Transformed into a heartthrob's simp, every day is a battleground.

Chapter 348 Birth

“Although I think you still wouldn’t believe me even if I told you now,” Yan Xun began, “but I reiterate…”

"He is not my child!"

Yan Xun spoke seriously to the newsboy.

The angel, who had been quietly savoring the sugar cube, immediately spoke up upon hearing Yan Xun's denial, "Mom."

Yan Xun: "..."

Vincent looked at the shocked newsboy, then at the lifeless Yan Xun, and said, "I heard that the first word the Holy Embryo uttered was this?"

"Does He only know how to say 'Mom' now?"

"Of course not," Yan Xun thought. He looked down at the angel beside him. The angel simply looked up at him and then opened its mouth wide, indicating that it wanted Yan Xun to feed it candy.

Yan Xun refused, "No."

The angel mumbled a few words, but Yan Xun couldn't understand what he was saying.

Vincent, on the other hand, glanced at the angel a few more times.

"What is he saying?" Yan Xun asked. "Can you understand him?"

“It’s a secret language,” Vincent said. “You could interpret it as…the language of angels?”

“Some revelations and the future can only be conveyed through this language,” he told Yan Xun. “Everyday language has no power over Him.”

"So what did he say?" Yan Xun asked.

Vincent looked a little hesitant. He looked at the angel, who immediately shook his head at him, as if hoping Vincent wouldn't say anything.

Yan Xun noticed that his expression was somewhat frightened, as if he hadn't expected there to be a human here who could understand "dialect".

"Speak," Yan Xun said to Vincent.

Vincent thought for a moment, then betrayed the angel, "He said you're a bad guy."

Yan Xun looked at the angel again and saw that the angel's wings on its back were almost tucked into a ball—he didn't know if it was out of fear or guilt.

It seems Vincent's translation was correct, Yan Xun thought. He reached out and lifted the angel's little face. "I really am a bad guy."

He said to the angel.

The angel opened its mouth and babbled a bunch of words—Yan Xun couldn't understand a word. He could only look at Vincent again—Vincent shook his head, indicating that he couldn't translate it either.

The angel was disheartened, then said to Yan Xun, "You are very good."

"I'm the bad guy."

Don't leave me.

Vincent watched the interaction between the angel and Yan Xun with great interest. "You really found him on the roadside?"

“It’s the real deal,” Yan Xun said. “I found a car on the side of the road.”

"The car was riddled with holes, as if it had been hit by gunfire."

He omitted some details, saying, "I went over to take a look and found that the owner of the car was dead."

“There’s a child with wings in the passenger seat.” Yan Xun said, glancing at the angel. “That’s him.”

“I pulled him out of the car,” Yan Xun said. “It was probably a fuel leak; the car exploded not long after we left.”

“Some people say you two look like father and son,” Vincent said. “You came to the Angel Church to heal him.”

“Sir,” Yan Xun laughed, “you should know that this is just an excuse.”

“I can’t just walk into the city and shout to everyone, ‘I’ve found an angel…’”

He looked at Vincent. "I don't want to be seen as crazy."

"The outside world is in an uproar over the Holy Embryo." He spoke without any restraint. "In every city I've passed through, people say the Holy Embryo is a monster."

“I just arrived here, and without being 100% certain, I certainly can’t reveal his identity,” Yan Xun said.

"Is this for the Holy Embryo?" Vincent asked.

“It’s for me,” Yan Xun said, adding more milk to his teacup and stirring. “I don’t want to be seen as an accomplice of the monster.”

When the newsboy heard him say that the Holy Embryo was a monster, he immediately showed an expression of anger that he dared not speak out.

Yan Xun pretended not to see and continued stirring the tea in the cup that had already cooled down.

“There are some misunderstandings from the outside world,” Vincent said.

"The person who brought me to the Church of Angels also mentioned the rumors circulating outside, but she didn't seem to know that a fleshy ball covered in feathers would crawl out of those people's stomachs."

Yan Xun continued stirring the tea with a spoon, "But the priest who brought me to the church told me that those fleshy lumps were a conspiracy by a false god."

Yan Xun put down his spoon. "So, which one is the truth?"

"Since you know that the flesh ball is a conspiracy of a false god, why haven't you taken any action?"

Upon hearing this, Vincent made a prayer gesture.

