The three children, all around seven or eight years old, sat stiffly on dusty chairs.
From their accounts, Lin Yuan learned about what had happened there.
Besides these three children, at least thirty more were held captive in the church.
They were all captured by the "Holy Mother" to be "offerings" for sacrificial rituals.
Upon hearing this, Lin Yuan panicked. He didn't even ask how they managed to escape. He grabbed the boy sitting in the middle and said,
"There are still children? Did you see a baby? Held by a woman about this tall? They were all brought in here!"
The boy was clearly frightened, staring blankly at Lin Yuan, unable to utter a word.
"Oh, sorry, I got a bit emotional."
Realizing his outburst, Lin Yuan slowly retreated to his chair, patiently waiting for their answer.
After a few seconds, the three children regained their composure and replied, "We haven't seen any such combination. All of us are children over six years old, so there shouldn't be any babies, at least not in our memory."
Without news of Wu Tian and Lin Junhui, Lin Yuan felt both relieved and disappointed.
No news was the best news; the outcome was not yet decided, and anything was possible.
"Then how did you escape?" Returning to the main topic, Lin Yuan asked the question he had been wanting to ask. How did these three little rascals escape from the encirclement of the Eternal Life Cult, and emerge unharmed?
This was indeed suspicious.
He hoped they weren't like the little girl from before; he was truly fed up.
"We were the first batch of children captured, five days ago. The children from the same batch as us were taken away one after another. Today was supposed to be my turn, but it seems they received some news and left in a hurry, locking us in a small room. We escaped by opening the window. People on the street were rushing around, also seemingly looking for something, and no one noticed us."
The boy glanced at Lin Yuan and continued, "Later, when we fled along the wall to the middle street, we saw you. Connecting it to the explosion just now, we figured it was you.
Someone who could blow them up must not be with them, so we decided to come and try our luck."
That was it? They escaped just like that?
Lin Yuan's eyes widened as he heard this, and he couldn't help but admire their luck and courage.
"Do you know the layout of the church?"
The two boys shook their heads. They had spent their days in fear and had no time to memorize the layout.
Perhaps sensing Lin Yuan's disappointment, the boy in the middle nudged the only girl among them.
"Luna, you should know the way, right?"
The boy asked this for a reason. Luna was the most composed among the three. She hadn't been so terrified that she lost control when facing Lin Yuan earlier.
Luna, hidden by her long hair, nodded and tied her hair up, revealing her dirty little face. "I need paper and a pen."
Seeing Luna's actions, Lin Yuan guessed that this little girl was the key.
He quickly nodded and said, "I'll go up to get the paper and pen." Then, noticing they were still wearing single layers of clothing, he added, "Is anyone willing to come up with me to get food and clothes?"
The boy in the middle raised his hand. He was the eldest of the three, and it was time for him to step up.
"I'll go with you."
It was enough to have someone accompany him; Lin Yuan didn't care who it was. He beckoned and then climbed up, with the boy tucked under his arm.
Emerging from the bathtub again, Lin Yuan first went to the bedroom to get paper and pen, then to the storage room to get two boxes of canned food. The boy who came up with him carried a large pile of clothes.
They did not turn on any flashlights throughout the process. The Eternal Life Cult members had already noticed something was wrong and were searching this way.
And they were getting closer.
The wind had also stopped. Turning on lights now would be suicidal.
Before going down to the basement, Lin Yuan suddenly froze. Although this room was marked as the "House of Demons," making the probability of the Eternal Life Cult searching it smaller, it didn't mean they wouldn't.
Looking at the footprints all over the room, he thought for a moment, then opened the bathroom window a crack, stepped on it a few times, and then hoisted the boy up to step on the windowsill a few times.
Only then did he descend to the basement, and before leaving, he wiped away the traces on the bathtub.
Less than three minutes after they went down, the Eternal Life Cult members, realizing they had been tricked, had spread out entirely, like a net, searching for the intruder who had played them for fools.
When they passed by the "House of Demons," everyone selectively skipped it. Only the "nun" from the church stopped.
These poor "believers" dared not enter, but she had no such reservations.
She was loyal only to the "Holy Mother," not to any so-called gods or demons.
With a kick, she kicked open the door. The commotion was so loud that Lin Yuan could sense it.
"Someone's here, don't speak," Lin Yuan immediately covered their mouths and gestured with his eyes.
Luna, who was halfway through her drawing, also stopped drawing, not daring to make any extra movements.
The four of them stood as still as if they had been immobilized by the Monkey King, not making any noise.
Upstairs, the nun was still causing a ruckus. Seeing the door kicked open, she was actually quite angry.
Why didn't the "Holy Mother" send her to search for that damned woman?! Instead, she was sent to deal with this worm?
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and the more forceful her actions.
The Eternal Life Cult members outside saw her as if she were emitting light. Was this their Holy Nun?
Such a commotion must be a battle of wits and courage with the demon inside the house.
But after searching the entire house, they couldn't find any trace of the intruder.
After calming down, the footprints on the ground caught her attention. The footprints were of various sizes and were extremely chaotic.
However, the general direction still pointed towards the bedroom and the bathroom.
The bedroom was out of the question; they had even lifted the bed boards and found nothing but the wicked curses they had written on them.
"So, it's only the bathroom?"
The nun muttered to herself, twisting her waist, and slowly walked towards the bathroom.
She had searched here earlier and found nothing.
It seemed she needed to look more carefully.
Black, thin threads, like ordinary fungal hyphae, spread out from the nun's body as she meticulously searched for clues in every corner of the room.
She didn't even spare the gaps between the bricks.
"There's a human scent here, and it's getting stronger."
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew open the bathroom window, interrupting her search.
How did the window open?
The nun wondered, this house was completely sealed when it was placed under quarantine, unless someone had pried it open.
It was like someone impersonating an assassin.
She quickly walked to the window and examined it closely. Footprints of various sizes were clearly visible.
"They escaped this way!"
The nun instantly reached this conclusion in her mind and followed, climbing out the window.
If she didn't hurry, the intruder might break through the outer wall.
After the noise from upstairs had ceased for several minutes, Lin Yuan emerged from the bathtub, holding the map drawn by Luna, and cautiously looked around.
No enemies. The plan was a success!
Now that everyone was moving towards the outer wall, it was time to go.
Putting on his hood, Lin Yuan stepped into the snow.