Chapter 1733

Green Lake City Public Cemetery is located on the lakeside outside the city, built along the water, adjacent to the Lower Griol Village known as the "Graveyard Keeper's Village". There is no fog on the lakeside outside the city, so the scenery is indeed quite good when coming here on a spring morning. According to the chat with the carriage driver on the carriage just now, there is a special pier behind the cemetery to hold "water burial ceremonies". After hearing that Xia De is an outsider, the driver even recommended Xia De to visit.

However, in this way, Xia De also understood where the bodies of so many water ghosts in Green Lake came from.

The carriage stopped at the entrance of the cemetery. The black iron fence gate and the fences extending to both sides separated the boundary of the cemetery. Passing through the fence gate, he entered the cemetery. It was very quiet here, with only sporadic citizens worshipping the deceased or dealing with the weeds by the graves.

Xia De walked along the small path in the cemetery and soon found the grave of Mr. Nicholas Green, the father of the Green siblings. Because of the breakdown of the marriage, this gentleman was not buried with his wife. He was buried under a large banyan tree. Because the Green siblings would often come to visit, the tombstone was very clean, and the grave was not submerged by weeds.

【Nicholas Kelvin Green】

【1761-1843, died at home】

【May you rest in peace, father】

"Passed away at 82? That's really long-lived."

Xia De sighed softly and bent down to touch the tombstone. Then he came to the back of the tombstone and looked at the cover soil on the grave with the naked eye. After confirming that he could not find any clues with his eyes, he stomped his feet lightly, and the chain drilled out of his trouser legs and pierced into the ground.

【Chain of Sin】 is not aggressive, even if two can appear at the same time now, it is still not aggressive. But through the manipulation of 【Rope Trick】, breaking through the moist soil after the rain is no problem at all, not to mention that Xia De can also attack by attaching moonlight to it.

So the end of the chain soon touched the coffin. The coffin buried for more than ten years has naturally rotted, so the chain drilled in very easily. Then, as Xia De expected, there was no trace of any bones in the coffin.

"Interesting."

The chain could not act as Xia De's eyes, he could only explore the situation underground by vague induction. After a more careful search, he actually found a hole large enough for an adult to crawl through on the side wall of the corpse's head in the grave pit.

Although Xia De's 【Chain of Sin】 could continue to extend, the longer the chain, the weaker his control over it, so Xia De did not continue to investigate, but temporarily retracted the chain:

"I originally thought it was the Edwards ancestors on the island who sent people to recover the bones, but now it seems it's not that simple."

He patted the tombstone and turned to walk toward the small spire church standing in the cemetery. At this time, a stranger's funeral was being held there, and Xia De was not easy to disturb, so he waited outside the church for half an hour, and only entered the empty church after the people walked out with the coffin.

This is a church dedicated to the 【God of Nature and Evil Thoughts】. Although the church decoration is simple, the main hall also hangs the holy emblem of the main god 【Luo De of All Things】 with two overlapping leaves.

The priest had already followed the funeral procession out, leaving only a young clergyman and a slightly old gravedigger chatting while tidying up the church after the funeral.

Seeing Xia De walking over, the gravedigger looked at his attire and reminded:

"Sir, the funeral is over, you are late."

"I'm not here to attend the funeral."

Xia De pointed to the entrance of the church:

"Can we talk outside? I have some things, but I won't delay your time."

The old gravedigger with half-white hair hesitated and nodded. After following Xia De outside the church, he heard Xia De say:

"I am a writer from out of town. When I occasionally passed by the village over there, I heard that there are legends of ghouls and the like locally, so I want to ask you about it. Of course, I will pay."

In fact, there will be rumors of ghouls in cemeteries everywhere, most of which are figures left by careless grave robbers.

"Outsider? Oh, yes, the two countries are negotiating recently, and there are really many outsiders."

The gravedigger nodded understandingly and looked at Xia De up and down again:

"You are not the first writer to come to me for material. People always think that being a gravedigger is a very strange profession, and there are always many stories. It seems that my profession should encounter various horror stories and bizarre events... but this is also true. Ghouls, ghosts, screams in the mud in the middle of the night, I have many such stories, but I usually don't want money."

"Then what do you want?"

People who say this will have more demanding requirements.

The old gravedigger asked happily:

"You look very young. A man of your age should have played Rod cards, right?"

Xia De raised his eyebrows:

"Of course, so..."

