Chapter 3528: The Enormous Body

"Isn't she being eroded by the residual power of a demon? Why are there miracle elements in the dream?"

Xia De, who had landed on the hill, raised his hand to summon flames to melt the ice layer, wanting to see what was beneath it. But the instant the flame appeared in his hand, the entire ice plain began to tremble without warning, as if struck by an earthquake of magnitude eight.

Xia De hurriedly extinguished the flame in his hand, looking around in surprise within the blizzard, then lowered his head to look at the patch of golden light buried beneath his feet:

"Does this dream fear—or rather, resist—fire?"

He hesitated for a moment, then laid his whole body flat against the slightly curved ice surface. He closed his eyes and carefully felt the miracle elements beneath the ice, and then confirmed his earlier guess:

"The power of the Old God—the Maiden of Winter Cold... This deity really does appear quite frequently."

But since it was the power of a familiar deity, Xia De knew what he should do. He remained prone on the ice, and a small ice figurine of Chloe's suddenly appeared in his hand out of thin air:

"Chloe's Echo of Ice."

The sigh of the silver-haired, short-statured witch then appeared at Xia De's ear; an icy-blue phantom embraced him from behind, then seemed to smile faintly at his ridiculous posture.

As a witch who had only ascended to the demigod rank under the guidance of that Old God, Chloe's power was closely tied to the winter deity. Thus the miracle art resonated with the golden light beneath the ice in this strange dream world; the icy-blue glow on the ice surface guided the golden light beneath to grow ever brighter, and Xia De, lying on the ice, also seemed to light up with golden radiance.

Until a beam of dazzling light shot from underground straight into the gloomy sky, completely dispersing the wind and snow. Though the ice layer itself was not broken, all the lines beneath it had become clearly visible.

The sky was still a hazy gray, but without the wind and snow, visibility had become quite high. Xia De then rose into the air, looking down from above at the overall shape of the golden lines beneath the ice, and confirmed that it truly was a holy emblem of the Old God—the 【Maiden of Winter Cold】:

"A holy emblem buried in a dream—surely this isn't another angel... but angels shouldn't be possessed by demons, right?"

Although in the Outlander hometown world, angels and demons were generally regarded as having roughly equal combat power, the angels of this world absolutely did not fear demons—especially in the current era, when that Old God symbolizing winter still existed.

The appearance of the holy emblem could only indicate that this slumbering witch had an immense connection with the Old God, but Xia De still did not know what this dream truly meant. So he continued to fly upward in the air, wanting to search this strange "ice plain" from an even higher position.

And as Xia De flew higher and higher, he also discovered that this "ice plain" was not as flat as he had imagined, nor as large as he had imagined.

The overall slender-shaped "ice plain" floated in the hazy gray void, and the grayness of the sky was precisely because of those gray mists in the void. And the two small hills he had seen earlier were the highest-elevation areas on this "ice plain."

Moreover, the ice plain was not a standard rectangle; on each side of the hills there was a more slender area, connected to the ice plain by only a small portion, and not far above the hills, the ice area even took on an overall circular shape......

"Mm?"

【Why don't you think more carefully about what exactly you just said?】

"She" reminded him with a light laugh in the dream, and Xia De, radiating silver light all over his body in the gray void, stopped, squinting as he looked down.

That was no ice plain at all, but the body of an icy-blue maiden lying flat in the gray void. The slender areas on either side were her arms, the circular area was her head, the hills were...... In any case, the location of the holy emblem was her left-side heart.

The enormous body was even larger than the maximum volume Xia De's "Body of Courage" could transform into; before her, Xia De's size truly was that of a mere ant. The instinctive human fear of giant objects made Xia De feel his heartbeat accelerating, but what he felt even more was awe at the beauty of this body suspended in the gray mist. The gigantic form displayed a perfection that could not find any flaw even under a magnifying glass, and the icy-blue body possessed a strange charm entirely different from that of an ordinary Miss.

Xia De now understood the whereabouts of the dream's owner—he had been beside the dream's owner from the very beginning.

Looking from this angle, the gray mists in the void were attempting to wrap around and invade that enormous icy-blue body, but less than one-fifth of that body was covered by a thin layer of gray mist.

"So the gray fog in the void is the reason she can't wake up?"

He tried to investigate further, but Miss Noa Lei's voice had already appeared at his ear. The giant maiden in the dream gradually blurred before his eyes, and when Xia De awoke and propped himself up on the bedding to sit, he looked again at the black-haired maiden and felt that, although the two figures inside and outside the dream were similar, they were not entirely the same.

There wasn't much time left this time, so Xia De simply gave a brief description of what he had seen in the dream to Miss Noa Lei and Ms. Gerde, then prepared to head to the first floor.

