Signaling the Sister not to act, Xia De handed the water, which had been treated by Gluttony's Feast, to the hand. The greenish hand grabbed the rice bowl and then retreated from the doorway. Xia De immediately closed the door again, leaving only a crack.
His left hand gripped the inner doorknob, and his right hand held the Night Watchman. But Xia De did not wait for an opportunity to act; he and the Sister both heard gurgling sounds of drinking water from outside. The rice bowl was very large, so the evil spirit outside was the one who had drunk the most Gluttony's Feast to date.
It drank it all in one gulp, then let out a loud burp. Xia De narrowed his eyes, holding his sword, and Sister Michelle also clutched a glistening stone, ready to cast a spell. But the evil spirit did not rush in; they heard the sound of the bowl being placed on the doorstep, followed by a sigh of relief.
This time, the voice was still aged, but no longer hoarse at all:
"If I had met you when I was alive—"
The voice disappeared, and the Night Watchman in his hand returned to normal, the light on the golden runes on the sword's surface gradually fading.
"It's gone?"
Xia De asked hesitantly.
"It left and continued on its way. The lingering dead in the Gap cannot enter True Death from the Gap, but by returning to the real world, fulfilling their wishes, they can continue on their way."
Sister Michelle explained.
This was also why the Witch Emperor Violet's method required guiding the dead from the Gap, who had spanned several eras, into the real world, and then guiding them to continue on their way through a stable spatial rift opened from the real world that connected to True Death.
The evil spirit just now must have been very powerful; otherwise, the night watchman's reaction wouldn't have been so strong. Since it could be made to leave without a fight, that was naturally a good thing.
Of course, Xia De did not forget to open the door and retrieve the rice bowl from the doorstep. But he unexpectedly found a small white stone inside the empty bowl. Its shape was irregular, but it felt very smooth to the touch.
Mia seemed to like it very much, reaching out her paw to touch it, but Xia De refused her.
"What is this?"
Sister Michelle could not see directly without her eyes like Sister Devlin, so Xia De described it, and she then gave the answer:
"This is a very rare item, a Soul Teardrop, which can only be produced by lingering spirits after their wishes are fulfilled. It is an extremely rare special substance. Not only does it require the wish to be fulfilled, but the spirit itself must also be very powerful. Even if all these conditions are met, the appearance of this substance still requires probability. I have only heard of it in the Order's records; this is the first time I have actually seen it."
Hearing the name of this substance, Xia De searched through the Knowledge from the two Witch echoes and indeed found relevant descriptions. Just as Sister Michelle said, this was an extremely precious semi-solid substance. As a potion ingredient, it could be used to formulate remedies that directly heal the soul; as an alchemy material, alchemical items made from it could gain various soul-affecting effects; and even, if absorbed directly through special means, it could enhance the Ring術士's soul strength without side effects.
Sister Michelle even believed that, apart from the legendary sage-level relic, the philosopher's stone, a Soul Teardrop could be considered one of the most versatile basic materials.
Since the evil spirit just now was dealt with by Xia De, this Soul Teardrop naturally belonged to Xia De. This could be considered a very good gain for him even before the final great battle had erupted.
It was unknown how many terrifying creatures were still on the streets. Not long after the knocking evil spirit left, knocking sounds came from outside the door again. This time, the knocking was much more urgent, and before Xia De could even ask who was outside, the person outside actively called for help:
"Sister Michelle, open the door quickly! I am Gray Hamster, and our friend Pointed Deer is injured!"
This time, the Night Watchman did not give a warning, and when Xia De looked out through the peephole, he saw a young man in his twenties, carrying an unconscious middle-aged man, with an anxious short-haired lady following behind him.
The lady, who looked to be in her thirties, was the one who called herself "Gray Hamster."
Sister Michelle was still on the first floor and came over when she heard the sound. After Xia De described it, she knew who had arrived:
"They are Letter-based Ring術士s from the local Cerces Medical College. They also live in the nearby block and are friends of the House of the Blind; we have a good relationship."
Of course, she did not immediately open the door. Instead, after asking some questions, she had Xia De first go into a room on the first floor to avoid being seen, and only then did she open the door to let the three people from the dense fog enter. They began their conversation in the foyer, and Xia De thus learned that the Three Great Arcane Academies and the Orthodox Church had anticipated what kind of situation would occur today, so they had notified the local Letter-based Ring術士s yesterday not to go out casually.
These three from Cerces Medical College had originally gathered to plan to spend this boring day, unable to travel, together, but an evil spirit actually invaded their house from a forgotten, unblocked attic. About half an hour ago, they engaged in a large brawl with that powerful evil spirit. Although they ultimately won, one of their companions unfortunately fell into a coma, affected by the evil spirit's "Soul Scream" before it collapsed.
