Attached to the finger was a soul that refused to dissipate. It was revolving around the finger like a wisp of white smoke, but it was quickly grabbed by Qin Ye.

"This is a part of the remains of a god!" Qin Ye's mouth was slightly agape as he stared at the finger in disbelief. "This thing most likely belongs to the Freemasonry... How did they manage to get their hands onto something like this?"

All deceased death gods or ones who were on the brink of death would return to the Heavenly Dao, and the fact that this death god still had remained indicated that they weren't dead!

Instead, they were hibernating.

It had to be a situation similar to the one Yu Kiang was in, where it was in a hibernating state and its body still remained in this world.

"Does this mean that the Freemasonry found a hibernating death god and cut off one of their fingers? How did they manage to escape alive after doing something like that?"

Just the mere thought of how much power it would require to do something like this struck Qin Ye with a sense of dread.

The three death gods of the Caribbean were also involved, so this had to be the result of their efforts combined with that of the Freemasonry. Brand was a subordinate to the three death gods, while Master Mason Brando of the Freemasonry had warned him against approaching Matthew. This meant that there had to have been some type of collaboration between the two parties, at least when the subject of Matthew was concerned.

Many disjointed thoughts began to rapidly come together in his mind, forming a preposterous theory.

"Why Matthew? What are they trying to do and what do they need him for?"

With a flick of his wrist, his beaded bracelet fell into his grasp, and he habitually massaged it as he fell into deep thought. After over 10 minutes of contemplative silence, he murmured to himself, "What if... What if Matthew is the Slumber of the Sea and the Stars? What if he's the vessel the three death gods are planning to use in their ascension to the Yama-King level? In that case, this finger has to be some sort of guiding instrument or some type of catalyst."

He lowered his head with tightly furrowed brows as he shook his head again.

Something's not right... There's a hole in this theory.

Given how frail Matthew's body was, there was no way he would be able to withstand the massive influx of Yin energy required to create a true death god. In the instant that he became a god, Matthew would perish for sure and his physical body would completely disintegrate. There was simply no way that his physical body would be a suitable vessel for such a task.

In that case, why were they so intent on protecting Matthew?

He looked up at the ceiling with a contemplative expression as he mused to himself, "Also, if Matthew really is that important to their plans, there's no way I would've been able to capture him so easily. Perhaps you can explain this by saying that having too many powerful beings constantly with him would attract a lot of suspicions, thereby drawing attention to Matthew when there otherwise wouldn't have been any, but if it were me, I would lock up Matthew somewhere where no one can find him until I'm ready to possess him. There's no way I would leave him in someplace like Cathaytown and render him so vulnerable."

There were too many things that can't be explained about this theory. He shook his head as he heaved a faint sigh, then grabbed onto the soul and squeezed it between his fingers.

All of the answers to his questions were most likely going to be in there.

The soul was shattered, and it let loose an anguished howl before vanishing into thin air. At the same time, countless memories surged into Qin Ye's mind in a frenzy.

………………………………………………

It was a pitch-black night that was pouring with rain. The windscreen wipers on a large white truck were sweeping back and forth incessantly over the truck's windscreen, and a Michael Jackson song was playing inside. Two manual laborers wearing caps that read "Oak Movers" in English were seated in the truck, leafing through magazines in a bored manner.

However, invisible to both of them was a disfigured infant wearing a tattered set of infant's clothing. The infant had three hands, and his deathly pale eyes were rolling into the back of his head while blood was flowing out of all seven of his orifices as he frantically tried to force his way into the car.

That's Matthew! Was he abandoned because of his disfigurement? Qin Ye immediately identified the infant to be Matthew.

He was trying to find someone to possess. Qin Ye could tell that the Matthew at the time was extremely feeble, and if he didn't find anyone to possess soon, he would soon cease to exist.

Unfortunately, he was far too weak and the life force of the two men in the truck was too strong for such a feeble Yin spirit like him to be able to possess.

In addition to Matthew, Qin Ye also recognized one of the two men in the truck while the other was unfamiliar to him.

The person that he recognized was Ricky Conn, Matthew's father!

Matthew was desperately ramming his disfigured face into the window of the truck from outside, but the two men in the truck were completely unable to hear him. After about 10 minutes, Matthew was in complete despair, yet right as he was about to leave, a burst of knocking suddenly rang out.

Ricky put down his magazine and nudged his colleague as he asked, "Do you hear that?"

The monotonous knocking sound was particularly harrowing in the stormy night.

His colleague nodded in response as he gulped nervously. "Just ignored it. This job was really strange to begin with. I've never even heard of the First Usonian Bank, and we've been called here to move for them, but there's nothing for us to move and they won't even let us get out of the truck!"

"So what?" Ricky gave an uncaring shrug. "They're giving us twice the compensation."

"Are you not concerned that there's something fishy about this?"

"I don't care as long as they pay up. I'll keep this a secret from everyone and only tell it to that oak tree in my yard."

Right at this moment, the knocking became louder and louder, and the two of them exchanged a glance before Ricky abruptly turned toward the window to take a look. However, his head shrank back just as quickly, and a horrified look had appeared on his face.

"What did you see?" his colleague asked in a fearful voice.

"Nothing..." Ricky replied in a trembling voice.

"Nothing? Why do you look so scared if you saw noth..." Before he even finished his sentence, he shuddered as he realized why Ricky was so frightened.

If there was nothing outside, then what was knocking on the car?

