Transformed into a heartthrob's simp, every day is a battleground.

Chapter 329 Mr. Detective

Yan Xun pondered Levi's words for a moment, and observed his expression for a while, but still couldn't tell whether the other party was genuinely expressing his feelings or was being sarcastic.

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yan Xun asked sincerely.

Levi looked utterly shocked. "Of course not."

After saying that, he thought for a few seconds, "Okay, maybe a little bit."

“But more than anything, I feel admiration,” he told Yan Xun.

“I can tell you have a lot of prejudice against exorcists,” Yan Xun said.

He threw the pitchfork aside and prepared to walk out of the warehouse.

Levi hurriedly caught up. "Are you angry, Detective?"

"Just a little bit." It's fake, Yan Xun thought; he wouldn't get angry over something like this.

“I’m sorry, I just have some prejudice against exorcists,” Levy added. “I had some bad experiences when I was young.”

"They cheated me out of a lot of money."

“I have to live in this place.”

"Yes, that's really tragic." Yan Xun nodded as he walked.

Levi stood beside him, asking, "Are you just giving me the runaround?"

“A little bit.” Yan Xun repeated a similar phrase, mimicking Levi’s mannerisms and tone.

Levi stared at him for a moment, as if he couldn't believe that Yan Xun would treat him like this—which made Yan Xun feel confused—thankfully, once they left the farm, they wouldn't have any contact.

Yan Xun thought about it for a second, then shook the idea out of his mind. He didn't really want to make such a promise.

Lily had been following them the whole time, and when Yan Xun stopped, she stopped too.

"How long have you known Coy?" he asked Levy.

"Two years?" Levy recalled. "He came here with Liam two years ago."

"Would he vomit because of something like that?" Yan Xun asked.

Levi looked thoughtful. “Very few,” he said. “Though I hate to say it, Koy has seen too many disgusting things to count this one.”

Yan Xun thought so too.

Although neither Liam nor Koy explicitly stated what they usually did, Yan Xun could roughly imagine it.

Although the fleshy ball was disgusting, it wasn't so disgusting that Koy would vomit at just one look.

He had a bad feeling.

Perhaps sensing something from Yan Xun's silence, Levi looked concerned and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"It's just my guess," Yan Xun said with a peculiar expression. "Is Koyi pregnant?"

Upon hearing this, Levi's face immediately displayed the same strange expression as Yan Xun's. He seemed to have lost his ability to think for a moment. "If that's the case, then it's too... terrifying."

Yan Xun clearly saw that he originally meant to say "disgusting," but changed his words at the last minute.

“Who says otherwise?” Yan Xun agreed.

He looked at the small house where they were staying that night. "We should be careful tonight."

"Although that fleshy ball died quickly after detaching from the body, there might be some that are more resilient to life."

“Maybe it will sneak into your barn and steal your feed,” Yan Xun said, turning to Levi.

Levi was still immersed in the disgusting assumption that Coy was pregnant. Hearing Yan Xun's words, he was still a little dazed. It took him a long time to say, "Then do you want to go for a checkup?"

"...Check what?"

"Feed? Barn?" Levy said.

He looked at Yan Xun and asked, "Do you want to go get checked out?"

Yan Xun eyed Levi warily. "Is this a trap?"

Levy chuckled. "Of course not."

“Can’t you go, Detective?” he asked Yan Xun. “If you don’t want to go for the investigation, then I’ll take back this offer.”

Yan Xun looked at the warehouse and finally said to Levi, "Of course I'm willing."

The barn was the same size as the parking garage. As soon as Yan Xun entered, he saw the cows in the cowshed. Yan Xun couldn't recognize the breed, but the cows were not afraid of strangers.

In the corner were some haystacks, and leaning against the wall were steel pitchforks used to fork hay, which looked to be from the same manufacturer as the ones Levy had given him before.

Yan Xun looked at the quiet cows in the cowsheds, and then discovered Levi's sheep farm across the street, as well as chicken coops and pig farms further away.

It's hard to imagine that he kept all of them in a single barn.

Yan Xun walked to the pigsty and looked around. He didn't see anything deliberately placed there, but in the corner, there was a feed mixer and a large incinerator.

