Chapter 3826

"Of course I remember."

While Xia De and Mr. Asmon were talking, the butler had already arranged for the maid to push the dining car to send the teapot and teacups. It seems that the Earl trusted Mr. Asmon very much and gave him high treatment before leaving.

"The story begins with a person without wishes, sealing a wonderful existence. And after his death, his grandson made a new wish, willing to use his whole life to seal the demon."

"So the young man and the demon walked a long, long way. During this period, he met the girl he loved. Because he was worried that the demon would harvest her soul, he killed her in advance; in his middle age, he met a distressed noble lady and her cat and dog, but the noble lady was sacrificed and killed by her relatives, leaving only the cat and dog to accompany the young man to continue his long journey."

Xia De sighed:

"Years later, when the middle-aged man grew old and wanted to find a successor to watch over the demon, the young child made a wish at the cost of his soul shattering to make his relatives live better, making the old man become a young man again; the young man who could no longer bear this torture wanted to resurrect his grandfather, the person who first traveled far, to let him take his place. But this was undoubtedly another tragedy. To prevent the demon from usurping the young man's body, the cat and dog also sacrificed themselves."

"At this point, only the young man was left on the road of long journey."

Xia De briefly described the previous seven stories, and Mr. Asmon nodded:

"Yes, then this story..."

"Please wait a moment!"

Xia De interrupted him embarrassedly:

"The demon stories so far have all ended in tragedy. Is there any time when a better ending can appear?"

"Now the young man who made a wish to seal the demon with his life is left alone again. So this time he died, and a new traveler appeared? Or did others the young man met die because of his arrival?"

Mr. Asmon's black eyes stared at Xia De, the cat licked its paws, and the dog curled up on the stool with drooping eyelids.

"Neither. Although this story still happens to the young man, it is not a tragedy centered on him."

Seeing Xia De showing an interested expression, the demon scholar continued:

"The young man sealed the demon, but also became incomparably powerful because of it. During his journey, he also used this power to do many things. This story begins many years after the cat and dog sacrificed themselves for the young man. At this time, the young man is still a young man."

"Do you mean his appearance hasn't changed?"

"Yes, after experiencing the boy making a wish for him and the cat and dog giving their lives to reverse his injuries, the young man's body possesses a certain characteristic that even he cannot understand. His age is no longer affected by time, and the changing of the seasons will only increase his knowledge, not take away his power and wisdom."

"It's truly amazing."

Xia De picked up the rose tea delivered by the maid. Mr. Asmon did not touch the tea or snacks. His hands were clasped together and placed on the table:

"It was a stormy night. The young man who couldn't reach the next village broke into an abandoned church in the wilderness. And before him, there were already three travelers in the church. The three did not know each other and sat by the fire vigilantly, not daring to sleep."

The three were a robber who robbed and killed on the road in the wilderness, a woman who had just killed her husband and eloped with her lover but was abandoned by her lover, and a wanted criminal who fled the city after killing a friend."

The young man who sealed the demon saw their identities at a glance, but he didn't say anything, but also sat by the fire."

"I'm already looking forward to the next story. After all, even if these people all die, this story can be considered to have a good ending."

Xia De said softly, and the demon scholar continued to tell:

"After the young man sat down, the three people who were already guarding against each other began to act."

"In the sound of rain on a stormy night, the robber took out food containing poison and shared it with the young man, the woman who killed her husband pretended to be weak and began to approach the young man, and the criminal wanted by the kingdom was thinking about replacing the young man's identity to start a new life afterward."

"Then what did the young man do? Did he fight back?"

"No, he ate the robber's food, acquiesced to the woman's approach, and answered the question about his identity asked by the wanted criminal, then fell asleep peacefully."

"When dawn was about to come, in the last darkness of the stormy night, seeing that the young man was not dead, the three people by the fire pulled out their weapons and prepared to take action. At this time, the young man asked: I have already met your requirements, why don't you leave?"

Xia De "tsk~"ed, and Mr. Asmon tapped his fingers on the table twice, the corners of his mouth raised, revealing his signature weird smile:

"The young man asked: You have already died because of mutual slaughter, and only your souls remain here repeating the past over and over again. Since my appearance allows you not to fall into the ending of mutual slaughter and death again, why don't you take the initiative to leave?"

