Bab 286: Chapter 286: The Wealthy Patron, Antonio
"Damn it!"
Pedro clenched the steering wheel, his expression sour.
"Why do we have to trust this woman? The church is gone, the cathedral is dead, all those so-called clerics are frauds! Why are we still following her?
Rack actually trusts her unconditionally! Damn it! He's the police chief! He's ignoring the lives of everyone in Amara Town! I will definitely complain about him!"
His voice grew increasingly agitated.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Jimmy listened to his brother's tirade, unsure what to feel.
He only had one feeling, that his normally steady brother seemed a bit manic since seeing Uriel.
"Since Mirta is willing to vouch, I'm willing to trust her," Jimmy finally said.
"Pedro! What choice do we have? Rack says she's a Purifier."
"Purifier, so what? That man still died!"
Pedro was still stubborn.
Hearing this, Jimmy didn't bother to respond to his brother anymore.
In his view, as long as someone could solve the problem, that was all that mattered.
They were just caretakers of a farm, having never seen a corrupted one, only heard of them; they knew nothing about dealing with them.
Of course, he still had doubts about this cleric's identity.
He was willing to believe, only because of his own teacher, and Rack's verification of Mirta's identity, otherwise, he wouldn't believe in real clerics either.
As the lead pickup truck stopped, Jimmy instinctively glanced at the somewhat rundown, yet very clean church, a hint of unseen nostalgia in his eyes.
"Damn it!"
After parking, Pedro cursed again:
"People still can't forget the church, I want to see what the so-called priest looks like!"
With that, he got out of the car with a bang.
Still sitting in the passenger seat, Jimmy looked back and saw Rack and his deputies also getting out of their police cars.
"I hope what Mirta said is true," Jimmy muttered, shaking his head and getting out of the car as well.
Mirta had already walked ahead to lead the way,
Pedro followed closely beside her with a sullen face.
He had no choice but to follow quickly with Rack and others.
Not sure what was happening, Jimmy noticed Pedro seemed to freeze in place, as if petrified; his expression was frozen, his eyes showing a hint of shock and confusion.
"What's this?"
A thought crossed Jimmy's mind, and he quickly walked past Rack and the others to Pedro's side, instinctively looking forward.
The scene and the person in front of him made his eyes widen slightly.
A burly man, dressed in a pitch-black cassock, stood at the church entrance, smiling and welcoming them.
The sunlight streaming through the church's upper space cast a holy glow on him, calming anyone who saw it.
Was it an illusion? From this simple scene, he suddenly remembered the times he and his brother had played at the church, seeing a priest always standing at the entrance,
only that priest had already died...
"Now I'm somewhat inclined to believe Mirta's words," Rack's voice came from behind, his voice trailing off as he spoke.
"I've never seen a cleric who could calm people down upon meeting, never..."
Jimmy pursed his lips, watching Mirta greet the man with great respect, showing none of the dominance she had at the police station.
Clearly a woman, yet she could use a few words to calm the irritable Pedro, getting him to obediently follow.
Keep in mind the two men's physiques were not at all comparable.
"Looks like you've brought good news, Mirta."
York shifted his gaze from the group hesitating at the front gate to Mirta, smiling as he spoke.
"Have you found the corrupted one?"
Mirta bowed slightly, respectfully saying, "Yes, Father York, someone came to report just in time."
She explained all the details in just a few sentences.
"Someone bypassed the town and reported to the city, the city sent a Purifier to check the situation, who died one hundred meters from the target. I suspect it's the work of the corrupted one's evil spirit."
"So it is really a corrupted one."
York glanced at the police officers and two ragged-looking men who still didn't dare to approach.
"Are those two men the reporters?"
In his eyes, except for the police who were still clean, these two men had a layer of murky, dark aura about them.
"Yes, Father York."
Mirta introduced them: "The shorter one is Pedro, the taller one is Jimmy, they witnessed the corrupted one with their own eyes."
"Hmm."
York responded indifferently, walking toward the group.
"Looks like it is."
