Chapter 314: Chapter 223: Red Rose
Tulip Hospital.
Underground autopsy room.
The Great Gate was locked tight, and the inside pitch black.
A poker card suddenly flew in from beneath the door, spinning a few times before coming to a silent stop.
Whoosh!
A black trench coat billowed as a figure appeared out of nowhere in the autopsy room.
Chen Lun didn’t turn on the lights, standing quietly in the darkness for a few seconds, using his Five Senses Perception to get a clear sense of his surroundings.
To his left was a row of washbasins, to the right stood three autopsy tables, and on both sides of the walls were morgue lockers for storing bodies.
He then found two adjacent morgue locker doors, marked “302” and “303,” following the guidance of a Divination.
Gently pulling open the two doors, he dragged out the body trays inside, revealing two male bodies covered with a white sheet.
‘Are these the two Tomb Robbers…? They don’t have any visible injuries, how did they die?’
Chen Lun examined the bodies, then shook his head.
‘Forget it, why not just ask.’
He extended his left hand and Floey’s black glove, “Moonlight in Palm,” immediately emitted a dark purple glow. This glove could summon Lost Souls, provided the bodies had been dead for no longer than twenty-four hours, which met the requirements.
Then a Moonlight beam, coming from nowhere in particular, shone upon the two bodies.
Hum!
Invisible sound waves, like a summons, dispersed in all directions.
But to Chen Lun’s surprise, the body on the left showed no response, while the one on the right trembled slightly for a moment, immediately followed by a phantom passing through the wall and standing dazedly before Chen Lun.
“What’s your name?”
Chen Lun asked.
“Turner…”
The phantom answered tonelessly.
“Why did you choose to steal the coffin from that tomb?”
“Because our child accidentally killed an old woman with a slingshot, and to take the child and leave this city, we had to risk tomb-robbing… That night, we found a Gold Coin in front of the tombstone and concluded that the buried deceased must be wealthy.”
Chen Lun didn’t care much for the answer; he wanted only to confirm whether these two men had any ties to the Church or the Shelter, as this would mean whether or not Mr. Bales’s true body had been discovered by the authorities.
‘It seems it truly was a coincidence… But…’
A familiar sensation arose, involuntarily reminding Chen Lun of his own past promotion—also a series of uncanny coincidences that, while logical, felt slightly off.
Chen Lun asked Turner’s phantom for some additional information.
The soul, dull and responsive only when asked, provided Chen Lun with some intelligence he desired.
Apparently, after stealing the coffin, they could not open it and had no choice but to try and move it. However, along the way, they triggered something, the coffin shook violently, and after a flash of black light, one of them died on the spot without any warning and fell down stiff.
Turner was terrified at the time, thinking that some devil must have been enshrined inside the coffin, and so, he dropped the body and the coffin and fled alone.
As he ran blindly, he entered a forest.
But he hadn’t gotten far on the forest path when he ran into a Church Monk. All he heard was the other party’s mocking laughter, a mention of “Tomb Robber,” and then a pain in his left chest as he watched his heart being ripped out and eaten.
In his final moments, he remembered the Monk’s crimson garb and a blood-red rose tattooed on the back of his hand.
The Moonlight in the autopsy room faded, and with it, Turner’s phantom.
Chen Lun’s brow furrowed deeply.
‘Mr. Bales set a trap on the coffin? One of the Tomb Robbers died instantly upon triggering it, no wonder his soul couldn’t be retrieved… And the other Tomb Robber, Turner, ran into a Monk from the Red Apple Church…’
He took a deep breath, and with the phantom’s description, he knew the identity of that Monk.
‘An elite Transcendent squad from Red Apple Church… Red Rose.’
Chen Lun’s expression darkened.
‘This is not going to be easy…’
This meant that Mr. Bales’s true body was very likely in the hands of Red Apple Church now, and getting it back himself would probably be quite difficult.
Putting aside the fact that there was no Red Apple Church in Sunflower City, the purpose of dispatching a “Red Rose Squad” here was unclear, and by himself facing such a powerful Transcendent team, he didn’t have much confidence.
Chen Lun recalled his prior Divination in the Immortal Realm, identifying three main forces related to Mr. Bales: the Sun Church, the Moon Church, and the Shelter.
There was also a hidden force, which was the Red Apple Church.
The “Red Rose Squad” currently intercepting the coffin in Sunflower City was likely the team that included “Bone Carving Sculptor” Jerome.
‘A boss character that only appeared in the late phase of version 1.0, are we really clashing this soon…?’
Chen Lun felt a sudden surge of pressure.
Jerome was a Transcendent of the Sequence Five, and even if he hadn’t reached that level at the current point in time, he wasn’t far off.
Having sorted his thoughts, he sighed quietly, deciding to survey the situation first before making plans.
If it proved impossible, he would have to leave empty-handed and find another solution.
