They quickly blended into the crowd on the street and moved to seize Arabella and Ling Xiaoyu.
Moments later, gunfire erupted, mingled with the terrified screams of passersby.
By the time police sirens finally sounded in the distance, the leader in the black cloak was smiling. They had succeeded: Arabella and Ling Xiaoyu had been captured.
He smiled again, then slipped into the chaotic crowd and vanished without a trace.
When Arabella and Ling Xiaoyu woke, they found themselves in a strange church.
Its windows were pieced together from multicolored shards of glass in a medieval style. The entire interior had an eerie Gothic air.
Yet this was no church, and the people standing around them were no devout worshippers. They were men and women dressed in increasingly bizarre attire.
Arabella had never been here before, but she had long heard of this place: the legendary Secluded Divine Temple.
"The Millennium Council. You dare kidnap me?" Arabella's heart sank as she recognized them, but her voice was cold and threatening.
Not only did they hold special positions among the Sages' Society's leadership, but their unusual connection to Tang Changsheng also meant no one dared target them.
Yet here they were, kidnapped and brought to the Secluded Divine Temple. The Millennium Council clearly meant them no good!
"No, no, no. Of course we wouldn't dare kidnap you two ladies. That would be illegal, and we've always been law-abiding citizens..."
The Millennium Council, law-abiding citizens? That joke was colder than ice.
But his words made both women's hearts sink further.
He spoke with such a mocking tone that he plainly did not take Arabella's warning seriously. In other words, he had no fear of Tang Changsheng...
"We invited you two ladies here only because we hope you'll join us in worshipping our