Chapter 1086

The most dangerous category of relics is that of natural phenomena; even the 【Death-Life Boundary】 in Mibao can be classified as a natural phenomenon.

But Xia De was not troubled by the information Iluna provided; instead, he frowned slightly. This was not because he was confident that he had no fear of death and thus the black shadows were not strong, but because he felt as if he had encountered something he had met before:

"Iluna, could these black shadows disguise themselves as people we are familiar with to deceive us?"

Although the seventeen-year-old girl did not know why Xia De would ask such a question, she still shook her head slightly:

"Absolutely not. If this truly is 【Thanatophobia】, they are us ourselves; how could they disguise themselves as other people? They are us; they are us ourselves."

Her right hand gripped Xia De's left hand tightly, as if wanting to rely on Xia De's body heat to make herself more resolute. The fear of death amplifies the fear of death itself. Even a girl with a firm will like Iluna could not avoid being affected as the black shadows approached and she glimpsed their essence.

"The Church's records do not document how to defeat them, but as long as one is not touched by them within a few hours, they will leave on their own. Although they will follow again afterward, in situations with four or more people, these things will not appear. They absorb happiness and positive emotions; we must endure this."

Iluna said, shivering, wanting to turn around and have Xia De hold her, but she bit her lip, trying her best not to let Xia De see her "weakness."

"They won't appear in a four-person situation, and they are our own selves; I understand... We don't have time to waste."

Xia De extinguished the moonlight at his fingertips, and just as he had thought, the black shadows facing them both walked toward them again. The undead skeletal horse stood obediently by their side, waiting for its master to set off again; the flames on its body had dimmed significantly due to the relaxation of Iluna's will.

【Yes, it is indeed the kind of thing you encountered in the Silver Mountains.】

Xia De exhaled a long breath from his nose, the white steam merging into the wind and snow like a long dragon:

"The matter of Miss Chloe is now completely clear; the meaning of the 'lost person' mentioned in the mission was not just getting lost in the snowy mountains."

He squeezed Iluna's hand:

"Don't worry, leave it to me."

His right hand slid gently through the air, and a pitch-black crack opened before Xia De. The Door of Death opened once more, and the black shadow in Xia De's direction immediately retreated.

"Iluna, let's attack it together."

After whispering the instruction, Xia De closed his eyes and turned toward Iluna's direction, 【Night Watcher】 stabbing into the snow at his feet, a silver-white lightning spear floating in his right hand.

Iluna's left hand also rose at this moment, and the 【Thunder】 and 【Sun】 spirit runes on the destiny rings above their heads flashed with light simultaneously. Two lightning spears, one gold and one silver, were thrown at the black shadow Iluna was facing. Although the power of Iluna's 【Sunlight Spear】 was far inferior to Miss Chloe's "Thousand Cat Curse," in coordination with Xia De's lightning spear, it still shattered that black shadow.

Afterward, the two did as they had just done, only this time with Iluna closing her eyes and Xia De opening his; with their coordination, they also shattered the other black shadow that had been temporarily intimidated by the 【Door of Death】.

Only then did Iluna wrap her arms around Xia De's neck and "hang" on his body as if she had gone limp. Xia De reached out to hold Iluna; he was not surprised by Iluna's current performance, and even thought that Iluna was already brave enough. One must know that even the "eleventh-tier" witch, Miss Chloe, had performed very poorly when facing these ghostly things.

The witch who was holding Little Mia at the time had only found the courage to walk out of the tent to help Xia De under the urging of the cat. And now that he thought about it, it was not certain whether Miss Chloe was truly eleventh-tier.

Thinking of that cat, as warm as the sun, Xia De felt his own spirit improve quite a bit. He carefully held Iluna, fished holy water out of his pocket to feed her, and then performed further treatment using 【Cynthia's Silver Moon Grace】, which was specifically for treating the spirit, only then making the seventeen-year-old girl feel a bit better.

"You are always so reliable."

She leaned against Xia De, but soon pushed him away; Iluna Beiyasi was never weak.

The time was 11:13 PM, and midnight was drawing ever closer.

If Xia De's condition were poor, he could use the Time Key to rest for forty minutes, but Iluna could not get any rest. So Xia De did not rush, but instead helped Iluna onto the horse's back, led the horse himself, and under the illumination of the yellow moonlight overhead, led her forward step by step.

The wind and snow blurred their figures and also concealed other things happening in this Great Swamp. Xia De could fully imagine at this moment that battles of varying degrees were taking place in all directions, centered on "Pantanal Lake" in the middle of the Great Swamp.

The badge hanging on his chest had not reacted at all so far, meaning the witches had not yet caught up. Although he had said himself that there was no need to worry about the witches' safety, in reality, he was quite concerned about Miss Galina, Miss Aphra, and Miss Sylvia.

