Lord of Prayer

"Hello?"

Jiang Che’s cool, clear voice came through the phone.

"I found a clue. There’s a nonexistent fourth floor at the Happiness Sea Hotel in Feng City."

Zhou Chen spoke as he quickened his pace, keeping up with the hastily retreating figure. "Bai Qinyong, born October 23, 200, lives at 12 Jinchuan Road, Luo City. Jia Ran, born July 14, 194, lives at 77 Qinghe Road, Mi City. Tang Zhongwen, born November 11, 197, lives in Qinghe District, Dragon City, and is a regional Steward for the Life Church in Fucheng. Help me look into these people."

"Okay," Jiang Che replied.

Zhou Chen immediately hung up and picked up his speed.

The man in front seemed to sense something and suddenly broke into a full sprint.

The next second, a pale flame ignited out of thin air in front of the man. The fire flared, and Zhou Chen stepped out of it, expressionless, swinging a fist into the man’s face.

BANG!

Zhou Chen didn’t use much force in the punch, afraid of killing the man outright. He just wanted to incapacitate him.

The man let out a pained scream, clutching his nose. His nasal bridge was bent crookedly, and warm blood flowed from his nostrils, dripping in large drops onto the ground.

"Who are—"

Before Zhou Chen could finish, the man’s eyes rolled back in his head without any warning. He collapsed with a thud and stopped breathing.

He was dead, just like that.

’Holy shit, is this a setup?!’

Zhou Chen’s eyes widened. He quickly knelt and pressed his fingers to the man’s neck, confirming he had no pulse. The color drained from the man’s face, leaving it pale and shrouded in a faint aura of death.

Zhou Chen frowned and asked inwardly, ’Eva, can you bring him back to life?’

[Master, this human triggered some kind of dark Curse within his body, annihilating his own Soul. To resurrect him, you must use "Tiny Miracle."]

"Why would he kill himself... Dammit!"

Zhou Chen suddenly realized something. He grabbed the corpse, and a pale vortex of fire ignited at his feet, swirling upward. In a flash of firelight, they vanished, leaving behind only the bewildered passersby staring at the empty spot.

In the lobby of the Happiness Sea Hotel, a vortex of fire suddenly erupted, causing the hotel staff and guests to scream in terror.

Zhou Chen stepped out of it, holding the corpse. He then paused and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

The strange, mysterious "4th floor" was no longer here.

He had previously used his Cyan Flame to burn away the Darkness in the "4th floor" hallway, injuring an Abyssal Demon hidden within it. He’d left a trace of Essence on it, which allowed him to roughly sense its location. Just now, however, the Abyssal Demon had moved. It was no longer here, and his connection to the residual Essence had been severed.

Zhou Chen looked down at the corpse. In just a few seconds, it had already begun to show signs of decay, melting into a pool of viscous, purulent fluid that reeked of rot.

’Lure the tiger from the mountain.’ The man had deliberately led him away.

Zhou Chen took out his phone, snapped a few pictures of the decaying corpse’s face, and sent them to Jiang Che, asking her to verify the man’s identity.

Apparently in response to the sudden, nauseating corpse photos, Jiang Che sent back a single, speechless period.

As the body rapidly decomposed, melting into a pool of blood and gore, high-pitched screams once again filled the hotel lobby. Some people fainted on the spot.

With a thought, Zhou Chen incinerated the putrid remains. He used Alchemy to levitate a phone out of the flames, then turned to a trembling male attendant.

"Did anyone go upstairs just now?"

His "Trust Aura" was still active, so the attendant, forcing down his fear, shook his head. "After... after you left the elevator, no one else went in..."

’So they can take the "4th floor" away as long as they’re within a certain distance...’ Zhou Chen nodded to himself.

A few minutes later, Jiang Che called. Zhou Chen put on his wireless earbuds and answered.

"I’ve identified the body. His name is Xia Feng, 22 years old, from Moon City. High school education, no parents. After graduating, he worked odd jobs in various cities. Two weeks ago, he quit his job and came to Feng City, where he rented an apartment one kilometer from the Happiness Sea Hotel. The specific address is Imperial Classic Apartment, Building 3, Unit 2, Apartment 502."

