Who hid my body?

Chapter 350 Warden

Foniat.

The warden of the Land of Contracts is also the nominal supreme commander of the Land of Contracts.

This is all the outside world knows about him. As for who he really is and how old he is, no one knows, not even the popes of the various religions have more detailed information. All that is known is that he and the Land of Contracts exist to seal away Vessas.

For one person... no, to be precise, for a warden who exists for a soulless, broken body.

"You have come from afar, but I have little to offer you." The warden spoke slowly, his voice still making one's teeth ache. "All I can offer is a mission, a mission entrusted to me by the great gods, and also your mission. In that case, let's not waste any more pleasantries."

I don't think you said anything polite, you just got straight to the point.

Rocky thought to himself.

Everyone in the tent was observing the warden, and he was no exception, but unlike the others, he scrutinized the warden with a different kind of attention.

The main reason was to see if this guy might be the "Miss Ring Finger," since there was a precedent of tongues, so that Rocky would know that the gender in Paradise might not correspond to the gender in reality.

So, it is known that Miss Ring Finger is from the Land of Contracts and is very powerful.

The warden is also from the Land of Contracts, and is equally powerful.

Is it possible that they are the same person? After all, with chains wrapped around their bodies, it's really hard to tell their gender.

Of course, as of now, Rocky still hasn't been able to find anything in common between the warden and that ring-finger lady; all he can say is that the difference between the two is indeed quite large.

“Vesas is dead, but his power continues to roam the earth,” the warden said. “Since we cannot completely erase his existence, we must at least prevent his power from gathering again. This is the purpose of this gathering. As you can see, the obedience of the Heavenly Voice has been arranged. We only need to input a name into it to eliminate the threat. But I did not expect that such a simple matter could still cause such a change.”

The warden's gaze fell on Rocky, making Rocky feel like he was being pricked by thorns.

"The intelligence was initially provided by Rhine, who requested the execution of a traitor named Uru, and stated that there were at least four pieces of his body," the warden said calmly. "But now, you want to change the name?"

At this moment, Rocky regretted coming to this gathering.

I initially thought he was here to demonstrate the greatness of the next Pope of the Rhine to all sides, but now it seems more like he's here to take the blame and be scolded.

If things go wrong here, won't that old codger Rango push all the blame onto him? But he didn't gather this intelligence himself.

Despite having many complaints he wanted to voice, Rocky knew that he had to bear the consequences himself, as he represented Rhine's reputation.

“When we submitted the information, we should have mentioned that this was just our deduction, right?” Rocky said, forcing a smile. “We only know that four body parts have been lost. In such a short time, we would naturally assume that the person who did it was one person, namely Uru. Of course, we would not have thought that he had accomplices.”

"Accomplices?" the warden asked. "How do you know they're accomplices?"

Rocky was startled.

Oh no, I forgot that the information that the tongue, hands, and eyes are accomplices came from Peach Blossom Village, and these guys in front of me don't know that.

Think of a solution quickly! Think of a solution quickly!

Rocky's mind raced.

Got it!

“Because I saw that person with my own eyes.” Loki spoke slowly. “Patriarch Fenris can testify to this. I fought with the body part holder, and he told me that he had cooperated with Uru to obtain the body part, but was ultimately betrayed by Uru.”

The warden looked at Fenris, who nodded slightly: "Yes, I can attest that Bishop Rocky did indeed encounter such a person."

“I need to know his identity, not a vague description of ‘this kind of person’,” the warden said.

“He has many names,” Loki said in a deep voice, “because he comes from the Holy Sound and is the one who created the Holy Sound’s catastrophe. Just the names I know include Caesar, Hevinia…”

After these words, the representatives of Shengyin and Tianqin both looked up.

"The Seven-Tone Player?" The warden tapped the table lightly, then turned to look at the representative of the Holy Sound. "What did the Holy Sound say?"

