Chapter 3983

Not many major events happened today, so when he returned home tonight, Xia De didn't need to share too much information with the girls in the house. The house was very lively last night, but tonight only Luweiya was at home. After she and Winnie made dinner, she complained to Xia De about the witches' behavior last night:

"I thought Miss Jia Lin Na just wanted to monopolize it, I didn't expect her to invite everyone... If I had known, I would have come too."

However, Luweiya had no interest in the disgusting relic derivative Xia De brought back, and didn't even check it.

So after dinner, Xia De set off alone to Mr. Kops' place. Luweiya stayed at home and asked Winnie about more past events that could be told in the Fifth Era. He set off relatively early tonight, so when he arrived at the cemetery outside the village north of the city in the background of the barking of village dogs, it was only eight o'clock in the evening.

The crescent moon hung obliquely in the night sky, and tonight's red moon was exceptionally full. According to the popular superstition of this era, this moon phase is a good opportunity for pregnancy... Actually, this is not considered superstition.

The moonlight was beautiful, so Xia De, who was not in a hurry, slowed down his pace slightly and looked up to enjoy the moonlight. Not long after, when he saw Mr. Kops in the small cemetery, the pale middle-aged man handed the 【Active Metal】 directly to him:

"Check the goods."

Unlike the containment method of Mr. Munoz in Arcadia City, Mr. Kops used a thick leg bone of an unknown animal to contain those silver mercury-like metals, and carved runes on the outer surface of the bone to stimulate its undead characteristics, using the power of death to forcibly suppress the activity of the "Active Metal".

Although the amount of metal provided by Mr. Kops was slightly less than that of Mr. Munoz, and the price was slightly more expensive than Mr. Munoz's, Xia De was already satisfied enough. Mr. Munoz gave a discount because he helped deal with the activated machine.

Xia De nodded, first gave the prepared cash to Mr. Kops, and then opened the box containing the "skin":

"I brought this too."

Although Wei Ge thought this thing was disgusting, she still conducted a preliminary inspection and determined that this skin could only be equivalent to a poet-level relic. In other words, the original owner of this skin was probably just an ordinary person, and even if the skin was worn, the wearer would not possess any special power.

Mr. Kops reached out and touched the folded skin, and also reached a conclusion similar to Wei Ge's:

"Yes, it's just poet-level. It should have been unused for a long time, at least twenty years. But its previous owner should have been very knowledgeable about leather care and cherished this thing very much. Although the skin is a relic derivative and almost unaffected by time, it is rare to be able to maintain it so well."

Mr. Kops said, and led Xia De around the hut to the back of the hut.

Xia De had never been here before, but there was nothing strange behind the hut, just a place in the cemetery to bury the dead. And before Xia De arrived, Mr. Kops had already set up the ritual under the back wall of the hut:

"My 【Skin Questioning Technique】 is not particularly effective for this kind of relic derivative. The questions you can ask are limited."

Mr. Kops estimated slightly:

"It's not limiting the number of questions you can ask, but the number of words it can say is limited. So, you have to ask questions precisely and try to let it answer the key points directly."

"Also, when asking questions to the undead, don't ask meaningless questions like 'Can you talk now' or 'Can I start', which will only waste the opportunity to answer."

Mr. Kops said, lit the thirteen corpse oil candles surrounding the ritual array, and the stench of burning corpse oil made Xia De hold his breath. Afterward, Mr. Kops carefully picked up the ring-shaped black thorn crown in the array, muttered a few incantations in a low voice, and let it float in the air.

The "Skin Questioning Ritual" is actually not complicated. Mr. Kops stuffed the palm-sized straw doll he had made in advance into the skin, and then cooperated with the ritual to let the special dead straw doll increase in volume until the skin completely fit the straw doll.

That appearance was quite funny, but also quite weird.

At this time, the straw doll wearing the skin already possessed a certain degree of intelligence. Afterward, Mr. Kops put the black thorn crown on the straw doll's head for safety restrictions, took off the metal amulet he wore around his own neck, and hung it around the straw doll's neck.

Bursts of cold wind now made this warm spring night feel incomparably cold. Mr. Kops finally exited the ritual range and blew a bone horn.

In the loud sound of the horn, he cooperated with his own strange technique to activate the ritual array. Thus, the skin supported by the straw doll swayed slowly in the night wind. Xia De actually felt a kind of decaying vitality from it.

That is not the twisted fire of life, that is the decaying vitality unique to the undead that has not yet completely dissipated, the vitality that was corroded by death when life left this world and made its last wail.

