Chapter 111#

The Holy Son of the Fallen Evil God#

Damn, you’re quite something, Gu.

Hearing this threat, Lin Xiaodong’s inner eye-roll nearly reached the sky.

But on the surface, the Holy Son maintained a humble smile and spoke slowly: “I believe, My God, that you would not do such a thing.”

“Why?” the Evil God asked, his eyes darkening.

“Because you are the deity I believe in, not a bloodthirsty beast from the abyss who kills indiscriminately,” the white-haired youth cupped the Evil God’s cold, pale face, lightly placing a kiss on his dry, thin lips, his gaze deep and lingering as he watched the deity. “You possess a heart more merciful than anyone I have ever seen, a wise mind, and the most awe-inspiring divine majesty.”

After this string of “rainbow farts” (flattery), the Evil God’s expression immediately softened significantly.

“I heard that before you were chosen as the Holy Son, you were a bard, and quite a famous one?” He looked at the white-haired youth with a half-smile, suddenly conjuring a harp made of white bone from his other hand. “That’s perfect. The atmosphere here is good. Use this to play a piece for me.”

Lin Xiaodong’s body stiffened.

Game over. Although he could play the guitar, he definitely couldn’t play the harp!

“My God, I haven’t practiced the harp for a long time,” the white-haired youth pursed his lips, revealing a troubled expression, his head lowered as he whispered, “I’m afraid I’ll hit the wrong notes and offend you…”

“No offense taken.” The Evil God curled his lips, seemingly seeing through his embarrassment, yet his eyes held a trace of inquiry.

How can I even play this!?

Left with no choice, Lin Xiaodong could only turn to the System for help: “Sys, can I exchange for a harp skill?”

System: “Wait a moment, let me check first…”

But before the System could finish, the Evil God suddenly straightened up, his eyes sharply staring at him as he asked: “Who are you talking to?”

Lin Xiaodong was dumbfounded.

Ghostly! Can he really hear it!?

The System was so scared it went offline in a second and likely wouldn’t appear again for a while. Facing the Evil God’s piercing gaze, Lin Xiaodong had to brace himself and desperately find an excuse: “That, ac—actually, it’s…”

“Commander, there’s no one on the second floor!”

Fortunately, at this moment, the voice of the Knights came from the nearby staircase. The Evil God let out a dissatisfied “tch,” leaned down, and punitively bit Lin Xiaodong’s lower lip. His thumb pressed into the center of the youth’s collarbone, kneading it somewhat deliberately.

He stared at the Holy Son, who was looking at him with a pleading expression. At the last moment before the Knights arrived, he finally showed mercy and let go. He resealed the corruptive aura on Lin Xiaodong and left with a “I’ll come find you later” before vanishing from the room.

Lin Xiaodong finally let out a long sigh of relief.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Just as he was about to turn and find the others, he saw a row of fire-roasted “cured meat” on the wall behind him and nearly fainted—

Good heavens! So this was what that unlucky god meant by “the atmosphere is good”!

The sound he made in the room quickly caught the Knights’ attention. Seeing the missing Holy Son, Ike was overjoyed, but before he could be happy for long, he and the knights behind him similarly showed terror at the row of “cured meat” and collectively took a half-step back.

“One, two, three… ten, eleven.”

“Adding the Countess’s body on the first floor, that’s twelve,” Commander Ike said solemnly. “There were thirteen people in the Count’s family in total. So, the one who escaped was Count Lyle himself?”

This row of “cured meat” mostly consisted of adolescent-sized bodies, so it was reasonable for him to make such a judgment.

“The Countess had eleven children?” Lin Xiaodong frowned. “This… given her age, it seems unlikely, right?”

Unless it was triplets or quadruplets every time.

“Count Lyle was keen on charity. Besides his biological eldest son and three daughters, the rest were orphans he adopted,” Ike explained.

“By the way, Your Highness,” halfway through, the man suddenly realized, “who was it that took you just now? Where is the perpetrator?”

He looked suspiciously at Lin Xiaodong’s half-open collar. A prominent red mark sat squarely in the middle of his collarbone, his hair was somewhat messy, and his lips were even broken… he thought this didn’t look like the aftermath of an evil spirit attack, but more like a criminal who had acted on lust?

But Ike’s lips moved, and in the end, he didn’t dare say those words out loud.

“No need to worry, it was just a hungry beast,” Lin Xiaodong coughed, quickly buttoning his collar and explaining dryly, “I used the dry rations in my bag to drive it off. It should have run far away by now.”

Ike: “…Is that so?”

When coming upstairs, Ike had acutely felt a dense, viscous wave of malice hitting him, nearly making his vision go black. Therefore, he had expected a major battle on the second floor. He hadn’t expected the rumored corruptive aura to be missing; instead, he saw the perfectly intact Holy Son.

