Chapter 3125: Midwinter Cemetery

The conversation about the demon soon dissipated into the midwinter snow. Bill Schneider, who would sooner or later face a battle with the "Original Evil Spirit," still possessed confidence and courage at this moment. His noble soul guided him toward deeper darkness, but the thing Xia De was most concerned about regarding the doctor's situation was actually—

"What exactly is the Demon King?"

The opponent's power level was likely at least that of "Desire" or Professor Youke Wood, but as long as it wasn't a god, Xia De should be able to defeat it with a drop of divinity, or at least repel it and retrieve those two lost souls.

Yet his intuition was constantly reminding him that the truth behind the thing the doctor was chasing was likely far more complex than the situation he was considering.

"'Desire' doesn't seem willing to answer this question either, but next time I can find a way to make her have to answer..."

He thought to himself, while the voice in his ear whispered:

【Aren't you unwilling to go looking for it yourself?】

"Yes, but I can guarantee that that mermaid will definitely appear before me again at just the right moment."

After the experiments in the four districts of the city—north, south, east, and west—were completed, the final test site was not in the central district of Tobesk—the Academy wouldn't let the correspondence Ringed Shushi take such a huge risk.

The carriage carried the group through the slums in the north of the city and finally returned to the east of the city where they had started. Afterward, the carriage traveled along the small roads on the outskirts of the city and finally arrived near the Tobesk Public Cemetery.

"Come to think of it, I still need to visit Detective Sparrow during this year's Year-End Festival... Remember to remind me."

【Understood.】

Xia De was very glad that the first experiment location wasn't here; otherwise, the skeletal spiders summoned by Priest Ao Gu Si when activating the derivative might have directly pulled out a "Tobesk Citizen Undead Army."

Except for Priest Ao Gu Si, who was not a local, Doctor Shi Nai De, Luweiya, and Duo Luo Qian also had relatives and friends buried here, so everyone was no stranger to this cemetery.

The cemetery was under the protection of the 【Church of Creation and Destruction】. The doctor didn't dare to park the carriage directly outside the cemetery fence, but instead hid it in a small grove on the outskirts of the city about a mile away from the cemetery, after which everyone walked toward the cemetery.

"The location this time is relatively broad; most of the eastern district of the cemetery meets the criteria. The snow is getting heavier; let's hurry up and finish this work."

Although the doctor encouraged everyone this way, when the five of them arrived at the outskirts of the cemetery under the cover of night, they still sensed something amiss.

"There are Ringed Shushi from the Church here. No, they aren't just simple gravediggers; there is at least one complete squad."

Luweiya provided vague information through divination, after which Duo Luo Qian summoned the Match Girl again to make a wish and used her unique spatial talent to perceive the current situation inside the cemetery.

The conclusion reached was not very good; it seemed that the Church squad that had sent out a distress signal in the city earlier had arrived nearby. Although the surrounding whisper elements were very faint, it was basically certain that they were containing a very troublesome relic.

And since the squad's mission hadn't ended yet, the signal sent out earlier might have already received a response, so there should be at least two Church Ringed Shushi squads in the cemetery.

"It should be a squad from the Church of Peace."

Priest Ao Gu Si gave his own opinion; he understood the operating methods of the various churches in the Tobesk diocese best.

The doctor then asked the four of them:

"According to the relevant regulations of the 'Academy Correspondence Student Code of Conduct' and the 'Off-Campus Bounty Execution Ordinance,' when encountering a Church squad during an operation, we can choose to voluntarily abandon the activity or task currently in progress. But if we choose to abandon it, we can only get half the reward for this mission, so..."

"Since we're already here, let's see what's going on first."

Xia De said. He and the doctor were the high-level Ringed Shushi in the group, so their decisions were the most critical.

"Actually, as long as the 'Fate Weaver' doesn't appear this time, the detective can just activate the card and run. What does what the Church does have to do with us?"

Duo Luo Qian also said, so the idea of abandoning the mission was discarded by everyone, and the group climbed over the iron fence outside the cemetery and entered the snow-covered cemetery in the night.

The eastern district of the Tobesk Cemetery was an area newly opened by the public cemetery in recent years. The cemetery area was extremely large, and even if there were not many obstacles in the cemetery, there was no need to worry about being seen at a glance in such a deep night.

With the assistance of Luweiya's divination, the group carefully avoided the areas where the Church squad might be. Afterward, led by the doctor, they arrived under a bare cypress tree.

