Tobesk City's city center was peaceful and harmonious, and the late autumn night in the Northern Pearl was so pleasant.
At Saint Delan Square, the warm light from the streetlights around the square illuminated the neatly arranged cobblestone roads, with only an occasional flickering light, seemingly due to a minor issue with the gas pipeline.
The streetlight illuminated the wall of No. 6, and inside the house, on the third floor, Luvia sat restlessly in a chair, waiting for the Star Sea Whales to arrive a few hours later. This room was filled with various experimental equipment she had gradually transported throughout the autumn for stargazing, including even a massive star-gazing instrument and a highly precise telescope.
But Luvia was not happy about the imminent completion of her autumn work; instead, she held the 《Marriage Contract of Gulow Winston》. The Diviner's powerful perception made her guess that something must have happened to Xia De at this moment.
She moved the crystal ball in front of her, intending to try divination again. However, before she could do anything, that familiar face suddenly appeared in the crystal ball:
“Xia De?!”
Tobesk City, Southern Suburbs, Garina Manor, study.
Although it was already very late, the Red-haired Duchess was still dealing with some difficult documents, troubled by this year's tax payment ratio. Although Saladill County was her fief, she also needed to submit a portion of the taxes to the kingdom.
A knock sounded, and Tifa, dressed in a black and white maid uniform, walked in with a tea tray, pouring steaming black tea into the already empty teacup:
“You are always so thoughtful.”
Miss Jialinna praised, and Tifa smiled and nodded slightly, then came behind the Duchess and placed her hands on her shoulders.
“Oh, yes, this strength is really good.”
Picking up the teacup to take a break, the Witch slightly turned her head to look at the night outside the window:
“I wonder what Xia De is doing now. I’ll go to the Witch Council again before bed. There’s probably new information from Middlesburg… Oh, I lent the necklace to Xia De, so I can’t enter the Witch Council now. However, there should be new information tomorrow morning…”
She abruptly stopped speaking because Xia De’s face surprisingly appeared in the reflection of the tea.
She frowned suspiciously, looking down at the tea, then told Tifa to let go:
“Tifa, prepare the carriage. We are going to Saint Delan Square No. 6 now.”
“Do we need to prepare anything extra?”
The maid asked softly, and the Witch pondered for a moment:
“Bring people with us into the city. Prepare relics and spellcasting materials in the basement. This is probably big trouble.”
The sound of hooves and carriage wheels in the middle of the night disturbed countless citizens along the street. The coachman received orders to proceed at the fastest speed, but even so, by the time the Witch and her party arrived at Saint Delan Square, it was already close to eleven o’clock tonight.
Besides Miss Jialinna and Tifa, there were also two High-Ring Sorceresses and six Middle-Ring Sorceresses accompanying them.
Tifa was the first to alight from the carriage. She knew Xia De wasn't there, so she intended to break the lock and open the door. However, as soon as she stepped onto the stairs, the door opened, and a purple-eyed girl opened it, as if she had been waiting for them.
Because Luvia had once stayed at the Manor, Tifa also knew her relationship with Xia De, so she recognized who this was:
“Good evening, Miss Annette.”
“Good evening, please come in quickly. I also received Xia De’s ‘last words’.”
She waved to the outside, and Miss Jialinna, who had alighted from the carriage, nodded, then led a group of people into the brightly lit Saint Delan Square No. 6.
There was no time for pleasantries. Luvia spoke very quickly as she went upstairs:
“Xia De wants us to find a way to open a door leading to true death here.”
“Although he asked for my help, I can’t do it.”
The Red-haired Duchess said, her boots making urgent sounds on the stairs as the group walked towards the second floor.
“I have a way. Xia De once told me some things, his experiences in the fifth epoch.”
