"Tifa and I have met the Sisters of the Order in the Dark Realm and know some things."
Shad nodded.
"The reason why the Spiritual Order and the Parliament have a good relationship is not only because the Speaker has a wide range of friends, but also because of Granny Cassandra. She is really a native of Midhill Castle. When she was young, she received help from the Order and also helped the Order. Of course, this is also because, although there are both men and women in the Spiritual Order, it is mainly women. Especially the nuns who are qualified to wear silver crowns as eye masks, their eyes are very powerful... Although these women are sometimes more weird than the fortune tellers of the Prophet Association, they are very capable. If you need it, I can also give you a letter and ask them to give you some help, but it can only be a letter of recommendation, and our relationship cannot be exposed."
But if it was just a letter of introduction, and not the help of the local great witch, Ms. Cassandra, the help and convenience that the spiritual order could provide to Shade would obviously be very limited.
Xia De thought about it:
"Anyway, I'll contact the Spiritual Order first. I want to think about Ms. Cassandra's matter again."
"Well, Tifa, give the letter I wrote to Shade and remember to stamp it. The spiritual cult is mainly active in the eastern part of the continent. They existed in Midhill Castle in the last era. They know more about the boundary between life and death than I do. The current leader of the cult is Sister Defulin, an eleventh-ring warlock. Although she is disabled, she is a very beautiful and elegant lady with a figure..."
“Ahem.”
Tifa, who was opening the ink box on the desk, coughed suddenly. The witch glanced at her, stopped the topic, and then smiled at Shade:
"Anyway, take my letter to her. She shouldn't mind giving you some help. People in the spiritual sect respect nature and death and believe that all things have spirits. Other than that, there's nothing to be ashamed of."
She picked up the teacup and took a sip. Seeing Xia De's thoughtful expression, she signaled him to ask questions.
"How come Ms. Cassandra is over a hundred years old but only has ten rings? No, I'm not saying ten rings is low, but compared to you..."
The red-haired witch put down her teacup with a smile. Shade noticed that she was wearing a pair of white lace gloves today:
"I know what you mean. I'm only in my twenties, but I'm already eleventh ring. Tifa is only six rings, but she's younger. This is easy to explain. We have two extraordinary systems that promote each other, allowing witches to progress very quickly. But this kind of growth requires talent. We are very similar to ordinary ring sorcerers. Ring sorcerers just grow a little slower, but they will also encounter situations where it is extremely difficult to obtain spirit runes at a certain level."
Xia De nodded to show his understanding. If everyone had the potential to become a thirteenth ring, that would be a very strange thing. The middle-aged witch he met at the wine party of the blood-sucking god, the vampire duke Lao Ai, also took the risk to attend the evil god's wine party because she wanted to gain the power of breakthrough.
"My limit is around the eleventh ring. To be honest, I have been stuck at this level for more than two years. This is normal for ordinary ring sorcerers, but it is almost equivalent to stagnation for a witch."
"So what about Tifa's talent?"
Shade asked curiously.
"It's hard to say. Talent is not something you can test by touching a crystal ball like in a storybook. But doesn't she have Feliana's gift? If she encounters difficulties, she can just upgrade to a higher level."
Miss Felina's gift allowed Tifa's witch level to be forcibly upgraded in all cases except for the 12th level to the 13th level. In other words, if Tifa could be promoted to the 11th level witch like Miss Carina, she could immediately become the 12th level witch.
"It's really enviable..."
Miss Carina sighed softly, but there was not much jealousy in her tone:
"But fortunately, Tifa is mine."
The black-haired maid blinked at Shade, and it was unknown what the slightly playful look conveyed.
Because Shad stayed at Miss Carina's house and talked with her about Midhill Castle until late at night, he did not go home that night.
Anyway, he brought Mia out with him, so he and the cat stayed in the witch's manor. Miss Carina specially arranged a room for Shade in the manor, and Shade would rest here every time he stayed overnight in the manor.
Early on Friday morning, the carriage took Shade into the city. He first went to the Prophet's Association to sign some documents, received other prizes for the "Big City Player 1854" champion, and talked with Vice President Mark about the competition.
Then he went to Coldwater Harbor and asked Mr. Edmund about Midhill Castle and the Narrow Space of Life and Death. The old man was quite surprised after hearing what Shade said about the place, and said that he did know something.
"You should know that the Priory is a very ancient organization. Our research and records of it may be more detailed than those of the Church of the Five Gods. The boundary between life and death, a place that should not exist, was actually created by the mistakes of the world."
"What do you mean by 'the world's fault'?"
Xia De asked curiously, and the old man answered very seriously:
"The departure of the ancient god of death, the Ancient God of Death, has caused instability in the rules of death itself."
He suddenly lowered his voice, which meant he was going to talk about those great people who really existed:
"Think carefully, young man. Among the five true gods now, which one has death as his main duty?"
