After Sun Fatty spoke, He Yiyang took out her phone and rattled off a string of English. When she finished the call, she turned to Martinez and said something further. Martinez nodded, then turned to us and said, "Agent He and I will personally handle the list of materials and the transport of the four bodies. We hope that by the time we return, everything here will be ready."
As he spoke, he glanced toward the church. There was still something that didn't sit right with him, but with Huang Ran pressing him, and with He Yiyang already having arranged for officers to cordon off the road, he couldn't think of any loopholes. Finally, he and He Yiyang got in their car and drove off.
Watching their vehicle disappear into the distance, I walked up to Huang Ran and said, "That thing you mentioned — the Ten-Nine-Eight-Seven-Six-Five-Four-Three-Two-One Formation — I've never seen anything like that at the Bureau…"
Before I could finish, Sun Fatty dragged me away and muttered, "He's just putting on a show for the foreigners. Now that they're gone, how else are we going to get the Heavenly Principle Diagram?"
Li Qimu looked confused and said, "Weren't we supposed to go in at night?"
Huang Ran chuckled, glanced at Sun Fatty, and said, "At night? When Yin energy flourishes and Yang wanes? I don't have the guts to go in then."
Before entering, Huang Ran pulled out a small bundle of dried straw — it looked like hemp twine — and lit it on fire before tossing it into the church. As soon as it landed, thick smoke began to billow out. In about a minute, the entire interior of the church was filled with this dense smoke, which carried with it a strange fragrance.
"You sure came prepared," Sun Fatty glanced sideways at Huang Ran. "I thought bringing money for the Heaven's Principle Scroll would've been enough. What are you even doing in America, Old Huang?"
Huang Ran kept his eyes fixed on the direction of the smoke and replied, "I was originally planning to deliver these items to a friend in New York's Chinatown. Didn't expect I'd end up using them here."
As he spoke, the smoke thoroughly permeated the church's interior. Strangely, the smoke did not spill out the open windows or door. From where I stood at the entrance, I could see clearly — the smoke wasn't dispersing outward, but was slowly seeping into the walls and the ground beneath. I had seen a record of this kind of incense in the Bureau's archives, though I couldn't recall the name. I just remembered it was a form of fumigation incense.
Sun Fatty watched the thinning smoke and whispered in my ear, "Lazi, ever heard of smoke like this? This ain't your typical trick."
"It's a fumigating incense," I replied. "I saw diagrams of it in Ouyang Pianzou's notes. I don't remember the name, but I do remember it's used to suppress spirits. It's harmless to the living, but to a spirit or soul — it's like an anesthetic." As I spoke, I noticed Huang Ran glance back at me for a second before quickly turning his attention back to the church interior.
Another four or five minutes passed. By then, the incense smoke had fully soaked into the building. The inside of the church gradually became visible again. Huang Ran peeked in a few times, then turned to us and said, "That should do it. The Yaoling won't be coming out for the next two hours. Qimu, two hours should be enough, right?"
"Won't even take twenty minutes," Li Qimu replied. Though he said that, he only cast a glance toward the church and didn't dare take the first step inside.
Huang Ran smiled faintly and turned to Miss Meng Qiqi. "Qiqi, you don't need to come in for this. Just stay by the entrance. If anyone comes, stop them."
Surprisingly, Miss Meng didn't argue. She simply nodded and returned to the car, as if the matter of retrieving the Heaven's Principle Scroll no longer concerned her in the slightest.
"Why isn't she going in with us? Didn't you say more people means more Yang energy?" Li Qimu asked, watching her walk away.
Huang Ran didn't reply. Instead, he gave me a cryptic smile, practically daring me to explain.
"She's staying out for her own good," I said, a bit reluctantly. "The 'more people, more Yang' theory only applies to adult men. If Meng Qiqi comes in with us, and the fumigating incense fails to suppress the Yaoling, then she'll be the first one targeted. We rely on equipment to do our job — and right now, our tools are less than ideal. No reason to take unnecessary risks with her."
As I finished, Huang Ran gave another brief smile and was the first to walk into the church. As he stepped inside, he said, "Let's move. Before those two Homeland Security agents figure out what's going on. After all the work we've put in, if the Heaven's Principle Scroll ends up in the hands of the U.S. government, we'll be the laughingstock."
The scene inside the church was much better than I had imagined. It was nearing noon, and the desert sunlight poured in through the roof of the church, filling the space with a warm glow. There was still a faint scent of the fumigating incense hanging in the air. The place was a bit of a mess—likely a result of the police hastily retreating after last night's incident.
Huang Ran scanned the area, then turned to Li Qimu and said, "Your turn. Lead the way."
Li Qimu looked around nervously and said, "Why don't you guys go first? I'll guide you. Just go straight down this way, to the end. Open the door on the left, take the stairs up. It's an attic. Once we're in, I'll tell you where to go next."
"This door?" Huang Ran had already walked over and opened the door on the left, revealing a set of wooden stairs. It looked gloomy inside, but to us, there didn't seem to be anything unusual. The only odd thing was how narrow the staircase was—normal-sized people would have to turn sideways to climb up, and for someone like Sun Fatty or Huang Ran, it was barely passable, with both shoulders brushing against the walls.
