Chapter 3355: Cause of Death of the Death-Announcer

Miss Violet, like Miss Liyade, disagreed with digging graves again; she simply thought it was a trap:

"We just obtained a tool that can dig graves at will, and now we immediately need to dig graves; how could there be such a coincidence?"

Xia De believed that the god would definitely appear, and digging graves at will before He appeared might trigger some unexpected curse.

He then took the shovel from Miss Liyade's hand:

"Although this isn't a burial item, this shovel has meaning in this wasteland too; how about using this as a deduction?"

The skull actually agreed:

"Fine, but are you sure you want to do this? I can only give a very low price—four burial items. You have another shovel, which can also deduct one burial item."

Then it reminded them:

"You may not realize yet that the soul is the most valuable thing here. Give me the joys, angers, sorrows, and happiness in your souls, or those profound memories, and they can also be deducted as burial items. How do you think the burial items buried with the dead came to be? Perhaps some really came from the real world, but more are the condensation of souls."

Xia De acted as if he hadn't heard it speaking; once the integrity of the soul is destroyed, whether a person is still the original person is hard to say.

The number of burial items reached 16+5=21, still eleven short.

"I can stay."

Sister Belun said calmly, Xia De ignored her:

"Everyone see what else you have on you, take out anything that can be discounted as burial items."

Except for the Philosopher's Stone, the skull didn't want any of the relics. But Xia De still had use for the Philosopher's Stone, so this couldn't be exchanged either; Xia De originally thought the feather of the Angel of Requiem was valuable, but the skull didn't accept it either, and of course, it didn't want the 【Eternal Sleep Scripture】.

However, the six soul bullets and nine soul tears were considered acceptable in the skull's view:

"All the bullets count as one burial item, three tears count as one burial item."

But out of caution, Xia De discussed it with everyone and was only willing to give six tears, bringing the number of burial items to 23.

"Let's haggle some more, I really am one of your own."

While the girls continued to search, Xia De continued to say to the skull:

"I know the Death-Announcer."

"I know it too."

The skull on the gate said very calmly:

"If you called it here, it could open the gate for you directly, but we all know it's gone. That angel who was supposed to announce the end of the world, the guy who was supposed to blow the horn of the end of all things, was killed by the ancient god himself."

"Hmm?"

Xia De felt as if he had heard something incredible; the skull's tone remained calm, and it was actually willing to tell Xia De these ancient things:

"The end of the First Era was supposed to be the end of all things; it was the ancient gods who forcibly made the world continue. Therefore, the angel announcing the end certainly cannot exist; it's not that the Death-Announcer possessed the power to end the world, but that it itself had the destiny of announcing the end."

It closed its mouth and stopped speaking. Xia De blinked, not knowing what to say. The bones of the Death-Announcing Angel were scattered all over the world; he had long been curious about how that angel had become like this, never expecting the answer to be obtained so easily here.

The First Era was the normal world, and the subsequent eras were the afterglow of the end; the Outsider had long understood this point. The answer given by the skull seemed reasonable when thought of this way; since the Death-Announcing Angel shouldered the destiny of blowing the horn of the end, it naturally shouldn't exist before the end.

It's just the god and his own angel... Xia De didn't know how to evaluate it.

"I have been to death, true death."

Xia De still wanted to continue haggling, the skull hummed:

"I have been there too, so what? Although since the First Era, those who have died and returned are rare, they haven't appeared; this identity is not special."

"I have also sent many souls to death; they originally couldn't go on, it was I who sent them to the end, and they even gave me blessings."

Besides the souls of Mount Sikar, Xia De had actually sent away quite a few souls, such as the little black cat mother and daughter of Moon Bay, such as Mr. Otto the corpse-ghost from a few days ago.

This time the skull finally scanned Xia De again, the flames in its eye sockets flickered a few times:

"You indeed have outstanding achievements regarding death; I saw that moon in your soul... alright, you are free."

"Meow~"

"Your cat is free too, please take care of it, I feel like it wants to scratch my face."

Everyone was amazed that Xia De really could continue to haggle down the price, which meant the demand for burial items dropped from 32 to 24, so one was still missing.

But everyone really didn't have anything else on them. Finally, Miss Liyade bit her lip and took off the pendant on her chest. She had always worn that pendant close to her body, and others hadn't even seen it.

The pendant looked like the claw of some animal, but no one could recognize what it was.

