Chapter 3174

The workmanship of the denture was also very rough, and for some reason, it had a faint smell of bird droppings. Xia De was not sure if this counted as a funerary item, but Sister Belen concluded after inspection that it was indeed a funerary item.

Getting a funerary item without consuming a shovel was, in Xia De's view, a very lucky thing. Therefore, even after encountering an attack, they did not immediately turn back, but continued to set off forward. Xia De and Sister Belen's conversation continued, but he did not talk about the topic of the "Fire-Bearer" again:

"Sister, actually, I am also looking for fire. At the point in time I belong to, my nun discovered that one of the flames should be in a certain bay, and I now suspect it is at a snowy mountain."

Because he was worried about causing a time paradox, Xia De was quite vague when describing the location:

"Your work of searching for fire here has almost reached the final step, while my investigation has just begun. Besides being able to sense the power of the First Fire at close range, I have no other way to find the First Fire. Do you have any experience you can pass on to me?"

Sister Belen nodded gently:

"The splitting of the First Fire was not forced, but was done to suppress disasters that could affect the entire world with the power of the flame. If those flames used to seal something or seal a certain place have not been taken away by others, then there must be a big problem with their location."

Xia De frowned and thought for a moment, finding that what Sister Belen said was very correct. Except for the flame on the "Mad Fire Monster" in the New Continent whose origin he did not know, the flame in Pantanal was used to seal evil objects, the flame on Green Lake Island was used to suppress spatial anomalies, and even the flame fused with the fire demon Disaster was originally used in the forest to suppress temporal instability.

"So there won't be any octopus-headed evil objects in Star Fall Bay that will only appear when the stars reach a certain position, right?"

He thought to himself, and Sister Belen took the opportunity to say again:

"In order to find this flame, I once created a secret method for sensing fire based on the secret arts of my predecessors."

She walked side by side with Xia De, turning her head slightly at this moment to let the mithril eye mask "look" at Xia De. Xia De knew very well what she wanted to express, but thinking of that kiss from Sister Daifulin, he really could not bring himself to continue asking. Sister Daifulin might not mind other girls around him, but she would definitely mind Xia De obtaining power from other Fire-Holding Nuns, a point that Luweiya and the others also understood very well.

Seeing Xia De's subtle expression and his lack of response, Sister Belen nodded to show she understood, and her head drooped again.

Xia De then explained:

"My nun and I have... an agreement. In short, I cannot stay here for a long time; this time will reject me. After I leave in a while, I will ask my nun and see what her opinion is. That's about it, thank you for your kindness."

"You will come back, right?"

She asked, and Xia De nodded firmly:

"I will definitely come back. I will send you away from here, and I will definitely let you leave with the flame."

After all, Xia De did not want to look for the traces of the "Tombstone Wilderness" again in the Sixth Era. If he found the flame now in the Fifth Era, then the three uncertain flames remaining in the Sixth Era would definitely not include this one.

Sister Belen nodded again. Although she did not speak this time, Xia De clearly felt that the other party's footsteps became lighter.

While walking and continuing to check the tombstones, Xia De chatted with Sister Belen about the topic of "Firewood." Although he had met Miss Brock, a candidate for the Thirteenth Tier Death Archwitch, at "Black Sand Pier" last time, she was not a nun after all, so Xia De cherished this opportunity to talk with a nun from a past era.

And Sister Belen was also very happy to answer Xia De's various questions. Whether the First Fire was weak or strong, it had the ability to burn firewood and thereby make the flame stronger.

When Sister Belen heard Xia De say that his nun could already turn the ashes of firewood into power and even materialize them into weapons, she expressed her envy softly, and then pointed out some more subtle applications of the First Fire's ember state to Xia De.

Although it was now the end of the era, it was closer to ancient times after all, and many secret arts that had disappeared in the Sixth Era still had inheritances today. Sister Belen responded to Xia De's doubts as detailedly as possible, and supplemented them with the secret arts and inheritances she knew. And what Xia De wanted to know most was actually the origin of the First Fire:

"What exactly is the 【Primal Fire】?"

Sister Daifulin said it was a flame that existed before the world appeared, and this time, the answer given by this nun from the Fifth Era was very similar, but added one sentence:

"In the era when the Ancient Gods had not yet left, Fire-Holding Nuns could receive courtesy at the sects of the Thirteen Ancient Gods. I once read a diary of a nun from the Fourth Era, in which she wrote down the records of this matter by a nun from the Second Era that she had read, and the nun from the Second Era saw it from the memories inherited by the flame."

"The flame can also inherit memories?"

