Tied up again. Why can’t this phoenix tie me up in a manner that allows me to cultivate? I suppose I’d be able to teleport if that were the case, so it makes sense that she didn’t, but it’s still aggravating! Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like the phoenix realized I was the one attacking it during the second trial of the Despair God’s Tomb; otherwise, I’d be in a much worse condition.

“My daggers….”

Like Gold Seeker over there. Not only can he no longer pay the rent for his daggers, but he also can’t return them along with his arm. On his contract, if he loses the daggers, he’ll be forced to work for the Pentorn Company until he pays them off. There’s even a mark in his sea of consciousness that allows employees from the Pentorn Armory to track him. It’s such a diabolical contract, but for two sky-realm-ranked weapons, I can see why Gold Seeker signed it. It’s just a shame he had to run into the foxkin. Speaking of which, she seems to be diligently cultivating atop the phoenix’s head.

With the phoenix’s speed, it didn’t take very long to arrive at the Death God’s Tomb. It seems like the foxkin wants all three of these inheritances. Perhaps she just needs a final bit of enlightenment before becoming an immortal. When it’s time for her tribulation, I want to be there to see it—at a distance, that is. A normal cultivator has to face nine lightning strikes to transition to an immortal. Cultivators with good karma have to face three. And cultivators with bad karma, they have to face eighty-one lightning bolts, each one stronger than the last. It’s the heaven’s way of making sure there are very few ruthless immortals. If all the immortals were like the foxkin, no one would be able to sleep at night for fear of being robbed or murdered without a way to fight back. Knowing the foxkin, she’s going to face eighty-one lightning bolts.

“Done!” The foxkin bounced to her feet and looked around. “Mm, okay. So, where are we?”

“We’re at the Death God’s Tomb, Boss,” the phoenix said. “It opens in two weeks, but I figured you’d want to try to absorb it first before everyone got here.”

The foxkin tilted her head. “Mm? But I didn’t finish destroying the Despair God’s Tomb…. Will Vera still tell me Durandal’s secrets?” She tapped on her crown and frowned. “Vera? Hello?” A moment of silence passed before the foxkin asked, “Ilya?”

Once again, there was no response. It seems like the crown lost some of its functions? Out of nowhere, a man appeared. He was the foxkin’s weapon spirit that mercilessly beat down Gold Seeker and ate his daggers. It’s a good thing I chose not to fight him. Maybe he’d’ve eaten my interspacial ring if I did. The man cleared his throat, and the foxkin whirled around. “Durandal!”

“While you were cultivating, it seems like the statues reverted back to their original states,” the weapon spirit said and waved his hand. A bunch of statues from the Slaughter God’s Tomb fell out of midair, presumably from an interspacial ring.

The foxkin’s brow furrowed. “The voice … wasn’t tricking me? They really disappeared?” At that moment, the crown slid off of the foxkin’s head, and she barely stuck her hands out in time to catch it. “And it’s not stuck anymore….” Before she even finished speaking, the weird tablet-spike-combination thing fell off of her face as well. She let that drop onto the phoenix’s head, but the phoenix didn’t seem to notice or mind. “…Was I wrong?”

Did the foxkin suffer a mental attack? It seemed like she had fallen into despair. The statue was of the person closest to her…. Now that the purple girl is gone, it makes sense the foxkin would feel down. I wonder how those two are related to each other. They aren’t the same species, and clearly their relationship isn’t one between lovers. If anything, the purple girl seemed more like an encyclopedia to the foxkin.

“If Vera’s not here anymore…, why am I at this tomb?” The foxkin squatted on the phoenix’s head and sighed. Then she started drawing circles with her finger in the phoenix’s feathers. “She was supposed to tell me Durandal’s secrets after I took the Death God’s inheritance. But now….” Her eyes narrowed, and for a second, I thought she was going to take out her anger on me, but she whipped her gaze onto her weapon spirit instead. “Durandal, tell me all your embarrassing secrets!”

Without a sound, the weapon spirit disappeared. Less than a second later, ropes fell onto the phoenix’s back where he used to be. I wish I could conveniently dodge ropes like that, but that’s what I get for being human, I suppose.

“Gah! Fine!” The foxkin snorted and retrieved her ropes. “This Death God’s Tomb better have a trial stage with a statue of Vera in it! If not, I’ll destroy it. Mm? Wait a minute….” The foxkin turned her gaze onto me. “You should know what’s inside, right? Is there going to be a statue of Vera?”

Let’s see…. “Uh, you’ll have to untie me first, so I can take out my almanac.” I don’t memorize the details of tombs unless I’m going to partake in them for sure. The foxkin frowned before untying me, but she kept one hand over my wrist as if she was afraid I was going to run away. Or maybe she was threatening me. Either way, the only thing I could do was take out my almanac and flip to the Death God’s Tomb. “There isn’t much information recorded about this tomb, only the first three trials. The first one is—”

“Catching death fish?”

“…Yes. And there’s no water. It takes place in a desert, and the death fish swim in the sand.” I thought I should mention it before she gets mad at me again for not explaining the details. “The second trial is facing your heart devils. And the third trial is headhunting—you need to obtain fifty people’s heads to proceed to the fourth trial. And everyone who’s proceeded beyond this point hasn’t sold the information of what’s next to the Tomb Hunter’s Association.”

“So…, I won’t find a statue of Vera?”

“It depends on the trials after the third one. You might, you might not.”