Chapter 35: Soul Perception
After leaving the theater, Funis did not head directly to Vivian Glass Factory.
Before obtaining the Swordrust secretions, there was still something quite important she wanted to test—her newly gained “Gravedigger” title, the Seventh Sequence of the Wrath Path. As its potion name suggested, one of its Transcendent traits was the ability to awaken the dead.
Night in Black City was eerie. Under a shroud of cloud and haze, the moon was nowhere to be seen. Walking the lampless streets felt like sinking into a pit of dark, wet mud.
She pushed open the iron gate, and a gravel path wound through the shrubs—long and serpentine.
Midnight.
The cemetery’s mist was thin.
Funis sniffed the air. No metallic stench—just the dampness of moisture.
She had taken a longer route, walking an extra seven or eight hundred meters north of the glass factory to arrive at this public graveyard.
Pale white headstones stood among low shrubs, flanked by small gray-white flowers whose names she didn’t know.
Silence.
The sound of her heels seemed to echo across the entire graveyard.
A faint chill drifted through the mist—especially unsettling in such a deserted night.
Paying a modest tax to Lord Joseph of the fortress granted a family a relatively peaceful resting place. The factory owners hadn’t extended their chimneys here yet. Besides, the workers and citizens had no other options.
It sat on the border between the Blackwater River District and Georgeson District—or rather, on the mutual edge of both.
This was the frontier of Graycloud Fortress’s Black City.
Beyond lay the territory of the Kingdom of Correnzo.
Queen Philettrica, known as the Golden Iris, had already reintegrated the surrounding city-states into her dominion. These former allies had once declared independence alongside Graycloud Fortress, but now, science and liberty were no longer the exclusive domain of progressive city-states. After parliamentary reforms, merchants were no longer sidelined from politics. Given the generous and alluring terms, they had no reason to refuse the Queen.
Only Graycloud Fortress remained—a dazzling jewel amidst the smog, wealthy and thriving.
A thorn in the Queen’s side.
But that was not Funis’s concern. She withdrew her gaze from the distant hills and continued strolling along the cemetery’s gravel path.
She stopped before a row of tombstones and gently extended her hand.
A dark red flame flared from her palm and lingered in the mist. From within the fire, a book inlaid with gold and diamonds was forged into being. It opened by itself under Funis’s gaze, pages flipping with a rustle of yellowed parchment.
The pages were blank—until the eighth page.
A lion-leopard with fangs.
Grotesque in style.
“Original Codex, Chapter Eight: Chapter of Wrath.”
Funis recited the header in a cryptic, tongue-twisting language. Her voice grew deep and ancient, like a bronze bell tolling.
Being able to summon the Codex’s true form at will was proof that she had fully absorbed and fused with it.
A snap of her fingers.
The lion-leopard illustration dissolved into lines of text.
The red script that had once filled her vision was merely a simplified manifestation of the Codex—more intuitive and direct, but not detailed, and offered little insight into her current condition.
For instance, the simplified view of 【Authority · Vengeful Absorption】 only showed the available charge. But here, the precise recharge time was displayed:
48 hours.
Exactly two days.
Although leveling up the Authority would shorten recharge time and increase the maximum charges, in its current state, the ability could not be used carelessly. It had to be reserved for critical moments.
More than this, Funis was now curious to see if the Gravedigger’s Transcendent traits actually worked.
She traced her fingers over the glowing letters on the page.
Her Path changed silently.
Samael had permanently opened this path to her. From this moment, Funis was no longer of the Ninth Sequence of the Witch Path—but the Seventh Sequence of the Wrath Path: Gravedigger.
Considering that the Ninth Sequence showed no Transcendent traits and was useless for combat or exploration, she decided to remain in the Wrath Path until she could perform the advancement ritual for the Witch Path.
She raised her hand lightly, forming a fist.
The golden, gem-studded Codex shut abruptly. The dark red flames scattered into red and black embers, vanishing on the wind.
