Infinite: Starting from Infiltrating Other Spaces

Li Xia lowered his head and looked at Collins, who was lying on the ground and almost charred.

They remained inside the empty and desolate cathedral; the brief but dangerous battle that had just taken place had not affected them in the slightest.

The floor was reflected with dappled light from the stained-glass windows, and Collins lay within that patch of colorful glow.

The goddess statue behind him had a sorrowful expression, and her lowered eyelids seemed to be watching her bishop, with steam rising from the air.

When it encounters the cold stone statue, it condenses into tiny drops of dew.

These dewdrops blended together, eventually forming glistening droplets that fell precisely from the eyes of the goddess statue, splashing onto the floor and creating a sparkling spray.

"Snapped..."

A soft tapping sound came from the skylight overhead, which seemed like a signal, followed by a series of increasingly frequent tapping sounds.

A heavy rain poured down from the sky, enveloping the entire Ogan. The colorful lights disappeared, leaving only a dim gray light shining on Collins's corpse.

Li Xia withdrew his gaze from the skylight and silently looked at the special mark Collins had drawn in blood on his sleeve.

He glanced at Collins lying on the floor; Collins seemed to be trying to tell him about the Burning Heart Church.

But in the end, only this mark remained, and it looks like the mark of the Burning Heart Church.

But what's the use of just a marker?

He pondered for a moment, then marked the spot. Suddenly, he forcefully ripped off the piece of cloth bearing the bloodstains.

After thinking for a moment, he extended his index finger, which ignited with a faint flame. He gently touched the cloth, and the soft fabric immediately curled up and burned.

After blowing out the flames, Li Xia looked at the piece of cloth that still smelled of burning and bent down to stuff it into Collins's charred hand.

The setup was a bit rough, but he felt that O'Gane probably didn't have the meticulous investigative methods of modern criminal investigation.

After doing all this, Li Xia looked at Collins and nodded in homage to his corpse.

He turned and disappeared into the heavy rain outside the church.

.............

The three children stared wide-eyed, barely daring to breathe, as they listened to Li Xia recount what had happened inside the church.

The monster that scared them so much that they made funny faces that night—the boss actually encountered a reinforced platoon?!

"...Those monsters should all be residents who died in Ogan City during this period. They are not actually very strong, but they are strange."

If you get distracted and lose your rhythm, you might actually crash and burn.

Li Xia took a sip of the hot tea brewed by Aowu; this was the 335th sample in the search for Bai Xiao tea leaves.

The taste is acceptable, but it's still far inferior to Bai Xiao's tea.

"The crucial question is, I should know what those monsters are."

Upon hearing this, the three little ones immediately became excited.

The biggest problem with fear is that it is unknown. Once you know the true nature of those fears, the sense of terror immediately drops sharply.

"It's a memory, a contaminated memory. Its origin is unclear, but it's mostly a mixture of the deceased person's own memories and other people's memories of him."

Finally, after being corrupted and distorted, it formed a special kind of monster.

Li Xia put down his teacup and, using the dim light in the tavern, began to draw on the table:

"For example, the monster we met was an alcoholic with a bad reputation. Others probably thought of him as twisted, eccentric, and a parasite who sucked the blood of his family."

This is just my speculation, based on some of the discussions among other drinkers when he died.

So the monster was huge, but it did not cause any damage to the street while it was moving, and even the floor and rubble remained unchanged.

This explanation seems to be the only plausible one at the moment.

Aowu and Heitan looked thoughtful for a moment, then their expressions brightened with delight.

Xiaotian looked left and right, muttering something under his breath: "Give me a big bone to gnaw on."

"I understand!"

Awoo's face was filled with excitement:

"That Jenny is greedy, lustful, and she even has her eyes on our boss—"

Li Xia paused for a moment in her hand holding the teacup:

"In short, that human skin and the related anomalies also arose from the memories of other people."

But there's still one problem, boss.

Aowu made changes incredibly fast; Steward Ao is definitely no problem in this regard.

"What happened when Collins fought you? And... wasn't he too weak?"

"The Hall of Light has indicated that I have left 'Terrifying Memories: Darkness Descends,' which means that I was previously in a memory."

That's a special situation; shouldn't it be normal that the hall's functions are unusable?

Li Xia, holding a cup of hot tea, could only guess and couldn't give a precise answer:

"On the contrary, I do have some clues about the immortality of those monsters."

He looked at the three somewhat bewildered children and slowly said:

"You can kill a physical entity, but can you kill a memory?"

A bolt of lightning flashed across the night sky, briefly illuminating the city of Ogan, which was shrouded in heavy rain.

Then the rain poured down, hitting the tavern's awning and making the atmosphere even more oppressive.

Those monsters were created based on the perceptions of the residents of Ogan City, yet they were 'remembered' by Collins.

Therefore, the monsters that Li Xia encountered were actually Collins's 'memories'.

As he said before, you can kill the body, but can you kill the memory?

"I see....."

Aowu let out a long sigh, the entire dragon exuding a sense of clarity and understanding.

"Memory cannot be killed; true death is being forgotten by everyone."

