CHAPTER 396: SPEAKING ILL OF OTHERS BEHIND THEIR BACK WILL LEAD TO RETRIBUTION_1

The director was as much of a bastard as always.

Leon clicked his tongue, somewhat speechless, before trying hard to shake the unfriendly thought from his mind. Following the method Senior Emma had taught him, he began searching along the path for the canine deity that the director had knocked out.

A comatose, three-headed puppy wrapped in red hair...

A comatose, three-headed puppy wrapped in red hair...

As the saying goes, "Heaven rewards the persistent." After silently reciting this seventeen or eighteen times, Leon finally spotted a dog that basically matched the criteria, not far ahead. As for why it was only "basically"...

"Senior Emma..."

Looking at the three dog heads, each two circles bigger than a round dining table, soaking in the pitch-black swamp by the No Return Path, Leon couldn’t help but say, speechlessly,

"This dog’s heads alone are this large. If we pull it out entirely, it’d be at least five or six meters long. This can’t be considered a small dog, can it?"

"It’s very large for us, but among the deities of the Dead Realm, it’s one of the smallest in size."

Emma, on Leon’s back, explained softly,

"In our world, souls exist by attaching to bodies, so the priority of the body is very high. If the size is too huge, it becomes difficult for the flesh to support itself.

So unless we encounter an Evil God or such, which can briefly erode the world’s rules with special rules, it’s hard to see anything massive on land."

"The rules of the Dead Realm are different from ours. Here, the body doesn’t have its existence acknowledged, so as long as a soul can sustain it, the size of a creature in the Dead Realm can grow almost infinitely, even as big as a mountain.

As for the canine deity responsible for guarding the gate of the Dead Realm, it spends most time outside the Dead Realm and is one of the few deities with a physical form. That’s why it’s the smallest among all the True Gods of the Dead Realm."

Ah, that made sense.

Thinking about that Overlord of the Dead Realm who ground its bones into bricks, paving the path from the entrance of the Dead Realm to its deepest parts, Leon couldn’t help but nod with sudden understanding.

Indeed, if that "First Deceased" didn’t have an enormous body, it might not have had enough bones to grind into powder, but still...

"How should we wake it up?"

Looking at the canine deity’s fangs that were longer than his own feet, Leon hesitated before asking,

"Should we just shout loudly at it? Or maybe pat it? Also, since the director knocked it out, would it even be willing to help us open the door?"

"It’ll help."

Glancing at the Three-headed Canine Deity soaking in the swamp by the road, Emma spoke with a complex expression,

"Olivia’s reputation in the Dead Realm is quite... remarkable. She came here many times for my sake and has communicated with the canine deity a lot. So when it sees me, it will send us out.

As for waking it, it’s rather simple. The canine deity relies on its nose to distinguish between the living and the dead, and it’s very sensitive to the scent of the living. So, we just need to blow a breath at its nose."

"Oh..."

Understanding Emma’s euphemistic explanation, Leon marveled at the notorious reputation of his director while carefully descending from the No Return Path to the edge of the swamp, blowing a strong breath at the unconscious canine deity’s nose.

"Woof?!"

Even though Leon stood seventeen or eighteen meters away from where the Three-headed Dog was sunken, as soon as he exhaled with the breath of the living, the three heads’ six eyes, the twelve eyelids, simultaneously flickered.

"Alive!"

Accompanied by a still somewhat unclear mumble, the pink dog nose, the size of a basketball and closest to Leon, twitched violently. The ears, previously drooping on its forehead, suddenly stood up, lightly twisting left and right, searching for the nearby sound. The teeth, which were already somewhat exposed, bared in extreme hostility.

"How dare you venture into the Dead Realm, I’m going to..."

"Angsi!"

Noticing this, Emma, on Leon’s back, leaned forward slightly, boldly confronting the six giant dog eyes glaring at them, and loudly asked,

"Do you recognize me?"

"..."

The six lantern-sized eyes, flickering with ghostly green phosphorescence, carefully scrutinized Emma for a moment. The awakened canine deity’s facial muscles twitched slightly, and with a displeased expression, it said,

"It’s you... Are you planning to visit your family in the City of Regret again? Didn’t they say they wouldn’t see you? How can you not understand what giving up means?"

City of Regret?

Hearing the canine deity’s opening, Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

If he remembered correctly, that place was for those whose regrets or grievances were so strong that they refused to move forward. It housed many dead who were unsatisfied in soul.

Until they were forgotten by all living beings, when no one remembered them anymore, or until those they regretted, resented, or held grudges against, or the events surrounding those feelings, faded away with time or death, only then would these dead leave the City of Regret and continue on the No Return Path to the Cliff of Doomsday.

So... some of Senior Emma’s kin, at least a portion, hadn’t "completely" moved on and continued to reside in the City of Regret, constantly harboring resentment toward her?

"This is none of your concern..."

Seemingly pained by the canine deity’s questioning, Emma’s face paled slightly before she bit her lip and said,

"Help us open the door, we need to leave the Dead Realm now!"

"Fine, open it for you! You damn Cleaners always like to use the Anomalous Objects in your hands to break the rules and do things that shatter the boundary between life and death!"

The giant dog head revealed a distinctly human-like disdainful expression as the Three-headed Canine Deity stared at Leon and Emma with a face full of malice,

"I’ll remember your scent! When you return here as the dead, I’ll surely bite you each with a big chomp! Especially you!"

"..."

???

Staring at the Three-headed Canine Deity, who was glaring viciously at him, Leon asked, somewhat dumbfounded,

"Me? It’s my first time in the Dead Realm!"

"Ha, ha. Before you lie, why not first ask this woman who I am?"

With a forceful snort, blowing out the black-yellow swamp sludge from its nose, the Three-headed Canine Deity said disdainfully,

"Regarding strength, I’m the weakest among the True Gods of the Netherworld, but as for the nose, no one can surpass me.

With one sniff, I can tell that you came to the Dead Realm about three years ago, and recently you’ve almost entered the realm over a hundred times, only to escape back using Anomalous Objects. Am I right?"

"..."

Recently... indeed, counting the times he’d used Yang Jiao and Yang Xin to evade death, it’d been over a hundred times.

But three years ago... wasn’t that when I just "arrived"?

"Ha, ha, speechless now, aren’t you?"

As Leon furrowed his brows in thought, the Three-headed Canine Deity, thinking it had rendered him "speechless," grinned triumphantly, suddenly opening its mouth wide to let out an ear-splitting roar.

"Woof!"

Accompanied by the deep and forceful bark, the massive doors in the distance creaked open slightly, and Leon and Emma vanished without a trace, as if swallowed by a black hole, taken by surprise.

"Get lost already!"

Spitting thrice in the direction they disappeared, the Three-headed Canine Deity grumbled in irritation,

"Damn Purification Bureau! Damn Cleaners! And that damned red-haired woman! When she finally dies, I’ll surely... Hm? Ampu?"

Catching a familiar scent, the Three-headed Canine Deity turned its head in surprise, looking at the Crocodile God emerging from the swamp behind,

"What are you doing here? You never usually... uh..."