"My parents passed away very early, it was my teacher who took me in and taught me skills... although these skills are very immoral, and she never let me call her teacher, but if it weren't for her, my sister and I would have died long ago."

She handed the claw to Xia De, it still retained her body temperature:

"Three years ago, the teacher also died, dying of some curse she brought out from an ancient tomb. Even if we spent all our savings to find a thirteenth-tier witch to lift the curse, the other party was helpless against that kind of ancient curse. This claw is something she left me before she died; she said it was given to her by her teacher. Wearing this can let us see further when active in the underground world, and have better luck... I don't believe these, otherwise she wouldn't have died of a curse."

Miss Liyade looked at Xia De:

"Although the teacher herself didn't admit it, I have read her books. Our school, in the way of master-apprentice inheritance, has actually been passed down for a very long time. The initial inheritance appeared in the Third Era, an age when evil spirits and demons were rampant; intelligent life, sparing no cost, wanted to find a way out, and could only be forced to look for that buried knowledge and power; this is our origin."

"Among the schools of Witch Hunters, there is also one that specializes in dealing with ancient tomb problems."

Miss Violet said at this time, Miss Liyade nodded:

"The transcendents who wore this kind of pendant in the Third Era could even be considered heroes of civilization; relying on the ancient knowledge and power they unearthed, civilization did not completely collapse."

"But that era has long since passed, and no one hopes for it to return. Nowadays... this is actually an amulet blessed by that ancient God of Death, contributed by the remaining clergy of the Death God Sect during the Third Era. Now, its mission can be considered complete."

Taking this off was equivalent to her completely abandoning the inheritance of the witch who saved her. Whether it was for everyone to escape, or to continue taking care of her sister, she had made a very major decision.

Everyone was filled with awe at her willingness to contribute this; Miss Liyade completely abandoned the past, but because of this, she also carried more sins; she had failed her teacher.

And the skull was also willing to accept this amulet as "road money":

"Haven't seen this for a long time, truly nostalgic."

All the "road money" was stuffed into its mouth, of course including that scepter and two shovels. Confirming that the group was about to pass through this gate now, not knowing if it was because they were "generous," the skull actually reminded them:

"Death is not terrible; although you are living people, do not treat it as an enemy. That is... a part of life."

Its face split toward the left and right, and the black stone gate was slowly opening:

"Then I wish you luck."

Xia De was still walking in the front; before passing through the seam of the gate, he asked one more question:

"Then who are you?"

The green fire in the skull's eye sockets flickered; it did not answer this question.

The temple didn't look large from the outside, and the interior area was even smaller, about the same size as that dilapidated Sun Temple in the 【Gravel Sea】, so Xia De estimated that the thickness of the walls here was even more exaggerated than the thickness of the Tobesk Bank vault.

It's just that there were no chairs for living people to sit on in the Death God's temple, and there were no windows inside the temple. As the group entered, green light lit up on the walls, which also illuminated the empty temple interior, as well as the stone platform located in the center.

Directly facing the entrance hung the huge Saint Emblem of the Death God; besides that, there were only a few coffins of uniform style piled up against the walls in the temple, each coffin also bearing the Death God's Saint Emblem.

The temple, which looked ancient on the outside, appeared very ordinary on the inside. Xia De stood at the entrance and took a look before waving his hand to signal everyone to follow. Five people soon gathered around the stone platform in the center of the temple; the surface of the stone platform was written with dense letters, praising the ancient God of Death, but to living people, they were all very terrifying and cruel sentences.

Everyone could understand these words because the Common of this era was still used here.

Besides the runes on the surface, there were three stone troughs on the stone platform distributed in a triangle. The top stone trough was located at the position of the Saint Emblem at the very top of the prayer, the left stone trough was located on the word "dead" in the prayer, and the right was located on the word "living" in the prayer.

If it weren't for the Giant King's reminder, Xia De really might not have guessed what all this meant.

He first placed the stone that Priest Ao Gu Si had given him, obtained from "death" and once used to measure the weight of souls, onto the "Saint Emblem"; then he opened the suitcase that Miss Liyade had carried the whole way, and placed the heart covered in frost onto the trough on the word "dead."

Everyone looked at Xia De with solemn expressions, and Xia De announced:

"The final step requires our attachment to the world of the living; this will serve as our anchor for returning, please be sure to choose carefully."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3356 =====