Yet this concern did not last long before whisper elements appeared in the storm again. And at this time, it had only been twenty minutes since Xia De had led the horse and brought Iluna to set off again.

"What's wrong?"

The girl lying on the horse's back asked in a low voice; Xia De had to listen very carefully to hear her voice amidst the howling wind.

"I'll handle it, you don't need to worry."

Xia De comforted her, holding his sword in one hand and the reins in the other. This time, he saw at a glance what exactly was blocking the road again—

A woman with black hair and a pale human face revealed half her face from behind a large rock embedded in the snow not far from the swamp. Most of her body was behind the rock, and her upper body appeared as if she were not wearing any clothes. As Xia De stared longer, the woman's rotting face became clearer and clearer, even though there should not have been such good visibility in the blizzard weather.

"【Swamp Witch】."

His first contact with this humanoid relic was when he saw a cursed old photograph at Professor Drake's house at the end of autumn. Later, when Xia De visited the "Goddess of the Lake" for the first time, she appeared while Xia De was chasing a wild wolf, but she only "resurrected" a wild wolf, let it lead Xia De to the "Goddess of the Lake's" dwelling, and then disappeared.

Having not seen her for nearly two months, Xia De did not expect to encounter her again under these circumstances.

"She gives guidance on the direction to leave to kind-hearted women who are lost in the swamp, and may even protect them. But for women with impure hearts and any man, she will inflict a curse that corrupts the soul."

Xia De thought about the characteristics of this relic in his heart, gripped the sword in his hand vigilantly, and wanted to see what the other party would do this time. Because she had helped Xia De find the Goddess of the Lake last time, which completely contradicted her documented characteristics, Xia De did not directly view her as an enemy.

"I am definitely a man."

He added a sentence in his heart, and then sure enough, he heard "her" laughter.

The woman behind the large rock just "peered" at Xia De like that. After discovering that Xia De was standing still, she actually extended her rotting, pale hand, pointed behind herself, and then vanished.

"What does she want me to look at?"

The direction the Swamp Witch pointed was not the path indicated to Xia De by the yellow moonlight; obviously, following it would waste more time.

Xia De found it difficult to decide alone, so he asked Iluna for her opinion on this. The girl, still somewhat listless, lay on the horse's back and said softly to Xia De:

"I'll listen to you."

Xia De nodded, led the horse to deviate from the path he was on, and walked behind that large rock.

The "Swamp Witch" had not set a trap to lure Xia De into following her. After Xia De arrived behind the large rock in the swamp, he saw a series of not-very-clear footprints on the snow surface.

He mounted the horse, held Iluna, put on his cloak to cover them both, and let Iluna lean against his chest. Iluna and Xia De held the reins together, following that trail of footprints deep into the depths of the swamp, which perhaps no one had explored for hundreds of years.

This horse, summoned by the bone whistle, crossed the muddy swamp, passed through the complex terrain of the fog-shrouded area, moved forward along a hill slope with an almost seventy-degree incline, and before midnight arrived, found the destination toward which the footprints extended.

It was a piece of unremarkable snow-covered ground, located at the bottom of a low hill, and not far away was a temple ruin left by humans from an unknown era. Looking at the exterior of the temple, it looked extremely like the "Pantanal Temple" in the painting Xia De had once accidentally entered.

Xia De jumped off the horse and stopped just after taking one step toward the last footprint:

"What a powerful curse!"

This was a curse that corroded the soul, a curse inherent to this land itself. Although there were traces of plants having existed elsewhere nearby, only the destination toward which the footprints extended was bare, snow-covered ground.

The curse was limited to an area of about 26 feet (approximately 7.9 meters) square. For Iluna's safety, he let Iluna stay on the horse and not approach, while he himself, relying on the characteristics of a powerful soul and the protection of divinity, forcibly broke into the snow-covered ground.

He arrived at the location of the last footprint, step by step, enduring the strange feeling of crawling snakes wrapping around his body as the curse spread, then bent down to scrape away the snow layer with his hands to see the ground below. After hesitating for a moment, he rummaged through his pocket for a while and found the small toy shovel.

After restoring it, he first stomped on the ground, used 【Feilianna's Witch's Light】 to "melt" the hardest layer of soil on the surface, and only then used the shovel to dig.

Digging alone in the depths of the blizzard-swept Great Swamp was a very eerie act. Xia De did not dig very deep before he took a step back and appeared directly five meters away.

Thick, strange vines, covered in unknown transparent mucus, were gray-green on the surface but densely packed with bumps. Like tentacles, they stabbed out from the pit that had been dug, pulled the shovel Xia De had not taken away into the shallow pit, and then Xia De heard the harsh sound of metal twisting.

When the sound subsided, Xia De cautiously walked over to check the shallow pit. After just one glance, he was forced to close his eyes, and while blood tears streamed from them, he turned and fled the area.