Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 397 The Past of Usa

They killed James Sheffield and buried him.

Upon hearing this information, Milo's eyes immediately lit up.

"Yes, why fight to the death over a cave? Wouldn't it be simpler and more convenient to just kill them and bury them?"

Milo, being a visionary, was all too familiar with this.

Undead Sight – The first skill that all Spirit Sight users gain after emerging from the Nightmare phase, allowing them to read the souls of the dead.

This is also the root cause of the life-or-death, dark forest-like synergistic hunting survival mode among the psychics.

It's not hard to imagine the scene of those visionaries who eventually started the war reading James Sheffield's ghostly perspective at his grave.

However, Milo's words caused Marshall to lose control of his emotions:

"Sheffield is the root cause of Usa's downfall! Why do you think those visionaries went to such lengths to fight for the cave? Why didn't they just kill Sheffield?! Because it was we, Usa, who were protecting him back then! Sheffield once saved our people, so we took on this war for him!"

"I want to know, if there's no difference in the flow of time between the two worlds, would you kill him the moment I bring you back here?"

"Yes or no!?"

……

Marshall's fur stood on end, its voice became sharp and shrill, its eyes widened, and it shouted at Milo.

This was the first time Milo had ever been yelled at by a cat.

He didn't feel offended at all, just a little confused.

Because Marshall was right. If that were the case, his primary choice might indeed be to kill Sheffield and bury him. And this choice might have led Marshall to categorize Milo with those psychics who had started the war and slaughtered their people.

For a moment, Milo sensed that Marshall's eyes weren't entirely filled with indignation and despair; there was even a hint of hidden fear in its gaze.

It fears Milo.

Or rather, it felt a pang of fear at its actions, because if it were still at war, it would have been tantamount to bringing its people an opponent of the level of a visionary comparable to the Great Old Ones...

Of course, the greater fear stemmed from Milo's growing indifference towards ordinary life.

As Marshall had said before, his soul and his subconscious had begun to show disdain for frail life. This indifference was not a deliberate act, but a normal phenomenon caused by the huge gap in the social class of life.

He never knew what kind of person the scholar named James Sheffield was, nor did he seem to want to know. He simply and intuitively believed that killing and burying him was the most direct and effective means. This was the attitude of the Old Ones, and even the Old Gods and Outer Gods, towards lower-level civilizations.

Milo himself simply hasn't realized this yet.

……

The truth is, Milo really didn't think that much about it.

He felt that Marshall's behavior of getting angry at him under a hypothetical premise was a bit outrageous, but not incomprehensible.

Milo attributed his breakdown and outrage to the fact that he had just learned that 170 years had passed since the war.

Anyone would be devastated by such a situation, let alone a cat.

He calmly thought that if he had known Sheffield was a friend of the Usain cats, he probably wouldn't have made the decision to kill him so directly.

"Calm down, calm down."

Milo gestured for Marshall to control his emotions.

"It's a cat that's over a hundred years old, can't it be a little more composed?"

Perhaps feeling there was no point in arguing with Milo any longer, Marshall turned away and returned to his withdrawn state.

Seeing that their argument had ended, Pickman spoke again:
"It is so, Mr. Valrokan, that the Enchanted Forest... no, to be precise, all the graves on the entire western continent, after a sufficiently long period of time, when the grave owners are no longer remembered by anyone on the surface, will sink here for some reason, the final resting place of forgotten graves, the Graveyard of Xin."

"So, James Sheffield's grave is right here?" Milo instantly saw hope, but at the same time, he was also puzzled as to why Pickman had gone through such a roundabout way to bring this up.

Pickman quickly answered Milo's question:

"This is indeed the place, but the Xin Tomb Complex is so vast that my people only occupy a small portion of it."

He pointed to the area in the mountains ahead that was blocked by roadblocks made of countless boulders and tombstones, and continued, "Going in this direction leads to the territory of the ghouls, and beyond that territory lies the kingdom of the Ghouls. James Sheffield's tomb is sandwiched between these two places, an area that our ghoul clan has not set foot in for decades."

"Demons are a ferocious species. Legend has it that they are the product of genetic experiments conducted by snake people and are also one of the original inhabitants of the underground world. Usually, individuals in this race are not very intelligent and cannibalism is common. However, at the end of a certain year in the past, a very powerful and intelligent special individual was born among them..."

"That powerful demon ruled the entire tribe, commanding these uncivilized beasts. From that time on, our ghoul tribe's territory was constantly encroached upon. Not only us, but even the cities of the ancient giants atop the mountains were plundered. It was this stream of light high above the end of the Xin Tomb that gave us a foothold, because ghouls fear light; strong light will make them sick, or even kill them..."

"It is said...it is said that the powerful demon leader seems to have touched the barrier to becoming a Spirit Visionist, and may even have already become one."

When Pickman said the last sentence, he slowed down his speech noticeably. He was observing Milo's expression and didn't seem to want Milo to think that he was using Milo.

However, in reality, Milo was quite happy to accept this kind of "exploitation".

Strictly speaking, this should be considered a win-win situation, rather than exploitation.

After all, James Sheffield's grave is on the other side of the demon realm. Of course, that's assuming Pickman wasn't lying.

Milo smiled and stared at Pickman's aged ghoul face, asking him:

"You want me to help you get rid of that enlightened demon, or rather, the demon with a spiritual vision, right?"

“Yes!” Pickman nodded frankly.

"Was this your plan from the beginning? You already knew I was a visionary back in the study at the foot of the mountain?" Milo asked, somewhat puzzled.

Pickman explained:

“Only those with a visionary eye have the chance of being deprived of the right to dream, Mr. Valrocan.”

“Okay.” Milo shrugged.

Pickman stared with his old, cloudy eyes, waiting for Milo to give a clear answer.

Milo, however, turned to look at Marshall, who was standing to the side in a daze:
“Wait here for me a while. If I don’t come back, you can eat this Mr. Pickman.”

Upon hearing this, Pickman's wrinkled face first broke into a smile, but then he visibly trembled when he heard the second half of the sentence.

……

"I do not."

Marshall's answer was concise and powerful:
"I want to go back to Ussa, even if it's just for a moment."

……

The atmosphere at the scene fell silent once again.

Pickman didn't dare to breathe, just stood quietly to the side, leaning on his cane. He felt that the human and the cat in front of him might break into a hysterical shouting match at any moment.

But to the slightest surprise of Pickman and Marshall, Milo ultimately just sighed and waved his hand, saying:

"Alright then, I'll drop you off at that place... what's it called again? The Enchanted Forest, right?"

Marshall blinked, clearly taken aback for a few seconds, then nodded frantically: "Oh right, the Enchanted Forest."

"Alright, alright! I'll give you a map!"

Pickman was overjoyed to see this. He hurriedly pulled a crude map made of animal hide from under his robe and pointed to the winding lines on it, saying:

"This is the end of the Xin Tomb Complex, which is where we are now. Beyond the territory of the demons lies the city of the Gug giants."

As he spoke, he took out a pen and marked a rough location on the map:

"This is where Sheffield's grave is located. Its tombstone is made of red and white marble, and the inscription is in Ussarian. Please remember this. After passing through the city of the giants of Gugh, you will reach the Spire of the Mark of Cass, and then you can climb the Sakmand Stairs to reach the Enchanted Forest on the ground."

After folding the blueprints and handing them to Milo, Pickman looked around at the weapons hanging from Milo's waist: "Is there anything missing? I'll do my best to provide it."

"I'm not missing anything. I'm in a hurry. Thanks for your long rambling."

Milo roughly judged the direction and waved for Marshall to follow.

(End of this chapter)