Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 480: Visit, Kasiwo Village

Riding Pegasus, Luo Xiu slowly descended to the ground of Cassivo Village.

He was in a hidden state at this time with his spiritual aura restrained, and his final landing location was on the edge of Kasiwo Village, so he did not alarm the local villagers.

When Luo Xiu landed on the ground, he called back the "Golden Pegasus". At the same time, he had changed his appearance and put on the luxurious clothes popular among the nobles in the town. He smoothed the folds on his robe and walked along the cobblestone road towards the village of Cassivo.

The village of Kasiwo in the town of Rhines is indeed a quiet and peaceful village.

The sun penetrated the thin clouds, sprinkled on the thatched roofs, and splashed golden light; the stone houses were arranged in an orderly manner, and the smoke from cooking rose up and diffused in the morning air.

Kasiwo Village was indeed very small. In Luo Xiu's previous investigation of this small village, there were only about 40 households in the entire Kasiwo Village, and most of them were farmers.

On both sides - golden ridges of fields are connected by canals, the wind blows the wheat waves down one after another, and a few children are running in the fields, their laughter and the sound of the wind have completely blended together.

As for the adults in Kasiwo Village, most of them were working in the fields at the moment. April was a good season for sowing. The fields in Kasiwo Village had two sowing and ripening times a year. The wheat seeds sown now would be harvested in August or September.

At that time, the harvested wheat will be pulled to the town of Rhines by ox cart and sold. When the harvest is average, it can be sold for a few gold coins, and when the harvest is good, it can be sold for more than ten gold coins, which can allow a family to have enough food and clothing for several months.

Luo Xiu was admiring the scenery of Kasiwo Village while thinking about these things in his heart.

And when he entered the village of Kasiwo, a "noble" dressed more gorgeously than most people, he easily attracted the attention of the villagers.

Soon, a villager came up and asked Luo Xiu tentatively:
"You are from... this town?"

The villager who greeted Luo Xiu had a wrinkled face and was wearing coarse cloth. He was an old man around eighty or ninety years old.

"What are you doing in our village?"

"…The mayor's men? We have already paid the land tax at the beginning of the year…Or the grain merchant's men? Then please go back and tell Master Desa that the price of half a copper coin per pound of wheat can't be lowered any lower…"

"..."

The old man kept asking Luo Xiu these questions. Perhaps it was the clothes he was wearing that aroused some vigilance. Luo Xiu could clearly feel that when the old man was asking him questions, the eyes of people around him were more vigilant.

This is normal. Luo Xiu smiled calmly and responded to the old man in front of him gently:

"I'm just here to see the sights, old man."

"I just came to see the countryside here. I like the countryside here."

As he said this, his gentle attitude did indeed make the old man in front of him relax a little. Feeling the vigilant eyes around him gradually soften, Luo Xiu continued to say to the old man in front of him:

"By the way, I want to look for some 'holy sites'."

"To be honest, I am a fan of looking for this kind of 'divine miracles'. I have heard that a 'glorious' 'bishop' was born here. Alfonso Durant, I want to look for traces of the bishop's former residence."

"..."

"Oh...are you here to visit the Durant family too?"

The old man's brows suddenly relaxed. He had obviously experienced this kind of thing many times before. He slowly said to Luo Xiu:

"Then you'll probably be disappointed. The Durant family no longer exists. Decades ago, Aqua Durant contracted the plague and died, and the Durant family became extinct."

"..."

Is the Durant family extinct?
That "Aqua Durant"...is that Bishop Alfonso's brother, or the next generation?
After the old man finished speaking, Luo Xiu's mind raced with thoughts about these things -

But there was no extra emotion on his face, just a little regretful, but he still asked the old man without giving up:

"I see... Could you tell me more about Bishop Alfonso?"

"..."

"We did have a bishop in our village of Kasiwo."

The old man nodded, stroked his sparse beard, and said:
"'Alfonso Durant'. When I was young, I heard the villagers often talk about him. I heard that he had a bad relationship with everyone in the village, but later he was spotted by the town priest and taken away... and later he became a bishop."

"I envy you... I didn't experience that time myself. I heard that during that time, the village of Cassivo did become prosperous because Alfonso became the 'bishop'."

"The Holy See gave us a lot of food and money. We didn't have to work anymore and could live a good life. But unfortunately, this kind of life didn't last long..."

"I heard that something happened to Alfonso Durant later."

"We don't know what happened. We only know that during that period, all kinds of people came into the village. Some of them would break into our house violently, eager to dig out something. Some of them were just like you, asking questions... Later, even the 'Attorney General' in Sina City sent people down."

"Several knights rushed into the village, burned the Durant family's house to ruins, and took all the Durant family members back into custody."

"They never came back—except Aqua. Aqua Durant, Alfonso's brother's child, escaped when the knights of the Attorney General came into the village, as he and the other children were gathering firewood in the hills."

"Aqua later hired someone to rebuild the house, but the child also died... This town master, you may not know that Aqua was probably scared to death because the house was always haunted... People always say that the house was cursed by the wronged spirits of the Durant family, and it is still like this now."

"In the past few years, people often asked us about 'Alfonso Durant', but recently it has become less common. Perhaps it is because of the war, and we have no time to deal with these trivial matters that have been going on for hundreds of years..."

"..."

The old man finished speaking.

There was a hint of sadness and nostalgia on his face. Looking at the young man in front of him who was dressed exquisitely, he thought that after hearing all this, the young man should go back.

But Luo Xiu did not leave. He just nodded and thanked the old man:
"I see. Thank you for telling me this, old man."

"This is indeed something I have never heard of... But I still want to go and see it. Where is the old house that Durant's family burned down that you mentioned?"