Tifa overtook Luvia on the stairs and opened the door to the second floor. The group entered, and Luvia continued:
“When he told the story, he said: One needs to find a boundary between death and life, with a formal member of the Witch Council acting as the executor, using the Witch Council’s power to summon a projection of the Death Door at the boundary. The effect after opening the door is exactly the same as the original. (Chapter 722)”
Miss Jialinna sat on the sofa, frowning slightly. The Middle-Ring Sorcerers went to the third floor to wait, and the two High-Ring Sorcerers stood behind the sofa, awaiting orders:
“Boundary? Xia De mentioned to me that the third floor here is the boundary. But there’s still a problem. The life-and-death boundary of Saint Delan Square No. 6 is in an extremely inactive state. Unless we are lucky enough for it to open again tonight, we cannot enter it…”
If the boundary on the third floor could be opened so easily, the Church wouldn't have inspected it so many times without discovering its peculiarity.
But Miss Jialinna frowned again and said:
“I remember Xia De saying that the great earthquake in Middlesburg would temporarily open the boundary here.”
“That was before. Now, through a ritual, the upstairs has been sealed and cannot be actively opened. But it doesn’t matter, I have this.”
Luvia took out the blood-stained parchment scroll, 《Marriage Contract of Gulow Winston》, and placed it on the coffee table:
“One of its characteristics is that writing the names of living and dead people on it can break the boundary between life and death. (Chapter 558)”
The Duchess smiled and sized up Luvia:
“It seems his choice of you was not entirely useless. But there’s still a problem. Even if we enter the boundary, we cannot summon the projection of the Death Door. Perhaps the Witch Council of the fifth epoch could, but in the sixth epoch now, the Witch Council has long lost such a method. At least, I have never heard of a Great Witch being able to do so.”
“There’s not even any information?”
Luvia hadn't thought of this, but quickly came up with an idea:
“Let’s open the boundary passage first. I think there will be a way.”
Breaking the boundary between life and death using the 《Marriage Contract of Gulow Winston》 was actually exploiting a characteristic of the relic when it went out of control. This was extremely dangerous, so the Sorceresses brought by Miss Jialinna, combined with the sealing ritual on the third floor, set up an even more complex relic out-of-control counter-ritual.
The group crowded into the corridor. After confirming everything was ready, Luvia pricked her fingertip with a fine needle, dripped blood into the ink, and used the blood-mixed ink to write Xia De’s and her names.
Because Xia De had entered death in the flesh, his “undead” was not summoned by the contract. But in the corridor on the third floor, a faint white mist suddenly appeared: Gu Mian
“It opened.”
Miss Jialinna said, staring at the increasingly dense mist in front of her:
“Annette, Tifa, you two come in with me. Fadil, Nina, you two stay here and maintain the stability of the passage.”
The three stepped into the mist representing the boundary. With the spatial shift, they found themselves on the old floorboards of the third floor of Saint Delan Square No. 6, which looked as if it had been abandoned for a hundred years.
The appearance here was even more dilapidated than before Xia De renovated the third floor. And because this boundary only encompassed a part of the corridor, it was incredibly narrow and stifling.
The life-and-death boundary only had black, white, and gray colors, and the evil spirits lingering here quickly discovered these living people. But before they could act, Tifa took the initiative to perform “cleaning” work.
This was not Middlesburg; the evil spirits here were just ordinary evil spirits. Not to mention Tifa, even the Four Ring Xia De could handle them with ease.
“So, this is the so-called life-and-death boundary…”
The Red-haired Witch exclaimed, reaching out to touch the gray moss on the wall, raising her eyebrows slightly, surprised by the richness of the death aura:
“So, Xia De sleeps near this kind of environment every day. He actually never considered moving. Is he truly at ease, or is the so-called curse of this house affecting him?”
Luvia ignored the Witch’s soliloquy. Her eyes stared blankly into the void, while she simultaneously listened intently.
Miss Jialinna also noticed her abnormality, but this strange state did not last too long:
“I received a hint from my ‘other self’. She helped me capture some traces of destiny. The Witch Council of the sixth epoch lost the method to summon the projection of the Death Door, but that doesn’t mean the Witch Council doesn’t have this function.”
Miss Jialinna nodded:
“Indeed, that is the case.”
“Although I don’t know how the Witches of the past did it, we can try. The key is ‘summoning the Witch Council’s power,’ ‘pointing to the Death Door,’ and ‘opening the door’.”
“Although the necklace is not on me, I am still a Witch with a seat. Summoning the Witch Council’s power is not difficult. How do we point to the Death Door?”
