There was only one enemy on the second floor, and three corpse dogs on the third floor. They were not disembodied undead spirits, but undead creatures similar to ghouls. Their bodies were pale white, like rotten meat, with wrinkles and signs of decay all over their bodies. They looked almost exactly the same, moved very quickly, and were even intelligent, knowing how to coordinate attacks.
Xia De encountered them as soon as he went upstairs, and his hasty counterattack almost cost him a lot. Fortunately, he retreated to the stairs in time, and was able to fight the enemies one by one on the narrow stairs.
Honestly speaking, the combination of three dogs is much more terrifying than a single powerful humanoid undead.
The ground on the third floor was still covered with a layer of dust of unknown origin, like ashes, just like outside. In addition to the footprints of the three corpse dogs, there were also other messy footprints on the dust.
These footprints have been processed, but the traces have not been completely erased. After observing them, Shade believes that at least three different people have appeared here recently:
"Hopefully it's a trace from the past 36 hours."
Thinking in his mind, he used the magic of past echoes.
This magic can listen to the voices of the past, and is more inclined to the voices of humans. In the narrow space where the sound cannot be transmitted too far and there are almost no living people, Shade succeeded on his first try:
"Professor, you actually escaped?"
It was the voice of Joey Patton, his lung-damaged timbre unmistakable.
"They escaped, but almost all the people we sent to the Middleburg area were also wiped out... This time, the church's actions were accurate and ruthless."
Shade raised his eyebrows. The witches and Iluna had mentioned that on the night of the Battle of Ice Lake, most of the members of the Society of Truth in the region were killed or arrested, with only a few escaping the net. Unexpectedly, they did not leave Midhill Castle, but found Joey Barton in the narrow room... Or maybe Joey Barton found them.
"But fortunately, we learned from the Blood Spirit School's lesson. Although we sent quite a few people this time, only one of the twelve-ring warlocks came, so this is not a painful lesson. I heard that the Blood Weaver Hermons of the Blood Spirit School almost didn't escape."
People always seem to like to laugh at those who are more unfortunate when they are in trouble.
"Mr. Barton, I don't know how you found us in the narrow room, but the society has already notified us that we will no longer be involved in the affairs of Midhill Castle. We are staying here now to recover some materials placed in the narrow room. The loss this time is so great, we must at least take back those alchemical items worth tens of thousands of pounds."
The man who was speaking had been speaking Carsenric, while Mr. Patton spoke Delarion with a strong Middlesbrough accent.
"Do you know that I am the chosen one?"
Mr. Barton asked calmly. After a pause of a few seconds, Carsenrick answered:
"We dare not show up in the city, but we have heard some news. It is really surprising that the target we have been looking for is one of our own. Mr. Patton, I have heard about you in the society, but now..."
As expected, Xia De heard him sigh:
"Chosen one of death, you can only work hard on your own and learn to make up your mind not to get involved in this matter anymore. The current losses are too great. Although helping you may bring greater benefits, we must stop the losses in time and not be too greedy."
If the ring sorcerers of the Truth Society could give up their crazy ideas, most of them could actually be called wise men.
"I don't need your material help, I want some knowledge."
Mr. Barton said.
"What knowledge?"
"I know the Society has not been completely successful in integrating the knowledge of the relics, but at least we have a preliminary experimental plan."
Xia De frowned and looked at the empty room in front of him. He believed that the other person who participated in the conversation had the same expression not long ago.
"Fuse the relics, do you want to...Joey Barton, do you want to fight the Church of the True God alone?"
"I know I am powerless, so I have to think of other ways. Being in the narrow space, I can feel the kindness of the narrow space itself towards me. It does not want to be sealed, and I want to break the boundary between life and death. Therefore, the narrow space is willing to let me use part of its power. Professor, which one do you think is more powerful, the level 0 relic that controls countless evil spirits or the thirteen-ring warlock?"
"What a lunatic."