Chen Lun pushed the body trays back into the morgue lockers, dealt with traces he had left, and then performed the Magic “Great Human Transformation” to reappear outside of the autopsy room.
Finally, making use of the “Levitation” magic, he retrieved the Swapped poker card from beneath the door.
He took one last look at the autopsy room and turned to leave.
*
*
*
Sunflower City.
A surgery clinic named “Wozhuas” was currently closed, with a “Resting” sign hung on the doorknob.
Inside the clinic, past several standard empty wards, was a secret warehouse at the far end of the corridor.
At this moment, a plain wooden coffin was placed inside, while eight men and women sat or stood on sofas on both sides.
Dressed in crimson monk robes, each had a red rose pattern tattooed on their arms, shoulders, or ankles.
These were the elite Transcendents of the Red Apple Church, members of the “Red Rose Squad.”
“No wonder Captain Jerome brought us to Sunflower City… It turns out he had used bone carving and divination to locate the Black Knight’s true body.”
One of the men with short hair spoke.
“The divination methods of the Magic Faction are no less precise than those of Constellation and Destiny…”
The others turned their eyes to a white bone carving in front of the coffin, shaped like a seven-or-eight-year-old boy sitting quietly on a chair, resembling a porcelain doll.
This was Jerome’s bone carving, said to be the former body of a Sequence Five Transcendent from the Magic Faction. Archbishop Lafa himself had killed him and through a certain ritual, prevented the corpse from turning into Mysterious Objects.
In the end, the intact remains were given to Jerome as material for his promotion ceremony.
Jerome did not disappoint the church. By using this corpse, he successfully advanced to “Flesh Faction Sequence Five – Bone Husband” and even planned to use it for further transcendental transformations in preparation for future advancement.
Once the transcendental transformation was complete and he fully absorbed the power of this “Magic Faction Sequence Five – Sculptor,” Jerome would be able to advance to a higher sequence and become a new Archbishop.
At that time, all members of the Red Rose Squad would benefit from this.
“But the Black Knight has tampered with the coffin, and we currently don’t have a way to open it. We can only wait for Captain Jerome to come back and figure out a solution.”
An emotionless nun, akin to a corpse, said.
“No need to open it… it’s enough to destroy it. Without his true body, the Black Knight will have to reside in someone else’s, greatly reducing his strength.”
Another slightly older man said in a cold voice.
“No can do…”
At this moment, the door of the warehouse opened, and a man wearing a white lab coat entered.
He was the owner of the clinic and also a covert agent the Red Apple Church had planted in Sunflower City, Dr. Wozhuas.
“Monk Jerome needs Bales’ true body to precisely pinpoint his soul’s whereabouts with the bone carving’s magic divination and ensure a successful one-strike capture.”
The man in white slowly approached.
His face wore a gentle smile as he scanned over the members of the Red Rose Squad.
“This is an important item needed by Lord Lafa; we cannot mess this up… Moreover, destroying the coffin hastily would activate the ‘Curse of the Night’ laid upon it, and none of you would want to become soulless husks.”
The others remained silent, pondering for a long while.
“Do you know when Captain Jerome might return, Wozhuas?”
“I don’t know.”
The doctor gently shook his head.
“The Sun Church, Moon Church, and the Shelter of Sunflower City have almost sent out all their elite Transcendents to chase the Black Knight… Monk Jerome must be seizing this opportunity to gather secret intelligence, I believe he will…”
Dr. Wozhuas suddenly turned pale and, in a swift motion, threw a surgical knife from inside his coat.
Swoosh!
With a thrust, a rat in the corner was nailed to the floor, squeaking wildly.
All members of the Red Rose Squad said nothing, some knitting their brows. As elite Transcendents with rich experience, they quickly surmised something.
“A spy?”
“It doesn’t seem like it… but my intuition should not be wrong.”
Dr. Wozhuas, holding the surgical knife with the rat still struggling on it, showed a puzzled look on his face.
With hands clad in white gloves, he grasped the rat’s head, withdrew the knife, and with several swift cuts, dismembered and skinned the rat in a few breaths. Yet, it did not die; its heart, the size of a fingernail, still beat.
After a glance, the doctor shook his head.
“It’s just an ordinary rat, but theoretically, no creature would dare enter this warehouse… The very aura you all unconsciously emit should be enough to scare them away.”
“Which means something is indeed wrong…”
The other members of the Red Rose Squad stood up and rushed to the warehouse door in unison.
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Bang!
The warehouse door burst open, and seven people ran out in tandem, leaving one nun to guard the coffin and bone carving.
“Within five minutes, thoroughly search every corner within a kilometer radius of the clinic.”
“Yes!”
The clinic’s main door swung open as the members of the Red Rose Squad dispersed in every direction.
From atop a steel rod on the warehouse ceiling, an eyeball suddenly vanished, transforming into a “Spade Jack” playing card as it fluttered down. The nun and Dr. Wozhuas turned to look, their pupils contracting.