Compared to the back of the church where Shade had just appeared, the main hall of the church was relatively well preserved, and even at least half of the long stone seats were still intact. The area here was very spacious, and when it was prosperous, it could accommodate at least a few hundred people to sit together and listen to the priest's sermon.
Unfortunately, the windows on all sides are now blocked by debris, short grass that remains vigorous in winter grows in the cracks between the bricks on the ground, and there is no trace of the holy emblem on the wall behind the pulpit, making it impossible to identify which ancient god this church belongs to.
The wildness of nature and the solemn church blend perfectly together. After all, everything in this world cannot withstand the power of time.
The only thing worth noting is the stone statue of a middle-aged man in a robe sitting on the first row of long tables and chairs on the right side of the central aisle. The stone statue is very lifelike, with the details of the hair, the folds of the robe, and the wrinkles at the corners of the eyes exactly the same as a real person. The stone statue's eyes look towards the empty wall of the church where the holy emblem should be hung. Shade can even see relief and melancholy in his eyes.
The statue's face had a typical southern look, and if it weren't for the sufficient light here, Shade would have even thought it was a living person.
"Stone statue?"
He walked over, placed his hand on the shoulder of the seated statue, and felt a thick layer of dust.
Ordinary stone statue.
“Just a stone statue?”
Yes. If you don't believe me, break it and see.
Xia De hesitated for a moment, but did not do so. Although it was not difficult for the Breath of Time to restore this ordinary stone, since this stone statue was the only intact thing in this church, let it stay here.
After checking the place for a while and admiring the scenery, Shade came to the door of the main hall of the church. This is the main door of the entire church. Although it is not blocked by debris, the double metal doors are locked together tightly.
"The padlock is on the inside... Did the last person to leave lock himself inside the church, or did he use the space maze to leave?"
He was thinking in his mind, and the door lock was meaningless to Xia De. For him who had been promoted to the Central Ring, he just knocked on the metal door, and the lock popped open with a click, and even the hinges automatically fell to the snowy ground with a crash.
Squeak~
He bent down slightly and exerted force with both hands. With a harsh sound, the double metal door was pushed open a crack, allowing the sunlight from outside to shine in. He walked out of the crack sideways, stood on the platform above the church steps, covered his eyebrows with his right hand, squinted his eyes and looked around in surprise.
In Shad's imagination, since this abandoned church could remain relatively intact and had no signs of human activity, it must be in the mountains outside the Randall River Valley or deep in the forest.
But when I actually got outside, I saw a deserted courtyard covered with snow outside the church. In the middle of the courtyard was a statue fountain with only the base left. And outside the courtyard was actually the city street.
A bustling flow of people passed by the outside of this old abandoned church, and the citizens dressed in Carsenrick winter clothes continued their lives in the weather with fine snowflakes falling.
The street was not very wide, but it was wide enough for two carriages to pass each other. The gate of the church courtyard was a wrought iron fence gate common in church buildings. Across the street from the gate was a three-story second-hand bookstore. The snow had dyed the sloping roof silver, and icicles hung from the eaves on the first floor of the bookstore's door, like a young apprentice holding a broom high to try to knock them down.
Looking into the distance on the horizon, the city's bell tower, the top of the side spire of the Orthodox Church, and the chimneys spewing black smoke into the sky are all clearly visible in the snow.
The newspaper boy passed by the church without even looking at it. The gentleman with a cane hurried by but only glanced at his pocket watch. The carriage passed by the abandoned church, causing Shad to focus on the black arched fence gate at the entrance of the church courtyard. But then he realized that people on the street seemed to pay no attention to this large church.
Not only did no one notice him, no one even cast any gaze towards the deserted courtyard. Even if it was a pedestrian who was familiar with this neighborhood, it was impossible not to cast a glance here at least once.
"It's illogical to have this kind of building in the city. The church won't allow the Old God Church to appear in the city. And even if the Orthodox Church allows it, it's not reasonable that the homeless people don't come here to occupy it as a winter shelter... Can't people outside see this? This exit is really interesting."
But the exit is in the city, which is also a good thing for Xia De. At least it saves him time running around.