"Oh, the three are all souls."

Xia De sighed dryly, but he was not very surprised. The outlander has seen many such stories.

"Yes, they are all souls. Then guess what, Mr. Watson, how the young man will deal with these three souls."

The demon scholar threw out the question, and Xia De thought for a while:

"If you swallow them, it can be considered a very good punishment for these three villains, but in this way, I am afraid it will fall into the demon's trap. The act of swallowing souls itself will allow the demon to gain power; letting them go should not be very good. These three souls are still doing evil after death, so they really cannot be let go easily; so, how about taking the initiative to send them away? Let them continue to walk, does the young man have such power?"

Xia De said his thoughts, and Mr. Asmon shook his head slowly:

"The young man cannot let three such stubborn and evil souls leave, and he is not willing to shatter these souls. This is a very terrible thing in his view. So he intends to seal the three souls in this church forever, letting them torture each other forever."

Xia De nodded to show understanding:

"So this is the story this time? The bad guys were indeed punished, but this story... doesn't seem to be particularly exciting."

The black cat glanced at Xia De, and the black dog continued to droop its eyelids and pretend to sleep.

"Don't worry, Mr. Watson, the story this time hasn't ended yet."

The demon scholar shook his head again:

"When the young man was about to take action to seal, he suddenly became curious about which god this church belonged to. So he looked into the depths of the church, but found that the face of the statue that had turned into pieces of rubble was actually himself."

"Sure enough, there is a twist!"

"The young man who understood swallowed the three souls in one bite. He became complete again, so he sat by the fire and asked the demon in his heart—"

"You used the woman who killed her husband to mock me for killing my lover; you used the robber in the wilderness to mock me for harming so many people along the way; you used the wanted criminal who killed a friend to mock me for harming the cat and dog that accompanied me on the journey."

The demon scholar's voice was hoarse, but still had a weird slippery feeling, and his black eyes were still staring at Xia De:

"The young man sat alone by the fire, staring fiercely at the flames in the faint light of dawn outside the window. He could see his distorted face in it—"

"Demon, you split my evil thoughts and guilt in my inadvertent moments. If I really abandon them here, my soul will no longer be complete, and I am afraid I will soon be eaten by you, right? This time you didn't use external lies and deception, but wanted to use myself to deal with myself, but this time I won against you again."

Mr. Asmon clapped gently, ending the story:

"Thus, the young man successfully thwarted another conspiracy of the demon. He extinguished the fire in the abandoned church and continued on his way."

Xia De took a deep breath, held the teacup and pondered for a while, and only spoke after a long time:

"The story this time is indeed a good ending, but why do I feel something is wrong... Mr. Asmon, the description you gave is from the perspective of the young man, so it is the young man himself who thinks the three villains are part of himself."

"Then what about the facts? Are the three really part of him? Are the three really real souls? Or, in fact, nothing happened that night, and everything was the young man's delusion after going crazy?"

"Why do I feel that the young man's mental state is a bit wrong?"

Mr. Asmon clapped again, but this time it was not for the story, but for Xia De:

"Mr. Watson, you are very keen. Yes, the young man who set off again can't tell what happened. Since the cat and dog died, without companions, he has long been unable to distinguish yesterday, the day before yesterday, and everything he experienced in the many years before—which are the demon's conspiracies, which are his own delusions, and which are just simple dreams."

Xia De showed a compassionate expression:

"He's crazy?"

"The young man always remembers his mission, remembers that he wants to seal the demon. As long as he still remembers this, he is not completely crazy. He is just an ordinary person. With too many experiences, too many conspiracies and tests, he can no longer hold on."

"But precisely because of what happened before, he no longer dares to entrust this responsibility to anyone else. This is not arrogance, but he knows that the demon who traveled such a long journey with his grandfather and him cannot be sealed by a third person."

Sean Asmon's black eyes looked at Xia De, waiting for his evaluation, and Xia De frowned:

"So there is no truth to this eighth story? All there is is a poor man supporting himself with a thought?"

The demon scholar nodded:

"Yes, regardless of true or false, regardless of reality or illusion, he only knows that he must continue to walk, continue to walk with the demon."

Xia De took another deep breath:

"Okay, this story is indeed not a pure tragedy like the previous seven stories. But why do I feel that this story is more tragic than a tragedy?"