Absolutely not to be burned at the stake

There was a clay pot and a leather bag.

Li Wei carefully opened the jar and looked inside. It contained a jar of acid, which looked quite corrosive, but probably not enough to dispose of the corpse.

A leather bag containing grayish-white powder labeled "corpse-dissolving powder." There were also several empty ceramic jars.

Corpse-dissolving powder!

Li Wei's eyes lit up. He carefully picked up the leather pouch and untied the drawstring. Inside was a fine, grayish-white powder with little to no smell.

He walked back to the body, checked the amount in his pocket, and then looked at Father Hansen's body. It should be enough.

Li Wei carefully used a wooden spoon to evenly sprinkle the powder onto the corpse, focusing on the wounds, head, chest, and abdomen.

The moment the powder came into contact with the flesh and blood of the wound, it made a faint hissing sound and emitted a thin, almost invisible wisp of white smoke.

Flesh and blood melted and decomposed at a visible speed, as if swallowed by an invisible flame, turning into a pool of yellowish-brown viscous liquid. Even the bones were rapidly softening and dissolving. The smell was somewhat pungent, similar to lime mixed with the smell of decay, but not strong, and was quickly masked by the smell of the cellar itself.

The whole process was quiet and swift. In just a few minutes, a complete corpse, along with its clothes, was completely reduced to a bubbling, viscous liquid no larger than a washbasin.

Li Wei felt a chill run down his spine. This corpse-dissolving powder was far too potent; if it were to work on living people as well, it would be even more terrifying.

He carefully collected the remaining powder, tied it tightly in his pocket—it was a valuable item.

Before long, the liquid seemed to lose its activity, stopped bubbling, and turned dark, like a puddle of mud.

Li Wei moved an empty wooden bucket from the side, shoveled the remnants into it, and mixed in some dust and debris to mask the smell and color. The bucket had a lid, which he closed, and pushed it behind a pile of miscellaneous items in the corner, making it temporarily unremarkable.

After doing all this, he carefully inspected the cellar again. He filled a basin with water, cleaned up the bloodstains, and swept up and disposed of the broken pieces of the ceramic bowl.

Everything in the cellar seemed to have returned to normal.

After finishing all this, Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief, but felt inexplicably tired.

There was no way around it; I had been under constant high tension, and only now, after relaxing a little, did I begin to feel waves of emptiness and powerlessness.

Looking around, Li Wei walked to the stone table and examined the bottles and jars on it. He put all the jars that were clearly for "Red Heat Ointment" and "Fire God's Mercy," along with the grinding tools, into an empty wooden box and pushed it to a corner. Only a few common, inconspicuous medicine bottles remained on the stone table.

Finally, Li Wei held his composite bow, looking slightly troubled. This thing was clearly no ordinary object; he needed to find a good place to hide it.

Before he could even finish his thought, the composite bow in his hand suddenly vanished.

"Well?"

Li Wei stared blankly at his suddenly empty palm.

It took me a while to realize what had happened, recalling how my consciousness had first returned to the real house. At that time, the bow was still on the bookshelf, and this composite bow could come and go as it pleased...

Could it be that they've gone back to their real house?

After thinking for a moment, Li Wei concentrated and spread his hand, and sure enough, the bow reappeared in his hand.

Li Wei was overjoyed. If it really had this function, could other things do the same?

After thinking for a moment, Li Wei, with a hint of nervousness, slowly opened his hands again after the bow disappeared once more.

But just as he was about to grab something else, everything went black before his eyes, his head spun, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

Fortunately, he managed to grab the stone table next to him, which prevented him from actually falling headfirst.

Holding onto the stone table, Li Wei could still faintly see golden stars before his eyes. After taking two deep breaths, he slowly recovered, and the golden stars in his eyes gradually faded away.

I felt a little dizzy, and there was a faint emptiness and pain between my eyebrows. The strange energy that had filled the area around the Holy Emblem seemed to have become somewhat empty.

"Is this because my mental energy is exhausted?"

Li Wei looked at his empty palm and realized that when his consciousness returned to the house in the real world, he hadn't stayed there for long before experiencing a similar reaction.

