Chapter 1245: Chapter 1245: A Cliché Story
In Iluna’s view, Shade only dazed for a moment before withdrawing his hand, while the Baron began to sob.
“Can’t blame Mr. Thomas Granger for their family’s transformation.”
Shade said, looking at the small corpse pinned to the ground by the Night Watchman:
“Mr. Thomas Granger seemed to have sensed, before his disappearance, that the area beneath us was spiraling into madness, so he sought information about this place from the Farmer family and warned them of the dangerous powers contained here.”
He explained to Iluna, who showed a somewhat sorrowful expression:
“I remember you said the Farmer family was enthusiastic about researching Mysticism. So, this corpse is…”
“Mr. Thomas Granger warned them not to tread upon this land. But Baron Farmer had malicious intentions; he thought he could seize the Power of the Earth through sacrifices, and even wanted to resurrect the deceased using the Earth’s memory—such things happen often. As a result, not only was their family imprisoned by the land, but they also triggered a plague that killed the soldiers who had accompanied them here back then.”
Shade recounted what he saw, and Baron Farmer’s sobbing grew louder.
“Really, it’s always stories like this.”
A seventeen-year-old girl is not made of stone; that child was innocent.
“Mr. Thomas Granger, actually capable of predicting which land would have issues… We’ll talk about Mr. Granger later. Now that the Earth has been purified, they should leave.”
Shade withdrew the Night Watchman, took a deep breath, and then slashed forward:
“Gate of Death!”
Since this time the spell was cast with the help of the Night Watchman, the crack resembled more like an open door.
“Stay here, and you’ll eventually turn to stone, leave.”
He shouted at the silent manor, and under the leadership of a few normal spirits hiding in the mansion, the souls gradually crossed through the crack towards true death, walking together with the thousands of souls facing away from the mudflat towards the half-submerged Nether Moon.
“What about him?”
Iluna pointed to the Baron; the Baron had the highest degree of petrification and couldn’t move. Shade was about to throw him into the crack but glanced inside it, seeing a Noble Lady’s spirit he had seen in Baron Farmer’s memory, standing on the mudflat looking out.
This was not a spirit trapped in the manor, but one who left long ago yet was waiting; Shade understood who it was.
Together with Iluna, they hurled the Baron’s mostly petrified Spiritual Body into the crack, watching as the red-haired woman supported the Baron. Then, at Iluna’s reminder, Shade also threw the infant’s corpse inside.
The woman picked up the infant and slightly bowed towards Shade and Iluna:
“Thomas didn’t come here; he took on greater missions. He once told me that death is not the end; he would protect the land beneath.”
A somewhat ethereal voice came, and the woman said no more. Holding the infant with one hand and supporting the Baron with the other, she staggered towards the water surface outside the mudflat. The family of three boarded a boat together, and the worn-out wooden vessel carried them, breaking through the silken dark surface, along with thousands of souls facing away from the mudflat, completely leaving far behind.
The crack closed in front of Shade and Iluna, and Shade shook his head in amazement at everything he witnessed:
“That was Baron Farmer’s wife, who died in childbirth; the Baron was obsessed with Mysticism, which was also related to her death. Stories like these are common, but every time I see them, they make me feel the vicissitudes of life.”
“Really, how do such people even find genuine love? That lady must have waited on the mudflat for many years, right?”
Iluna complained softly:
“However, there’s hardly any sense of time there… Every time you open the Gate of Death, you witness such stories; love and death are truly powerful forces.”
“Yes, these stories are always moving.”
He packed away the Soil Holy Grail, about to call Iluna to leave, but then he slightly frowned, scrutinizing the seventeen-year-old girl. As she sheepishly put her hands behind her back, Shade grabbed her arm:
“Let me see.”
Iluna bashfully extended her left hand, revealing a black soil stain starkly on the white back of her hand.
“You touched those black muds?”
“Some splashed on me, but it’s okay; I’m no ordinary person…”
She murmured, as though embarrassed to be caught in her oversight by Shade, yet also as if she didn’t want Shade to worry.
“Does this really not matter? Come home with me, I’ll use the Holy Grail to configure a magic potion for you, the Universal Earth Elixir. It’s a formula given by the Grand Witch, specifically to treat curses caused by contact with the Crazy Earth.”
He took Iluna’s hand, and the seventeen-year-old girl blushed and nodded:
“Then I’ll trouble you…”
After saying that, she turned to look at the completely silent, abandoned mansion:
“The problem with the land is resolved, but do you know the whereabouts of Thomas Granger? Those letters may not hold any clues.”
