Chapter 1745

Although the contents of the witch's task list were strange and varied, it is worth mentioning that even using the power of time and fate to glimpse the future, it was impossible to see everything that would definitely happen at once. Therefore, the descriptions of most tasks on the list were relatively vague. To complete the tasks, one was afraid they would first have to figure out what the tasks were actually about.

When Xia De was having breakfast at home that morning, he had already selected what he was going to do. Simple tasks would be left to the witch's followers to handle, and the most difficult ones would probably require the Great Witches to take action themselves.

Xia De set his sights on a task involving handling unknown materials, and that task, which Xia De had set his sights on, was called "The Calm Ascetic."

The task description was relatively simple: a Delarian noble who came to participate in a meeting locally had indulged in wild revelry in his youth, but in middle age, he had lost his wife, children, and most of his family one after another due to accidents. Thus, the middle-aged noble repented, strictly demanding of himself a life of temperance and simplicity, and imitating the ascetics of the church, hoping to achieve dual calmness of mind and body in the rest of his life.

After arriving in Green Schluch Lake City, this noble was suspected of coming into contact with some kind of hallucinogenic drug, thereby gradually letting his life form deviate from flesh-and-blood organisms. And the task requirement was to save that noble and recover those hallucinogenic items.

Xia De had a premonition that he would definitely encounter an interesting story this time.

Who exactly that Delarian noble referred to was not clearly stated in the witch's information. But because it was limited to "coming from Tobesk," Xia De only went to the City Hall to find Miss Jia Lin Na, who was preparing for this morning's meeting, and knew that Count Petrarch was the one in the negotiating delegation who had a hobby of being an "ascetic."

He himself was one of the representatives of the negotiating delegation and usually lived in Tobesk. His residence in Tobesk was also in the city center, which, speaking of it, was not far from St. Theresa Square.

"The pistol magazine is empty, the muzzle is overheated; it's out of bullets. The black traces on the face... poisoning?"

After asking for the address, Xia De wanted to leave, but since Xia De had come here, the Duchess naturally wanted to keep Xia De to attend the meeting with her. Fortunately, with Difa's help, Xia De was able to run out.

Count Petrarch was a member of the first batch of the delegation, and the Green Schluch Lake City Hall had arranged proper accommodation for these distinguished guests from Tobesk. But the ascetic Count did not like such extravagance and waste, so although he could not refuse the accommodation arrangement, he actually moved to a hotel on the second day of arriving in Green Schluch Lake City.

As for the hotel he lived in, it was naturally the Green Schluch Lake Hotel, which was closest to the Green Schluch Lake City Hall and also had good service at a reasonable price.

The room number the Count rented was not even found out by Miss Jia Lin Na in her haste. Fortunately, Xia De could go directly to ask the female owner behind the counter, Helena Green.

"Oh, that gentleman. He lives on the third floor just like you, but your rooms are on opposite sides of the stairs, so you have probably never seen him."

Ms. Helena Green said with a smile.

Thus, Xia De counted the room numbers and arrived at the door of Room 308. He closed his eyes to confirm that there was the sound of a heartbeat inside before knocking on the door.

Knock, knock, knock~

A moment later, the door opened a crack, and half the face of a middle-aged man with extremely powerful eyes, taller than Xia De, and looking sturdy enough to kill a lion with one punch, appeared behind the door:

"Who are you?"

Xia De introduced himself:

"Speaking of which, I am really sorry, Count; not only do you not know me, but I also do not know you."

The door was about to close immediately, but Xia De had already blocked the door crack with his foot:

"Please listen to me. I have heard for a long time that Count Petrarch of Tobesk loves meditation, contemplation, and asceticism, and is a charitable person. I have the same hobbies as you and have always wanted to visit you to communicate and learn with you. I wonder if you have time?"

Xia De asked, and the Count inside the door stared and asked:

"Do you take me for a fool? Would I believe such a reason?"

"Then what if I say I came to play Luo De cards with you? Can you open the door?"

"Of course not. I don't like playing cards anyway. How did you come up with such an excuse?"

Xia De smiled:

"Alright, I won't joke with you anymore. I really want to discuss the topic of meditation and asceticism with you. I have heard of you from the 'Umbilical Cord Club' in Tobesk. I am also a member there; look."

As he spoke, he opened his palm, which had nothing in it. As for the "Umbilical Cord Club," it was a club set up in the Tobesk city area for occult enthusiasts to gather. It was under twenty-four-hour surveillance by the church, and even the manager at the front desk was a ring-warlock of the church.

The illusion deceived this ordinary person. The Count looked suspiciously at the medal in Xia De's hand before nodding:

"Someone from the club? Looking at your appearance, you do look like a young noble from Tobesk. However, I will not trust you easily. Answer one common-sense question about the club first—what is the characteristic of meditation entering the third stage?"

