Chapter 3166: Fifth Era 5182

After returning home from St. Byrons, Xia De continued to go out under the cover of night, and all the way to Dr. Schneider's clinic in the East District of Tobesk.

His visit so late scared the doctor, who thought something had happened again. After hearing that he wanted him to help see if there were any residues of demonic power in the blood sample, he felt slightly relieved:

"This is blood? How did it get polluted like this... No, I am very sure this is not caused by demonic power. What? Relic? Sorry, detective, I haven't seen any information about relics with similar characteristics either."

Xia De was not disappointed. Confirming that he did not run into a demon as soon as he went out, he felt relieved. This showed that the good luck shown by the cards during the pre-festival mission was still continuing.

And when he threw the crystal shoe from the doctor's clinic to go home, the night was already deep, and Miss Jia Lin Na and Luweiya had even changed into pajamas:

"Are you going out tonight?"

"Not going out anymore. Wait until tomorrow morning to go to the academy again. Dannister has no plans to go on a business trip recently, and the academy has started now, so she must be in the library."

Xia De said while taking off his coat and handing it to Tifa on the side. Luweiya continued to ask:

"Then are you going to open the time key in a while?"

Xia De originally planned to do this, but looking at the expressions of Luweiya and Miss Jia Lin Na at this time, he thought it would be good to open a brand-new time journey tomorrow morning. Although using the key only took three seconds, he would definitely bring back a lot of questions after returning:

"Tomorrow morning. I climbed the mountain for so long today, and I am a bit tired."

"Tired, right?"

Miss Jia Lin Na blinked at him.

"So you should have a good rest. How about pressing and rubbing for me in a while? I'll take a shower first, you guys wait for me."

Luweiya and Miss Jia Lin Na both pursed their lips and smiled reservedly. They stayed at Xia De's home together tonight. The girls would never feel that running to Xia De's place to rest was rewarding Xia De with themselves... They generally thought this was rewarding themselves.

Xia De said that massage was originally an excuse, but after taking a shower, the considerate ladies really massaged his shoulders. It was just that Xia De's pajamas disappeared while pressing. Miss Jia Lin Na moved first, and Luweiya moved first.

So the time came to Tuesday. Xia De originally planned to open the key immediately after getting up in the morning. The door of 【Time Corridor】 allowed him to know the mission content half an hour in advance. He had not tried it yet.

But after waking up holding the red-haired witch and the fortune teller, they were woken up and pulled him not to let him leave. Originally, Tifa heard the conversation in the bedroom and wanted to knock on the door to ask whether breakfast should be arranged immediately or later, but she just walked to the door and heard the sound of morning exercise starting.

So although he woke up at 6:30, Xia De was able to leave the bedroom at 7:30. Taking advantage of Luweiya and Miss Jia Lin Na going to wash and dress up, he simply washed his face and brushed his teeth, and then took the brand-new key into the living room of the second room to prepare to set off.

The cat waiting to eat breakfast followed behind him, and Tifa came to see Xia De off. Because he didn't know the situation of this mission, the cat definitely couldn't be brought along, and the black-haired maid chief sent a lucky kiss before picking up the cat:

"Be safe... Did you kiss the young lady like this this morning too?"

She asked with a smile, seeing Xia De a bit embarrassed, the smile became more obvious:

"Waiting for you to come back for breakfast, master."

"Okay, I'll be back soon. Mia, I'll take you next time—may the World Tree protect me in infinite time."

With a click, the keyhole was turned, and Xia De stepped into the fog door in front of him.

【Outsider, you have officially stepped into the "Time Corridor."】

【Now, do you need to know the mission of the key in your hand?】

The familiar endless glowing white fog filled the whole world. Xia De felt very nostalgic for coming here after a long time. He walked toward the curved archway made of slender tree trunks, vines, branches, and green leaves in front of the white fog:

"Yes, tell me the mission."

【Message from the Ancient God "Father of Infinite Trees":】

【Autumn, Fifth Era 5182, Central Continent, Tombstone Wasteland.】

【Event: Grave Digging.】

【Duration 40 minutes → 80 minutes (1/3).】

【You have obtained additional information.】

【The figure of the Father of Infinite Trees watches you.】

【The Ancient God of Time gives you a test.】

【Assist mortals in learning the secret of the Old God - "King of Skeletons."】

【The Father of Infinite Trees will give you a reward: Miracle Spirit Rune - Jealousy.】

"King of Skeletons?"

