God-Burial Grounds

"Silence won't do. Give me your answer within ten seconds, or I will cut off your head. "Ten, nine, three, two..." "I agree!" Neo tilted his head, seeming to scrutinize the woman. "Oh, one more condition. You must apologize to my subordinate and tell him you were wrong, that you shouldn't have been rude to him. Still ten seconds to consider... "Three, two, one!" "I agree!" A trace of regret appeared on Neo's face. Pulling a syringe from the side of his boot, he said, "This injection will leave your body weak for ten minutes and strip your control over your inner spiritual energy. Relax your muscles. No using purification. "Believe me, I only want to move my boot off you and put my sword away—not rape you." The woman stared at Neo without a word. "Fine. If you don't agree, I'll just cut off your head after all." "I agree!" "Mm, that's better." Neo plunged the needle into her neck and injected the contents. The drug took effect rapidly, and the aura around the woman began to wither. Neo withdrew the boot he had kept pressed against her. The scarred gray armor on the woman receded, turning back into that fluffy white creature. But its white fur was now dotted with specks of blood; clearly, it had also been severely injured in the earlier fight. Neo reached out, picked it up, wiped it against the steps beside him, and tossed it back to the ground. Then Neo sat down on the spot he had wiped clean. "Who... on earth are you?" The woman turned her head with difficulty to look at Neo. "A bloodthirsty aberrant demon who believes in Order yet is a Light remnant." The woman parted her lips slightly. Processing this identity clearly took time, but most importantly, she had witnessed the abilities this man displayed firsthand and knew he was telling the truth. "What about you? I can't place your origins." The woman hesitated. "You know, I could change my mind at any second and silence you. The fact that you didn't kill my subordinate and his manservant earlier was a grave mistake in my eyes, and I do my best to avoid making mistakes like that. "Talking more right now and sharing secrets will raise your chances of survival." "I am an inheritor of the Tomb Guardian clan." "Tomb Guardian clan? What an awful name." Neo tapped a finger lightly between his brows, recalling "its" memories. "Oh, that family." The Tomb Guardian clan was not actually a family. Its organizational structure was more like a syndicate, a faction formed by a group of people. It originated two eras ago, dating back farther than even the Church of Order. Gods were not eternal beings. Aside from falling in the war of the Gods' Swords or to other accidents, gods could actually die of old age. The Church of Principles had figured this out long ago from exploring many legendary God-Burial Grounds. Some of these God-Burial Grounds clearly contained arrangements made by gods in advance, as if they knew their time was coming to an end and had begun preparing their own funerals. This meant that gods could sense their own demise. Two eras ago, a chief god proposed constructing a "Cemetery of the Gods" where deities could slumber forever. He himself was buried there, and afterward, several other gods chose to take their eternal rest in that cemetery before their ends came. At the time, the gods chose a group of mortals dedicated to maintaining the cemetery, much like Old Saman's job. However, this custom among the gods did not last very long, for between the end of two eras ago and the beginning of the previous era, a terrifying catastrophe erupted within the cemetery. The God of Light went there in person to suppress and resolve it, nipping a major disaster in the bud. This was explicitly recorded in the *Light Era*, and not just once, but three times in total. The third record was slightly more detailed, mentioning that the God of Light entered the cemetery to negotiate. In the *Light of Order*, there was also a record of this, though much simpler and more direct: the God of Order traveled to the God-Burial Grounds and sealed it completely. This aligned well with the God of Order's style, especially considering it took place toward the end of the previous era, a time when the God of Order was virtually an absolute powerhouse among the gods. What Light could not fully resolve, he resolved. After the God of Order sealed that cemetery completely, the original tomb guardian faction suffered a heavy blow. It was said that most of them were sealed inside along with it, while the remaining members regrouped into a new tomb guardian community, but they no longer had any tomb to guard. By the start of this era, the Tomb Guardian clan had withered and scattered, leaving behind virtually no trace of their existence. This was only natural. After all, they belonged neither to a family faith system nor to a church faith system; once they lost their foundational anchor, disintegration was inevitable. Having recalled this information, Neo looked at the woman again, a playful expression touching his face. Crossing his arms, he asked, "What's your name?" "Anita." "And your family name?" "The Tomb Guardian clan has no family names. Only given names." Just like Dark Moon Island. However, Dark Moon Island did so out of absolute devotion to the Dark Moon, whereas the Tomb Guardian clan's custom was likely intended to strengthen group cohesion—though they had clearly failed. Just then, the sound of an engine approached. A black car pulled up at the entrance to the industrial yard, and Karen stepped out. Seeing his captain sitting there and the woman lying on the ground, Karen knew the outcome had already been decided. "Captain, are you