In orthodox ring-warlock meditation, there was no division of meditation into stages, so Xia De did not know what these ordinary people's theories were:

"I don't know, I've never heard of it."

He decided to tell the truth. Since the Count lived alone, he could just break in if necessary.

The Count then nodded and finally unhooked the anti-theft chain:

"That's right. Meditation is only divided into shallow and deep levels; there is no third stage at all."

The layout of this room was similar to the layout of the room Xia De rented. Although the Count did not let servants accompany him, the interior was still kept very clean and tidy. He did not have much luggage, and almost no private items could be seen in the room.

After entering the door, Xia De looked around and easily discovered traces of elements. It was a plate of colorful mushrooms placed on the coffee table that had been dried and dehydrated. Such bright colors, as if they were glowing, were something that even greedy Little Mia probably wouldn't eat. And besides the mushrooms, there were scissors, a quartz mortar for grinding, and a small hammer on the coffee table.

"No whisper elements; it seems unrelated to relics."

Seeing Xia De looking at those mushrooms, the Count took the initiative to introduce:

"With the help of drugs and plants, one can better achieve meditation effects, and even stimulate the legendary 'pineal gland,' allowing the originally closed 'spirit vision' to open."

"Um... illegal drugs?"

Xia De asked hesitantly and sat down with the Count. The Count shook his head indifferently:

"I have friends in Ridgewich. Let's not talk about this. Since you are here, I will share my new harvest with you. See these mushrooms? I accidentally discovered this special species in Green Schluch Lake and found that after air-drying these mushrooms and grinding them into powder for absorption, it can better help us enter a deep meditation state, and subsequently see the truth of the world."

He was in high spirits when he spoke and even gestured, as if he had really made a major discovery.

But Xia De was even more hesitant:

"What you see after eating the mushrooms, wouldn't it be a series of dancing little elves?"

"Of course not. I saw streaks of pitch-black cracks opening in the air. Look there; there is even a huge gap there large enough for me to pass through. Through there, one can reach the paradise of bliss!"

The Count said happily and reached out to continue processing those mushrooms:

"You might not believe it now; I'll demonstrate it for you to see."

Xia De looked in surprise at the wall the Count had just pointed to, but there was nothing on the wall. If it weren't for the fact that he was certain the mushrooms were special materials, he would have even suspected whether the Count had already gone crazy from eating poisonous mushrooms.

The Count soon made the air-dried colorful mushrooms into mushroom powder and then divided the powder into two small pinches. One pinch was left for himself, and one pinch was placed in front of Xia De:

"Try it with me, and you will know what deep meditation really is."

He issued the invitation full of expectation and moved to add his powder to tobacco, then rolled it up with rolling paper:

"You can also take it directly, but that takes effect too quickly and easily leads to headaches, memory loss, and lethargy after waking up, so rolling it into a cigarette is just right. Come on, young man; you are the first person to have this honor. The taste of deep meditation is really good."

Xia De naturally could not accept such a thing. Seeing his hesitant appearance, the Count said again:

"Don't worry. Although this looks like a prohibited drug, haven't you seen it? This is a purely natural plant. Not to mention me, even island natives and primitive tribes deep in the rainforest still maintain the tradition of picking and using mushrooms, don't they? Besides, our medical development originally stems from the exploration of plant diversity; otherwise, how do you think plant anesthetics appeared?"

"Does this thing really have no side effects?"

Xia De asked suspiciously. Count Petrarch thought for a moment:

"As long as you keep your heart free of distracting thoughts, abandon all desires, and don't let your imagination run wild, it is absolutely safe."

He said quite certainly:

"In the deep meditation state, there will be many terrifying scenes and sounds, and the world will look different in our eyes. But as long as our own beliefs are firm and we are not disturbed by external forces, then we will not be affected."

"This..."

Although Xia De believed his beliefs were firm, he knew himself and knew that he was definitely not the kind of person who was very ascetic.

"This is good stuff. Since you don't believe it, I'll try it myself first. If you want to follow up later, you will find me. Paradise of bliss, here I come."

"Wait, wait a moment!"

But before Xia De could finish speaking, Count Petrarch put the hand-rolled cigarette into his mouth and then lit it with a match.

Xia De was sitting opposite the Count, so if he wanted to stop him, he could do so with one reach. But Xia De really wanted to figure out what was going on with these mushrooms, and he believed he could handle the situation after the Count went crazy, so he watched the Count puffing away there, and soon the Count let his head droop, as if he had fallen asleep.

PS: Don't eat wild mushrooms casually.

(End of chapter)