The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Leo bent down and picked out the thing he had just discovered from a pile of rubble, put it in his palm, and looked at it carefully. The look of surprise on his face became more and more intense, and finally reached the level that was beyond words.

I saw that what was placed in Leo's palm was a crystal the size of a grain of rice. Although it was small in size, it radiated real light, which was particularly eye-catching in this dark environment.

"It turned out to be a negative energy crystal?" Leo couldn't help being surprised when he saw this familiar crystal.

In the universe of the Earth Federation, although the subspace is full of unpredictable dangers, all cosmic civilizations and countries, including the Earth Federation, have never stopped exploring and researching the subspace, and negative energy crystals are one of them. one.

Negative energy crystals are a special ore produced in subspace. Before Leo came to the world of Velen, scientists from the Earth Federation were unable to find out the reason for the formation of negative energy crystals. However, ignorance of the source of negative energy crystals does not hinder the use of this subspace ore by various civilizations in the universe.

In fact, at that time, various civilizations in the universe used negative energy crystals very widely. For example, star destroyers used in weapons, antimatter bombs, etc. all needed negative energy crystals. The most widely used place is actually the navigator of the subspace spacecraft. If there is no negative energy crystal as the navigation material, any spacecraft entering the subspace may lose its direction, and the final destination may be dozens or even dozens of times away from the expected arrival place. Millions of light years.

However, Leo seems to have accidentally found the answer to the cosmic problem that plagues countless scientists in the universe where the Earth Federation is located. He has faintly discovered the secret of the formation of negative energy crystals.

Obviously, this negative energy crystal is the product of the soul bonfire rune just now, and its raw material is likely to be the negative spirits left after the bonfire purifies the soul, such as despair, pain, regret and so on.

At this moment, Leo couldn't help but think of the scene of the tragedy that he saw before. The victims had been tortured so badly during their lifetime. Originally, he thought it was just a necessary part of some kind of evil god's ritual, but now it seems that doing so may be just In order to increase negative spirits such as fear, pain, and despair, the murderer then condensed them into negative energy crystals with the help of runes from the abandoned capital city.

Thinking of this, Leo felt that it was necessary for him to go back to the scene to check again, maybe he could find more useful clues, and his strong curiosity also made him interested in tracking down the murderer who had been hidden for many years.

After storing the negative energy crystals of unknown use in his storage space, Leo observed the situation of the negative energy crystals in the storage space, and then tried to use it to touch several other important items in the storage space. Items, such as feathers, turned out to be normal.

Feeling a little disappointed, Leo turned his attention to the real world. He walked over to the three unconscious members of the Church of the Eye of Reality, and checked the items on them. Two of them are just ordinary scavengers, and most of them carry some items that scavengers always have on their bodies, and the other believer whose body is family-like should be a true believer of the Eye of Reality Church. Not only did he find the Eye of Reality The badge of a senior missionary, and a holy book of the eye of truth.

Leo ignored the two ordinary believers, but picked up the family believers and walked towards a habitable ruined house he found on the road before.

This ruined house is the first floor of a small building. The upper part has been destroyed in the bombing, but the house on the first floor is still standing. It is very suitable for a temporary shelter to shelter from wind and rain. The reason why such a good place has been vacant is mainly because it is located on the edge of the bow area. Although this place is not within the range of the influence of the psionic magnetic field, no one dares to live here, and no one even dares to live here. It's close to here, so it's very quiet here, and you won't be disturbed when you do anything.

Leo threw the family member on the ground, used a cleaning technique, cleaned up the dust in the room a little, then sat on a well-preserved chair, and said to the family member lying on the ground: "How long are you going to lie down?"

The people on the ground did not respond.

Leo continued: "A person may be able to fake the breathing rate when he is asleep, but it is difficult for him to fake the heartbeat. Your heartbeat rate tells me that you are awake now, and you are very nervous and scared."

Hearing Leo's words, this Familia cultist could no longer pretend to be in a coma. He opened his eyes, stood up from the ground, and took off the hood on his head, revealing his appearance with obvious changes of the Familia. Said: "Bayes has seen the wizard."

Leo looked at the mutated organs of the family in front of him, and saw some tentacles with scales growing out of the corners of his eyes. The eyeballs had no pupils and were all white, which looked very weird. Although the spiritual energy fluctuations on the opponent's body are still very weak, Leo can clearly feel that this spiritual energy fluctuation is exactly the same as the spiritual energy fluctuation of the Eye of Reality back then, so Leo can't help but think of the reality that has become a lake. The eye is buried.

"Is that given to you by the Eye of Truth?" Leo said without beating around the bush, pointing to the other party's mutated eyes.

"My Lord's gift." Bayes was very aware of his current situation, so he didn't dare to hide anything, and responded honestly.

Leo asked another key question, "Has the Church of the True Eye been merged into the Church of the Snake Mother?"

Regarding the issue of belief in this relationship, Bayes quickly explained: "My lord is only allied with the source of the snake, not annexed."

"Hasn't it been annexed?" Leo said with a slightly contemptuous smile: "A person like you who has received the favor of the Eye of Reality should have a certain status in the Church of the Eye of Reality, right? But an ordinary congregation of the Snake Mother Church can Directing you to do things, this kind of alliance is a bit novel."

Bayes' face immediately became extremely gloomy, and there was a wave of hatred in his eyes that couldn't be concealed, but he didn't know whether this hatred was aimed at Leo who exposed his scars, or at the Snake Mother Church who oppressed them.

It's just that Leo is not in the mood to pay attention to Bayes' emotions now. He has obtained the clues he wants from the conversation just now. The Mother Church also used the Eye of Truth. Not only can it control the believers of the Church of the True Eye, but it can even bestow divine grace on the believers and turn them into families. This is almost equivalent to the power of a higher creature with eighth-level psionic power mastered by the Snake Mother Church.

