Walking out of the gate of the mansion nervously, Xia De looked back at the courtyard of the mansion filled with golden fallen leaves. Ordinary people probably couldn't imagine how dangerous this place was.
Sister Defulin and Mr. Bernhardt had not left yet, waiting for Shade in the woods beside the gravel path leading out of the fence gate. The nun was holding a very familiar kerosene lamp. When Shade walked over, he noticed that there were dozens of blind nuns wearing silver eye patches standing in the woods. Sister Defulin was not alone.
When Chad arrived, he did not notice them, probably because he arrived early. The figure he saw before entering the door should be Armand Bernhardt.
"I've finished my work, too."
Shad waved to them, and the nun and Mr. Bernhardt, who was dressed in formal attire, stopped talking and looked at Shad who was walking towards them.
"Thank you very much for this time, Mr. Hamilton."
He placed his right hand on his left shoulder and bowed slightly to express his gratitude. He seemed to have completely confirmed who Shade was. Shade was a little worried about this, but before he expressed this emotion, Sister Defulin said softly:
"Mr. Armand Bernhardt can be trusted."
Xia De nodded:
"No need to thank me, I just hope that we can keep each other's secrets."
"Of course, compared to you, I am the one who is worried about my identity being leaked to the True God Church. After all, you are human, but I am not."
As he spoke, the elegant middle-aged man took out two business cards and handed them to Shade and the nun respectively:
"If you have any questions, you can come to this address to find me. So goodbye, both of you."
"Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Mr. Bernhardt turned and left. Shad took a look at the business card and found that it was the same one he received last time in the garbage alley behind the Xikar Hotel.
"What did you talk about?"
Xia De asked the nun curiously. They had a good relationship, so this kind of question was not considered rude.
"He heard from somewhere that the cult was connected to the Witch Council, so he wanted to establish a relationship with the Witch Council and acquire a relic."
The nun said, and then motioned for Shade to go down the mountain with them. Shade wanted to ask the spiritual group to solve the problem on the third floor of his house, so he didn't want to separate from the group.
"Mr. Hamilton, have you seen the Ancient One on the top of the mountain?"
Sister Defulin's gray-black nun's robe had a very long hem, almost sweeping the fallen leaves on the ground when she walked. But judging from the sound of the dead leaves being stepped on by her feet, she should be wearing a pair of boots.
"Yes, it was in a very bad state. I used the magic inherited from Huang Yue to temporarily restore its sanity. The Ancient One admitted that it was in a bad state, but still gave me the strength to help everyone escape just now... Oh, one more thing, it mentioned four 'nails'."
The sisters of the order walked in two columns, with Sisters Shade and Defulyn walking side by side in the middle.
Sister Deverein was not surprised by the so-called "four nails":
"If you go into the city today, Grandma Cassandra will tell you about this. With the help of the Prophet's Association, the Church has made significant progress in the study of the narrow state."
To be precise, when the Church of the Five Gods was making final preparations for the ritual that would play a huge role in the seal of the narrow space, they accidentally discovered the information left by the ancient ring sorcerer in the Xikar Mountain area.
Relying on the deciphering of ancient texts, the assistance of the Prophet Association, and the special power of a core figure codenamed "Miss Balance", combined with the fragments of the "Death" section in "Whispering Poems", they finally learned the entire process of the impending disaster.
After three earthquakes, the seals at the foot, middle and top of the mountain will gradually become ineffective. At the same time, the death force that has been accumulated in the narrow space and cannot be released temporarily will prompt the four dead lives to return to the world.
No one will remember that they were gone, not even themselves, but they will serve as the nail that holds the Interval and reality together, causing the Death Burst to approach faster.
The last scene before the death outbreak turns the Xikar Mountain area into a ghost den will be the failure of the seals of the three passages. Finding and removing the four souls that have returned to the human world will effectively delay this process.
"Those four souls carry the most fundamental power of death. Once the narrow space collapses, the power of any one of them will not be weaker than that of an angel-level relic. Therefore, even if it is for the aftermath of the disaster, finding and eliminating them is something that must be done."
The nun introduced to Shad.
The group was still walking in the woods. The spiritual group was very familiar with Mount Sikar.
"In other words, we have now reached the final stage before the disaster?"
"Yes. According to the current signs and the report of the Prophet's Association, if the four nails are not found, a disaster will surely occur before the end of the Dry Moon."
"So fast? Oh, actually not that fast."
Shad shook his head.
In addition to the incident in the narrow space, Sister Devlin has also reached preliminary investigation results on the "boy" Joey Barton in the Crow Club who was able to cover his eyes with Rhodes cards and then see the death of others.
At the Disciples Club downtown, where Shad first met Sister Defloran, she shared the results of her investigation with Shad:
"Overall, this is a rare person who has been reborn in reverse."
"I'm sorry, is this a proper noun? I don't quite understand."
After thanking the servant for the cup of tea, Shad began to listen to the nun's investigation report.
Just as Shad thought, the "boy" was not a boy at all.
