Chapter 1776: Chapter 1776

Jenkins, still in the darkness with his hand on the doorknob, stared dumbfounded at the ghost in the office.

"Don't tell me someone actually thinks I'm afraid of ghosts?"

He muttered to himself, his expression suddenly turning fierce.

He drew his cane from the darkness, took two steps forward, and gripped it tightly in his right hand, raising it to strike. But before he could bring it down, Tackwen—his eyes completely white as he stared at Jenkins—vanished.

The surroundings plunged back into darkness. His monocle appeared silently over his right eye, but the blackness here was more than a simple absence of light. Even with the monocle, only a fraction of his vision returned; a dark mist still seemed to swirl around him.

This definitely wasn't the church. Jenkins refused to believe anything could create such a scene within the hallowed halls of the Sage. The church was always suffused with a piercing golden spiritual light, which was why he'd deactivated his Eye of Reality long ago. Activating it again now, he saw the surroundings were awash in a spell-like spiritual aura, similar to the one he'd seen on the old woman. This confirmed his suspicion that he was no longer in the church.

"So, it wasn't Chocolate that disappeared," he concluded. "It was me."

He breathed a long sigh of relief. If that was the case, he had nothing to worry about.

After a moment's thought, he decided against exploring the darkness just yet. Instead, he rummaged through his clothes, pulling out the various talismans and ritual materials he always carried with him.

"This might not be enough."

He thought, vexed. But this strange place wasn't suitable for wandering around to gather more supplies. He had no choice but to take out the new Bestowal he had recently acquired, the [Holy Spring Flask]. Groping in the dark, he sat down behind Miss Audrey's desk. With a silver dagger, he carved a complete ritual matrix onto the tabletop. Activating his chain ability, [Contact Death Messenger], he offered up the talismans and miscellaneous items, along with a portion of the holy spring water, as a sacrifice.

As a dim light faintly illuminated the surroundings, a great plume of black smoke billowed out of the circular matrix. The smoke shot silently upward before taking a sharp turn and plummeting onto the carpet in front of the desk. It exploded outward, and from it, the black-cloaked figure of Mr. Augustus appeared once more.

"Mr. Augustus's entrance is a bit different this time," Jenkins thought.

He rose from the chair to greet his friend. The man pulled back his hood, revealing the same familiar face. He nodded at Jenkins, looking pleased to see him again.

"Good evening, Jenkins... What brings you to a place ?"

the pale-skinned Death Messenger asked Jenkins.

"So you know where this is?" Thıs text ıs hosted at ⓝovelFire.net

Jenkins blinked, realizing he had stumbled upon a crucial clue.

"To be honest, I have no idea how I got here. I just saw the soul of a mortal who died recently, and I wanted to ask you if that soul was just a figment of my imagination. If it wasn't, why would the soul of a dead mortal be lingering here?"

"I imagine it was the soul of someone you knew. No false souls appear here... As for why it's here..."

Mr. Augustus hesitated.

"There are some secrets that shouldn't be shared, but since you're already here, I suppose it can't be helped."

As he spoke, he pointed to the gas lamp on the wall that Jenkins had been unable to light. Immediately, an ethereal blue flame flickered to life within it. Jenkins recognized it as soulfire.

"Jenkins, I assume you know that if a mortal dies and the god they believe in doesn't claim their soul, it shatters in the material world. The majority of the spirit remains in the material world to fade away, while a small essence of their humanity and spirituality returns to the [Underworld of the Undying]... ahem, alright, perhaps you don't know."

He drew this conclusion from Jenkins's expression and kindly paused to give him a moment to think before continuing.

"However, the material world cannot be entered and exited at will. Therefore, the flow of souls requires an important transit station. This ensures the safety of mortal souls and also prevents beings from outside the material world from finding a gateway in by following the spiritual currents."

"So this is the so-called 'transit station'?"

It dawned on Jenkins. This was the first time he was learning what the 'afterlife' in this world was truly like.

"Yes, the Soul Transit Station. Generally, the humanity and spirituality of a newly deceased soul will remain here for seven days to be completely cleansed of the traces of the material world. This also makes it convenient for deities to dispatch messengers to claim certain souls that weren't collected at the moment of death. It's also why the rare and costly methods of resurrection in the material world usually require the death to have occurred within the last seven days. After all, once those seven days pass and the most crucial part of the soul has departed, no method, no matter how miraculous, can reach into the domain of my ancestor, the [Ancient God of Death]."

In the ethereal blue light of the flame, Mr. Augustus didn't see a look of surprise on Jenkins's face. Instead, it was Jenkins who saw an embarrassed expression appear on Mr. Augustus's.

"Jenkins, it's best you keep this to yourself. No need to tell anyone else."

"Don't worry, I understand."

"Actually, the people of the material world have long been aware of the 'Soul Transit Station's' existence. If you could consult the records of the [Dark and Hidden Church] or the [Church of Death and End], you would find an item with the designation B-12-1-0038, named the [Soul Transit Station]. However, mortal understanding of this place is very shallow. It's based only on the vague memories brought back to the material world by souls who have had rare near-death experiences. Mortals seem to think this is some kind of strange dimension, a 'net' cast into the material world by some bizarre entity from beyond, specifically to capture unlucky souls."

Mr. Augustus smiled, refraining from mocking the incorrect records.

"But that theory is deeply flawed, because this isn't even a separate dimension. If it were, it would have been discovered long ago by powerful beings and used as a passageway into and out of the material world."

At least the silver dragon lord, Anettasia, hadn't discovered it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have had to wait for Jenkins's summons to return.

"If it's not a dimension, then what is it?"