The most dangerous category of relics are natural phenomena. Even Middlesbrough’s narrow gap between life and death can be classified as a natural phenomenon.
But Xia De was not bothered by the information Yin Luna gave him. Instead, he frowned slightly. This was not because he was confident that he had no fear of death and therefore the black shadow was not strong, but because he felt as if he had encountered something he had encountered before:
"Yin Luna, will these shadows disguise themselves as people we are familiar with to deceive us?"
Although the 17-year-old girl didn't know why Xia De asked such a question, she still shook her head slightly:
"Absolutely not. If this is really death phobia, they are us. How can they pretend to be someone else? They are us. They are who we are."
Her right hand tightly grasped Xia De's left hand, as if she wanted to rely on Xia De's body temperature to make herself more resolute. The fear of death will amplify the fear of death itself. Even a girl with a strong will like Yin Luna was inevitably affected as the shadows approached and glimpsed their essence.
"The church's records don't record how to defeat them, but as long as they don't touch you within a few hours, they will leave on their own. Although they will follow you later, they won't appear in situations where there are four or more people. They absorb happiness and positive emotions, so we have to be patient with that."
Yin Luna said tremblingly. She really wanted to turn around and let Xia De hug her, but she bit her lip, trying her best not to let Xia De see her "weakness".
"It won't happen with four people, and it's just us. I understand... We don't have time to waste."
Xia De extinguished the moonlight on his fingertips, and just as he thought, the shadows they were facing came towards them again. The undead skeleton horse stood beside them docilely, waiting for its master to set off again. The flames on its body became much dimmer because of Yin Luna's slackening of will.
Yes, it is indeed the kind of thing you encounter in the Silver Mountains.
Xia De let out a long breath from his nose, and the white smoke merged into the wind and snow like a long dragon:
"Now I understand everything about Miss Chloe Yin. It turns out that the meaning of the 'lost person' mentioned in the mission is not just about getting lost in the snowy mountains."
He squeezed Yin Luna's hand:
"Don't worry, leave it to me."
His right hand slid gently in the air, and a dark crack opened in front of Shade. The door of death opened again, and the shadow in Shade's direction immediately retreated.
"Yin Luna, attack it together."
After giving a soft order, Xia De closed his eyes and turned towards Yin Luna. The night watchman stabbed into the snow under his feet, and the silver-white lightning spear floated in his right hand.
Yin Luna raised her left hand at the same time, and the runes of the Thunder Sun Spirit on the life rings above their heads flashed at the same time. Two thunder spears, one gold and one silver, were thrown at the black shadow Yin Luna was facing. Although Yin Luna's sun spear was far less powerful than Miss Chloe Yin's "Thousand Cats Curse", it still shattered the black shadow in cooperation with Shade's thunder spear.
Then the two of them did the same as before, but this time Yin Luna closed her eyes and Xia De opened them. Together, they blew up another black shadow that was temporarily frightened by the Death's Door.
Until this moment, Yin Luna hugged Xia De's neck and "hung" on his body like a limp. Xia De reached out and hugged Yin Luna. He was not surprised by Yin Luna's performance at this time, and even thought that Yin Luna was brave enough. You know, even the "eleventh-level" witch Miss Chlo Yin behaved very badly when facing this kind of ghost thing.
The witch who was holding Mia at the time only had the courage to walk out of the tent to help Shade under the urging of the cat. And now that I think about it, it is not certain whether Miss Chloe Yin is at the eleventh level.
Thinking of the cat that was as warm as the sun, Xia De felt that his spirits had improved a lot. He carefully held Yin Luna, took out holy water from his pocket and fed it to her, and then used the Silver Moon Gift of Cynthia, which was specially used to treat the spirit, for further treatment, and the 17-year-old girl felt better.
"You are always so reliable."
She snuggled up to Xia De, but quickly pushed him away. Yin Luna Bei Ya Si was never weak.
The time was eleven thirteen at night, getting closer to midnight.
If Xia De was not in good condition, he could use the time key to rest for 40 minutes, but Yin Luna could not rest. So Xia De did not rush to go, but helped Yin Luna onto the horse, led the horse in front, and led her forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow under the yellow moonlight above.
The wind and snow obscured their figures, and also covered up other things happening in this large swamp. At this time, Shade could fully imagine that battles of varying degrees were taking place in all directions centered on the Pantanal Lake in the center of the swamp.
The badge on his chest had not responded yet, which meant that the witches had not caught up with him. Although he said that he did not need to worry about the safety of the witches, he was actually very concerned about Miss Carina, Miss Aurora, and Miss Sylvia.
