Chapter 1031: The Demon's

"Oh, good afternoon, Xia De, my friend. You've finally arrived."

When Xia De braved the snow and reached Doctor Shi Nai De's psychological clinic that afternoon, the doctor gave him a rather warm hug.

For this afternoon's celebration, Doctor Shi Nai De had postponed consultations with two important patients, specifically setting aside time for Xia De. He enthusiastically led Xia De to the second-floor reception room, the very room where the group held their weekly Saturday meetings. The violin case containing 【Night Watcher】 was currently resting quietly on the coffee table.

"Although there were some minor accidents, all in all, the operation on Sunday went quite smoothly."

The doctor had already prepared red wine for the celebration. After handing a glass to Xia De, the two smiled and clinked their glasses together.

"But you must also be careful. I have friends in the Church. Even though the Church has been tied up with other matters recently, they certainly won't give up on investigating the appearance of a Third Era evil spirit in the city."

Xia De held his glass and offered a reminder. The doctor nodded.

"I understand. The main task for the next half-month is preparing for the year-end exams. Oh, Detective, as the leader of the group, I shoulder more responsibilities than any of you."

The doctor rested his hands on the windowsill, leaning back in a relaxed posture with the snow-filled city behind him.

It was strange to say, but even in the snowy season, the city remained shrouded in gray mist; this was a characteristic of the City of Steam.

"Doctor, after you devoured the demon of proliferative desire, what new abilities did you gain?"

Xia De asked while sitting on the sofa, setting his wine glass aside to open the violin case and check on it. After the doctor took it back, he likely hadn't dared to open it at all; 【Night Watcher】 was still wrapped in Xia De's coat.

"Fanni itself wasn't a particularly powerful demon. Now, I can use certain spellcasting methods to peer into how much desire a person has in their heart. If I wish, I can also plant a seed of desire within an individual to harvest their desire, though this must be coordinated with my dream-entry methods."

The doctor explained, not hiding this from Xia De. Because he anticipated that he might lose control one day, the doctor wanted to inform Xia De of his abilities, hoping that on the day misfortune truly arrived, Xia De would be able to wear the 【Demon Hunting Seal】 and hold 【Night Watcher】 to finish him off.

"Besides that, there is also this."

As he spoke, the doctor took two steps forward and summoned his Fate Ring from behind him. The brass ring rotating in the steam mist matched the snowy streetscape of the City of Steam behind him quite well.

At the end of autumn, with Xia De's help, Doctor Shi Nai De had successfully advanced to the Sixth Ring with the aid of the 【Counterfeit Philosopher's Stone】. At this moment, there were actually four more Spirit Runes on his Fate Ring than last time—

"Blasphemy - 【Heart of Fire】, Whisper - 【Long Whip】, Blasphemy - 【Proliferation】, Enlightenment - 【Contract】. The first two came from digesting the power of the Flame Demon, and the latter two came from the power of Fanni. Aside from Miracles, the other three types are all possible when devouring a demon's Spirit Runes."

The doctor, who was only at the Fifth Ring at the time, had not immediately digested the Flame Demon's power, waiting instead until he reached the Sixth Ring to increase his Spirit Runes (Chapter 681).

The doctor also looked back at his own Fate Ring.

"Relying on the power of these two demons, it has only been a month since I advanced to the Sixth Ring, and yet I am already so close to the Seventh Ring... I still have to thank you, Xia De. Both of these demons were brought to me by you."

He thanked Xia De with a smile again, while Xia De sighed inwardly. The special talent the doctor gained by binding an ancient evil spirit with his own body seemed even more powerful than the temporary Spirit Runes of the Chosen One, Lei Jin Si Pu Li Xia.

But this was also fair; Fate had already collected the reward from the doctor in advance, and he deserved this power.

"But I do not expect you to encounter any more demons, Detective. Please remember, absolutely do not provoke those evil spirits on your own. They... are truly terrifying."

Perhaps thinking of Mr. Xie Er Fu Ti Mu and Miss Xia Na A Ya again, the doctor sighed. He placed his wine glass on the windowsill and walked toward his desk.

"Let's split the spoils with you, including those I found at the Three Cats Inn on Monday. That guy had quite a lot of strange things on him. But given that most of them are demonic creations, I picked a few to keep for myself and destroyed the rest directly."

Xia De had no objections to this; demonic creations were even more bizarre than Relics with fixed rules.

"There are also a few things you can use; these all belong to you. No need to refuse; I definitely gained more than you did."

The doctor took out a red box and handed it to Xia De. When the Flame Demon was sealed by Miss Wei Er Li Te of the Fifth Era, it hadn't been able to get out, so it naturally had nothing on it. But the demon of proliferative desire had been active and trading in human society, so it had quite a few items on it.

After Xia De opened the box, the first thing he saw was a narrow-necked bottle containing viscous black oil, sealed with an oak cork.

"This is..."

"Demon remains, just like the Flame Demon's heart from autumn."

The doctor introduced it.

