I loaded the Mysticism panel.

Chapter 465 My Own Mirror

Richard tightened his grip on the cane; shouting at this point would be useless.

He pushed the ether up to his ankles, and the two small wings that were attached to the top of his boots stood up, lifting him away from the pebble ridge.

Richard floated up to the height of the return route, then crossed over and blocked it from the darkness.

With the staff of two serpents standing before him, the horde of the dead stopped far away from him.

The voices suddenly became much louder, and Richard's neck was covered in sweat... Amidst the cacophony of indistinct words, he suddenly caught a familiar word.

Richard gritted his teeth and moved with the group of the dead to the left.

The flight shoes amplified his power behind the curtain, allowing him to push horizontally with almost no effort.

As it moved to the right, the group of dead simply tried to roll over Richard's head.

Richard pushed the ether up, and the person still stood between the path and the crowd of the dead.

The phrase "The messenger is inviolable" had become a get-out-of-jail-free card, and Richard clearly saw the fear of the dead in every angle the group of the dead avoided.

But this darkness stretched far out, and he couldn't block such a large area by himself.

The horde of the dead bypassed him and descended to the east; on that descent, they carried a child in their wake.

Richard tried to block that spot... but it was too late.

Suddenly something rushed across the sea, which Richard didn't see clearly at first.

It ran so fast that he could only see a wet, shiny green blob.

The monster ran onto the island; it was as big as a calf.

Its tail was braided into a thick braid and tied in a knot on its back.

Its four feet landed on the pebbles without making a sound.

This is the Green-haired Demon Dog.

The giant dog glanced at Richard and nodded to him.

The giant dog emitted McFee's ethereal energy, and Richard nodded back at it from mid-air.

The green-haired demon dog turned back and lunged at the water's surface.

The large shadow on the water's surface was instantly torn open, and the entire shadow in the sky followed and fell down.

If you can't reach things in the sky, then attack the shadows underwater.

Richard's eyes lit up; he felt he had learned a new trick.

The dead regrouped and circled around, pressing down from the north.

The green-haired demon dog followed them around the island.

The dead dared not leave their shadows on the water, so they could only fly higher.

The higher it flies, the longer it takes to dive down.

Richard landed back on the pebbles and did not pursue the group of dead.

He turned around, facing the 10 adults still standing on the road, and continued reading the second column.

Richard spread out the list, and the wind rustled the edges of the paper.

"Tanya, First Class."

No one looked up from the road, so he moved the column down one level.

"Tanya, second class."

Seven or eight were lifted up.

"Tanya, tandem compartment."

This time, much more were lifted up than before, and they passed through the gap, walking in the same orderly fashion as before.

Richard read through the list of ships one by one, reciting all the names he could: Tania, Thetis, Petrel, St. Brendan.

When you think of those ships that transported immigrants decades ago, their names are ridiculously long.

There was a ship called "Elizabeth and Sarah," whose owner had hung his wife's and daughter's names on the bow.

After reading this, a small section of the road disappeared.

He also read about the cargo hold and steerage, as well as the so-called "deck bungalows".

When this sentence was read aloud, more than thirty people looked up.

The horde of the dead in the sky returned to that road and continued their journey.

Richard figured out the rules at this point.

The dead did not touch those he had just called away; they only picked what was left on the road.

Richard held up the list and looked at the people on it, finally understanding why they were still there.

They were all stowaways who crawled out from the cargo hold.

Those who were sold onto the ship after having their fingerprints pressed on them, those born on the ship and then forgotten once they reached the shore;

He died halfway there; he was pushed off the side of the ship.

There were also ships that drifted in from another ship, got caught in this ship's propeller, and were carried halfway across.

Richard suddenly understood what the conditions for victory or defeat were that night.

The rule, to put it bluntly, is that only those who are not accepted can be picked up.

He's now registering people's household registrations, while a group of people in the sky are scrambling for those without household registrations.

Once he understood this, he picked up the list again and read it twice as fast as before.

The green-haired demon dog was still running around the island when it barked a second time.

When the sound reached Richard, even the pebbles beneath his feet trembled.

A large chunk of the dead fell from the sky into the sea, and the splashes it made were black.

Richard kept his flight shoes on, hovering above the road.

He used up [Swift Crossing] again.

The third time, he held it in his hand without moving it, saving it for the worst possible moment.

He looked up after turning to the last page of the list and reading the bottom few lines.

They found about two hundred people standing motionless on the road.

The ship's name, cabin class, port... none of these two hundred or so people had any of these information.