’Quit his job two weeks ago, came to Feng City, rented an apartment so close to the Happiness Sea Hotel...’ Zhou Chen had reason to suspect this Xia Feng had done it all deliberately, either to move the "4th floor" as quickly as possible when something happened, or to act as cannon fodder for a diversion.

"I’m heading over now. Please give the Star Association here in Feng City a heads-up for me."

A vortex of fire rose, and Zhou Chen vanished on the spot.

After a few consecutive Flame Jumps, he arrived at the Imperial Classic Apartment. A quick scan was all it took to locate Building 3, Unit 2.

Once below the apartment building, Zhou Chen leaped powerfully, easily reaching the fifth floor. He grabbed the edge of the window of Apartment 502 and peered inside.

The room was absurdly spartan, with almost no furnishings—not even a computer. On the floor were several shopping bags full of instant food, indicating Xia Feng had been prepared to live here for a long time.

’Eva, divine whether there are any traps in the room.’

[Wish Value -50]

[No traps in the room.]

Zhou Chen promptly opened the window and jumped inside. He scanned the room carefully but found nothing, mainly because the place was so bare there was hardly anything to find.

He took Xia Feng’s phone from his storage space and made a wish to unlock it.

[Wish Value -1]

The phone unlocked.

Zhou Chen first opened the contacts, took a photo of the contact list and recent call history, and sent it to Jiang Che. Then he checked the photo album and found it completely empty. The trash bin was empty, too.

Next, he opened the social media apps. There were only a few group chats discussing international news. Zhou Chen searched the chat history and found that Xia Feng had never said a word in any of them. Beyond that, the account had no friends.

Zhou Chen then went through the browser history. Xia Feng hadn’t used incognito mode, so his browsing tracks were laid bare. Aside from websites for movies and TV shows, it was all news sites—completely generic.

"Jiang Che, I think Xia Feng was under Mind Control," Zhou Chen said.

"Evidence?"

Zhou Chen cleared his throat and said with a straight face, "As a 22-year-old man, he has no history of browsing porn sites, nor are there any porn apps on his phone."

"..."

For some reason, an image of Jiang Che’s eyes turning dangerous flashed through Zhou Chen’s mind, and he hurriedly continued:

"Okay, to be serious, his daily life is highly abnormal. He didn’t cook, only ate instant food, had no social life, never spoke in group chats, and did nothing but watch movies, TV shows, or browse the news. Is that what an unemployed 22-year-old man does?

Also, he didn’t hesitate for a second when he committed suicide as cannon fodder. Unless he was a Death Warrior trained from childhood, it’s impossible to be that decisive. But he wasn’t one. That’s why I’m guessing he was under Mind Control."

Zhou Chen was so sure because he had brainwashed a whole bunch of people back in North Carolina. He knew exactly what people were like after being brainwashed or put under Mind Control.

"Mm, the probability is indeed high." Jiang Che agreed with his assessment.

After a few seconds’ pause, she spoke again. "I found information on those three people you asked me to check. They all disappeared one after another ten years ago and have since been declared legally dead."

’As expected...’ Zhou Chen nodded to himself.

Jiang Che continued, "Interestingly, during their investigation, the police found that Bai Qinyong was involved in fraud. They followed his network and eventually busted a massive fraud ring. Unfortunately, it was too late. Over a thousand families had already been scammed, and dozens of people had committed suicide.

That Jia Ran wasn’t clean either. Publicly, she was a female streamer, but behind the scenes, she was running a pimping operation. She ruined many young women and scammed money from her fans, leading to three of them taking their own lives by jumping off buildings.

Tang Zhongwen, on the other hand, had no criminal record. He was a devout follower of the Goddess of Life. He disappeared during a holiday, and the Life Church sent people to investigate, but they couldn’t find anything and quickly closed the case, declaring him dead."

