Chapter 3172

"If it were me, I would sever my own left index and middle fingers, throw them to her, and finally say: 【This is for you as a keepsake; you clearly deserve more, but now you only deserve to have this】."

Theresa blinked, not understanding at all. The woman in the coffin stared at Xia De expressionlessly for a moment, took off the three rings on her fingers and threw them onto the black soil outside the grave, then removed the gold earring from her left ear hidden under her hair and threw it to him as well.

Afterward, she lay back down, and the lid of the stone coffin closed automatically. Xia De bent down to pick up the four funerary items, guessing in his heart that she must still have at least one gold earring on her right ear.

However, he was not greedy, and soon used a regular shovel to restore the dug-up grave to its original appearance.

After the grave was restored, Theresa asked curiously:

"What did you mean just now?"

Xia De reminded her:

"Didn't you see just now? Her left index and middle fingers were fresh wounds; they were severed around the time of her death. I suspect they were left behind as a keepsake."

But Theresa still didn't understand:

"Didn't she have many lovers? Do you think it was that apprentice who kept two fingers?"

"The apprentice assassinated her own teacher and heard her teacher say such harsh words before dying; there is only a very small chance she would let others handle the body. Whether out of the purpose of protecting herself or out of love and hate in her heart, burying this witch must have been done by the apprentice herself. She would even, in all likelihood, claim that her teacher had simply gone missing."

Xia De explained it this way, so the young lady wearing glasses thought for a moment:

"Then what you said about leaving fingers and such was..."

"On one hand, saying that represented that 'I' was very clear about the young apprentice's feelings, and even before dying, I had to mock her immaturity; on the other hand, that girl did not severely damage the corpse out of hatred, and even buried it according to tradition, which shows that she still had deep feelings for her teacher.

And for the teacher to sever her own fingers and throw them to her before dying, while also saying such mocking words, it would easily cause her, who was mentally unstable at the time, to collapse directly."

Of course, based on the "uninhibited" nature of witches in this era, Xia De guessed that those two fingers had other meanings, but he couldn't bring himself to say such things.

A shovel traded for four funerary items, without even needing to fight—this was an absolutely worthwhile adventure. After putting away the four funerary items, Xia De glanced at the large tree in the distance in the darkness, then took Theresa's hand:

"Let's go, let's head back."

"Aren't we going to walk around a bit more? This outing went very smoothly, and I can still walk for a while."

Theresa suggested in a low voice, but Xia De shook his head:

"We no longer have a shovel, and continuing forward has no other meaning besides looking at tombstones. I won't lead you to keep walking in danger just out of curiosity; let's go back... I can stay for a long time this time. If we can find a way out early, perhaps we can take a walk in the normal world."

The current location was actually not very far from the "Gravedigger's Hut"; after all, it hadn't taken long to get to the destination when bringing people back from here earlier.

Theresa didn't say anything more, picked up the kerosene lamp, and returned with Xia De in the direction they had come. Both felt that the tree on the side would sooner or later appear in front of them, but until they saw the hut with firelight in the window at the end of the thick fog, that tree still just stood in the distance.

After knocking on the door and confirming the secret code, Theresa entered first. Xia De stood at the doorway and looked toward the large tree in the distance again, feeling for some reason that the tree looked somewhat familiar.

"What could it be?"

Sister Belen and Miss Liade both stood up to welcome them. Just now, the nun had been making runestones at the table, while the "grave robber" Miss Liade had been tending to the pot by the fireplace. It seemed that nothing else had happened here while Xia De and the other were away.

Seeing that the two had returned and the shovel was gone, Miss Liade first expressed concern about whether they were injured, and then asked with some anticipation:

"How was it?"

"Four funerary items. We were lucky this time; the undead we encountered after digging up the grave weren't the kind that required force to confront... nor were they the kind that deliberately made things difficult by speaking in riddles."

Because the outing wasn't long, Theresa's spirits were still quite good. She took out the three gold rings and one gold earring that Xia De had asked her to carry; she handed two rings to Xia De for him to trade for a new shovel, and pushed the rest to Sister Belen.

The nun put all the funerary items together:

"In this way, the number of funerary items is now 8."

7 relics would reveal the location of the First Fire, and 13 relics would reveal the location of the tomb to leave here and return to the world of the living. Nominally, only Sister Belen needed the fire here; although she was the first to arrive and the acquisition of most of the funerary items here was related to her, she did not say that she wanted to use the funerary items now:

"If we can have this kind of efficiency every time, it won't be difficult to leave this place."

Miss Liade was encouraged by her words, so she diligently brought hot tea and the snacks Xia De had brought for the two who had just returned from the outing.

The physical exertion of walking around outside was more exaggerated than flying at full speed, so Xia De sat down as well, eating and drinking while telling Theresa about what he had seen and heard.

