A priest in North America, what the hell is the Demon Gate system?

"Allen?"

There was no response, only the rustling of the water stirring the aquatic plants at the bottom of the lake and the gurgling of bubbles.

Li Ang immediately tried to sense the blood shield talisman. The connection between the talisman and his divine sense was not broken, but its location had become very blurry, and he could not sense its specific location.

"The blood shield rune wasn't triggered, which means the person is currently safe," Li Ang quickly analyzed in his mind.

He looked down at the tracking compass in his hand; the pointer was still pointing in the same direction as before, towards a more dense patch of aquatic plants in the distance.

The clump of aquatic plants grew in a depression at the bottom of the lake, thick and dense, with its green leaves swaying gently with the current.

"The guy who kidnapped Allen will likely take him back to his lair, and those missing lads must be there too." Li Ang put away his compass and walked towards the patch of water plants.

The water here is quite deep, probably over 30 meters, and the sunlight is gradually fading.

Li Ang waved his hand, and the water flow parted the water plants. The water plants were so dense that it was impossible to see anything inside, but this did not hinder Li Ang's divine sense from scanning.

"Hmm...as expected."

Li Ang quickly discovered a hole, about 1.5 meters in diameter, with no bottom in sight.

Li Ang took out a powerful flashlight from his storage ring, pressed the switch, and the beam of light pierced the darkness, illuminating the inner wall of the cave entrance. Some aquatic plants at the entrance were broken, clearly indicating that something had been there.

"Another Secret Garden..." Li Ang muttered, bending down and crawling inside.

The cave passage sloped downwards. Li Ang walked forward with his flashlight, the light reflecting an eerie oily sheen onto the inner walls. Some broken seaweed reappeared on the cave walls, clearly indicating that Li Ang had not made a mistake.

After walking about twenty meters, the tunnel suddenly opened up, and Li Ang stopped and swept his flashlight beam across the front.

It's a fairly large cave with an irregular shape. The cave ceiling is three or four meters above the ground. There's basically no aquatic vegetation here anymore, since normally there's no sunlight here.

But what's amazing is that it's not dark here; instead, it glows with a bluish light. And once you enter this cave, all the water is blocked by some kind of magical light membrane, and there is actually air inside!

In the center of the cave... three figures were huddled together.

To be precise, it also carried a stone.

"Hey! Look over there!" one of the tall boys shouted.

Three burly young men, wearing Uldum High School football jackets, huddled together next to a bluish-gray rock, though they looked somewhat malnourished and had clearly not eaten in a long time.

The stone was about the size of two basketballs, and its surface texture naturally formed a female silhouette, so it seemed to be Jennifer.

Centered on the stone, a light blue film of light continuously emanated outwards, with fine water ripples flowing across its surface. Clearly, this was the thing that had separated the lake water.

"Who...who are you?" The young man in the lead took a half step back warily.

"St. Michael's Church, Father Leon." Leon's gaze swept over the three of them.

"We received a request from Alan Miller to rescue you."

"Allen?! That freak?"

"Watch your words, child," Li Ang said calmly, but with a hint of sternness.

"The freak you're talking about is now worried about your safety, and has even followed you here himself."

The three looked at each other, blushing slightly. "But...we even..."

"I know I bullied him, but we'll talk about that later. Tell me what happened first," Li Ang interrupted him.

The three exchanged glances, and the young man in the lead stepped forward and introduced himself one by one, speaking as if he were addressing his coach: "My name is Mark... the one with glasses is Josh, the one with long hair is Roddy... this is... Allen's girlfriend."

Li Ang nodded, signaling to continue.

Mark swallowed hard and began to recount what had happened that day.

That afternoon, the three of them went to the creek, intending only to prank Alan by drawing on his precious rock. But as soon as Mark and the others took out their pens, the rock started to glow.

Mark pointed at Jennifer: "It was that...blue light, and then it enveloped us all at once."

Josh chimed in, "We were terrified and were about to run when suddenly several tentacles flew up from underwater!"

Roddy gestured dramatically, "And it was incredibly fast, there was no time to react, and we were completely submerged!"

Mark nodded: "We thought we were going to drown...but..."

The three of them couldn't help but look at Jennifer.

A faint light shimmered on the stone's surface, and a soft female voice echoed in the cave, the sound penetrating directly into the mind:

"I protected them."

"Go on," Li Ang said.

"We soon arrived at the Sleeping Lake area, and to protect them, I released a little energy to stimulate the tentacles."

Mark quickly stepped forward: "Yes! Thanks to Jennifer! That guy just dropped us off, and we managed to hide here."

Just as Li Ang was about to ask something else, Jennifer's expression flickered slightly: "Father, where's Allen? Didn't he come with you?"

Li Ang paused for two seconds: "Sorry, he disappeared up there. I guess he was taken away by the same thing."

The cave was completely silent.

"So...so that guy is still outside?" Josh's voice trembled.

"Most likely, but at least Allen is alright now, I can assure you that," Li Ang said calmly.

Mark suddenly slammed his fist on the ground: "Damn it! We have to get him!"

Roddy and Josh couldn't help but look at him.

"What are you looking at?" Mark blushed slightly.

"That kid... that kid is strange, but at least he didn't abandon us when we were in trouble. He even found someone to rescue us. We treated him like that before..." His voice lowered.

Josh pushed up his glasses: "I agree, and... if something happens to Allen, even if we go back, we'll have a guilty conscience for the rest of our lives."

Roddy shrugged. "I have no problem with it. Staying here is just waiting to die anyway."

Li Ang looked at the three high school students. Just a few minutes ago they were calling them "freaks," but now they looked like they were about to charge into battle.

Teenage friendships are truly wonderful.

boom!!!

Suddenly, the entire cave shook!

Li Ang turned around abruptly, instantly condensing the Blood Fiend Finger. His divine sense could detect a powerful aura appearing nearby.

"That guy's here!"

Jennifer's expression flashed, and she immediately issued a warning.

"Father! What do we do! Do you have any guns or anything?!"

Mark cried out anxiously.

"Nonsense, even if we brought it, we wouldn't give it to you bunch of greenhorns... Besides, the Holy Judgment is clearly not suitable for dealing with this kind of guy."

Li Ang secretly complained, thinking that he would definitely have to get a purely offensive magic weapon later.

"Based on their description, this guy should be an octopus-like creature? Its tentacles are very fast, so a direct confrontation would obviously be disadvantageous. Besides, Allen's whereabouts are currently unknown; could he still be on this guy's person?"

Just as Li Ang was pondering and everyone else was hesitating, a soft and beautiful female voice suddenly came from outside the cave.

"Come forth, lost souls, I have no intention of harming you..."