Oh no, this guy's been through military training in Sunba and's starting to get philosophical.

Seeing the little dragon exuding a sense of desolation, as if 'the life of a dragon is nothing special,' Black Charcoal decided to bring it back to reality.

It raised its paw: "Meow! Meow meow meow!"

The kitten's question was very practical; it raised the most pressing issue at hand:

"How exactly should we find the Burning Heart Cult?"

Li Xia put down her teacup and said with a smile:

"I made some simple arrangements, but I'm not sure if they'll work if they react quickly."

Perhaps we'll get a response soon.

This answer indeed pulled Aowu back from his 'philosophical' reverie, and he waited curiously for Li Xia to continue.

"It's actually very simple, just the simplest thing—"

"Oh!"

The tavern's thick wooden door was violently kicked open, and several figures dressed in black armor and covered with pure black rain-proof robes stood silently in the rain.

They entered, raindrops dripping from their cold iron armor, their eyes, obscured by visors, scanning the room with chilling intensity.

"The highest decree of the Holy Word Church is to conduct a city-wide manhunt for members of the Burning Heart Church. Those who conceal or fail to report such individuals will be subject to the most severe judgment of the Holy Word Church!"

Li Xia smiled slightly at the three dumbfounded children and picked up her teacup.

That's his method.

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1. Monthly pass 2. Recommendation vote

Chapter Eleven: What a Huge Blame

These knights of the Church of Divine Word did not conduct a large-scale search, but instead used a rather peculiar spell.

They were shrouded in an aura of indifference, showing no interest in where the couple who used to run the tavern had gone.

They weren't even interested in Li Xia or the obviously abnormal Aowu, Heitan, and Xiaotian.

After the divine spell was completed without any abnormalities, they simply withdrew.

It seems that all their attention is focused solely on the Burning Heart Church.

This surprised Li Xia, who had made all the preparations.

Once the disciplined knights disappeared back into the rain, the tavern fell silent once more.

The three children immediately turned to look at Li Xia:

"Holy crap, how did you do that?"

"Hmm... Before Collins died, I asked him about the Burning Heart Church. He seemed to want to tell me something, but he was no longer able to speak."

Then they drew a mark on my clothes.

Li Xia flicked his sleeves. Self-repairing clothes were basically commonplace in the hall, with average defensive capabilities. They were only worn as everyday clothes by apostles who frequently suffered damage in battle.

The three little ones stared blankly at Li Xia, almost able to imagine the scene from that moment.

When the Church of the Holy Word discovered that its bishop had not returned for a long time, it immediately went to the church where he usually prayed.

But they found the church quiet, with only a charred corpse in front of the statue of the goddess.

After a brief investigation, they were devastated to discover that this was Bishop Collins.

They also found a piece of cloth that was almost charred in his hand. When the high-ranking members of the Holy Proclamation Church arrived, they carefully unfolded the cloth.

The only thing on it was a pattern drawn in blood—the symbol of the Burning Heart Cult!

However, to avoid being framed, the Church of the Holy Prophecy used special divine magic to verify the mark, and finally confirmed that it was indeed the mark drawn by Archbishop Collins with his own blood.

With almost no difficulty, the entire Church of the Holy Word pieced together the 'truth' about Bishop Collins's murder.

The bishop prayed in the church as usual, concerned about the future of the entire Ogum and the Church.

At that moment, an uninvited guest barged in and, taking advantage of Lord Collins's unpreparedness, shamefully launched a sneak attack on him.

That must be it, otherwise, with Lord Collins' strength, how could he have died here without any resistance?

After that shameless scoundrel committed such a despicable act deserving of hell, he panicked and tried to destroy the evidence, but the resilient Bishop Collins launched a final counterattack.

He grabbed the enemy, tore a piece of clothing from his body, and finally collapsed to the ground.

The raging flames burned on the bishop's body, and the burning pain actually brought him back to consciousness.

With his last ounce of strength, Bishop Collins drew clues about the murderer on his clothes and clutched them tightly in his hand.

So the murderer is—the Burning Heart Cult!

The entire tavern fell silent, not because Li Xia's idea was particularly brilliant.

We were simply mourning for the Scorching Heart Cult, but they were unfairly blamed!

But there's nothing we can do; the mission is just that...troublesome.

"In short, it seems that someone has already helped us find the Church of the Burning Heart. Our next task is to keep an eye on the Church of the Holy Proclamation and the movements within the city."

Li Xia stood up and stretched, her joints cracking and popping.

"The Church of Burning Hearts must be in Ogan City, and they are hiding there. So if they are found, they are very likely to resist."

Instead of surrendering, let's wait patiently for now!

................

The night in Ogan was as it always had been, with a thick fog spreading throughout the city. Within the fog, huge black shadows could be vaguely seen flickering, and every house had its doors tightly shut.

The runes on the gate shimmered faintly, dispelling the malice emanating from the darkness.

In the alleys of Ogan, a figure dressed in a black robe was moving about, and whenever the mist gathered, whispers came from the depths.

A faint glow emanated from the man in black, pushing away the mist.