But this thought did not last long, as the whispering element appeared again in the storm. At this time, it was only twenty minutes since Xia De led the horse and Yin Luna to set off again.
"What's wrong?"
The girl lying on the horse's back asked in a low voice, and Xia De had to be very careful to hear her voice over the whistling wind.
"I'll take care of it, you don't have to worry."
Shade comforted him, holding the sword in one hand and the reins in the other. This time he saw at a glance what was blocking the road again—
A woman with black hair and a pale face showed half of her face behind a large rock embedded in the snow not far from the swamp. Most of her body was behind the rock, and her upper body looked like she was not wearing any clothes. As Shad stared longer, the woman's rotten face became clearer and clearer, but it was obvious that the view should not be so good in the blizzard.
"The Swamp Witch."
The first encounter with this humanoid relic was in late autumn when he saw the cursed old photo in Professor Drake's house. Later, during Shad's first visit to the "Lady of the Lake", she appeared when Shad was chasing the wolf, but she only "resurrected" a wolf and let it lead Shad to the residence of the "Lady of the Lake" before disappearing.
After not seeing each other for nearly two months, Xia De didn't expect to meet her again under such circumstances.
"It will guide kindhearted women who are lost in the swamp to leave, and may even protect them. But for women with impure hearts and any men, it will cast a curse that corrupts the soul."
Thinking about the characteristics of this relic, Shade held the sword in his hand cautiously, wanting to see what the other party would do this time. Because she helped Shade find the Lady of the Lake last time, which was completely contrary to her recorded characteristics, Shade did not directly regard her as an enemy.
"I'm definitely a male."
He added in his mind, and then he heard "her" laughter.
The woman behind the big rock was "spying" on Xia De like this. After discovering that Xia De was standing there without moving, she actually stretched out her rotten and pale hand, pointed behind herself, and then disappeared.
"What should I see?"
The direction the swamp witch pointed to was not the path that the yellow moonlight indicated for Shade, and it would obviously waste more time to follow it.
Xia De couldn't make a decision on his own, so he asked Yin Luna what she thought about it. The girl, still a little depressed, lay on the horse's back and whispered to Xia De:
"I'll listen to you."
Xia De nodded, led the horse away from the path, and walked behind the big rock.
The "Swamp Witch" did not set a trap to lure Shade to follow. After Shade came behind the big rock in the swamp, he saw a series of unclear footprints on the snow.
He rode on the horse and held Yin Luna in his arms, put on a cloak to cover the two of them, and let Yin Luna lean on his chest. Yin Luna and Xia De held the reins together and followed the footprints deep into the swamp that may have not been explored for hundreds of years.
The horse, called by the bone whistle, crossed the muddy swamp, passed through the complex foggy area, and moved forward along the slope of the hill with an angle of almost seventy degrees. Before midnight, it found the end of the footprints.
It was a plain-looking snowfield at the bottom of a low hill, and not far away was a temple ruin left by humans from an unknown era. The temple looked very much like the "Pantanal Temple" in the painting that Shade had mistakenly entered.
Xia De jumped off his horse and stopped just after taking one step towards the last footprint.
"What a powerful curse!"
This is a curse that corrodes the soul, a curse inherent in this land. There are traces of plants in other places nearby, but the only end of the footprints is bare snow.
The curse was confined to an area of approximately 26 feet (about 7.9 meters) square. For Yin Luna's safety, he asked Yin Luna to stay on the horse and not get close, while he relied on the characteristics of his powerful soul and the protection of divinity to force his way into the snow.
He walked slowly to the last footprint, enduring the strange feeling of a snake crawling around his body as the curse spread. He bent down and used his hands to dig through the snow to see the land below. After hesitating for a while, he searched in his pocket for a while and found the small toy shovel.
After restoring it, they first stepped on the land, used Felianna's Witch Light to "melt" the hardest layer of soil on the surface, and then used a shovel to dig.
Digging alone in the depths of a swamp during a blizzard was a very strange act. Shad did not dig too deep, but took a step back and appeared directly five meters away.
Thick and strange vines, covered with unknown transparent mucus, were gray-green in color, but covered with dense bumps. They stabbed out from the excavated pit like tentacles, pulling the shovel that Shade had not taken away into the shallow pit, and then Shade heard the harsh sound of metal twisting.
When the noise died down, Xia De carefully walked over to check the shallow pit. After just one look, he was forced to close his eyes, and as tears of blood flowed from his eyes, he turned around and fled the area.