The next morning.
When Wu Heng came down the stairs, the Empress Dowager's puppet was sitting on the sofa.
"Do you have all the materials for the second stage?" Wu Heng sat across from her.
"I have them all. None of them are particularly rare." The Empress Dowager hesitated before continuing, "Last night, I came across something strange in a dream."
"Did someone have an inappropriate dream?" Wu Heng joked.
"It was a pregnant woman." The Empress Dowager ignored his teasing. "Something had parasitized her stomach. It looked like a fleshy tumor, but it could wriggle."
Wu Heng frowned and stopped joking. "It's probably an illness. Where I'm from, it can be removed."
"It wasn't an illness!" The Empress Dowager continued, "I smelled the aura of the undead. I suspect it's being used to nurture something."
The hall suddenly fell silent.
The cool breeze from the Air Conditioner swept across the back of Wu Heng's neck, and a layer of goosebumps rose belatedly over his skin.
Using a pregnant woman to nurture something.
It sounded like one of those twisted movies he had watched in his previous life.
"Tell me in detail." Wu Heng turned serious as well.
The Empress Dowager leaned forward and recounted everything that had happened yesterday.
Wu Heng listened silently. When he heard that she was a Church believer and that it had happened in the Holy Hall, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"When I spoke with her, I could tell she was devout and kind," the Empress Dowager said softly.
"You want to save her?" Wu Heng pondered for a moment, then said, "Believers are different from ordinary people. They see suffering as a 'trial bestowed by God.' Perhaps this is her own choice?"
"Impossible! In her dream, she imagined her own child. It was beautiful