Chapter 133 - 45: [Edge of the Heart of the Remains]

Chapter 133: Chapter 45: [Edge of the Heart of the Remains]

"If it were our first time meeting, and you just suddenly appeared in front of me without saying a word, doing nothing but standing there silently, my first reaction would be to run," Yaki replied. "I remember what it was like when we first met—if you hadn’t spoken first, I probably would have grabbed Gwyneth and bolted."

"Whoa! Come on, my friend Yaki, my good brother, is it really that exaggerated?" Samael shrugged his pauldrons with a loud CLANK. "A guy as sunny, bright, and warmly radiant as me—"

"See! The moment you speak, you completely ruin that terrifying Undead vibe!" Yaki shouted. "You instantly turn into the flashy young heir of a Knight Clan, highly eloquent, holding court and dancing gracefully at social balls. You’d probably even go out every now and then to provide relief to the poor and embrace the sick, just to let everyone in the Knight Territory know that their future lord is incredibly approachable and pleasant."

"Don’t listen to him! You look perfectly fine!" Talia reached out, grabbing Samael’s helmet to turn his head toward her. "Even though finding out you were a High-Level Undead definitely startled me when we first met, you were the one who spoke first. You were earnestly trying to comfort me the whole time, even if it was mixed with a bunch of spouted nonsense. I didn’t think you were scary at all."

"Oh..." Samael pondered. "It sounds like the Undead are a terrifying existence in the minds of normal people."

Talia asked, "A cold, indiscriminate killer composed of pure malice, hating life itself, killing for absolutely no reason other than to destroy everything—don’t you think that’s terrifying? Even the Demon Race doesn’t like the Undead. They wouldn’t want anything to do with them unless absolutely necessary.

"Bandits kill for money, armies kill for territory, politicians kill for power, and Demon Monarchs kill for strength. Only the Undead kill for no reason at all, save for the ultimate end and death of all things.

"Of course, I don’t mean you—you’re amazing." She stood on her tiptoes, reaching up to pat the top of Samael’s helmet.

"You’ll see for yourself soon enough, Mr. Samael," Yaki said, pulling the reins and slowly bringing the carriage to a slower pace. "This is Gold-digging City, one of the twenty-seven Alliance strongholds surrounding the Hai Xin Plain. The adventurers here deal with the Undead all year round. You can look out the window and see what their mental states are like."

"Can’t we get off and take a look?" Samael asked.

"I wouldn’t recommend it. If your identity as a High-Level Undead is discovered, not only will it cause a panic, prompting everyone who learns the truth to scream, flee, or attack, but it will also draw the attention of the Alliance higher-ups. Just in case, don’t get out and linger." Yaki shook his head. "There are also quite a few human Scholars from the Floren Kingdom cooperating with the Alliance here. They assist in preventing various infections and plagues from the Heart of the Remains while researching matters related to the Undead. It’s best not to alert them."

"Understood. Thank you, my friend Yaki." Samael nodded, carefully lifting the curtain of the carriage window just enough to peek outside.

The scene here was completely different from Luojie City. Although the adventurers in Luojie City looked tired and busy, they all had some degree of drive and motivation, carrying the courage and passion of pioneers. But under the dim sky, not only were there very few pedestrians on the streets of Gold-digging City, but every passing adventurer also wore a gloomy expression, as if a dark haze had seeped into their very souls.

Two adventurers began throwing punches at each other over a minor slight from brushing shoulders, yet the Alliance Guards of Gold-digging City merely stood to the side, staring blankly in silence.

"How bizarre," Samael whispered. "Will we be staying here?"

"No... we are Exiles. We have Corpse-Eating Magical Beasts as bodyguards on the edge of the Outer Ring of the Hai Xin, helping us crush the low-level Undead in the fringe areas, so the edge of the outer ring poses no danger to us." Yaki shook his head. "We also don’t need to rely on adventurers to gather Demonized Materials; we’ve always done it ourselves. Every time we come here, we camp directly in the Corpse-Eating Magical Beast territory on the edge of the Outer Ring of the Hai Xin. We’re just passing through Gold-digging City; we won’t be staying."

Samael observed a few figures in the distance down the town street. They wore sealed, wax-dipped robes and silver or white leather bird-beak masks. The beaks were stuffed with herbs and bread for filtration, and the masks’ glass lenses and hoods were firmly sealed with brass rivets. Rushing along, they carried black leather suitcases and dragged a black, wax-dipped body bag.

"Those are the Plague Doctors operating in the border areas of the Heart of the Remains. Most of them come from the medical academies of the Floren Kingdom," Yaki explained. "They cooperate with the Alliance and specialize in medicine, particularly excelling in surgical techniques, pharmacology, and pathology. It’s considered a branch profession of Magic Potion Science. The Spiritual Poisons in the ecosystem of the Heart of the Remains are diverse and complex, and new types of toxins are constantly emerging. A single antidote is entirely insufficient, so everyone relies completely on them to continuously develop new targeted drugs."

"Let’s keep moving," Samael said softly. "After we set up camp in the Outer Ring today, I’ll go take a look around the periphery of the Heart of the Remains."