Funis dismissed the Codex’s summoning. Everything related to it returned to the depths of her consciousness. Her palm now hovered over empty, misty air—as though nothing had ever been there.
The Chapter of Wrath began from the Seventh Sequence. That meant there must have also been an Eighth and Ninth Sequence before it—Funis had essentially skipped two advancement stages, gaining a relatively high starting point.
Excluding the basic Ninth Sequence, Transcendent traits began manifesting at the Eighth.
Funis wasn’t worried about missing out on the Eighth Sequence “Toxin Master” trait.
Because higher Sequences encompassed all lower Sequence traits of the same path—they remained embedded within the higher traits, even enhanced.
In other words, by becoming a Seventh Sequence Gravedigger, Funis had also acquired all the traits of the Eighth Sequence Toxin Master.
Legend held that the Tree of Knowledge was planted by Samael, and its fruits were ripe grapes.
Those who drank wine made from them lost reason and were easily ruled by wrath. Thus, alcohol and hallucinogenic toxins became foundational traits of the Wrath Path.
This was recorded in certain tomes penned by demon-followers.
Funis had confiscated many such texts and read them thoroughly. She remembered clearly.
A Toxin Master could infuse alcohol or special biological toxins into liquids they touched—or into their own secretions. These toxins had mild hallucinogenic effects and transferred through contact when attacked.
The Eighth Sequence of the Wrath Path was relatively weak in head-on combat.
But low-ranking Transcendents often couldn’t resist these toxins. A moment of carelessness could trigger hallucinations, leaving them at others’ mercy.
Of course, a Warden of the Generosity Path in “Burst” state metabolized rapidly and would expel toxins through sweat, rendering them essentially immune.
Funis could now mix this toxin into her Succubus sleep bubbles. Once popped, the enhanced hypnotic effect would overcome the close-contact limitation of traditional poisoning.
Then there was the Seventh Sequence: Gravedigger.
Awakening the dead.
Before his fall, Samael had been the Lord’s soul collector. Gaining such a trait while walking the Wrath Path made perfect sense.
But desecrating the dead was a serious crime in nearly every faith and nation. Funis had no intention of digging up graves—she had come to test another Transcendent trait to verify the authenticity of the Seventh Sequence.
She closed her eyes. Darkness filled her vision.
After a brief silence, clusters of ghostly blue halos appeared. Their shapes shifted and flickered like dying flames—and remained even when she opened her eyes again.
Funis could see the blue flames sleeping beneath the graves.
These were undead.
The remnants of souls, lodged in the corpses of the once-living—utterly different from living souls.
A Gravedigger couldn’t manipulate undead directly. But by awakening them and influencing their emotions, they could follow orders temporarily. They had no intelligence—only base instinct. Controlling multiple undead was not difficult.
Now that she could clearly sense the presence of undead, it proved her Gravedigger rank was genuine—and affirmed the reliability of the other abilities granted by the Codex.
Funis finally relaxed.
But she was also elated.
This meant that if she could successfully digest the traits of the Gravedigger, and then gather the potion ingredients for the Sixth Sequence “Inciter,” she would, through a complex ritual, step directly from a low to a middle Sequence.
The Sixth Sequence of any Path marked a transformation—just like the leap from Fourth to Third Sequence.
A massive advancement.
The undead were usually quiet, sleeping beneath the earth with their masters. They didn’t change much.
Funis wandered for a while, then grew bored. It was time to head to Vivian Glass Factory—she had already spent enough time here.
A subtle itch rose in her chest.
She pressed her thighs together, white silk rubbing with a soft rustle.
“Let’s wrap this up and get back soon…” Funis blushed, clutching the hem of her skirt.
But just as she turned to leave, a flickering white soul flame passed beyond the iron gate—signifying a living person was walking past the cemetery.
In the blink of an eye, the soul-perception vanished. Her vision returned to normal colors.
A slender, elegant figure. Flowing golden curls like silk.
Funis seemed to glimpse a familiar, deeply missed silhouette flash behind the trees.
She could hardly believe her eyes.
“Charlotte!?”