An infinite journey starting from paradise

He looked at a group of students gathered together. In the center of the group was Yuzumiya Tsuzuko, who seemed to be telling the students something.

"Wow, that guy is the biggest beneficiary of the school rule reform. He can tell stories as he pleases, is allowed to read the Bible and extracurricular books besides textbooks in school, and is even allowed to write novels in school."

Lin Shangren didn't stay here for long. He planned to go to the church to check whether Tsukishima Orihime had cleaned up her mess yesterday.

Suddenly, a figure in the corner of the playground caught his attention. It was Fuyuko Kuchiki, sitting at the side of the playground, facing her easel and drawing board, painting something.

"Are you sketching?"

Kuchiki Fuyuko happened to be sitting on the road that Lin Shangren had to take to get to the church, so Lin Shangren walked over to her.

"What are you drawing?"

Lin Shangren looked at the canvas curiously. There were only a few thin lines on the snow-white canvas, which could not even be called auxiliary lines. It had no resemblance to the surrounding scene.

"It doesn't look like a landscape painting. What is it?"

"Teacher, do you want to know?" Dongzi raised his head. "But I won't tell you... Or rather, I don't know what I'm drawing."

"You don't know either? That's quite ambiguous."

"Yeah, it's vague. I have a vague impression in my mind... just like me, constantly searching for myself, a vague existence."

Having said that, Dongzi put down his paintbrush.

“So…I’ve never been able to draw it.”

"Continuously searching for myself, a vague existence... This is exactly like what you asked me to do yesterday." Lin Shangren said, "Kuchiki-kun, does that commission you gave me yesterday still count? After all, you didn't explicitly cancel it yesterday, and I didn't explicitly refuse it either."

"Oh, that won't do, teacher."

"what?"

Dongzi said: "Dongzi, teacher, please call me Dongzi. I like this name better."

"Touko? I remember your deskmate is also called this. Won't it get confusing?" Lin Shangren asked.

"It doesn't matter, right?" Dongzi raised his head and looked into Lin Shangren's eyes.

"Fuyuko!"

An almost shrill shout came from the direction of the church.

Lin Shangren turned his head and saw a thin girl with messy hair running towards him.

"Mizuhara Touko, it's true that if you speak of the devil, he will appear."

"Mizuhara, is there anything wrong?" Lin Shangren asked.

But Touzi ignored Lin Shangren and ran to Dongzi and hugged her shoulders.

"Are you okay, Dongzi?"

"Don't worry, Touko, I'm just chatting with the teacher."

"but…"

Mizuhara Touko glanced at Hayashi Naoto, her eyes filled with hostility. Then, the obvious hostility dissipated and turned into indifference. She said to Hayashi Naoto in a rigid, mechanical voice, "...I am sorry, teacher."

"Well, that's okay. I'm not one of those old-fashioned people who care too much about etiquette."

Lin Shangren's tone was gentle, but the look he gave Mizuhara Toruko became noticeably sharper.

"She's a lesbian. And a lesbian who's in unrequited love."

Lin Shangren made a judgment.

"Well, it has nothing to do with me anyway."

He shook his head and said, "I won't disturb your lunch break. Goodbye."

"teacher…"

Dongzi wanted to call Lin Shangren, but in the end she didn't say anything.

"Forget it, let's talk about it next time."

……

Lin Shangren walked closer to the church when he suddenly noticed something unusual. Footprints. On the path leading to the back of the church, there was a row of faint but distinct unfamiliar shoe prints. According to school rules, students must wear the same uniform and wear the same shoes. Judging from the pattern of the shoe prints, they weren't students' footprints.

"Judging from the size and depth of the shoe prints, as well as their stride, this person must be a thin woman, about 1.7 meters tall. There doesn't seem to be anyone like this among the female teachers in the school."

Curious, Lin Shangren followed the footprints to the back of the church. He then discovered traces of someone pacing along the back wall. Based on the density and depth of the footprints, he quickly determined the person's final destination.

"Here? What's here?"

Lin Shangren opened his Eye of Innocence and discovered a brick marked as a [Mechanism]. He struck the brick a few times, and it fell to the ground.

"Oh? Something seems to have been hidden in here. This trace of dust... is it a key? Someone took a key here last night?

Why is the key hidden so secretly?"

Lin Shangren lowered his chin, and suddenly, a blind spot came to his mind.

"Oh shit! How could I have forgotten such an important place? If I were investigating what happened eleven years ago, why didn't I check the bomb shelter first?"

Because he had previously focused his main energy on investigating the serial dismemberment case, Lin Shangren subconsciously ignored this point.

"Anyway...it's not too late now."

As he was thinking, the shadow under his feet turned into liquid, and the shadow's waves spread downwards.

"The air-raid shelter...it's really big."

The next moment, Lin Shangren's figure disappeared from the spot.

Chapter 88: The Dark Bible, author: Hong Family Boss

"It's interesting."

To Lin Shangren's surprise, the underground air-raid shelter was not as dirty and dilapidated as he had imagined. Although it could not be described as clean and tidy, it definitely did not look like it had not been used for more than ten years.

Lin Shangren turned on the [Caterpillar God of War's Telescope] and used its night vision function to look around.

The gray-brown cement walls, the narrow corridor, the uneven ground and the grooves on the wall for placing candles all reminded Lin Shangren of one thing - a tomb passage.

"Heh, judging by the depth of this air-raid shelter, if a high-yield explosive were to explode, the people taking refuge here would absolutely be killed."

Lin Shangren activated his Shadow Touch, and microwaves spread from his feet, quickly covering a twenty-meter radius. As he walked, Lin Shangren constructed a map of the air-raid shelter in his mind based on the feedback from his Shadow Touch.

"The larger space on the east side was probably where people gathered for refuge. What was the small room on the side used for?"

