Backlund, in a basement that looks like a temple.

Mr. A, wearing a black robe with a hood, knelt quietly in front of the inverted giant statue, without moving for a long time.

Suddenly, he tilted his ear, as if listening to something.

After a brief pause, Mr. A suddenly raised his hands and tore off his right index finger with his left palm.

He stuffed the bloody finger into his mouth and chewed it like a snack, making a crisp sound.

Gurgle!

Mr. A's throat moved and he swallowed the broken finger into his stomach.

His body trembled violently, as if he was being shaken by an invisible person.

In this state, Mr. A stretched out his right hand and wrote words on the ground with the blood from his wound.

Those words were not the language of giants or dragons that could leverage the power of nature, nor were they the Hermetic language used for sacrifices, but the most common and ordinary Rune language.

The bright red color quickly condensed, and the words pieced together into several sentences:

"turn up:

“Fools who do not belong to this age;

“The mysterious master above the gray fog;

“The yellow and black king who controls good luck.

"The faithful and believers are in Backlund."

As the "divine revelation" came to an end, Mr. A stopped trembling, and a brand new finger began to grow out of the wound.

He lowered his head and looked carefully at the words he had just written, the corners of his mouth rising slightly in the shadows.

"I will only obey your oracle!" Mr. A prostrated himself on the ground humbly, as if he had found the meaning of his existence again.

…………

City of Silver, upper part of the round tower.

Luo Weiya walked to the window, looking down at the candlelight in the darkness, her expression gradually softening.

After a while, she heard a knock on the door.

"Mr. Chief?" Luo Weiya turned around and asked with a smile.

The door opened backwards automatically without any wind.

Standing outside was the "Monster Hunter" Colin Iliad. He was wearing a brown coat and a leather belt with hidden grids around his waist.

"Lovia, the abnormality of the exploration team members has been confirmed." Colin said bluntly, "As the captain, whether you have any problems or not, you must stay in the dungeon for seven days and receive the baptism of the 'Crown of Glory'. You should know that this is the rule."

Luo Weiya was not angry at all, she smiled calmly:

"I know. I'm ready to stay in the dungeon for a long time until it's over. If you're still worried, I can accept any arrangement."

As she spoke, she walked towards the door and passed the "Monster Hunter" Colin face to face.

Colin turned around silently and followed her diagonally, going down the spiral stairs step by step.

Halfway through the journey, the two heard heart-wrenching cries and shouts.

"Has it started again?" Luo Weiya asked with a slightly confused expression.

Colin nodded and answered hoarsely:

"Well, this is our inescapable fate..."

At this moment, in a hall on the middle floor of the round tower.

The members of the exploration team and the several Silver City residents they had contaminated were being held down by the tangible divine light, unable to move, as if they were carrying a huge mountain on their backs.

A couple in their forties with dark skin, each holding a straight sword with intricate patterns, walked up to a young man in his early twenties.

The young man's body had collapsed into a pool of meat paste, but his head was intact, with only thin bloody whiskers growing on it.

Seeing the couple coming, he shouted in fear:

"Dad, Mom, what are you going to do?

"Didn't we agree to eat roasted iron scorpions together tonight?

"Dad, Mom, I caught a lot of iron scorpions for you..."

The couple looked away reluctantly, but raised their swords high.

After two popping sounds, the young man stopped crying, first twitching, and then completely losing signs of life.

On the other side, a teenage girl also raised a straight sword with intricate patterns and stabbed her sister with tears in her eyes.

The woman lying on the ground suddenly laughed and said softly:

"From today on, you have to live your own life. Don't be naive anymore...

The girl cried so hard that her vision became blurred, and the straight sword in her hand stopped in mid-air.

However, a strong hand pressed on the back of her hand and pushed it forward suddenly.

puff!

The girl stood there in a daze, seemingly unable to hear or see anything.

This is the ancient curse that hangs over everyone in the City of Silver. One must kill one's own blood relatives with one's own hands to prevent them from becoming a terrifying and strange evil spirit after death.

Therefore, even though Dak had completely transformed into a monster and was contaminated by an unknown existence and was not worth interrogating, the "Shadow" monitor did not dare to kill him on the spot. Instead, he tried to control him and brought him back to the round tower to wait for his parents, otherwise things would become even more troublesome.

Those members of the exploration team who were also contaminated were now undergoing the same treatment that had remained unchanged for more than two thousand years. Although no one knew whether they would mutate again after death in this state, no one dared to take a chance.

Fortunately, the population of Silver City is not too large and everyone lives in one place. With the arrangements made by the top leaders generation after generation, there are many people who are related by blood. Even if the number must be limited to three generations, many can still be found.

