Alex could clearly remember how his life was drained out of his body, how everything was coming to an
end. After that, he just died.
After that, he lost consciousness for a split second. âBut that amount of time shouldâve been quite short,
right?â
âShortâ¦â
âCould that split second indicate two years had already passed?â
âWouldnât this mean that⦠My father William, whoâs currently in the Cleansing Vase⦠Was I too late to
save him?â
âHas the Soul Planting succeeded? So did he become a completely different person?â
He immediately looked for the Cleansing Vase. âWhereâs the Cleansing Vase? Where is it?â
âWhere did it go?â
Unable to find it, Alex instantly panicked.
âDonât worry. Itâs not as bad as you think,â Mystic Maiden spoke up.
As if able to sense what Alex was thinking, she continued, âThe Cleansing Vase and every spiritual
storage you brought with you has now been placed in your mind palace! Besides, time doesnât exactly
work the same here. One day outside could be equivalent to a century here. Heck, it could be even
longer than that.â
âWhat about the time within the Cleansing Vase?â
âAccording to my speculations, I donât think time is affected by this place,â Mystic Maiden replied.
âI hope youâre right.â
âEven if Iâm wrong, thereâs nothing you can do. Alright then, I guess youâve experienced death
somewhat, now that your flesh has completely disappeared. Itâs good that your skeleton still remains.
Weâre not even sure if we can get out of this realm. Letâs just meet up with the others first.â
Alex checked his mind palace. As expected, the Cleansing Vase and the storage ring were in there.
Persephoneâs Folly Bridge was in there too.
Shelly was fine. When Alex âdiedâ, she immediately rushed into his mind palace after regaining
consciousness. Being a spirit, after all, she wouldâve been left in that deserted place without an actual
body.
âLetâs go!â
Mystic Maiden led the way. She then stopped in her tracks and approached him once more, carrying
Alex over her shoulders.
The green skeleton sped through the forest, despite the boney legs.
Since Alexâs top half was currently dangling off Mystic Maidenâs shoulders, his eyeless sockets stared
towards the back of her thighs. Surprisingly, he found out that her legs were flowing with complicated
talismans too. However, there werenât a lot, dozens at most.
âWhatâs that on your leg? Itâs not an ancient talisman, thatâs for sure. It looks kind of weird.â Alex
questioned.
âWe call these bone patterns. Donât ask too much about it, though, because I donât have any answers
for you. Iâve never seen anything like this myself,â Mystic Maiden replied.
âWhere did it come from? What use does it have?â
âItâs handy. It can improve the quality of oneâs bones, connecting them to the soul itself. And that
increases your chances of surviving this place. Youâll understand what Iâm saying once you get some
yourselfâ¦â
âThere are lots of ways to obtain it, killing enemies, like those bone demons, for instance. And yeah, we
made this name up ourselves. The two bone demons we saw just now were of a very high rank. If you
can kill them and absorb their bone patterns, itâll be very beneficial. Or you could look for natural
treasures.â
This world was similar to the real world, with precious spiritual herbs growing around the place. Within
these herbs were some mysterious energy. Eating those could increase bone patterns.
Moreover, this place was extremely dangerous. Any bone demon that roamed this place was quite
strong, itâd be a pain to deal with them.
On the way there, the Mystic Maiden explained the situation around here to Alex so that he could adapt
quickly to it. According to her, she came here one year earlier than Alex. She had actually watched
Alex and Daya taking their last breaths. After that, she even talked to Shelly for quite a while.
Her life force was drained a few minutes later, then reviving and showing up in this realm⦠Despite
being just a few minutes, she realized she had been a year late when she found Daya and the others.
Alex, on the other hand, wasnât there yet.
A year later, the Mystic Maiden could sense Alexâs presence, which was why she rushed over to look
for him.
However, no one was able to explain why Alex was two years later than Daya.
The Mystic Maiden assumed that it was possibly due to the Ten-Point Forbidden Spell.