Chapter 444 Heresy Interrogation

In fact, ever since Izhaks arrived at Hao Ren's house, he hadn't done many things a Demon Lord should do. Apart from returning to his hometown to bring back his brethren, the big guy's main schedule consisted of eating, sleeping, reading People's Daily, going out to find a job, scaring people, showing his ID to the police, and recently, taking his daughter to the streets to collect old appliances (while dealing with anti-trafficking personnel). He lived like a retired cadre. But when he mentioned the method of extracting souls for interrogation, the aura of a Demon Lord was revealed.

To be able to talk about such a thing as casually as eating and drinking, how could his boldness be small?

The Pope's first reaction to Izhaks' statement was one of novelty. Then, as expected, he frowned, obviously instinctively repulsed by things like extracting souls, even though the Goddess's teachings didn't explicitly forbid it: it was a normal reaction for ordinary people. Izhaks saw this and glanced down at the cage at the non-human, non-ghost composite creature. The latter was a monster forcibly assembled and bound by heretics using flesh magic. Even though its combat power was strong, it didn't seem very stable. Perhaps it was time for it to clock out or it was too badly injured, but now the flesh was collapsing at a visible rate, quickly turning into a pool of foul-smelling, sludge-like matter.

"I suggest you make a decision quickly. This 'creature' probably won't live for more than two hours," Izhaks shrugged. "Extracting and interrogating souls isn't some heinous act. In essence, it's no different from interrogating a prisoner—except that it avoids the subject dying during interrogation, greatly increasing the success rate of obtaining valid information. After all, the body is easily broken, but the soul can withstand a wide variety of stimuli. And more importantly: in the process, I can release the other souls in this monster's body. Although they cannot be resurrected, they can at least enjoy eternal rest."

The Pope opened his mouth to speak, but then the little girl Elizabeth suddenly jumped forward: "Don't hesitate! You guys always use torture when you interrogate heretics anyway. What's the difference between torturing the body and torturing the soul—interrogating the soul doesn't even draw blood."

Becky had been hiding behind everyone, quietly observing, acting as a silent character getting boosted, but at this time, she couldn't help but mutter, "I feel like if we killed these two, they'd drop at least two sets of orange gear..."

Lily rolled her eyes: "Drop epic-level People's Daily and legendary-level screwdrivers?"

At this time, the Pope had finished struggling. After silently reciting the Goddess's teachings in his heart, he finally reluctantly nodded: "Although it is contrary to common sense... the Goddess has not explicitly opposed this behavior. In an emergency, we must act expediently. This matter will be entrusted to this guest."

Izhaks grinned, his expression like a predator, and then followed the bishop in charge of interrogating heretics out of the hall. Before leaving, he turned his head and said to Hao Ren, "Wait for my good news, he will speak soon."

The little girl Elizabeth skipped after her father: "Daddy, wait for me! I'll help you poke holes in him!"

Everyone on the scene broke out in cold sweat: this truly deserves to be a demon... no matter how righteous your worldview, it can't stop your style!

But fortunately, Holletta's culture didn't have an explicit aversion to "soul torture" yet, otherwise the Pope might not have nodded so easily.

With this sudden incident, there was basically no hope of continuing the banquet. King Moron once again expressed his apologies to Hao Ren and Hilda. For the ruler of a country, what happened today was definitely no small matter. But Hilda and her close ministers didn't care at all. The Queen smiled at Moron: "Your Majesty, there's no need to mind. Accidents are always inevitable, we are used to it. The traditional food of Holletta is admirable, we express our gratitude for it."

Next to her, Ofra subconsciously muttered, "What do you mean 'used to it'?"

Vivian sighed: "The Erem elves are used to accidents since they were little. Outsiders may not understand, but they treat encountering explosions, earthquakes, poisonous gas, and fires while eating as part of daily life."

Ofra was dumbfounded, and Hao Ren curled his lips: "Just keep thinking of it as a harsh environment for training heroes. Anyway, when you encounter something that can't be explained when communicating with us, just blame it on the environment and worldview."