Because they were unsure whether prolonged coma would affect life, they risked passing through the white fog to seek help, and Sister Michelle was not stingy in offering assistance.
Xia De did not appear due to his identity, but he heard the Cerces Letter-based Ring術士s' description of the dense fog outside the room prepared for the trio.
Although it was still daytime, it was terribly gloomy outside, and coupled with the influence of the dense fog, the maximum distance one's arm could stretch was basically the maximum distance one's vision could reach. Because of the horn sound just now, weak souls were dispelled by divine power, so there were not particularly many evil spirits on the street now. But once encountered, they were definitely not something ordinary people, or even ordinary low-level Ring術士s, could deal with.
Compared to Tobesk's Night of Divine Descent and Coldwater Port's Great Flood, the disaster Middirburg encountered seemed even more troublesome. Because this was not a man-made disaster at all and could not be ended by defeating a specific target.
The Ring術士s from Cerces did not intend to leave today; they came here with the intention of taking refuge at the House of the Blind. No one knew what would happen next, so more people gathering together meant that at least if something happened, they could solve it together.
It was late autumn, and the sunset time in Middirburg, which was also the start time of the ritual, was approximately 6:42 PM. An anxious Xia De waited until 5 PM that afternoon before finally receiving a reply that the "Door Opening" ritual was ready.
A folded paper crane flew from the fog to the window of Sister Michelle's office on the second floor of the House of the Blind, tapping the glass a few times before being noticed.
On it was a message from Lady Ronaar, a high-ranking Sister of the Spiritual Cultivation Order. They had found a suitable location for opening the door, but due to the strange weather, they could not send a carriage to pick up Xia De, so they hoped Xia De could quickly make his own way to the ritual site.
"Where is it?"
Xia De, who had been waiting for a long time, asked.
"At Middirburg Mechanical College."
"Good."
Turning Mia back into a toy and putting her away, Xia De looked at the white fog outside the window:
"It's finally starting."
With his fishing rod on his back, sword in hand, kerosene lamp raised, and overcoat on, Xia De solemnly bid farewell to Sister Michelle in the first-floor foyer before stepping into the thick fog outside.
The damp, cold fog almost made Xia De think he had already reached Between Life and Death, and the silent City seemed to have died in this great fog.
He had to enter the Gap before the Orthodox Church's ritual began, as Joey Barton could not possibly act only after the ritual. Therefore, Xia De could not waste too much time on the journey. Fortunately, compared to the Gap, the number of evil spirits in reality was not too many, and the kerosene lamp burning with First Fire in his hand could illuminate a larger area for him.
Besides evil spirits, he also had to avoid Orthodox Church Ring術士 teams searching for evil spirits in the fog, as well as unknown Ring術士s of unclear origin. After the Truth Society's personnel sent to Mi Fort were almost completely wiped out, not all foreign forces had withdrawn from this City.
And on a day like today, schemers also became active again.
Of course, none of this concerned Xia De; he just wanted to reach Middirburg Mechanical College as soon as possible. Carriages were naturally nowhere to be found on the streets; it was even difficult to find a horse.
He could only rely on his own legs to travel from the House of the Blind, located in the center of the City, to the college in the southernmost part of the City. Along the way, he avoided all battles and even helped two ordinary police officers who were attacked by a headless evil spirit.
And after leaving the House of the Blind, Xia De gained an even clearer understanding of what was happening in Mi Fort and on Sicar Mountain. In the open outdoor area, standing on someone else's rooftop and looking into the distance, he could see five golden pillars of light shooting straight into the sky through the eerie dense fog. From their direction, they were the locations of the five Orthodox Church churches in the Middirburg diocese.
At the same time, a large number of birds of unknown origin circled in the sky, as if monitoring the City.
Xia De risked sticking a youth everlasting leaf onto a fishhook and hid in an alley, successfully luring an Owl that descended from the sky. After capturing the foolish creature, he used the fish training ring to give it the ability to speak, and then learned that they were sent by "good people" from the Natural Church to monitor the City and search for evil spirits within it.
The Owl, which seemed even more foolish than Mia, actually spoke with a strong carson rick accent. It spoke in a dialect, describing itself and its companions as coming from a warm region "far to the south," and complained that the dense fog was really annoying for birds, but the light from Xia De's kerosene lamp made the bird feel comfortable.
"Far to the south" was probably the Natural Church's papacy.
Even when caught by Xia De, it was not flustered. In fact, after Xia De finished asking questions, it begged Xia De for some food. The Orthodox Church had asked these birds to monitor the City and deliver messages since that morning, but they had only fed them some food at noon.
The Owl said some not-so-pleasant curses and finally received some of Mia's cat food from Xia De.
