Don't force me to use my right fist.

The middle-aged man named Rum narrowed his eyes and placed his hand on his forehead.

"Go and take care of him. If necessary, killing him outright is also acceptable." After giving the order to Ruo Qingjiu, Langmu then looked at Shirley, who was watching Qingjiu with concern.

“Shirley will be coming with you this time. She's more experienced in this area and can take care of you. Don't let me down, okay?” Wihl

"Understood. Don't worry, Boss Rum. With me here, he won't cause any trouble." After both of them indicated that there were no problems, Rum waved to them, signaling them to go back first. Qingjiu walked out of the office with a cold face, but felt a strange sense of unease in her heart.

"Hey Kurosawa, stop with the long face. If you're in a bad mood, I'll treat you to drinks after we're done with this mission, okay?" wihl

The red-haired woman put her arm around Qingjiu's shoulder and called her by her nickname.

They've been working together for many years and are old friends. When there are no outsiders around, there aren't many rules and regulations.

"No, I'm just a little worried. I need to go to the catalog to check." Qingjiu shook her head and refused her suggestion. Now is not the time to celebrate after things are done. Ensuring everything goes smoothly is what a team leader should do.

Okay, I'll go prepare the weapons for then. Remember to come early, we'll ride in the same car later.

Seeing that he was still so rigid, Shirley didn't pay too much attention to it. After greeting him, she slowly left.

Qingjiu, on the other hand, used her authority to open a series of doors guarded by multiple layers of people, and finally arrived in front of a strange book.

INDEX. Respond to me.

Qingjiu skillfully called out to Ruo, who was regarded as the most important core book of the winery, and stood in place waiting for Ruo.

"What is it?"

A girl dressed as a nun projected herself from the book and stood in front of Qingjiu.

"I need specific information about this anomaly, and ideally, I'd also like corresponding countermeasures. This information should be available online, right?"

She placed the documents she had obtained from Rum in front of the projected girl and asked coldly.

"This is the analysis I received. The solutions have been noted: silver weapons and crosses are effective against it."

"Are there any other precautions?"

Qingjiu frowned; that familiar headache was back. "This is all the information you've given me, and this is the only conclusion you can draw based on it."

The girl's projected, emotionless eyes looked at Qingjiu and gently shook her head.

"Then, if this monster..."

Qingjiu shook his head. Just as he was about to leave, a word suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Dead Apostle.” Accompanied by a sharp pain, Qingjiu uttered the name. The girl who stood there watching Ruo leave had a flash of white light in her eyes before slowly answering his question.

"If the one you're referring to is a Dead Apostle, add a new clause to the original advice: Absolutely no injury." She then replied to Qingjiu, who had turned back, before her projection gradually became transparent and disappeared in front of the heavy ancient book. "I must explain this to my subordinates, otherwise, something terrible will definitely happen."

Although he didn't know why he had such thoughts, Qingjiu became increasingly anxious. This feeling was just like something he had experienced before.

Chapter 128 What Happened Before

"What are you doing in such a hurry? I've never seen you look so flustered before."

When Qingjiu came to his senses, he was already standing in front of a somewhat gloomy villa. Shirley was standing next to him, and behind them stood four winery teams, each consisting of three people.

"No, I have something to say."

Qingjiu and Xueli exchanged a glance. Just as they were about to speak, warning her that the strangeness here was definitely not as simple as they imagined, they suddenly forgot what they were going to say.

Shirley frowned and examined the pistol loaded with silver bullets.

"Be careful." Qingjiu stood there stunned. After thinking for a long time and forgetting something very important, he could only instruct her while rubbing his temples.

"Do you even need to tell me? I've noticed that ever since Vodka took leave, you've been acting strangely. You're not so much dependent on that guy, are you?" Shirley rolled her eyes at Qingjiu, thinking he was about to say something, and tossed him a cross amulet.

"With Vodka in the wings, it's better for us to take charge of on-site command. Leave the rest to the combat teams."

Shirley instructed Ruo's team to stand guard at the entrance. She then directed the other three teams into the house, which Ruo found extremely eerie. Qingjiu skillfully produced a tablet computer, displaying an aerial view of the entire house and green dots representing Ruo's team members.

