Chapter 1744

Because it took some time to visit Mrs. Lemaire in Beicheng, there was not much time left this morning. Thus, Xia De spent the time before lunch in the sacrificial site. In addition to the cold weapon combat training with Sister Daifulin, he also mentioned that he had seen "Desire" again and introduced the divine art of the followers of the God of Love—the Thorn of the God of Love.

The 【Lingxiu Sect】 was already extremely adept at using soul-type curses and Qishu, so Sister Daifulin had many different views from Xia De regarding this Qishu. And regarding the pink crystal soul curse method used by the girls after using the "Thorn of the God of Love," she also selected a few books for Xia De to take back and teach those girls.

As for the three followers of the "God of Love" who specialized in "Spirit, Flesh, and Desire," Xia De felt they were very "magical," but Sister Daifulin had a different view:

"The God of Love is also known by people as the 'Lock of the Red Heart.' Is the preciousness of love because it is hard to come by, or is it truly incomparably important? The three remaining followers of the Old God seem not to have pondered this question; they only superficially want to lock the feelings between people through their own methods. They have not touched the core of the soul."

It seemed that Sister Daifulin, who should have had no experience with love, said words that Xia De found hard to evaluate. He was not a master of soul curses and did not have a deep understanding of the underlying meaning Sister Daifulin wanted to express, but Xia De was still stunned by the vocabulary in this sentence:

"Lock... feelings?"

Memories of his hometown jumped into his head abruptly. He thought of a story—a story that headed toward destruction and despair because of greed and desire. This story was very interesting because Xia De associated it with himself. However, he did not have a curse to lock feelings. Although he was also this greedy, he understood what love was, understood how to love others and love himself; he had never violated the wishes and expectations of any girl around him.

Even his efforts and struggles all along, besides the ultimate goal of ascending to godhood, were also so that his family could get along well and live comfortably in the future.

At this moment, the outsider felt as if he understood something. Sister Daifulin did not speak to guide him; she knew that the "Hero who carries the fire" she had chosen was always able to see his own heart clearly. Xia De, who was adept at reflecting on every step of his own path, would eventually figure it out.

Xia De still went to the Cassandra Auction House in Mideerburg with the nun for lunch. When leaving the sacrificial site with the nun, "She" was still smiling in Xia De's ear, suggesting a possibility to the pondering outsider:

【If Sister Daifulin had just now stabbed the Thorn of the God of Love into her own chest, what would happen?】

"Oh, how can you slander this respectable nun?"

Xia De thought in his heart, quietly glancing at Sister Daifulin's back, feeling that even having such a thought was a fault.

Granny Cassandra, Sister Daifulin, Grace, Helen, and Miss Swift would depart for the Green Lake region later this week. Granny Cassandra had great influence and actually borrowed a steam airship from the Creation Sect.

Therefore, their travel time would be very short. And as a large chain auction house native to the Delarian Kingdom, the commercial power represented by Granny Cassandra was ostensibly supportive of Delarian.

During lunch, Grace and Helen informed Xia De of their travel plans. As for the two of them leaving the scope of Mideerburg and the Xikai Mountains in the short term, they relied on a Document-level (Level 4) relic, 【Undead Wax Stone】.

The original function of this wax stone was merely to allow oneself to achieve a certain degree of "immortality" for a period of time after leaving a mark on the body with it. In fact, the effect was only slightly better than Xia De's "false immortality."

And that this relic could allow the Red Butterfly girls to temporarily leave Mideerburg was because ever since the Battle of Mideerburg last year, they had sent this relic into the temporarily sealed Life-Death Boundary—they had sealed the Boundary for two eras, so naturally, they had a way to enter again.

The power of the Unknowable-level relic had infected this wax stone, causing it to briefly possess some characteristics of the Boundary. Although this directly caused the relic to go out of control, this kind of loss of control was nothing at all to the Angel-level relic 【Red Butterfly Twins】.

Holding this special wax stone, Grace and Helen could leave Mideerburg for at most two months. But as a price, for a long time afterward, they would be unable to leave Mideerburg through special means like this again.

After lunch, Xia De talked with Grace and Helen alone again:

"You know the Old God—the Golden Master, right? The one who is the God of Commerce and Wealth?"

The Red Butterfly girls naturally nodded, but Xia De did not ask about too many details:

"What is your biggest impression of this god? Yes, you only need to answer this question."

Grace, wearing a white gauze dress, answered first:

"Very compliant with contracts and agreements, so the followers of this Great One also have a very good reputation."

Subsequently, Helen in the black dress answered:

"It is very difficult for us mortals to define a Great One with the kindness or malice defined by humans. But what is certain is that this God of Commerce and Wealth will not refuse to trade with anyone who can come up with chips."

