"A divine item? Oh, yes, of course it counts."
The Priest, holding his teacup, introduced with a chuckle:
"It has two basic properties. Based on the 'Angel' property, praise death, then inject your own spirit to actively activate it, forming a special area within 30 feet (about 9.15 meters) centered on the badge. It can cause relatively powerful attacks against evil creatures like evil spirits and demons. Even if it can't defeat them, they will absolutely not attack you under the badge's light."
Since they were in the church now and couldn't experiment, he really wanted to revive a skeleton for Xia De to try.
"Based on the 'Harbinger of death' property, when this badge directly touches the wound of a flesh creature for more than five seconds, the target will be cursed by death. Over the next period, organ failure, muscle atrophy, and a greatly increased probability of various diseases will occur. While it cannot be said that they will definitely die, in general, they certainly won't survive. Of course, when you call upon the power of death in battle, this badge can also give you some help, but for you, this enhancement is not obvious, after all, it can't compare to the blessing I personally give you."
Priest Augustus wasn't worried that Xia De would use this badge to do bad things; if Xia De wanted to do bad things, he wouldn't need this at all:
"You need to be careful not to let it touch your wounds when you are injured. In addition to these two properties, this badge also has minor effects like 【The wearer will not become an undead】, 【The wearer will not be actively attacked by undead】, 【Resist instant death attacks】, and 【Enhance Miracles and spells related to undead and Angels】, but for you, it doesn't matter."
Compared to relics and Miracle spells, this badge has no side effects at all, and its use consumes almost nothing. This is a truly divine item of an Old God, and even for Xia De, it is quite valuable.
Of course, the special visit to Priest Augustus this morning, besides clarifying the reason for the Priest's appearance in Saint Delan Square on Wednesday night, was also to inquire about the Old God cult information that he had entrusted the Priest to investigate earlier this week. In Fifth Epoch 5177, the second trial of the Old God 【Uncertain Wise Man】 required offering a sacrifice to the God, and the sacrifice had to be a certain 'water.' Xia De hoped to find information on past sacrifices through the Priest.
Although Priest Augustus was very busy at the end of the year, checking information didn't take much time, as Xia De had provided very comprehensive information. He didn't take out the documents but verbally recounted what he had seen.
The Old God 【Uncertain Wise Man】 was actually a quite famous Old God. This was partly because this God remained until the end of the fifth epoch, and partly because this Wise Man's cult was later partially absorbed by the Church of the Righteous God 【God of Creation and Destruction】, with most of its Knowledge and inherited history being preserved by the Creation Church.
Priest Augustus had a lot of influence locally and maintained good relationships with other heretics within the Five Gods Church, making it easy for him to obtain the publicly available information within the Church.
Just as the Great Witches of the fifth epoch knew, the followers of that Old God usually offered "clear lake water, morning dew, and the tears of a newborn baby's first cry" as sacrifices, because these were the purest and most flawless waters. The sacrificial process was not merely placing the offering before a shrine or holy emblem; sometimes it required adorning the container with purple sage, eight-leaf lily of the valley flowers, or the petals of blue chrysanthemum.
The entire ritual process was recorded and passed down to the present day. This ritual process itself is a type of ceremony. Repeating this process in the modern era, after the Old God's departure, can enhance the wisdom and inspiration of the ritual's performer for a certain period, belonging to a relatively basic ritual.
"Besides this information, is there anything else? Like special sacrifices?"
Xia De asked curiously from his chair, while Priest Augustus, holding his teacup, stood by the window watching the snow and the children chasing and playing. Elderly people always enjoy reminiscing about the past:
"Yes, I asked someone to find some information that ordinary clergy like us cannot see. But you probably won't find those sacrifices in a short time. For example, the spring water of the angel-level relic 'Fountain of Youth'."
Xia De sighed while stroking the cat. Mia looked up at Xia De and also made a sighing gesture.
The relic 【Fountain of Youth】 originally belonged to the Witch Council and was the common asset of the Great Witches of the fifth epoch, but it was lost during the epochal changes. The Great Witches of the sixth epoch have always been thinking about this relic, but they just can't find it. Miss Jialinna had complained to Xia De about this.
Unlike the "Mermaid's Elixir of Immortality" that Xia De once sold to Miss Jialinna, although the spring water of the angel-level relic 【Fountain of Youth】 similarly cannot grant immortality, its effect in preserving one's appearance is stronger.
"However, I wonder if Miss Violet, the Witch Emperor, carries this kind of spring water with her."
He speculated.
"Anything else?"
"Liquefied philosopher's stone."
That's even harder to find. If Xia De, Miss Violet, and Miss Teresa had the philosopher's stone, they wouldn't have had to work so hard on the first trial's thesis.
