[Europe, the Vatican.]
An ancient church, a hundred meters underground, has a three-layer dungeon.
Manic laughter, faintly, echoed within the third layer of the dungeon.
[Dungeon monitoring room.]
Three cardinal archbishops, holding ancient Bibles, with serious expressions, stared at the many surveillance screens in front of them.
On the screens, every prisoner held here was laughing so hard they held their stomachs. Even when they laughed until they vomited blood, with blood flowing from all seven orifices, they were still laughing madly, as if they couldn't stop at all.
As time passed, the laughter became increasingly insane.
Looking at the other screens, every prisoner held here had no laughter, they had all died in their cells.
Even though they were locked in separate cells, completely isolated from one another, their expressions before death were shockingly consistent… filled with madness, with smiling faces.
Upon seeing this, the three cardinal archbishops furrowed their brows, holding their Bibles, continuously drawing crosses over their chests.
"All the prisoners are dead?" The leading cardinal archbishop asked the dungeon archbishop.
"Yes, all the ones on the second floor are dead. Not a single one survived. Whether it was humans, or the eight-winged demons of hell recently imprisoned, or the demon god's servants."
"And the first floor… they've all gone mad. As for the third floor…"
The dungeon archbishop paused, glancing at the monitoring screens in front of him.
In his view, the screens responsible for monitoring the third floor were all blacked out, and each screen had a mute icon, as if the screens weren't broken, but had been interfered with or shut down, and the surveillance audio was also turned off.
"The third floor has already become hell. Even I wouldn't dare to enter lightly."
The dungeon archbishop's eyes showed dread as he looked at the three cardinal archbishops.
"I now believe what you said yesterday. The man you escorted here yesterday is absolutely no longer a priest. He has already betrayed his faith in God and has become the most terrifying blasphemer of God."
With those words, the dungeon archbishop stared at the three of them and said solemnly, "Right, and that video, have you confirmed it? The authenticity of the video?"
The leading cardinal archbishop nodded. "The research department has confirmed. It was not forged. It was indeed real footage shot on a phone."
Upon hearing this, the dungeon archbishop's expression changed drastically.
"It's really real...? Doesn't that mean... heaven truly…"
He did not continue, unable to bring himself to speak the words, unwilling to believe this fact.
The dungeon archbishop shook his head, forcefully brushing away the chaotic thoughts in his mind, and said, "What do you plan to do with this man next?"
He glanced over the surveillance screen of the prison.
"Even if this dungeon was built for us by the great archangel Michael and can imprison even the lords of hell, I don't think it can hold this man. His laughter can penetrate all three dungeon layers, this has never happened before." As he spoke, faintly, laughter drifted into the surveillance room.
The laughter was full of madness. As if the one laughing had gone completely insane.
The ancient Bible in the leading cardinal archbishop's hand glowed with faint golden light, divine, capable of washing the heart and purifying the soul.
Despite this event, none of the archbishops showed even a hint of joy. Instead, the leading cardinal archbishop revealed a worried expression and asked, "How long do you estimate you can imprison him?"
The dungeon archbishop answered very straightforwardly, "About a month."
He said this with a bitter smile on his face, "This might be the only bit of good luck amidst bad fortune. The infected priest isn't that powerful. We, at cardinal archbishop level, can handle him."
After the incident with Heaven's Gate, the Vatican dispatched two cardinal archbishops as fast as possible to handle it.
Thanks to the infected priest being at the Watcher level, even though he became stronger after infection, he still could not handle the pinnacle-level cardinal archbishops.
But the next second, the dungeon archbishop changed tone, speaking with a bitter smile, "But even if his power is insufficient, he is still extremely strange. His laughter can't be suppressed, not even by Michael's dungeon."
"If it continues developing like this, in about a month, the dungeon will no longer be able to contain him, and his laughter will spread beyond the dungeon."
He looked toward the leading cardinal archbishop, speaking extremely seriously, "Laurent, you all need to quickly figure out a solution, to deal with this infected priest. Right, I also heard that something similar appeared in Daxia, is that true? What's the situation over there?"
"Yes." The leading cardinal archbishop nodded.
He then recounted the incident at Mount Changbai.
The dungeon archbishop was visibly moved. "The one infected was the ancient fox spirit of Mount Changbai?! I remember that ancient fox spirit was very powerful. It would take pope-level clergy to handle. If it's been infected, Daxia will fall into chaos."
Just as he was thinking this, inwardly shouting that this was bad, the leading cardinal archbishop changed the subject.
"Daxia didn't fall into chaos. The ancient fox spirit returned from the Southern Heavenly Gate. Although it became stronger after infection, I contacted Bureau 749 and was told that a mysterious ancient person stepped in and sealed the fox spirit."
The leading cardinal archbishop looked at the dungeon archbishop and added, "As for how long it can remain sealed, the mysterious ancient person knew Bureau 749 would ask, and had the Maoshan sect's patriarch pass a message back, telling them that the seal is unbreakable. So strong, even feminist activists can't break it with their punches."
The dungeon archbishop was stunned. But soon a hint of joy appeared on his face. "If even an infected ancient fox spirit can be sealed. Why don't we ask this mysterious ancient person for help too?"
Although he didn't understand the last sentence, at least he knew that Old Man Hu San had been sealed and there was no further threat.
The leading cardinal archbishop shook his head.
"I've thought of that too. But I asked Bureau 749. Lin De said it's not his call to ask the mysterious ancient person."
Upon hearing this, the dungeon archbishop immediately said, "Then have Lin De tell us who the mysterious ancient person is. We'll invite him personally, no, invite him along with the Pope himself."
In response to this, the leading cardinal archbishop gave a helpless laugh.
"You think I haven't thought of that? I told Lin De I wanted to know who this mysterious ancient person is and that I'd invite him personally. But Lin De said, he himself doesn't know who the person is. Not even their appearance, gender, nothing at all."
"Nonsense! How could they not know what he looks like?"
The dungeon archbishop interrupted, speaking bluntly, "If this mysterious ancient person really sealed the ancient fox spirit, there's no way nobody knows what he looks like. With Bureau 749's efficiency, I don't believe no one from the bureau was present when the fox spirit got infected."
"Someone had to be at the scene. They couldn't possibly not have seen his face. Even if the person wore a mask, they should still be able to tell gender. After all, there must have been pinnacle-level agents from 749 present."
"So how could they not know the gender or appearance? It makes no sense. Unless… unless the mysterious ancient person sealed the fox spirit… without even showing up. Hiss!!"
At that moment, his words abruptly stopped, replaced by a sharp intake of breath.
Right then, the dungeon archbishop noticed the expression change on the leading cardinal archbishop's face as he said the mysterious ancient person didn't show up.
That expression, even if the cardinal archbishop said nothing, its meaning was clear.
The dungeon archbishop finally couldn't help but speak, "Laurent, it can't be what I'm thinking, right?"
To this question, the leading cardinal archbishop directly nodded, holding the ancient Bible as he replied, "Yes. It's exactly what you're thinking."
The dungeon archbishop's eyelids twitched wildly.
Several seconds passed.
Only then did he recover from the shock and utter, "Without even appearing, he sealed the ancient fox spirit from Mount Changbai… Who the hell is this ancient person? An ancient person? Could it be the old Buddha of Mount Putuo? The old immortal of Dragon-Tiger Mountain? Qin Shi Huang?"
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