“From the way you put it...”
Lin Gui put away the scroll and looked at Eve.
“You seem very confident that you’ll survive the ‘Hero’s Expedition’?”
His tone was calm, yet he pointed out a cold reality.
“Since the descent of the Demon God, there have been nineteen rounds of the Dark Tide and nineteen Heroes.”
“Nearly a hundred elites from various races have embarked on that journey, heading for the Demon God’s fortress.”
“In the end, fewer than ten people have ever come back alive.”
He paused, his gaze landing on Eve’s face.
“And the Saintess... is a primary target.”
“The historical survival rate is terrifyingly low.”
“I recall that out of the nineteen attempts, only one Saintess returned alive.”
“The first Saintess, Cecilia.”
Eve listened quietly, her face showing no ripple of emotion.
Lin Gui continued, his voice carrying a trace of inquiry:
“And that first Saintess seemed to... vanish afterward.”
“Rumors say she went into seclusion after her return and never came out; others say she had long since fallen.”
“Her identity and ultimate fate are taboos even within the Holy Church.”
When he finished, Eve only gave a light smile.
In that smile, there was none of the Saintess’s ethereal air, nor her usual cleverness.
There was only a type of cold composure that bordered on stubbornness.
“Before witnessing with my own eyes...”
She raised her eyes slightly, and it felt as though an undercurrent was surging within her purple pupils.
“Before seeing that Pope of yours trampled underfoot...”
She spoke clearly, enunciating every word.
“I will not die.”
“Then you’ll likely be waiting for a long time.”
Lin Gui shook his head and stowed the scroll away.
The Pope of Light possessed the strength of a Mid-tier Epic rank.
The trouble wasn't the man himself, but rather the massive, deeply entrenched power structure behind him.
By the day Lin Gui was strong enough to oppose an Epic rank, the number of Epic enemies he would have to face would certainly not be limited to one.
But that was a matter for another time.
Even though the mission had been eerie, the reward was already in his hands.
Lin Gui was not the type of person to obsess over every single detail.
He turned around, preparing to lead Eve out of the ruins.
Right at the moment he took his first step out of the doorway—
His head suddenly felt cold.
Lin Gui looked up in surprise.
A dusty brick with old stains on its edges was falling precisely from a gap in the half-collapsed beam above him.
Accurately, it met his upturned face.
Thud!
A dull sound rang out.
The brick made “intimate contact” with his forehead.
Lin Gui didn't even have the chance to cry out.
He only felt his vision go black as countless stars exploded in front of his eyes.
Then, his consciousness sank into darkness.
Thump.
He fell straight back, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
He had been knocked out clean.
He had no idea how long he slept.
In a daze, Lin Gui heard Eve’s worried, soft calls.
There were also some... chaotic, subtle noises.
It sounded like a child was stifling a laugh, adults were talking in hushed tones, and there were even a few soft cat meows mixed in.
Rubbing his throbbing forehead, he slowly opened his eyes.
His first thought was: Absurd.
He was always the one ambushing people with bricks; today, he had actually been taken down by a brick falling from who-knows-where?
What was even more bizarre was that he had thoroughly scanned the area with his Wind Listening spell and magic perception before he fell.
Inside and outside the house, besides Eve and himself, there was definitely not a third living thing.
So this brick... appeared out of thin air?
It couldn't possibly be a coincidence, could it?
Rubbing the bump on his forehead, he struggled to sit up.
Only then did he realize he was resting his head on a soft, warm thigh.
The faint, unique fragrance of Eve lingered at the tip of his nose.
“You’re awake?”
Eve’s voice came from above, filled with concern, but also a trace of... unavoidable strangeness and unease.
“Um... some ‘business’ has come to our door.”
Business?
Lin Gui was completely confused.
The post office was back in Avalon. Where was business supposed to come from in this ghost-forsaken place like Blackwater City?
However, some faint, indistinct “voices” began to drift into his ears.
They were chirping, fragmented and disorganized:
“It’s him! He’s the one who sent me here!”
