Chapter 1346: Sleeping Dragon and Greedy Soul

"Before, did Fiona have wings on her back?"

Seeing the small wings pressed under her clothes, Xia De muttered suspiciously in his heart. 【No.】

"She" gave the answer very clearly.

"So, this is... Fiona, Fiona, wake up."

Xia De didn't quite understand what was going on now. He knelt on one knee on the soft quilt in the tent and shouted a few times, but the sleeping girl didn't show any sign of waking up.

So Xia De apologized softly, then grabbed Mia and used its tail to sweep Fiona's nose, but she still looked like she was asleep.

【Touch her.】

Xia De followed the suggestion and grabbed Fiona's slender wrist. Her arms were wrapped around her big tail that passed through her legs, allowing the tail wrapped around Xia De's coat to stick directly to her face. This appearance was indeed sleeping very soundly.

Fiona's skin was warm, and her body temperature seemed to be higher than normal, but Xia De wasn't sure if this was because she was asleep. And "She" gave the answer:

【The power of bloodline is breeding.】 "What do you mean?"

Xia De blinked suspiciously, and then understood:

"I remember the chapter introducing dragons in my textbook wrote that dragons sublimate their bloodline power through sleep. Although Fiona is a mixed-blood dragon, she does have dragon blood. So, she grew that pair of wings during a relatively long sleep!"

Not only that, Xia De put his hand on her forehead again and felt it carefully, finding that the power of "Moon Dream" also promoted the awakening of bloodline power during sleep. The magic materials Miss Dannister gave Xia De wrote that this magic also has the ability to promote other sleep-like effects. He didn't expect that the "hibernation" of dragons also counted.

"But what should I do now?"

The task of the Tree Father is to help the girl lost in the City of Eternal Night pass through the curtain. Xia De doesn't believe that he can walk to the end just by carrying her on his back. But now, not to mention that Xia De cannot wake her up, even if he could forcibly wake her up, Xia De would worry that this would destroy the red

dragon girl's bloodline awakening process.

If it weren't in the Fifth Era, Xia De could go to find information about dragon bloodline sublimation and use ritual means to promote the whole process, thereby making her wake up in advance. But now, the only normal creatures in the whole city are probably Fiona, Xia De, and the little Mia who is drilling in the quilt, and even Xia De and Mia from the future may not count as normal.

"This is really troublesome."

He pulled the little Mia who was slapping the dragon tail with its claws out of the tent, and he also retreated from it. With the idea of taking one step at a time, he walked toward the front desk of the art gallery, intending to exchange the last part of the compass, the gold needle, first. Maybe wait a little longer, and Fiona will wake up by herself.

The paint formula provided by Leisia is simply "Night Paint," referring to painting in the night.

To facilitate Xia De's carrying, Old John made the finished product into a paste. When using it, just dissolve the paste in hot water to dilute the paint, and different concentrations have different painting effects.

Xia De opened the exhibition manual at the front desk of the cold art gallery and found the item described as "God of the Labyrinth - The Golden Needle of the Lost Goddess" according to the page number. The effect of this needle itself is that when placed on the ground and illuminated by sunlight or moonlight, the shadow can guide the direction.

And for Xia De, he is not short of sunlight and moonlight. "I want to buy this."

He expressed his wish to the exhibition manual, and a drawer popped out from the side of the front desk, and the drawer was empty.

"So how much exactly?"

Xia De muttered. He didn't know the demand himself, so he collected as many materials as possible for Old John to do. When he set off, he brought a whole backpack of paste paint, and the Tree Father only let him bring three tubes in the end.

Xia De tried throwing the heaviest tube of paint into the drawer, and the drawer closed automatically, but nothing happened.

Xia De looked left and right, and finally found that at the bottom of the page for "God of the Labyrinth - The Golden

Needle of the Lost Goddess" in the exhibition manual, a line of new text appeared:

Buyer Xia De Suren Hamilton, please go to Exhibition Cabinet 154 in Exhibition Area b23 to pick it up yourself.】

The letters used here are of course not English, just the second letter in this kind of text, so Xia De regarded it as "b".

"Want me to go get it myself? Oh, I said, why does the first page of this exhibition manual write 【Do not speak loudly in the museum!】, 【Do not damage the collections in the museum!】, 【Do not make eye contact with any collections in the museum for more than ten seconds!】 three rules."

Xia De finally understood, turned his head slightly to look at the slightly dim corridor of the art gallery.

He left the manual in place, then grabbed the cat on his shoulder into his arms:

"It will be very dangerous in a while, I will turn you into a toy and put you away first, and let you out after it's safe."

