Damn it, I’m surrounded by those who worry about their fathers!

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After being struck by the flames, Peter slowly lowered his arms. Contrary to what Azu and the others had imagined, Peter's arms weren't burned at all, nor was there any sign of injury.

"Dad?!"

Azu looked at Peter in shock. He finally understood why he had laser eyes—it was an inherited superpower from his father! Azu looked at Peter with admiration, determined that one day he would be as cool as his dad.

Poor Azu, still unaware that his adoption was a well-known secret among Peter's close friends.

Clark, on the other hand, was breathing heavily as he stared at his godfather. So the godfather is Superman!

Recently, Clark's vision and hearing abilities had suddenly skyrocketed, and his defensive capabilities were becoming stronger. Last time, while working on the farm, he accidentally put his hand into a running harvester and came out without a scratch. Troubled by this, a new idea began forming in his mind: if his godfather was strong enough to withstand an explosion, could he be Peter's real son, and Azu the adopted one? Now that Clark understood the difference between being biological and adopted, he began to wonder if he and Azu had been switched at birth in the hospital.

Boom!

Another explosion erupted, and a wave of heat swept over them. Peter ignored the few remaining zombies, scooped up Azu, sheathed his katana, and quickly fled outside.

"Thank God! Lana, you're okay!"

Neil, who had been blocked by the flames and couldn't get inside, saw Lana approaching. Overjoyed, he picked her up, kissing her face in relief. "Lana, I was so scared! If I had lost you, I wouldn't have known what to do!"

Seeing her uncle on the verge of tears, Lana comforted him gently, "I'm fine, Uncle."

"How did you get out, Lana?" Neil asked, inspecting her for any injuries.

"It was Uncle Podrick."

Lana looked toward the distance, where the flames shone as brightly as the noonday sun, illuminating the entire street. Cars raced toward the scene, and people in various robes and pajamas ran through the streets. She saw a man standing on the steps of the police station, cupping his hands around his mouth, shouting something. The town's piercing sirens, the fire engine alarms, and the roaring flames seemed to drown out all other sounds.

Lana's gaze searched through the flames and the crowd for Peter, but she couldn't find him. Sighing, a hint of youthful melancholy washed over her.

Deep in a dark forest, Father Norma stood before a blood-soaked altar, holding a book of black magic. "Damn it! Damn it!" He cursed as one by one, the zombies he had bound with dark magic lost their connection to him. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

According to the black magic book, if he wanted to obtain the power to heal his lung cancer, he needed to sacrifice more living people. That was why he had unleashed the zombies to wreak havoc in the great hall. The more people who died, the more effective the sacrifice would be. The process had gone smoothly at first, with many killed by the zombies. But just as he was trying to move the undead creatures away, they all suddenly went out of his control.

Losing all of his carefully cultivated zombies at once made his heart ache. Even worse, if they fell into government hands, it would undoubtedly lead to big trouble.

As he tried to re-establish contact with the zombies using his magic, a strange sound suddenly echoed from the forest.

"Who's there?!" Father Norma called out warily into the trees.

"It's me, Father Norma."

A familiar voice came from the shadows. Father Norma looked up toward the entrance of the forest, where the moonlight dimly revealed the figure of Peter, flanked by Clark and Azu.

"What… why are you here?"

"That's my question to you, Father Norma," Peter said as his eyes fell on the blood-soaked altar. "As a man of the cloth, such actions are a blasphemy against the Lord, aren't they?"

"I… I was…"

Father Norma tried to feign innocence. "I was performing a purification ritual."

"With the deaths of others as a sacrifice?" Peter stepped forward, reaching for the black magic book in Norma's hand. Norma tried to stop him but was slapped aside. Peter flipped through the book casually.

"Undead creatures? So, Father Norma, you told the people who lost loved ones that they could revive the dead by burying them in that swamp, didn't you?"

Norma, teeth loose from the slap, looked at Peter in shock.

"Who… who are you really?"

He never expected that this seemingly ordinary farmer could possess such unimaginable power.

Peter ignored the question, continuing, "My cousin Louis lost little Terry. His wife was heartbroken, and under your influence, she buried Terry in that swamp. One night, Terry came back to life. But what she didn't know was that every reversal of fate has a price. She thought she could cheat death, but it was like placing a coin on the train tracks and expecting it to stop an oncoming train."

Peter's eyes narrowed as he stared at Norma. "Terry, under your control, killed Louis and his wife, then became one of your zombies. Those zombies you controlled—they carried out tonight's massacre, didn't they?"

Norma, standing up, growled, "Yes, I controlled them! I unleashed them on the people because I wanted to change my fate! I have lung cancer, and I needed to sacrifice them to save myself!"

Clark, listening to Peter's words, was dumbfounded. He thought stories like The Monkey's Paw were just that—stories. How could someone be so selfish and greedy that they would harm others so recklessly?

Clark's fists clenched tightly.

Meanwhile, Azu didn't seem as angry as Clark. To him, it didn't matter what the priest had done—his dad was going to take care of him soon enough.

"I've devoted my life to God, and this is how he repays his followers?" Norma spat, his voice filled with hatred. "I've seen people's misfortune, witnessed how fate controls their lives. Since every life is headed for a cliff, let's all plunge into the darkness together!"

As he prepared to cast a spell to kill Peter and the others, Peter suddenly appeared next to him.

Crack!

The sharp sound of Norma's neck snapping echoed through the night, as Peter swiftly ended the priest's life.