Chapter 28

Xie Yuchen was looking at the middle-aged Japanese man calmly, which made the other man feel that the person in front of him looked frail but was actually as strong as a piece of iron. He even felt that the other party neither believed nor doubted him. Instead, he remained neutral like some of those creatures in other religions.

Murata didn’t want to save them. After Yuri died, he started to obey that albino—Beliak, as Yuri always used to call him—but he didn’t know why.

Maybe it was because Beliak and Yuri were so close before that Yuri’s authority automatically transferred to him. Or maybe it was because Beliak had such a strict tone when speaking to him.

He wanted to ask questions every time, but in the end, he found himself complying before he knew it.

With my personality, I’m not strong enough to stand up to others, he thought to himself.

Beliak gave him an order to clearly explain the secrets of this house so he told them everything he could. But even though he was so frank, he wasn’t competent enough to know everything himself. He also knew that he wouldn’t be able to justify himself, which was why he was worried that Xie Yuchen would ask why he had saved them.

Ordinary people wouldn’t ask this question because they thought that it was inherently logical for human beings to save each other.

But that wasn’t true. Murata knew because he had seen it many times in this house. When Yuri brought back those orphans to use in his experiments, that inherent logic between people was nowhere to be found.

There was a demon living in this house, but at that time, he couldn’t tell who was more terrifying: the Xingchou demon, Yuri who was committed to deceiving this demon, or the orphans Yuri had found who eventually acted out of desperation in order to survive.

As for the man with sunglasses, Murata only had one thought whenever he looked at him—he didn’t seem to be the same kind of creature as him. He didn’t even want to look at the man with sunglasses. He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some kind of strange aura around the man. Plus, he kept examining everything in the whole area.

I hope you don’t ask me any questions that will get me killed, Murata prayed in his heart. Just ask your questions and leave here quickly.

But Xie Yuchen didn’t show the slightest sign of leaving. Instead, he just continued to stare at Murata before asking more questions, speaking at a steady pace like a machine, “Tell me about Yuri. Are you aware he’s dead?”

“He wanted to deceive the demon time and time again and must have become so obsessed that he became more and more abnormal. I’m not surprised that he got to this point. He experimented with those orphans first and put their bodies into the jars when they died. Then he didn’t want to see his powerful mother so he stopped his work in Japan. His funds dried up so he couldn’t find any more orphans and began using himself to experiment.”

“Hmm, I looked at his body,” Xie Yuchen said. “He was trying to summon something. It seemed to be some kind of cult ritual that was very primitive and may have come from China. You said you know a little Russian. When you were eavesdropping on them, did they say anything about what this cult’s ultimate doctrine is?”

When Xie Yuchen was interrogating others, he would use a technique that involved skipping words. In essence, he would state a hypothesis at the beginning and then forcibly start the conversation based on the condition that the hypothesis was true.

At first, he only said that it seemed to be a cult, which made him sound very uncertain.

But then he asked the question: what is this cult’s ultimate doctrine?

There were many advantages to asking questions in this way. First, it was easy for the other party to just come out and tell the truth. Second, he would know right away if the other party wanted to disclose this information freely, was feeding him false information, or if they were being forced to disclose this information.

It was all based on the speed at which the other person answered.

Murata looked at Xie Yuchen and suddenly felt like he was under a lot of pressure. Although the other party didn’t show any signs of aggression towards him, for some reason, he felt that the person in front of him was very dangerous.

His armpits suddenly began to sweat. “I don’t know, I’m not able to understand such profound words.”

“Hmm.” Xie Yuchen nodded. It was a good answer to defend himself and also avoid answering his question, but he didn’t refute the statement that a cult was involved, which showed that Murata also believed this to be the case. “Some cults seek profit while others seek liberation,” Xie Yuchen continued. “For example, in the Polish Mindfulness Association⁽¹⁾, if you don’t commit suicide at a fixed time according to the cult’s requirements, you won’t be purified. The religious scriptures repeatedly exaggerate that a catastrophe is coming and those who aren’t purified will suffer after the catastrophe hits. So, before the disaster hits, believers often need to purify themselves in advance. There are also some more special cults that focus on exchanging powers with demons. There are two ways this power exchange can be done.”

Xie Yuchen looked into Murata’s eyes, “By curses and sacrifices. Cursing requires you to exchange you or your whole family’s lives in order to kill or disable others. Of course, this doubles the results. For example, if you sacrifice your whole family to cast a curse, all the people in the surrounding area are often cursed as well. There are many such large-scale curses in Europe. Another way is to offer up sacrifices. This way involves sacrificing other people’s lives in order to gain power. Sacrificing one’s own family and children is a common method for many cults and can give the person performing the ritual increased health or abilities that exceed others’ capabilities.

“There is one last purpose that a cult might have—manifestation. It is a hope that the religion’s main god will descend to Earth again.”

This last bit was said in English and left Murata completely stunned. His English listening skills were good so he understood everything, but he didn’t understand what exactly was being asked so he had to pretend he didn’t follow, “Man—manif—what?”

Xie Yuchen looked at him and smiled.

His smile was also very neutral, without any meaning. Murata couldn’t get any information from it.

Xie Yuchen glanced at Black Glasses. He was sure that there was something wrong with Murata, but at this time, he suddenly realized that there was something wrong with Black Glasses too, which made him even more alert.

“Based on the marks on Yuri’s corpse, which one is it?” He asked Black Glasses.

“He committed suicide willingly,” Black Glasses said. “But with his personality, if someone he considers very important asks him to sacrifice himself and his family, he’ll agree to it. I’ve seen such people before. Based on that room’s setup, I think he was trying to get the Dark Goddess to descend.”

“So, he used Qi Qiu’s skills to kill people by sacrificing the men in his family without alarming the police. Then, as the last man left in the family, he committed suicide using an ancient Himalayan sacrificial ritual from the Stone Age to summon the Dark Goddess. Humans are utilitarian creatures bound by habit so he must’ve had a reason for summoning the goddess. Although he would die, he knew that the Dark Goddess would help him achieve this purpose.”

“If he could use Qi Qiu’s skills to kill people, then he didn’t need to sacrifice himself to get rid of anyone. So, we can rule out murder as his motive. By the way, what kind of god is this Dark Goddess?” Black Glasses asked him.

“She’s in charge of lost things. Wherever she goes, everything she gains will be lost. She’s also considered the god of lost things.”

Black Glasses just smiled and didn’t ask any more questions.

“Did you notice the crucial piece of information in this painting?”

“It’s so intriguing that people can’t stop looking at it.” Black Glasses went up and covered the canvas again. “Do you think he got so deeply involved in this matter because of whatever he lost?”

“He’s dead. What’s the point of looking for what’s lost?”

“Sometimes, an object isn’t only valuable to you but is also valuable to someone else. If one of you dies, the other person can get that thing back,” Black Glasses said.

Xie Yuchen looked at Black Glasses and felt that something was very, very wrong here.

<Chapter 27><Table of Contents><Chapter 29>

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TN Notes:

(1) It’s a real organization but I wasn’t finding anything to indicate it’s a cult so I think the author made it up (I wasn’t really getting any results googling Polish cults either). Seems to mostly focus on meditation. Info here and here’s a link to their website (it’s in Polish btw).