Yan Xun glanced at it briefly before averting his gaze.

He then checked the haystacks and feed on the ground, but found no place for the fleshy lumps to hide.

One of the cows had been lying in the cowshed ever since Yan Xun came in.

"Is it like this all the time?" Yan Xun asked Levi, who was standing beside him.

“That’s the case most of the time,” Levy said.

Lily was used to everything here, and she kept running around after coming in.

Yan Xun glanced at Lily. Logically, Lily should be able to smell the scent of those fleshy balls. Why didn't it react? Could it be that the fleshy balls weren't here?

"Can Lily help us?" Yan Xun asked Levi.

Levi quickly understood what he meant. He called to Lily and earnestly instructed her to find the smell of those fleshy balls.

Lily first tilted her head to look at Levi, then ran out of the barn, and less than half a minute later, she ran back.

But it only circled the barn a few times before finally letting out a soft whimper at Levi.

“Looks like those things aren’t here.” Levi patted Lily’s head and turned to Yan Xun.

"It seems so," Yan Xun said.

But he was still concerned about the cow that was lying on the ground, so he decided to go in and take a look.

Levy did not object and helped him open the door to the cowshed.

There was some uncollected excrement on the ground. Yan Xun carefully stepped over it and came to the cow lying there.

It remained in the same position, and when it sensed that Yan Xun seemed to want it to stand up, it immediately resisted, even trying to push Yan Xun away with its head.

Yan Xun immediately took a few steps back.

"Is it like this all the time?" he asked Levy the same question again.

Levy stood outside the cowshed, "It doesn't usually attack people..."

"The last time I saw it attack someone was when it was giving birth to a calf."

Levy stopped abruptly at this point, exchanged a glance with Yan Xun, and then immediately went into the cowshed.

Compared to Yan Xun's nervousness and caution, he was much more adept at handling these large animals. No one knew how he did it, but the cow finally stood up and let them see where it was lying.

In the corner of the cowshed, where its body was blocking the view, there was a ball of flesh that had already grown feathers.

The creature seemed surprised that Yan Xun and his companion would discover it, and immediately scurried around like a cockroach. In the end, it was pinned to the ground by the knife Levi pulled from his waist.

After confirming that the fleshy ball was dead, Levi handed it to Yan Xun with a knife stuck in it.

The cow became restless when it saw the ball of flesh, and only calmed down after Levy patted its head reassuringly.

“Let’s go out first,” Levi said to Yan Xun.

Yan Xun left the cowshed and saw that the cow had fallen to the ground again.

“It seems it’s more capable than we thought,” Levy said, closing the door to the cowshed.

Yan Xun looked at the fleshy ball on the knife; it clearly looked like it had grown a bit.

Beneath the feathers, its facial features become clearer, and its ears and nose seem to gradually take shape—yet it also resembles a person rolled into a ball of flesh, giving one a sense of physical discomfort at just one glance.

"It can make all the creatures that come near it want to protect it?" Yan Xun asked incredulously. "A kind of mind control?"

But then he remembered those who wanted to ask for help, and those people showed no sign of being controlled by it.

He told Levy about his discovery.

“This kind of mind control can probably only be exercised after they are born,” Levy said. “The more they grow, the stronger their control becomes.”

Yan Xun thought about the fleshy ball that had just crawled out of the tent and died, and felt that Levi's words made some sense.

"Perhaps at this stage, they can only control these animals..."

"Wang!"

As Yan Xun was speaking, he suddenly heard Lily's voice beside him.

He turned his head and saw Lily baring her teeth and giving a warning to the ball of flesh in his hand.

“It seems Lily was also misled just now,” Yan Xun said to Levi.

“Maybe this really is the end of the world,” Levy said, looking at the ball of flesh in Yan Xun’s hand. “I can’t imagine what would happen if it continued to grow.”

"It is now able to confuse these animals..."

If the fleshy ball grows even bigger, will it be able to hypnotize humans?

Yan Xun understood what Levi hadn't said aloud, and he recalled what his landlady had told him about the Angel Church's doomsday prophecy.

Yan Xun thought that if these fleshy spheres completely took control of humanity, it would indeed be the end of the world.

