Latest URL: Now that the police have found the murderer and believe they have discovered the truth, the case is over. According to the general rules, the hotel owner still needs to go to the police station to make a statement, but when Xia De said that he needs to talk to the boss, the sheriff immediately said that the record can be done tomorrow.
"That's right, I want to know something about the local tradition of worshiping fire."
The police and the murderer were sent away, and the body was carried away on a stretcher. The anxious innkeeper, Mr. Thales, greeted Shad to the backyard of the inn. Now there is no one here, and the two had a conversation by the chicken coop. .
"This one~ I thought it was a tax inspection... Ahem, I mean it's okay."
Mr. Thales was obviously relieved:
"I believe in my lord [the lord of all things], which is the belief of my father's generation. As for worshiping fire, I think this can also be regarded as part of the belief of the lord of all things. After all, fire is also a part of nature."
"But I want to know, are there any strange local legends about worshiping fire? I'm actually a writer..."
The bearded shopkeeper obviously didn't believe it, he thought for a while before hesitatingly said:
"Indeed, I heard my parents mention this when I was a child. It is said that there is a huge creature that can breathe flames under Mount Xikar. Long, long ago, it blessed the ancestors living in this land. "
"Under Mount Xikale, how many messy things are there? Could this be the ancient who sealed the passage on the top of the mountain? Spraying flames...a giant dragon?"
Xia De thought in his heart, and then hesitantly asked:
"What is that huge creature?"
"I don't know about that."
Mr. Thales shook his head, but said:
"Father mentioned that before the Church of Nature entered Tobesk, our ancestors believed in and worshiped flames. Later, the ancestors accepted the belief of the Church of Nature and agreed that flames were part of our Lord. But even so, the primitive During the flame worship period, some symbols and records were also left behind, and were accepted by the natural church as part of itself. Now in the Fort Midhill area, some aborigines whose ancestors lived in the local area will write specific symbols on the walls of the kitchen , in order to pray that there will be no fire, which is also part of the local architectural style and folk customs."
What Mr. Thales narrated is the process of belief integration in the West Cale Mountain area. If you study it carefully, it is even enough to write a good paper such as "A Test of Primitive Flame Worship and Belief Integration in Fort Midhill".
Too bad Shade is no folklorist:
"May I visit the hotel kitchen?"
"Of course, this way please."
He took Xia De into the kitchen, and Xia De found some ancient or modern texts related to "flame" on the wall, but these were not very meaningful.
He wanted to ask Mr. Thales something, but the innkeeper suddenly patted his head:
"I remembered, my father also left a red stone for me to bury under the kitchen floor, he thought it would ward off the fire."
"No, no, there's no need to dig it out."
"No need to dig. I don't believe in this superstition, so I didn't bury it at all."
Mr. Thales said with a smile, and then rummaged through the warehouse alone, and found an irregular and approximately round red stone. It doesn't look like a ruby, but looks like some kind of crystal:
"This is for you, thank you for helping to settle the troubles of the police."
Mr. Thales said, but Shad still insisted on paying.
"Looking at the sun, you can sometimes see beautiful patterns inside. This is probably some kind of optical phenomenon."
Mr. Thales reminded again, so Shade picked up the stone and pointed it at the sun. I kept trying to adjust the position of the stone, and finally I saw a scene in the red stone——
It was a huge flying bird with spread wings.
A little surprised and put down the stone:
"This doesn't look like a pure-blooded dragon, could it be—a phoenix?!"
It was already 3:30 in the afternoon when he left the hotel, and Shad was going to wait for Priest Augustus at the corner of Oak Street and Punjab Street. With his hands in his pockets, he looked left and right at the empty carriages parked on the side of the street, and then turned his head to look at Mount Xikale in the distance:
"Is there a phoenix in this mountain? In the local traditional fire worship belief, the flame of worship is actually it?"
That should not be a god, but an extremely powerful ancient one.
At 4:20 in the afternoon, Xia De successfully waited for Priest Augustus at the intersection. He was also worried that the church would send someone to follow the priest, so after seeing the priest from a distance, Shad nodded cautiously to him, then turned his head and walked to the first alley on the left side of Oak Street.
Unexpectedly, the old priest caught up immediately:
"Oh, what are you doing walking so fast? Do you really think I'm a young man of your age?"
