Chapter 601: The Narrow Space Between Life and Death

With Sister Sister Sister Daifulin's final blessing, the bonfire behind the two of them leapt up with a roar. The flames, centered on the bonfire, flowed along the ritual traces laid out on the ground in advance, and within a few breaths, the crimson lines had illuminated the entire courtyard.

Those winding patterns and ancient runes leapt beneath the starry sky, and the dancing firelight made them appear ever more three-dimensional, ever more real.

At the same time, the flames flowing along the ground also streamed from Xia De and Sister Sister Sister Daifulin's side, along the grooves on either side of the walkway, toward the great mansion ahead. But before the mansion's steps, they turned, the two streams of fire extending to either side, encircling the entire building.

The nuns beside the walkway shook their bells, held up porcelain vases, and gently swayed white banners. And the two High-Ring nuns before the great gate simultaneously pulled open the mansion's doors.

In an instant, the white mist representing the boundary between the two worlds surged out like a roaring beast, but as it moved away from the doorway, it grew fainter and fainter, and stopped spreading precisely at the courtyard's edge. The courtyard's firelight leapt within the mist, keeping the boundary stable here.

Beneath his feet was still the soil of the material world, but the world of the dead had also seeped through.

Xia De said nothing more, walking forward along the walkway. The white mist seemed thickest on the walkway itself, and walking within it, Xia De could barely make out the nuns on either side.

But he could still hear the nuns' soft murmurs—they were praying to Death itself, in archaic language and old-fashioned grammar, as if pulling time back to an older era, an age when everyone held Death in awe.

【Outsider, you have felt the miracle.】

【Outsider, you have felt the blasphemy.】

【Outsider, you have felt the revelation.】

【Outsider, you have felt the whisper.】

"Her" voice came unceasingly by his ear, and Xia De, continuing forward, also faintly sensed that the world had become somewhat different. It was not merely the chill wind and some strange whispers, but the world as a whole had become somewhat different.

When he reached the mansion's entrance, he could barely see the nuns standing on either side. Ahead was the great door, and Xia De did not hesitate, stepping straight through.

The white mist still existed indoors, but the great mansion before his eyes was no longer as it had been when he entered. There was no foyer; before him was only a straight corridor, the corridor leading to the deepest part of the mansion, and at the corridor's end was that door.

"Good, I won't have to waste any more time."

The wind carried the smell of decay and rot, and from the white mist pouring endlessly ahead, fragmented sounds grew more and more numerous, and none of them sounded like the voice of a living person. Xia De held his breath, feeling the power of the abnormal space, and drew step by step closer to the corridor's end.

At the source of the white mist, the wall that had originally represented the "rift" was no longer that rotating black vortex—it was now a worn wooden door. Xia De paused before the door, then reached out and pushed it open.

Beyond the door was darkness, and a cold air stream mixed with white mist struck his body and soul. The thin thread on his wrist emitted a crimson glow and gave him warmth, while the leaf in his mouth continuously replenished his body with vitality.

"Praise be to the Father of the Infinite Tree, may time be with me."

"Praise be to the Silver Moon Sage, may moonlight eternally shine upon me."

"Praise be to Mr. Dawn, light casts shadow, shadow follows dawn."

【Anything else?】

"She" asked softly after Xia De's three praises,

"Praise be to the Ancient God of Death, may Death shelter this outsider."

He stepped across.

【Crossing between life and death, the blurred boundary has allowed you to touch the deepest secrets of the soul.】

【Outsider, you have gained some insight into 'Death.'】

This kind of statement had also appeared before he obtained the "Greed" spirit rune, indicating that although Xia De had felt the power of 【Death】, it was not yet enough to construct a spirit rune within his ring. This was the second time he had heard this sentence—the first was when Father Augustus gave him his final words.

【Death, Outsider, you have left the world of the living.】

【Even you cannot linger long in this world.】

"Her" reminder came by his ear, and after stepping through the door, the biting wind suddenly vanished.

The shift in space caused Xia De, already accustomed to spatial jumps, no discomfort. But the sensation of his body being rejected by his surroundings truly let him feel what "the Narrow Space Between Life and Death" actually was.

Beyond the door was still a world drifting with white mist, except the mist here did not flow, but hung motionless in the air. And before him was still that corridor deep within Baron Russell's estate, but everything before his eyes seemed to have faded, turned into shades of gray, white, and black, and the place looked as if it had weathered a hundred years, becoming exceptionally dilapidated.

The cold, damp mist was extremely similar to what Xia De had encountered when descending the mountain that afternoon, and was even less friendly to the living.

"A low-ring sorcerer like the priest can stay in a place like this for at most a week, so what about me?"

【With that leaf held in your mouth the entire time, you must leave within one thousand days.】

"Understood."

Xia De nodded and raised his hand to look. In this world that had lost color and life, his skin and clothes still retained their color. Only when he moved his limbs did he clearly sense a feeling of power different from that of his flesh.

