Yama Rising

"Hold on," Edward pointed in a certain direction before asking, "What's that?"

Thus far, the entire drive had been made in silence, and the driver was dying for some conversation. In addition to that, Edward's identity as a police officer instilled him with a great sense of security, and he immediately replied, "That's the Masonic Temple."

So that's the Masonic Temple? That must mean we're already on North Broad Street... Edward cast his gaze toward the temple through narrowed eyes, and he could clearly sense that there was a burst of extremely powerful Yin energy lurking inside.

It was close to the mid-Duke level. Could it be that this was what he was looking for?

He closed his eyes and allowed his own consciousness to spread. Several seconds later, he gently shook his head, and as he reopened his eyes, his expression had already turned extremely grim.

The thing that was giving off the Yin energy wasn't an object. Instead, it was a living being.

What was even more peculiar was that its aura didn't belong to that of a human. Instead, it belonged to a type of unknown creature that Qin Ye had never encountered before.

Is it a guardian of something? He stroked his own chin with a contemplative expression as his heartbeat began to accelerate. Did this entail that there was something extremely important in there, requiring the protection of such a powerful being?

It didn't matter who or what this living being was, what Qin Ye wanted to know was if the underground church was situated here and whether that "extremely important thing" that potentially existed was Xu Fu's notes.

Perhaps it would be best to take a look at this place first. There were far too many leads connected to Matthew, and if he weren't careful, he would fall headfirst into the plots being devised by the three death gods of the Caribbean and the other death gods of the new continent. As such, he definitely didn't want to approach Matthew unless it was absolutely necessary to do so.

However, he didn't act right away. He could sense that there were many witch hunters near the Masonic Temple, numbering at least in the hundreds.

"What about those things?" he asked as he pointed at the Death God Dax symbols hanging from the surrounding buildings. Some of these buildings were convenience stores, some were restaurants, some were houses, but none of them were making any attempt to disguise the Death God Dax symbols hanging outside. There weren't many people on the streets outside, but a large proportion of them were missionaries wearing red and black robes, knocking on the doors of the houses from time to time.

This wasn't a missionary robe that belonged to any religion, so it could only belong to that death god that didn't fully exist yet.

The driver looked at the missionaries with a smile, then said, "Those belong to Death God Dax. The religion of Death God Dax began spreading several decades ago along the east coast, but I heard that it's been developing particularly quickly over the past five years. You know the drill, they're the type of religion that puts promotional brochures in your letterbox and sends friendly missionaries to your door. They even have their own religious halls. You must be from the west, right?"

Edward nodded in response, and a mysterious look appeared on the driver's face as he said in a low voice, "I'll let you in on a little secret: if you encounter any issues that you can't resolve, you can go and seek help from them. They're professionals?"

Edward feigned a disinterested expression as he casually asked, "Is that right?"

The skeptical tone of his voice successfully provoked the driver, wh raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Do you not believe me?"

Edward shrugged as he continued to feign disinterest. "There are more religions in Usonia than I can count, while I am a police officer."

"I'd advise you not to be a skeptic in this case." A mysterious smile reappeared on the driver's face as he opened a can of coffee before taking a sip. "You don't know just how terrifying Philadelphia is right now. I'll give you a few examples. There was the sound of a quarrel taking place in the middle of a night in a mansion that no one has lived in for years. In the dead of night, the cutlery began to fly around on their own as if some poltergeists were cooking. In a cellar that's been sealed for over a decade, the sound of sobbing was coming from inside. I experienced some of these in person, while the rest are anecdotes that I've heard. However, if you seek out the 'White Religious Group', all of these problems can be resolved. The priests of the church are completely powerless. All they do is tell you to pray, but that's absolutely useless!"

"Is that why this White Religious Group hasn't been eradicated?" Edward asked in an indifferent voice.

"No, no, no," the driver replied with a smile as he put down his can of coffee. "It remains standing all this time because it's not a cult."

At this moment, the car rounded a corner, and up ahead was the main section of North Broad Street. Edward was immediately greeted by the sight of countless black White Religious Group flags, which outnumbered even the Usonian flags!

The grand script of death is spreading... Edward withdrew his gaze after just a quick glance. At the very least, the religion had built up a foundation in this city.

Once faith was established, a religion would be like a tree that had grown roots. It had to be said that the writer of this grand script of death was doing a very good job.

"Look at how many residents of the city have benefited from their kindness!" The driver was clearly becoming very excited as he said, "The religion hasn't harmed the general public or public property and it has no agenda against the human race, so there's no way that the Usonian government would actively abolish it. In addition to that, it's created so many genuine miracles! How could it possibly be a cult?"

Right at this moment, the car rounded another corner, arriving at the road to the back entrance of the Masonic Temple.

"Stop," Edward finally instructed, and after paying the fare, he made his way directly toward the Masonic Temple.