hurt?" Neo shook his head. "Nothing serious." Karen looked at the woman lying on the ground, and she looked back at him. After a long pause, Anita said, "I apologize for my earlier rudeness to you." Karen froze for a moment, then nodded to her. "I accept your apology." Anita looked toward Neo. "I'll keep my word. Once the drug wears off, you may leave." Hearing that, Anita closed her eyes and began to rest. Karen reached down, picked up the fluffy white creature from the ground, and held it in his hands. The creature was covered in soft white fur. As Karen picked it up, it opened its eyes—big eyes, small mouth, rather adorable. But it was terribly listless right now, having evidently suffered severe injuries. Neo spoke up: "Taking it won't do you any good. It's her symbiont. Once that contract is formed, it's virtually impossible to undo." A symbiont? So the relationship between this creature and the woman was just like his relationship with Purr? That would explain why its pleading had been so effective earlier. Karen took a bottle of energy potion from his pocket and fed it to the little creature. It gulped it down, then stuck out its tongue and licked Karen's palm. After that lick, the little creature froze, looked up, and stared curiously at Karen. The woman, who had been resting with her eyes closed, opened them and asked, "You have a symbiont too?" "Yeah," Karen answered. Except your symbiont can fight alongside you, while mine can only sleep at home right now. He could bring Purr along if he wanted, but currently, Purr could only summon a fireball, which was practically useless in a fight. Karen placed the little creature beside the woman and sat down on the steps next to his captain. "Thank you, Captain." "Heh." Neo glanced at Karen and pointed at the woman. "She was just unlucky." Neo stretched. "Besides, lately I've had to wear a shocked face in front of you all the time. As a captain, I have my pride too." He had to find an opportunity to assert his presence. In truth, when Neo arrived, he had naturally seen that the woman had already spared Karen and Alfred. Yet he had still chosen to pursue her and beat her into the ground. "Captain, are you really planning to let her go?" Hearing Karen ask this suddenly, the woman immediately tensed up again. "Yeah, let her go. She agreed to my conditions, after all." "In front of her, you..." "Used it. She saw." "And you're still letting her go?" "It's fine." Neo looked at the woman. "I have leads on the God-Burial Cemetery." "You do?" "Yes, I do. But I need time to verify and decipher them. The one who first resolved the issue with the God-Burial Cemetery was the God of Light, and the one who permanently sealed it in the end was the God of Order. So the clues lie in the records of both churches—and those just happen to be in my head." "Should I believe you?" "You don't have to believe me. I don't know whether you're alone or have a small clan behind you, but I do know that you of the Tomb Guardian clan have always dreamed of finding the sealed cemetery again. That is your reason for being. "I can help. Or rather, we can use each other. I'd like to visit that cemetery myself. "Just not right now. I'm not ready yet." When the drug's duration ended, the woman made no attempt to hide it and struggled to sit up. She picked up the fluffy creature first: "Remer." Neo said, "Leave a way to contact you, and you can go." Remer opened its mouth and spat out a black bead. Anita handed it to Neo. "When you need to contact me, use this to send a message. Remer can sense it." Neo accepted the bead. Anita stood up. Holding Remer, she took a few steps toward the exit before pausing and turning back to Neo: "About how long will I have to wait?" "Six months? A year? Three years? Five years?" Neo shrugged. "Whenever I get bored." Anita nodded. "Fine." The woman left with her pet. As an onlooker, Karen still felt it was somewhat unreal. "Don't worry, she'll keep my secret. The cemetery is another form of faith to her." "Captain, do you really know the cemetery's location?" "I have no idea." "You don't?" "Is there any need to look so shocked? Who knows where the God of Order sealed it away? If the God of Order simply sealed it once and for all and banished it into countercurrent space, then finding it would be flat-out impossible." "Then why did you..." "Just because I can't find it now doesn't mean I won't be able to find it in the future. Besides, with that excuse, I can summon her to run errands whenever I need her later. That woman is pretty tough to handle." With that, Neo looked at Karen and asked, "Do you think I'm playing with fire?" "A little." "I've noticed it too. Lately my personality has undergone some changes; I've become more emotional. The old me—heh, I was somewhat like Inquisitor Pavaro. "Strange, isn't it? Shouldn't absorbing the teachings of Light make someone calmer?" "Calmer on the outside, perhaps, but potentially more emotional within. After all, emotions always need an outlet; they don't just vanish into thin air." "You make a lot of sense." Neo stood up, rubbed his chest with a hand, twisted, and pushed. Karen heard several consecutive pops of dislocated joints snapping back into place. It seemed as casual and natural as the captain cracking his knuckles. "Next time you can come earlier. Pity you didn't get to witness me fighting her in person." "I know how formidable she is, so I understand all the better how formidable you are, Captain." "Still no match for your grandfather." "It's different. Grandfather is too high above; I can't reach him. Your strength, Captain, is something I can touch, so my impressions are deeper and