Chapter 3356: Retrograde Path of the Dead

After Xia De finished speaking, he took out Luweiya's sash and Miss Jia Lin Na's handkerchief, and placed them both in the trough on the word "living."

"A very unique anchor; because of the bond of emotion, one must go home; I appreciate this point."

Miss Violet said this, and the sixteen-year-old girl took out a key:

"This is the key to my castle, and there are many people waiting for me to pay their wages. Speaking of which, it's summer now, and this year's summer subsidy seems not to have been issued yet."

Teresa took out the investigation report she hadn't finished writing; she was a very serious and responsible girl; Sister Belun first took out the fragment that had burst from her eye patch, but hesitated for a moment, and then swapped it for a few sparks of fire.

Miss Liyade took out her wallet, pulled out the paper money inside, and placed the wallet, the coins inside, and a photo of herself and her sister together down. But hesitating for a moment, she stuffed the banknotes back in, and then placed the wallet down.

"What about you?"

Xia De asked the Hound mother and daughter, and Miss Liyade picked them up.

The older Hound had long since decided:

"Leave a part of my corpse. My daughter died in the womb; I want to return to the real world and watch our corpses be buried together; that is enough."

Of course, since Xia De brought Little Mia, he naturally wouldn't forget the cat's "beacon." Xia De considered that what the cat cared about most was him, but he was also in death now, so he couldn't serve as a beacon.

Besides himself, the things Little Mia liked were home, Miss Gao De, goat milk every morning, and the warm sunshine in the afternoon.

Goat milk felt not important enough, sunshine was hard to capture, so Xia De brought a key to the house—this was similar to Miss Violet's idea, and this key could also become his beacon:

"Mia, this is the key to the house, we are going home."

Patting the cat that poked its little head out of his chest, Xia De put the key in too. Nothing happened at this moment, but it wasn't the first time Xia De had experienced such a scene, so he naturally knew what to do.

"Everyone get ready."

He cleared his throat, looked at the four people around him in turn, and after getting everyone's confirmation, he read out the words on the stone platform in a clear voice:

"Praise the Lord of the End of All Things, the Recorder of Death, the Protector of the Dead..."

The ancient runes on the stone platform lit up one by one as he read; because Xia De read them in order from top to bottom, line by line, light spread from the "Saint Emblem" stone trough at the top toward the stone troughs on the left and right below, following the speed at which the runes lit up.

When all the runes on the stone platform lit up, the three stone troughs were also connected by light. The triangular light floated above the light of the runes, and then all the runes swam on the stone platform.

They spliced and reorganized, and the vast majority of the runes floated to the periphery of the triangular light, forming decorative patterns around the three lines of light. And a few runes formed short phrases in the Common of the current Fifth Era inside the triangle formed by the light:

【Do not look back—

The shadow of the other side, spying on your soul.】

【Do not respond—

What the ear hears, is not human speech.】

【Only move forward—

Heart like a rock, steps like a vow, cannot deviate.】

Everyone stared closely at these glowing letters, wanting to engrave them firmly in their hearts. But soon, wind blew from the front of where the Saint Emblem was located, and the strong wind rolled up black fog, blowing away the light on the surface of the stone platform. Thus, the characters turned into glowing fine sand and rolled backward, and then the entire stone platform turned into dust in that cold wind.

Five people all raised their arms to block the strong wind and looked forward; the surroundings were no longer the temple in the wasteland, the vast darkness was boundless, and except for their souls glowing, there was nothing here.

The strong wind rolled up black fog and blew from directly in front, and the direction from which the strong wind surged, the direction they were looking at now, was the direction to return to the world of the living.

"Do not look back, do not pay attention to the voices calling you, walk straight forward, do not take the wrong path!"

Miss Violet's loud shouting sounded as if it came from a very distant place, but she was clearly by Xia De's side at this moment. This path from the world of the dead back to the world of the living had too many secrets, and now what they had to do was not to explore the unknown, but to move and walk forward.

The transmission of sound had already appeared problematic, and then even the action of swinging their arms appeared with large areas of afterimages, making the movements look incomparably strange.

But at least all five people moved; Miss Liyade held the two Hounds and wouldn't let go, the triple soul weight made her move the slowest, so the larger Hound bit its child and jumped to the ground, and the two Hounds were also moving forward relying on their own soul power.

Xia De also felt his body heavy as if carrying a big rock while moving; he wanted to help his companions, but while walking forward against the wind, he felt that they were clearly right in front of his eyes, but so far away that he could never touch them.

