Steam Old Days: The Extraordinary Begins with a Corpse Collector

Chapter 16 The Burial Master of the Past

White opened his eyes and found himself in this strange place.

The desolate grassland stretches as far as the eye can see, with undulating terrain.

Apart from the withered tree behind them, there were no other significant signs around.

White looked up at the dark sky, where thick clouds blocked out all the light, not even a ray could see through.

A bluish-green ghost drifted among the clouds, its howls sounding like weeping and lamenting.

"Was I pulled into the dream created by the nightmare?"

White had heard his teacher say this before.

Nightmares are a type of alien species that cannot appear in the real world. They use their power to create a small dream world, which they can then connect with the dream world of their prey to achieve their hunting goals.

The soul of the prey killed by the nightmare is thrown into this dream world, becoming a ghost, a part of this world, and can never leave.

The more souls a nightmare devours, the stronger it becomes, and the larger the dream world becomes.

White sighed. He was still learning mental magic from Hughes and was not proficient in many of them, so he was at a loss as to what to do about his current situation.

Now, the only way to get out safely is to find his teacher, Hughes, in this dream.

"Where did the teacher go?"

Just as White was about to leave, a mournful wolf howl suddenly came from afar.

On the towering hill, several wolves, each half a person's height, suddenly appeared on the horizon.

To be precise, it is the soul of a wolf that has long since died and is trapped here by nightmares.

The ghost wolves howled to the sky and rushed down the hill, surrounding White.

The wolves' scarlet eyes were fixed on White under the tree, and every now and then a few wolves would suddenly take a few steps forward, trying to test the strength of their prey.

White leaned against the withered tree, his muscles tense.

These ghost wolves are not physical entities, and ordinary physical attacks are completely ineffective against them.

The only way to deal with them is through extraordinary secret techniques.

"Awoo!"

The largest ghost wolf was the first to attack. It arched its back, pushed off the ground with its hind legs, and transformed into a wisp of green smoke with a wolf's head, rushing straight for White's throat.

White did not dodge the attack from the ghost wolf.

He clenched one hand into a fist, silently chanting an incantation. Instantly, all the spiritual power in his body gathered into his fist.

The fist swelled rapidly, becoming three or four times larger than it had been at the beginning in the blink of an eye.

Steaming white smoke rose from the skin.

White roared and then threw a punch at Qingyan!

boom!

The punch was fierce, and in one blow it scattered the green smoke in all directions.

Seeing this, the wolf pack abandoned their individual attacks and swarmed forward to attack White.

White clenched his fist again, chanting an incantation as he unleashed punches.

Soon, White slaughtered the entire pack of ghost wolves.

Although his hair was disheveled and his robe was torn in several places, he was not physically harmed.

However, the entanglement with the wolf pack had disturbed the ghosts floating in the sky.

The ghost sensed the intense arcane energy below, like a cat smelling fish.

Dozens of ghosts and spirits converged into a blue torrent, rushing mightily towards the withered tree where White was.

White's pupils contracted sharply, and he knew something was wrong. He quickly used another secret technique.

Instantly, a semi-transparent barrier protected White.

The torrent was kept out by that barrier.

Seeing that its attack was thwarted, the ghost couldn't help but let out a series of roars.

They are unwilling to easily give up prey that is readily available.

The ghosts hovered around White, waiting for their chance.

White breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they couldn't break through anytime soon.

However, he is now trapped here as well.

"We can only wait for the teacher to come."

White pondered to himself.

After an unknown amount of time, the ghost outside the barrier showed no sign of leaving.

White gradually became desperate.

Suddenly, he heard shouts coming from afar.

White suddenly stood up, thinking that the teacher had come looking for him.

"White!"

A young voice reached his ears.

Linden ran towards him.

A group of howling ghosts followed behind them.

"Quick! Come in quickly!"

White ran to the barrier, ready to open a gap in it at any moment.

Speed is crucial; even a second's delay could allow the ghost to slip in.

Lyndon swung his arms, unleashing unprecedented speed.

Just as the ghost's claws were about to touch his back, Lyndon leaped like an acrobat and flew into the narrow passage that White had opened.