The Freemasonry was a fearsome organization. It controlled the economic lifeblood of the entire world. In many Asian countries, it was treated as a fabricated existence, but it had many strongholds in Usonia and many Europa nations, the most renowned of which was the Masonic Temple of Philadelphia.

This was because the identity of a Master Mason had once been revealed in this temple.

It was George Washington.

This made it clear beyond a doubt to everyone that the Freemasonry truly existed. Under normal circumstances, even the most democratic of nations would never allow their president to join a private organization. However, this church, as well as the description of George Washington's occupation in the Freemasonry present in the church, had already been standing in Philadelphia for close to a century.

Despite this, none of the congress, the House of Representatives, or the senate had said anything, and the entire police force in the entire state also turned a blind eye to it. This was a massive statement in itself.

Edward didn't dare to claim that this church was definitely hiding a secret, but what he was searching for was the vault of the First Usonian Bank. Judging from the information he had, the First Usonian Bank belonged to the Freemasonry, and among those related to the workers who had moved the bank several decades ago, Matthew was the only survivor. He couldn't be sure whether Matthew would be alerted to his joining of the Freemasonry or not.

A powerhouse organization like this one definitely had its own lines of defense, and if his identity would be exposed, it would become extremely difficult for him to enter the Masonic Temple. Thus, he had to strike quickly. Even though he wasn't fully prepared, his opponent was also in the same boat!

The staircase leading up to the back entrance had a pronounced Europa manor style, and upon entering the church, Qin Ye was greeted by the sight of a round colorful mosaic of a domed ceiling that possessed very pronounced religious elements. Every single edge had intricate patterns carved onto its surface, and a resplendent hanging candelabra trailing down from above. The light from the candles was reflecting off the colorful glass, giving it a particularly dreamy quality.

Statues of angels and the holy child were a common sight in the church, and many of them were masterpieces created by master sculptors. This was the main hall and there were two paths one could take from here, leading to the neoclassical hall, the Ionia hall, the eastern hall, the Corinth hall, the Gothic hall, the Aegyptian hall, and the Roman hall.

Each of the halls was an independent exhibition hall, containing displays of styles that corresponded with their respective names. The seven exhibition halls fit quite easily in this three-story antiquated building, and connecting the halls were long corridors that had strong religious elements. On either side of the halls were panels of colorful glass mosaics, and statues of the holy mother were placed at three-meter intervals.

However, what drew Qin Ye's attention the most was the strong true energy lingering in the building, as well as the fearsome Yin energy he had detected earlier while still inside the taxi.

A man in a black vest made his way over to Edward with a smile, then asked, "Hello sir, is this your first time visiting our Masonic Temple? Do you need a guide? I can give you a tour free of charge."

Qin Ye took a glance at him to discover that he was a nascent Netherworld Operative. He had heard from Lee Jung-sook that the Masonic Temple was acting as the stronghold for witch hunters and paladins. Did this mean that even tourists were being put under surveillance?

"No, thanks, I'm just taking a look," he replied, then casually made his way toward the left with his hands clasped behind his back.

Only after the main hall had completely disappeared behind him did he gently stomp his foot onto the ground, upon which he discovered that the ground beneath his feet was hollow!

Furthermore, the true energy he had detected was situated right down below, indicating that there were countless witch hunters present!

Could this be the underground church? He appeared to be quite calm and nonchalant on the surface, but in reality, he was looking around for anything that could be suspicious, including things like hidden doors or staircases leading downward. At the same time, countless thoughts were rapidly flashing through his mind, but he quickly shook his head and decided that this couldn't be the case.

The fact that the Freemasonry was so intent on protecting the First Usonian Bank indicated that something extremely important had to be hidden in the underground church, perhaps something that was no less important than Xu Fu's notes.

They had taken extremely cautious measures to hide the underground church, going as far as to hire movers just to put on a show, then killing the movers one by one, so there was no way that they would just carelessly allow witch hunters to enter the area.

Qin Ye was slightly disappointed upon making this realization, but he quickly shrugged it off.

This was only one of the possible locations, and there was no need for him to be overly disappointed. After all, this journey was only just beginning, wasn't it?

He had already made his way into a large exhibition hall, and looking at the style, it seemed to be the Aegyptian Hall.

It was a glorious sight with golden pillars in each of the four corners of the hall, and snakehead accessories that symbolized Aegypt were a common sight. There were statues of various important figures in Aegyptian mythology present in the room, including statues of the god of the desert, Osiris, the god of death, Anubis, the god of the sun, Ra, and there was even a very realistic Aegyptian sarcophagus positioned at the very center of the hall, as well as many oil paintings hanging on the walls.

These paintings were all portraits of past members of the Freemasonry, and Qin Ye carefully inspected every single one of them.

However, right as his gaze landed on a certain portrait, his pupils immediately contracted drastically.

It was a portrait of Richardman!

[1] [Says every cult member ever xD]