"I don't devour the entire body of a demon when I consume its power. You must know a common piece of knowledge: the true bodies of Third Era evil spirits do not have materialized physical forms. The Incendiary merged with the Flame Demon, while Fanni merged with who knows what kind of ghost. I only need the power of the demon's true body; there are always other parts I don't need. These are body parts concentrated with demonic power, only most of the power has been absorbed by me."

The doctor took the narrow-necked bottle out of the box to inspect it.

"The remains of the demon of proliferative desire, Fanni. Like the Flame Demon's heart, it is an extremely high-grade, precious material. If you have the courage to find a Potion Master to formulate it into a potion and drink it, I am even certain you would definitely gain a Spirit Rune related to Fanni."

Xia De hurriedly shook his head; he would never drink such a thing.

As his fingers touched the slender neck of the bottle, the Primordial Fire within his body immediately became restless. Although the demon's true power had been absorbed by the doctor, the demon remains were still firewood worth devouring. Xia De now knew the use for this item.

"Doctor, I don't know if the remains of the demons you devoured in the past..."

He asked again, and the doctor said with regret:

"You have a use for them, right? I didn't know I would meet you back then, so I just consumed them all as materials."

Besides the demon remains, there was also a sugar-cube-like crystal block, a black fountain pen, and a ring in the red box.

"Be careful, try not to touch them directly with your hands."

Only the sugar-cube-like crystal was not a Relic, so Xia De reached out his hand toward it, but was stopped by the doctor.

"Desire Crystal. You can understand it as semi-materialized desire, very similar to the Mind Crystal I helped you make last time, but it is highly contaminating."

Although he didn't let Xia De touch it directly, he picked up the crystal with his bare hands.

"This is a very useful spellcasting material, as well as a potion and alchemy material. The production of the 'Victor Box' you mentioned is related to this."

The matter of the Victor Box had already been reported to the Church by Yi Lu Na, so they didn't need to worry about the subsequent influence caused by the demon.

"Doctor, if you have a use for it, you keep it. I don't have a place to use this either."

Xia De suggested, but the doctor shook his head.

"With Fanni's power, I can make Desire Crystals myself, so you just take it. I'll recommend a few books to you; go to the Black Raven Library or the Academy Library to borrow them. There are many uses for Desire Crystals."

He wrote down the titles of a few books for Xia De and put them into the red box.

As for the remaining two items, although their level was not high, they were both genuine Relics.

The black fountain pen was a Document-level (Level 4) Relic, 【Pen of Yi Te Lai En】. Once the text written by this pen was read, the reader could experience "immersive" hallucinations. But its negative characteristic was that once stories about those bizarre existences sleeping in the subspace or seals were written with this pen, there was a certain probability of directly constituting a summoning ritual.

The demon used this pen to write stories of desire, luring mortals into signing contracts. But in the hands of an excellent writer, it was a tool for constructing beautiful stories.

On the black cap of the fountain pen, ant-sized runes formed a strange sentence:

【A good story should not just be words.】

"If I transfer this pen to Duo Luo Qian, Doctor, you wouldn't mind, would you?"

Xia De played with the Relic and turned to ask the doctor, who had walked back to the bedside.

Although these items were gifts from the doctor to Xia De, if the doctor suddenly discovered this pen in Duo Luo Qian's hands one day, it would inevitably be a bit awkward, so Xia De asked in advance.

"These are all your things; you can give them to whoever you want."

The doctor waved his hand, secretly pondering Xia De's private life, and recalled the day at the end of autumn when he was invited to Xia De's house on the third floor to enter the bizarre fog area to call upon souls, and the fact that two young ladies had spent the night there with him.

"Then I'll give it to Duo Luo Qian as a Year-End Festival gift."

Xia De said with a smile.

The "Year-End Festival" was the last festival of the year, the most important festival for mortals of this era. It was somewhat similar to the Spring Festival and Christmas of the Outsider's hometown, a time when the year ended and people could finally rest well. People were accustomed to giving gifts and greeting cards to friends on this day, and the Outsider naturally had to prepare for this as well.

"Speaking of the Year-End Festival, you don't need to prepare a gift for me; Fanni is a pretty good gift as it is."

The doctor suggested, but Xia De would still prepare a gift.

As for the final ring, it was a green wooden ring set with an emerald face.

The doctor recognized the 【Pen of Yi Te Lai En】 but did not recognize this one, so he had asked Old John to help identify it.

This was a Poet-level (Level 5) Relic, the 【Plague Doctor Ring】. After wearing it, rotating the ring counterclockwise once could activate the ring's characteristics, allowing the wearer to be immune to most plagues for a certain period of time.

Not only ordinary plagues like the bubonic plague, smallpox, and the common cold, but it could also provide a certain degree of resistance to plagues related to mysticism, such as blood-thirst disease and undead plague. Demons naturally didn't need such a ring; this Relic was likely obtained by the demon of proliferative desire by accident, intending to keep it to trade with humans, but now it was Xia De's gain.

Inside the ring, there was a recessed long sentence of runes. Due to the lighting, it was impossible to see the characters clearly by looking directly, so Xia De rubbed the ring with his fingertip, and "She" told him the meaning of those ancient runes:

【The struggle between disease and purity is the tempering of natural instinct.】 ===== CHAPTER 1032 =====