Wei Darong,

one of the investigators who went to the underground temple, was also the young man who had previously shot and injured William. He had won second place in the city’s youth shooting competition and was considered to have a promising future.

This time, he was assigned to investigate Flower Sea Village, and just when it seemed like everything was about to be over and he could safely return, this sudden incident occurred, leaving Wei Darong feeling very uneasy.

The situation also became increasingly strange,

Although he had known in advance that Flower Sea Village was associated with an evil god,

he never imagined that there would be such an ancient temple hidden here, along with such a huge and eerie divine statue. He even started to question the rationality of this mission.

But since things had progressed to this point, there was no turning back.

Since firearms were not allowed, he collaborated with his teammates for a combined attack.

But the instant he approached the foreign youth, just as he was about to employ the Capture Technique he had learned not long ago, he suddenly felt the world spinning around him, and his whole body was hurled through the air, smashing heavily against a pillar a few meters away.

He was completely stunned by the impact and had no follow-up actions.

"Who on earth is this person!?"

In Wei Darong’s eyes, this foreign youth with an apparent penchant for exhibitionism seemed like a war god.

Against the other three investigators, who were all skilled in close combat and taking the posture of ones blessed with divine favor—one even transformed into a bear-like creature over two meters tall—all bristling with hair.

Yet the foreigner, trapped in the middle, did not fall behind. He even found an opening to execute a back throw that floored the giant bear, followed by a soccer kick that nearly exploded the bear’s skull.

The rest of the team realized the strength of their target and changed their strategy, no longer attempting to capture him but instead drawing their weapons, but the situation did not improve much.

They still found themselves subjected to various powerful Locking men, naked choke slams, and even absurdly exaggerated exploding throw techniques.

Wei Darong, who had been sitting and observing from under the pillar, found it all the more peculiar. In his eyes, this foreign youth exhibited no killing intent whatsoever but was engrossed in wrestling, even deliberately avoiding vital points.

Otherwise, his teammates would probably be dead by now.

Boom! Once again thrown by the wrestling technique, the bear-like investigator could no longer maintain his blessed form, and the divine seal representing the bear dimmed, returning him to his human form, gasping for air.

He turned his gaze towards Wei Darong, who was still in a daze, and roared aloud.

"Darong! Forget about whether he’s a sacrifice or not, just shoot and kill this damn foreigner! Your marksmanship is the best among us, and the divine favor you accepted is of a higher quality.

A headshot to end this situation, quick!

If we don’t take down this guy now, we’ll all be... Puagh!"

Blood splattered onto Darong, snapping him out of his daze.

With his pistol out once more and focusing through the device embedded in his right eye,

Wei Darong’s brain also emanated a gentle, peaceful divine aura that helped him stay calm and significantly heightened his sensory perception, enabling him to capture every movement of his target.

In his eyes, the movements of the foreigner seemed noticeably slower.

Not only that, but the divine aura also coalesced behind him, forming a Buddhist figure with three eyes. The Buddha’s hand was gently resting on Wei Darong’s shoulder, transmitting its divine nature and assisting with shooting.

His aim locked onto William’s skull,

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly recalled words spoken by the Buddha he believed in, words he would reflect on every time he was about to shoot a criminal or a strange being.

"Do not teach killing, do not kill for others"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunfire echoed throughout the temple,

William, who was wrestling, and the sole able-bodied investigator, stopped due to the gunfire.

The bullets did not hit William anywhere;

instead, they blew the heads off all the corpses in the temple. Each bullet, carrying the Buddha’s divinity, burst through flowers and lodged into the skulls of the bodies.

These blooming faces of the dead all seemed to smile as if liberated in such a manner, their physical forms disintegrating.

"What are you doing, Wei Darong!" The investigators immediately questioned.

But this time, Wei Darong responded promptly, with unwavering conviction, "No... listen to me, everyone! This foreigner might have impure intentions, but he is not evil.

His every move was just to repel you, without a hint of killing intent the whole time. Otherwise, there were several opportunities just now when your heads would have been crushed.

The real problem is this place. The Village Chief deliberately led us to the temple, planning to use us and this foreigner as sacrifices to the Buddha Mother."

Before his teammates could respond,

William answered first, in a very standard Mandarin, "Now that you’ve thought it through, hurry up and leave this place... What’s about to happen next is not something you can withstand.

Also, don’t go back the way you came. The Village Chief and the villagers of Flower Sea Village won’t let you return easily.

If I’m not mistaken, this temple should be connected to the sea, and if you exit through this secret passage, you should reach the sea directly."

