Chapter 338

Leon awkwardly smacked his lips and tried to shake off the unfriendly thought. He then began searching along the path for the hound god that the Bureau Director had taken down, following the way Senior Emma had taught him.

Unconscious… three heads… bound by red hair…

Unconscious… three heads… bound by red hair…

His efforts were rewarded when, after muttering the description over a dozen times in his head, he spotted a dog that mostly fit the criteria not too far ahead. Why “mostly”?

“Senior Emma…”

Looking at the massive dog heads soaking in the black-yellow marshes by the No Return Road—each larger than a round dining table by two rounds—Leon couldn’t help but deadpan, “This dog’s head alone is this big. If we pulled it out entirely, it’d be at least five or six meters long. Can we still call it a puppy?”

“To us, it’s very large,” Emma, resting on Leon’s back, explained gently, “but among the gods of the Deathscape, it’s one of the smallest.”

“In our world, souls are attached to physical forms, so the body has a high priority. If the size gets too huge, the flesh often can’t handle it. Unless something like an invading evil deity temporarily erodes the world’s rules with alien ones, it’s hard to see things too enormous on land.”

“The Deathscape follows different rules. Here, physical existence isn’t acknowledged, so as long as the soul can support it, the creatures of the Deathscape can grow almost infinitely tall, even as large as a mountain.”

“As for the hound god guarding the gate of the Deathscape, most of its time is spent outside the Deathscape, and it’s one of the few Deathscape deities with a real physical form, making it the smallest in true size among all the True Gods of the Deathscape.”

“I see.”

Recalling the Deathscape Sovereign who ground their own bones into bricks to pave from the entrance all the way to the deepest part of the Deathscape, Leon nodded in sudden understanding.

Indeed, if that “First Dead Person” didn’t have such a massive body, there probably wouldn’t have been enough bones to grind into powder. Still…

“How do we wake it up?”

After glancing at the hound god’s fangs longer than his foot, Leon hesitated and asked, “Do we just shout loudly at it? Or pat it? And since it was knocked unconscious by the Director, will it even want to help us open the door?”

“It will help.”

Looking at the three-headed dog submerged in the marsh, Emma said with a complex expression, “Olivia’s reputation in the Deathscape is quite… well, renowned. And because of my issues, she came to the Deathscape many times and communicated with the hound god multiple times. So once it sees me, it will send us out.”

“As for waking it up, it’s simple. The hound god identifies the living and the dead through its nose and is highly sensitive to the scent of the living. All you need to do is blow into its nose.”

“Ah…”

Understanding Emma’s tactful response instantly, Leon sighed inwardly about the infamy of his Bureau Director while carefully descending the No Return Road to the edge of the marsh. He blew forcefully into the nose of the unconscious hound god.

…

“Woof?!”

Even though Leon stood seventeen or eighteen meters away from where the three heads sank into the marsh, the breath filled with the scent of life stirred the twelve eyelids of the six eyes of the three dog heads simultaneously.

“Alive!”

With a still somewhat muffled murmur, the basketball-sized pink dog nose closest to Leon twitched violently. The ears drooping on its forehead suddenly perked up and swiveled slightly left and right, searching for nearby sounds. Its already protruding teeth snarled unfriendly beyond its mouth.

“You dare intrude into the Deathscape, I shall…”

“Angesi!”

At this moment, Emma on Leon’s back slightly rose her body and met the six glaring giant dog eyes, shouting, “Do you recognize me?”

The six lantern-sized eyes, glowing with ghostly green phosphorescence, stared at Emma intently for a moment. The muscles on the awakened hound god’s cheeks twitched slightly before it frowned and said unpleasantly,

“So it’s you again… You want to visit your family in Repentance City again, don’t you? They already said they won’t see you. Why can’t you just let go?”

Repentance City? Hearing the hound god’s opening words, Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

If his memory served, it was the place where those deceased who were filled with regret or resentment and refused to move forward resided. These restless spirits stayed until they were completely forgotten by the living, or until everything they regretted, hated, or mourned dissolved with time or death. Only then would they leave Repentance City and continue their journey to the End Cliff.

So… Some of Senior Emma’s clan hadn’t “thoroughly” left; they still lived in Repentance City and harbored resentment towards her?

“This is none of your business…”

Seemingly triggered by the hound god’s question, Emma’s face paled slightly. She bit her lip and said, “Help us open the door. We need to leave the Deathscape now!”

“Fine, I’ll open it for you! You damn cleaners always use anomalous items to disrupt the rules, breaking the boundaries between life and death!”

The massive dog head displayed a rather human-like look of disdain. The three-headed hound god stared at Leon and Emma, full of malice, saying, “I’ve memorized your scents! When you enter as the dead, I will definitely bite each of you a big chunk! Especially you!”

“…”

Seeing the three-headed hound god glaring fiercely at him, Leon asked bewilderedly, “Me? It’s my first time here in the Deathscape.”

“Hmph, before you lie, why don’t you ask this woman who I am?” Huffing loudly and clearing the black-yellow marsh mud from its nose, the three-headed hound god sneered, “In terms of strength, I’m the weakest among the True Gods of the Deathscape, but when it comes to the nose, no one can beat me. I can tell just by smell that you must have come to the Deathscape around three years ago, and recently, you’ve narrowly avoided entering the Deathscape at least a hundred times, escaping using anomalous items every time. Am I right?”

“…”

Recently… That’s true. The number of times I avoided death using the ram horn and heart certainly exceeds a hundred.

But three years ago… Wasn’t that when I just “arrived”?

“Hmph, speechless, aren’t you?”

As Leon furrowed his brows pondering the reason, the three-headed hound god grinned smugly, thinking it had rendered him speechless. It then abruptly opened its mouth and roared thunderously.

“Woof!”

With the deep and powerful bark, the distant colossal gate creaked open. Leon and Emma disappeared without warning, as if falling into a black hole.

“Hurry up and get lost!”

Spitting three times in the direction they left, the three-headed hound god grumbled unhappily, “Damn Clearing Bureau! Damn cleaners! And that damn red-haired woman! Once she dies, I’ll definitely…”

Sniffing a familiar scent, the three-headed hound god turned its head curiously toward the crocodile god emerging from the marsh behind it.

“What brings you here? Don’t you usually never… uh…”

(End of Chapter)