White quickly sealed the gap after Lyndon entered the barrier.

The ghost slammed violently against the barrier that had closed again.

There are just more ghosts now.

"Thank you……"

Lyndon covered his face and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

"No need to thank me, I would never leave someone to die."

White crouched on the ground, staring at the numerous ghosts outside the barrier, at a loss for what to do.

But at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The ghosts outside suddenly became restless; instead of attacking the barrier, they began to fight each other.

Immediately afterwards, the ghosts pushed, bumped, and even escaped.

It was as if some extremely terrifying being was nearby.

"What happened?"

White and Lyndon spoke at the same time.

They were first puzzled, then nervous.

"Look!"

Lyndon pointed to the sky, his voice hoarse.

White looked in the direction Lyndon was pointing and saw the dark clouds in the sky suddenly twist and turn.

A fierce wind howled across the desolate grassland, accompanied by cries and screams.

The dark clouds twisted and began to form a vortex.

At the center of the vortex, a face without features gradually formed and kept approaching the withered tree where White and Lyndon were.

The strange face suddenly stretched out, as if it had opened its mouth.

In short, the strange face emitted a deafening sound.

The sound waves shattered the barrier that White had set up.

White was severely injured and collapsed to the ground, spitting blood from his mouth.

"It's... a nightmare... it actually came to grab us!"

White pounded the ground and said bitterly.

He wanted Lyndon to run first, while he would hold off Nightmare.

After all, Nightmare can only harm one person at a time.

Having studied mental techniques, I have a higher chance of surviving a nightmare attack.

But Lyndon stood still, his back to White.

At that moment, there was no fear in his eyes, only excitement.

The strange face lunged at the two men, and Lyndon stepped in front of White, spreading his arms wide.

"bring it on!"

"No!"

Amid White's screams, Lyndon fearlessly faced everything.

The strange face disappeared the instant it touched Lyndon.

In that instant, Lyndon felt as if his soul had fallen into icy seawater, or rolled into churning lava.

Unimaginable pain swept over every inch of Lyndon's skin and every bone.

A sticky voice came from the depths of the soul.

You belong to me.

In a daze, Lyndon seemed to see a pair of terrifying eyes and a smile that was twisted to the extreme.

"Ugh!"

Lyndon's soul let out a heart-wrenching scream, but the next moment, an unexpected sensation came from his body.

It's like someone lying in the mountains enjoying a cool summer night.

The soft moonlight fell on my shoulders, and in the distance, the nightingale sang.

A cool, tranquil power suppressed the pain brought on by the nightmare.

It trapped the nightmare deep within Lyndon's soul.

Miracles always seem to descend upon this strange land. An ancient and mysterious force will lead you into a completely new and chaotic world. Do not fear what is to come, for you will not even know why you should be afraid.

[The trajectory of your destiny has been severely deviated from its previous path. Previous progress has been preserved and adjustments have been made.]

Name: Lyndon Copperfield

[Current Occupation: The Burialer of the Past LV.3 (30/300)]

[Existing Secret Techniques: Mad Body (Passive), Corpse Collection Technique (Active), Chaotic Perception (Passive)]

[Learnable Secret Technique: Dream Weaving]

What's wrong with dreams? You can immerse people in endless dreams, where you stand shoulder to shoulder with the gods.

The Book of Fate reappeared, and as Lyndon watched the words change, his consciousness once again drifted into slumber.

But this time, he slept very comfortably, as if he were sleeping in his mother's arms.

Then, it sank down little by little.

In the real world, in a bedroom at a Phoenix mansion.

Lyndon suddenly opened his eyes!

The intense pain prevented him from standing up.

Lyndon was panting heavily, as if he had just been rescued from drowning.

He touched his body; it was perfectly intact.

Everything that happened before felt like a dream.

Oh no.

That was all a dream.

Lyndon braced himself with his hands on the ground and accidentally touched something cold.

He looked down and realized it was the potion he had drunk.

Lyndon had drunk all the potion in the bottle, and the glass bottle shimmered under the moonlight.

Lyndon recalled the strange vision in his dream. He vaguely remembered that something helped him suppress the interference of the nightmare, as well as the sentence that had appeared in his mind.

