Duan Chen, the subject of their talk, watched the two figures kneeling at the front of the pulpit with a deep, enigmatic gaze.
They were, unmistakably, the two he knew best.
A sixth sense stirring within him urged caution, preventing him from immediately employing his True Sight. He meticulously scanned the church, noting the bizarre, unsettling style of everything within.
What could be the reason?
Suddenly, Duan Chen perceived something.
Divided by the central aisle of the church, the left and right sides were perfectly symmetrical.
Not just ordinary symmetry, but absolute, perfect symmetry.
Even the scarecrows were all aligned in perfect balance.
To the point where every single straw was mirrored.
It was as if one side was a direct copy of the other.
The only exceptions to this flawless symmetry were himself standing at the entrance, the angel figure at the pulpit, and the two figures kneeling before it.
Duan Chen blinked.
He, of course, had to blink.
No one could remain unblinking indefinitely. His blinking rate wasn't fast; this was his first blink since entering the church.
Upon reopening his eyes, Duan Chen suddenly sensed something was amiss.
He possessed an exceptional memory, a talent he was proud of. The scarecrow to his left, which had been standing with its hands raised, facing the pulpit with a bowed head, was now different.
Its hands were lowered.
Furthermore, the angel, which should have been holding the Covenant of Judgment behind the pulpit, now had the book lowered. One wing was slightly raised, while the other, a broken, asymmetrical wing, seemed to droop even lower.
One hand held the book, while the other rested on the pulpit, as if supporting itself to step down.
The stances of the other scarecrows had also changed.
In short, everything had shifted.
Duan Chen's eyebrows twitched.
Were these things alive!?
If they weren't, he couldn't fathom why they would change.
But if they were alive, did that make them anomalies?
For reasons unknown, he refrained from using his scanner or True Sight, trusting his intuition instead.
His second blink.
Before this blink, Duan Chen had meticulously recorded the pose of every scarecrow and every subtle deviation in the angel's posture.
As he opened his eyes again, Duan Chen felt a surge of excitement, anticipation, and an indescribable dread.
Indeed.
He saw some scarecrows had turned their heads to face him. The angel’s book had been placed on the pulpit, and its body was now tilted.
They were indeed moving.
Why did they stop when he opened his eyes?
A question formed in Duan Chen's mind: when he opened his eyes, everything ceased its movement. Did this imply they needed to be observed to remain still?
Were they also anomalies?
If so, what kind of anomaly would they be?
This was utterly bizarre.
However, he couldn't abandon the two individuals at the front of the pulpit.
Duan Chen hesitated. If he moved closer to the pulpit, the scarecrows would be out of his line of sight.
Did they move when he closed his eyes, or when he wasn't looking at them?
Duan Chen couldn't test this.
No, wait.
He suddenly remembered something.
Duan Chen turned sideways, moving a few of the scarecrows behind him, out of his direct line of sight.
In just a second.
He whipped his head around and, with a mix of surprise and no surprise at all, discovered that those scarecrows had indeed moved.
"This is bad..."
Duan Chen muttered, a hint of anxiety creeping into his voice.
The condition for these anomalies to remain still was to be watched.
But he couldn't keep his eyes open indefinitely. He had to find a way to save these two before his blinking reached its limit.
"That's right!"
Duan Chen suddenly recalled mind communication.
He had used it outside, but he couldn't reach these two.
However, at that time, they were likely no longer in the same space.
That's why mind communication had failed.
But now, they were completely within the same space. Mind communication should not be hindered and should work.
"Can you hear me? It's Duan Chen."
"Wang Zihao, Bai Ye, can you two hear me clearly? Are you awake? Conscious? Hello? Can you hear me?"
From Duan Chen's perspective, he could clearly see that one of the two figures kneeling at the pulpit twitched his leg slightly.
Though it was a fleeting tremor, he saw it.
Immediately after, a weak voice responded through his mind communication: "We can hear you clearly. How did you get brought here too?"
Duan Chen breathed a sigh of relief, his mood involuntarily lifting.
"Of course, I walked in on my own. Do I need to be captured like you two? What happened to you two? Why are you in such a sorry state?"
It was Bai Ye who had regained consciousness.
Hearing Duan Chen's question, his face, pressed against the ground, couldn't help but let out a wry smile. He then replied to Duan Chen through mind communication.
"Don't mention it. We don't know what happened. Suddenly, a church appeared in front of us. We wanted to explore, but it was filled with these scarecrows!"
"And this angel statue. Be very careful..."
As he said this, Bai Ye, lying on the ground, thrashed violently.
Seeing this, Duan Chen immediately frowned and quickly soothed him through their mental link: "Stop moving. I understand. I've been watching them for a long time without blinking."
Hearing this, Bai Ye finally relaxed, letting himself fall back to the ground. He slowly began to speak with Duan Chen.
"As expected of you, noticing this. We didn't notice and were swarmed by these scarecrows, and that angel statue!"
"It was infuriating. Even if we smashed them, they would reform. Then we were captured and thrown here in front of the pulpit with ropes."
Bai Ye thought he was going to die there.
He could even hear the angel statue reciting words of judgment over them. Unexpectedly, both the angel sculpture and the scarecrows suddenly stopped.
Following that, he lost consciousness due to extreme fatigue and depletion of spiritual energy.
Recalling this, Bai Ye quickly warned again: "These ropes binding us absorb spiritual energy. Be extremely careful not to get bound by them!"