During the wrestling, William had already discovered the temple’s secret passages where the seawater was flowing in from.

Under William’s guidance,

Wei Darong immediately helped the bear-man, who he had encountered just moments before, to approach the dark passageway. Using the flow of the water and the direction indicated by the compass, he confirmed that this path could lead directly to the ocean.

His teammates were also roused one after another, no longer hesitating and getting ready to escape from this place.

"Wait!"

Just as Wei Darong was about to leave, William suddenly called out to him.

"Your gun seems pretty good;

can you lend it to me? The upcoming events might not be resolved with just wrestling."

The origin of Wei Darong’s pistol was not simple,

it traced back to when he participated in a shooting contest at the age of 15. Winning second place, he not only obtained the right to keep and bear arms but was also gifted this 9mm caliber pistol.

Thereafter, the pistol had always been with him, and when he turned 20, following the selection of the Buddha statue, his firearm was fully consecrated. Sanskrit was etched inside the barrel, providing an excellent exorcism effect.

Ordinary evil spirits would have a strong reaction if they were hit by it,

but there was no such reaction when he shot William in the arm just now, which was an important reason why Wei Darong harbored doubts about their current situation.

The pistol was like his best companion;

even when sleeping, going to the bathroom, or going on dates, the gun was always by his side.

Now,

he was actually hesitating in the face of a request from a mysterious foreigner.

For some reason, his instincts and the effects of his beliefs and what he had seen and learned in the village made him want to hand the firearm over for the foreigner’s use.

Because he knew that the other party would use it to kill the evil spirits.

"Will you return it to me?"

"As long as I’m not dead, I’ll hide the gun on the top floor of the No. 37 guesthouse in Flower Sea Village. It will be under a cracked brick. You can come and retrieve it yourself later,"

"...Don’t let her get hurt."

With those words, Wei Darong threw out the pistol along with two spare magazines, watching as his partner fell into the hands of the foreigner.

The moment he let go of the gun, he felt regret and anxiety,

but as the other party skillfully caught the pistol, he too calmed down, because Wei Darong felt as if his companion seemed equally comfortable and willing to cooperate in the hands of another.

William also felt the exquisite craftsmanship of the pistol and the Buddha nature within it, and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Nice Gun!"

After saying goodbye to the Investigator,

William’s gaze fell upon the flooded passageway,

where he had noticed that the most troublesome old geezer wanted to reap the benefits. This was the man previously mentioned by the tavern-owner, the strange old monster who was over a hundred years old and had served as the Village Chief for seven consecutive terms.

When he pointed the barrel of the gun at the passage, footsteps followed.

A bald head, ridden with wrinkles and sporting an extremely stiff and discordant smile, emerged from the passageway. But beneath the head, there was no body—just continuous dripping blood.

The Village Chief, whom William regarded as the most difficult to deal with, had been beheaded,

his skull was clenched by five fingers and held aloft in the air.

The mysterious figure in the yellow raincoat stepped out. The hood was once again put on, leaving only the black lips exposed, even slightly sticking out the tongue, all the while exuding a heavy killing intent.

"So, you’ve let that bunch go without killing a single one! Aren’t you quite the good guy, William?"

"Yi Chen... It is indeed you. Let’s wait for Catherine to absorb the Divine Statue, and then we can prepare to go back."

"No! No! No! It’s not that simple.

You’ve come to someone else’s temple that’s been built over a thousand years, causing reckless destruction. Not only have all the offerings been consecrated, but you even played tricks, attempting to absorb the essence accumulated over a thousand years in the Main Divine Statue.

And I accidentally killed the most devout Divine Envoy.

The ’God’ behind it all will surely be angry, very angry indeed."

Yi Chen had barely finished speaking,

when the White Jade Bottle in the Buddha Mother’s hand suddenly turned towards her face! A terrifying suction force emanated from the mouth of the bottle, forcibly pulling out the octopus-like Catherine from her face and into the bottle.

Next,

the Divine Statue cracked open,

and a woman with a graceful figure but flowered face sat cross-legged at the center of a body riddled with decaying flesh but also blooming with life.

A ’Corpse Robe’ stitched together from the skin of ten thousand people draped behind the woman,

her hands formed the lotus seals above and below, about to awaken.

Seeing this scene, Yi Chen’s tongue extended completely out of his mouth, speaking excitedly,

"Has it already formed a physical body like this? If we didn’t interrupt, maybe in another hundred years, it would’ve fully descended... How interesting."