Is Bales problematic?

The dim moonlight offered pathetic illumination for the courtyard. Under the firelight, Aaron noticed Alice's complexion had paled, and he could even feel her profound helplessness.

"Miss, do you still want to go in and take a look?" Ed stepped forward, cautiously asking Alice.

"Master Sart?" Alice didn't respond directly but looked at Sart.

Sart cleared his throat, glanced down at the leather pouch at his waist, checked the amount of Spirit Powder, and then looked at Aaron before nodding at Alice. "If Lord Aaron wishes to go in and see."

Alice couldn't help but look at Aaron, her eyes showing a complex mixture of emotions.

If there had been room for negotiation before, now, with the appearance of this Crawling Hand, she knew that Tien's death could no longer be explained away.

It wasn't so much that she wanted to see Tien, but rather to confirm it with her own eyes.

The appearance of this Crawling Hand was definitely not a coincidence.

She hoped her guess was wrong, but logic told her it was unlikely.

Although Aaron didn't know what she was thinking, he could feel her current desolation from her eyes. His heart softened, and he nodded.

"The guards should have informed the City Lord, and he should be here soon." Ed, holding his torch and shield, walked at the front of the group, reminding them.

The skirmish with the Crawling Hand a moment ago was quite brief. On one hand, the main forces of the Heretical Cult were not here, only a Bronze Tier Crawling Hand. On the other hand, Aaron and his group had three Bronze Tier Transcendants joining the fight.

Although Sart, as a second-generation Tower user, didn't directly harm the Crawling Hand, his various support abilities and a few simple rituals disrupted the Crawling Hand's offense perfectly.

Coupled with Alice and Ed, the Crawling Hand couldn't make much of a splash.

Of course, besides Aaron, no one else considered the death of that attendant as small waves.

As Ed approached Tien's room, Aaron realized that Tien's door had actually been completely nailed shut with planks. However, someone had later forcibly broken through the planks and dismantled the barrier.

Ed held his torch closer, first looking down at the marks on the wooden planks, and said without turning back, "It was human. Someone broke through the planks with an axe or something similar."

"Wasn't anyone watching this place?" Alice couldn't help but complain, but then she seemed to remember something and quickly stopped.

Placing ordinary people to watch this place would only result in them being controlled by the Heretical Cult.

And if Transcendants were placed here, unless they were Silver Tier or even Gold Tier Transcendants, their fate wouldn't be much better than ordinary people.

But Leyden City's special geographical location meant it couldn't have too many Transcendants, or rather, Transcendants that City Lord Bals could command.

As far as Alice knew, even though City Lord Bals was a Gold Tier Transcendent, the Silver Tier and Bronze Tier Transcendants he could mobilize would not exceed ten in total.

And obviously, Transcendants wouldn't like doing boring jobs like surveillance, especially monitoring activities related to the Heretical Cult – who knew when they might encounter members of the Heretical Cult!

With this thought, she drew her longsword and single-handed shield again, and pushed open the door instead of Ed.

Because even the windows were sealed, the room was completely dark, making it impossible to see anything inside.

However, as the wooden door was pushed open, a faint smell of decay entered Aaron's nose, making him frown.

After repeatedly checking for traps, Ed and Alice finally entered the room and immediately lit the candlestick on the table.

Perhaps it had been some time since Tien's death, so most of the traces and smells had dissipated. However, there was still a large, conspicuous purplish-black pool on the ground, covering almost half of the floor.

The furnishings in the room were almost identical to Sart's, simple and practical. However, Tien's room also had a small bookshelf, on which were stacked various books with different covers.

Sart then entered the room with Aaron. He took a deep breath of the slightly foul air and muttered, "The spiciness of Snake Gall Flower, the coolness of Concentration Grass, the sourness of Rotten Soul Flower, and Awakening Root, Sleepless Grass..."

Aaron, listening beside him, was bewildered. He heard Sart quickly recite a long string of completely incomprehensible terms like he was listing dishes, and a few question marks reappeared over his head. "What are those..."

"Those are spices needed for rituals, but here's the problem..." Sart sighed and shook his head at Alice. "I'm very sorry, but I can confirm that at least two rituals were performed here. The most recent one was about two or three days ago. If I'm not mistaken, it was the Hand-Chopping Ritual to create the Crawling Hand."

"Two or three days ago?" Aaron couldn't help but interject. "Then what we just..."

"The Hand-Chopping Ritual for the Crawling Hand mainly uses the victim's soul. Only then can the creation of the Crawling Hand be accelerated. Otherwise, it would take some time for the Crawling Hand to slowly absorb the life force and transcendent aura from the corpse."

Sart patiently explained to Aaron, while on the other side, Alice and Ed had already walked to Tien's bed.

Although Alice had been mentally prepared, she couldn't help but let out a cold snort, and a look of anger involuntarily appeared on her face.

On the bed lay an extremely emaciated corpse, almost as if a layer of skin had been stretched over bones, like a mummy. It was almost impossible to tell what he looked like in life.

Even because his life force had been absorbed, Tien's body had visibly shrunk by one size. The man, who was at least a middle-aged male, now looked like a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, appearing exceptionally strange.

The most striking thing, of course, was his right hand, which had been severed at the elbow and was now nowhere to be found.

Of course, everyone knew where it had gone.

"We came to Tien's room a few days ago, and we watched Colin nail Tien's door shut," Alice turned and said to Sart.

Aaron curiously poked his head out and glimpsed Tien's corpse on the bed, smacking his lips.

Fortunately, after the two cult incidents with the Rat-Face and the Crawling Hand, his resistance to horrific scenes had significantly improved. At least he was now numb to corpses.

"A few days ago?"

"Three days ago."

"Wait, that's not right!" Aaron suddenly said. "City Lord Bals might have a problem!"