“As expected of the lowest level of undead creatures. Although their strength and agility are astonishing, their intelligence is completely at the level of a beast. Can't it see how dangerous I am?”
Xia De thought to himself, pulling his Moonlight Greatsword from the air with his right hand. As the ghoul approached, he thrust his sword forward.
“Blade of Chaotic Time and Space!”
The ghoul agilely twisted its body in the air to dodge Xia De's first sword, but was then directly pierced through the head by a second sword that thrust out of the air.
Its “vitality” was extremely tenacious; even so, it still lunged forward at Xia De's neck, but Xia De deftly dodged it.
With a sweep of the Moonlight in his hand, the arc of light cut the ghoul, which had landed, into two halves. Both halves of the corpse simultaneously writhed, trying to escape, and black-green, foul-smelling liquid flowed from the wounds on the body.
After a long while, it finally stopped moving completely, and Xia De confirmed that the opponent had truly entered “death.”
He narrowed his eyes and looked at the disgusting corpse on the ground:
“Priest Augustus is a Second-Circle Arcanist, but he's not good at combat. Facing this ghoul, which can be called an ‘elite,’ he would indeed be forced into the underground cemetery. But he definitely wouldn't die because of this. Priest Augustus probably has a trump card, but it would cause too much of a stir, so he must find a secluded place to use it.”
He used the sword in his right hand to poke the hideous corpse on the ground. From such an evolved and powerful “ghoul,” a considerable amount of alchemical and potion materials could actually be separated. However, this required professional techniques and equipment to harvest. Although Felianna's Witch Light gave Xia De a lot of basic Knowledge, including simple material separation methods, he didn't have professional tools on him.
This wasn't just a matter of taking a sword and simply cutting off a piece of flesh.
Therefore, he chose to open the door of an ancient, locked tomb chamber next to him, placed his palm on the ground, and used “Felianna's Witch Light” to “melt” a large hole in the ground, into which he threw the two halves of the corpse.
Disposing of undead creature corpses must be done carefully, otherwise, it will lead to greater trouble. The best way to dispose of them is to thoroughly burn the corpse to ashes with oil like the Heart of Fire that Priest Augustus used, but Xia De didn't have such a potion on him, so he buried the corpse first and would deal with it later.
After burying the corpse, he returned to the wall where Priest Augustus had last disappeared, placing his hand on the wall. The cold, uneven surface of the dirt wall didn't seem unusual:
“Any discoveries?”
“Nothing at all.”
“This is truly Felianna's Witch Light.”
Golden light emanated from his palm, and then the wall was “melted” by the light like butter. Xia De controlled the power of the Miracle, only allowing his hand to penetrate into the wall.
But even when his elbow was also inserted into the wall, it was still solid behind.
“This is troublesome. There are no traces of elements, and it's not some kind of mechanism.”
He pulled his hand out, then took a deep breath. As an invisible airflow surged from the wall into Xia De's nose, at the cost of less than two seconds of his lifespan, he restored the wall to its original state.
“Did Priest Augustus really vanish into thin air?”
Xia De looked around again. The gloomy, damp underground cemetery seemed to have no other clues:
“Do I have to lick the ground and the wall?”
“No need, because by using the Miracle ‘Breath of Years,’ you have come into deeper contact with the space in front of you and have obtained detailed information.”
“Does Breath of Years have such a benefit?”
Thinking that the Miracle's effect was to inhale the airflow representing “past time” into his nose, this seemed quite reasonable:
“I knew it, a Miracle that uses lifespan as a casting material couldn't just have the effect of changing time. What did you learn?”
“An area similar to a spatial anomaly briefly appeared here. Your friend most likely fell into the spatial anomaly.”
“Priest Augustus was teleported somewhere else?”
Xia De recalled how he and Luvia, in the cornfield of the Darkness Domain, passed through a spatial rift and arrived directly at the entrance of Ms. Jialinna's manor.
“The information perceived is not much, but the other side is not the material world. I sensed distortion, malice, and extremely pure death.”