Xia De thought about it, then shook his head in surprise:
"It seems not. The closest ones are the Lord of All Things, the god of nature and evil, and the Lady of Creation, the god of creation and destruction, but obviously they are not direct 'death'."
"Yes, the monastic order believes that the emergence of the gap between life and death represents the initial sign of the end of the world. And the continuous problems in the gap mean that the end of the world is getting closer."
Shade has not forgotten that this is an organization that advocates doomsday theory:
"But the first appearance of the gap between life and death can be traced back to the Fourth Era or even earlier. Could it be that the destruction of the world began at that time?"
He couldn't help asking, and Mr. Edmund was a little embarrassed:
“These are still to be studied, but it is a foregone conclusion that the world is increasingly wrong.”
Although Mr. Edmund did not know how to rescue the people who had mistakenly entered the narrow space, his words at least told Shad how terrible this mistake was.
Instead of having lunch at the lighthouse, Shad returned home before lunch and had lunch with the cat. At about one o'clock, the doctor, Dorothy and Luvia also arrived.
The doctor first divided up the winnings from the underground casino for the champion of the Big City Players. When the doctor went to place the bet, Shade had basically been confirmed to advance to the finals, so the odds at the time were 1 to 1.51. Shade placed a bet of 1,200 pounds, and after deducting the handling fee and the doctor's hard work fee, he got back 1,750 pounds. This money not only made up for the cost of buying the detoxification spell of the Spell Spirit last Saturday, but also made Shade's wallet a little fatter.
If it weren't for the incident with Augustus, this would have been a happy occasion for everyone. But the priest was about to die, and they were not interested in celebrating their win. So after hastily congratulating Shad again on winning the title of "King of Rhodes in 1853", the others shared the different news they brought.
"The academy has already launched an investigation in Midhill Castle. They acted quickly and confirmed the disappearance of Priest Augustus. Although I was not able to see Shade and truly confirm that the priest had fallen into the boundary between life and death, I also suspected this legend of Midhill Castle. Currently, Saint Byrons is negotiating with the church to investigate the secrets of Midhill Castle."
After all, the academy is far away from the civilized world, and the Church of the Five Gods knows the most about the many secrets of the civilized world.
"It's not just the August priests who are missing. Recently, more than ten people have disappeared in the city of Midhill Castle and the surrounding Sikar Mountains. The church is investigating this, but they refuse to disclose the relevant details to Saint Byrons because they believe that this has nothing to do with the three major thaumaturgy schools."
"What does the church know? Why does it seem like it's deliberately keeping it a secret?"
Xia De asked doubtfully, and Dr. Schneider shook his head:
“It can only be confirmed that the local problem is huge.”
"There have also been two missing persons cases in the Royal Army stationed near Fort Midhill, but because they involve the front-line garrison, they have not yet been reported to the church."
Dorothy said, Luvia and Dr. Schneider looked at her in surprise, curious about where she got her information.
"I have managed to obtain a summary of abnormal phenomena in Fort Midhill over the years. You can check it out for yourself."
She gave Shade an exaggeratedly large brown paper bag. She didn't know how Lecia managed to get so much information in half a day.
"Does the Prophet's Association have any information about Midhill Castle?"
Xia De asked Luvia again, and the latter nodded:
"The association's records about Midhill Castle are very strange. They only mention that the association's ring sorcerers must not hold large-scale spiritual ceremonies in that city, and any prophets with very strong divination inspiration are prohibited from going there. More information requires permission to view, and I need some time to apply. At present, I only know that the association is very afraid of Midhill Castle."
"Well, the church and the academy should be trying to figure out what happened in Fort Midhill, but we can't just do nothing."
Shade concluded:
"I've been going to Fort Midhill quite a lot lately, and I have a few friends there."
"You have so many friends."
Dr. Schneider commented casually.
"The priest disappeared between 2 and 4 p.m. on Wednesday. According to the most optimistic scenario, he can survive on the border between life and death for a week. Today is Friday, which means that I will be at Midhill Castle most of the daytime until next Wednesday. Dorothy, I would also like to ask you to help me take care of Mia."
Only the writer ladies who don't have to go to work every day have time.
"Okay, I'll come to your house every morning. I can write anywhere anyway."
"Doctor, please keep in touch with the college. I hope they can come up with a solution as soon as possible."
The doctor nodded, but he didn't look very optimistic. If they could save Priest Augustus, even if he was just a correspondence student, the academy would definitely do its best. But the problem was that the Five Gods Church didn't intend to share the situation of Midhill Castle with the academy, and they had no information channels to check the church's own actions. (Note)
"Dorothy, you still need to work hard to get the information from the Prophet's Association. The academy knows surprisingly little about Midhill Castle. Apart from my friends and the church, we can only look for clues from the Prophet's Association."
"No problem, but I want to warn you, Xia De, please remember this. If it is not absolutely necessary, you must never enter the narrow space between life and death."
Luvia spoke very seriously, and the doctor and Dorothy nodded:
"We have almost lost our priest, we cannot afford to lose another one."