“I don’t know more than Bishop Rocky.” The Holy Voice representative’s face was grim. “The only one who knows the whole story should be Principal Ulysses, but he’s dead.”

“I see.” The warden then turned his gaze to Ina. “What about the representative of the Lyre? As far as I know, it’s not just the Holy Sound that has suffered such a dramatic change.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have much information either,” Ina said. “In fact, we don’t even know which body part was missing. If it weren’t for Rhine’s report, we wouldn’t even know we ever had such a body part, because it was never in our possession. Perhaps someone did know, but they perished along with that upheaval.”

"So, to put it another way, we still don't know who the other person is, or how many body parts there are, is that what you mean?" the warden said. "In that case, which name should we enter in the Heavenly Voice's submission field? Caesar, Hevinia, or Uru? Can any of you tell me the answer?"

The atmosphere in the meeting instantly became tense under the warden's questioning.

It wasn't until the representative of the Underworld spoke up: "Can't we just input them all in?"

The warden looked at the representative of the Underworld and said, "The obedience of the Heavenly Voice will erase all beings in this world who have any knowledge of the name of the person who entered it. A single name can take the lives of thousands of people, which is why activating it requires the consent of the eight major churches... You actually want to enter three names at the same time?"

"Is there a problem?" The representative from the Underworld scratched his head. "Isn't it a good thing to let more people embrace death?"

Everyone fell silent.

Finally, the warden spoke up: "You're going a bit too far. We didn't intend to send so many people to see the Lord of the Underworld, and the Heavenly Voice's obedience can't input that many names; it needs energy."

“But…” the representative from the Underworld was about to speak.

"Alright," the warden interrupted him. "As far as I know, Mingtu has no connection with those two, so refrain from speaking for now and just listen."

The representative of the underworld then shut up.

Rocky was puzzled by the warden's attitude toward the representatives of the Underworld.

The warden was extremely oppressive to the representatives of other churches, like a superior looking down on a subordinate, but he did not have such pressure when facing the representatives of the underworld.

Why is that?
Rocky was a little puzzled, but he didn't show it; he just silently kept it in mind.

After circling around, the warden, perhaps realizing that only Rhine could provide valuable information at the moment, turned his attention back to Rocky. "What are the body parts that the Seven-Tone Player possessed?" the warden asked.

"Tongue, ears, teeth."

"Three pieces of body parts?"

"Yes."

The warden stared at Loki: "How did you know? He used all of these rules in his fight with you?"

No, actually he didn't use any of them. Those three pieces of body parts were what Rocky found in Peach Blossom Village.

Rocky knew that pointing out the three body parts directly would be suspicious, but how could he make the warden realize the seriousness of the problem if he didn't point them out?

So he said without changing his expression, "No, he told me that himself."

"He told you himself?" the warden asked. "Why would he reveal his secret like that?"

“Because he’s an arrogant man.” Rocky had already come up with a reason. “And he wanted to psychologically break me down. When our fight was at its most intense, he told me that he had three pieces of his body and that I could never defeat him, and that I should give up as soon as possible.”

"What was the outcome of that battle?"

"Let's go fifty-fifty."

"He used parts of the corpse to fight you to a standstill?"

"...Alright, a narrow defeat."

The warden ignored Rocky and instead looked at Fenris, who was also present, wanting to verify the information.

Fenris nodded: "I can attest that Bishop Rocky's defeat was indeed a pity. If he could have held on a little longer, we could have gone to help him."

Rocky's eyelids twitched.

Damn it, that's not what I meant by a close loss, you bastard!
Rocky barely suppressed the urge to curse.

"So, the detailed information you have about that Seven-Tone Player came from him himself?" the warden asked calmly. "Let's assume he's telling the truth. That means no one ever got more than four pieces of the body. This Seven-Tone Player got three pieces, and that Uru got two?"

Rocky sensed the sarcasm in the warden's words, and he knew why.

