumstance.

If outside and alone, even a somewhat physically fit person could have a chance to single-handedly kill a priest.

Priest spells are hard to cast, and early-stage spells are mostly functional—healing, expelling pests, detoxification, lighting, calming hearts, and so on.

Among the clergy, holy knights are the combat class;

priests often don’t fight—they are producers of service.

But that’s for outside situations. Near the church, a priest’s spells can be elevated into divine arts.

They can call upon faith power to infuse into spells, causing those spells to change in special ways.

Divine arts are powerful and often highly offensive.

When a priest stands at the church, they represent God;

they symbolize God’s shepherding of humans.

Any provocation can be punished directly by the shepherd-priest.

Isabella breathed deeply and prepared to release divine arts.

Just then, she heard the door creak and saw the old priest step out from the resting area.

“Isabella, are you all right?” The old priest seemed worried about his student.

“Whew, Master, I…” Isabella was about to say that she smelled rot coming from behind the graveyard when she suddenly realized that the old priest himself carried a whiff of rot.

More precisely, it was the “old-person smell.”

When people age, bodily functions are far worse than when they were young;

some parts of the body develop sores, some rot or ulcerate—that’s normal.

Isabella suddenly felt a little dizzy.

Her previous certainty about rot in the graveyard was not so sure now.

“Have I misjudged everything because of my worry?” Isabella doubted herself.

A priest’s perception is influenced by both the senses and the mind;

if the mind is abnormal, perception will deviate.

And the old priest was stronger than her—if he hadn’t sensed anything, she was likely suffering an illusion.

“What is it?” the old priest asked again.

“N-nothing. Maybe Jacques left and I’m just not used to it,” Isabella shook her head and tried to explain herself.

“It’s getting dark, be careful…” the old priest said, then suddenly froze.

“Naimes—why is he here?” he murmured to himself, which sharpened Isabella’s attention.

Right now she needed this kind of “abnormality,” because abnormality meant clues, and clues meant they could catch the village’s problems.

The sun slowly sank, but candlelight was vying with the afterglow.

The overlapping lights interfered with vision, giving everything an unreal feel.

Naimes pushed open the church door and saw the old priest and Isabella emerging from the resting area.

“You’re both here.” Naimes greeted with a smile;

at this point some of his doubts had already found answers.

“Naimes, coming so late—what brings you?” the old priest asked.

Since the days when Naimes rescued Jacques from him, Naimes had come once to take a sword and then had not returned.

Now he came at this hour—there must be a reason.

“Hmm, one of the reserve village guards found me. He said that while patrolling the forest, he saw someone skulking on the Beiqi Mountain side.”

“They looked like they were carrying tools for digging, moving toward the back of the church, so I came to see,” Naimes said;

of course he would not let this probe end so hastily.

Hearing Naimes, Isabella was startled—could it be Jacques was discovered?

But she quickly dismissed that thought. Jacques knew the old priest was a Steel Seed priest with extraordinary perception.

Jacques would never appear behind the church, so then was it the graveyard disturbance she had sensed earlier?

“My previous perception wasn’t an illusion?!” The thought flashed, and Isabella felt her head clear somewhat.

Instinctively, she felt a chill.

It came quickly and left quickly;

soon Isabella seemed to return to normal.

“Naimes, I’ll go with you to check the graveyard behind,” Isabella fixed her gaze on Naimes, still hesitant inside.

She vaguely had a feeling, but that feeling was dreamlike and unreal.

At the same time she realized she had made a mistake—she had been influenced by Jacques. She had never approached Naimes, yet instinctively treated him as an enemy.

“All right. This is near the church after all,” Naimes nodded.

“You two be careful. I’m old now and can’t help much,” the old priest reminded them, everything seeming normal.

But Naimes could sense that subtle atmosphere.

The tides of human hearts—what a thing they were.

“Delightful.”

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