Joey Barton was born in 1810 of the Sixth Era Universal Calendar, and was now 43 years old in 1853. He was a native of Midhill Castle, born into an ordinary family in the south of the city.
My father was a workshop foreman in a steam factory and my mother was a female worker in a wool textile factory. Both of them died of illness more than 20 years ago.
More than 40 years ago when Joy Barton was born, home delivery was still a common way to give birth. However, because of the abnormal position of the fetus, Mrs. Barton gave birth to her child in the hospital. Coincidentally, the hospital belonged to the spiritual sect.
Sister Devlin easily found the birth records and confirmed Joey Barton's identity.
"He has a strange disease."
The nun's voice was still so calm:
"After birth, his body grew rapidly, and then aged rapidly. At the age of three, his height, weight and various physiological indicators were almost the same as those of a man in his seventies."
A very calm voice tells a very thrilling story.
Xia De listened carefully and was extremely curious about this suspected chosen one.
"But then he did not continue to age, but became younger and younger as he grew older. This experience did not happen in Midhill Castle. When Joey Barton was three years old, he was sent to another place for treatment by his family."
The nun handed the prepared photo to Shade. Shade put down his teacup and took the photo. What he saw was a middle-aged man lying on the bed:
"This is what Joey Barton looked like when he was fifteen years old. He has now moved from old age to middle age. This is also the most complete photo the Order can find before he returned to Middlesbrough at the age of thirty-two, when he looked like a young man."
"He was born an old man, went through puberty as a middle-aged man, became a young man in his prime, and is now a child. Oh, so this is what you call a person who was born in reverse... He must have experienced many stories in his life, right?"
Xia De said with great admiration.
"Yes, but in just three days, the Order cannot find out these stories."
Sister Defuline paused:
"It is worth noting that the investigation did not uncover the origins of his becoming a ring wizard. When he returned to Middlesbrough at the age of thirty-two, he was already a ring wizard, and subsequently joined the Raven Club."
"He became a ring warlock in another land?"
"Yes, and his rare disease should not have gone unreported in the newspapers. After Mr. and Mrs. Barton passed away, the source of his treatment funds was unclear. There is reason to believe that an unknown ring wizard organization discovered him and became interested in him, so they provided him with treatment funds and led him into the door of the extraordinary after he awakened his talent. But it is obvious that his talent... is not outstanding."
After all, it’s just one link now.
"Joey Barton is very likely holding the secrets of the Narrow Space. His special disease may also be related to the Narrow Space. The Order will continue to investigate him. After Grandma Cassandra and Lady Aurora return from Mount Sikar, I will ask for the assistance of the Witch Council."
The two witches went into the mountains today to investigate the large cave in the mountain mentioned by Shade.
"I am also very interested in him. I plan to make an appointment later. Next time, I will bring another great friend of mine to meet him."
Only Luvia can recognize the chosen ones at a glance, and Iluna, as a chosen one, has only a vague perception of the chosen ones. Shade wants to take Iluna to meet the three current suspects.
"No need to make an appointment. We visited last Sunday and made an appointment in advance through the relationship with Cassandra Auction House. You can go there tomorrow afternoon."
The nun handed Shade the badge with a crow pattern:
"If you have any new clues, please share them with the cult."
"no problem."
Shad nodded, and thought that among Father Augustus, Sister Devlin and Joy Barton, Mr. Barton's suspicion of being the first candidate for the "Chosen One of Death" was infinitely magnified.
After talking about Mr. Barton, Shad finally had the opportunity to talk about his family. Since Sister Defulin already knew Shad's identity, Shad didn't have to hide the fact that he lived at No. 6 St. Teresa's Square in Tobesk.
He hoped that the nun could go through the Traveler's Gate and briefly go to Tobesk to "observe" the situation on the third floor and confirm whether a narrow passage of this size could be sealed.
Because of the help Shade provided in the Mansion of Sin, Sister Develyn would naturally not refuse Shade's request. However, the traveler's travel door needed to be transported to Midhill Castle before the nun could pass through that door to St. Teresa's Square.
And no matter who hired a carriage to transport such a heavy object from the abandoned tower in the mountain to the foot of the mountain, it would leave traces that could not be hidden.
Considering the secrets of the abandoned tower and the space maze, Shad finally decided to invite the nun to meet him in the basement of the abandoned tower in the mountains this evening.
Although the nun would inevitably guess the secret of Xia De's travel between the two places, there was nothing she could do about it. Using the space maze to travel between the two places was not Xia De's core secret. For the safety of his family, being known by this nun who seemed to be able to see through everything was also an acceptable result.
Although he had not known the nun for a long time, Shad believed that she was a person of high moral character and worthy of trust.
Instead of having lunch at Midhill Castle, Shad returned home in a hurry, and then took Mia to the Prophet's Association to wait for Luvia to get off work. He had too many things to share with Luvia, including the secrets of the resurrected dead, the reborn, and the two new blood coins.
The trip to the Crime Mansion finally brought new progress to the Middlesbrough situation.
Chapter 711: The Man Who Reverses Life