Before they had a chance to think about anything else, two resounding booms suddenly rang out from the container at the rear of the truck. It was as if something were crashing violently into the container.

"R-R-R-Ricky..." Ricky's colleague was on the verge of soiling himself at this point. "H, Have we encountered something... not from this world?"

Ricky was also terrified as he gritted his teeth, then grabbed a rubber baton before rushing out of the truck.

Torrential rain was pouring down while lightning flashed high up in the sky, and he rushed out with a single lunge. Not far in front of him stood an imposing church that was shimmering with faint specks of light, which looked as if they were demons in the night.

"Who's there, goddamn it!!" He gritted his teeth as he frantically waved his flashlight around, but there was nothing outside the truck.

Only Qin Ye could see... No, Matthew had seen it as well. Right as the truck door was opened, a severed finger crawled into the truck!

"That's the finger of the death god..." Qin Ye was watching everything unfold from an omniscient perspective, and right as he saw this, his eyes immediately lit up as he cast his gaze toward the church in the night.

This was where Ricky Conn had completed the moving job for the First Usonian Bank, which meant that this was where the vault, the entrance to the underground church, was located!

This wasn't a very large church, and even though there were lights inside, the lights were very dim and there was no sound of prayer coming from within. Come to think of it, all churches should've been closed long before this time at night, but this one was still open!

Directly in front of the church was the statue of a saint, and that was the most prominent landmark to look out for.

Unfortunately, even though Qin Ye enjoyed an omniscient perspective, he couldn't zoom in or out of the image. Otherwise, he would immediately zoom into the church to see exactly what was inside.

This was the starting point of everything.

Even the finger of the death god had appeared here.

The rain continued to pour down, and after finding nothing outside the truck, Ricky wiped at his own wet hair before preparing to return to the truck. Right at this moment, several figures emerged from the darkness of the night.

Ricky was far from a coward, but following such a bizarre episode on such a stormy night, even he couldn't help but feel extremely on-edge.

He gulped nervously as the figures made their way over to him, entering the scope of the headlights in the process, and Qin Ye's eyes immediately lit up as he identified their leader.

It was Brando DuPont, accompanied by a group of bodyguards.

This man was one of the 12 Master Masons, a non-human monster who was close to the mid Yama-King level.

In contrast with when Qin Ye had met him, Brando's eyes in this memory were bright red like those of a wild beast, and he said, "I warned you. I told you to keep quiet, take the money, and don't get out of your truck no matter what. Why did you listen to me?"

Rumble! Lightning flashed in the sky, and in that instant, Ricky could clearly see that hundreds of "wild beasts" had surrounded the church.

They seemed to be wolves, but most of them were walking upright on their hind legs as if they were humans!

"I absolutely detest those who take the money but don't do what they're told," Brando said in a calm voice.

Right at this moment, a wolf's howl rang out from somewhere, and in the next instant, the bodyguards standing beside Brando raised their heads to the heavens and also howled in response.

Clatter... Ricky's flashlight fell onto the ground, and his lips trembled uncontrollably as he turned around like a madman before sprinting toward the truck.

It was also right at this moment that another bolt of lightning flashed past, illuminating Brando, who had already transformed into a giant wolf!

"Open the door! Open the door!!" He was frantically slamming his hands against the truck door, and Qin Ye could see that two of his soulfires were flickering unsteadily due to excessive fear. It was also right at this moment that Matthew let loose a desperate screech before pouncing toward Ricky from beside the truck.

The opportunity for possession had arisen far too abruptly, and he was so excited that he completely failed to take into account Brando's presence. There would be no other opportunity for him to find another host, and if he didn't possess someone in an hour, he was going to fade out of existence!

In his haste to possess Ricky, he failed to see that a finger had plunged into his back right as he was about to pounce onto Ricky's back!

A ghastly howl rang out, and his spiritual body seemed to have melted. The sudden turn of events stopped Brando cold in his tracks, and his bodyguards had also ceased their howling as they looked on with stunned expressions.

"So that's where it was!!" In the next instant, Brando let loose a thunderous roar of fury, and his arms abruptly bulged to twice as thick as the average adult human's arm. At the same time, black fur and pulsing red veins emerged on the surface of his arms as he made a vicious grab toward Matthew.

Right as he was about to grab onto Matthew, he suddenly let loose an agonized howl before instantly withdrawing his hand. He brought his palm up to his own face with an astonished expression to find that the charred black symbol of a sun had appeared on his hand.

Dead silence.

The only sound that could be heard came from the howling wind and the torrential rain. Several seconds later, Brando's furious voice rang out. "Shit! I didn't think it could still use its divine intent to escape from the Rift of Time... Looks like we still underestimated these ancient gods!"

He had already withdrawn his hand and reverted back to his human form, and he combed his right hand through his own hair. A bodyguard standing beside him asked, "What do we do now, Your Excellency?"

Brando gnashed his teeth together with a murderous expression as he looked at Matthew, who was trembling on the ground, and only after a long while did he give a cold harrumph. "It's only a key anyway, the main body still hasn't managed to escape. Keep an eye on him. His soul has become intertwined with the divine finger, and his fate has become intertwined with this man. If we forcibly extract the finger, it'll only be destroyed. We have to get rid of some of this man's memories. Also, check and see if he has any relatives. If so, then let them give birth to this child and protect him until we need him."

He made his way over to Mathew, who was already unconscious at this point, and he gently scraped a sharp fingernail that was over an inch in length over Matthew's cheek as he mused, "What a lucky Yin spirit you are..."