Ruth Nian furrowed his brows; before he could speak, Abel had already jumped in.
“My lord, I know what you want to ask me… this matter is rather long-winded.”
He hesitated for a while, truly uncertain where to begin.
On the second day after Abel discovered that monster, rumors began to spread that the Temple of Light was breeding monsters.
Abel immediately swore that he was not the one who leaked the information; he had never disclosed anything to anyone except for the Demon Lord!
Ruth Nian pondered for a moment and waved his hand for Abel to continue.
“Then the rumors grew more and more absurd; at first, many people treated it as a joke.”
However, in no time, the whispers began to change. It became rumored that the Church of Light actually had no deities at all, and that the monster had been masquerading as a god. It was a deception from the Church of Light.
Once this rumor got out, it exploded.
The followers cultivated by the Temple of Light for a thousand years couldn’t be swayed overnight. When they heard this, they felt it was a desecration of their faith, an insult to their deity.
Furthermore, with the emergence of the Floating Life Sect, the dirty water was splashed onto Ruth Nian.
“It must be that demon spreading rumors, using cunning methods against the Temple of Light!”
“Isn’t it just to bring down the Church of Light? How could they resort to such despicable tactics, humph.”
“See, demons are demons. How can they compare to gods? Ultimately, they are not the same.”
Many disparaging remarks came from those mouths, venomous and harsh. Over time, it was inevitable that such sentiments would affect the opinions of ordinary people.
Initially, people might not have cared much, but gradually they became suspicious and naturally the business of the shop was delayed, and they rarely came again.
After Abel finished speaking, he looked furious and said, “It must be the Temple of Light’s doing! This matter didn’t break until I discovered it, and it just so happened to point its arrows at you!”
Ruth Nian remained silent for a moment, sighed softly, feeling a sense of melancholy in his heart.
Indeed, no matter which world it is, there will always be commercial competition.
“Since that’s the case, let’s prohibit the Temple of Light from purchasing anything anymore.”
This could be considered a complete tearing of their faces.
*
In the middle of the night, Calderra had long since fallen into a deep slumber, and obscure colors began to breed in the dark corners.
The guard on duty, holding a torch, lazily covered his mouth and yawned, his eyes half-closed as he strolled along, patrolling the planned route.
Until he passed a dead end, a faint fishy smell wafted through the air and infiltrated the guard’s nose.
The guard noticed it, raised his torch a bit higher, and ventured into the alley.
The faint glow of the torch painted the alley a sickly red, and as he approached, the stench became more pungent, the rot nauseating.
The light clearly illuminated the scene before him: the ground was soaked in blood, and scattered limbs lay about.
With a clatter, the torch fell to the ground.
A scream pierced the night, breaking the stillness of Calderra.
“Dead… there’s a dead person!!”
*
It has been almost a week since the rumors began.
Yet at this moment, not many people in Calderra cared about these rumors anymore; they had fallen into a state of extreme panic.
Ever since the demon shop appeared, nearly everyone’s power had increased, and they had gained the upper hand against the beast tide, so deaths had become rare.
Let alone dying within the main city for no reason, and in such a tragic manner, with no way to identify the killer—how could that not evoke fear?
Who knows, the next target might be oneself?
After intensifying investigations in recent days, several missing persons cases were discovered, and combined with the one corpse that was found, it was spine-chilling.
It was said that the body appeared to have been gnawed on by a monster; every part of it was unrecognizable, gruesome to the extreme. The scene was littered with bloody remnants, with not even bones left behind, and the walls were splattered with blood.
Meanwhile, naturally, the foot traffic at the demon shop dwindled. Now in Calderra, everyone was on edge, highly alert—it was not just a matter of shopping; people didn’t even dare to go outside.
With such turmoil occurring in the royal city, His Majesty the King was even more furious, ordering a thorough investigation of the matter and to compile how many people had gone missing these days.
Many speculated in their hearts, could it be that a powerful monster had slipped into the main city? Given the nature of the deaths, it was hard to believe anyone else could have caused it.
The chaos outside had not affected Ruth Nian; as long as he did not step out of the shop, he was the safest.
With business decreasing, he found himself temporarily idle, occasionally chatting with Rong Qing, and he paid no further heed to the outside affairs.
However, sometimes, simply ignoring things didn’t mean that everything could pass smoothly.
Chapter 26
In barely a week, deaths in Calderra had become frequent, and the number of missing persons was revealed.
In just these days, there were as many as seventy-eight missing people!
The missing individuals included men and women of all ages—ordinary folks and warriors, encompassing all social classes, with no commonalities found in the investigations.
The only similarities were the gruesome conditions of the corpses and the marks left as if they had been devoured by monsters.
In fact, in recent days, some had considered other possibilities.
…After the news of the Temple of Light breeding monsters broke, it was indeed suspicious that so many people had inexplicably died in the main city.
“Do you think that monster might have been released and was responsible for the killings?”
“This… how could that be? It was said that these are all rumors, that the demon shop is trying to frame the Temple of Light.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Who knows? What if what that demon said is true? Otherwise, after so many years without incident, why have so many people died all of a sudden?”
Soon, these rumors expanded, igniting the same kind of righteous indignation that had previously aimed to discredit Ruth Nian, now clamoring for an investigation into the Temple of Light’s conspiracy.
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