At this moment, there was only the sound of light snow falling in the cemetery; there would certainly be no insect chirping on a midwinter night. But in this silence, all five of them knew that somewhere in the cemetery, the Church squad was likely engaged in a fierce battle, or the Church's Ringed Shushi were hiding in the darkness, waiting for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

However, this had nothing to do with them for the time being. To avoid attracting attention, the group did not take any extra actions this time. After confirming that the final experiment location was under that cypress tree, they simply used simple incantations and charms to hide their voices and figures.

Afterward, Xia De took out a few cushions. He, Duo Luo Qian, Luweiya, and the priest sat down under the tree, while only the doctor remained standing to observe the surroundings, acting out of caution.

"Come to think of it, you're all staying in Tobesk for this year's Year-End Festival, right?"

Although they were in the middle of a tense mission, since they were idle, Xia De still asked this question.

The ladies would certainly all be there, and Priest Ao Gu Si would of course not leave the diocese, but the doctor shook his head:

"I'm not sure yet. I've had a major breakthrough in my reading recently, and I plan to take the opportunity while patients aren't visiting around the Year-End Festival to take a trip out of town. I'll likely not be in Tobesk for the Year-End Festival, but I should be back soon."

"Then we'll send your Year-End Festival gift to you a week early."

Duo Luo Qian said, asking Xia De for an empty glass jar, and after chanting, she placed a small ball of fire inside. Incantation - Fire in a Bottle; without creating too much light, it could warm the surrounding environment. It is said that this was a spell developed by maids in the Witch Era to decorate indoor gardens, and it is quite popular in the current era.

The small bottle containing the fire was placed between everyone. Luweiya reached out to warm herself, while the doctor continued to watch the darkness all around the cemetery:

"I won't send your gifts early. I'll arrange for a servant to mail them to the post office at that time, or have them delivered to you during the Year-End Festival."

The writer miss kindly reminded:

"The work of postmen at the post office is very heavy during the Year-End Festival, and even local packages are very likely to be delayed, not to mention the terrible weather this winter."

She gave an example from her own experience:

"More than ten years ago, when I was still a child, there was a winter with a blizzard. Although it wasn't as bad as this year, it was still very heavy. That was..."

"The winter of 1842; I have a deep impression of that year."

The priest said, and Duo Luo Qian nodded:

"An elderly distant aunt of our family died of illness in the City of Art, Aitaike City. As a result, because of the terrible weather, when the funeral invitation was delivered to Tobesk, even the funeral was already over. When my father saw the invitation, he was worried that my mother would be very sad, and he felt that since they couldn't attend the funeral anyway, he didn't tell my mother, who was ill at the time, about it, thinking he would tell her when a suitable opportunity arose later.

As a result, before the Year-End Festival that year, my mother mentioned that distant aunt again, so my father had to forge a Year-End Festival greeting card sent by the aunt. From then until this year, my father would forge a greeting card before the Year-End Festival every year, and my mother still thinks that distant aunt is alive to this day... I asked my father what he planned to do in the future, and he said he would wait until he was on his deathbed and couldn't go on, then he would hold my mother's hand and tell her about it."

"This... yes, so the problems caused by mail delays are indeed very serious."

Xia De said, holding back his laughter. He didn't expect that the prestigious Professor Lu Yisha had done such a thing.

The priest took over the conversation:

"Although the Year-End Festival is the most important festival of the year, the key to giving gifts is the intention. I've noticed that in recent years, people always compare the expensiveness of gifts as a means of showing off in social life. Young people today are far inferior to the people of my time."

But the steam revolution hadn't started when the priest was young, the citizen class was generally not wealthy, and there were not so many cheap goods on the market, so the two generations should not be compared together.

However, everyone didn't refute the old priest's words. Luweiya just said:

"The Divination Society has put forward a point of view in the last two years: the gifts received every Year-End Festival can to some extent affect people's fortune in the coming year."

"I've also heard of this saying."

The doctor, who was on guard, nodded:

"But is this true?"

"Of course it's not true. Initially, this was the slogan for the Year-End Festival series of cards three years ago. It was originally said that the set of cards could bring good luck, but later, for some reason, it became that all gifts could affect fortune."

"I think this is a trap of consumerism. It might be a rumor concocted in the newspapers by those shop owners who specifically want to make a fortune during the Year-End Festival."

Xia De, who was sitting next to Luweiya, said, so the writer miss asked him curiously:

"What is 'consumerism'?"

"This... let's just consider it a nasty tactic by merchants, but at least they haven't created new festivals just to make money... Come to think of it, is there anything you particularly need recently? I'm just curious, no other meaning.

So, is there? Anything, no matter how expensive, and it's best if it's something that can be bought within half a month."

The five of them chatted about the upcoming holiday while waiting. Xia De's attempt to be lazy of course didn't succeed; he still had to choose the right gift himself.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3126 =====