"Squads A and B provide cover for searching the first floor. Squads guard the stairwells. Squad D keeps a close watch on the windows and rooftop, preventing anything from coming out." Harujiu, now fully focused, directed each of the distillery's combat squads in their search. Shirley, standing nearby, nodded in satisfaction. This was the Kurosawa she knew; he was incredibly cool when he was working. The members of each squad followed Harujiu's commands, carefully searching the entire floor, leaving no potentially suspicious hiding place unchecked.

Soon, the first floor was thoroughly searched by the three teams, and nothing unusual was found.

"Explore the second floor, be careful of the rooms and the rooftop." Qingjiu's expression grew increasingly serious, a sense of unease surrounding him making him feel somewhat flustered.

Normally, searching for such strange creatures should be easy. These creatures generally don't suppress their bloodthirsty urges, so logically, it should already be ready to attack. But as Qingjiu thought this, she looked at the flashing green dot on the screen and fell into deep thought. Could it be that it already knew about the distillery's actions and had evacuated from here?

For some reason, Harujiu felt relieved, but then she was horrified to discover that, almost in the instant she was distracted, the green dot representing the squad had suddenly disappeared from the tablet.

"Squad A? Please respond. What happened?"

Qingjiu, who immediately tried to contact the missing squad via headset, frowned. Sure enough, something bad had happened. There was only static in the microphone. Qingjiu quickly switched to the voice chat of the other two squads.

"Squad A has lost contact. Be alert, it might be an anomaly. Prioritize turning." Seeing the two squads separated only by a corridor on the tablet, Qingjiu calmly directed them. The two heavily armed distillery squads decisively obeyed Qingjiu's orders and quickly moved towards each other.

After that, Qingjiu heard desperate screams coming through her earpiece.

One by one, the green dots on the tablet disappeared, and before ten seconds had passed, silence returned to the headset.

"Squad D, get in the car, let's get out of here!"

Without time to communicate via earpiece, Qingjiu, who had already leaned out of the car, could no longer maintain his aloof demeanor and loudly warned the last squad guarding the entrance.

The strangeness here is far more complex than the intelligence they received; it exceeds the capabilities of a typical distillery combat team. Executioners must be deployed. In fact, using that one might not be out of the question.

"I'll drive."

Although Shirley, who had been protecting Harujiu the whole time, didn't know what had happened, she could tell from Harujiu's distraught expression that something had definitely happened that they couldn't handle in their current situation. In any case, it was best to escape from here now.

Qingjiu and Xue Li had just gotten back into the car when the screams of the remaining members of the squad reached their ears through the car window. Qingjiu, her heart bleeding, glanced at Xue Li beside her.

"Drive it to the suburbs, away from crowded areas."

While rapidly sending her location and other available information to the others using the distillery's dedicated communication device, Harujiu drew her pre-prepared silver pistol and spoke. The engine roared, and the car, which should have been speeding away, let out a mournful groan. Harujiu turned around and, through the rear window, saw a pair of eyes stained crimson with blood.

A monster resembling a giant, standing wolf grabbed the rear of the car, firmly controlling it under its claws. "Damn it!"

Without hesitation, she knocked on the door of the car, even though she knew it might not be useful. She cursed and pushed open the car door next to her.

"You go first, I'll hold him off." whl said as if making this choice would change something.

However, Shirley gave him a hearty laugh, raised her beautiful leg, and kicked him out with her foot.

"I'm not as pitiful as you."

Sherry slammed on the gas pedal and reversed, dragging the monster that was still pulling on the back of the car with her into the wall of the house.

Qingjiu, who had fallen to the ground, turned around and saw the scene of the woman who always liked to wear a white coat being pierced through the chest by that monster.

"No! Shirley!"

Desperate, he raised his pistol and pulled the trigger on the strange creature that was walking towards him, trying to stop it from devouring the woman's corpse in its hand.

Just then, a strange purple fluctuation appeared in the sky, and a strange creature fell from the sky like a meteorite, crashing directly into the area where Qingjiu and the others were. The enormous impact caused Qingjiu to instantly lose consciousness. In her last moments of unconsciousness, she saw a figure, seemingly composed entirely of cubes, rise from the dust. And from its cube-like eyes, a dazzling white light, like that of stars, emanated.