“Before the Holy Embryo is born, no one knows whether what appears is a conspiracy of a false god or a true Holy Embryo,” Vincent explained to Yan Xun. “We can only accept all…people who may be carrying the Holy Embryo.”

“Whether it’s men, women, or animals,” he told Yan Xun. “During this period, the Angel Church has accepted many believers.”

Upon hearing this, the newsboy immediately nodded vigorously, indicating that his family members were among them.

“The Holy Embryo is very fragile,” he told Yan Xun.

“If it is not born naturally, then the Holy Embryo will perish and wait for the next opportunity to descend.” Vincent looked at the angel, and then said to Yan Xun, “So we cannot use other means to identify it; we can only wait for the day the Holy Embryo is born.”

"I just didn't expect..."

He told Yan Xun, "The Holy Embryo failed to be born in the Church."

"That's a real shame," Yan Xun said, though his words betrayed no sincerity whatsoever.

“You mentioned that you saw the Holy Embryo in an abandoned car on the side of the road,” Vincent said. “I heard about it a few days ago.”

"what?"

"A case has occurred in a city."

"A man who often helped homeless people was found dead in his home."

“The man was hanging from the roof with ‘I am guilty’ written on his body. Someone found the missing homeless man in his basement, including a person with wings.”

"It looks like the mutations that often occurred in cities during that period."

“Mutation phenomenon?” Yan Xun repeated Vincent’s wording. “You mean those people who suddenly grow wings?”

"Yes, you could say that."

“I thought the Church of Angels would have a different explanation for this mutation,” Yan Xun said, looking at Vincent. “Like a blessing from God or something.”

“I’ve heard that this is a sign of the impending apocalypse, a selection of those who can enter the divine kingdom.” Yan Xun looked at the mixture of sugar, milk, and tea in the teacup before him. “The divine kingdom…”

"I've heard that the Kingdom of God is the realm of all gods?" He looked at the skeletal angel in the sanctuary. "As long as one believes in that angel, one can enter the Kingdom of God after death?"

Vincent gestured for the newsboy to leave first, and only after the newsboy was out of the room did he say to Yan Xun, "Yes."

“On the day the world ends, extremely evil beings will come to this world.” Vincent took off his glasses. “Therefore, we can only believe in angels and ask them to help us resist these beings.”

"What if you don't have faith?" Yan Xun asked.

Vincent wiped his glasses. "Could it be swallowed up?"

He looked at Yan Xun and said, "I don't know either."

"But at least one thing is certain: ordinary people cannot withstand those kinds of harm."

“Every year of the divine calendar, the skeletal angel is destroyed and reborn, and then descends in the form of a holy fetus.” Vincent looked at the angel beside Yan Xun. “As long as enough faith is gained, He can protect this world.”

“When those angels appeared, it proved that the Holy Embryo had been born into this world,” Vincent told Yan Xun. “That’s why we have been searching for the Holy Embryo.”

"We must not let Him fall into the hands of those with evil intentions."

Yan Xun glanced at the angel beside him. "You mean, if he falls into the hands of someone with bad intentions, the world could very well face an irreparable disaster."

Vincent sighed, "I know you don't believe in the Church of Angels or the Bone Angels."

He made a gesture to calm down, saying, "I didn't mean to force you to believe."

“But I want to say that all of this is true,” he said to Yan Xun. “In the future I saw, the Holy Embryo fell into the hands of bad people, and the world became a mess.”

"That was truly the end of the world."

“Just like the false gods mentioned earlier,” Vincent said to Yan Xun, “those extremely evil beings, in order to destroy this world, will also give revelations to others before the Holy Embryo is born.”

"For example, what will the person who is about to give birth to the holy child look like, how old will they be, and roughly where will they be?"

"We will rely on this information to find the Holy Embryo."

“But fortunately, the Holy Embryo Society guided them here,” Vincent said, looking at Yan Xun. “Detective, since you took Ellie away from that manor with the artificial lake, you should understand what I mean.”

I knew it, Yan Xun thought.

When Vincent brought out the newsboy and deliberately mentioned the dead man, Yan Xun knew that the other party already knew all the details of his identity.

So what are you trying to say?

"Should I praise your extraordinary abilities?"

"You can find all this information?"

Vincent shook his head. "I just want to say that for you right now, staying in the Church of Angels is the safest option."