Mr. Kops signaled that Xia De could start asking, and then he left here temporarily, without wanting to pry into Xia De's privacy.

Xia De had already thought about what he wanted to ask on the way here, so facing the constantly swaying straw doll, he spoke directly:

"Peggy Nicola Lemay, the female mage with the code name 'Red Stone', has she ever worn you?"

The straw doll made a hoarse man's voice, which was the voice of the original owner of this skin. It's just that because it currently belongs to a semi-undead life, the voice has a unique ethereal quality of the undead:

"Yes, when wearing me, she called herself Nicola Lemay."

Wei Ge said that her mother would sometimes appear in the image of a man, and at that time she would use such a fake name. Now Xia De knew that her disguise was not an illusion or an alchemical item, but a true transformation of identity, which was already somewhat similar to using the 【Ring of Transformation】.

"That's good, then at what point in time were you obtained by that female mage?"

The straw doll still gave an answer smoothly. Mr. Kops' Skin Questioning Technique was quite stable:

"Autumn, 1821."

Wei Ge was born in 1830, so she is 25 years old this year. And in 1821, that Ms. Lemay had not yet appeared in the Arcadia region, and most likely still belonged to the 【Truth Society】.

Xia De didn't expect the history of this skin to be so long. He just wanted to ask how the skin was made, and suddenly thought of Margaret's information, that is, Wei Ge's mother had an officially registered marriage record before arriving in Arcadia.

"No way..."

Even after experiencing so much, the Outsider was still startled by his own guess at this time. He asked immediately:

"What was your relationship with that lady before you became a skin?"

He was afraid that this skin was the "ex-husband", but fortunately the story did not develop like this:

"No relationship at all. In 1378, I was deceived into the 【Skin Pavilion】 by a lady who was infatuated with me and made into a skin. In 1620, I was taken out of the pavilion through a transaction, and later flowed through many hands. In 1807, I entered a ring mage organization called 【Truth Society】 for research and was then sealed. In 1821, I was obtained by Lemay."

Although its words denied Xia De's bold guess, it confirmed that Wei Ge's mother did belong to the 【Truth Society】. Miss Miss Pawo said she was looking for the descendants or heirs of the deserters, but she was actually looking for Wei Ge.

He was speechless for a while, various thoughts emerged in his mind, and then he asked:

"Do you know about her marital status before arriving in the Arcadia region?"

"When wearing me, she disguised herself as her own husband, using the way of a complete family to avoid some unnecessary trouble."

Xia De breathed a sigh of relief. He at least had a piece of good news to inform Wei Ge—the so-called first marriage of her mother was indeed just a facade, and the so-called ex-husband of Peggy Lemay was Nicola Lemay. And the next question he asked was the main reason why he rushed to Arcadia City shortly after:

"Then, what is the thing she used you for that left the deepest impression on you?"

This time the skin did not answer immediately. Just when Xia De thought the effect of the "Skin Questioning Technique" had ended, or that the skin did not have "memory", suddenly, dense copper-colored runes appeared on the surface of the skin.

Xia De was very familiar with this type of rune. When Wei Ge's necklace and the symbols on the book were refined into a box containing relics, the symbols of the alchemy ritual were these.

While these symbols appeared, the whole skin expanded like a blown-up balloon. Xia De immediately realized that this thing was about to lose control. The strange whisper element rose rapidly to a level almost comparable to a normal Guardian-level relic, but at this moment—

Hum!

The black thorn crown worn on the straw doll's head and the rune amulet hanging in front of its chest bloomed with dazzling golden spiritual light at the same time, and the ancient miracle element directly suppressed the riot of the skin. The whisper element was crushed by the miracle element. Ten seconds later, the skin actually returned to its original state and spoke.

"Mr. Kops' strange technique is actually so powerful?"

"People are divided into men and women, heaven has sun and moon, and the world has top and bottom. The union of top and bottom is the world; the union of sun and moon is holiness; the union of men and women is nature."

This sentence actually has similarities with the sentence deep in Wei Ge's soul—【As below, so above; as above, so below, to achieve the miracle of the One.】. Xia De felt that he was probably about to get real big news, and he even guessed that this had something to do with the 【Emerald Tablet】.

"This is the source of creation. The union of men and women is the right path to perfection. And by nurturing the perfect child, one can find the path to the source of creation, but men and women have differences in spirituality and mind, so they cannot perfectly blend, so natural reproduction can never give birth to the so-called 'miracle of the One'."

Xia De wrote down these words, but he didn't expect to hear what he would hear next.