Chapter 1606: Remains, Coffin, and Agreement

After bidding farewell to Old John, they certainly couldn't take Mia with them for the group action in a while, so Xia De and Priest August returned to No. 6 St. Deran Square together, then the two had dinner, and then went to the Tobesk train station located in the north of the city together.

The priest changed out of the clerical robes he usually wore, while Xia De was still dressed in his usual black coat.

As the sun set, the five people who came with missions and secrets gathered at the entrance of Tobesk train station. After looking at each other, they split into two groups and entered the train station.

The light at the street corner dimmed rapidly, causing the shadows of people passing by in a hurry to stretch out. Under the dim sunset, the gas street lamps flickered a few times and were quickly lit one by one from far to near, then straightly outlined the crisscrossing interior of the Northern Pearl under the night sky.

Trains entered and exited one after another, and weary travelers brushed past strangers; although they might never meet again in their lives, they still didn't know how to cherish the miracle of this meeting. Police officers patrolling during the special period walked and stopped in the station, but no one noticed the two ladies sitting on the bench at the far west end of the platform and the three men waiting at the edge of the platform.

Night was gradually deepening. The spring night was not very cold, but rather very gentle. It was just that the dust in the train station was a bit heavy, and the smell was hard to accept, but these instead made the scene at this time more realistic.

The dim yellow gas lamps illuminated the five people waiting, and the trains passing by slowly in sections blew the corners of the three men's clothes, while they at the edge of the platform did not participate in the joys and sorrows of the travelers preparing to leave the station.

The steam train that had just started was not fast, the levers transmitting section by section on the wheels made a rhythmic sound, and the whistle blew long, as if it could make this land where people had lived for generations tremble for it.

Bill Schneider, wearing a brown coat and a black hat, looked at the train passing by in front. After the last carriage passed, he looked down at his silver pocket watch. Pa-da~ a crisp sound of the watch cover closing made the two people beside him and the two ladies sitting on the bench behind him look at him.

"It's seven o'clock, one more hour. According to the Academy's requirements, I can now inform you of the information about that relic, as well as the trouble we might encounter."

He said softly, bringing Xia De and Priest August to the bench. Dorothy, wearing a black tulle dress, and Luweiya, dressed in men's clothing, both stood up to let Dr. Schneider sit down—Luweiya herself had shoulder-length short hair, and after tying it into a short ponytail, she looked even more neutral.

The doctor opened the document bag he was holding, confirmed that the silence spell was still in effect, and said briefly:

"Tonight's delivery target - Angel-level relic 【Remains of the Nameless】, the coffin is a containment container specially made by the Academy. The first requirement of the mission is that under no circumstances should the coffin be opened."

He passed the black-and-white photo of the coffin to the four people to view, and then continued:

"The earliest existing record of 【Remains of the Nameless】 comes from the stone tablets of the Third Era, and its initial origin was in the early Second Era. This relic was lost in the late Fifth Era, suspected to be used as some kind of antagonistic seal. About three years ago, St. Byron's archaeological team discovered its traces in the New World and successfully obtained it half a year ago, completing containment a month ago. Passing through Tobesk is part of the containment measures; what we need to do is to keep the coffin until the next sunrise."

He paused and said to everyone:

"I have already rented a carriage and a warehouse in the West District of Tobesk; we need to stay there for one night."

The West District of Tobesk is the industrial area of Tobesk, where steam factories and warehouses are mostly concentrated.

"What is our enemy?"

Luweiya asked.

"Two parts. One part stems from the relic's characteristics. We cannot know all the characteristics of the relic itself; what we can know is: after night falls, the relic itself will be in a relatively active state. During this period, its power may break through the shackles of the coffin, causing spatial displacement and attracting monsters that humans cannot understand."

"Is it enough to kill the monsters?"

"No, you also need to sprinkle salt on the coffin to strengthen the seal."

"This sounds like a strange superstition."

Priest August said in a low voice.

"The other part of the enemy comes from the New World. Besides the Academy, others have also discovered these remains. They dare not directly confront the professors of the Academy in the New World, nor do they dare to fight the Academy's support fleet at sea. But after entering the hinterland of the Old World civilization, the Academy was constrained, which gave those ring warlocks a chance."

The doctor handed this part of the information to the other four people:

"But don't worry too much. The Academy's power cannot directly affect Tobesk, and those ring warlocks from the New World will also find it difficult to act in Tobesk; after all, this is the diocese most valued by the Five Gods Church. Therefore, the Academy only recruited our one ring warlock squad to participate in the action, which represents the Academy's trust in us."

Dr. Schneider was quite optimistic:

"The enemies this time do not belong to the same organization; they may come together, or they may be lone wolves. After entering the northern region of the Old World, Tobesk is the last place where they might succeed, so there is still some pressure tonight."

He let everyone read the information, and after the five people signed the documents separately, the doctor passed these documents to the Academy through the poetry manuscript pages he carried with him to prove the formality of the process.