And after entering the house, the large tree in the fog could no longer be seen from the window. This counted as good news, proving that this house was indeed a safe zone, though no one knew if it would appear again next time they went out.

After drinking a cup of tea and eating two biscuits, Xia De, feeling that he had rested enough, calculated the time and asked Sister Belen:

"Is it okay to go out together now?"

"So soon?"

Theresa asked in surprise, while Xia De felt that he had fully recovered; the death here was ultimately no match for that tranquil body of water:

"Taking advantage of the good luck just now, I want to go out and try again. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous it is; let's act as soon as possible. Theresa, you and Miss Liade stay behind. Miss Liade, you can't just stay here forever waiting for us to find funerary items.

Get ready to go out; if our outing goes smoothly this time, you will go out with me next."

Every companion was meaningful; this was the experience Xia De had summarized from numerous time adventures.

The flaxen-haired girl nodded quickly; she certainly knew that she had to contribute as well. Theresa was very worried about Xia De; she suggested that her own state was also good and she could go out, but Xia De still let her stay here to rest.

The iron whistle contributed by Miss Liade thus ended up in Xia De's hands. In addition to that, Theresa also lent Xia De the relic Miss Violet had given her for self-defense:

"Take this, the One-Shot Kill Pistol. It's a pity I only brought one ten-round magazine that goes with it, but it's no problem for dealing with the vast majority of enemies."

Xia De knew this relic; the Angel-level relic 【One-Shot Kill Pistol】 was the most famous firearm-type relic existing in the Sixth Era, much more famous than his 【Gun of Kindness】. The characteristic of this relic was the same as its name: one shot, one kill.

But this relic had to be used with special soul-forged bullets or relic-type bullets to achieve the best effect. If ordinary bullets were used, it would only be effective against ordinary people and low-ring sorcerers; bullets generated automatically through spirits would only be effective against mid-ring sorcerers and below.

And although the craft of soul-forging bullets was not only mastered by demons, whether it was the witches of the Fifth Era or the sorcerers of the Sixth Era, they all quite detested this behavior. Therefore, the ten bullets in Theresa's hand, as well as the bullets existing in the Sixth Era, were consumables handed down from the Third Era, with one less for every one used.

The "One-Shot Kill" effect of the pistol with the best bullets was ineffective against demigods and ineffective against some ancient evil things, only able to cause them massive damage but unable to be fatal. But apart from that, all mortal things, as long as they were hit, would almost all be sent directly to death. As long as the instant-death resistance was not full, then no matter how high it was stacked, it would have no effect on the characteristics of this relic.

But the shortcomings of the relic were also very obvious; this was not just because its probability of misfiring was extremely high, but because the speed and trajectory of the bullets fired by this gun were consistent with a normal pistol. That is to say, this gun only guaranteed death upon being hit, not that it would definitely hit.

And dodging bullets was already very easy for mid-ring sorcerers, not to mention that as long as one held anything to block the bullet midway, the bullet could be easily blocked—its power was truly only that of a silver single-shot pistol on the surface.

Correspondingly, the characteristic of the Keeper-level relic 【One-Shot Hit Pistol】 that Xia De had encountered in the Sixth Era was a guaranteed hit; the two had similar names, but the danger level differed by two levels (Chapter 2256).

This gun was hidden by Theresa in a holster tied to her thigh under her skirt, which was a very common way to hide things in the current era. Xia De had originally wanted her to keep it for self-defense, but the girl hinted that she had other weapons on her:

"I am the successor chosen by my aunt; she certainly wouldn't watch me go out empty-handed."

In short, after confirming the new secret code for knocking on the door, Theresa glanced at Sister Belen and generously kissed Xia De, and only then did Xia De set off again with the nun. At this time, 30 minutes had already passed since he arrived at this wasteland filled with tombstones, which was just a little over one-third.

If he was lucky, Xia De even thought he could have a third round of outing opportunities.

"It's gone, that tree is gone."

After leaving the hut, Xia De first observed this, and the nun carrying the kerosene lamp just raised her head slightly, then lowered it again.

Xia De knew very well that this nun had many things she wanted to ask him, and the nun indeed took the initiative to speak after the two had left the open space:

"Please forgive my presumption; could you tell me about your nun?"

She took the initiative to fall half a step behind Xia De, who was carrying the shovel. Xia De, scanning the surrounding tombstones, did not refuse:

"That nun of mine is very powerful; if she could be here, I'm afraid we would be able to get out very soon."

After all, Sister Devlin was a bona fide Chosen of Death, whose power came directly from the 【Ancient God of Death】.

?? PS: The relic mentioned in Chapter 2256, the original name "One-Shot Kill" has been corrected to "One-Shot Hit." It does not affect other plot points; it was just a correction of the name.

? (End of chapter)