“The one who dealt whalehide ore with me was Op from Beiqi Village, one of his caravan men even said Op was collaborating with clergy…”

This was Benjamin’s testimony, and also information he had heard from that caravan member.

After hearing this news, Jacques grew extremely excited, saying they had finally caught the traitor’s clue.

Isabella felt the same—she had never suspected the other clergy member in the village. Often there simply wasn’t any reason to suspect him.

When the old priest was young, he had been the bishop of Breathspring City. Although later, for certain reasons, he left the power center of Breathspring City, many people still remembered parts of the old priest’s past.

Given the present circumstances, Isabella was one of those who remembered.

If the old priest truly coveted fame and profit, all he would need to do is file a report and people would rush to take him back.

At that point he could lawfully obtain plenty of whalehide ore;

why would he bother sheltering a caravan smuggling whalehide ore here?

Moreover, old age is the most perfect disguise.

Most people assume that once someone is old, they no longer deserve desires and should quietly wait to die.

So they simply ignore those elderly people who move with difficulty, believing they would not commit wrongdoing out of desire.

It is as if age itself strips the label of wickedness from a person.

Because of this, Isabella had never suspected the old priest in her mind.

Yet now, Isabella was forced to begin doubting him.

Earlier she had sensed the stench of the cemetery in the church, but the old priest had interrupted her and, by pointing to the stench on his own body, had made her think her perception was mistaken.

Looking back now, there were far too many oddities in that moment.

It was precisely those oddities that had made her temporarily set aside her grudge against Naimes and join him in pursuing the tomb raider.

At the time she had instinctual suspicion, though it was not clear or focused—no definitive target had appeared.

And before they left the church, the old priest’s line “I am old and cannot help” had already dispelled most of her doubts.

Until now, when Naimes shattered that small leftover doubt, a terrible possibility involuntarily surfaced in Isabella’s mind.

“The old priest—could he have restarted the experiment…!” Isabella’s reason for needing help from the old priest lay in her own origins.

Her family held a peculiar bloodline. Although they retained considerable prestige and wealth, their numbers were few, so the family name had been sealed.

Isabella roughly understood why the old priest had left Breathspring City back then.

The church had a special research project on bloodlines, and the old priest was a principal researcher.

More than twenty years ago that research failed.

It caused significant injuries;

his disciples were left paralyzed in that incident.

The old priest felt ashamed to face the losses and the subsequent problems, so he chose self-exile.

But whatever the case, the old priest remained an expert on bloodlines.

If Isabella wanted to revive her family, she naturally needed to study her bloodline thoroughly.

And in Breathspring City, as the experiment gradually faded from public discussion, people were willing to say some good things about the old priest.

In the information Isabella later compiled, there was no concrete account of the experiment.

At that time she had regarded it as merely an accidental experimental failure, and the old priest had exiled himself for that.

In an era with widespread irresponsibility, the old priest’s character was already admirable.

“But if that was not an ordinary bloodline experiment, and the old priest exiled himself to avoid punishment, then this matter would be…” Isabella walked into the cemetery and slowly approached the church.

However, for some reason, the church that had been brightly lit—and the old priest standing at the back door waiting for her—now gave off a strangely chilling feeling.

“You’re back. Are you all right?” the old priest asked, speaking with the same kindness, as if all her previous suspicions were nothing more than fanciful ghost stories.

“I’m fine, I just didn’t find the target.” Isabella quickly composed herself, then after a slight pause said, “There’s a murderer stealing organs;

it could be an evil witch, or it might be Whale Transformation Disease.”

“We should probably report this.”

“Is that so?” The old priest nodded. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on nοvelfire.net

“I will report it through the grid immediately.”

Regarding the matter, the old priest did not hesitate and agreed straightforwardly.

Isabella breathed a sigh of relief;

perhaps the earlier events really were accidental, and all subsequent trouble was just Naimes’ provocation and sowing discord.

However, the next morning Isabella received bad news—the grid was blocked, and they did not know when it would be repaired.

“This happens often, don’t worry. We still have caravan lines to communicate through, but it might take a few days.”

“We can organize people to search the surroundings in the meantime.”

The old priest’s reassurance did not put Isabella at ease. Her face showed a trace of worry while her heart felt as if it had fallen into an icy pit.

The grid was the church’s communications and transmission network built using the statue of faith as a relay and constructed by the power of the divine. Although in the past two or three years some remote areas had experienced temporary blockages, this timing was far too coincidental.

How could communications just happen to cut out now?

As for the caravan, if the person secretly sheltering Op was not Naimes but the old priest, then information would be even less likely to leak out.

On the surface Isabella still acted like she was worried about Whale Transformation Disease, but in truth she was already contemplating the severity of the problem.

At the same time, Isabella closed her eyes and meditated, using her own faith to sense the greatness of the divine.

Inside the church she could feel the presence of God and the grid that attached to that divine presence.

More precisely, it was the faith grid. Before a priest reached the Gold Seed stage, casting divine arts required reliance on the grid.

Black Stone grade priests could sense the grid only near a church, while Steel Seed priests could sense the grid in most places, though divine arts would be greatly amplified within a church.

Moreover, in critical moments a priest could use the grid to call for divine attention.

Some priests favored by the divine could even summon praying angels through it.

Right now, although Isabella could still tap into some of the church’s accumulated faith power, she could no longer extend outward;

neither communication nor deeper probes were possible.

Isabella opened her eyes and saw the old priest not far away.

He seemed to notice she had attempted to contact the grid;

the faint smile on his aged face had somehow taken on a different flavor.