The sailor fell completely silent, lying motionless among the black and white tall grasses, imagining himself already a real corpse.

The wind blew chaotically from all directions, pushing the wild grass on the wilderness. In the surging waves of grass, some sounds seemed to gradually emerge—sounding like distant murmurs, faint conversations, blurred sighs, and ethereal melodies like music.

The sailor closed his eyes, letting the peace of the dead immerse him, immerse him in this endless wilderness.

Agatha, holding her staff, slowly circled the sailor three times. The runes on the ground lit up under her footsteps, and the pale flames gradually emitted a bright glow. Then she stopped again near the sailor's head, inserted the staff into the ground, and slowly opened her arms.

The wind in the wilderness suddenly became more chaotic and violent, and the sounds carried by the wind became much clearer. However, just as Duncan thought the "gatekeepers" on this side had been awakened, the surrounding wind gradually stopped, and all the sounds disappeared.

"...Huh?" Agatha opened her eyes in confusion, her brow gradually furrowing.

"What's going on?" Duncan immediately asked curiously.

The sailor lying on the ground couldn't help but open his eyes either. He realized that the ritual seemed to have gone wrong, but remembering Agatha's instructions earlier, he didn't dare to speak or turn his head casually, so he could only continue to tense up, desperately conveying his questions with his eyes.

"...In the instant the 'channel' was established, I seemed to sense the aura of the 'gatekeepers' of the world of the dead," Agatha said, frowning. "But they didn't respond, they just left."

"No response?" Duncan asked doubtfully, while looking down at the desiccated corpse lying on the ground, desperately gesturing with his eyes. "Was your 'forgery' recognized?"

"That's not the reason... Whether it's recognized or not doesn't matter. Originally, our purpose was to make the 'gatekeepers' on this side appear. As long as they come, even if my forged dead person is exposed on the spot, they will show themselves," Agatha said, shaking her head. "Rather, if they really discovered a forged dead person, they would appear even faster—this is a more serious 'atrocity' than the appearance of a real dead person."

Duncan thoughtfully nodded, but then reacted, "Ah? So, doing this would anger those gatekeepers located on 'this side'?"

Agatha nodded with a look of equanimity. "Yes, if they found out what I was doing—they would probably be very, very angry."

Duncan's expression became strange. "...You didn't mention this before."

"It's fine as long as they don't find out," Agatha shrugged. "If they really find out, there's nothing I can do. I can't beat them, but I can run very fast by jumping through mirrors. Then you can negotiate with them, and it won't be a big problem—the 'gatekeepers' on this side also have the intelligence to communicate, and they usually calm down after a fight."

Duncan felt that something about this process seemed wrong, different from what he had initially imagined.

However, he didn't dwell on this question, but quickly focused on the current anomaly: "But the gatekeepers didn't pay attention to the 'dead' here."

Agatha frowned and nodded. After a moment of thought, she suddenly looked down at the sailor, breaking the silence: "I'll try again. After this ritual, you get up immediately and return to the small boat as quickly as possible—this process will tear the 'channel,' you must not look back."

The sailor was tense all over, his eyes still darting around...

Agatha immediately replied, "I can't understand. Just nod or shake your head gently."

The sailor froze for a moment, first hesitantly shaking his head as if wanting to refuse, but then he stopped, and finally nodded slightly.

"Okay, I'll take that as you having no objections. Now stay still, I'm going to do it again."

As Agatha spoke, she picked up the combat staff materialized from her memory and began to light the pale flames on the ground again, activating those strange and profound runes.

The chaotic wind stirred again, mixed with muffled murmurs. The "channel" in Agatha's words was established again, and Duncan also sensed the existence of..."them."

Agatha stopped again at the end of the ritual, then heavily inserted the staff into the ground: "Now—get up!"

The sailor had been waiting for this sentence for a long time. He jumped up on the spot like a spring, without hesitation crossing the pale flames burning around him, and rushed towards the origami boat not far away!

And with the sudden activity of the "dead," the situation finally changed—the "channel" was forcibly torn apart, and a world originally hidden in a "deeper" layer suddenly appeared before Duncan's eyes!

The pale flames on the ground soared, and the triangular rune array left by Agatha released a dazzling light. Then, a rapidly expanding crack appeared in the air above the triangle. The space there was covered with cracks like glass, silently shattering, and a twilight-like light leaked from the cracks—almost in the blink of an eye, those rising pale flames were also dyed with a layer of twilight color.