"This is a lost secret art, or it may be a power that only the more complete state of the First Fire can have. Nuns of previous generations have speculated that perhaps the Primal Fire is related to the origin of the world, but this speculation was denied—the Ancient Gods are the origin of the world. But the First Fire is definitely of great significance to this world. Before the destined end arrives, the flame must be gathered again.

This is not only to observe how long the world has until it reaches its end, but also for what happens after the end."

After those ghouls retreated, the surrounding fog became less dense. Not long after continuing forward, the kerosene lamp held in Sister Belen's hand illuminated a vertical marble tombstone.

This tombstone was slightly more ornate because it had a base underneath it.

【Steve Royston】

【Fifth Era 5140 to 5180.】

【A skilled blacksmith, father of four children.】

【Died in a vendetta, please remember: peers are the greatest enemies.】

【He was as sharp as the kitchen knives he forged, but in the end, his spine was broken by an iron rod.】

"It is 5182 now, so this blacksmith died two years ago?"

Xia De touched the tombstone and whispered. After discussing with Sister Belen and confirming the response measures after encountering an accident, he took the shovel and dug open the soil on the grave.

The coffin buried behind the tombstone this time was actually a metal coffin, which was quite rare in any era. After all, metal was expensive and would rust, and it was even more expensive to build a coffin with metal that did not rust easily.

The iron coffin in front of him had not rusted yet, but this time it was not a sliding lid but a hinged lid style, so this could actually be counted as a box in the style of a coffin.

There was a lock on the coffin lid, and a large iron lock hung on the lock. Xia De bent down and touched the lock, and it popped open on its own.

But when he pried open a gap in the coffin lid, a kitchen knife held by a rotting right hand reaching out from inside the coffin slashed toward Xia De's neck.

"What a sharp kitchen knife!"

Before the blade touched Xia De's neck, he already felt a chilling coldness. With his body that could withstand bullets, he was naturally fine facing an ordinary kitchen knife, but this kitchen knife was clearly not an ordinary item.

So he frowned slightly:

"Adele's Time Stop!"

A click sound came from the void. A large portion of spirit was consumed out of thin air, representing that the opponent had a certain degree of time resistance, or rather, all the undead in this wilderness had various high levels of resistance.

Xia De reached out toward the kitchen knife, wanting to snatch it away, but at this moment, a black crack opened in the air, and another hand holding a kitchen knife appeared from behind him, slashing toward the back of his head.

The distance was too close for the "Xidun Seal" to be effective. Xia De was about to dodge when Sister Belen's hand reached out from the side and grabbed the kitchen knife. The blade left a shallow white mark on her palm, and then the fire ignited in the nun's hand ignited the knife and the arm, until they were all burned to ashes.

Even though Xia De had already used the "Spatial Stability Halo," there were still dense dozens of arms reaching out from the fog holding kitchen knives around the two. Of course, if he hadn't used it, there might have been hundreds of arms.

【This wilderness is the home field of the dead.】

Sister Belen signaled Xia De not to act. She held her hands together in front of her chest, and with her bowing action, her whole body turned into a boundless sea of fire, surging toward the surroundings. But when the fire touched Xia De, it did not cause him any harm; he even felt that the fire was very warm.

The fire also did not harm the surrounding tombstones or the candles and kerosene lamps around the tombstones, but all the arms and kitchen knives, including the things reaching out from the coffin, were melted by that sea of fire. When the fire gathered again, Sister Belen appeared on Xia De's right side:

"Solve this matter as soon as possible. When I transform into fire, I feel that we are being watched."

The intuition of blind nuns was usually very strong, and Xia De did not doubt her guess. So he reached out and completely pried open the iron coffin, but there was no corpse inside, only a black, blood-stained iron kitchen knife, and three gold bracelets scattered beside the kitchen knife.

"There must be a corpse in the coffin. Since there is no corpse here, the blood on the kitchen knife should be the blacksmith's blood. Perhaps his family did not find his corpse, but only found the murder weapon."

Sister Belen guessed. Xia De could feel the terrible resentment attached to the kitchen knife. If this thing appeared in the real world, it would probably be more terrifying than the undead in the 【Interval of Life and Death】. This was not a relic or an alchemical item, but a resentment-attached object common in ghost stories.

However, neither Xia De nor the nun was interested in this thing. Letting it rest here forever was the best ending.

After hurriedly putting away the three gold bracelets, Xia De buried the iron coffin again, and finally jumped twice on the grave to ensure that the soil on the grave was compacted. Every grave here must have its own story, but most of the stories were probably only known to the dead themselves.

(End of chapter)