“He even opened a post office to help people send letters for only 7 copper!”
“Gosh, it’s my first time seeing a human with black hair and black eyes. How magical!”
“Everyone, stop talking! If we scare him, we won’t be able to ask him to help us send letters...”
“Didn't any of you notice? This human big sister is so pretty, prettier than any girl I’ve ever seen...”
“Her purple eyes look like they’ve hidden the starry sky inside.”
“She looks like a priestess. Can we ask her to perform a soul-guiding ritual for us?”
“......”
Lin Gui looked around in shock.
It was now late at night, and only the Glimmer spell lit on Eve’s fingertip dispelled a limited amount of darkness.
Ruins, broken walls, and empty streets.
There wasn't a single ghostly shadow to be seen!
Then where were these voices... coming from?!
He suddenly remembered that back in the Bounty City, the dwarven special envoy Blackbeard had casually mentioned—
Blackwater City was “haunted.”
At the time, he had dismissed it as a boring rumor, but now...
Lin Gui frowned and didn't hesitate any longer.
Grey light swirled in his eyes, and his Eyes of the Netherworld instantly activated!
The moment his vision switched—
“Aaaaaahhh—!!!”
“It’s a messenger! A Netherworld messenger has come!!”
“Run away!!”
A series of terrified, shrill, and frightening screams suddenly erupted!
Immediately after, Lin Gui saw it.
Several pale-blue, semi-transparent humans of various shapes were crowded behind a nearby broken window frame.
The moment they were “seen” by him, they were like startled rabbits, jumping up in fright.
They transformed into streaks of blurred light and, with a few “whooshes,” burrowed into the walls, floors, and the shadows outside.
They vanished without a trace.
Only a trail of subtle soul light fragments, like firefly trails, remained in the air, slowly dissipating.
Lin Gui: “...”
Maintaining the state of his Eyes of the Netherworld, he froze on the spot.
Damn, I’ve seen ghosts.
“After the sky turned completely dark...”
Eve’s voice was very soft, carrying a lingering hint of bewilderment.
“They appeared.”
She looked down at Lin Gui, who was still resting on her lap, and began to recount what happened after he passed out.
“At first, I felt ‘gazes.’”
“Many... curious, cautious ‘gazes.’”
“Looking out from the cracks in the walls, the holes in the floor, and the shadows outside the window...”
“Then, I heard voices.”
“Those... fragmented whispers you just heard.”
“It was very vague at first, like wind blowing through gaps.”
“Later, it became clearer and clearer.”
She paused, seemingly still processing the eeriness of it all.
“They seemed... to be discussing you.”
“Discussing your post office, your letters, and your... hair and eye color.”
“They also mentioned... ‘delivering letters’ and ‘7 copper.’”
Actually, Eve hadn't been afraid when she first heard the voices appearing out of nowhere.
She thought they were just wandering specters.
Within the Wall of Sighs, specters were far too common.
But the problem was...
The intelligence of these ‘specters’... was absurdly high.
It was as if... they were each a living person.
Right at that moment.
“I... I was the one who told them.”
A weak, youthful, and slightly timid girl’s voice suddenly drifted from the direction of the ruined window frame.
“Please don't be angry...”
“They just... wanted to ask you for help.”
Lin Gui and Eve turned their heads at the same time.
A pale-blue, semi-transparent figure of a little girl was carefully poking half a head out from behind the shattered window sill.
She looked to be about seven or eight years old, with two thin braids.
She wore a long-faded, old-fashioned floral-patterned cotton dress.
At this moment, her eyes, which also shimmered with a faint light, were stealing peeks at Lin Gui.
Her expression was filled with unabashed fear.
Especially when her gaze met Lin Gui’s Eyes of the Netherworld, which were still swirling with grey light.
She clearly shivered, like a frightened small animal.
Yet, she forced herself not to pull back.
Instead, she repeated in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz:
“They... they aren’t bad ‘people.’”
“Really.”
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