However, he indeed hadn’t seen the full appearance of that black shadow. Seeing Lin Xiaodong’s certain look, Ike could only suppress his inner doubts and temporarily believe the explanation.

After resolving Lin Xiaodong’s matter, Ike began to observe the cause of death of these victims. But he wasn’t a professional after all. After looking for a long time, except for the fact that their times of death were probably inconsistent, he found nothing else.

Lin Xiaodong, on the other hand, saw some clues. He pointed to one of the younger children and said: “His bone development is poor; he should be a child the Count adopted. But Commander Ike, can you see what this is around his neck?”

The style looked a bit like the brand the Evil God had put on his own neck, but that brand had a trace of wicked beauty and could even be called an ornament. This thing, which resembled a dog collar, was somewhat insulting.

Ike looked closely, his face darkening: “This is a collar used by nobles to punish disobedient servants. It was abolished long ago, and now only a small number of slaves still use them.”

The Count’s adopted son certainly wouldn’t be a slave, but whether the killer put the collar on him or if it was there originally… this point was worth pondering.

Lin Xiaodong narrowed his eyes, enduring the nausea to continue observing. At this moment, the System suddenly gave him a quick reminder: “The times of death for these people are at least three years apart.”

Three years?

He blinked, and the first thought that popped into his head was—if one of these children died three years ago, why has the Count’s household always remained a constant thirteen people?

This guess made Lin Xiaodong shudder.

He solemnly told Ike about this. The black-haired man’s eyes showed shock; he had clearly thought of this point too.

“So,” his face twitched as he thought of the filth in the noble circles he had seen before, “Count Lyle disregarded everyone’s mockery and insisted on moving his home from the most prosperous East District of the capital to the West District just because he wanted to avoid prying eyes?”

“Highly likely.”

Ike let out an angry sound from his nose: “Shameful! Despicable!”

He had his knights collect these bodies and began a further search of the second floor.

But the fire had burned away all traces. Forget evidence; during the search, one knight accidentally stepped through the floor and fell straight from the second floor.

But fortunately, the living room sofa was directly below, which happened to catch him.

“Commander, there’s a secret passage here!” The knight struggled to crawl out of the debris. The first thing he did wasn’t to check if he was injured but to stare at the large hole he had accidentally crashed into, shouting in pleasant surprise.

The two on the second floor were both stunned.

“Secret passage? Where?” Ike strode downstairs without hesitation, with Lin Xiaodong following closely.

How could he forget? The nobles of this world loved building these secret passages and rooms in their mansions just in case. Count Lyle even claimed to like “cockfighting,” yet no one had ever actually seen a single chicken feather in the house… it must be because he had also built such a secret room at home!

The entrance to the secret passage was dark and filthy, and a magic circle was drawn with some unknown pigment, likely intended to block investigations by those with ill intent. But because of the fire, this magic circle was now essentially non-functional.

Ike didn’t want Lin Xiaodong to go down, but Lin Xiaodong thought that having himself there would at least provide an extra layer of protection—if anything happened, the Evil God couldn’t possibly not come to save him—so he firmly insisted on going along.

After some debate, the inarticulate Ike could only compromise once again.

He took the lead himself and chose two knights to bring up the rear to protect the Holy Son, while Lin Xiaodong in the middle was responsible for using magic to light the way.

The secret passage was narrow and cramped, and the air was filled with a dense scent of charcoal. Lin Xiaodong covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, not noticing that the knights behind him were watching him with very complex gazes.

In his view, doing things personally was basic professional ethics. However, in the eyes of the knights of this era, for someone of the Holy Son’s noble status to still be willing to follow them through trials and tribulations, risking himself personally, was something quite incredible.

After he was taken earlier, the Evil God’s actions had almost instantly ignited the entire Knights’ rage—to dare lay a hand on the Holy Son right in front of them, were they tired of living!?

Moreover, Commander Ike had repeatedly instructed them before coming to absolutely, positively protect the Holy Son, even at the cost of their own lives. Although they also had to risk their lives when escorting those great nobles, there was a complete difference in feeling for the knights between being proactive and being reactive.

For such a kind and merciful Holy Son, in a moment of crisis, they were willing to unhesitatingly offer their loyalty, and even their lives.

Suddenly, Commander Ike, who was walking in front, abruptly raised his hand.

The group stopped instantly. The sound of rapid breathing in the narrow passage intensified the spread of tension. Lin Xiaodong asked in a very low voice: “What happened up ahead?”

The knights behind also held their breath, waiting for the commander’s response.

“There’s someone ahead,” Commander Ike paused for a moment, then answered in a hoarse voice.