Bayes quickly restrained the hatred in his eyes, lowered his body, and asked Leo like a humble servant: "Your Excellency, what do you want me to do?"

Although he had obtained the desired information from Bayes, Leo felt that he might be able to obtain more useful information from this underground church member, so he thought for a while and said, "I don't need you." What are you doing, I just want to ask you a few questions, after answering, you can go."

"Ask! I will answer truthfully." Bayes nodded quickly.

Leo asked in a deep voice: "Are the observer churches that are appearing now also a branch of your underground church? Why have I never heard of it?"

Hearing that Leo's problem was not related to the secrets of his own church, Bayes immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and said truthfully: "These churches are not members of our underground church, and I have never heard of such a church before." A few churches. However, there is news from the Snake Mother Church that they should not easily enter the refugee cities controlled by these churches. It is said that these churches have the support of the empire behind them. Once they conflict with them, the imperial army may be attracted .”

"What do you think?" Leo asked.

"My opinion?" Bayes asked puzzledly, "Is it my opinion on these emerging churches?"

Leo nodded.

Bayes was silent for a moment, and said: "I think these churches should be the tools sent by the empire to divide the Miria refugees. As long as they join these churches, those Miria refugees will become the empire's allies. The people have plenty of food and a safe place to live, and the rest are people who don’t want to belong, and once the war on the front line subsides, the empire will definitely deal with these people who don’t want to belong.”

Hearing Bayes' opinion, Leo also had a certain understanding of the Real Eye family in front of him. He knew that the other party should have learned a little knowledge from the True Eye church and could conduct some analysis on current affairs, but he was hindered by his vision and so on. The problem is that the analysis results have no reference value.

Seeing that he couldn't get more information about the new church of the ancient gods from Bayes, Leo asked another question he wanted to know: "Do you know where the plague ring is?"

This question made Bayes silent for a moment. Obviously, this matter has already involved the secret plan of the Church of the True Eye, and Leo did not press the question, but just looked at the other party quietly, and there was a faint emission from his body. The bursts of power put a certain amount of pressure on the opponent's psychology.

"The ring of plague is in the hands of the blood wizard." Bayes finally couldn't bear the pressure, and said the answer he knew.

After hearing this answer, Leo was stunned for a moment, but he quickly figured out why the underground church believed that the Ring of Plague was in the hands of the blood wizard. However, he had no intention of explaining for Lawrence Hillman, but changed topic, asked the third question: "Do you know about the tragedy that happened in Yushi District?"

"Tragedy?" Bayes was stunned, a little dazed. After all, Yushi District is the safest place in Miria City, but that is only compared to other places in Miria City. Because there are a lot of people who died of various reasons, and there are countless things that can be regarded as tragedies, so he didn't know for a while which tragedy Leo was talking about.

"Skinning and sacrifice." Leo gave a hint.

After Bayes heard this, his expression changed immediately. His expression was full of fear and panic, and he quickly argued: "We didn't do this. We don't do sacrifices in missionary work now. That was a long time ago." , Now our method of preaching is no different from that of the Orthodox church, it is just because of the propaganda of the Orthodox church that we bear the reputation of cultists."

It is not difficult to see that Bayes regarded Leo as a bounty hunter or night watchman who hunted down the cultists, and quickly defended his church. It's just that he is obviously not a high-level church, and he doesn't know that the core high-level people of the Eye of True Church will still conduct some large-scale sacrifices from time to time to please their masters, just like the sacrifice that was destroyed by Leo and others back then Same.

"I know you didn't do it." Leo refuted the other party's excuse, motioned the other party not to panic, and said, "I just asked, do you know who did it?"

Bayes' mood stabilized a bit, and he recalled it carefully, and said: "I heard from the elders of the church that the murderer who committed this case did not appear recently, but appeared in the past, and appeared If you commit such a few times in the future, it will be hidden, and in a few years, when everyone has almost forgotten about it, it will appear again..."

"Wait!" Leo suddenly stopped Bayes, as if he was inspired by Bayes' words, his face showed a contemplative look, and after a while, he said to himself: "Could it be Is that why he did these things?"

After saying this, Leo raised his hand to signal Bayes to leave.

Seeing Leo's gesture, Bayes froze for a moment, he couldn't believe that the other party let him go so easily, but soon he realized that Leo did not continue to ask other questions. So he stepped back carefully and walked out of the ruined house. He didn't turn around until he walked a long distance, and ran towards an unidentified direction as if fleeing for his life, which seemed to be a narrow escape.

Bayes' departure did not affect Leo's thinking. He had already obtained some inspiration and clues from what Bayes said just now, and he could vaguely deduce who the murderer who committed these murders was.

Just now Bayes said that this murderer is not the first time to commit crimes, he will strike again every few years, when people are about to forget those murders, create murders, and evoke people's horrible memories of that murder.

This inadvertent sentence, in Leo's view, may be the murderer's purpose, then the murderer wants to create long-term and intense fear.

The emotion of fear, like other ordinary human emotions, can be numb if experienced too much, and what's more, you can no longer feel fear.

However, when the fear is temporarily forgotten and there is still a trace of it, and the fear is reawakened, the fear generated in people's hearts will become stronger and last longer.

And for the murderer, not all fear is useful, because in the current city of Miria, the emotion of fear is generated all the time. If the murderer only needs fear, he does not need to do this kind of murder at all, so what the murderer needs Fear can only be fear of him.

Such an obvious and incomparable feature made Leo quickly think of a strange horror that should not exist in the world of Velen.