Luvia thought for a moment and pulled out a coin from her pocket. It was the 【Fanatic’s Soul Coin】 acquired with the help of the Prophet Association. Besides the masked human face, it also had ancient script written on it—
【Faith, therefore valuable.】
Luvia said nothing. In front of the Witch, she directly tossed the coin into the air. The relic thus turned into dust in front of Miss Jialinna, and Luvia also got the answer:
“Using a relic with door characteristics, and drawing the holy emblem of the ancient death god on the door, can designate it as the ‘Death Door’ at the boundary.”
“Xia De’s taste in women is really good.”
Miss Jialinna said with a smile, reaching out to cup Luvia’s chin, but the latter dodged.
Luvia said sternly:
“Sorry, I’m not interested in women. I only like Xia De.”
“What a coincidence, I also really like Xia De. Is there a door here?”
“Of course there is, in Room No. 2 downstairs, the 【traveler’s travel door】.”
“Everything really is here…”
The wooden door with a metal base was quickly moved into the boundary by two Middle-Ring Sorceresses and set up in the center of the dilapidated corridor.
Tifa took some corpse grass growing in the corner, mixed it with corpse oil brought from the Manor and special ethereal ink, then etched the holy emblem of the ancient death god, as recorded in the Witch Council’s ancient texts, onto the wooden door. The original decoration on the wooden door was a “two-faced person” with faces looking in two directions. The holy emblem was drawn above the two-faced person’s head.
“Praise the Chaos Witch, may the Witch’s glory last forever.”
As Miss Jialinna prayed, an eleven-step golden staircase, representing the Witch’s power, appeared behind her. At the end of the staircase, a door with the holy emblem of the ancient god 【Chaos Witch】 appeared. A slight Miracle and whisper aura permeated from behind the door, shining upon the 【traveler’s travel door】 in front of Miss Jialinna.
This relic was melting, or rather, it looked like it was melting. The holy emblem of the ancient death god, influenced by the power of the ancient god of chaos, was gradually transforming the wooden door into a stone door, and on the stone door, strikingly, were the patterns of the 【Death Door】 that Xia De had described.
Miss Jialinna reached out to push the door, but it remained motionless.
Her Destiny Ring and the golden staircase appeared simultaneously. Her hands, imbued with various Miracle powers, pushed again with great force, but even so, the door in front of her still did not open:
“Summoning the Witch Council’s power, pointing to the Death Door. Both of these have been achieved. So, Diviner, how do we finally open the door? This should be very difficult. Even if I don’t understand the characteristics of the Death Door, I know what opening this door means.”
Tifa looked at Luvia, who pondered for a moment:
“Perhaps it’s not that troublesome.”
Her hand reached into her pocket again, and this time she pulled out a black iron-colored key. Thin, worm-like ancient letters spelled out a sentence that Xia De remembered deeply: 【The only lock that cannot be opened is a girl's heart lock】 (Chapter 650).
She handed the key to the Duchess, who took it hesitantly:
“This is the Poet Grade relic 【universal key】? What a coincidence, why is it in your hand?”
“Perhaps it’s destiny…”
Luvia said, but in fact, when she woke up this morning, the whispers in her ear made her bring this key.
Miss Jialinna shook her head slightly, as if warning, but also as if admonishing:
“Everyone has their own secrets. Xia De seems to really like girls with secrets like you. We can talk about your matters later. For now, let’s rescue that troublesome young man first.”
She aimed the key at the stone door. As the veins on her fair wrist bulged, she turned the key with immense force. The key turned into sand from being used, flowing through the Witch’s fingers.
The door in front of them actually opened slowly, and a cold black wind forced the few people currently in the third-floor boundary to retreat.
Not only that, Luvia’s Four Ring Destiny Ring behind her, Tifa’s Hexacle Destiny Ring behind her, and Miss Jialinna’s Hexacle Sorcerer Destiny Ring behind her all appeared voluntarily and rotated rapidly.
Black iron spiritual light gathered, and the aura of death surrounded them. The ladies who had opened up a brand new path of death in the material world received unexpected feedback.
