“Redan Put? Seville?”
Xia De finally learned the middle names of the two girls. Before this, he only knew that Dorothy’s middle name started with ‘R’ during the Summer exam week.
“Push open the door of the Four Elements, and by this, witness the path of sublimation.”
On the mirror-like snowy street, where there were originally no matches or ritual arrays, three hundred and sixty-five matches, identical to those in the attic, suddenly appeared out of thin air, along with a ritual array centered on the sun, moon, stars, and a simplified human figure.
The ritual arrays inside and outside the mirror were completely connected into a single entity. To Xia De, who was divided by the mirror, this scene was peculiar but inexplicably made him feel it was as it should be.
“Push open the door of the Four Elements, and by this, witness the path of sublimation.”
“Push open the door of the Four Elements, and by this, witness the path of sublimation.”
The last sentence was finally recited, and Xia De immediately removed the hands of the two people touching the mirror. Although the pain did not completely disappear, Xia De thought it would at least lessen. However, their situation was still not optimistic. Leia in the mirror had completely collapsed next to Xia De, her Destiny Ring so faint it was just a shadow. Although Dorothy outside the mirror barely maintained consciousness due to the increase in her power, she also looked like she was about to give out.
At the same time, Xia De used a spell to make four pre-prepared matches fly out of Dorothy’s pocket and appear before him:
“Mystic Lock - the little match girl!”
The extremely incomplete Mystic Lock unfolded again, simultaneously affecting both inside and outside the mirror:
“The first match, Ring術士 of the First Ring, the Beginning of the Extraordinary!”
The first match was lit, then blown out by Xia De. The matchstick turned into points of light, flying into the ritual array on the ground.
These words should have been spoken by Dorothy, but she was unable to speak now.
“The second match, Ring術士 of the Second Ring, the Foundation of Life!”
The second match was lit, then blown out by Xia De. The matchstick turned into points of light, flying into the ritual array on the ground.
Dorothy’s Destiny Ring behind her spun rapidly, and steam mist gradually enveloped the brass ring. Xia De could feel the sweat and heat on those two seemingly powerless hands; they truly couldn't hold on much longer.
“The third match, Ring術士 of the Third Ring, the Secret of the Soul!”
The third match was lit, then blown out by Xia De. The matchstick turned into points of light, flying into the ritual array on the ground.
Even though Leia had lost consciousness at this moment, her Destiny Ring became clear again. Because Dorothy’s Destiny Ring was enveloped in white mist, her Ling Runes were not visible, but Leia’s core Ling Runes, 【Playing】, 【The Writer】, and 【Princess】, actually flickered with spiritual light simultaneously, though the owner of the Destiny Ring was completely unaware.
“The fourth match, Ring術士 of the Fourth Ring, the Path of Sublimation!”
The last match was lit, then blown out by Xia De. The matchstick turned into points of light, flying into the ritual array on the ground.
Amidst the sound of a whistle and a bell, the white mist dispersed, and Dorothy’s PentaCircle Destiny Ring appeared above her. It then slowly vanished as Dorothy was semi-conscious.
Xia De looked at Leia, who barely opened her eyes, gave Xia De a difficult smile, and then disappeared into the mirror. Feeling the increasingly strong whisper element from the mirror in his pocket, Xia De quickly emerged from the mirror.
“Dorothy! Dorothy!”
He sat on the ground, picked up the Golden-haired girl, and placed his silver-glowing palm on her forehead:
“Cindyia's Silver Moon Grace.”
Because of Leia's departure, the pain completely disappeared, and she was slowly getting better. Hearing Xia De’s call, she barely opened her eyes. She was soaked with sweat from the intense pain, and her body temperature was abnormally high. The wisps of hair on her forehead were stuck to her skin with sweat, but there was a weak smile in her emerald green eyes:
“I, succeeded, Xia De, I succeeded.”
“It's all that mirror ghost’s fault!”
Speaking of which, Xia De wanted to crush the opponent into dust.
The Golden-haired girl took deep breaths and whispered:
“No, I have a hunch that even without that mirror ghost, this problem would have arisen. You don't need to worry about Leia either; she has a personal maid to take care of her. Oh no!”
Dorothy’s eyes suddenly widened.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mirror ghosts can only move through the nearest mirror, and they tend to attack any living thing.”
This kind of evil spirit has a stronger desire to actively attack than others of its kind.
“Yes... Oh no!”
Xia De also understood what Dorothy was worried about:
“Mia on the second floor!”
“You go downstairs first, I’ll follow right away.”
Carefully putting Dorothy down, Xia De rushed down to the attic. After the mirror ghost disappeared, he simplified the ritual due to time constraints, but it still took him three or four minutes to complete. He couldn't even imagine what kind of scene he would see on the second floor if that evil spirit had really attacked Mia during that time.
【No need to worry, that cat...】
“Don’t comfort me.”
Xia De, whose mind was reeling, didn’t even know how he got from the third floor back to the second floor. He only remembered crashing open the door and then coincidentally hearing Mia’s “piteous shriek.”
“Raglai's Leap!”
With one step, he entered the visible open bathroom area directly from the doorway. Then, he immediately saw the terrifyingly restored evil spirit in the mirror above the sink, reaching out to grab the cat standing on the sink.
And the small orange cat turned its body, swinging its tail with two “heavy objects” attached, and struck the evil spirit reaching out of the mirror.
A piercing scream almost shattered Xia De’s eardrums. The 【metamorphosis ring】 and 【fish training ring】 simultaneously struck the evil spirit as the cat swung its tail. When relics come into contact with souls, there are only two possible outcomes of whisper element infection.
One is that the spirit body directly collapses, and the other is that the whisper element causes the soul to become something even more terrifying, with the latter being more likely.