“In Baron Farmer’s memory, I saw Mr. Granger’s life information. Now I know the general outline of his life and his full name. I also have his relics—those letters. As long as I find out the cause of his death and the time of death, the Soul Graveyard won’t be able to bring his soul, but it will tell me where exactly this gentleman died. Just like not long ago, when I found Miss Norma’s corpse.”
The operations at the Heart Lake Island of Pantanal Lake went smoothly, coupled with neither Shard nor Iluna being keen on meticulously searching the manor, so by the time they returned to Saint Delan Square, it was just around half-past nine in the evening.
Mia welcomed the two back and kept causing trouble while Shard was configuring the spiritual medicine.
The magic potion formula provided by the Witch was simple, but the focus was actually the Soil Holy Grail:
“Peel of an orange, pomegranate seeds, apple flesh, beetroot. Plus the wings of a pair of heterochromatic butterflies, a cup of clean water, three drops of lizard’s blood, a lump of unmelted snow, a golden ear of wheat, and any fresh petal.”
As Mia’s recipe was included, this cat gave Shard a lot of trouble. After Shard added all these materials into the “Fruit of Success” Holy Grail, he gently crushed them with a diamond grinding hammer, mixing all the materials.
“Seal with a stone tablet, then praise the Earth.”
Saying this, Shard placed the Silvermoon Slate, one of the keys to the library, on the cup’s mouth, and softly said:
“Praise the Earth Mother Goddess, you are the keystone of all things.”
He held the Holy Grail, pressing the slate with his thumb, and shook it vigorously a few times. He inverted the Holy Grail, patiently waited a few minutes, then turned it upright again. After it settled completely, he removed the slate, and at this moment, only a slightly greenish transparent spiritual medicine with a small amount of residue at the bottom was left in the Holy Grail. Shard carefully lifted it and handed it to Iluna.
“Sorry for wasting a cup.”
The brown-haired girl apologized softly, then drank the lime-flavored spiritual medicine in one gulp. The cat controlled by Shard widened its eyes, watching her drink the potion, as the small cat’s big eyes were filled with curiosity, wanting to know what it tasted like.
After the magic potion was consumed, the Soil Holy Grail, having lost its power, crumbled back into a pile of dust. Iluna used sorcery to gather the dust together, making it easier to clean up later. And on her hand, the black stain had disappeared, proving the spiritual medicine to be quite effective.
The young girl kissed Shard on the side of his face to express her gratitude.
“I don’t know if you noticed, but after I purified the manor’s land, the power of the evil object attached to that land was also significantly purified.”
Seeing Iluna was fine, Shard said in a rather good mood.
Iluna curiously asked:
“Does that mean, the Power of the Earth: Healing Aura can heal more than just the Crazy Earth?”
“Indeed, any pollution of the earth is within the range of the sorcery’s effectiveness, only it’s more effective on the Crazy Earth.”
Shard said, which also means that even if the problem in the Randall Valley is resolved, this sorcery will still be useful to him.
As he spoke, Shard took out that “Sweet Chalice.” He poured some water into it, but after taking the water out and drinking it, he couldn’t taste anything. So he put a small piece of bread in, and this time the bread became noticeably sweeter, and even after eating the bread, Shard felt a slight recovery in stamina and spirit, even a healing effect.
Of course, this effect is far from the effects of Holy Water, Satiety Food, and Essential Oil of Desire.
“I’m just curious, why the bread has an effect, but not the water.”
He broke the bread, sharing it with Iluna and Mia. Iluna thought for a moment:
“The bread is eaten directly by you, but the water was transferred into another vessel before you drank it. Try drinking directly from the Holy Grail.”
So Shard picked up the “Sweet Chalice,” and this time indeed found that the water was successfully transformed, possessing recovery of stamina, spirit, and healing effects. But since the effect was still not particularly significant, and it could not be stored for long periods, the Holy Grail’s use remains limited.
However, as a freely obtained special item, Shard never considers a free thing to be useless.
With some free time tonight, he checked Mr. Thomas Granger’s and the Farmer family’s letters with Iluna, completely proving that before his disappearance, the gentleman was already deeply aware of the severe problem of the “Crazy Earth.”
Thus, Shard held Mia and went to the third floor with Iluna, entering the Soul Graveyard. Shard roughly understood Mr. Granger’s life and name, based on the time found on the will and Earl Granger’s description of his missing great uncle’s disappearance. Shard estimated the approximate time of death—he believed that he should have died immediately after his disappearance.
So, what he needs now is only the cause of death, a reason that Shard already had a hypothesis for.