So what he could do was slow down and walk at the end, so that he could see everyone's figure.

Among them, Teresa and the little Hound were walking the fastest, followed by the big Hound and Sister Belun, and behind were Miss Violet and Miss Liyade moving forward at almost the same speed.

"So, what is the movement speed here calculated based on?"

He thought in his heart, and unexpectedly really got an answer.

【Sin, the sin one already possesses, plus the sin committed by digging graves in the wasteland.】

【You were right not to dig open graves at will at the end, otherwise the heavy sin would make everyone unable to move an inch at this moment.】

"Her" voice was still gentle.

So the very young Hound and Teresa were the fastest, the big Hound and the nun were in the middle, and the grave-robbing Miss Liyade and Miss Violet, who was the Witch Emperor, were at the end; this was very reasonable.

Xia De could actually walk faster; although he had obtained a cumulative eight Sin Spirit Runes, it was probably because the time he had been in this world was too short, his sin was far less than the witches'.

And Teresa, who was walking in the front, although she didn't dare to look back, didn't want to walk too fast and leave others behind. So she would slow down from time to time, and would only accelerate again after others appeared in her field of vision.

Therefore, the group was divided into about three columns moving forward against the wind, and after gradually adapting to the environment of this dark path, the impulse to turn around and see what was behind them suddenly popped up, and then made Xia De feel itchy like Little Mia scratching his heart.

His imagination was helping him depict the "wonderful" or "terrifying" scenes that might exist behind him, but fortunately, the Outsider was a person with fairly strong self-control.

However, he didn't hear anyone behind him calling his name; after all, the people he cared about very much were all alive, or were walking forward in front. Even Detective Sparrow was unlikely to call him in death—Detective Sparrow would rather not see Xia De again.

But the calling sound behind them had a great effect on others; except for the little Hound born in death, everyone else heard familiar calling sounds to a greater or lesser extent.

Witches with stronger willpower, such as Miss Violet and Sister Belun, only paused for a moment before continuing forward; even if they heard Xia De calling for help behind them, they would absolutely not look back. The demigod Great Witch and the fire-holding nun were not positions one could attain by relying on luck.

The big Hound heard the calling sound of its long-dead master, but it wailed "woo-woo~" a few times and continued forward; its daughter was still waiting for it in front; Teresa heard the voice of her childhood friend who drowned, heard the voices of her teacher and Xia De, heard the voice of her pet cat that died more than ten years ago, and even heard the voice of her mother who passed away two years ago.

She stopped all of a sudden; because she was walking in the front, everyone behind could see her figure. Miss Violet wanted to walk toward her and push her forward, but she, like Xia De, immediately noticed that the person right in front of her eyes seemed to be at the edge of the world.

But even worse was Miss Liyade; born of humble origins, she had seen more death and had more people she couldn't let go of leave in front of her. Parents, the sister who died of plague, the teacher who died of a curse...

Everyone was making sounds at this moment, wanting her to look back; those sounds couldn't be heard by others, but to Miss Liyade, it was as if arms had appeared in the darkness behind her, grabbing her arms, shoulders, and feet, making her unable to move an inch while standing in place.

Tears slid down bit by bit, but were blown away by the strong wind rolling up black fog. Xia De naturally noticed her condition at this moment, wanting to open his mouth to remind her, but the sound couldn't be transmitted at all; he wanted to get close to her but couldn't touch her no matter what.

The path from the world of the dead to the world of the living can only be walked by oneself; death is a lonely path walked alone, and walking retrograde on this path follows the same rules.

Xia De could help them do many things, but this time they had to figure it out themselves. The only thing he could do was, when walking to a position level with Miss Liyade, raise his arm to block the wind in front, and turn his head to look at her with concern.

The young former grave robber also noticed that Xia De had stopped walking; she looked at Xia De with tears in her eyes, and after noticing Xia De's body with afterimages constantly saying the word "sister" with his mouth shape, she wiped away her tears:

"There are still people waiting for me in front. Goodbye, everyone, I will come back, maybe in a few decades, maybe in a few hundred years, I will walk this path again one day."

She whispered words of farewell in her heart, and then bravely continued to take steps forward.

As for Teresa in the front, she soon moved her steps forward again. The young witches had all gained different insights because of this path; everyone would walk the path of the dead, but very few people could walk retrograde on this path.

Some people think it's difficult to walk down, because the world of the living has too many attachments. But in fact, wanting to walk up is not simple either; taking steps relies not only on courage, but also on those attachments.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3357 =====