Because of the unique Ring術士 inheritance of the Spiritual Cultivation Order, the eyes of the Sisters who are qualified to wear silver coronet eye patches can capture spiritual energy invisible to the naked eye.
Therefore, even the Church and the Academy cannot capture the one-way passage entrances to the Gap that have appeared in Middlesburg, but the Spiritual Cultivation Order can.
This is why they were able to rescue people who had mistakenly entered it before, while the Church was unable to immediately rescue Priest Augustus.
The Order needs some time to find usable entrances in the city, fix them, and then allow a single person to enter.
What Xia De needs to do is provide 3,000 pounds for ritual materials, allowing the Spiritual Cultivation Order to create a ritual, using a method similar to "spiritualism," to enable Xia De to also enter that ambiguous area Between Life and death.
Holding the Priest's personal belongings, Xia De will be able to find Priest Augustus within that strange area, and then the Order will be able to pull both of them out.
In this method, 3,000 pounds is not an issue at all; the other four members of the group can chip in, and then let the Priest reimburse them after he is rescued. Moreover, the Sister told Xia De to send the money within a week, so there's no rush.
The Priest's personal belongings are also not hard to find; the holy emblem pendant Xia De picked up can be used.
The only risk is that Xia De needs to enter that dangerous area, and only he can enter; strangers cannot find Priest Augustus through the ritual.
Although Xia De had promised the other three members of the group not to easily enter there just a few hours ago, now that he had found a method, he was unwilling to back down.
Sister Devlin explained the entire rescue process to Xia De in detail and described the potential dangers of doing so.
With a slight misstep, Xia De could also get lost in that domain, and then wait for others to rescue him.
"Mr. John Watson, I cannot estimate the risks of doing this. You must think it through before making a decision."
"No need to think, Sister Devlin, please prepare the ritual. I will raise the money shortly."
Xia De shook his head. Priest Augustus was one of his few friends in this world, and Priest Augustus was also a good person worth saving.
He still had a drop of divinity in his soul that he hadn't used. If it came down to it, he would use the divinity to transform into a god to turn everything around.
The Sister was silent for a moment:
"Mr. Watson, there are very few people like you left nowadays."
"No need to praise me. Perhaps I will regret it in the future, but at least for now, I want to do this."
Xia De sighed, thinking that when the Priest was rescued and he treated him to a meal, perhaps he could choose a slightly higher-class restaurant:
"Sister Devlin, speaking of which, is the local Church planning something big? My friend Priest Augustus himself doesn't understand why he came here on a business trip."
He thought of this again, and the half of the Sister's face visible beneath her eye patch once again showed a serene smile:
"The local Church has been busy with other matters since last winter. They want to hold a large divine ritual here, and your friend, that Old Priest, was probably summoned for that reason."
"Large ritual?"
Xia De nodded. He hadn't heard any news about this, and even the Priest himself didn't know why he was here on a business trip.
Although the Priest was considered a "normal person" by the Church, such an aged and devout clergyman could also play an extraordinary role through prayer in a divine ritual, so the claim of a "large divine ritual" was very credible:
"As far as I know, the Five Gods Church has dispatched no less than 100 clergymen from various dioceses in the Old Continent to this area.
If it takes so many just for ordinary senior clergymen, I can hardly imagine what they are trying to do."
Ms. Michelle shook her head slightly; the Spiritual Cultivation Order was also investigating this matter.
Having obtained the information he wanted, Xia De originally intended to take his leave.
Tomorrow morning, the Spiritual Cultivation Order would transmit information about Between Life and death to the House of the Blind, and finding the boundary entrance and performing the ritual would likely take place within one or two days.
But Sister Devlin asked Xia De to stay a little longer; she still had something to do:
"I heard Sister Michelle say that you possess extremely pure Moonlight. So, may I use my eyes to examine the light on your body?"
Her tone when making the request was exactly the same as when she conversed with Xia De, completely devoid of emotion.
"Of course."
Since the other party had helped him so much, he naturally wouldn't refuse such an insignificant request.
So Xia De sat upright on the sofa, looking at the grey-haired Sister.
The latter lowered her head and carefully removed the silver coronet, and when she raised her head again, her eyes were no longer covered by the metal eye patch, and Xia De truly saw her appearance clearly.
She was indeed very pretty, and unlike the transcendent beauty of the Witches, the Sister had a strange, pale aesthetic.
"Excuse me."
She said softly, then opened her eyes.
Xia De looked over inquisitively and saw a pair of dull black eyes.
Upon closer inspection, the eyeballs were cloudy, and the black eyes looked faded, making it difficult to distinguish the boundary between the eyeball and the whites.
