Chapter 281: The Holy Hermitage
After hanging up the phone, Yu Sheng pondered for a few seconds, then took a deep breath: "Hey, it's not easy for her to be the director."
As soon as he finished speaking, Irene spread her hands and said, "Why do I feel that you are responsible for half of her recent difficulties?"
"It's not my fault for what happened tonight," Yu Sheng said quickly. "The artificial saints of the Saintly Hermitage have infiltrated. I discovered this in advance. In the long run, I don't know how much trouble this will solve for the Secret Service..."
Irene thought for a moment and said, "Yes, really?"
"Of course," Yu Sheng smiled, then waved his hand, "Okay, let's go call Hu Li back first, and let's send the arm to the Secret Service to let the experts take a look..."
As soon as he finished speaking, before Irene could respond, she heard brisk footsteps coming from the stairs leading to the basement. Then Hu Li ran up with the "iron arm" that had been broken into three sections and all the fingers cut off, and showed off to Yu Sheng happily, "My benefactor! It's cut off!"
Yu Sheng was shocked: "So fast?"
Irene was also surprised, staring at what Hu Li was holding with wide eyes: "It's cut off just like that? And the joints are removed?!"
"Yeah," Hu Li nodded vigorously, and then added, "It's quite difficult to cut. The firepower I used to cut the steel bars could only burn them red. Fortunately, I managed to do it with some spells. As for these joints, they are easier to deal with than blades. I can break them off with just a little effort, although it requires a lot of strength..."
Irene was delighted when she heard it: "Right, right, that's how a C-shaped buckle should be."
Hu Li blinked his eyes: "Why do you have such a big problem with this kind of joint?"
"Imagine that there is another kind of fox in the world, and when it combs its fur, it strokes it backwards from the back..."
The tail of the raccoon became visibly fluffy - it was a sign of goose bumps: "I, I understand!"
At this time, Yu Sheng finally spoke: "Okay, just take it apart, and take the parts to show Baili Qing - take the cut blades too. And the veil, Irene, you take it. Let's go to the Secret Service."
"Okay!" "Okay~~"
As he spoke, an illusory door leading to Baili Qing's office was opened.
After crossing the gate, the brightly lit corridor of the Secret Service came into view - even though it was already late at night, most floors of the building were still brightly lit. As a special department that monitored countless foreign exits and was responsible for maintaining peace in the entire border area, there were obviously people on duty in this building 24 hours a day.
When Yu Sheng stepped into the office door, Baili Qing was talking on the phone behind the desk.
"...We must act in groups and be careful not to be left alone. The Artificial Saint is very dangerous.
"We will focus on checking the northern part of the old city, but if the fog is too thick, we will withdraw. The first stage goal is to put the detectors in first...
"The monitoring team is on standby at Deep Dive Channel 16...
"Report to me anytime if you have any questions."
Baili Qing was working, issuing instructions carefully and quickly, until she finished a phone call and looked up to see Yu Sheng walking in. She then managed a vague smile on her face.
"Are you going to arrange for investigators to go in right away?" Yu Sheng guessed based on the content of the conversation he had just heard.
"Well, a group of deep divers have entered the fog. They will move closer to the old city on the 'other side' and focus on checking the area around where you were attacked," Baili Qing said, rubbing his forehead gently. "Artificial saints will not appear in the sphere of influence of the Secret Service for no reason. Their mission is generally to protect important property and personnel. There must be something nearby... The appearance of this 'city in the fog' is becoming more and more suspicious."
Having said this, she paused and glanced back and forth between Yu Sheng, Hu Li and Irene, with a look that was a little serious and perhaps a little concerned.
Yu Sheng felt a little awkward being looked at by the other party: "Uh, what's wrong?"
"You were ambushed by the artificial saint, but you were not hurt?" Baili Qing's tone was obviously full of disbelief.
As soon as she said this, Yu Sheng's expression suddenly became a little subtle.
How can I explain this? If I say he wasn't injured, then that's definitely not the case. He was fatally wounded. He was stabbed with eight holes by two knives. But if I say he was injured, it's not obvious now. After all, it was just a fatal wound...
Yu Sheng's face trembled, and then he tried to keep a straight face: "It's just a minor injury. I have a good physique, so the injury will heal quickly."
Baili Qing looked at Yu Sheng several times with some suspicion, probably because she couldn't imagine what the skin injuries after being attacked by the artificial saint would look like, but fortunately she didn't delve into the topic, but immediately turned her attention to the things in Hu Li and Irene's hands.
Yu Sheng asked them to put the things directly on Baili Qing's desk.
Baili Qing looked at the pile of things carefully for a few seconds, then raised her head thoughtfully: "...Why do I remember that the arm in your photo was intact?"