"Is there anything a bit simpler?"
Xia De asked again, holding the lazy cat. The Priest thought carefully for a while:
"The information I saw is all publicly available internally. If you want to find more secret information, you might have to find someone to go to the papacy of the 【Creation and Destruction Church】, or wait for me to contact some old friends, which will take some time. However, don't you know Ring術士 from the Church? I think you can let your friend try their luck."
After bidding farewell to Priest Augustus, Xia De braved the heavy snow again to go to Black Stone Security Company. Even riding in a carriage, he could feel the chill of the heavy snow day. The very talkative coachman chatted with Xia De about Tobesk's winter through the small window in front of the carriage, which made Xia De realize that the areas in the entire City that could afford unified heating costs were less than one-tenth of the City's total area.
"Then how do you keep warm in winter?"
"The northern mining area sells loose coal, and we also prepare some firewood ourselves. The steam pipeline company allows families to modify their pipelines and connect them to their own stoves to use. My father, and my father's father, didn't have the conditions we have now when they spent winter in this City. Over thirty years ago, when I was only a teenager, at least a few hundred people would freeze to death in the City every winter."
The coachman said, his back to Xia De, then shook the horse bell to remind pedestrians ahead to make way.
Riding a carriage in the snow required an extra tip. When Xia De got off the carriage, he gave the coachman an extra 1 shilling. The coachman smiled and wished Xia De a smooth day, then he was called away by others. In this kind of weather, his business would be very good. Before deep winter arrived, earning more money was necessary to get through the long winter.
To protect the secret that "the second wise man's stone has appeared," the rest of Iluna's team did not know what ordinary person Xia De experienced on Wednesday night. Therefore, when Xia De pushed open the door downstairs at the security company, the receptionist lady was not surprised by his appearance.
Seeing that Xia De had come to see Iluna, she led them to the reception room on the first floor to talk. After closing the door, the seventeen-year-old girl looked very happy:
"Xia De, how are you feeling? Oh, when I saw you really faint at your house, I was really worried."
She originally didn't know that what seemed like 【God Thief Jack】 and Xia De fighting at Saint Delan Square No. 6 was actually an entire team plus a cat, fighting against that thief. But before Xia De woke up, Iluna had learned the truth of that night from Luvia.
The purple-eyed girl certainly didn't reveal the identities of the other team members; Iluna only knew that Xia De had been hypnotized.
"I just slept for a long time, and I feel great after waking up."
Xia De pointed to the file bag he had casually placed aside, which contained the documents just signed:
"I have reached a deal with the Prophet Association and will be able to get 【Founding Knowledge】 before the end of this year. I heard from Miss Jialinna that you gave the Church the suggestion? Thank you so much, you've been a great help."
"You don't need to thank me. I should thank you for the 【Mandragora Snake Nest Vial】 matter."
Iluna felt herself blushing a little, and she tried hard to control her expression:
"Luvia told me that you used your opportunity to obtain a relic to help us retrieve the lost relic."
She pursed her lips after speaking.
"You were the one who caught that thief, Iluna. You did very well on Wednesday night."
This was not Xia De exaggerating the facts; if it weren't for Iluna's cooperation, that night's events would probably have been very troublesome.
Hearing Xia De's praise, the seventeen-year-old girl finally couldn't help but show a heartfelt smile:
"It was nothing. Oh, Xia De, do you know? We don't have to write reports and self-criticisms anymore. It's a good thing my report only had a beginning; I was still having a headache about what to do a few days ago. But the captain was very unlucky; his self-criticism and report were almost finished. He was silent for a long time when he heard that our punishment was canceled."
Iluna chatted with Xia De about things around them. Only when Xia De asked about the 【Uncertain Wise Man】 cult did she become serious:
"Yes, I found some information. But the required sacrifices are really demanding. Many materials that were very difficult to obtain in the fifth epoch don't even exist in the sixth epoch. The few types of materials that can still be found are almost impossible for us to get our hands on."
"Fountain of Youth, philosopher's stone?"
Xia De asked, and Iluna nodded. As a Chosen One, she had greater authority and found more information:
"Besides these two liquids, many other pure liquids were once offered to that Old God. As the God of Lakes, the sacrifices He accepted were mostly similar materials."
Iluna took out her notebook and handed it to Xia De. Including the Fountain of Youth and the philosopher's stone, the list contained a total of 9 special liquids. Among them, "moonlight water" was familiar to Xia De.
The reward for completing the Fifth Epoch 5177 key included "Ritual - moonlight water," but the problem was that Xia De had to find the sacrifice to complete the task, and completing the task required finding the sacrifice.