And through that rapidly expanding crack, Duncan saw an unusually tall phantom cloaked in a black robe. However, that phantom did not "become enraged" as Agatha had said. He just silently watched this side of the crack, paused briefly, then turned around and slowly walked away.

Duncan immediately looked at Agatha in confusion, but the latter seemed even more surprised. She stared in astonishment at the "gatekeeper" who turned to leave, and couldn't help but say, "Wait! Someone here is operating in violation of the rules, didn't you see? Forging the dead! And deliberately destroying the reception channel! Come and take care of it!"

The tall phantom walked further away, as if he hadn't heard the sound coming from behind at all. As he left, the crack above the triangle also began to slowly close.

Agatha stared at this scene in astonishment, but just as she was about to forcibly hold up the channel and take the captain through it on her own initiative, a large, withered hand like a claw suddenly appeared at the edge of the crack—that hand held up the slowly closing crack, followed by another hand.

Accompanied by the ear-piercing noise of gradually shattering glass, the crack was forcibly widened by those hands and began to expand again.

Then, the owner of those hands appeared on the other side of the crack—an even taller "gatekeeper," wearing a black robe as deep as the night, the hood of the robe completely covering his face, with only a pair of eyes emitting a dim yellow light burning like fire in the shadow of the hood. He bent over, and a somber, hoarse voice seemed to rise from the tomb: "Come."

Accompanied by this brief and cold word, in the next second, the crack, like glass cracks, shattered silently.

Shattered along with it was the entire death wilderness before Duncan's eyes, the "night" on this wilderness.

The eternal night that enveloped the realm of the dead shattered and dissipated, and what was revealed behind the curtain was the twilight brilliance. The black and white nameless wild grasses swayed in the twilight wind, and a path appeared before Duncan and Agatha. That path had no end, extending straight into the depths of the wilderness, as if it had always disappeared into the sky and the earth.

The unusually tall "gatekeeper" stood on the path, standing silently, like a silent tombstone.

Duncan subconsciously looked back at the *Missing Home* and the *Brilliant Star*, but saw that the two ships had turned into two solidified and translucent shadows—they were static not far away, and in the twilight brilliance, on the other side of the shadows, it seemed that the wasteland covered by the eternal night could still be seen.

Duncan withdrew his gaze.

The tall gatekeeper, who was standing quietly, also broke the silence almost at the same time: "Go."

As soon as the words fell, he had turned around and stepped forward along the path.

Duncan exchanged a glance with Agatha and immediately followed.

"The situation is not normal," Agatha muttered in a low voice, following beside Duncan. "The gatekeepers I've seen... the gatekeepers I've seen in my memory are not like this. The aura is not quite right... The words and actions are not quite right either."

"Wasn't the gatekeeper who turned around and left earlier even weirder?" Duncan said casually. "This one is at least willing to show up and lead the way, which is better than nothing—we've at least come to a 'deeper' place."

"That's why it's even weirder," Agatha frowned. "The gatekeepers here should be able to tell at a glance that you and I are not 'dead,' and even if they're going to lead the way, they should ask and negotiate... Why did this one just lead the way directly? As if he was waiting on purpose..."

Duncan thought there was some truth to it: "Then ask him?"

Agatha hesitated for a moment, then really raised her head and looked at the tall figure who was walking ahead and slowing down: "Are you waiting here specifically for us?"

The tall figure didn't answer, as if he hadn't heard.

Agatha wasn't discouraged, and after a while, she asked loudly again: "Do you know who we are? Have you noticed that we are not real 'dead'?"

The tall gatekeeper finally paused, but only made a muffled syllable: "Mmm."

"Captain, this gatekeeper may have a cold personality." Agatha turned her head and said to Duncan helplessly.

Duncan didn't say anything, just frowned and thought for a while, then raised his head and said to the gatekeeper, "We also summoned a gatekeeper before, but he left without paying attention to us, and there are other gatekeepers... Where did they all go?"

In Duncan and Agatha's surprised eyes, the tall figure stopped.

"Funeral," he broke the silence in a low voice.

Duncan frowned: "Funeral? Are you saying the other gatekeepers went to attend a funeral?"

"Yes."

"Whose funeral?" Agatha asked subconsciously.

"The God of Death's."

The tall gatekeeper turned around, his dim yellow eyes burning quietly in the shadow of the hood.

"The God of Death is dead."

(End of this chapter)