Richard felt a hot breath coming from his nose.

Turning around, I saw the green-haired demon dog approaching, carrying two wooden boxes on its back.

The demon dog ran onto the island, shook the two boxes to Richard's feet, then lay down to the side, resting its chin on its paws and panting.

After catching its breath, it spoke, and surprisingly, it was McFaye's voice.

"Richard, I've prepared an emergency plan for you."

"professor?"

McFee said, "Open this box, and you'll find unclaimed belongings from the Queenstown Town Hall."

Richard did as instructed and squatted down to open the clasp of the first wooden box.

The box was filled with a thin layer of things, all of them worthless junk... or rather, the valuable items had already been picked out.

There were about twenty small bags inside.

The green-haired demon dog carefully picked up one and used its paw to pry open the thread, revealing that it was filled with dirt.

"These people left their hometowns and found they had nothing to take with them when they left."

"The potatoes rotted in the ground, the houses were razed to the ground by the landlord, and the livestock had long been sold off."

"So they squatted down, grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground by the door, wrapped it in the corner of their clothes, and sewed it up."

"When I was sewing, I was probably thinking: when I get to the New World, I'll scatter this on the ground I just bought."

The green-haired demon dog glanced at the entire group of dead.

"There are only about twenty bags of soil left, so don't count on it too much."

Richard frowned and asked, "Professor, what about those without soil?"

"Then it's completely gone."

The green-haired demon dog ran back from the sea.

Richard placed the twenty-odd small packets one by one on the pebbles, arranging them in a row, and prepared to begin naming them.

He spread out the still water to illuminate the two hundred or so people on the road.

For the first photo, he found a man standing slightly behind him.

The ether layer on his body contained the same composition as this small package.

Richard pushed out the naming:

"The one from the Gaiosdova area."

The ether was attached along the conduction path.

The barefoot man on the road raised his head, just like the man who had been awakened by the port and cabin calls.

The entire horde of the dead in the sky swirled around his head and then disappeared.

Richard gave a sense of belonging; as long as a person is accepted by another place, even if that place is only the size of a handful of soil, he is no longer on the list.

"Second one." Richard picked up the second small bag.

Just as he was about to spread out the still water to reflect it, the horde of the dead swooped down.

Richard pushed his flight shoes aside and cut across, blocking the line head-on.

His block shattered the still water.

By the time he revived the Mirror of Death, the horde of the dead had already carried away two of them.

Richard held the second bag of soil in his hand, his brow furrowed.

The hurdle he couldn't overcome in the second stage of the mirror effect was that the water dispersed as soon as he cast the spell.

Richard needs four cycles to restart the condensation technique.

This time he pressed the rhythm down while trying to push out the naming.

The water surface exploded again halfway through the push, and the mirror-like effect dissipated.

He looked up, panting, and the horde of the dead carried away another one.

Richard stood on the pebbles and suddenly felt like cursing.

[Reflection and Introspection] It is at this moment that I look back at myself... and see that I am someone who is trying very hard to keep myself steady.

Duan, he has been practicing the Mirror Condensation Technique since the very first day.

I carry it when I get up in the morning, when I walk, when I attend class, and even when I practice with others.

He treated the mirror like a bowl he was holding in his hands, carefully protecting it as he took each step, afraid of spilling it.

My aunt said, "For a mirror to reflect a person, the person must first be steady."

Lady Mary's cat visit that night suggested another direction: mirrors should not go out.

"Don't seek outside, just focus on what you have right now."

Richard stopped and did nothing; he saw the anxiety in his own heart.

During that pause, the horde of the dead was grabbing people right above him... he could feel it.

Richard loosened his grip and stopped holding it.

A mirror doesn't need anyone to hold it up; it's hanging there, and people will look at themselves when they come by.

The upside-down tree of light on my chest, its leaves unfolding one by one.

The etheric fluctuations are sinking downwards, and even after reaching that line, they continue to sink.

Richard opened his eyes.

The entire sea, the entire road, the flat expanse of black sky, the eight pairs of hands rising and falling on the slope... all were captured in the photograph.

He raised his right hand and pushed the second name out, but the water surface did not break.

"Third place." Still water didn't move.

By the fourth, fifth, and eighth, he was able to simultaneously track the movements of the deceased and push out the names.

Richard saw it swoop down and flew over, but when he blocked it, the water was still on the surface.

After he finished reading them all, the remaining people had nothing left.

Richard crouched down, gazing indifferently at the path leading home in the sky.