Xia De frowned slightly, and an image suddenly jumped out of his mind—

In death, a bone giant hand wearing a bright gold bracelet slowly stretched out from the darkness and slapped the calm water surface. The bone hand had seven fingers, and then another bone giant hand with seven fingers wearing a bracelet engraved with runes also stretched out from the darkness toward him.

This was not an illusion, but a memory. In the autumn of 1853, at the end of the story of "Narrow Gap of Life and Death" and "Chosen One of Death" in Midhillburg, Xia De and Joey Barton had a final duel in death.

At that time, he relied on the blessings of Yi Lu Na, Sister Daifulin, Priest Ao Gu Si, and others to suppress Joey Barton, the "Person of Reverse Life" who was the first candidate in death. Barton used the power of "Card of All Things - Death" at that time, relying on the mark left by an Old God related to death in death, to summon such an incarnation (Chapter 793).

After the incident, Xia De certainly did not forget to inquire about the Old God power that appeared at that time, so he knew the Old God - 【God of Graves】, and people generally called it "King of Skeletons."

This Old God was clearly a god of the death system. Its most well-known image was the skeleton giant wearing a faded gold crown summoned by Joey Barton in death, with three bright gold bracelets on each of its seven-fingered bone hands.

This god still had many legends and stories in the Sixth Era. Although it had already gone away at the end of the Fifth Era, there were still secret beliefs about Him in the era where the outsider lived.

People who believe in this Old God believe that as long as they wear three gold bracelets engraved with prayer secret texts on their left and right hands when buried, their souls will not go to nothingness after death, but enter the kingdom of the Grave God and continue to live in the "City of the Dead" in the form of immortal souls.

This belief was mainly concentrated in the eastern region of the Old Continent, especially the hilly area south of the Rommel Mountains. Also because a large number of ordinary people who did not understand mysticism at all made funerary objects with ancient languages they didn't know where they got and buried them with corpses, about 300 years ago, a "Undead Disaster" without cause broke out in that area.

That disaster was quickly suppressed, and since then, the eastern part of the Old Continent began to strictly promote the cremation system, which could be considered a huge impact of supernatural events on the lives and traditional habits of ordinary people.

"But I remember, although this god left in the Fifth Era, He is a genuine evil god..."

The evil god that left the deepest impression on Xia De in previous time adventures was of course the God of Bloodsucking. However, fortunately, 【Blood Duke Lao Ai】 still existed in the Sixth Era, but 【God of Graves】 was gone.

So even if this time adventure was related to this god, Xia De did not have to worry about really meeting Him in the near future.

"The mission is to learn the secret of the Old God, so what kind of secret is it to satisfy the mission conditions?"

Since he encountered this god this time, Xia De did not need to go out to look up information. His understanding of this god was detailed enough, and he couldn't find anything even if he checked for half an hour. If he could have two or three days to prepare, he might be able to gain something.

As for the reward this time—

"【Jealousy】 must belong to the Great Sin. The Tree Father can really give any reward. It seems that my 【Great Sin Chain】 can have one more rune. However, can 【Jealousy】 also be a miracle?"

He recalled that the spirit rune reward given by the Tree Father seemed to always be a "miracle."

The frequency of this kind of reward was not high. This was the 16th time adventure with an ordinary key, and the number of times the spirit rune appeared was only the fourth time... But if you think about it carefully, except for the first 【Echo】, Xia De did not get 【Dark Night】 and 【Tree】 later.

"The time is 5182, 5 years after I first met Miss Violet and Miss Schultz Theresa at Lost Lake, and two years after Theresa and I witnessed the birth of Miss Eliser in the Sea of No Light."

Thinking of this, he became more and more looking forward to this time adventure. He took a deep breath to adjust his mood, and then walked forward until he passed through the archway in the fog.

Thus, the white fog slowly dispersed toward the surroundings, and the deep darkness was revealed behind the white fog.

"Hmm? What smells so bad?"

The dizziness in an instant was a situation that had not happened before. Xia De, who had recovered, felt his back leaning against something very hard, blinked, and realized that the direction was a bit wrong.

He had just stood and walked, but now he had become a lying posture. And not only lying down, he seemed to be in a closed space at this moment.

He quickly adapted to the up, down, left, and right according to gravity, and then realized that he was lying on his back on hard, rotten wooden boards. Or rather, he was lying in a coffin in a grave at this moment, and the darkness he saw looking up was not the color of the sky, but thick soil. The stench he smelled was not the smell of the environment, but the breath of the grave itself.

Although every time he went to the past, he would definitely not appear in a safe place, but it was too much to lie directly into a grave this time:

"These clothes are new, and it will be troublesome for Tifa and the others to wash them again."

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3167 =====