"No offense, but based on this staircase alone, they should've paid the architect half his salary," Sun Fatty muttered bitterly as he watched Huang Ran struggle his way up. He was even rounder than Huang Ran, and the staircase was a proper trial for someone of his size.
At the landing, the space widened slightly. Huang Ran caught his breath and adjusted himself before turning back and saying, "Maybe you should stay down here. With Shen La here, it's the same either way."
"If you hadn't said that, I really might've stayed down here," Sun Fatty grunted, removing his coat and tightening his belt. "But come on, Old Huang, do you really think I'd let you go up there alone?" With that, he took a deep breath and began the slow, tight squeeze up the stairs behind Huang Ran. Li Qimu followed behind him, and I brought up the rear to watch our backs.
The climb was difficult for the two of them. Huang Ran fared a bit better, but Sun Fatty had to hold his breath to make it around the landing before gasping for air. Fortunately, the building wasn't tall. After the turn and one more flight, we reached the church attic.
The attic door was unlocked. Inside, the scene was completely different. Though it was technically an attic, the space was surprisingly large and lacked the cramped structure of typical attics. It was messy, clearly not a place people visited often. All sorts of religious artifacts were stored here—paintings of the Virgin Mary, crucifixion scenes, stone statues, and most notably, hundreds of religious texts stacked in disarray.
"This is ridiculous," Sun Fatty muttered bitterly. "That staircase was a death trap, and this place is massive? What kind of idiot designed this church?"
"The church didn't always look like this," Li Qimu said. "After my grandfather arrived, there was a major fire. Nearly half the church burned down. Later, he donated a large sum to rebuild it. That's how it ended up like this."
"Oh, so your grandpa rebuilt this place..." Hearing that, Sun Fatty's eyes narrowed in amusement. A smile crept across his face as he immediately began scanning the room, clearly triggered by something Li Qimu had said. Huang Ran, too, looked suddenly energized. Both of them, almost simultaneously, fixed their eyes on a life-sized stone statue of the Virgin Mary.
Li Qimu was taken aback. "How... how did you know?"
By now, Sun Fatty's hands were already exploring the statue. Huang Ran stared intently at the movement of his fingers. Li Qimu looked as if he'd taken a blow to the head. "How did you know something was hidden in the Virgin Mary's stomach?"
Just as he said that, Sun Fatty's hand paused behind the statue. He turned and gave Li Qimu a smirk, then looked over at me. "Lazi, come lend me a hand. I'll show you something interesting."
I stepped forward, and together we turned the statue around. On its back was a shallow stone groove—looked almost like an unfinished carving left behind by accident. Seeing this, Sun Fatty glanced at Huang Ran, then turned to Li Qimu and said, "Come on, Xiao Wu. This part's on you."
Now that the mechanism had been exposed, Li Qimu was visibly reluctant, but he had no choice. He stepped up beside the statue, and Sun Fatty stepped aside to give him space. We watched as Li Qimu first pressed a spot on the statue's head, then pushed the cross in the statue's hands firmly inward.
As the cross sank into the stone body, a series of faint click-clack sounds echoed out. The stone groove on the statue's back began to shift, and a panel of stone receded, revealing a pitch-black hollow inside.
Li Qimu reached in and pulled out several items wrapped in red silk. After retrieving everything inside, he turned to Sun Fatty and said, "That's all there is. Now tell me—how did you know it was hidden in the Virgin's stomach?"
"Let's sort out what we've got first," Sun Fatty replied, squatting down to examine the items. "Which one's the Heaven's Principle Scroll?"
Li Qimu handed over a thin package wrapped in red silk. "This one. Jin Beihai showed the photo to some experts—it's the real thing."
"Well, we won't know for sure until someone with real expertise takes a look." Sun Fatty carefully unwrapped the silk to reveal a thin sheet of parchment made from some kind of animal hide. It was densely covered in characters and symbols I couldn't understand—but somehow, they looked strangely familiar. Almost immediately, a scene from one of my dreams floated to the surface of my mind—when Xiao Sanda discovered tattoos on Tao Heru's corpse in the cemetery, they looked exactly like this.
Sun Fatty pressed the parchment flat, gave it a quick look, then smiled and turned to Huang Ran. "Old Huang, why don't you take a look? Give me your thoughts."
Caught off guard by the offer, Huang Ran blinked, then hurried over and took the scroll with both hands, unfolding it to study the content carefully.
Taking advantage of the moment, Li Qimu once again asked, "Can you tell me now? How did you figure it out?"
Sun Fatty kept his eyes on Huang Ran but replied, "It wasn't that hard. Your grandpa tried too hard to be clever and ended up overdoing it. I'm guessing the fire was something he set himself—then he made a big show of donating money to rebuild the place. Most of the renovations made sense—except that ridiculously narrow staircase. And then, you've got this life-sized statue of the Virgin up in an attic it clearly didn't come through by stairs. That statue must've been hoisted up here after construction. The stairs were deliberately built narrow, just to prevent someone from carrying the statue back out."