Chapter 379: Chapter 378: The Death of the Hall Spirit and Thirteen Strikes of the Copper Bell

“Uh, this…” Richard could not answer the question about the Golden Mask. Indeed, he could not answer; he knew very little about the Golden Mask–less than the Golden Mask knew about itself. Now that the Golden Mask itself had no answers, how could he possibly have them?

Richard let out a sigh, trying to comfort the Golden Mask, “Have you heard of the three great questions of life?”

“Hm?”

“There are three philosophical conundrums in life: ‘Who am I?’ ‘Where do I come from?’ ‘Where am I going?’ To figure out these three questions is to understand the meaning of life.”

“So…”

“So what I want to say is, although you don’t know ‘who you are’ or ‘where you come from,’ you can still choose ‘where to go’–you have a future. Since you have already forgotten the past, why not consider how to live your life from here on, which could be a brand-new you.” Richard said.

Golden Mask fell silent, a long, drawn-out silence, and finally spoke, first in a very low voice, then increasingly louder, “No… no! You are wrong! Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? If I don’t even know who I am, if I don’t even know where I come from, do I still need to go anywhere? If I become a completely new me, is that still me, or just another stranger?”

“Uh…”

“Ah, damn it, damn it, damn it, why can’t I remember what happened before? Why can’t I remember anything, ah! Why! Why! Why is my memory so fuzzy, ah! Why!”

The more the Golden Mask spoke, the more agitated it became, until it finally let out an almost roaring shout, then suddenly stopped.

Richard raised an eyebrow, suddenly having a bad feeling, and quickly reached out to the Golden Mask only to find that the one hanging on the wall was now cold.

“Bang bang!”

Richard tapped the outer surface of the Golden Mask with his fingers, but the Golden Mask gave no response.

“Bang bang!”

Richard tapped harder, yet the Golden Mask still gave no response, as if it were an inanimate object.

This…

“So… it ended up just like the Book Spirit from the Monroe Chapter?” Richard thought, his lips slightly pursed, feeling somewhat bizarre inside.

Although he admitted it was his fault the Book Spirit broke down, he wanted to deny it now that he caused the Hall Spirit Golden Mask to collapse.

Honestly, he hadn’t intended to kill the Golden Mask at all since it was already pitiful enough–not only had its palace been torn down by him, but it was often bullied by Pandora–shearing the wool off so completely it seemed cruel to slaughter the sheep for meat.

Moreover, if he truly wanted to kill it, the method would be simple–just melt it into a gold ingot in the Melting Furnace, no need to complicate things.

Therefore, he really wanted to counsel it, and if he was lucky, to get some information about “Stockholm” from it.

However… who knew it would end like this.

Richard sighed, shook his head, straightened the Golden Mask hanging on the wall, and turned to leave.

Having spent over a week without gaining any information related to “Stockholm,” he decided to look elsewhere.

…

And looking elsewhere actually meant two places–the White Stone Tower College Library, and the residence of the Great Scholar Socrates.

Without much hesitation, Richard left the Inner Box World and headed to White Stone Tower College.

Upon returning to White Stone Tower College, Richard keenly noticed that the previously damaged buildings had been mostly restored; the entire White Stone Tower showed no signs of decay, as if it had never been attacked.

But behind the restored buildings, Richard sensed an oppressive atmosphere, laden with sadness, hatred, concern, and fear, making it somewhat hard to breathe.

Looking up, Richard noticed that the sky, not known when, had become overcast, with numerous leaden clouds densely packed, pressing the sky very low, as if he could reach out and touch it by standing on tiptoes.

“Is it because of the weather?” Richard muttered to himself, not thinking too much, and turned to enter the library.

Inside the library, Richard continuously flipped through books, but after half a day, he found no books related to “Stockholm,” leaving him feeling rather dejected.

Later, Richard specifically sought out Rose, the Black Holy Mountain Princess who had been avoiding him–asking her directly, she frankly admitted that she didn’t know, which further dampened Richard’s spirits.

Seeing the gloomy expression on Richard’s face, Rose said in a panic, “I really don’t know, I’m telling the truth. Even if you treat me in some special way, my answer will still be the same.”

Richard observed her microexpressions for a moment and, convinced that she wasn’t lying, left with disappointment. He then returned to the library, holding onto his last hope, and searched the books for a second time, hoping there might be some he had missed before.

Gro was also in the library and, seeing Richard busy, took the initiative to help.

However, the two of them together couldn’t change the harsh reality–there were really no books on “Stockholm” in the library.

As evening approached, Richard gave up, pulled Gro along, and stopped searching for books. They sat down at a table on the side.

Gro spoke, curiously asking, “Lord Richard, why are you looking for books about ‘Stockholm’? What does ‘Stockholm’ mean?”

“Uh, well… It’s actually nothing, just an ancient language I’ve been researching lately,” Richard said, not wanting Gro to know too much. After all, it wouldn’t be beneficial for him to know. Changing the subject, he asked, “By the way, how’s the academy, or should I say White Stone Tower, doing? Is it still as bad as before?”

“Er, well…” Gro was about to say something in response to Richard’s words when suddenly a loud Copper Bell rang from outside the library.

“Dong!”

Richard instinctively looked outside, blinking.

Is it dismissal time?

Although he, being an absolute “poor student,” barely spent any time at White Stone Tower Academy, he still remembered the academy’s most basic rules.

White Stone Tower College used the Copper Bell to announce the schedule. There were two types of bell sounds: a deeper bell sound and a crisper bell sound.

The deeper bell sound marked the end of a class, while the crisper bell sound marked the beginning of a new class.

Is it dismissal time?

Richard wondered, suddenly raising his eyebrows because the Copper Bell sound was different from the deep bell sound he had heard before and also different from the crisp bell sound. It was…

“Dong!”

At that moment, the second Copper Bell rang.

“Dong!”

The third.

“Dong!”

The fourth.

“Dong!”

The fifth…

The Copper Bell sounds were ominous and cold, carrying a solemnity that kept ringing continuously…

…

“Dong!”

After the last bell sound faded, Richard counted in his mind, “Thirteen.”

Thirteen! Thirteen bell tolls!

Richard frowned deeply.

In the modern Western world on Earth, thirteen has always been an unlucky and taboo number.

This was because of a legend: on the 13th day of Nisan Month (a month in the Hebrew calendar, between March and April), before Jesus suffered, he dined with his disciples. Thirteen people attended the dinner–Jesus and the Twelve Disciples. Judas, the thirteenth person to join the dinner and seated at the thirteenth spot, later betrayed Jesus for thirty silver coins, causing Jesus to endure immense suffering.

Likewise, the number “666” was also taboo in the West.

According to legend, God created the world in seven days, and a week has seven days; seven is perfect, and six, being one less than seven, is imperfect. Three consecutive sixes are extremely imperfect, evil, a great disrespect to God, and represent Satan!

Despite the lack of any major religions or legends of God in the current world, numbers like 13 and 666 were still considered ominous–13 representing death, 666 representing darkness.

Richard found it strange that White Stone Tower suddenly used the Copper Bell to toll the number 13.

As he was contemplating this, Richard noticed that all the students in the library reading books had stood up, craning their necks to look outside, and the next moment, they all rushed out as if something significant had happened.

What’s going on?