The two witches were likewise not dream masters, but Xia De happened to know a doctor who both understood demons and dreams. However, whether this unfamiliar black-haired witch was related to this mission was still unclear to Xia De, so even if Doctor Shi Nai De provided a method, Xia De did not know whether it could be brought back.

Going to the first floor required the elevator key, but if Xia De returned to his own era directly from the first floor, the elevator key would be left on the first floor, so Ms. Gerde escorted Xia De downstairs, and she would then bring the key back up alone.

Asking the deity for the kept "Moon Beast Eyeball" might require the use of a room key, and both witches who were still awake agreed to give Xia De one of the two keys they currently had. After all, Miss Ke En Si's problem had already been resolved; she only needed to wait to leave.

So after bidding farewell to Miss Noa Lei, Xia De and the middle-aged witch left the room once again. The dream had not consumed too much time, so there were still about six minutes before departure, and Xia De was not in any hurry.

During the elevator's descent, he even asked Ms. Gerde again whether that rune lock might possibly have been set by her mother, but the witch could not give an answer:

"Mother has been away from the academy for too long; I don't know whether she has mastered new abilities. But she is very learned—learned in every respect."

The elevator door was opened on the first floor. The witch had no intention of visiting that deity again, thinking that once Xia De left from the doorway she would take the elevator key back upstairs. But after Xia De pushed open the door, he paused, turned and asked Ms. Gerde to wait a moment and not leave yet, then quickly entered the first floor.

Ms. Gerde also noticed at this moment that the first floor seemed to lack that tremendous pressure she had felt last time; she boldly glanced toward the counter, and only then realized there was no one behind the counter.

Xia De came to the front of the counter. The deity was indeed not here; the "Temporarily Closed" sign was placed quite casually on the counter, and of course, besides that, there was also a note:

【Outsider guest, see you next time.】

"Why do I feel He's deliberately not wanting to give me the eyeball this time?"

"She" then gently reminded him:

【Look at the back.】

After flipping the note over, there was indeed another line of writing on the back—

【It is not that I am unwilling to return this item; this item has another use.】

"Mm......"

Xia De could do nothing about this either, and was just about to reach out and pocket the note—this was text written by a deity—but the note directly turned to ash and vanished.

"She" continued to laugh softly.

Since there was no need to spend time on the first floor, Xia De and Ms. Gerde together returned once more to the safe house on the tenth floor.

In the remaining short minutes he did nothing else, nor did he discuss any topic with the witches. He simply sat before the fireplace watching the dancing flames, enjoying this hard-won peace.

When the white mist appeared beside him, he only then stood up to formally bid farewell to the witches, and then vanished before their eyes.

The two witches did not engage in any conversation afterward. The red-haired vampire sat beside Miss Ke En Si, quietly watching her face. Ms. Gerde returned to the black-haired witch's side, then noticed in surprise that her left arm inside the sleeve no longer seemed to be flesh and blood.

She reached out and pinched it:

"Ice?"

(Little Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya running......)

【Outlander, you have returned to the present time.】

【Message from the Ancient God "Father of the Infinite Tree":】

【Mission incomplete.】

【Time Key; Fifth Era-334 Year-Lord of the Walls, damaged 2/3.】

【Next opening time, requires waiting one week.】

When Xia De walked out from the bedroom door, what he saw was Jia Lin Na and Lu Lu Weiya smiling at him, and Little Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, who had just lain down, immediately stood up again and darted to his feet in an instant.

So Xia De also showed a smile. Although much had happened this time, being able to see his family and cat immediately upon returning greatly eased his troubles.

Containing the demon, dealing with the room's connection issue, repelling the blood fiend, persuading Miss Novare, the old god gifting a gold coin, seeing the werewolf Miss's letter, heading to the 40th floor to check the situation—a series of events even made Xia De forget that it was still early Wednesday morning.

A brand new day had only just begun.

Both Jia Lin Na and Luvia wanted to know about Xia De's experiences firsthand, and this time Xia De indeed had matters to consult them about.

The characteristics of the rune lock at the 40th floor entrance were recorded in his notebook; the Misses flipped through Xia De's notes while listening to Xia De, seated at the dining table, recount what had just happened.

The Duchess was not well-versed in rune locks, but after Xia De finished the story, Luvia said to him in surprise:

"I recognize this rune lock. The moment I saw the ouroboros mark in the center, I knew this rune lock involved destiny. Although I'm also not well-versed in this kind of technique, when I was looking through materials at the Association, I saw something similar to the rune lock you described.

This is a barrier woven with destiny as its cornerstone; its core power lies in 'No Passage,' meaning it rejects any form of traversal at the level of destiny."