Because of this, when compiling the patrol team list, the responsible Beyonder must first consider blood relationship factors to prevent unexpected situations from happening.

The requirements for the exploration team were not that strict, because their missions were often deep in the darkness, very far away from the City of Silver. Even if there were deaths or mutations, it would not affect everyone's safety.

Once a resident no longer has blood relatives within three generations, he will be strictly monitored. As long as he becomes seriously ill or obviously old, he will be immediately sent into the depths of darkness, away from the City of Silver.

When Yu Del, the former captain of the exploration team who was previously isolated in the dungeon, mutated, there were actually three elders in the round tower, but the only one who could take action in the end was the "chief" Colin Iliad, otherwise they could only try to seal it.

Because Yu Del was his biological brother.

"Shepherd" Lovia and "Demon Hunter" Colin entered the bottom floor of the round tower in silence, and accompanied by several Dawn Knights, they came to the depths of the dungeon.

Soon, the two stopped outside a cell, while the Dawn Knights were scattered in the distance.

Luo Weiya showed no signs of abnormality and walked slowly into the room which only had a bed, a table and a candle.

Before the metal door closed, she turned around, looked at Demon Hunter Colin with her light grey eyes, and said calmly:

"Mr. Chief, you once told me that when the residents of Silver City die in the depths of darkness, they will not immediately transform into evil spirits if they stay away from here. They will have to wait for several days. Therefore, the rest of the exploration team has plenty of time to distance themselves."

Colin nodded, indicating that it was true.

Luo Weiya closed her eyes and smiled with a hint of sadness:

"Two months ago, during an expedition, a team member died in front of me.

"I pretended to be separated from the other team members and waited there for five days, but he did not transform into an evil spirit."

Demon Hunter Colin looked at her silently without saying anything until the metal door closed with a clang and the seal was formed.

…………

Above the gray fog, inside the ancient palace.

Klein waited for a while, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the crimson star that symbolized the little "sun" had not changed.

It should have been successful... He rubbed his forehead, wrapped himself in spirituality, and fell back into the real world.

As soon as he felt the existence of his body, Klein tasted the cold.

He sneezed, quickly removed the spiritual wall, and crawled back into bed.

Sadly, his bed was already cold.

Fortunately, after entering the gray fog, my body was protected to a certain extent, otherwise I would have caught a cold tomorrow... Klein wrapped himself tightly in the quilt and sighed.

This state reminded him of a witty remark he had heard in his previous life:

Heating is basically done by shivering...

Before the bed became warm again, he could only let his thoughts wander aimlessly, considering all sorts of issues.

Eh, I don’t seem to have anything too urgent recently. I’ve finished summarizing the “Magician’s Code”. Even if I no longer challenge the impossible and just do normal “performances”, I can digest the potion step by step around the New Year. My next major arrangement is to collect extraordinary materials for the “Faceless Man” potion and accumulate the corresponding money, but there’s no rush for this… The tense strings in Klein’s mind gradually softened, and he suddenly had the idea of ​​taking a two or three day break.

As the bed warmed up, he fell asleep unknowingly. When he woke up, he heard the church bell strike eight times in a row.

Klein stretched out his arm, felt the cold outside, and silently retracted it.

It seems that the temperature has dropped again today... There is nothing urgent to do, so it seems that I can sleep in... He closed his eyes again with a relaxed mind.

But after lying in bed for a while, he heard his stomach rumbling and felt his lower abdomen bulging.

Life is full of difficult choices... Klein muttered.

After struggling to fight those two feelings for more than ten minutes, he finally gave up, threw off the quilt, got up, and rushed to the bathroom next door.

After changing his clothes and washing up, he went downstairs, found the ingredients, and prepared to make Feneport noodles.

This time, he did not plan to use the purchased meat sauce. He wanted to try the meat sauce that he had made two days ago. He carefully selected the ingredients based on the taste in his memory and fried it. Although some ingredients in the two worlds were always a little different, the taste was difficult to truly restore, but after tasting it, Klein thought it was still good.

Soon he was eating Feneport noodles with sauce and meat sauce and felt that it was a wonderful morning.

Adhering to the tradition of this world, he ate while flipping through the newspaper, and first confirmed that the old man "Wisdom Eyes" had not yet placed an advertisement.

Based on his thoughts last night, Klein decided to have some fun today, so he considered whether to go to a concert, an opera, or a play.

Tickets to many concert halls in the West End, Hillston, and Cherwood districts cost at least 6 soli. If you encounter a famous musician, the price may even be in pounds. Professional concert halls for the common people cost 6 to 9 pence, while those open to the poor in the East End with spare money only cost 1 penny... Klein looked through the relevant information to select today's entertainment program.

Just then, he heard the doorbell.

Ding ding dong.