In fact, over the past thousand years, there have been instances of individuals possessing multiple body parts, but most of them were disposed of internally by various churches.

Some of these were two pieces of corpse, while others were three, but most of them didn't cause much of a stir. This is why Rhine, even knowing that Uru likely already possessed three pieces of corpse, still wanted to handle it himself; at least historically, this was feasible and had never escalated to the point where the Land of Contracts had to intervene.

The reason this alarmed the Contract Land was that, from their perspective, an unprecedented number of holders of four body parts had appeared and caused such a huge incident that Rhine's individual attempts to handle the situation had repeatedly failed, forcing them to report it to the Contract Land.

But now it seems that the four owners of the body parts did not exist at all, there was only one three and one two, so the warden has reason to question how the various churches managed to get to this point.

Although looking back now, it seems absurd that Hand, Eye and Tongue alone could turn a bunch of churches upside down, the warden's condescending tone made Rocky uncomfortable. So, he unusually hardened up and said to the warden, "There's no point in dwelling on the reasons now. We should think about what to do next."

“Of course, that’s the purpose of this gathering,” the warden said calmly. “Now, only the final step is needed: I need a name. I originally thought the name would be Hevinia or Caesar, but now it seems that things have changed again?”

...Here it comes, the most crucial thing has arrived.

Everyone looked at the warden, and as expected, the warden slowly spoke.

"Tell me, what's the story behind Isaiah of the Star Remnant?"

……

Standing behind Ina, Bai Wei was also quietly observing the warden.

This is a character that does not exist in the main game, so this is the first time Bai Wei has seen him.

Bai Wei found him very strange, not at all human, giving off a chaotic feeling. The chains on his body also carried sealing power, which could block Bai Wei's observation to a certain extent. Although Bai Wei could use his gaze to forcefully see through him, he was likely to be detected, so he did not do so.

In fact, it wasn't just the warden who made Bai Wei feel confused; whether it was the messenger from the underworld or the knight of the Twin Forms, they all gave Bai Wei a non-human feeling.

Bai Wei knew what kind of people Mingtu and Shuangyi were; to some extent, they had indeed transcended the realm of humanity.

So what about the warden? What is he? In the Land of Contracts, the warden is equivalent to the Pope, and even Diana the Ring Finger is his subordinate. So what is his strength, and how does he compare to Isaiah?
It seems we need to find a way to probe him first, since Bai Wei can't get rid of this guy if he wants to get his body back.

Hmm, how about we think of a way to get him to come and meet Isaiah?

Just as Bai Wei was pondering, the explanation of Isaiah had ended, so he also turned his attention back to being an inconspicuous follower.

"You say Isaiah killed the seven-tone player," the warden said slowly, "but you have no evidence, you haven't even seen the body. How can you expect me to believe you?"

“Isn’t it obvious?” Loki said. “Besides that Seven-Tone Player, who else could fight him to that extent? Saying it’s some unknown black market merchant, don’t you think that’s a lame excuse? Also, last night wasn’t the Night of Immaculates. Logically speaking, a Star Remnant sorcerer relying on the stars should never be able to unleash that kind of power, but Isaiah did it.”

"Do you think he relied on the power of the corpse parts?"

“It’s obvious,” Rocky said. “It’s precisely because he knows how powerful the body parts are that he would take such a risk to steal them and come up with such a lame excuse.”

Before coming, Rocky had mentally rehearsed his impeachment of Isaiah several times to ensure its success, emphasizing that it was well-reasoned and irrefutable.

The warden did not refute this; after a brief silence, he raised his head and looked at the messenger from the underworld.

"Messenger of the underworld, I would like to hear your opinion."

Want to hear his opinion?
Rocky's brows furrowed immediately.

What does this have to do with him?
Just as Rocky was about to ask a question, the warden's next words left him stunned.

"After all, you are people who have seen Vesas with your own eyes."

(End of this chapter)