Zhan Lan stepped forward and said to Evelyn, "May the grace of the Lord be always with us."
"Oh, yes, may the Lord Jehovah bless you, Amen."
Seeing a fellow woman in Zhan Lan, Evelyn's tone softened considerably.
Zhan Lan smiled slightly and said to Evelyn, "Miss Evelyn, the truth is, we have encountered someone who returned from Hamunaptra. That person brought back some gold from Hamunaptra and donated it to our church."
Jonathan eagerly asked, "Is there really priceless gold there?"
Zhan Lan nodded and asked Zheng Zha for a few gold bars. At the sight of the gold bars, Jonathan's eyes practically turned into lightbulbs, his face filled with excitement.
Evelyn asked in astonishment, "Gold? Is there really gold? I thought that was just a rumor."
"That's right, but we aren't here for the gold," Zhan Lan said, holding the gold bars and looking earnestly at Evelyn and Jonathan. "These gold bars carry a very dangerous curse. When that donor came to our church, he was already at death's door. After our priest performed an exorcism, he revealed the origin of the gold bars."
"A curse? Sorry, I don't believe those old-fashioned stories."
Evelyn shook her head, sneering at Zhan Lan's explanation.
Zhan Lan turned to Zheng Zha and said, "Show Miss Evelyn. As an agent of the Lord, exercise the power bestowed upon you by the Lord."
Zhan Lan's words were direct, and Zheng Zha understood her meaning immediately. He directly activated his First Order Genesis Lock, controlled his Internal Force to flow into his legs, and then stomped hard onto the ground.
"Thud!"
The ground emitted a dull sound, and Zheng Zha's lower leg sank deeply into the soil. When he lifted his leg from the ground, there was a depression over twenty centimeters deep left behind, and the shape of this depression matched the soles of Zheng Zha's feet perfectly.
Zheng Zha took two steps back. Evelyn and Jonathan squatted down at the same time, touching the footprints on the ground, then looking at the soles of Zheng Zha's feet, before locking eyes with each other in stunned, dumbfounded expressions.
"Oh! My Lord!"
"I'm not dreaming, am I?"
They had just walked past this very spot and could confirm that the ground was hard-packed earth. Now, having touched it with their hands, a pit over twenty centimeters deep had indeed appeared in the ground.
It couldn't be some kind of trick, nor could it be sleight of hand. The person before them had genuinely stomped a pit over twenty centimeters deep into the ground with a single step.
Stomping a solid ground to leave a footprint over twenty centimeters deep—this was simply not something human strength could achieve. If anyone could pull that off, that person must have received the blessing of the Lord!
O'Connell mused aloud, "Could it be that only Samson, who was granted power by the Lord, possessed such formidable strength?"
Samson was a figure in Christian mythology, born according to God's promise and endowed by God with superhuman strength. He once used the jawbone of a fresh donkey to slay a thousand enemies and killed a male lion with his bare hands.
Yet Zheng Zha's strength far surpassed that of Samson.
Zhan Lan continued, "After the priest reported the matter of Hamunaptra to the bishop, the bishop prayed to the Lord and received a prophecy. An ancient demon is about to be resurrected in Hamunaptra, and his resurrection will bring the Ten Plagues to Egypt. To prevent this catastrophe, the bishop has dispatched us, agents of the Burial Agency, to come to Egypt and eliminate that demon."
Evelyn asked blankly, "Do you swear what you're saying is true?"
Zhan Lan pressed her palm onto the Bible and said sincerely, "In the name of the Lord, everything I say is true."
The Heavenly Lord is the Lord, and God is the Lord; there's no difference.
Zheng Zha walked over to Wen Lie and asked in a low voice, "Why did you suddenly shout at me just now? Was it to make me show off my strength?"
Wen Lie retorted irritably, "What else?"
Zheng Zha smiled sheepishly and said, "Don't you have Stand: God Anubis?"
Wen Lie sighed, "Bare hands are more persuasive than weapons. Use your brain, will you?"
Zheng Zha gave a bitter smile. "Just say so directly next time. If you don't say it, how am I supposed to understand?"
Wen Lie turned his head away, muttering inwardly: I didn't know eye contact was a lie, either.
Many works featured scenes involving eye contact.
Clearly, Wen Lie had taken it seriously.
Evelyn curiously pressed Zhan Lan for details: "What is the Burial Agency? Is it an exorcism department of the church?"
"Rather than calling it an exorcism department, it's more like an execution squad for slaying demons," Zhan Lan recited the setting—a concept provided by Wen Lie, drawn from Tsukihime. "We aren't exorcists who banish demons; we are executioners who slaughter demons. We handle Christianity's contradictions not through the laws of the Lord, but through the might of the Lord. We adopt a merit-based approach, so even believers unfamiliar with the Bible can join."
Zhan Lan was being conservative; in truth, as long as you helped chop vampires, even nominal believers could join.
"To put it simply, we aren't skilled at exorcism rituals, and some members aren't even good with scriptures. The one thing we excel at is killing demons."
O'Connell looked thoughtful.
The violent arm of the church? As long as you have strength, you can join, and your faith doesn't matter?
In O'Connell's understanding, that was pretty much what Zhan Lan meant.
Evelyn didn't quite grasp it to that extent. A hint of awe colored her demeanor as she continued to ask, "Then why are you still lingering here? The boat to Hamunaptra has already arrived."
Zheng Zha chimed in to explain, "The ancient demon of Hamunaptra is too powerful, and he has formidable minions as well. Our strength is insufficient. Before heading to Hamunaptra, we plan to seek help from the British garrison and ask them to dispatch an army to set out with us."
"The British army!" Jonathan jumped up and blurted out anxiously, "How can that work?"
Zheng Zha countered, "Why can't it?"
Jonathan was left speechless.
Did he even need to ask? If the British army followed them there, would there be any gold left for him?
To accommodate the members of the China Team, Evelyn agreed to postpone their departure for Hamunaptra by a day. Reluctant as he was, Jonathan was dragged back to the city by Evelyn anyway.
Zhao Yingkong, however, did not follow the others away, vanishing alone into the crowd at the dock.
The British military base.
Using the same old mystical act, Zheng Zha activated his Second-Order Gene Lock, performed a demonstration for the British troops by catching a submachine gun bullet bare-handed, and showed off a display of Crimson Flame. Zhan Lan delivered a smooth speech and laid out a dozen gold bars, successfully pulling the wool over the eyes of the British commander.
Both sides agreed that in the early hours three days later, the British base would dispatch troops to assist the agents of God in heading to Hamunaptra—where a massive amount of gold was buried—to subjugate the ancient evil spirit.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Early in the morning of that day, sunlight streamed through the window into the inn. Wen Lie stretched lazily and made his way down the stairs to the ground-floor restaurant.
"Morning, everyone."
"Morning."
"Good morning."
Greeting the others, Wen Lie took a seat next to Zhao Yingkong.
Glancing over the various foods on the table, Wen Lie tore off a piece of flatbread, dipped it in a sweet sauce made of cheese and tomatoes, and began to eat.