The Erem elves had completed their work on this planet, and next it was Hao Ren and his team to handle the chores here. So the elves bid farewell to the Holletta people and teleported back to their planet along the route they came. More than five hundred people still squeezed back from Becky's basement like during the Spring Festival travel season. Ofra was still responsible for seeing them off. The female marshal watched the mighty engineering team disappear at Becky's gate, and couldn't help but ask Hao Ren, "You're so capable, why don't you open a larger teleportation gate? Or at least build a larger teleportation point."

"There are large teleportation stations, but they are in ownerless territory or on my territory," Hao Ren said with a smile looking at the female marshal. "If I really built a teleportation station on your territory that can handle 10,000 people per minute, others wouldn't say anything, but would you feel at ease?"

Ofra smiled and didn't say anything. There were too many things that could be said if this topic was pursued in detail, but there were also too many things that couldn't be said. Faced with this situation that was difficult to encounter with common sense, the female marshal cleverly chose to let the atmosphere fall silent.

After a while, Becky appeared. The mercenary girl was busy directing the elves "through the station" and was sweating profusely. At this time, she untied the corset of her ladylike dress without regard for her image and fanned herself with her collar. While fanning herself, she looked at Hao Ren: "Landlord, can you bring me something next time you come?"

Hao Ren: "What do you want?"

Becky's face suddenly turned bitter: "This place has no TV, no games, no computers, no internet! I've been here for so long and all I've done is attend banquets and tease fish at home... It's so boring!"

Hao Ren's mouth twitched: "You miss Earth life now?"

Becky said with a crying face: "I miss the big TV in the living room and Lily's laptop. Can you bring me a set of furniture next time? I won't take it for free, I have a lot of gold and jewelry at home! Go weigh a couple of jin..."

Listen to this nouveau riche's unit of measurement, jin!

At this time, the big bearded man, who had been silent and as transparent as someone with no presence, suddenly interjected: "Then next time you come, you have to remember to bring her a set of generators, right... and how do you solve the problem of no internet here?"

Hao Ren looked at the big bearded man in surprise. He never expected that this seemingly rigid and backward ascetic could say such high-tech terms: "You've learned a lot of things usually, I thought you were just researching wilderness survival!"

The big bearded man smiled: "Electrification is part of the Earth's environment, don't play if you don't like it."

Hao Ren: "...Who did you learn these words from?"

Lily jumped up and down vigorously next to her: "Me, me, me!"

"You're just messing around!" Hao Ren glared at Lily, then turned to look at Becky, "Okay, next time I come, I'll bring you a set of home appliances and a generator, and I'll get you a signal adapter to solve the internet problem."

Becky was immediately overjoyed, while Hao Ren's mind flashed the scene of this girl squatting in the basement in the near future, turning on the generator while plugging the network cable into the teleportation communicator to leech off the internet... He never understood why he could always make so many high-end things look like a rural information network rectification plan. This was probably a passive talent.

After seeing off the elves, the group rested at Becky's house for a while. Ofra ordered someone to bring a small box from the city, and then dismissed the idlers around, opening the box in front of Hao Ren: "This is all the intelligence we have collected about the 'Cult of Return,' as well as their teachings and some ritual items. The church already has a backup on file, these things are specially left for you."

The big bearded man immediately made a religious gesture in front of his chest: "May the Goddess have mercy, may these blasphemous things not harm more people."

"These cultists have indeed harmed a lot of people," Ofra sighed, "but I'm more worried that they are just the surface claws."

Hao Ren was flipping through some reports on the scope of the cultists' activities and the scale of their rituals, and his ears twitched when he heard this: "What do you mean?"

"This is their teaching—the 'original text' that only more core cult members will use," Ofra picked out a thin black hardcover book and handed it to Hao Ren. "According to the clues revealed in the teachings, the 'Cult of Return' is probably under the control of some more bizarre and powerful force. They are just spokespersons."