Mia called out pitifully, but didn't resist. After doing this, Xia De cast 【Thorn of the Moon】 again to protect the sleeping red dragon girl, and then carefully walked toward the interior of the art gallery.

The art gallery lobby is connected to a straight corridor, with oil paintings hanging on both sides, and there are quite a lot of oil paintings. There are both character portraits with normal styles and grotesque hell scenes, and more are monsters peeking from the dark night at the outside of the picture.

Gas lamps only exist above each oil painting, and the oil paintings are hung quite sparsely, which leads to a piece of light and a piece of darkness in the corridor. Xia De strictly followed the rules here, roughly glanced at the content of the oil paintings, and then lowered his head to focus on his feet. 【1346-3

He did not instruct "her" on how to proceed; "she" had never needed Xia De's guidance to do things. Because of this, Xia De had no idea whether the figures and monsters in those oil paintings were also watching him when he was not observing them.

In this silence, he arrived at a corner. As Xia De passed, the suit of armor standing at the corner trembled slightly, but it was only a slight tremor. Xia De acted as if he had seen nothing and continued walking forward a few steps, where he saw three paths—left, right, and forward—appear ahead.

Metal signs indicated the name of each area. On the left was 【Area A: Oil Painting and Sculpture Exhibition】, on the right was 【Area C: Ancient Books and Other Exhibits】, and straight ahead was 【Area B: Gold and Silverware Exhibition】.

Xia De chose the path ahead. After leaving the junction, the temperature dropped sharply, and the lights became increasingly dim. What lay in the gloom was not night, but some kind of strange, dark power. Even with Xia De's intuition, he could not judge what else was here; he only wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

Following the corridor, he arrived at the exhibition hall. In the massive, open square room, the auras of miracles, blasphemy, enlightenment, and whispers shimmered and intertwined. Xia De lowered his head to check the numbers on the display stands, and following the numbers, he soon found display stand 154.

It was a glass cabinet against the wall, containing a red cushion and a sign made of stiff cardboard. The sign was inscribed with a number and the same descriptive text as in the exhibition catalog from the front desk, and the gold needle was stuck into the cushion. The aura of the miracle was so intense that it was not only far stronger than the 【Butterfly-Calling Flute】 but could almost be compared to the 【God's Gift Box】. "This is it."

None of the cabinets here were locked, so Xia De pushed gently to open the cabinet from the side and retrieved the gold needle. 【Outsider, you have touched a "Miracle."】

【Outsider, you have gained insight into the "Labyrinth."】

The "Labyrinth" spirit rune was the simplest way to access the sorcery "Labyrinth Lock," a point mentioned in Professor Garcia's class.

After entering this exhibition hall, Xia De had kept his nerves taut due to an unknown sense of crisis, but now he finally let out a sigh of relief. He turned around, intending to leave as soon as possible, but at that moment, he heard a man's voice coming from not far away:

"Hey, hey, outsider, take me out of here too!"

He had originally intended to ignore the voice, but it continued: "I'm in the display cabinet to your front right!"

That was on Xia De's path back. He walked forward a few steps and was surprised to see a man's golden head displayed in a glass cabinet. The sign in the cabinet read:

【Skull of a Thief, collected here in the year 389 of the Fifth Era, containing a soul possessing the Original Sin of Greed (Rare Item, 3.2 units).】

【Since the founding of the City of Eternal Night, the 7th sinner with the courage to steal here, thus worthy of collection.】 【Payment in Radiance is required for purchase.】

"Rare Item?"

Xia De recalled the criteria for judging sin that he had encountered in the relic 【Sin Mansion】 (Chapter 699).

From low to high, sin was divided into four grades: "Flawed," "Ordinary," "Perfect," and "Rare Item." Among all of Xia De's sins, only "Gluttony," obtained from twice devouring the divinity of the 【Lord of the Blood Banquet】, was a Rare Item, at 10.5 units. Xia De's second-highest sin was also Greed, but it was merely Perfect, at 9.9 units.

"Impressive. This guy actually has a Rare Item-level Original Sin? And men in the Fifth Era had no supernatural abilities; what on earth did he come into contact with? Or was he just that greedy to begin with?"

Xia De sighed softly to himself and wanted to leave again, but the golden head called out to him anxiously. These exhibits likely had to follow the rule against loud noises, so the voice was kept very low.

Because of the rule against making eye contact with any of the art pieces here, Xia De did not carefully observe the details of its face. Judging only by the voice, it seemed to be a man in his thirties:

"Save me, sir. If you save me, I can follow you forever. I not only know many secrets of this city, but I also know the information on many, many treasures in the material world. Take me out; I swear to you, I am willing to follow you until the end of your life."