Chapter 129 Human Hearts

The dream continues.

Rather, Harujiu's nightmare had only just begun.

He quickly regained consciousness and suddenly found himself lying on a hospital bed in the winery. Separated from him by a glass partition was Shirley, who had already woken up.

What just happened?

When Qingjiu woke up, she looked at the girl opposite her who should have been dead long ago, and the surprise on her face could not be completely concealed no matter what.

"I guess it was some strange thing that suddenly appeared out of the sky? The two guys probably fought to the death. Anyway, by the time our people arrived, all that was left at the scene was the body of that Dead Apostle. Hmm, there were some other interesting loot items that they also collected."

The woman separated from Qingjiu had strange iron chains binding her hands and feet. Qingjiu knew very well that they were newly developed prototype Heaven's Locks used to restrain the strange creatures.

"What's wrong with you now? Shouldn't you be..."

Qingjiu frowned. He had watched with his own eyes as Wanli was pierced through the chest and died while trying to save him. How could she be standing alive and well in front of him like this?

"I don't know anything about this either. In fact, I feel exceptionally good right now; I've never felt so energetic." Stretching, the woman wasn't frustrated by her constraints. Instead, she gave Qingjiu a cheerful smile and comforted him.

"The reason is simple: she's become a weirdo now."

A projection of a girl in a nun's habit walked through the wall and sat down next to Qingjiu, explaining something. Behind her, Rum, who had arrived late, looked at Shirley across from him with a sad expression, sighed, and shook his head.

"That dead apostle was almost at the level of a true ancestor, and by sheer coincidence, Shirley's corpse was stained with the blood flowing from that dead apostle's corpse, which naturally led to the birth of the girl who now states the facts to Harujiu with a blank expression. She points her finger at the bound Shirley."

"In other words, Sherry, as a human, is dead. This is merely a strange inheritance of her memories and appearance." Rum picked up where Index left off, announcing the distillery's decision.

"What a joke! That's Shirley! She saved me! You're telling me she's a monster and I have to kill her?" Qingjiu stood up from the hospital bed, shouting loudly despite his wounds. How could he possibly accept this ending? The person opposite him was clearly the Shirley he knew, from her appearance to her tone of voice, even her habit of clasping her hands tightly when nervous—they were completely identical.

"It's alright, Ze. I'm also a member of the distillery. We've known this principle since the moment we entered the distillery. I've had this awareness for a long time."

Shirley gave Qingjiu and the others a poignant smile. Having listened to everything they said, she lowered her head and moved closer to the corner of the wall.

"So, just because she's an anomaly means she has to be eliminated, even if she possesses a human heart?"

Seeing Ruo Xueli's actions, Qingjiu turned around and questioned the two people in front of her.

"The birth of the bizarre requires a combination with the malice of the world. Even a human heart will be corrupted sooner or later because of this."

The Forbidden Book Index's gaze remained calm and unwavering.

"The one who saved you was her as a human, not the one you are now."

"That bet is on a person!"

"I share the same thought as you. I've always treated Shirley like a daughter, so perhaps we could temporarily imprison her, just like we imprisoned Tomie and Dio."

"I think you'll understand what we're doing, right, Sherry?"

Looking at Shirley, who had stopped talking, Rum explained why he hadn't eliminated her immediately but waited until Qingjiu woke up.

"Of course I have no objection. It would be even better if you could let me continue my research. But now is definitely not the time to think about that. I will definitely cooperate with you. I want to prove to the catalog that I am a person of integrity and not a weirdo."

Shirley wiped away her tears, stood up, and greeted Ruo and the others with a renewed, energetic smile.

"Yes, the human heart can absolutely overcome the supernatural. As long as there is emotion, even the supernatural will have a kind side."

Qingjiu muttered to himself, he also wanted to prove this point.

"I've already warned you about the dangers of the Dead Apostles. If my advice is challenged, you'll bear the consequences yourselves." Index Books shook its head and vanished into thin air once more.

Qingjiu glanced at the seemingly vanished Catalogue of Forbidden Books, then at Shirley who was urging her to lie down and not reopen her wounds, and silently made up her mind.