The Kasenrick language expressed a very dirty curse word, which Shade tentatively assumed meant "madman".
"I am honored to be called a lunatic by the professors of the Truth Society. All I have to do is enter the real death through one of the three channels and then bring her back. So, are you willing to trade? I know that knowledge has a price, so if I really become the chosen one in Midhill Castle, I am willing to join you."
What happened next was not surprising. The "slippery fish" of the Truth Society gave Joey Barton the information he wanted, and even gave him the Truth Society's research materials on the "Narrow Gap between Life and Death" and "Gate of Death".
In the professor's words:
"These materials are backed up, so it's not a loss if I give them to you. It's a very profitable investment. But if you are caught by the church, don't say that we gave them to you, you found them yourself."
At the end of this conversation, the "professor" in Carsonic language gave Joey Barton something. Shade could only hear the sound, so he didn't know what it was:
"Professor, what is this?"
Mr. Barton had the same doubts.
"We originally planned to try to guide the power of death in the narrow room. We wanted to repeat the undead alchemy in the fifth era witch alchemy and make some interesting things, so we prepared quite a lot of ritual items. The one in your hand is an ancient artifact that the society dug up in the New World. From research, it seems to be a sacrificial item of the ancient Church of Death. Giving it to you may be useful."
So, Joey Barton got the items related to the power of the ancient gods.
The conversation ended, and both parties left. Xia De followed the footsteps to the window. At this time, the last red butterfly on the shoulder finally broke away from the skin and appeared in the narrow space. It slowly flew to the house opposite the back window and stopped in front of the wall outside the window to prevent it from being seen by the people inside the window.
Behind the Oak Street store is a muddy alley, and on the other side of the alley is an apartment building for rent. Because of the dense fog and the narrow space that suppressed the field of vision, Shade could only see the shadowy movement of the red butterfly, and could not see what was inside the window at all. But judging from the performance of the red butterfly, the clown is likely inside:
"Hidden so close?"
The window in front of him had no glass anymore. Xia De held onto the prickly windowsill and looked down, and found that there were quite a few souls wandering in the alley.
"If I take a detour, even with the witch's blessing to avoid the enemy, I'm afraid I'll still have to defeat a bunch of evil spirits. It's a waste of time."
Carefully climbing onto the windowsill, he cast a spell like a frog, leaped across the alley and pounced on the red butterfly that was pointing the direction. However, Shade did not choose to let himself break through the window and enter the room. Instead, he approached the opposite window in the air and concentrated on using magic:
"Raglai's Leap!"
Shade disappeared in the air, and then appeared steadily in the window.
He stood firmly, turned around and stretched out his right hand. The fluttering red butterfly landed on his fingertips and then flew to his shoulder intimately.
He scanned the room and saw no one. Shade snapped his fingers, and a silver mist emerged, enveloping him in an illusion.
Pushing the door open and continuing to walk out, the shabby and dark corridor looked like a haunted house in a story. Red Butterfly guided Xia De to the room at the end of the corridor. According to the layout, this should be the guest room.
There was no sound coming from inside, but the target was undoubtedly here. Shade hesitated for a moment, dispelled the illusion, and then knocked on the door with his fingers.
Boom boom boom~
Standing at the door and waiting patiently, 2 minutes and 37 seconds after the last knock, the door was opened, and behind the door was the middle-aged man who looked like a deformed child.
At the end of the ice battle last week, he was pierced from behind by Iluna's "Sunshine Gun", but there was no sign of injury at this time. He just looked much older and younger than last week.
Joey Barton looked up at the person at the door and hesitated:
"Mr. Watson?"
"It's me."
Mr. Barton sighed:
"Why come to me? Do you really think you can convince me?"
Shad looked toward the room behind him, but Mr. Barton immediately stepped back and slammed the door shut.
ran away.
"What?"
The door key opened the locked door, and there was no trace of Joey Barton and the Joker in the empty room.