Xia De thought for a moment, then confirmed that with his current Knowledge, he had no idea what this meant:
“Could it be that Priest Augustus fell into the underworld? But in the mythological system of this world, there is no underworld at all.”
When people in this world die, if they are not taken by a god or dragged to paste on a wall (referring to the Wall of the Faithless), they can only “continue to walk.” There isn't even the concept of “reincarnation” from the Outsider's homeland here.
“It wouldn't be some kind of subspace sealing an evil entity, would it?”
This was the most likely outcome.
Since there were no further clues in the underground cemetery, Xia De left the misty cemetery and took a carriage back to the House of the Blind in the City. By the time he knocked on the door of Lufu Lane No. 15 again, it was almost five in the afternoon.
At this time, the effect of Xia De's Echo of Blood had completely disappeared, and the only clue Xia De had was that Priest Augustus had last vanished in front of the wall in the deepest part of the underground cemetery at the foot of Sicar Mountain.
This time, it wasn't Ms. Michelle who opened the door for Xia De, but probably with Ms. Michelle's permission, the young nun, also with her eyes wrapped in cloth, led Xia De directly to the third floor.
Ms. Michelle's eyes had returned to normal, but she didn't cover them with linen again. Instead, she used an eye mask that Xia De had seen once before, resembling a silver crown, to cover her eyes.
When inviting Xia De to sit down, Ms. Michelle also told Xia De that within the Spiritual Cultivation Order, only formally ordained nuns and monks could wear such an eye mask. In the House of the Blind's stronghold, she was the only one qualified.
The two still met in the reception room. Xia De recounted his recent experience to her. Ms. Michelle frowned slightly when she heard “ghoul,” and when Xia De said that he had used a method he couldn't disclose to discover that Priest Augustus had fallen into a strange space, the middle-aged woman, in her forties, furrowed her brow even more tightly:
“Forgive me, I'm not doubting a powerful Ring術士 like yourself.”
She probably had some misunderstanding about Xia De, but before Xia De could explain, the nun continued:
“May I ask, are you certain that it was a twisted, malicious, and death-filled place?”
“Absolutely certain.”
“Then do you know the local myths and legends?”
“Aside from hearing from the coachman that Sicar Mountain mysteriously fogs up every autumn, I know nothing.”
Xia De said honestly, thinking that he could inquire about the rumors of this City from Mr. Edmund, the lighthouse keeper in Coldwater Port, who claimed to be a folklorist.
“Actually, this City has a very old and difficult-to-verify rumor.”
Ms. Michelle lowered her head and said cautiously:
“First, it needs to be emphasized that situations like Priest Latt Augustus suddenly disappearing in a certain location occur frequently in this City, every one or two years. People suddenly vanish while walking, or a companion disappears while talking to someone, just by turning their head.”
This sounded like a steam-era urban legend. Tobesk's tabloids, when they couldn't find suitable topics like “Duchess Lovers' Duels,” liked to use such sensational stories to fill their pages. There were even busybodies who collected and published these stories, which also constituted illegal publications.
“Mysterious disappearances?”
Xia De frowned slightly:
“It seems many places have similar rumors, but those are just bizarre cases that the City Hall and police find difficult to solve.”
“But in Middlesburg, this is real. I originally thought Priest Augustus had just encountered an accident, but I didn't expect it to be this kind of situation.”
“Has the Church provided an explanation for this situation?”
“There's a rumor that at Sicar Mountain—”
Xia De looked out the window. From the third-floor window, he could directly see the mountain range, which was now shrouded in mist. Sicar Mountain was part of the Rommel Mountains, and the continuous range, like the dragons of the Outsider's homeland, stretched across the distance from the City.
“Beneath Sicar Mountain, there is an ambiguous area connecting the world of the living and the world of the dead, which the Church calls the 【Life and Death Gap】.”
Although there was no “underworld” in this world, because the dead would continue to walk, there was a clear boundary between the living and the dead. This “boundary” was merely a conceptual thing; Xia De had never heard of such a place actually existing:
“This isn't normal. Such a place shouldn't exist.”