"Ahem, it was because of a little bit of research spirit, and I needed these blades, so I asked Hu Li to dismantle it," Yu Sheng touched the tip of his nose a little awkwardly, and then asked guiltily, "Shouldn't it be dismantled?"
"That's not the case. This pile of stuff is still valuable even if it's broken up. We're mainly here to extract intelligence from it," Baili Qing shook her head. "I'll ask the people from the identification department to come over. Some of them are more familiar with this kind of stuff."
She paused for a moment and glanced at Yu Sheng: "Don't worry, I'll return it to you after the inspection."
Yu Sheng was delighted when he heard this: "It's okay, I just want the blade on it, you can keep the other parts, I can't analyze anything from them anyway."
At this point he suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly took two steps forward, pointing at the veil and saying to Baili Qing: "Also I noticed something else, this thing actually has a trademark on it, and there is also a label suggesting hand washing..."
Baili Qing, however, had a calm expression on her face. After listening, she asked, "Is there any problem with this?"
“Um… is everything okay?” Yu Sheng was a little slow to react. “The Saintly Hermitage, the Artificial Saint, it sounds weird and high-end. The special equipment on the body actually has a trademark, and it’s a pretty common brand - although it seems a bit expensive, but…”
"What else?" Although Baili Qing's expression didn't change, her eyes already revealed a hint of "What is this person making a fuss about?" "The Saintly Hermitage is also a mortal organization - they can't be self-sufficient in food, clothing, housing and transportation, and it's even more impossible for them to create materials out of thin air, so isn't it normal to buy things from external channels?"
Yu Sheng: “…It seems so?”
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Baili Qing couldn't help but look at Yu Sheng twice more. For some reason, there was a hint of happiness in her eyes.
Maybe he was sighing, "This guy in front of me who always makes me feel dizzy actually has a problem with his brain."
But soon, she put away the strange look on her face.
The people from the identification department arrived soon. They took away the remains of the artificial saint's arm and veil. After they left, Yu Sheng found a chair and sat down, asking Baili Qing the questions he wanted to ask before leaving.
"What exactly is this 'Holy Hermitage' you mentioned? Is it a cult organization similar to the Angel Cult? How come they appear at the border?"
Baili Qing adjusted his sitting position behind his desk and nodded seriously.
"In most civilized circles, the Saint Hermitage is indeed classified as a cult," she said, "but in terms of organization and principles, they are very different from the Angel Cult.
"The structure of the Angel Cult is very loose. In addition to worshipping the common group of 'Dark Angels', they are actually divided into many 'branches' of varying sizes. Each Dark Angel has its own independent small sect. This also means that although the number of Angel Cultists is large, they are still unable to form a unified force, so it is relatively easy to deal with them.
"And the Priory of Saints is at the other extreme.
"They all follow a set of doctrines called 'The Way of Worshipping the Saint'. The entire organization has clear objectives and a set of codes of conduct. Its organizational structure is tight and its personnel management is strict and efficient. This has led to their overall strength being stronger even though their numbers are far less than those of the Angels. In some unlawful areas, they even have a stable base and a large-scale armed force - this can be seen from the fact that they can create killing machines like the 'Artificial Saint'.
"You should be impressed by the combat capability of the 'Artificial Saint' - and in fact, this thing can be mass-produced."
Yu Sheng was shocked when he heard this: "...That thing can be mass-produced?!"
Baili Qing nodded gently: "Yes, you heard it right, mass production - but it can only be mass-produced on a small scale in the core area controlled by the Chongsheng Hermitage, so the overall number is not large, you don't have to worry about encountering an entire army of 'artificial saints'."
Yu Sheng smacked his lips, and after a moment of composure, he asked, "Okay, then what do you mean by 'the path to worship the saints' that you just mentioned?"
Baili Qing took a deep breath and then spoke in a deep voice: "The Saintly Hermitage believes that our world currently has serious flaws, and all disasters and sufferings - including but not limited to foreign lands, wars, plagues, famines, etc., are caused by these flaws. At the same time, they believe that mortals are a reflection of the world, and the various flaws in mortals, such as greed, selfishness, cowardice, etc., are also a reflection of the imperfections of the world. In a word, that is, 'this world and everyone living in it are defective products.'
"Their 'mission' is to fix all these defects.
"They believe that mortals can be restored to 'perfection', that is, through the tempering and transformation of the spirit and body, people can be 'sanctified' to become perfect 'saints', or directly through technical means, perfect 'saints' can be created. The so-called 'artificial saint' is one of the by-products of this idea.
“Based on this theory, they believe that the world can also be repaired to ‘perfection’, but the method to repair the world has not yet been found. In order to find this method, the first step is to create a true supreme saint who conforms to the description of the doctrine…
"And all efforts to move toward the above goals are the 'Path to Sainthood'..."
(End of this chapter)
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