Listening to Agatha's undisguised disgust for the Annihilation cultists, the old warden's expression remained unchanged—his attention was focused more on the latest intelligence.

The "samples" taken from the cemetery… displayed properties in the lab that resembled the "prime element" described by those cultists.

No matter how crazy those heretical cultists were, no matter how perverse their fallacies, as a member of the orthodox church, the old warden had to understand the information about those heretics, understand their fanatical doctrines and extremely contagious knowledge system, and in the entire heretical doctrine of the Annihilation cultists, it always revolved around a core: the Darksea Sacred Master, and the various "miracles" created by the Darksea Sacred Master.

The Annihilation cultists firmly believed that the mortal world blessed by the gods today was not a "peaceful paradise," but in essence a "land of exile" that had been severely corrupted and completely distorted. They believed that the light and prosperity of the real world were illusions woven by the gods, and that the true home of mortal souls and the "unpolluted real world" was not here at all, but in the depths of the world—the Darksea Domain.

On this basis, they believed that the Darksea Sacred Master and the demons represented the purest, most primordial, and unpolluted state of the world, and that mortals could only "return" to the Darksea and return to the original land by purifying their own filthy bodies.

However, the mortal world was blocked by the gods, and a barrier was built between the "distorted real world" and the "true real world (i.e., the Darksea Deep Sea)." The flesh and blood of mortals was the concrete manifestation of that barrier. As long as the souls of mortals were still trapped in that body and subjected to a lifetime of "pollution," it would be possible to return to the Darksea.

Therefore, the Darksea Sacred Master would descend a miracle called "Aga"—the heretics were convinced that this sacred substance was the foundation of all things at the beginning of the world, and that the blueprint of the Sacred Master when planning the "real world" was hidden in the microscopic scale of "Aga," and that only "Aga" could resist the curse in the flesh and blood of all beings in the mortal world, allowing mortals to return to the "pure state of birth."

As for the substance called "Aga," the Annihilation cultists described it as follows: "...it will exhibit all the characteristics of all things in the world, and will always be in a constant cycle of evolution. It represents all the plans and blueprints of the Darksea Sacred Master when shaping reality, and short-sighted mortals will never be able to measure any correct or wrong properties..."

Then he recalled the glorious achievement of the Ship of Lost Home dragging the Eighteen Islands of Visselan into the subspace, as well as the connection between these eighteen islands and the Death Cult that he had learned when chatting with Morris and Vanna before.

His lips moved slightly, but his voice directly entered the old warden's mind: "Is this visitor... so approachable?"

Footsteps sounded from the side, and the old warden cautiously came to the side of the coffin. He slowly glanced at the dark coffin with the corner of his eye, and then quickly withdrew his gaze the next moment.

"Oh, I understand. People often have mental problems while talking to me. Frankly, it's quite troublesome," the entity said with a smile in its tone. "They know how to protect themselves, which is good."

A special corpse used to be placed here.

"But his specialness still exceeded everyone's expectations," the old warden turned his head and looked at the young gatekeeper. "We found the real well-faller the next day, so this corpse was obviously just a 'copy' of the real dead person… a copy made with 'Aga,' so it's no wonder it attracted the attention of these Annihilation heretics."

The cemetery fell silent for a while. An unspeakable weirdness and noise enveloped the paths and platforms, soaking in the night wind mixed with snowflakes.

I have dealt with many transcendent beings, including some who are extremely vicious or chaotic, but this is the first time I have talked to myself like this.

The light snow had gradually increased after nightfall, and fluttering snowflakes were constantly falling from the dark night sky. Canes stood in the dim cemetery, and the lanterns at the top of the canes illuminated the surrounding scattered snowflakes, as if adding a hazy texture to everything.

"...Yes, an indescribable visitor," even Duncan's always calm expression finally changed a little, and his tone became cautious, "They don't know what their intentions are yet."

The black-clothed guards gathered around the coffin immediately scattered slightly to the side, in case this overly cautious response was regarded as some kind of provocation by this "visitor" who had descended on the corpse.