"..."

"……Um?"

The old man was a little surprised. There was some confusion in his eyes when he looked at Luo Xiu. He didn't understand why the young man in front of him was so persistent and insistent.

Out of kindness, the old man still reminded earnestly:

"Didn't you hear what I said, young master? The Durant family's house is cursed! I really don't recommend you go there... We also asked the town's clergy to take a look, but even the clergy didn't find anything and just told us not to touch the house..."

"If we could tear it down, we would have done it long ago! But the current bishop of the Sina City Church has issued an order that the house must be preserved... maybe for remembrance. The bishop comes here in person every year to, um, pay tribute."

"Hmm... this is strange. It seems that this year... the bishop has not come here? It's obviously past the usual time..."

"In short, young master, you'd better not go there." "..."

After the old man finished reminding him of this, he also noticed that the young man in front of him did not seem to want to retreat.

In the old man's eyes, he looked at the young man opposite him, who had already reached into his arms and took out three gold coins.

……

Luo Xiu held the old man's right hand with his left hand, and pressed the three gold coins he took out into the old man's palm with his right hand.

Then, under the old man's somewhat surprised gaze, he loosened his hand that was holding the old man's right hand.

The old man's right hand naturally clenched after Luo Xiu let go of his hand.

He narrowed his eyes at the same time, looked at Luo Xiu meaningfully, and after a long sigh, he said:
"Go if you want to. Alas... I'm stopping you in vain."

"Follow this stone road and go straight into the village. Turn right at the end. It's a rough dirt road."

"About halfway through the walk, there is a ruin on the left. That is the Durant family's house. Because of what happened in the past, no one in the village dared to go there, and no one cared about it, so it was left there for decades."

"Go ahead. If anything happens there, don't blame me for not warning you..."

"..."

"Well, thank you." Luo Xiu nodded to the old man to express his gratitude.

He then took out two gold coins from his arms and stuffed them into the old man's hand under the old man's astonished gaze. Then, he walked along the road the old man mentioned towards the ruins of Durant's house.

He could feel that as he walked towards his destination, the eyes staring at him from behind were becoming more and more frequent, but also getting farther and farther away from him.

No one followed him, and the villagers of Kasiwo just regarded this as an episode in their peaceful life.

……

Walking all the way towards the destination.

At the same time, Luo Xiu was thinking about what the old man had just said, and the new information he had obtained about Bishop Alfonso Durant.

After Bishop Alfonso was handed over to the Supreme by the Holy See, many forces, both overt and covert, came here to explore the matter about Alfonso Durant;
But they found nothing - which meant that there was probably nothing in the Durant family's old house. Or it might have been hidden in some way, and hidden very well.

That "Aqua Durant" was the child of Bishop Alfonso's younger brother. It was said that he escaped when the Supreme was hunting down the Durant family, but later died of the plague;

As for later on - the incident involving "Alfonso Durant" had subsided a little, and "Akya Durant" came back and rebuilt the old house.

Why did he come back? The village of Kasiwo should not have been safe at that time - but at least Aqua Durant lived for a while and died of the "plague" decades ago.

Luo Xiu thought about this. From the old man's words, we can know that the former Bishop Alfonso Durant was indeed quite influential at the time - and later Bishop Fabian would come to Kasiwo Village to pay homage to him every year. The old bishop should have come simply to pay homage...

In his previous interactions with Bishop Fabion, Rossio knew that although Bishop Fabion agreed with the Holy See and called Bishop Alfonso a "blasphemous" bishop, the old bishop and Priest Leonard respected and admired Alfonso from the bottom of their hearts.

Including the fact that Bishop Fabion preserved the Durant family's old house under some name.

It might be to investigate something, but more likely, Bishop Fabion just wanted to leave something behind.

……

"..."

Thinking about this, Luo Xiu had already followed the old man's instructions and arrived at his destination.

He is now on the hillside surrounded by two barren slopes - the old house of "Durant's Family" is built here.

What came into Luo Xiu's sight was indeed a rather dilapidated house.

It was a house the size of a manor, with vines climbing all over the four walls and deep traces of water and wind erosion.

There was a collapsed stone wall covered with moss around them, and the stone slabs that were embedded in the middle could still be vaguely seen. Luo Xiu stepped on the stone slabs and heard a "creaking, creaking" sound from under his feet, which was the sound of the accumulated water being squeezed.

The dilapidated door was half open and creaking. Luo Xiu had arrived at the ruins of the old house, opened his "spiritual vision", and radiated his spiritual perception outward.

He could indeed feel that there was a faint remnant of spirituality lingering and wandering around, guiding him deeper into the abandoned house.

Luo Xiu then stepped in.

As soon as you step into the house, the rotten wooden boards make a dull sound; the interior is dark and damp, with only a few rays of sunlight shining into this dim space through the broken windows.

On the mottled walls, fragments of past murals can be seen from time to time. A four-cornered table has unstable legs and the fire in the fireplace has long gone out - there is nothing here. Only a blank silence lingers here.

The air was filled with soot that made one's nose itch, mixed with damp, decayed and moldy smells. Luo Xiuwei held his breath, and only followed the guidance of the spirit through his "spiritual vision" to go deeper into the abandoned building.

——Bang!

Suddenly, a dim red flame burst out from the rusty lamp on the side of the wall!

The flame was flickering, twisting and trembling abnormally, and it was changing shape - changing into a shape like a "ghost"!

…No, that’s not right.

That's not a "ghost".

That is the spiritual body of the Supreme!

“I smell…”

Amid the burning fire of the "spiritual body," a low, overlapping voice emanated:

"The taste of Durant's blood..."

"what……"

"Thirteenth... Durant..."

"..."