The red butterfly on his shoulder immediately flew towards the window. Xia De quickly walked to the window and just happened to see the deformed "child" carrying a suitcase disappearing at the corner of the street at the edge of his vision.
The undead wandering on the streets had no intention of attacking him. He walked freely on the streets without having to avoid any attacks.
"Moon Shadow's Illusion."
The silver mist surged again, and Shad jumped from the third-floor window to the ground. After landing, he followed the red butterfly in the direction of Joey Barton.
"How is it going?"
Miss Aurora's distant voice rang in my ears again.
"I found him. He ran away when he saw me. Oh, I ran into some trouble. Although I had the help of illusion, the evil spirits were preventing me from catching up. The enemies were too dense."
"Wait a moment, my mother-in-law and I will help you... We must catch up..."
The sound was intermittent until it completely disappeared, and the souls wandering on the street in the narrow space finally noticed Shade because he was too close. But the next moment, an extremely cold chill appeared from the top of his head and quickly penetrated his whole body, and a circular ritual array emitting an ambiguous gray light appeared under Shade's feet.
The appearance of this ritual formation caused the evil spirit, which was ready to attack, to ignore Shade again. Shade tried to move a few steps closer to it, but it didn't react at all.
"The witches are really resourceful."
He continued to chase after him.
Shade didn't know what Joey Barton did in the narrow space. He still only had one ring, but he ran faster than Shade. Even though Shade used Ragley's jump every ten seconds to move through space, the two of them, one chasing and the other escaping, actually ran around the city center in the narrow space for most of the time before Shade finally caught up with Joey Barton in the green square one block away from Oak Street.
The Green Square in the real world was a semi-park-like square in the center of Midhill Castle, but in the Narrows it was as desolate as a foggy cemetery.
Shad and Mr. Barton confronted each other in the fog, and the evil spirits around them appeared and disappeared in the fog.
"Where's the clown?"
Xia De still didn't see the second nail, but Hongdie pointed restlessly in the direction of the man in front of him.
"I swallowed it."
Mr. Barton pointed at himself:
"I was seriously injured and need to recover. Don't worry, once I fully absorb its power, this nail will be removed."
His voice is still so hoarse.
"Since you know about the gap and the nail, you should also know that at this moment when the balance between life and death is so fragile, if you bring a dead person back from death, the broken balance will directly lead to the collapse of the gap."
"Yes, but if I don't do this quickly, once the Church reseals the space, I won't have a chance to get her back."
Mr. Barton looked at Shade with no expression on his face:
"Mr. Watson, you have heard me tell my story, and I ask you again, do you really think you can convince me?"
"In order to revive the dead, are you willing to let the entire city die?"
Xia De asked back, and Mr. Barton nodded:
"I know it's wrong to do this, but I still have to say yes. She is the most important person in the world to me. Even if I make a big mistake, I will never give up this only chance. I am a moth flying into the fire, and I am willing to do this."
Although he had expected the other party to say this, Shade still wanted to sigh when he heard Joey Barton say this:
"Don't think too highly of yourself. You have to think carefully. If you do this, you will become the enemy of the Orthodox Church, the three major thaumatology schools, and even most of the ring sorcerer groups. Even if you are the chosen one, even if you really succeed in performing the ritual, there will be no place for you in the material world."
"I've thought about it."
Mr. Barton pointed to his feet. He had already thought of everything:
"After I bring Marilyn back, we will live here, in Midhill Castle, which has completely merged with the narrow space and turned into a ghostly forbidden place. With the gift of the chosen one, the undead will not hurt me. They are my best companions. It is impossible for the Orthodox Church to catch me among the thousands of undead."
"Mr. Barton, I will ask you one last time. Are you sure that you will bring your beloved back from death's rest, even if it means sacrificing the lives of tens of millions of people?"
Xia De asked in a serious tone:
"This is really the last time I ask you."
Joey Barton looked at John Watson in the thick fog and vaguely understood that this question would determine many things in the future.
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