This Grade 0 relic was quite unlike the other relics Xia De had encountered; the omnipresent Four Elements did not cause him negative sensations like headaches—the Whisper Element was being effectively balanced by the other three.

Although physical strength did not stand out here, and instead the soul was outside while the body was within, it was obvious that the soul containing divinity was stronger than a mortal's body. Because the ring sorcerer system united body and soul, he was still a Third Ring, but the abundant spirit, and the feeling that with a wave of his hand he could seemingly pierce through walls, were things a normal body did not possess.

He even felt that, in this place, he could barely manage to use a Misu once. But Sister Sister Sister Daifulin had said that in this world in the seam between life and death, a ring sorcerer's spirit and stamina recovered extremely slowly. Therefore, if Xia De dared to use a Misu here, he would have to bear the consequence of being completely drained for several hours, unable to use any arcane arts or spells.

"Not too bad."

The ground was covered in gray moss, and black marks clung to the walls. Turning to look behind him, the door he had come through was already gone.

But the thin thread wrapped around his wrist still burned in its crimson appearance. When Xia De wished to return, he could return to this spot—the thread would guide him out.

He did not set off immediately, but crouched down to examine the moss by the wall, and barely recognized it as a special plant called 【Corpse Grass】. In the material world, this plant grew from corpses; it was not only extremely poisonous, but merely carrying it would accelerate the carrier's aging—yet in this world, it seemed like a perfectly ordinary plant.

"This place is stranger than I imagined."

He stood up and looked at the pendant on his chest; with a gentle touch, the holy emblem of the true god 【Mr. Dawn】 emitted a golden glow, then floated forward, but because it was tied by a cord, it merely hovered before his chest.

This world, which should not exist, on the edge between life and death, was perpetually shrouded in white mist. Xia De, who possessed the 【Time-Space】 spirit rune, could clearly sense that this was not a stable, normal space, but more like an illusory dream or something else.

The terrain within was essentially a copy of Mount Sigel and the city of Midhillburg at its foot. Only there were no other living things here, only wandering souls.

The entire world had not a single sound; even the noise Xia De made with his footsteps was reduced to a level he could barely hear himself.

And leaving the mansion to come outside, he unexpectedly discovered that the sky was not the black he had imagined, but an eerie gray. There was no sun, no moon, no stars—everything seemed dead.

Xia De was unwilling to linger long in such a world, so he followed the holy emblem's guidance and left the estate, heading toward the city.

The silent, soundless world was especially terrifying; the occasionally appearing, horribly-died spirits that suddenly appeared beside him, though they merely brushed past Xia De, still made his already oppressive mood even worse.

And before Xia De actually entered the city, he encountered an evil spirit in the woods that tried to attack him. It was a knight's wraith holding its own head, riding on horseback, its chest also caved in—looking like a soul that had died long ago.

The Spirit Cult's ritual should have been able to protect Xia De from being noticed by evil spirits, but probably because of the hair of the unfortunate one, the headless knight's evil spirit, after Xia De approached, still looked at him.

"Just as I thought—the ritual can indeed weaken evil spirits' perception of me, but if I get too close..."

Silently, the knight, lance in hand, charged at Xia De on horseback. In the instant the evil spirit and Xia De crossed paths, silver moonlight flashed through this colorless world.

Then Xia De continued forward, while the evil spirit was silently split in two, and then dissipated into the air:

"I am a true knight."

This was its last words.

At the boundary between life and death, Xia De was truly very strong.

Though the manor was far from the city, once Xia De crossed the forest, he found himself already standing in the suburbs of the silent Midhill Fort City.

Continuing forward one street, crossing the intersection, he stepped directly into the city. Although this place did indeed resemble a reflection of the real world, it was similar yet different, not entirely the same.

"This is convenient for being in a hurry, but is Father Augustus in the city? Could he be in the church?"

Xia De guessed.

White mist hung hazy, with shadowy souls drifting about. The souls Xia De had seen today were more than the total number of souls he had seen since coming to this world. It seemed that the souls of people who had died in Midhill Fort and the surrounding areas all had a probability of coming to this abnormal place.

This was a trampling of the rules of death; after a normal death, the soul should depart directly.

"How exactly did this kind of ambiguous place, where life and death are unclear, come to be formed?"

He truly could not figure it out, but if all the souls existing here surged toward the real world, even if only a few among them were evil spirits, they would certainly be able to annihilate the entire central-eastern region of the Old Continent.

"Does the Church truly have no way to resolve a place like this in one go? If they only keep sealing it, greater problems will surely arise in the future."

While thinking this, he suddenly heard a faint cry for help. Xia De hesitated and stopped his steps, because this world would attenuate some sounds, so the source of the sound should be very close.

"Are there other living people here?"

He recalled that the information transmitted from the Academy had mentioned that an unusually large number of people had gone missing this autumn.