The priest asked, and after Xia De expressed his worries, he immediately shook his head:
"Relax, I have not aroused any suspicion. After all, am I any different from the other missing persons?"
Now that the priest said so, Xia De felt relieved.
The two went to the tavern facing the street to sit for a while, and the priest told Xia De what happened after he escaped from the [Life and Death] with the missing people yesterday. Afterwards, it was time for dinner, and Shad unceremoniously asked Priest Augustus to treat him to a restaurant in the city.
Xia De took great risks and went deep into the [Life and Death] to rescue the priest, which moved Priest Augustus very much. Of course, it is no problem to invite him to a meal.
The old priest was fairly familiar with the city, so he finally chose the Mundungus restaurant at the foot of the mountain in the south of the city. This restaurant is located in the southern outskirts of the city, in a remote location, built against a cliff. The restaurant uses a pure wooden structure, and steps and dining spaces are built on the rock wall. Except for the relatively spacious first floor, each floor is a small room, and the degree of protrusion of the rock wall affects the size of the room. At the other end of the room is a large window made of glass. In the room on the top third floor, you can barely see half of the city.
The terrain here is very high, and it is not in the urban area, and the price is a bit high, so the people who eat at Mentongues restaurant are rich people. People in formal suits and dresses shuttled under the light of gas lamps in the restaurant. In comparison, Priest Augustus, who had changed into casual clothes, and Shad, who had no clothes to change, looked very inconspicuous.
Fort Midhill's cuisine style incorporates the characteristics of the Northland, Southland and mountainous regions at the same time, forming a style different from Tobesk's typical Northland cuisine and Coldwater Harbor's seafood dishes. And in the current autumn, the price of mountain products is extremely low. In Tobesk, you need to add expensive game. Although it is still not cheap here, at least both Shad and Augustus can afford it.
This may also be because the Wangdu area itself has a premium.
During the meal, Shad told the priest what he had seen and heard in the afternoon, and lamented that there were really many Carson Rikers in Fort Midhill.
"Actually, there are quite a few foreigners in Tobesk, but most of them are not within your scope of activities. As for Fort Midhill, most of the foreigners who come here are businessmen, so we usually see a lot of them."
The old priest said cheerfully:
"I heard from the bishop of the local church that at least 20% of the permanent residents of Fort Midhill are non-Chinese."
"Oh, that number is really an exaggeration."
"After all, it is one of the largest cities on the eastern border."
The old man stirred the thick soup in front of him with a spoon.
"If these people knew what was under our feet, Fort Midhill might not be as lively as it is now."
Shad stomped his feet, Priest Augustus shook his head and lowered his voice:
"Regarding [Life and Death] and the possible death shock, it is currently impossible to evacuate the citizens of this city in advance."
"Why? For possible political impact and economic impact?"
"Of course not. Because... let there be a bustling city above the [Life and Death Narrows], which is itself a part of the seal. The Life and Death Narrows are connected to real death, so there must be enough living people at the other end, That's how it becomes..."
"balance."
Xia De said that he understood what the priest said.
"Then there, is it really... unknowable level?"
He asked again, after all, the [spiritual group] of the non-orthodox church is just speculation.
The priest nodded cautiously:
"The narrow space itself contains three passages, and it is considered a complete agnostic level~www.mtlnovel.com~ The [Desire] that Xia De once encountered in the underground of the Aurora Mansion in Lengshui Harbor was also an agnostic level. At that time, [Desire] He didn't show any combat power. Thinking about it now, even if he has been sealed by divine ability for hundreds of years, it is absolutely impossible for the opponent's ability to be as simple as what Xia De saw.
"What is the church going to do now?"
Xia De also lowered his voice, using a knife to handle the steak on the plate:
"Behind that door, in the open space before the water area, a red-gold bonfire is burning. Before the bonfire goes out, the door at the bottom of the mountain will be fine. And when the bonfire goes out, I will feel it."
The bonfire is the external manifestation of the "kiss of the tree" sealing the door of death, because it is Shad's mystical lock, so even if the two are in different worlds, Shad can vaguely know the general situation. Moreover, his thaumaturgy [Gate of Death] can open a gap at any time, allowing Xia De to take a look "over there" to confirm the burning state of the bonfire, so he can know the situation of the passage at the foot of the narrow mountain at any time information.
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