Chapter 3330: [Ancient Fairy Tale: Snow White]

Carrying specks of icy blue light, the small boat passed through the town below, which was lit with the lights of ten thousand homes, and arrived above the sea, eventually dissolving into nothingness under the starry sky.

As if passing through a thin black curtain, the starry sky vanished overhead, replaced by endless void. But it was not dark here; from the distant front, a massive silver moon disk gradually emerged from the darkness, until more than half of the Underworld Moon hung above the water's surface.

The boat's speed gradually slowed, and the light of the Underworld Moon illuminated the rippling water ahead. Looking around, the small boat had already stopped in that stretch of black water, and one after another, pure white souls walked past the boat, heading toward the final destination of all souls.

Bathed in the light of the Underworld Moon, the ghoul Mr. Otto did not look back again:

"How beautiful."

He sat on the small boat, gazing at the half-moon, his voice completely restored to normal.

"If you wish to wait for your wife and leave hand-in-hand with her, you can temporarily stop moving forward and just wait in these waters."

Xia De, holding the oars at the stern, said. The ghoul stood up, then turned to thank Xia De. At the very moment he turned, he reverted to his human appearance, though a layer of frost still covered his body.

It was the appearance of Mr. Otto in his youth—handsome and looking very reliable, which made Xia De feel regret once again for the story between him and his wife.

Mr. Otto looked carefully at the face of Xia De, who had a cat standing on his shoulder, and then bowed very solemnly to thank him:

"Although I do not know who you are or what kind of great existence you are, I am very grateful for the help from you and that young lady."

Xia De did not block his expression of gratitude:

"If it weren't for your obsession keeping you stubbornly in the world of the living after thawing, you wouldn't have met me.

Go on, you will wait for her. This is the end of everything; there is no concept of time or space. Perhaps after I turn around and leave, you will immediately see her walking toward you. When that time comes, remember to hold her hand before continuing forward."

A faint smile appeared on his face, and the young Mr. Otto nodded solemnly once more.

At this moment, his entire body was emitting icy blue light; the restoration of his youthful image represented the manifestation of soul power, as the ghoul's physical body was no longer sufficient to contain his soul here.

"Perhaps this has no value to you, but please accept my heart—here is a gift for you."

Mr. Otto pointed to his own chest, bowed to Xia De once more, and then stepped off the small boat. The soul walked two steps toward the Underworld Moon, then also turned into a pure white form, indistinguishable among the thousands of departing souls.

But for those who had emotional connections with him, he remained in his original appearance.

Mortals must die. Xia De did not pay attention to the departing Mr. Otto, but instead looked at the severely decayed corpse lying on the boat. The soul had found its home, but the corpse still needed to be brought back by Xia De himself. Of course, he could have just thrown the corpse off the boat, but that was unnecessary.

The chest area of the corpse was faintly emitting icy blue light, so Xia De reached out and beckoned; unexpectedly, two things flew up.

First, a playing card flew out of the chest pocket of the corpse's coat; since he had carried it close to his body, it was naturally a very precious item.

The card flew before Xia De. The back was the card back of a Luo De Pai, and the front showed a princess and the seven dwarfs having a picnic on the grass. Unlike ordinary cards, this card had a rare horizontal layout.

The light of the Underworld Moon illuminated Xia De's blinking eyes and the smile gradually appearing on his face. He knew that when he had nothing to do and meddled in other people's business, he might encounter a surprise at any time—

【Ancient Fairy Tale: Snow White】, Suit: Star 9.

The special rule written below the card face read: When drawing this card, roll a 20-sided die. If the result is 9, you may adjust the card's number between 3 and 9; the total number cannot be adjusted to 20 or 21. Once this card's rule is used, no other special card effects will take effect in this round.

"Can adjust 7 numbers... truly an incredible rule."

Although this card could not guarantee victory, it was still very interesting. At the same time, this was the fifth "Ancient Fairy Tale" series special rule card Xia De had obtained, following 【Match Girl】, 【Sleeping Princess】, 【Cinderella】, and 【Mermaid's Song】.

With this, the total number of special cards in Xia De's deck reached 43, and the "Ancient Fairy Tale" series became the series with the largest number of cards in Xia De's deck, aside from the "Founder" series.

As for the second item, it was that object emitting icy blue light. It was located inside the corpse, so its speed of flying out was much slower than the playing card.

After Xia De finished checking the situation of the playing card, that heart covered in frost finally arrived before him.

Xia De recognized what this was:

"Heart of the Living Dead."

He couldn't help but sigh; this was why he had always believed that whenever something like the "Heart of the Living Dead" appeared, it was definitely accompanied by a tragedy.