She was very certain about this:

"A large part of our memories of the Fifth Era was sealed, but I still remember that during a certain time when I... strangled my sister and threw her corpse into the Xikai Mountain pass, I had come into contact with the followers of this Great One and heard two different stories."

Helen extended her first finger:

"In order to let his elderly wife live past midnight that day and let their marriage cross the 60-year threshold, a man used his remaining life as a chip to extend his wife's short life. After the midnight bell rang, the elderly couple recovered together to the appearance of eighteen or nineteen when they first met, and after drinking fine wine together, they stepped into death together."

"A very romantic story; the mortal paid what he could pay, and the god also brought them a miracle."

Xia De evaluated it this way, and Helen extended her second finger:

"After the two died, a neighbor who was jealous that their marriage could be so happy used his remaining life as a chip to let the old woman who had died resurrect and live alone in this world. Thus, this transaction was also realized. I saw with my own eyes that old woman with gray hair, nearly eighty years old, kneeling in front of the grave and crying loudly. After so many years, I still remember that scene."

Speaking of this, Helen was still a bit sad, and Grace beside her hugged her gently.

"This..."

Xia De could not evaluate it.

"Transactions are ruthless. As long as the chips are sufficient and a way to conduct the transaction can be found, the 【Golden Master】 will not refuse any transaction. Fair and ruthless, and sometimes one must be careful of traps in the transaction terms. Helen and I revere and even fear such a god, so we have never had any transactions with this Great One and their followers."

Grace said softly, then asked tentatively:

"So, sir, did you encounter... in the past?"

Xia De nodded cautiously:

"You don't need to worry about this matter; I will handle it well."

"Then please allow us to give you a piece of advice."

The girls said quite seriously:

"Small wishes need rice-grain-sized chips, and big wishes need mountain-sized chips. But if it is not necessary, please do not make any transactions. Transactions are just shortcuts; we could have used our own hands to realize our own wishes. Those things that we can possibly obtain by ourselves, absolutely, absolutely do not go to pray to the gods for."

Two pairs of beautiful blue eyes looked at Xia De together:

"Mortals should not covet being saved by gods; the only ones who can save us are ourselves and..."

Their hands were held together, and in the light of the dancing red butterflies, they transformed into big girls of seventeen or eighteen. The girl wearing a black and white gauze dress stood up and kissed Xia De gently on the side of his face:

"... you who travel through time. May you be able to save everyone."

Returning home after lunch, because Xia De had prepared lunch for Mia before going out, the cat at home was currently in a state of afternoon nap. Seeing Xia De appear at the door, it just lay on the windowsill basking in the sun and gave a lazy "Meow~."

After Xia De returned home, he did find a letter thrown into the foyer from the mail slot in front of the door. There was no stamp on the letter, and only after opening it did he see it was a message from Doctor Shi Nai De. He had come to visit Xia De in the morning and was going to take the train to the Green Lake region in the afternoon. Since Xia De was not at home, he left a letter asking him to wait in Green Lake.

This "Labyrinth Demon—Yalu" was far less powerful than the "Stone Mirror Demon—Gede," so the point was not how to win, but finding the demon's hidden true form. The Doctor had already made three detailed plans for this and would continue to make more plans and schemes during the upcoming short train journey. He would probably arrive in Green Lake on Wednesday evening, and if things went smoothly, the demon matter could be resolved this weekend.

"The Doctor is indeed professional."

Since Laplace Klein Howard appeared on the night of the lunar eclipse last Wednesday, Xia De's investigation into the Green Lake region had slowed down. Now that the witches had arrived in Green Lake and were all taking action, Xia De did not go to the Green Lake region to investigate as usual that afternoon, but instead handled some trivial matters at the beginning of the month in Tobesk, and on this leisurely afternoon, finished the paper titled "Conjectures and Translations of Unsolved Texts from the Early Fifth Era."

In the evening, he took Little Mia to find Dorothy, and after having dinner together leisurely, he returned home alone and spent the night before sleep reading.

Such occasional rest could relax the spirit very well, so when Xia De opened his eyes on Tuesday morning, he actually woke up earlier than the cat beside the pillow.

One day of leisure was enough, and besides, the witches in the Green Lake region were also looking forward to Xia De's reappearance. Therefore, this Tuesday, he returned to the Green Lake region. As for today's action plan, it was to handle the things on the "task list" given by Miss Jia Lin Na that he believed he could handle.

The witch's task list was very long, and it was unknown what kind of future that Witch of Time had glimpsed. Among them, the simpler tasks—such as placing an order with a blacksmith or having a local detective help find a cat—could even be done by ordinary people. As for the more difficult tasks, they included but were not limited to handling certain tricky relics, or even breaking into a church at night to steal an oil painting from the wall.