“The people chasing you and Ellie saw the car that exploded outside the city, but the fact that there was only one body inside can’t be kept secret for long,” he told Yan Xun.

"Even though Airi is dead, I don't think he'll let you go."

"You are the one who knows the whole truth."

Vincent said to Yan Xun, "If he only wanted to hunt down the Holy Embryo, he shouldn't have fired at that car outside the canyon."

"Levy did not mean to let you live."

Vincent observed Yan Xun's expression, trying to see wavering, sadness, or shock on his face, but found nothing.

Yan Xun continued stirring the mixture in his cup with a spoon, seemingly uninterested in Levi, whom he had mentioned.

This was something Vincent hadn't expected.

According to the information he had, Levi and the detective had not known each other for very long, but their relationship was quite harmonious. To most people, Levi was even a bit too indulgent, allowing Yan Xun to say that he was his assistant.

Even if he were to impersonate someone, he had absolutely no need to do so.

If his intelligence was correct, Levi had been living in the attic of Yan Xun's house for some time.

The two ate and lived together.

Based on this intelligence, he judged that Yan Xun and Levi had a much closer relationship than the outside world thought.

Therefore, he did not understand why Yan Xun could remain so calm when he learned that his "lover" was planning to kill him.

If Yan Xun knew what Vincent was thinking, she would immediately yell – Get out, you love-obsessed fool!

His relationship with Levy was only half-exploitative; he neither considered Levy a friend nor a human being.

For Yan Xun, it was perfectly normal for NPCs in the dungeon to change their attitudes because of his choices.

"So what you're trying to say is..." Yan Xun tried to find some key points in Vincent's rambling, "that Levi received a hint from the false god, which is why he wanted to destroy the Holy Embryo?"

"Where is Conrad?"

"Did he also seize Ellie to obtain the Holy Embryo?"

Vincent shook his head. "Conrad must have received information from the 'mother' of the Holy Embryo."

Yan Xun recalled what the artists in the other building had said: two months ago, Conrad suddenly said he had an inspiration and took Ellie away.

But at that point in time, the first person with wings hadn't even appeared yet, so how could he know that the Holy Embryo had already appeared?

Is it still inside Ellie's belly?

To be honest, Yan Xun didn't really believe what Vincent said.

Rather than attributing those fleshy lumps to a deception by a false god, it's more accurate to say that even the members of the Angelic Church dare not let the public know—

The skeletal angels they worship are creatures that feed on flesh and blood.

When the angel was first born, the system prompted itself that the angel needed food, implying that the angel needed to eat Ellie to fill its stomach.

Even the new generation of "angels" need to eat fleshy balls to prevent themselves from being completely devoured by their wings.

He guessed that those fleshy spheres were originally the angel's food.

Once the Holy Embryo arrives at the Church of Angels, they will begin feeding it.

In Vincent's description, Conrad becomes a man who tries to steal the angel queen and destroy the world.

Yan Xun felt it wasn't that complicated—Conrad probably also received some information from his dreams, just like Bonnie's parents, who were thinking of worshipping the gods to gain some influence.

Thinking about all this, Yan Xun took a moment to glance at Mission 3 and found that it was still in progress.

He looked at the angel's lonely wings and didn't understand what level he needed to reach to be considered to have completed his mission.

“It seems I’ll have to stay at the Angel Church for the time being,” Yan Xun said to Vincent.

Vincent nodded. "We'll arrange accommodations for you."

"Don't worry, it's safe here."

Yan Xun leaned back in his chair. "That's for the best."

He felt his sleeve being tugged.

Yan Xun turned to look at the angel and found that the angel had opened its mouth wide again, indicating that it was hungry.

"The Holy Embryo seems hungry," Yan Xun said to Vincent. "Where is the food you prepared?"

Vincent glanced at Yan Xun a few times, then shook the bell on the table. Soon, some people dressed in white robes appeared.

They surrounded the angel, seemingly trying to take him away.

The angel clung to Yan Xun's clothes, unwilling to leave.

At this moment, Vincent said something—in a language that Yan Xun couldn't understand—and the angel released his grip on Yan Xun's clothes.

He looked at Yan Xun with reluctance before being led away by the men in white robes.

Only Yan Xun and Vincent remained in the room.

Yan Xun looked at the backs of those people in white robes and said, "I've seen white robes like that before."

Vincent looked at him.

“At Conrad’s lakeside estate,” Yan Xun said.