"An ancient and mysterious force will lead me into a completely new and chaotic world..."

Lyndon muttered to himself, and suddenly he seemed to understand something, and his body involuntarily became excited.

"Could it be that I've awakened a transcendent being?!"

As soon as the thought popped into his head, Lyndon quickly summoned the Book of Fate.

Sure enough, the distorted text in the book changed.

Even his former profession as a corpse collector has now become the burial master of his old days.

Although their missions seem to cover similar areas, the latter is clearly more mysterious and extraordinary.

"Alastor said that witchers gain power by drinking potions."

Lyndon thought that he must have fallen into a dream after drinking the potion, and accidentally met some condition, which led to his awakening of his supernatural powers.

"So, is my current power temporary?"

Lyndon looked at his hands and fell into deep thought.

But after a short while, Lyndon burst into laughter.

So what if it's only temporary!

The beginning is always the hardest!

Now that I have stepped into the threshold of the extraordinary, even if my current power is temporary, I can, through my own efforts, completely master the power of the extraordinary in the future.

He shouted loudly and waved his arms.

His eyes were filled with pride and pride.

Lyndon struggled to his feet and looked around.

The room was exactly the same as before, with candles flickering and wax spilled all over the floor.

Hughes and White fell not far from him.

Hughes frowned, his body trembled slightly, and his silver hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat.

White's face was as pale as paper.

It seems they are still trapped in the dream and unable to escape.

"The nightmare is now inside me, so at least they're not in mortal danger anymore," Lyndon thought to himself. He didn't consider himself a good person, otherwise he wouldn't have messed everything up.

But he didn't want to harm people's lives indiscriminately for this reason.

Lyndon's gaze swept over the two of them, and suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he clapped his hands.

"Now that I can weave dreams, can I weave one for them to help them escape?"

Perhaps to test his own abilities, Lyndon extended a finger and tapped Hughes's forehead, concentrating his attention.

In an instant, a white light flashed across Lyndon's fingertips.

Before he could catch his breath, Lyndon walked over to White and repeated the steps he had just taken.

Finally, Lyndon collapsed to the ground, looking utterly exhausted.

"I'm actually quite tired."

In this way, Lyndon was even with the two of them.

That's what Lyndon thinks, anyway.

He stood up, intending to leave before the two woke up.

After all, he still needed to find Alastor, and then through Alastor, he could find out more about his situation from other people.

But when Lyndon reached the door, he stopped.

"Yes, I also need to take Wendell's body with me!"

Although Lyndon has awakened his supernatural powers, he cannot reveal his identity yet. He still needs the job of a corpse collector to temporarily hide himself, at least to earn that gold pound before resigning.

Even a few sparrows are still meat.

The mansion was empty at the moment. Lyndon took out a shroud from his canvas bag and quickly tied Wendell's body tightly.

[Burialist, you have successfully processed a special set of remains. Proficiency +10]

The voice echoed in his mind, and Linden suddenly realized that the voice had become more composed.

He carried the wrapped-up body onto his shoulder.

Because Wendell's body had been hollowed out by the mother insect, it was much lighter.

Lyndon adjusted his posture and took one last look at the room and the two people inside.

The moonlight was bright, and the candlelight flickered.

Lyndon tapped his forehead with his finger and said softly, "Sweet dreams, gentlemen."

After saying that, Lyndon carried the body and quietly left the room, leaving the door slightly ajar.

The streets were deserted as night fell.

In this respect, the new city area and the old city area are the same.

Linden carried the corpse on his back, a bag in one hand. He pulled his thin clothes tighter around himself, strode down the street, and disappeared into the darkness.

……

Early on the third day.

Vulture Recycling Company.

Inside Hornby's office.

Hornby is enjoying his freshly ground coffee.

He seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.

He drew back the blinds; it was still gloomy outside, but he found the weather today to be so lovely.

dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the office door.

"Enter."

The door was pushed open, and Hornby's secretary walked in.

"Miss Ais, today is the third day, and Lyndon still hasn't returned. It seems he's dead. What wonderful news!"