Mirta blinked and followed.
And with York's move, while making Rack and other officers cautious, it also made Pedro and his brother stiffen up instantly, not daring to move a muscle.
Authority is an intangible thing, yet it exists, allowing people to feel it immediately, deeply affecting their feelings and judgments.
It's like ordinary people encountering a tiger in the wild, frozen in place, not daring to move.
Pedro, who had been quite irritable all the way, had now turned into a well-behaved child, not daring to curse.
This made Jimmy somewhat incredulous while also feeling why his brother had changed like this.
It was merely the change brought about by the man in front of them, a man with a very strong oppressive presence, bringing pressure while also making people feel a very peaceful atmosphere.
This very contradictory atmosphere made him believe Mirta's words.
Seeing the man approaching, Jimmy wanted to say something, but under this pressure, he couldn't utter a word.
He could only watch as the man approached.
"You..."
Just as Pedro managed to choke out this much, he saw the clergyman taller than himself shake his head to interrupt, saying.
"There's dirt on you."
Pedro and Jimmy clearly heard this statement, their pupils contracting.
"Surely the emotions along the way must have been somewhat off."
Jimmy instinctively looked towards his brother Pedro.
"It seems I guessed right, just an emotional disturbance, otherwise..."
York noticed this, smiled, and extended his hand to the stiff Pedro by his side, then gently snapped his fingers.
With a snap, an invisible force spread from the center of the snap.
A subtle ripple appeared in the air.
The dark aura lingering around the brothers Pedro instantly disintegrated.
Everyone didn't understand what it felt like, but the moment the snap sounded, the only thing they felt was that the whole world had become quiet.
Not to mention them, Pedro's eyes instantly cleared, the vague noises in his head disappearing instantly, as he looked at the man filling his field of vision, he was somewhat dazed.
"It's alright."
York patted Pedro's shoulder, brushing off the invisible dust, and said gently.
"Evil will be driven out,
Can you take me to see the corrupted one you witnessed, Mr. Pedro?"
Pedro nodded blankly.
York smiled, his gaze passing over the brothers Pedro, ignoring Jimmy's changing expression and face, and lingering on the well-behaved Rack and other officers behind, then he said.
"Hello, I am York John, the superior of Sister Mirta, and the priest of this Pluto Church..."
York officially declared his identity to these officials.
His journey began from the remote town of Amara, taking a step forward.
...............
"Father York, this is the schematic of the Antonio family farm, I've marked all the information on it for you," Mirta said as she drove to catch up with Pedro's leading pickup truck, handing over the freshly prepared documents to the priest in the passenger seat.
"Hmm."
York casually took them, these were the specifics he had requested.
He wanted to confirm the spiritual pollution by the corrupted one, how extensive it was, or how strong.
Opening it up, York looked at the detailed numbers of people listed on it, memorizing each one.
The target's location was in the most remote part of the farm.
"Your colleague died on the road, this means someone has already been controlled by the corrupted one's mind."
York stated calmly, pointing to the house closest to them.
"Let's start with the first house, Antonio's, the farm owner's, to see if there's any contamination. If there's none, have him gather everyone here to see if there's any change."
Mirta nodded seriously: "Yes, Father York."
Hearing this, York put away all the documents and settled back into his seat.
In the real world, demons naturally carry a corrupting realm, and once humans are corrupted, it means they've handed over their control to the demons.
And from the moment he saw Pedro, he felt that the spiritual infection of the corrupted one was somewhat similar.
According to Mirta, those infected by the corrupted one are called evil spirits, their brains and thoughts gradually controlled by the demon inside the corrupted body.
In other words, the evil spirits are still human, but they've been brainwashed by the demon, becoming its followers.
And to save these people, they need to be awakened, to see God's miracles.
It has to be said, humans are really too fragile.
...
"Do we really need to record this, Chief?" Ryan, the officer driving, glanced at the rough pickup truck ahead, hesitantly speaking.
He knew that the memorable clergyman was in that vehicle.
