Chapter 592

"Difa and I encountered a cult nun in the Dark World, and I also know a few things."

Xia De nodded.

"The reason the 【Spirit Cult】 has a good relationship with the Council is not just because the Council President has a wide circle of friends, but also because of Grandma Cassandra. She is truly a local of Midhill; she received help from the cult when she was young and has also helped the cult. Of course, this is also because, although there are both men and women in the 【Spirit Cult】, it is primarily female-led. Especially the nuns who are qualified to wear the silver crown as an eye mask—their eyes are very powerful... Although this group of women is sometimes even more superstitious than the diviners of the Diviner Society, they are very capable. If you need it, I can also give you a letter to let them provide you with some help, but it can only be a letter of recommendation; you cannot expose our relationship."

But if it were just a letter of introduction and not the help of the local Great Witch Lady Cassandra, the help and convenience the 【Spirit Cult】 could provide to Xia De would clearly be very limited.

Xia De thought for a moment:

"In any case, I'll contact the 【Spirit Cult】 first. As for Lady Cassandra, I'd like to consider it a bit more."

"That's fine. Difa, give Xia De the letter I wrote; remember to stamp it. The 【Spirit Cult】 is mainly active in the eastern part of the continent; they existed in Midhill as early as the last era. They have a better understanding of the boundary between life and death than I do. The current leader of the cult is the Eleventh-Ring Shushi, Sister Daifulin. Although she is disabled, she is a very beautiful and elegant lady, and her figure..."

"Ahem."

Difa, who was opening the inkpad box on the desk, coughed violently. The witch glanced at her, stopped the topic, and then smiled at Xia De:

"In any case, take my letter to find her; she shouldn't mind giving you some help. The people of the 【Spirit Cult】 respect nature and death and believe that all things have spirits; other than that, there is nothing to avoid."

She picked up her tea cup and took a sip, and seeing Xia De's thoughtful expression, she signaled that he could speak if he had any questions.

"That Lady Cassandra, how is she only a Tenth-Ring after being over a hundred years old? No, I don't mean that Tenth-Ring is low, but compared to you..."

The red-haired witch smiled and put down her tea cup; Xia De noticed she was wearing a pair of white lace gloves today:

"I know what you mean. I'm only in my twenties and already an Eleventh-Ring. Although Difa is only a Sixth-Ring, she is even younger. This is easy to explain: we have two supernatural systems, and their mutual promotion allows witches to progress very rapidly. But this kind of growth requires talent. We are very similar to ordinary Ringed Shushi; Ringed Shushi just grow a bit slower, but they also encounter situations where it is extremely difficult to obtain a Spirit Rune at a certain level."

Xia De nodded to show he understood; it would be very strange if everyone had the potential to become a Thirteenth-Ring. The middle-aged witch he met at the banquet of the God of Blood 【Blood Duke Lao Ai】 also risked attending the evil god's banquet because she wanted to obtain the power to break through.

"My limit is about the Eleventh-Ring. To be honest, I've been stuck at this level for more than two years. This is normal for ordinary Ringed Shushi, but for a witch, it's almost equivalent to stagnation."

"Then how is Difa's talent?"

Xia De asked curiously.

"That's hard to say. Talent isn't something that can be tested by touching a crystal ball like in a storybook. But doesn't she have Feilian's gift? If she encounters difficulties, she can just level up directly."

Miss Feilian's gift allows Difa's witch level to be forcibly increased, except in the case of ascending from the Twelfth Tier to the Thirteenth. In other words, if Difa could advance to an Eleventh-Tier witch like Miss Galina, she could immediately become a Twelfth-Tier witch.

"It's truly enviable..."

Miss Galina sighed softly, but there wasn't much jealousy in her tone:

"But fortunately, Difa is my person."

The black-haired maid winked at Xia De, her slightly playful eyes conveying a meaning he couldn't quite grasp.

Because he had been discussing matters related to Midhill with Miss Galina until late at night, Xia De didn't go home that night.

In any case, he had brought Mia out, so he stayed at the witch's manor with the cat. Miss Galina had specially arranged a room for Xia De in the manor, and from now on, every time Xia De stayed overnight at the manor, he would rest there.

Early Friday morning, the carriage took Xia De into the city. He first went to the Diviner Society to sign some documents, collected the other prizes for being the "Dacheng Player 1853" champion, and chatted with Vice President Mark for a while about the tournament.

Afterward, he headed to Coldwater Port to ask Mr. Edmund about Midhill and the 【Boundary of Life and Death】. The old gentleman was quite surprised after hearing what Xia De said about the place and indicated that he did indeed know a few things.

"You should know that the Yinxiu Society is a very ancient organization; our research and records on it might be even more detailed than those of the Five Gods Sect. A place that shouldn't exist, like the boundary between life and death, is actually produced because of a mistake in the world."

"What do you mean by 'a mistake in the world'?"

Xia De asked curiously, and the old man gave a very serious answer:

"The departure of the Ancient God 【Ancient Death God】 who governed death caused the instability of the rules of death itself."

He suddenly lowered his voice, which meant he was about to discuss those truly existing Great Ones:

"Think carefully, young man: among the five current True Gods, which one has 【Death】 as their primary divine office?"