more direct, making you feel all the more powerful." Neo knitted his brows and pointed to himself. "Is that a compliment?" "It is." "All right, I'll take your word for it. Have to say, it's quite an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as your grandfather." Just then, two crows flew over. Neo reached out to receive them, then released them into the air again. "I told Fanny and the others that it's over, and that they should head back, rest, and prepare for the mission that might start in the next couple of days. If they came over, having done nothing at all, I'd have to buy them a late-night snack." "Captain, how about I treat you to a late-night snack?" "Next time, next time. We agreed earlier that I'd try your home-cooked food, so let's save it for next time. Right now, I need to go home and fine-tune my ribs again. Still feels a bit uncomfortable, like they didn't snap into place properly." "Captain, let me drive you back." "No need. By the way, if you run into a situation like tonight where one of your subordinates gets arrested, you don't need to contact me or Fanny. Just call Richard directly. The title of young master of the Guman family carries a lot of weight. Don't treat their family as a mere lineage of Jurists." "Understood, Captain." "See you later, then." Neo walked forward, picked up a dagger from the ground, and dissolved into dispersing black mist. Karen returned to the car and drove home. Outside the funeral parlor, Alfred was waiting anxiously. The moment Karen parked, Alfred hurried over and asked with concern, "Young Master, are you all right?" "I didn't have to fight. The captain beat her down all by himself." "It's all my fault for landing you in such danger tonight, Young Master." "It has nothing to do with you. I brought it on myself. If anything, it was your connection with that little creature that got us spared in the first place." That little fellow named Remer must have slipped out to play, joined the club, met Alfred, and taken a liking to him. It seemed Karen would need to warn his cat and dog in advance not to run around playing outside once they had puppet human forms. Shouldering the Sword of Arius, Karen pushed open his bedroom door and put the longsword back into the refrigerator. Three thousand Order coupons for a fight—no, it couldn't even be called a full fight, just a few clashes. Still, it hadn't been a bad deal. If he hadn't forced her back at the start, she might have killed him and Alfred on the spot without ever giving the creature a chance to plead for them. "Karen, are you okay?" Purr leapt onto Karen's shoulder and looked him up and down. "I'm fine." "What was the deal with that woman Alfred mentioned?" Purr asked immediately. Karen recounted what happened after he parted ways with Alfred. In truth, there wasn't much he could say since he hadn't witnessed the captain's fight with the woman, but the ensuing conversation between the captain and her had yielded plenty of information. "The Tomb Guardian clan?" "You know about them?" Karen looked at Purr. "I do. Back in my day, I knew a woman who also claimed to be from the Tomb Guardian clan. She was skilled at summoning hands and feet reeking of curses. According to her, those were their sacrificial summons, handed down from that God-Burial Cemetery." "Yes, that woman used those palms on me today, but they didn't do much." With this body of his, there was no need to worry about contamination—at least, not contamination of that level. "Your captain really is something. The moment he figured out her identity, he laid out this bait. The Tomb Guardian clan's obsession with finding that cemetery is practically demonic. Back then, that woman and I went on an adventure together. "We went to a very dangerous place. Just as I planned to run, she claimed the underground might be the entrance to the cemetery." "Did she find it?" Karen asked. "No, it was the family crypt of an ancient family, not the God-Burial Cemetery. She was gravely injured in that accident and couldn't be saved. She died, and I was the one who dug a hole and buried her." When Purr spoke of this, she didn't use her usual playful tone. She sounded calm, which meant that woman had likely been a very good friend of hers. Alfred brought over a glass of ice water and handed it to Karen. Taking a sip, Karen couldn't help asking: "Why would a place where gods are buried suffer a disaster? Can a god's corpse become a source of contamination too?" If that were the case, the very definition of a god would have to change once again. Purr immediately perked up and said, "That's an easy question to answer. We can just dig a hole, bury the stupid dog, and observe the changes in the grave plot. That'll give us our answer." Then Purr looked puzzled. "Where is the stupid dog?" Normally, after poking fun at the stupid dog, she would get a response from him. At that moment, Kevin walked over from the alcove and sat before Karen with a solemn expression. Karen said to Purr, "Have your interrogations of him been too harsh lately?" "Not at all!" Purr immediately denied it. "Stupid dog, what are you doing?" "Woof! Woof!" Purr translated, "The stupid dog says that to prevent what happened last time from repeating, he's coming clean in advance." Karen grew interested and asked, "What do you have to confess?" "Woof! Woof!" "The stupid dog says..." Alfred quickly chimed in, "Kevin says he knows the exact location of the God-Burial Cemetery." "Hey, radio sprite, you're crossing the line!" "Woof! Woof!" Alfred promptly continued translating: "Raniedal says: back then, he was the one who helped the God of Order seal the God-Burial Cemetery."