Lord of Prayer - Chapter 346 - 230: Widow

Snow Forest.

Zhou Chen arrived at the spot where the townspeople had found Allen’s bicycle. He scanned the area and frowned slightly.

Surprisingly, there were no monster tracks to be found.

After a quick search yielded nothing, he returned to the footprint. With a thought, his Cyan Flame spread from beneath his feet, melting the snow in a two-meter radius and revealing the dead leaves that carpeted the forest floor.

Zhou Chen stared down at the gold-rimmed footprint that only he could see, frowning in contemplation.

Joey said the monster was humanoid, but there was only a single footprint here. It didn’t exist on the physical plane and could only be seen using special Extraordinary methods. Furthermore, aside from this one footprint, there were no other traces of the monster at the scene.

This would suggest the monster was likely a Spirit Body, which would explain why the “footprint” it left behind didn’t appear on the physical plane. However, if it were a Spirit Body, there should be some spiritual residue in the air. Anything related to the Extraordinary inevitably possesses Extraordinary Essence and will leave a trace of it behind.

’Hmm… Essence residue dissipates over time. Two days have passed, and it’s snowed since then. Maybe the other traces the monster left have all vanished, leaving only this more concentrated one behind. But why is there only a single footprint?’

After thinking for a long while, Zhou Chen stood on the footprint and looked up in a specific direction.

That was the direction of the spot where Joey had seen the monster that night.

The monster’s footprint was also pointing roughly in that direction.

Zhou Chen tried his best to empty his mind and put himself in the monster’s shoes, imagining what he would have done that night if he were the mysterious creature.

’I’m starving, so I grabbed a child on the road for a light snack to tide me over.’

’Before long, a group of humans came searching. There are so many of them. I have to hide. I can’t let them find me, or they’ll hunt me down like a deer in the woods.’

’A few of the humans have split off and are heading my way. Should I hunt them? With my speed, I could kill them quickly and escape with their bodies. They’d feed me for a long time. But if one of them screams, I’ll be exposed… but I’m so hungry…’

’That kid is looking over here. He’s spotted me! Run!!!’

’Could that be how it happened?’ Zhou Chen continued to reason. ’The monster attacked Allen, then hid in the forest to watch, debating whether to attack the townspeople who came looking for him. But because Joey spotted it, it fled in a panic…’

’No, no, no, that doesn’t line up with the details at all… If the monster had been hiding here, it couldn’t have left just one footprint. Even if the Essence residue dissipates, it’s impossible that only a single print would remain… Don’t tell me Joey and Old Jack were both mistaken, and the monster is actually one-legged? And it can fly?’

Zhou Chen stroked his chin, deep in thought. After a moment, he shifted two steps to his left, placing his right foot squarely in the footprint. He lifted and lowered his right leg repeatedly, mimicking a stepping motion, hoping the action would spark some inspiration.

Suddenly, an idea struck him like a bolt of lightning. His expression cleared with realization as a new possibility occurred to him.

Zhou Chen walked several meters away. Then, a mass of Cyan Flame rose from behind the monster’s footprint, forming a burning vortex.

A right leg stepped out of the flames, landing squarely in the monster’s footprint.

Then, Zhou Chen’s entire body emerged from the flames. He stared intently toward the spot where Joey had been that night.

’What if the mysterious monster has an Instant Teleportation Ability, something like my Flame Jump?’

The scene played out in Zhou Chen’s mind: a three-meter-tall, pitch-black humanoid monster uses an Instant Teleportation Ability to appear here. It intends to observe from the shadows or launch a sneak attack, but just as it puts one foot down and emerges halfway, it’s spotted by Joey in the distance. A scream would bring more people, so it instantly pulls back.

’If the monster has an Instant Teleportation Ability, this is going to be tricky…’ Zhou Chen thought. He had an Instant Teleportation Skill himself, so he knew just how broken such an ability was. It was nearly impossible to defend against.

’That would explain why there’s only one footprint. It used an Instant Teleportation Skill to arrive, so it didn’t leave any other tracks or traces. And the Essence residue from the teleportation would have long since dissipated…’

Suddenly, Zhou Chen felt a vague sense of unease. He quickly left the creekside and returned to the spot where they had found Allen’s bicycle.

He had just checked this spot. There were no traces left by the monster.

If a monster had attacked Allen and carried him off, it should have left at least a few footprints. But there was nothing here.

He expanded the search, spending half an hour combing through most of the forest. He found nothing. Not a single footprint!

’That’s weird…’

Zhou Chen scratched his head. This was too strange. If a monster had taken Allen…

Wait!

He suddenly realized he’d fallen into a cognitive trap. He had been misled by Joey.

Joey saw a monster in the forest, which led him to guess that a monster had taken Allen. And so, Zhou Chen had subconsciously assumed the same thing.

But what if that wasn’t the case?

Couldn’t Allen have been taken by a human?

There are two things in the World one cannot look at directly: the Sun, and the human heart.

The wickedness of the human heart can be far more dangerous—and far more terrifying—than any monster.

’This reminds me of cases those Investigators often run into. A series of mysterious murders occurs in some remote town, and more often than not, it turns out Abyssal Cultists are behind it…’

’Were there Abyssal Cultists back in the Old Era? Hmm… This is the time when the Extraordinary is on the rise. Perhaps some people who accidentally obtained Extraordinary Power were corrupted by it. Even if they aren’t actual Abyssal Cultists, there’s not much of a difference.’