This should be a special hereditary condition, somewhat similar to cataracts.
In other words, this Sister Devlin was actually a truly blind person.
Xia De thought to himself, then realized that staring at someone was impolite.
As he averted his gaze, he wondered, since the other party was truly blind, what exactly she would use to "see" when taking off her eye patch.
"It is indeed beautiful."
While Xia De was lost in thought, the grey-haired Sister suddenly said:
"Such brilliant Silver Moon Moonlight, tranquil, serene, and pure. It reminds me of observing the silver Moon in the mountains on the quietest night."
She closed her eyes, put her eye patch back on, and without further comment on the light on Xia De's body, she asked a somewhat abrupt question:
"Mr. John Watson, do you know about the Ancient Gods?"
"Of course, I do."
Xia De raised an eyebrow, not understanding why the other party suddenly brought up this topic:
"As far as I know, the Ancient Gods are the first and oldest thirteen gods in this world."
"Yes, the Ancient Gods are different from all current gods. They do not symbolize single or opposing things; each Ancient God corresponds to a considerable number of powers."
"I know that too. 'The Lady' in Tobesk once mentioned that the dark Ancient Gods possess powers such as darkness, error, and history."
"Because of what happened a while ago, the Seventh Seat Witch of Tobesk should indeed know this. So, do you know the meaning of the Moon?"
The Sister asked again, and Xia De nodded again:
"That's simple: Moon, night, recorder."
The Sister had already put on her eye patch and continued to speak in that calm tone:
"And death."
"death?"
Xia De never would have thought of that.
"To be precise, it is 'Directing Death'. The powers of the Ancient Gods sometimes have subtle overlaps.
Night has been inseparable from the concept of death since ancient times, and in contrast to the sun, which symbolizes light, heat, and the living, the Moon corresponds to darkness, coldness, and the dead.
Mainstream mysticism believes that the Red Moon represents flesh and reproduction, the yellow moon is the Moon itself and indicates direction, and the Silver Moon is sacred and purifying.
But in reality, the oldest Moon, that Silver Moon..."
Xia De glanced at Sister Devlin.
"...is also considered by people as a sign that Directing Death in the night, which is the Nether Moon in divination."
"But among the Ancient Gods, there exists a god of death."
Xia De said, he knew about the Founding·Death rhode cards.
"Yes, the Ancient God, the ancient death god, the original god of death. He represents the purest death, ending, and nothingness; there is no doubt about that."
Earlier in the morning, Mr. Edmund from Coldwater Port also mentioned the ancient death god.
The Sister spoke softly, and Xia De looked at her hesitantly, suspecting that the Spiritual Cultivation Order might be a group of extraordinary individuals who have worshipped the ancient death god or the Silver Moon Sage since ancient times, just like the Prophet Association has worshipped Mr. Huan since ancient times.
But before he could decide whether to ask her, his chest suddenly felt warm.
"Hmm?"
It was the badge that could determine a Witch's power heating up, and judging by the degree of warmth, it wasn't just a woman with Witch power nearby, but a Great Witch.
Although surprised, Xia De's expression remained normal.
While feeling the change in the warmth of the badge on his chest, he continued to discuss local legends and stories of Middlesburg with Sister Devlin.
The warmth in his chest became increasingly evident, but it never fully approached.
And exactly ten minutes after Xia De noticed the Great Witch's appearance, there was a knock on the door.
The club's maid opened the door after receiving permission:
"Ms. Devlin, Grandma Cassandra is here and is waiting for you in her room."
"I understand."
The Sister said, standing up and nodding slightly to Xia De:
"Mr. Watson, I still have some things to do."
"No problem, I'm also going to do my own things now. You go first, I'll leave after I finish this cup of tea."
He picked up the teacup in front of him, actually worried about encountering Great Witch Grandma Cassandra on the stairs.
"Alright, you can pick up the materials at the House of the Blind after nine o'clock tomorrow morning."
With that, the Sister left the room.
Only after the door closed and the sound of footsteps faded did Xia De stand up with his teacup and walk to the window of the relatively simply decorated room to look outside.
Rolling mountains undulated in the distance, and mist emerged from halfway up the mountains, descending all the way down to cover the villages at the foot of the mountains.
In Tobesk and Coldwater Port, this mountainous scenery could not be seen.
Middlesburg itself was also shrouded in the grey mist released by the steam factories; the two types of mist converged at the foot of the mountains but did not completely merge.
It was Friday afternoon, two days had passed since Priest Augustus's incident.
Xia De sincerely hoped that by this time next week, the Priest would have returned safely.