Xia De thought for a moment, then shook his head in surprise:

"It seems there isn't one. The closest are the Lord of All Things, the 【God of Nature and Evil Thoughts】, and the Lady of Creation, the 【God of Creation and Destruction】, but clearly neither is directly 'Death'."

"Yes, the Yinxiu Society believes that the appearance of the boundary of life and death represents the initial sign of the world's demise. And the constant problems with the boundary represent that the end of the world is getting closer."

Xia De hadn't forgotten that this was an organization that promoted doomsday theory:

"But the appearance of the first boundary of life and death can be traced back to the Fourth Era or even earlier. Could it be that the destruction of the world began back then?"

He couldn't help but ask, and Mr. Edmund felt a bit awkward:

"These remain to be studied, but the fact that there are more and more mistakes in the world is an undeniable fact."

Although Mr. Edmund didn't know how to rescue someone who had strayed into the boundary, his words at least told Xia De how terrifying this erroneous phenomenon was.

Not having lunch at the lighthouse, Xia De returned home before lunch. After having lunch with the cat, around one o'clock, the Doctor, Dorothy, and Luvia also arrived.

The Doctor first distributed the prize money they had won by betting in the underground casino for the Dacheng Player champion. Since Xia De was basically confirmed to advance to the finals when the Doctor went to place the bet, the odds at the time were 1 to 1.51. Xia De had bet 1200 pounds, and after deducting the handling fee and the service fee for the Doctor, he got back 1750 pounds. This money not only covered the cost of purchasing the spell 【Elf's Detoxification】 last Saturday but also made Xia De's wallet a bit thicker.

If it weren't for the matter of Priest Augustus, this would have been something everyone could be happy about. But the priest was now about to die, and they had no interest in celebrating winning money. Therefore, after hastily congratulating Xia De again on winning the title of "1853 King of Luo De Pai," the others shared the different news they had brought.

"The Academy has already launched an investigation in Midhill. Their actions were fast, and they confirmed the disappearance of Priest Augustus. Although they couldn't confirm, like Xia De, that the priest had truly fallen into the boundary of life and death, they also suspected this legend in Midhill. Currently, St. Byrons is negotiating with the Sect, wanting to investigate the secrets of Midhill."

The Academy, after all, is far from the civilized world, while the Five Gods Sect is the most knowledgeable about the many mysteries of the civilized world.

"The missing people are not just Priest Augustus; more than ten people have gone missing in the Midhill urban area and the surrounding Sikar Mountains recently. The Sect is investigating this, but they refuse to disclose relevant details to St. Byrons because they believe this has nothing to do with the three major arcane academies."

"What exactly does the Sect know? Why does it seem like they are deliberately keeping secrets?"

Xia De asked suspiciously, and Dr. Schneider shook his head:

"We can only confirm that the local problem is very big."

"The Royal Army stationed near Midhill has also had two cases of disappearance, but because it involves a frontline station, it hasn't been reported to the Sect yet."

Dorothy said, and both Luvia and Dr. Schneider looked at her in surprise, curious about her source of information.

"I managed to get a summary of abnormal phenomena in Midhill over the years; you can check these yourself."

She gave Xia De a ridiculously large kraft paper bag, and he didn't know how Lei Qianya had managed to get so much information in half a day.

"Does the Diviner Society have information about Midhill?"

Xia De asked Luvia again, and the latter nodded:

"The Society's records about Midhill are very strange; they only mention that Ringed Shushi of the Society must absolutely not hold large-scale spiritualism rituals in that city, and forbid any diviners with very strong spiritual inspiration from going there. More information requires permission to view, and I need some time to apply. Currently, I only know that the Society is very wary of Midhill."

"That's fine. The Sect and the Academy should both be trying to figure out what happened in Midhill, but we can't just do nothing."

Xia De summarized:

"I will be going to Midhill often recently; I have a few friends there too."

"You have so many friends."

Dr. Schneider commented casually.

"The priest's disappearance time was between two and four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. According to the most optimistic situation, he can survive for a week at the boundary of life and death. Today is Friday, which means that before next Wednesday, I will be in Midhill most of the time during the day. Dorothy, I have to trouble you to help me take care of Mia."

Only the writer who didn't need to go to work every day had the time.

"Okay, I'll come to your house every morning; anyway, I can write anywhere."

"Doctor, you keep in touch with the Academy; I hope the Academy can think of a way as soon as possible."

The Doctor nodded, but he didn't look very optimistic. If they could save Priest Augustus, even if the priest was only a correspondence student, the Academy would definitely do its best. But the problem was what the situation in Midhill was; the Five Gods Sect didn't intend to share it with the Academy, and they had no information channels to inquire about the Sect's own actions. (Note)

"Luvia, you need to continue working hard to get the information in the Diviner Society. The Academy's understanding of Midhill is unexpectedly small; besides my friends and the Sect, we can only look for clues from the Diviner Society."

"No problem, but I want to warn you, Xia De, please be sure to remember: if it's not absolutely necessary, you must never enter the 【Boundary of Life and Death】."

Luvia said very seriously, and the Doctor and Dorothy also nodded:

"We have almost lost the priest; we cannot lose a second person."