But this time, the cat was clearly very lucky. The “tail whip heavy strike” smashed a small hole in the evil spirit’s spirit body that extended from the mirror, and then, centered on the wound, the mirror ghost actually collapsed.
“Want to die? How could it be that easy?”
Xia De scooped up his cat with one hand and grabbed the dissipating evil spirit with the other. Relying on his ability to directly touch spirit bodies, he forcibly dragged the opponent out of the mirror.
With furious emotions, he pulled the cold evil spirit into the kitchen, picked up an empty wine bottle, placed the curious cat on the dining table, and held the bottle by its bottom with one hand and its neck with the other:
“blood brew!”
The collapsing evil spirit had almost no power to resist. The white points of light from its dissipating soul were actually sucked into the bottle. The process lasted for half a minute before Xia De sealed the bottle cap with a cork.
The exhausted Dorothy had also arrived at the door of Room 1 on the second floor by this time. Seeing the lively orange cat safe and sound, she also breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the door frame and saying in a weak voice:
“To prevent accidents with the ritual, I placed a silencing charm in your house beforehand, so the screams just now won’t be heard outside. I didn’t put one on the second floor, only at the staircase, so even if your neighbors hear it, they’ll only faintly hear a weak sound, probably thinking it’s a woman screaming.”
“Dorothy!”
Xia De put down the bottle and went to help Dorothy. After making sure the Golden-haired girl was lying comfortably on his bed, he quickly went downstairs and put the 【Corpse-Hiding Mirror】, which he vaguely felt was about to go out of control, into the 【god's gift box】. Although the 【god's gift box】 could suppress out-of-control relics, Xia De was still very uneasy, so he placed the gift box at the foot of the ancient god of space, 【cracks of origin】.
The mirror immediately quieted down.
Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, return to the second floor, pick up the wine bottle, and go to the side bedroom. Mia had already run in by herself; it was very dissatisfied with the woman occupying the bed. Even though Dorothy had taken care of it, Mia still considered the bed an inviolable territory.
“Don’t sit up.”
Placing the bottle on the table, Xia De had Dorothy sit down and brought her hot tea:
“How do you feel now?”
He asked with concern.
“Still a bit weak, but much better.”
Although she said so, the Golden-haired girl’s lips were still pale, and the cold sweat on her face had not disappeared.
“Stay here tonight, I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
Xia De didn't want to go to the first floor, to prevent missing anything during the night. As for the master bedroom in Room 1 on the second floor, that was Sparrow Detective’s bedroom. Xia De hadn't changed the decorations inside to this day, and he himself was unwilling to live in it.
“I’ll heat some water for you, so you can take a bath later. You won’t sleep comfortably like this.”
He added.
“Okay.”
She lay there. By the gas lamp at the head of the bed, Xia De lay on the bed, tilting her head, her emerald eyes looking at Xia De:
“Thank you tonight.”
“It’s nothing, but where did that mirror ghost come from? Did it run out of another resident’s house in Saint Delan Square? I think I should set up a ritual to defend against evil spirits around this house. Perhaps Dawn Church would be willing to help.”
Xia De said, troubled. He was now sitting on the stool by the bed, and the cat was crouching by the pillow, looking at the person on the pillow with an expression that Xia De could clearly see was displeasure.
He didn't suspect that the mirror ghost was originally in the house because he had checked many times. Although No. 6 was rumored to be a haunted house, there were indeed no evil spirits.
“The mirror ghost isn’t important. Without it, Leia would still have appeared in the mirror.”
Dorothy said softly again, her right hand reaching out from under the covers and taking Xia De’s hand, which was still burning hot:
“I just saw you imprison a soul?”
“Yes.”
Xia De pointed to the wine bottle:
“Although the evil spirit’s power has become very weak due to the erosion of the whisper element, I think drinking this bottle of ‘blood brew’ made from a soul can still heal soul injuries. Do you want some?”
“Do you think I’m like a demon that devours souls?”
The Golden-haired girl shook her head slightly, refusing. Normal people in this world would not be willing to devour souls, just as Xia De would not be willing to drink human blood.
“Alright then, let it disappear quickly.”
Xia De said, glaring fiercely at the bottle. With a sweep of his right hand beside him, a black crack immediately opened. Pulling out the cork, Xia De poured the entire bottle of soul blood brew into the Land of death.
After doing all this, he got up to boil water. Although there were steam pipes, the water in the steam pipes couldn't be drunk directly or used directly for bathing:
“I’ll go tidy up the sofa. By the way, do you want some supper?”
“If there are some pastries, you can bring some.”
She bit her lip and said, watching Xia De stand up, reaching out to try and take his hand:
“Xia De, tonight…”
Feeling her body’s weakness, the golden-haired, blue-eyed girl shook her head again:
“It’s nothing. Can I kiss you?”
Xia De nodded in surprise:
“Of course, and I’m very happy that you asked first.”
Most of the girls he encountered were not so polite.
“And, don’t laugh, they really don’t ask every time.”
Xia De thought to himself, lowered his head, and let Dorothy kiss him on the cheek, then went outside to busy himself.
The Golden-haired girl, lying down, propped herself up on the bed and leaned against the headboard, covered by Xia De’s quilt. She first smiled at the unhappy cat by the pillow, then looked out the window.
The window of the side bedroom faced west, in the direction of Yodel Palace. She could see the faint starlight, the red, yellow, and silver triple moons, and the peaceful night of this autumn evening:
“I’ve finally become a Middle-Ring Ring術士. Monday is the last day of the harvest month.”
This also meant that a small part of autumn had already passed:
“Leia… Xia De…”
She murmured, and for some unknown reason, a gentle smile appeared on her face.