"That..." Zhou Chen was speechless. He never would have imagined that Bai Qinyong and Jia Ran were both criminals.

"What did you encounter on that nonexistent fourth floor?" Jiang Che asked.

Zhou Chen recounted everything he had encountered in detail. The clatter of a keyboard could be heard from her end. A moment later, Jiang Che found a clue through her intelligence channels.

"The Life Church once possessed an Extraordinary Artifact called the ’Soul Rest Cemetery.’ The cemetery itself has Spatial Attributes and can automatically camouflage itself based on the style of its surroundings. Its ability is to contain the souls of the dead, twisting and influencing their perception. The Life Church used this Artifact to solve several cases involving Extraordinary Power.

The Soul Rest Cemetery was considered a holy land by some within the Life Church. Some elderly believers would voluntarily request to have their souls sent into the cemetery in exchange for more time to pass on their knowledge and teach the younger generation. There were also Ascenders who would enter the cemetery to hibernate after their physical bodies were destroyed, waiting for a chance to reconstruct them.

But ten years ago, the Soul Rest Cemetery mysteriously disappeared. The Life Church turned everything upside down searching for it for a long time but found nothing, and the matter was eventually dropped."

"The Life Church probably knows who stole the Soul Rest Cemetery." Zhou Chen sorted through all the clues. Considering the Life Church’s actions, the identity of the culprit was becoming obvious.

"The culprit is a high-ranking member of the Life Church... Jiang Che, can you help me look into it?"

"Be careful. Anyone who could betray the Life Church and evade them for over a decade must be very powerful," Jiang Che warned. "Not everyone in the Life Church is a Healing Type."

"I will be."

Zhou Chen pressed his earbud to end the call, then vaulted out the window, dropping five stories to land steadily on the ground. Before leaving, he even remembered to use Alchemy to close the window.

He walked toward the exit of the complex, mulling over the information about the Soul Rest Cemetery.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Zhou Chen’s expression froze.

His face grew grim as he took in the scene before him.

Under the deep night sky, burial mounds resembling small hills appeared before him. Each mound had a tombstone in front of it, bearing a person’s portrait. He immediately spotted the black-and-white portraits of Bai Qinyong, Jia Ran, and Tang Zhongwen, whom he had encountered before.

Unlike the "4th floor," this graveyard wasn’t narrow. In fact, it was exceptionally vast, but it was covered in a dense forest of burial mounds and tombstones that was enough to make one’s skin crawl. The entire world was dim and gloomy, devoid of life. Even the few trees present were gnarled, black, and dead, their branches clawing at the air. An eerie and ominous feeling permeated everything.

The next second, the eyes in all the black-and-white portraits moved, turning in unison to stare at him with a dead, expressionless gaze.

"..." Zhou Chen held his breath and looked back. Behind him was the same endless graveyard, not the apartment complex.

He was in the "Soul Rest Cemetery" again!

Last time, he entered the Soul Rest Cemetery through an elevator. But this time, the Soul Rest Cemetery had come to him!

In the dead silence, a faint sound suddenly broke through. It was soft, but it didn’t escape Zhou Chen’s ears.

He looked toward the source of the sound. In the distance, a burial mound cracked open, and a tall, skinny figure stood up from inside. The figure raised its hands, gripped its own head, and pulled hard.

It effortlessly pulled its own head right off its body.

What happened next was even stranger.

As if influenced by the creature’s ability, Zhou Chen’s body moved uncontrollably. His hands rose, grabbed his own head, and pulled upward.

CRACK. A crisp sound came from his bones.

But Zhou Chen didn’t pull his head off. He nonchalantly rolled his neck, as if he had just given himself a chiropractic adjustment, and asked in confusion:

"That’s it?"

"With that little force, you wouldn’t even get hired as a chiropractor."

With a single look, his Cyan Flame shot out in a thin line, instantly piercing the tall, skinny figure. The flames spread, and it burned like a torch, turning to ash in seconds.

But soon after, one burial mound after another began to change, either cracking open or caving in...

The things inside were coming out.