He Ao turned his head and looked at the glass cabinet door he opened. On this vaguely translucent cabinet door, a blurry 'painting' was reflected.

The old man in the painting kneels on the ground, and even light shines on his body.

This 'painting' did not change because He Ao's perspective changed from the front to the back. What he saw was always the 'front' of the painting, or in other words, the reflection of the painting projected in his mind.

As He Ao watched, twisted and strange hymns gradually echoed in He Ao's mind. In an infinitely high place, a great being seemed to be projecting his gaze across endless time and space.

Two lines of blood and tears seeped out from the corners of He Ao's eyes, and then, his pale skin began to be covered with a strange blush, and then strands of blood seeped out from under his skin like thin strands, gradually spreading throughout his body.

The endless pollution was raging in his body, but his eyes did not move away from the 'painting'.

As he watched, the painting 'imprinted' on the glass cabinet was rapidly becoming lighter and lighter, until it completely disappeared.

In the end, the 'painting' completely disappeared on the glass cabinet, and the pollution surrounding He Ao finally stopped.

He Ao raised his head and looked around.

The twisted patterns that had gathered around this glass cabinet had completely dissipated at some point and returned to calm.

What is on the glass cabinet is not a real 'painting', but a simple 'reflection' left on the cabinet by the painting that was originally placed in the cabinet.

And as the cabinet door opened, He Ao looked at the 'reflection', which also dissipated due to structural changes.

He Ao stared at the empty cabinet and fell into a brief silence. At this moment, the entire library also fell into a strange silence.

"Ok?"

A gentle question from a slightly nervous girl broke the gloomy silence.

"Okay, you can open your eyes now."

He Ao withdrew his eyes from the empty painting and replied slowly.

Willie took away her hands and opened her eyes. Then the first thing that caught her sight was He Ao, who was bright red all over and looked like a bloody man. Her voice was slightly higher, with a little worry, "Your body

!”

"fine."

He Ao shook his head and jumped down from the edge of the glass cabinet.

Willy quickly found a pack of tissues from the side.

He Ao stretched out his hand, took the tissue, then pulled out a few and wiped the blood off his face, "Thank you."

At this moment, his eyes were still staring at the empty frosted glass cabinet?

"This is?"

Willy also raised her head and followed his gaze, "Has the contents been taken away?"

She also had some reaction at this moment, and said thoughtfully, "After my father died, only Carrie and I entered this room besides you. You and Carrie are both trustworthy people,"

She paused and thought, "Is there a burglar? When?"

"I'm afraid the contents of this cabinet were taken away a long time ago, even before your father died."

He Ao looked at the edge of the glass cabinet, where a lot of dust had fallen. Before he opened the frosted glass cabinet, the cabinet had already accumulated very thick dust.

However, the sealing of this cabinet itself is very good. There is no dust accumulation in the cabinet. The remaining dust is evenly distributed and there are no traces of items placed inside for a long time.

"Before father died?"

Willie was slightly dazed, that was already a long-ago memory for her.

"Did your father bring anyone to this library when he was still alive?"

He Ao turned to look at her, "Does anyone know that there is a special 'oil painting' placed here?"

"My father often brings people in here. When he has small meetings, he likes to bring people in, and he also likes to take his friends to visit his collection,"

Willy paused and seemed to be trying hard to recall, "In addition to Uncle Endil, Uncle Jacko, and Vincent, there are many people from the joint industry and even the city cabinet who have entered here."

She glanced at the densely packed books around her and said, "Many of the books here were collected by my father's 'friends' for him."

"Is it?"

He Ao came back to his senses and looked at the frosted glass cabinet above his head again.

"You are suspicious..."

Willy raised her head and looked at He Ao.

"You have to know that this painting exists before you take it away, right?"

He Ao lowered his head and looked at Willie.

After all, this painting is not the only valuable item in this library, but this painting is the only one missing.

"Um,"

Willy paused and said softly, "Maybe Vincent took it."

There were so many people who came into the library that it was impossible to determine who took the painting last.

Then she paused and said in a slightly lower voice, "It could be someone else..."

"Once something is done, it will leave other traces."

He Ao raised his head and glanced at Weili. He did not continue to say more, but turned to ask, "Did your father also see this painting?"

Just a 'reflection' contains terrifying pollution, and the power of the painting itself is probably much more terrifying than what He Ao originally guessed.

Even if it is not an extraordinary object in itself, it may have 'contacted' an inaccessible high-level existence in a sense, giving it some special power.

If Skone, as an ordinary person, had seen this painting, he should not have retained his complete sanity.

"Um?"

He Ao's question made Willie slightly absent-minded. She frowned slightly, as if she was trying to remember, "This painting seems to have been here a long time ago. I was still very young at that time. I remember that my father brought it with me."

When it came back, it was wrapped in thick black cloth, and my father put it in a glass cabinet."

"When this painting was put in the cabinet, it was wrapped in black cloth?"

He Ao was slightly stunned.

The black cloth is most likely some kind of sealing method that allows ordinary people like Scone to be protected from the influence of the painting.

However, if the painting itself is covered, how can it leave a reflection on the glass cabinet? Is there some unknown force that passes through the seal, or...

He raised his head and glanced at the glass cabinet again.

The person who took this painting away may have 'seen' this painting in this library.

The man briefly unlocked the painting here, and the power overflowing from the painting was imprinted on the glass cabinet.

Of course, those black cloths may not be able to completely seal the power of the painting. The painting may have some ability to tempt people to open the seal after being looked at. Otherwise, Schoen would not use a frosted glass cabinet to 'secondize' the painting.

'Seal it up and put it away in a high cabinet.

In the Federation, antique collecting is really a high-risk hobby.

No one knows what will suddenly arrive.

He Ao lowered his gaze.

Until this moment, all the fragments in his mind were finally completely connected together.

"That's how it should be,"

Willie nodded slightly, turned her head and looked at He Ao, "So, is there something wrong with this painting?"

"perhaps,"

He Ao was silent for a moment and said softly, "This is the 'origin' of the Eternal Esoteric Cult."

Willie raised her head and stared at the empty glass cabinet.

The name of the painting is "Baptism".

Wash away the dirt and take refuge in God.

Except for Vincent, all the United Industries executives and city cabinet members who had ever entered the library were very kind to her.

Even Vincent tried to be gentle and smiling when he saw her.

When she was very young, she even thought Vincent was a good person.

Even though Vincent overthrew her father, his father would still invite this 'old subordinate' to visit his library and collection when Vincent visited in a private capacity.

"Did the old mayor get back to you?"

The young man's slow and gentle voice reached the girl's ears.

This calm voice seemed to have some invisible power, smoothing the ripples in her heart.

"Wait a moment,"

She raised her head, took a deep breath, looked at He Ao, raised her bracelet and said quickly,

"I just called Uncle Endil, but he didn't get through. This is unreasonable, so I asked Carrie, who was collecting intelligence outside, to go to the mayor's palace. Calculating the time, Carrie should be here. After she arrived,

You should send me a message,"
To be continued...