He collected the heart into a bottle, placed it in his suitcase on the boat, and then began the return journey from this place.

Miss Larson and the elderly Mrs. Otto were still waiting for him on the cliff. After he returned, he wrapped Mr. Otto's remains in white linen and returned them to the old lady in the wheelchair. After briefly instructing the old lady not to reveal what happened today, and sending her to the carriage that Xia De had hidden in the forest beside the path, the two of them left before Mr. Meyer and the others woke up.

"Mrs. Otto probably won't live much longer."

Walking side-by-side on the path down the mountain back to the town, the white-haired girl, feeling low and with eyes still slightly red, said softly, then looked up at the starry sky.

"But we did the right thing. I have always hoped that all waiting has a result—I mean correct waiting. You really did a good deed, Miss Larson."

"Didn't we do this together?"

"No, Little Mia and I were just hired by you with lunch."

Xia De said with a smile, and the white-haired witch apprentice couldn't help but reveal a smile as well. The low mood from just a moment ago was diluted a bit; she knew Xia De was deliberately comforting her, and this method was very effective.

Suddenly, Stella Larson felt she almost understood why the man beside her was liked by so many great witches. He was indeed powerful, but beyond that power, what was truly potent was his gentle soul. She had never met anyone like him:

"Give me your coat in a while; I'll help you wash it."

She moved slightly closer to Xia De. The coat Xia De was currently wearing had been dirtied by her tears and things she didn't want to talk about just now.

Xia De originally wanted to say that the maid at home would be responsible for cleaning it, but thinking about it, this was also Miss Larson's kind intention:

"Alright, then I'll trouble you. But speaking of which, besides your reward today, Mr. Otto also gave me an incredible gift before he left; today wasn't a wasted effort."

He was still carrying that suitcase in his hand.

"I also obtained a gift, and a small sentence was added to the snake skin: 【Do not close your soul; only sufficiently warm emotions can endure the bitter cold】."

Miss Larson paused, then said softly:

"An ordinary person can endure the cold in solid ice for over fifty years; I think I should be able to as well."

Although she had been to many places following Claire, she hadn't experienced too many partings of life and death, so she was exceptionally sentimental today. Looking at the lit-up town below the path, she actually had many more things she wanted to discuss with Xia De, but Xia De stopped her, and incidentally stopped the cat that was reminding him to eat dinner:

"Let's talk about other things later; we need to quicken our pace. Aren't there still things to be busy with?"

"What else..."

The white-haired girl's expression changed:

"Ah! Oh no, Teacher is still on the mountain!"

Originally, they had thought that after the elderly Mrs. Otto arrived, meeting Mr. Otto would be enough to fulfill the regret. No one expected them to actually talk for a full two hours. But the story was truly moving, so Xia De hadn't had the heart to interrupt, and this resulted in them missing the time; they should have arrived at the mountain peak destination around 5:30 PM, but at this moment the starry sky hung high, clearly having missed the time.

Thus, the two quickly returned to the Snow Mountain Hall. After discussing with Ellie about going up the mountain, the unicorn carried both of them and flew toward the night sky—Xia De didn't fly as fast as the unicorn.

The unicorn seemed very excited. Even though Xia De reminded it to pay attention to its health, it still rushed up the mountainside at a very fast speed, and then, following Xia De's directions, spread its wings and flew toward the peak on the west side of the Fatumunster Snow Mountain.

Seeing the fire brazier already lit under the night sky from afar, it was 6:43 PM. At the top of the peak, there was a circular platform about ten square meters in size, surrounded by wooden stakes, and those stakes were wrapped with faded red silk cloth.

In the very center of the platform stood a quite thick stone pillar, carved with the ancient snake worship symbols of the Fatum people and the scratches left by those warriors who had passed the "Crown of Glory" trial.

The fire brazier was located under the stone pillar, and Claire Reinhardt, standing beside the brazier with a dissatisfied expression, saw the unicorn rushing up from below at a glance.

When she saw that it was Xia De and her own student on the unicorn, her heart became even more dissatisfied.

After Xia De jumped off the unicorn's back, the witch asked him with her arms crossed over her chest:

"Isn't this Mr. Hamilton? How do you have time to come over... do you know how long I've been waiting for you here?"

A very apologetic Xia De guessed:

"Fifty minutes?"

"Fifty-four minutes! I originally thought that after enduring the cold wind to reach the finish line, I would see you and be... embraced by you immediately."

She turned her face away from Xia De, looking very unhappy, and at this moment Ellie also landed carrying Miss Larson. Xia De didn't defend himself by saying he was "delayed by something," but apologized directly:

"Sorry, I'm late."

PS: The image for this chapter is "Ancient Fairy Tale: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."