Next is waiting. Luweiya, as the diviner in the squad, also performed divination for tonight's action. Because it was related to an Angel-level relic, the result obtained was quite chaotic and difficult to interpret, but at least she thought it was not bad news.

At 7:50 PM, three loud gunshots with very close intervals rang out from the east of the train station. Xia De turned to look in that direction, and seeing that the others didn't care, he also pretended not to hear.

For tonight's action, he not only brought the black time key but even 【Night Watchman】 was brought out by him. The long sword was not easy to hide, so Xia De wrapped the scabbard in cloth and carried it with him as a long stick.

Unable to go home for the night, he was not worried about Little Mia. Lei Qianya had already agreed to take care of the cat tonight. Just now, Dorothy had given Xia De a hint that the Princess had already seen Mia at No. 6 St. Deran Square and had successfully used Xia De's coat to take the unhappy cat to Yodel Palace.

"Attention, the train has arrived early!"

The noise in the distance attracted Dr. Schneider's attention. He raised his right hand and spoke, so Priest August and the two ladies went to different directions to alert, while Xia De and the doctor, who had the highest rank in the team, continued to stand on the platform.

Before long, the whistling train stopped with smoke, and white steam rushed from the bottom of the carriage onto the platform. This was a freight train, so there were not many people meeting the train. In the steam, the door of the first carriage was pushed open from the inside with a Ka-la-la~ sound. The huge carriage was quite empty, with only a wooden box placed in the middle of the carriage, while six ring warlocks who looked sleep-deprived surrounded the wooden box, looking at the platform quite alertly.

They were all middle-ring, and two of them were even eight-ring. Xia De didn't know who these people were, but they were definitely not correspondence students.

The party in the carriage nodded to the doctor, so the doctor boarded the carriage first to confirm their identities. Before long, he made a gesture to Xia De below, so Xia De also entered the carriage nimbly.

"Final confirmation of cargo information."

The bald man in a black hat who was the leader in the carriage said. He was tall and extremely sturdy. The two five-ring warlocks with the lowest rank opened the top cover of the wooden box that had not been sealed. After the cover was lifted, there was hay inside, and after pushing aside the hay, a pitch-black coffin with a metallic feel was revealed.

The handheld candle, the carried kerosene lamp, and the dim light on the platform outside the carriage illuminated it. Although the light was weak, the extremely smooth black metal could reflect a very conspicuous light. The coffin lid could even be used as a mirror. Simply put, this was a polished, very high-end coffin.

Dr. Schneider certainly didn't know how Xia De evaluated the thing in front of him. He gave Xia De a wink, so Xia De, who had the strongest perception, reached out to touch the surface of the coffin. Although this coffin was the same black metal as the coffin on the central island of Green Lake, the feeling after touching it was completely different.

Peng~ Peng~ Peng~

Even without closing his eyes, at this moment 【Heart of Stone】 was automatically triggered, making Xia De feel the sound of a heartbeat, which was more obvious than the noisy sound on the platform. At the same time, he originally couldn't perceive any elements, but after contact, he immediately perceived whispers.

【Should be no problem.】

"She" said gently, so Xia De nodded, and the doctor came to the head of the coffin. After pushing aside the weeds, borrowing the kerosene lamp being carried on the side, he saw that there were more than thirty dense slots on the surface of the coffin, but at this time only seven slots were placed with diamond-shaped gray crystals.

He picked out one of them and threw it to the bald man in the hat, who let out a long sigh of relief:

"Finally over, I will never take this kind of mission again."

Every time a different team receives the coffin, they need to take out one of the crystals and give it to the previous team. This is part of the containment ritual, but Xia De did not feel any change in the coffin after the crystal left.

The bald man took a step back away from the coffin, and then threw the gray cloth salt bag with a thin rope tied to the mouth in his pocket to the doctor:

"You keep it for use, don't use coarse salt, be sure to use refined salt, there is no need to save this money."

Afterward, he didn't say anything more to Xia De and the doctor, but greeted his companions with a smile and jumped off the carriage to leave. Listening to their conversation, it seemed they wanted to stay locally for a few days for sightseeing, and they rarely came to Tobesk.

After the group walked away, Xia De closed the lid of the wooden box to cover the polished black coffin. The doctor waved to the distance, signaling Priest August, who was on alert on the periphery, to find the porters who had been found in advance.

Actually, even if Xia De alone could lift the coffin, but now the workers in other carriages were unloading cargo. If he carried a coffin out, it would be equivalent to delivering it directly to the church.

There was no accident in transporting the wooden box and the coffin inside out of the station. The carriage rented by the doctor was parked outside the station.

Speaking of which, Xia De was also very familiar with the style of that carriage. On the first day he came to this world, the undertaker used a similar style of carriage to transport the body of Detective Sparrow, but this time there was no holy emblem of the 【Church of Creation and Destruction】 hanging on the carriage.

The coffin was placed in the narrow and enclosed carriage, but this carriage had no driver. For safety and insurance, Dr. Schneider drove it himself. The driver's seat was wide and could seat two people, and Priest August sat beside him.