"Of course, Father York has agreed." Rack's eyes held a hint of unseen excitement.
"If he really is the legendary priest, then we are among the witnesses, Ryan! We're about to witness the world change..."
Ryan instinctively licked his dry lips, saying no more, watching the pickup truck turn into a side path, following along.
They stopped at a house deep within the farm.
"Ryan, bring the law enforcement recorder," Rack reminded him.
"Okay."
Ryan nodded, picking up a set of law enforcement recorders that were usually not used, the recorder had become a relic of the past, a symbol he hadn't expected to use again.
This made Ryan reminisce about the peaceful times before the demons.
"Let's go!"
Hearing his chief's voice, Ryan had no choice but to pack away his long-forgotten memories, putting on the long-unused law enforcement recorder as he followed his chief out of the car.
At this moment, in Ryan's eyes, the priest named York and Mirta were already stopping in front of the house.
And Pedro and Jimmy were already walking towards the house.
He hurriedly turned on the recorder, clumsy with years of disuse, but fortunately, he managed to get it working.
Seeing his own chief obediently standing beside the priest, he quickly joined them.
He heard the chief's question.
"Father York, can you tell who the contaminated evil spirits are?"
Hearing the question, York glanced at the police chief named Rack, indifferently saying.
"Of course, Chief Rack, I can tell you, all evil is visible in the presence of God's spokesman."
Hearing this, Rack excitedly wiped his hands.
"That's great!"
York smiled, ignoring his excited expression, looking back at the people called by Pedro and Jimmy.
They soon called out a pot-bellied man with work traces on his face, graying temples, wearing cowboy attire at the doorway.
In his eyes, this man didn't carry any dirt, it seemed the corruption by the corrupted one wasn't very strong.
It seems that only after violating those seven principles can the demon's tentacles extend...
"Father York, that's Antonio, the vast farm is all his."
Before Mirta could explain, Chief Rack was the first to speak up.
"He's the wealthiest man in Amara Town, more than half of the market's meat supply is his..."
Looks like a rich man?
York's eyes slightly raised, his first thought was of the Pluto Church.
"This is a major patron."
York immediately pegged this bewildered Antonio, shocked by the words of Pedro and his brother, as the first major patron of the Pluto Church.
...
"It's impossible! How could there be a corrupted one here?"
Antonio stood at the doorway, a pregnant woman appearing behind him.
Pedro nodded at the farm owner's wife, Diana, and said.
"I saw it with my own eyes, Antonio, you must have heard last night's gunfire, right? A Purifier has already died on the road."
"Why would the most remote place in the world have a corrupted one?"
Antonio glanced at the group of people including the police at the fence door, his heart shocked as he stared at Pedro, saying solemnly.
"Are you sure you're not deceiving me? Pedro!"
Pedro nodded seriously.
"Just follow and see for yourself, then you'll know the truth,
Antonio, this needs to be resolved, otherwise, this place will become a ghost town! Uriel is about to die."
According to the rumors, the host, or the corrupted one, is the most troublesome after their death, because you don't know where it will go or who it will possess, it's unpredictable.
This is why there's the fourth principle: do not harm them, and the sixth principle: do not kill them with firearms (they will be immediately possessed or die).
"Damn!"
Antonio instinctively looked at Jimmy for confirmation, cursively cursed, then looked at the people behind the brothers.
"Besides Rack and Ryan, who are they? Oh right, I remember that woman's name is Mirta, she used to be a teacher, also a damn fraud,
who is that man? Very unfamiliar."
Pedro and Jimmy looked at each other.
"The town's Pluto Church..." Pedro seriously replied.
"The new Father York."
"Pluto Church? A priest?"
Antonio was stunned, then looked towards Jimmy, more inclined to believe the more stable Jimmy.
Yet he saw Jimmy nodding slightly.
Inside, the farm owner's wife, Diana, also stopped her steps to leave because of this sentence, her eyes slightly furrowed as she looked towards the door.
She had once been one of the disappointed believers, including her husband.
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