He also remembered the newsboy saying that these pregnant women had all received a revelation, that their consciousness in a dream told them they were carrying a sacred child.

As long as they bring the Holy Embryo to the South, the Church of Angels will give them a large sum of money.

But once Yan Xun knew what was inside their bellies, he felt only terror when he looked at the dream again.

He even suspected that the founders of the Church of Angels were not human... It was all too bizarre.

“I’m taking this with me,” he told Levy.

"They should know the truth."

After Yan Xun finished speaking, he waited for the system's reaction, but the main system remained silent as if it were dead.

Yan Xun frowned. He had originally thought that his actions, which clearly undermined the sanctity of the "Holy Embryo," would result in a warning from the system or a task reminder.

However, nothing happened, as if the instance didn't care whether he exposed it or not.

He certainly understood that finding Liam was just a prerequisite quest... but what he didn't understand was what made this instance so special.

The main system needs to have the green dinosaur relay a message, asking if you want to go to this instance.

Levi was unaware of Yan Xun's inner thoughts; he simply nodded in agreement, "This is indeed a big deal."

"Just as the Church of Angels said, if this happens, the world will be doomed."

As he spoke, he made a decision: "I want to go to the city with you."

Yan Xun looked at him in surprise, "You?"

"I thought you weren't planning to leave the farm."

“That’s how it was originally.” Levi comforted Lily, then looked up at Yan Xun and said, “But once these fleshy spheres spread… this place won’t be peaceful either.”

"I need to prepare in advance."

“Nobody knows how they got pregnant…” he said to Yan Xun, “like Koy.”

“We haven’t confirmed that Koy is pregnant yet,” Yan Xun reminded her.

Levy shook his head. "I have a feeling."

He looked back at the barn, "Perhaps there are other fleshy lumps hidden here."

"Perhaps they have grown larger and have developed a human-like appearance."

"They can grow this big in just four weeks?" Yan Xun asked subconsciously.

“Who knows?” Levy said, looking pessimistic. “It has already grown distinct facial features.” He pointed to the one in Yan Xun’s hand.

"It wouldn't be surprising if there were another one that had fully grown up."

As the two walked out of the barn, Yan Xun looked at the road outside the farm and a bad idea suddenly popped into his head.

“If Liam saw a… child on the road,” he asked cautiously, “what would he do?”

He asked Levy, who, compared to the farmer who had dealt with Liam for a long time, didn't know much about Liam.

“He will help that child.” Levy’s expression grew even more somber.

He understood the implied meaning of Yan Xun's question: "Liam has many younger brothers and sisters, so he will help those children who have no one to take care of them."

He sighed, "If that ball of flesh has already grown into the shape of a child."

“Even if he were a freak covered in feathers, Liam would still help him.”

He looked at Yan Xun and said, "What's even more terrifying is that it might not actually be covered in feathers."

“Even if they were covered in feathers, it wouldn’t be strange now,” Yan Xun said. “There are already churches in the city that believe in these newborn angels.”

He turned to look at Levi beside him, "For this church..."

What does a newborn baby covered in feathers mean?

“They won’t find it terrifying, they won’t find it strange, they might even think he’s a more evolved being,” Yan Xun couldn’t help but say. “Luckily, no one with two pairs of wings has appeared in the city yet…”

He stopped abruptly at this point.

Given this trend, people with multiple pairs of wings might soon appear in the city.

Next, they'll use the number of wings to rank people... Thinking of this, Yan Xun felt a series of groans in her head—

He really didn't want to think of the Angel Guild under these circumstances.

However, whether it is the people who have grown wings, the angelic sect in the south, or the situation where ranks are divided by the number of wings, they are all very similar to the angelic guild.

Even this feathered ball of flesh... Yan Xun looked at the ball of flesh he was holding; this thing was comparable to a simplified, miniature version of White after his mutation.

He still remembers White, who suddenly mutated in the human-cat instance.

Yan Xun was preoccupied with his thoughts as he and Levi returned to the inhabited house.

But as soon as they got close, they heard vomiting sounds coming from inside the house, along with Koy's curses.

Yan Xun couldn't help but let out a wail...

He just hoped that the reason Koy vomited wasn't what he thought.