It seems to be related to mental strength; we need to take it slow.

Since there was no rush, Li Wei rested for a while and then carefully checked the cellar again.

The oil lamp in the cellar finally went out, plunging the cellar into darkness, with only a faint glimmer of light seeping through the crack in the door above the stairs.

It should be dawn by now.

Li Wei took one last look at the gloomy cellar, then turned around, walked up the stone steps, pushed open the wooden door, and returned to the first floor of the church.

In the corridor, the morning sun slanted in through the tall stained-glass windows, casting dappled patterns of light on the floor. Dust motes danced in the beams of light. The church was quiet, save for the faint sounds of the town in the distance: the crowing of roosters, the barking of dogs, the rumble of wheels on the cobblestone streets, and the sounds of people beginning their day's work.

A new day begins.

For Li Wei, a completely new world, full of unknowns and dangers, had begun.

"Live well! Perhaps... there's still hope of going back!"

Li Wei stood in the shadows of the corridor, looking at the entrance to the sanctuary ahead. He slowly straightened his back and adjusted his black priest's robe.

From this moment forward, he is Father Livy, the supreme theocratic representative of the Shadowtown diocese of the Alchemist Church.

He strode forward, his leather shoes making a clear and steady sound on the ancient stone slabs, toward the sanctuary, toward the pulpit, toward the holy emblem that hung silently.

He needs to prepare for today's work, support the daily operations of the church on his own, deal with the wolves that might pounce and tear him apart at any moment, and shepherd his flock.

The road is long and difficult.

But he has already taken the first step.

Li Wei walked to the door of the sanctuary, placed his hand on the cold oak door, and paused for a moment.

Then, he pushed open the door and went inside.

The sanctuary was as quiet as it had been the night before, except that sunlight streamed through the glass windows, making the entire sanctuary bright.

As was his daily routine, Li Wei cleaned up the remaining candles, then stood before the holy emblem, extended his right hand in the sacrament, and began to recite the Bible with focused concentration.

This was a passage he recited daily with Father Hansen, so he knew it very well. The only difference was that he was now standing in Father Hansen's usual spot, and...

As he recited the Bible, he could clearly sense that the holy emblem that had disappeared from his forehead was now reacting again, quietly emitting a cooling sensation that gradually soothed his head, which had been feeling slightly dizzy and throbbing.

He could even vaguely sense that a faint aura, imbued with a touch of holiness, was being injected into the Holy Emblem from the void, then flowing into his brow, slowly filling the emptiness within.

"Wow...this is good."

Sensing these effects, Li Wei's lips curled slightly. In his memory, the original owner of this Bible could recite it since childhood, and every Friday, he would come to church with his parents to receive the sacraments.

But the first time you experience the effects of reciting the Bible, that's when you feel it has such an effect.

As expected, the grace of the Alchemist God was not just about making him an apprentice divine mage. The holy emblem left behind also had extraordinary effects; at least... it seemed to be able to accelerate the recovery of his mental energy.

Just as Li Wei's dizziness and emptiness gradually subsided under the blessing of the holy emblem, extremely faint footsteps came from outside the Holy Hall.

Two footsteps, one heavy, one light; one steady, one hesitant. The footsteps paused briefly outside the door, as if they had spotted him praying, then became even more cautious, almost silent. Next, there was the soft sound of a bench being gently pressed down; the newcomer quietly sat down in the last row.

Standing beneath the sacred emblem, in this special state of perception, Li Wei's hearing seemed to become exceptionally acute.

He could even roughly sketch out the outline of a person in his mind from the rhythm and weight of their footsteps: one was slightly heavy and solid, the other was light but somewhat frivolous.

In an instant, the images of two people automatically appeared in my mind: Aunt Rena, the plump and devout seamstress from Shadow Town, and her youngest daughter, Remin.

Most of the other believers in town only showed up for Sunday service on Fridays. Only Aunt Rena, unless it was raining or snowing heavily, would bring her daughter to church almost every morning to join Father Hansen in the morning prayers.

However, today, Xiao Ruimin's footsteps... seemed a bit weaker and more sluggish than usual.