In a dim basement, Anna struggled to draw various clumsy forbidden spells and magic circles. She had a hard time writing them, and sometimes she even had to think for a while before starting again.
Anna was recording on paper everything she had once known in Earthsea, which was dangerous and far less safe than keeping it all in her own mind.
But Anna had no choice, because she found that all the things in her mind were being gradually forgotten as time went by. She had never experienced this feeling before.
When she was a Diva in Earthsea, no matter how much stuff was stuffed into her brain, she could remember it accurately as long as she wanted to use it. Forgetting was not in her dictionary at all.
But when she was completely transformed by the wish, Anna could no longer pretend as before, she had truly become a human being. A transformation from the inside out.
Humans do not have a photographic memory. When there are too many useless memories in their brains, they choose to forget.
For Anna, this was extremely painful, just like a person who once had all four limbs intact suddenly having both arms chopped off. Now she felt extremely insecure.
With a "click", the pen was thrown onto the white paper. Anna pressed her hand on her head, which was swollen due to excessive recollection.
After pressing gently for a while, Anna glanced at the picture frame on the table. There should have been a family portrait of three people on it, but now there were only spaces for the child and the mother, and the place for the father was empty.
Anna reached out and took it, gently stroking the girl's sparkling face in the frame with her slender fingers, a trace of longing for her mother revealed in her eyes.
"Shanshan, in the past you could always sense when someone was drawing your portrait. It would be great if you could feel that now. Mom misses you."
"Ding ding ding ding~" The sound of the basement doorbell ringing interrupted Anna's memory. She quickly stood up, sorted all the papers on the table into different folders, and put them one by one into the steel safe next to her that was taller than Anna.
The last item to be stuffed into the safe was the family photo.
After everything was ready, Anna walked quickly to the door. The face displayed on the monitor on the wall next to her was Wang Sheng.
"What's the matter? Didn't I tell you not to disturb me for five hours?" Anna's dissatisfied words came through the microphone and came to the outside of the door.
"Respected High Priest, I apologize for my abruptness, but I really have something important to report to you."
"Click, click, click" the layers of insurance quickly opened, and Anna appeared in front of Wang Sheng. "What's the matter?"
"Um... my father wants to talk to you."
"Your father? What did you say before? Didn't you say that you had cut off all contact with the family?"
Hearing Anna's words, Wang Sheng lowered his head with a hint of disgust on his face. "I don't want to do that either, but if he really wants to spend a lot of money to find someone, I can't avoid it."
Anna walked past him and headed for the elevator in the distance. Wang Sheng quickly turned around and hurried to catch up.
As the elevator door opened, there was a prayer room outside. The decoration and furnishings around it were very exquisite, mostly in some wave and dark styles.
If Charles were here, he would surely recognize that this was all a set-up by the Fotan religion.
Since you want to create a new religion, there is nothing easier than copying it directly. Just delete some doctrines that are useless to you and add some things that are already useful to you, and then you can use it directly.
For a religion, these people are not that many. Any religion has a certain degree of expansion, but Anna did not accept people at will and strictly controlled the number of people.
This is of course to keep a low profile and avoid attracting other people's attention. In addition, Anna also considered that it would be easier to transfer with fewer people. Even if these people accidentally died because of the sacrifice, they could be quickly replaced by a new batch in other places.
As their voices gradually became quieter, Anna came to the reception room, but there was no one there except the security guard in charge of security and a female office lady.
Anna noticed the laptop on the table and walked over without saying anything.
On the LCD computer screen, there is a man with deep nasolabial folds. From his similar appearance to Wang Sheng, it can be seen that he is Wang Sheng's father.
"Hello, my name is Wang Jianshe, and I'm Wang Sheng's father. Let me get straight to the point. What exactly do you want in exchange for sending my son back?" His voice was low and firm.
"Haha." Anna looked at Wang Sheng who was standing beside her. "What do you think?"
"I will not go back. I will follow you all the way."
Wang Sheng has his own plans. Now he is a core figure in this religion and can even be said to be the right-hand man of this woman. If there are any benefits in the future, he will definitely be the first to benefit.
If he went back now, all his previous efforts would be in vain. As the son of a businessman, he instinctively considered the sunk costs.
Hearing his son's voice outside the screen, Wang Jianshe's brows knitted tightly into a "川" shape, "No need to ask him, I just want to know how much money you want to let him go."
"It seems that Mr. Wang thinks I'm a kidnapper?" Anna stared at the screen in front of her. "I didn't restrict your son's freedom. He stayed here on his own."
Wang Jianshe leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed on the woman on the screen, his voice gradually becoming more severe.
"Do you really think I know nothing? He has been completely brainwashed by your superstitious stuff! Let me tell you! Back then, I also fought my way here with a machete and a truck! If anything happens to him, I will make you pay with your life!"
Anna didn't reply, she was waiting for something.
As expected, after making these harsh words, Wang Jianshe's tone gradually calmed down, "I don't need the money you cheated from him before, as long as you send him back in one piece."
Hearing this, Wang Sheng finally couldn't hold it anymore. He moved his laptop and pointed the camera at his face.
"What do you know? All you think about is money, money, money! You are a slave bound by money! You can't understand the world I am exposed to!"
After yelling loudly, Wang Sheng closed the computer with all his strength and looked firmly at Anna in front of him, "Master Priest, please rest assured. I will handle his affairs and will definitely not interfere with your plans."
Anna gently supported her chin with her elbow, as if thinking about something, "How old is your father?"
(End of this chapter)