Chapter 698: 229 Reversal, Astonishing Secret Message_4
Leonard Churchill had gone undercover within the Silver Moon Sect and encountered many objects tainted with faith pollution.
So, when he saw this Enlightenment, he didn’t take it too seriously.
As for “curse”, that was even less of an issue.
Leonard Churchill thought, and directly opened the deerskin pouch.
In an instant, his gaze froze on the spot.
“No way…”
A twitch inexplicably appeared at the corner of Leonard Churchill’s eye.
He had prepared himself psychologically to see some bizarre and terrifying items.
However, what he didn’t expect was to see something familiar.
A pottery jar covered with dense curse spells.
Upon closer inspection, it was identical.
The Disaster Object [X-711 Spell Clay Pot].
He had two of them on him.
“It’s actually this thing…”
Leonard Churchill hadn’t expected that the thing Reuel Bible risked his life to steal from the X Bureau would be this.
He had two if anyone needed.
Thinking was one thing, Leonard Churchill carefully examined the clay pot in his hands.
After all, the ones he had did not leak any contamination.
This closer look indeed revealed a small crack on the pot.
“It’s broken. Although it has been repaired, the contamination is still leaking out, isn’t it…”
Leonard Churchill saw gold lacquer on the crack; the repair was skillful, but it still couldn’t prevent the leak.
Upon seeing this, he also thought to himself, “Does this mean the exemption from the curse is due to the material of the jar itself, designed to limit the escape of the curse’s contamination, rather than the function of the pot itself?”
Previously, Leonard Churchill had always been curious about what was inside the pot, but now he knew a little bit.
Inside was some kind of curse and faith pollution source beyond cognition.
The fact that Reuel Bible gave such serious instructions, saying that even “mentioning related terminology” could lead to contamination, suggested the matter was even more terrifying than what met the eye.
“…”
After knowing what was inside, Leonard Churchill completely dismissed the idea of being curious about what was in the pot.
Instead, he felt a strange sense of absurdity, “So, you’re saying I’ve been running around with two nukes on my back?”
He didn’t dare to think about the danger if both pots had broken.
Fortunately, these objects were very sturdy.
Looking at the clay pot with a small fracture in his hand, Leonard Churchill fell into deep contemplation, “So, am I supposed to hand this over to Noah Wright?”
He thought Reuel Bible’s plan wasn’t too problematic.
And he roughly guessed the sequence of events.
He had heard that the X Bureau’s headquarters had contained all kinds of weird things, some out-of-control ancient relics, some super-tier antiques that ordinary people couldn’t handle…
Now, it seemed that they had contained this clay pot, and possibly, some of the upper echelons inside the X Bureau may have already been contaminated.
Reuel Bible didn’t trust those people and had to find a way to hand it over to someone from another district.
And within the whole Federation, there weren’t many options for dealing with such dangerous objects.
Handing it over to the leader of the Thirteen Knights wasn’t a bad choice.
At least Noah Wright was an acquaintance.
…
“But then again, three of these pots have appeared already. How many are there?”
Leonard Churchill looked at the broken pot and slightly furrowed his brows.
He thought he would just deal with the pot according to his old friend’s last wishes.
But just as he was about to place the pot into the tier-four relic [Goer’s Cursed Enchanted Bag], a new thought occurred to him, “Huh, could Old Bible have hinted at something else to me?”
Reuel Bible was the X Bureau’s ace agent. The man might seem rough but was actually extremely meticulous.
The hurried words he had spoken before didn’t seem problematic upon listening.
But Leonard Churchill always felt, based on the tacit understanding between friends and Old Bible’s character, that there might be some other implications…
“`
Just like he knew he had been discovered, some words “cannot be said”!
This intuition flashed.
Leonard Churchill was recalling all the details of the previous meeting in his mind, while his hands were not idle, flipping through the jar and that leather bag.
The leather bag was an ancient relic, stained with some blood.
It must have been stained after Reuel Bible got injured.
Leonard Churchill noticed the bloodstains, and vaguely felt that there seemed to be some pattern to them.
As a special agent, cryptography was a basic skill.
His intuition told Leonard Churchill that these bloodstains might be hiding some information.
Once he started thinking in that direction, the patterns gradually appeared to have a regularity to them.
“This seems to be the ‘Panlos Cipher’… or perhaps just random gibberish?”
Because of his photographic memory, Leonard Churchill quickly selected one possibility from the cryptography books he had read.
This code was very tricky.
Either it was true gibberish.
Or it required a specific “key” to decipher the encrypted information.
“The key, if…”
Leonard Churchill’s thoughts were racing, as he recalled all his conversations with Reuel Bible.
He suddenly thought of a number “345”.
This was the number he had rolled with dice at the Thunderbolt Fortress when Reuel Bible had suggested using a dice roll to decide whether to take the Weeping Angel or not.
It was one of the few memories
345, 453, 543…
He tried a few possibilities.
The process was complex, but in his mind, it was instantaneous.
“Eh… can 543 really work?”
Leonard Churchill found it very coincidental.
But on the next face, his expression froze.
Because, he had actually deciphered that segment of encrypted information: “I should have already, or will soon be contaminated, but I cannot detect it. I suspect He can read my thoughts, influence my actions. Therefore, I used the relics to tamper with some of my memories and perceptions in advance. Whatever I told you, keep the object with you, and never hand it over to anyone else. The trap has been set, waiting for the outcome. Be careful.”
…
Leonard Churchill felt goosebumps all over his body at the instant he deciphered this passage.
He immediately realized something: “Reuel Bible has altered his own dice-rolling memory so it cannot be spied upon. Then he left the encrypted message here!”
To alter one’s own memory?
Shit…
Old Bible really pulled it off!
Leonard Churchill had deciphered the encrypted content, and instantly realized that this was a big deal.
At first, he just felt it was very urgent, very dangerous.
But now upon seeing Reuel Bible’s encrypted content, Leonard Churchill instantly felt a thick conspiracy cloud looming overhead.
And all the threads of connection were centered on this jar.
“Hiss…”
Leonard Churchill’s mind spun, instantly thinking too much.
He took a sharp inhale of cold air.
As if plummeting into an ice cave, goosebumps erupted, and his thoughts became completely clear.
“If Reuel Bible is already contaminated, but he still ‘wants me’ to find Noah Wright… that means, this isn’t Old Bible’s own intention, but a grand conspiracy aimed at the leader of the Thirteen Knights, ‘Pursuer of Light’…”
Leonard Churchill thought this, and suddenly, cold sweat soaked through him.
If Reuel Bible really had been contaminated, this whole thing, from beginning to end, was a conspiracy!
The previous ambush was just a part of the trap.
Even Leonard Churchill felt that, even if he hadn’t managed to kill those five hunting squads immediately, he would eventually be able to “luckily” escape.
And “Reuel Bible” hadn’t mentioned the passphrase before, which means that he truly didn’t know.
From this, Leonard Churchill could be one hundred percent certain that the Old Bible he had just seen was contaminated!
“`