He tried to walk down the steps in front of the church and into the courtyard, but no one noticed him. So Shade grabbed a handful of snow, rolled it into a snowball, and threw it over the fence. The snowball fell on the street and scattered. A man passing by with a black briefcase immediately looked at the snowball on the ground, then looked around in confusion, as if looking for which naughty child had thrown the snowball.
But in fact the "naughty child" was in the yard on the other side of the fence.
“It seems that I really can’t see it.”
Although he didn't understand why, Xia De had to go out to take a look. In order to prevent himself from not being able to come back, he tied a thin wire to the fence of the courtyard, then opened the gate with one end of the wire and walked out.
When Xia De's entire body reached the street outside, someone finally looked at him, but they were not surprised at all, as if he had always been standing there.
“When I walked out of the gate, I felt like I was crossing a layer of water… the power of space.”
He thought about it, looked down at his hand, and found that the thread was broken. He turned around and looked behind him, and found a wall behind him.
If you walk a little further and look, you will see that on both sides of the wall are the courtyard of the "Randall City Public Printing Plant" and a three-story building with a sign that says "Berkeley Botanical Exhibition Hall."
The house number on the left is "Cherry Leaf Street 11", and the house number on the right is "Cherry Leaf Street 12". The abandoned church that Xia De had just walked out of has disappeared.
"This is really..."
He took a deep breath and pressed his hand against the wall, which was the outer wall of the Berkeley Botanical Exhibition. His hand touched the wall, but he could not feel the slightest abnormality:
"Can you feel anything?"
There are no traces of the elements, and perhaps a specific method is needed to make the courtyard appear again.
Xia De sighed, turned around and leaned against the wall, pulled his hat down, and looked at the street in front of him:
"I was really careless this time... So, how should I get back?"
After checking dozens of times, until the apprentice in the second-hand bookstore across the wall began to notice him, Shad reluctantly left here and temporarily accepted the fact that the abandoned church had disappeared.
He did not walk far. He crossed the street and entered the Terrence used bookstore at "25 Cherry Leaf Lane" across the street. He walked through the shelves of the used bookstore and picked out an old book "Carsenrick Forest Tales" that was missing a title page. He planned to take it back as a gift for Dorothy, and then walked to the counter.
The man guarding the counter was an old man wearing a woolen vest, gray hair and reading glasses. He was lowering his head and carefully repairing the torn part of an old book with missing pages.
The old man quickly paid for Shade, and after Shade received the change, he asked in the Kasenric language, which he was already quite proficient in:
"Sir, I am actually a writer from out of town."
He raised the book in his hand and said:
"I heard there are a lot of interesting rumors on this street. I wonder if you can tell me about them?"
"Interesting rumors?"
The old man's pronunciation of Carsenric was not very standard. It was probably the accent of the Randall Valley. He raised his head and pushed his reading glasses. He looked at Shade with slightly cloudy eyes and said casually:
"If you're not concerned about the rumors that the blacksmith who lives at the end of this street is having an affair with the young waitress at the tavern, then I think you want to hear about the story of the 'non-existent church'."
“It actually exists.”
Shade thought to himself and flicked the 1-penny coin from the change onto the table:
"Can you tell me more about it?"
“It’s not a coherent story.”
The old man ignored the coin and continued to work on the old book in his hand:
"Every few years, someone would claim to have seen an abandoned church on this street, right across from this store. But no matter how people checked, they couldn't find any trace of the so-called church. Even the priest of the nearby Peace Church came to check, but obviously to no avail."
"What an interesting rumor... Have you seen the so-called church?"
"Of course not. To be honest, I don't really believe in these kinds of rumors, but if I wrote it into a story, I think it would be very interesting."
Shade nodded with a smile. As long as the church did not "randomly appear in any corner of the city" but was indeed on this street and he just couldn't see it, it would be fine.
"Oh, there's one more thing I want to ask you."
He left another coin:
"Is there any nobleman with the surname 'Granger' in this area?"
"It seems that you are indeed from another place. However, the common language is so standard, it must be from Willendel... ... The reputation of the Earl of the Valley, Earl Granger, must be known to the locals."
The old man said this, still ignoring the coin.
"count?"
Xia De was stunned. In this case, he would have to disguise himself to return the two medals.
"Excuse me, where is the manor of the Earl of Granger?"
"Would you like to buy a city map?"
The old man looked up and asked with a smile, then pointed at the two coins:
"This cannot be counted as part of the cost of the information."