Shen Le: I Have Unique Cultural Relic Appraisal Skills! (Seeking Guaranteed Monthly Votes)

Father Marshall's face darkened. He desperately wanted to jump out and trade insults with Shen Le, but his conscience was guilty:

This cross—if you said it belonged to the Holy See, then it did indeed belong to the Holy See. It was Holy See property, listed among the Magic Artifacts in the Holy See's collection and stored in the Holy See's vault;

But if you said it didn't belong to the Holy See...

That black mist, that shrill wail, the pain and hatred leaking from that wail—no one, not even someone utterly devoid of spiritual perception, could deny it.

The records Father Marshall could access only registered: "One oak cross, one foot two inches high, eight inches wide, one inch thick, acquired in 1460."

The rest of the records were meaningless. He had never seen the names of the priest who had handed it over to the Holy See or the person who had catalogued it; neither seemed to have been anyone notable.

This oak cross—or rather, two roughly bound wooden sticks coated in a layer of black ash—could indeed emit holy light and was indeed effective against dark creatures;

Yet after Shen Le had stirred the resentment within it, the power surrounding the cross had plainly changed in nature.

Black mist swirled as the shrieks rolled outward in wave after wave, driving the clergy present to flee in panic, scrambling and crawling for the exit. It was terrifying!

This power was too terrifying!

This pain, this resentment, was all directed at the Holy See—at the Holy See's clergy!

Meanwhile, Shen Le's group remained perfectly calm. Whether it was the old Taoist priest holding a whisk or the two cultural relic experts with no spiritual power at all, none of them reacted to the cross's shrieks.

The black mist rose,