Xia De pointed out, and the nun nodded:
“This is indeed not normal. death and the material world should not have any connection, nor should there be a passage connecting the two, but the material world does indeed have similar Gaps. Most of them are very small, and Middlesburg is built above what is currently known as the largest boundary of life and death. Including the white mist that inevitably appears on Sicar Mountain every autumn, and the mysteriously disappearing people, these are all caused by the blurring of the boundary, leading to the direct overlap of the world of the living and the dead.”
Ms. Michelle sighed softly:
“And once one falls into that boundary, it is almost equivalent to death; once one enters a special door in the 【Life and Death Gap】, one truly steps into irreversible death. That place truly connects to the concept of death itself.”
“Are these rumors you mentioned all local legends?”
These things were not mentioned at all in the Second-Circle Arcanist's folklore-related courses.
“No, many pieces of evidence prove that this is a real situation. Mr. Watson, the Order confirmed long ago that there is indeed something beneath Sicar Mountain, this volcano—”
Xia De was stunned:
“Volcano? Excuse me, please forgive my impoliteness, but Sicar Mountain is a volcano? Although my geology and geography are not good, this doesn't look like volcanic terrain at all.”
“This is indeed an extinct volcano.”
Ms. Michelle said. Although she wore a crown-like eye mask and Xia De couldn't see her eyes, the lady was clearly not joking:
“The Orthodox Church knows about the 【Life and Death Gap】 beneath Sicar Mountain, but they don't disclose any information to the outside world. The Order believes that it is actually an Angel-level relic.”
“Angel-level?”
Xia De tentatively asked, but Ms. Michelle shook her head slightly.
“Unknowable level?”
He widened his eyes.
“The Order believes so. Some things are inconvenient to tell you, but in fact, the Order has always been exploring the secrets here. We revere death, we perceive spirituality. That you could glimpse its appearance, and even glimpse that twisted and terrifying death power, and appear completely fine, is truly incredible to me.”
Ms. Michelle concluded:
“From the current information, Priest Latt Augustus should not have entered the door within the 【Life and Death Gap】, but merely fell into the 【Life and Death Gap】. And the ghoul you encountered appeared because the boundary was blurred.”
“So that's how it is! Then, can you help dispose of the ghoul's corpse? The valuable things on it will be considered your reward.”
Xia De said, pressing his head with his hand. This situation was truly an unimaginable big trouble. Just one day ago, with Tifa's help, he was making the final preparations for the Great City Player finals, but 24 hours later, he was here hearing another terrifying rumor.
Today was Thursday, the 19th of the harvest month. After more than half a month of leisure since the beginning of the month, the Outsider knew that his adventure was about to begin again.
The nun said softly:
“Thank you for your generosity.”
Digging out the buried corpse was not difficult, and the materials that could be separated from the mutated, powerful ghoul were indeed valuable. The most valuable parts were the ghoul's brain and lungs, which could sell for at least 20 pounds at Mr. Corpus's place in Tobesk.
Xia De was willing to give them to her, not only to express his gratitude but also because he would probably need more help from the Spiritual Cultivation Order in this City.
“So, if Priest Augustus really fell into that kind of place, is there a way to get him out?”
Xia De asked again.
“He can only come out himself. That ambiguous area between life and death is not something we living people can interfere with. And once one fails to leave for a long time, or truly crosses the boundary, the door between life and death, and enters the world of the dead, one can truly never come out again.”
Xia De nodded. He almost understood the meaning of Priest Augustus's “dead but not dead” state. Priest Augustus thought he couldn't get out, which was why he used his last strength to enter Xia De's dream to bid him farewell.
“Then for the next period, I will stay in Middlesburg until I rescue Priest Augustus.”
Xia De stood up and walked to the window, looking at the continuous mountain range in the sunset:
“I definitely will.”
“I wish you luck.”
Ms. Michelle said softly.
She was not unwilling to provide direct help, but truly powerless.