Although this time he did not lose control of his psychic vision due to the incense, and even used an agent to resist spiritual pollution in advance, the psychological shadow brought by the last "contact" was too strong, and even this veteran who had experienced many battles seemed extremely cautious at this moment.

However, facing such an answer, the old warden's expression did not change at all, and he still just quietly stared into the gatekeeper's eyes: "Do you think that is 'Aga'?"

The old warden almost instantly turned into a pale shadow, teleporting to the side of the mortuary table. He stared at the coffin that made the sound, and after taking two deep breaths, he tried to say in as calm a voice as possible: "Are you... the visitor from the other day?"

"Can we know who you are...?" After a moment of determination, he finally mustered the courage to ask.

Duncan frowned.

"These samples... used to be a person, at least they used to look like a person," the old warden said as if to himself, "You personally led the team to send him here, you should still remember."

A muffled and low voice came from a coffin in the distance: The two church officials completed a brief exchange, and then the old warden gently waved his hand to the surroundings.

"Why don't you continue?"

The old warden answered without hesitation: "It's just the ravings of these heretics. This is likely just a new substance that we cannot explain with our current knowledge system. Its attribute changes may be some kind of natural phenomenon, or perhaps some kind of transcendent power—but it cannot be a 'miracle' descended by the Darksea Sacred Master."

Everyone was waiting—waiting for an indescribable visitor, and a peaceful sunrise.

Duncan suddenly raised his head and stared into the old warden's eyes: "...Do you think this is 'Aga'?"

And it was unclear how long such noise lasted. Just as the gatekeeper was preparing to advise the old warden to go back to the cabin to rest, a light tapping sound suddenly rang out in the night.

Faced with the second question, the old warden finally fell silent for a short time. After two or three seconds, he gently breathed a sigh of relief: "But it is undeniable that at least in terms of properties... the collected samples match the description of those heretics."

The old warden looked up at the sky and said after a moment of silence, "The night is late."

Such a sound suddenly came from the quiet cemetery, and even the well-trained church guards could not avoid a moment of shock and stunnedness. The old warden even felt that the snowflakes falling in the light seemed to freeze for those two seconds—the next moment, all the guards quickly came to the coffin that made the sound, and the sound of boots stepping on the snow sounded.

The gatekeeper raised his head and exchanged a stunned look with the old warden.

"Sorry for coming unannounced, I hope I didn't scare you," Duncan in the coffin thought for a while and greeted casually, "I did come once two days ago, but there were cultists causing trouble at that time, and the contact with this warden was not smooth."

"Just a traveler, don't be curious about my name—it's good for all of you."

"From the time they started discussing this 'Aga,'" Duncan's voice came from the coffin, "I felt like I heard some very interesting information—but they suddenly stopped talking."

"Perhaps it wasn't that they attracted their attention, but that the whole thing was their doing," the old warden shook his head, "We believe that this well-falling accident was caused by the cultists, and the purpose was to create 'replicas' with the sacrifices in the depths of the mine, similar to some kind of sacrificial ritual, but it is obvious that their plan went wrong, which led to the replicas being discovered by mistake, and even sent to your cemetery by us."

"...Have you been here long?"

After calming down a little, the old warden finally broke the silence.

"Of course I remember," the gatekeeper said softly, "Few corpses require the 'gatekeeper' to transport them personally, and this corpse fell into the deepest part of the mine, which is the deepest place in the entire city-state, and the dead brought out from there are very..."

"...We have no intention of offending you," the old warden immediately responded cautiously. I cannot confirm the origin of this "visitor" for the time being, but the other party has not shown any initial hostility, so in the face of a superior non-hostile "god-like" being, showing enough politeness is the first step in communication, "The arrangements here are only to protect our own sanity."

The old warden shrugged: "It also attracted the attention of an indescribable 'visitor'."

And his gaze passed through these scattered snowflakes and lights, and landed on an empty mortuary table.

The old warden looked up at the mortuary in the distance.

Duncan had already sensed the surrounding aura in the coffin. He had been lying in it for more than just a few minutes. From the time the old warden and the young woman started talking about "Aga," he had been listening patiently and curiously. At this moment, feeling the surrounding aura dissipating, he smiled and said casually, "There are quite a few people here tonight."