Lin Shangren teleported twice and went to the small room that looked like a storage room.

The moment he landed, he stepped on something.

"Candle?"

Lin Shangren bent down to pick up the candle, snapped his fingers, and lit the candle with the fireball technique.

【Didn't we agree not to use skills with unknown origins? (?_?)】

"It smells really good, isn't it?"

The candlelight lit up, barely illuminating the entire room. Lin Shangren turned off his night vision and observed this strange little room.

It was a square room, about ten feet in size. In the center was a platform for people to lie down on, surrounded by candlesticks. In the corners, there were some strange objects that looked like lampposts and incense burners.

Strange words and indecipherable patterns were painted in white on the black floor: a giant circle with a crosshair dividing it into four parts, along with many strange words, like a magic circle. Strange geometric patterns painted in white were also everywhere on the walls and ceiling of the room.

Deep in the room, there was a large chair covered with a piece of cloth, which looked like a simple altar. Some incense burners and metal utensils were scattered around it.

"Someone used this place recently. But... for some reason, the people here suddenly... fled from here?"

Looking at the various utensils scattered on the ground and the relatively fresh traces of candle wax, Lin Shangren made a judgment in his heart.

"That's interesting. Has there been any evil mass or other rituals performed here?"

Lin Shangren recognized the inverted pentagram magic circle carved on the ground. He had seen it in the copy of the "Dark Bible" in Takigawa Yumi's house. It was a magic circle used to summon demons and receive the blessings of demons.

"Someone recently performed a ritual here to summon demons."

Lin Shangren squatted down, pinched the dust on the ground with his fingers, and picked up a few blackened bloodstains with his fingernails.

"More than once. Judging from the blood test, the most recent one was about three to five days ago. Judging from the lingering smell of urine and seafood in the air, there has also been a lesbian party here. There is no smell of heather... No lesbian lesbian parties for men?" Lin Shangren pondered.

"Who could it be? Those little girls who left the cult? Kitami Reika, who I killed? Or, is there another evil cult in this girls' school?

Wow, such a small Yingyu Girls' College actually has so many heroes coming to participate in this grand event. It seems that we must use our full strength to fight back."

Lin Shangren activated the shadow touch again, and this time he discovered more things.

"what is this?"

He reached out to the wall opposite the chair and pulled out a strange object wrapped in a white cloth from the crack in the wall. Judging from the white cloth on the outside, it seemed that this object had been placed there recently.

Lin Shangren shook the thing curiously and heard a series of crisp tinkling sounds.

Unwrapping the white cloth, beneath the layers of white cloth lay a sturdy-looking book bound in leather. A white hexagram was painted on the black cover, and a sword was inserted in the center. The clanking sound came from a metal chain that locked the book.

"Appraisal."

【Title: The Dark Bible】

[Quality: Perfect quality, magical creation, perfect craftsmanship]

[Condition: Old parchment, written in human blood, missing pages]

【Producers: Joshua Messiah, Peter Simon, Devil? ?】

[Note: This is a genuine magic book that records the evil magic of the warp. Be careful and use it with caution, and don't let your mind be corrupted.]

"Oh? Is this the original copy of the Dark Bible?"

Lin Shangren shook the magic book in his hand.

"The producers are Jesus, Saint Peter and a demon with an unknown name? Wow~ Interesting, is there really a Jesus in this world? However... since he can collaborate with the demon to write a book, it seems that this Jesus should not be the Son of God of the Trinity. So... is there also a God in this world?" Lin Shangren thought.

[No~]

Classmate Xiao Ai joined in the conversation.

[Speaking of which, my Lord, you are more like God and Jesus than the God and Jesus in the Bible~?(????)]

"what?"

You once reborn a universe. You uttered the words, "Let there be light." Your semen and blood can heal all physical ailments. Your hands can soothe pain and bring happiness. Most importantly... you love humanity more than God does. (?ω?)

"hehe."

Lin Shangren sneered and remained silent. He continued to examine the Dark Bible in his hand.

"Locked up?"

He tugged at the chain wrapped around the Dark Bible.

【Name: Dark Chain】

[Quality: Excellent quality, magical creation, advanced craftsmanship]

【Status: Complete, solid, difficult to destroy】

【Producer: Hiroko Takagi】

[Note: The desperate girl sacrificed her happy memories and part of her soul to release this magic, only to seal this evil magic book, so that others would no longer be contaminated by the evil knowledge within, in order to atone for her own sins.]

"Oh? A sealing magic cast by Takagi Hiroko, who sacrificed part of her memories and soul...? A redemption for sins..."

Lin Shangren rubbed his neck. Based on the information he had, he roughly guessed what happened eleven years ago.

Eleven years ago, Takagi Hiroko came into possession of the Dark Bible. For some reason, she and others performed a ritual to summon a demon, with Kitami Reika as the sacrifice. Something went wrong… Kitami Reika became possessed by a demon, and Takagi Hiroko sacrificed part of her own memories and soul to seal the Dark Bible.

"Judging from the remaining pages of the scroll, a fierce battle may have taken place at that time...?"

The information is incomplete, so Lin Shangren can only infer this far for the time being.

"The question now is where did the Dark Bible come from? Why did they summon the demon back then? What happened to them after they summoned the demon? Most importantly...what is the connection between what happened here eleven years ago and the series of cases happening now?"

As he was thinking, Lin Shangren pulled hard at the iron chain wrapped around the cover of the Dark Bible.

"Do you want to open it and take a look?"

Lin Shangren just felt itchy in his heart, and this book seemed to be tempting his mind.

"Xiao Ai, is this book trying to mind control me?"

"Yeah, but I was able to hold it off. Well, with the level of combat power in this world, it's still 20,000 years too early to break through my mental defenses!" (?＞?＜)