Xia De and Dorothy entered the carriage together. Because a coffin was placed inside, there was no room for them to stay on both sides, so they stayed at the back of the carriage.

To prevent the five people from being restrained together after encountering danger, Luweiya, who was the last one, did not get on the carriage. She would follow far behind shortly after the carriage left. In this way, no matter what happened, she could support the four.

Of course, Luweiya didn't run to follow the carriage. She borrowed the bone whistle from Iluna that could summon a skeleton horse that could move on any terrain. The bone whistle could originally only be used by Iluna herself, but after she gained wisdom in Pantanal and modified the bone whistle, it could also be briefly borrowed.

The occult society calls upon the power of shadow and death, hiding Luweiya's tracks in the dark night. This highly mobile mount was very helpful for tonight's action.

"Then see you later!"

Xia De waved to the purple-eyed girl, and Luweiya turned and left. After everything was ready, Schneider gave a warning to hold on to the carriage, and the carriage carrying the four people and the coffin set off. Xia De and Dorothy held onto the side wall of the carriage, looking back from the open rear door of the carriage at the night and street scenes receding, while Dr. Schneider on the driver's seat in front looked around very vigilantly.

Tobesk under the night was more peaceful and tranquil than ever. This seemed to be another ordinary night in this city. The arrival of spring made people's nightlife time a little longer than usual, but as the night became deeper, there were almost no pedestrians on the road.

The thick fog in Tobesk tonight was thicker than the previous few days, and the carriage running on the street was like a ghost in the fog. The starry sky was covered by the thick fog, but the three moons could still be seen. Today, the moon phases of all three moons were crescent moons, suitable for physical and mental healing spells. Of course, although the moon phase cycle had an impact on ring warlocks like Xia De who used the "moon" as the core system, Xia De had only ever felt the enhancement of the moon phase on himself, and had never felt the suppression of certain spellcasting abilities by different moon phases.

"Speaking of which, Dorothy, do you know if there is a lunar eclipse at the end of this month?"

Although the atmosphere was very tense, Xia De still felt it was strange not to speak. So, while his eyes were still paying attention to the back, his mouth had already opened.

The carriage was very small, and although there was a strange smell inside, the perfume smell on Dorothy could also drill into Xia De's nose. The perfume used by the writer lady was very high-end. Although Xia De couldn't name it, he could feel it was very similar to Lei Qianya's perfume.

"Lunar eclipse? Yes, I heard it from 'her'. For astronomical phenomena like lunar eclipses and solar eclipses, the church needs to communicate with the kingdom in advance to prevent events that attempt to disrupt social order because of astronomical phenomena."

Although she lowered her voice, Dorothy was still worried about being heard by the doctor and the priest, so she didn't mention Lei Qianya's name directly. She leaned toward Xia De a little, noticing that Xia De's nose moved a few times, and a smile appeared on her face.

"That's right, I plan to learn a powerful occult art called 【Black Moon Mark】 during the lunar eclipse. The book says that during the lunar eclipse, except for a few moon occult arts related to destruction and ending like 【Black Moon Mark】, most moon occult arts will be suppressed, which is the low tide period of power for ring warlocks like me. I really hope that I can stay at home safely that day."

The writer lady's emerald eyes turned slightly toward him:

"Generally saying this means you definitely won't be at home that day. Speaking of which, the last Red Butterfly Day was the closing of the Ring City Riding Competition, which was the third day of this month. 21 days later is around the end of this month, why not postpone it, postpone it to the day of the lunar eclipse..."

From the phrase "Red Butterfly Day", Dorothy's voice was almost a whisper:

"Lei Qianya and I are both curious, when you are at your weakest, whether we can 'defeat' you... oh, Lei Qianya, don't laugh, don't you think so too?"

It seemed that she was using the new power to communicate with Lei Qianya at any time.

"She" beside Xia De's ear chuckled for some reason, like a gentle wind blowing through the long night, making Xia De's spirit more concentrated:

"Dorothy, to be honest, I don't think the lunar eclipse has a great impact on me. However, a person I know in Randall Valley, and a nun with an eye patch, both think the lunar eclipse is very important to me... Red Butterfly Day is of course no problem, it's just that the specific date of the lunar eclipse cannot be determined yet, Luweiya told me it will take a few days to determine... oh, why are we talking about this now? We are performing a mission now."

Hearing Xia De say this, Dorothy laughed again immediately. But just as the smile appeared, the two people leaning against the coffin immediately saw that the scene outside the carriage had changed from the night street scene of the city to a dim moonlit path in the forest in an instant.

The whole transformation process was extremely smooth, as if that street really connected to the forest.

"Doctor, the scene has changed!"

Xia De hurriedly reminded, throwing the salt bag to Dorothy. The doctor's calm voice sounded from the front:

"Relic power leaked. According to the information given by the Academy, we are now located in both Tobesk and the forest, in a state of spatial overlap. I am slowing down now to prevent hitting the wall. You solve the problem as soon as possible." ===== CHAPTER 1607 =====