"Want to play a game of Rod cards? If you win, I will tell you the story you want to know. But if you lose... how about we play another game?"

He pointed to the long seats in the last row of the church, where they could play cards.

Xia De naturally would not refuse, but when he took out his ordinary deck, he asked curiously:

"Do you often play cards with people who come to the cemetery?"

Xia De noticed that the old gravedigger's deck was also carefully preserved, and he could see at a glance that he cared about his cards.

"No, invitations are only issued in very few cases."

The two sat down on the chairs and checked their respective decks. Xia De's deck had no special cards, while the old gravedigger's deck actually had two special cards. Judging from the average salary in the gravedigger industry, these two cards were definitely not bought by him.

The two special cards are 【Human Organ - Kidney】 of Sun 9 and 【Urban Legend - Non-existent Street】 of Moon 4. Among them, the "Human Organ" series, Xia De had seen 【Human Organ - Heart】 in the hands of Miss Pawo of the Truth Society. As for the "Urban Legend" series, it is one of the most issued series of decks so far, and every time it is issued, new special rule cards will be added to record different urban legends.

The rule of 【Human Organ - Kidney】 is that if the player who draws this card has four cards in hand when stopping, roll a 20-sided die. If the point is greater than 10, you can choose to add one to the point. The rule of 【Urban Legend - Non-existent Street】 is relatively simple. When drawing, throw a die. If the die number is a multiple of three, the suit of the card is considered Sun; if it is a multiple of four, it is considered Star; if it is a multiple of five, it is considered Flower.

Seeing the interested look on Xia De's face, the old man smiled and said:

"Although I like to play cards with strangers, I can't say to those who attend the funeral: Oh, buddy, don't cry, want to play a game of Rod cards with me? And then they really forget the sadness and are willing to play cards with me... At my age, I don't want to be beaten for no reason."

He and Xia De put their respective decks on the chair surface, and Xia De asked again:

"Did you win both of these special cards? The rules of that urban legend series are really interesting, but it's a pity that it needs to be matched with special cards related to suits to be useful."

The old man nodded:

"They were all won by me, but it's a pity you don't have special cards, otherwise I would be very willing to gamble with you."

The card game uses a simple best-of-three rule. If there is a tie where both explode or the points are the same, an extra game will be added.

Although the old gravedigger asked Xia De to win to get the story, when the two were happily drawing cards together, he had already opened his mouth:

"Ghouls are probably rumors in cemeteries everywhere, but you should know that most of them are false legends spread by ignorant citizens after careless grave robbers made noises at night. Of course, there are also young people who are too stupid and gather together to play dare games. When I was young, this would be whipped."

The two drew the second card together. Xia De glanced at the points, signaled that he would continue to draw, and asked:

"Then are the rumors of ghouls in the local cemetery also fake?"

"Of course not, at least I don't think so."

The old gravedigger shook his head and drew the third card just like Xia De:

"Starting from a rainy night more than ten years ago, when I patrolled the cemetery at night, I could occasionally hear wailing, sobbing, and rustling footsteps coming from underground, as if from the hell deep in the ground. That was not my hallucination, even if people found nothing after checking, I still think it was not my hallucination."

Xia De knocked on the chair surface to signal that he would stop, the old gravedigger hesitated, and actually drew the fourth card:

"Bodies have indeed been lost in the cemetery, but they have all been proven to have nothing to do with urban legends like ghouls. But it's not just me who thinks there is something strange hidden underground here. The villagers nearby also have similar rumors."

The two showed their hands, and Xia De smiled and said:

"Star 7, Flower 10, Sun 3, I am 20 points."

"The young man's luck is very good, but I'm not bad either. You see, Flower 4, Flower 6, Sun 9 【Human Organ - Kidney】, Moon 1. I am also 20 points. Fortunately, I have four cards in hand, the special rules can be used, I can gamble again."

He carried dice with him. After the dice fell on the chair surface and kept spinning, the two focused on the dice. Probably because the old gravedigger turned too hard when throwing, it spun for a full minute before stopping.

"11 points! I'm lucky today!"

The old man clapped his hands, and Xia De also smiled and applauded:

"Such rules can also be activated, then you are 21 points, I lost the first game. You must write down this game and talk about it in the village tavern with those villagers, they will definitely not believe it."

"Let's start the second game. With such good weather, being able to play Rod cards in the church, my old age life is better than those young people who are running around for a living."

(End of chapter)