Chapter 299: Successful Temporary Leave Scroll Experiment

'So this is the Witches' Forest...' she thought. 'It is quite different from what I imagined.'

After bidding farewell to Susi and the others, the Knowledge Witch Diana teleported with Lan Qingyou to the witch settlement. She stood stunned at the sight of the Abandoned Forest, taking in the lush greenery and the gently flowing stream.

Since this was the territory of the Tower Witch, she had pictured a gloomy, foreboding place with crows cawing wildly from barren branches.

Or perhaps a setup featuring a bubbling, steaming crucible, surrounded by assorted medicinal herbs and various alchemy vessels.

Indeed.

Even though she was a witch herself, she still harbored a few unrealistic fantasies about such a top-tier figure.

In reality, however, it was just a forest.

Bathed in abundant sunlight, with the gentle breeze swaying the branches and the leaves rustling softly, the forest felt tranquil and inviting.

Aside from her immediate surroundings and the few massive trees nearby, the rest of the area resembled a completely ordinary woodland.

It was unmistakably a cultivated herb garden, carved out by human hands.

Furthermore, um... many of those herbs appeared to be rare specimens she had never seen before.

Still, this perfectly suited Lan Qingyou's identity as an Alchemist.

Oh, right.

There were also the starry specks of magical light floating in the air above the water channels.

Tsk, tsk.

For magic to directly materialize into visible light, the ambient magical concentration had to be astoundingly high.

Thump!

Just as Diana was admiring this cozy and picturesque scene, a dull, heavy sound echoed from the distance.

Turning her head, she noticed people moving about a few hundred meters away.

There were not just one or two, but a whole group. Judging by the ripples in the surrounding air, they were likely casting some kind of magic.

"Clan Head, is this..."

"They are constructing houses and streets on the perimeter," Lan Qingyou replied.

Lan Qingyou glanced over and gave a slight nod.

Over the past few days, a portion of the buildings on the outskirts had already been erected under Shang Chuan's direction.

These structures were constructed entirely out of wood.

After all, whether it was the designated Witches' Forest or the Abandoned Forest outside, the one resource they possessed in sheer abundance was timber.

Due to the numerous streams flowing through the forest, Shang Chuan opted for a stilted house design, elevated about half a meter to a meter off the ground, much like the Joy Restaurant.

On one hand, this prevented any disruption to the natural scenery.

On the other hand, it was also precisely what Lan Qingyou had instructed.

After all, the streams represented flowing water, and what flowing water signified within the Witches' Forest went without saying.

The main structure of the magic circle was composed of these very water channels, which flowed with the highly concentrated magic of the Spring of Rest.

Therefore, Shang Chuan ultimately chose a design similar to Gu Xiaobei's establishment.

Since he occasionally dined at the Joy Restaurant, he was intimately familiar with that architectural style.

Lan Qingyou's decision to make this specific request stemmed primarily from her previous discussions with Diana regarding the scrolls.

"Shall we begin now, Clan Head?"

Diana asked, practically brimming with eagerness to test it out.

"No, not yet."

"But the concentration in the flowing water is already incredibly high."

Knowing exactly what Lan Qingyou meant by "not yet," Diana immediately caught on.

For a witch, using the Magic Eye to perceive magical concentration and flow was a passive skill; they saw it whether they wanted to or not.

"It is high, but still not enough to cover the cost of the summoning."

Lan Qingyou shook her head and flew toward the pavilion as she spoke.

Thanks to the vines scattered earlier, the pavilion no longer looked bare. It was partially draped in creeping vines, instantly giving it a more atmospheric charm.

Beneath the four corners of the pavilion's roof sat Orichalcum toad statues, their mouths gaping toward the sky. These had been specially ordered and installed at a later date.

"Clan Head, what are you doing?"

Lacking Lan Qingyou's specific Magic Eye, Diana could not see anything special about the statues. She only noticed what looked like white sand trickling down from the pavilion roof directly into the toads' open mouths.

"Salt of the Sun, a type of salt used in alchemy," Lan Qingyou stated plainly.

She then produced a long spear and gave one of the toad statues a firm poke.

The toad tilted backward, spewing the Salt of the Sun stored inside its belly with a soft rustling sound. The salt sank straight into the adjacent Spring of Rest.

Whoosh—

The moment the salt mingled with the spring water, Diana clearly felt the surrounding magical concentration surge by more than just a single tier.

This dense magic then spread throughout the entire settlement, carried along by the currents of the Spring of Rest.

It also streamed through the magic circle's outlets into the downstream streams, causing the magical energy in the lower reaches of the Witches' Forest to instantly skyrocket by several levels.

This was a practical example of one plus one amounting to far more than two.

Lan Qingyou had discovered this phenomenon when she first sprinkled the Salt of the Sun.

One could not underestimate that substance.

When exposed to air, it produced over five hundred kilograms of yield every single day.

Otherwise, Lan Qingyou would not have gone through the extra expense of custom-ordering those four storage-capable, gaping-mouthed toads.

"Let's go. Find a spot you like to run the experiment."

The dramatic spike in magical power meant the payment conditions for the summon had been met.

With that, Lan Qingyou gestured for Diana to proceed.

Guided by Lan Qingyou, Diana selected a gently sloping hillock in the downstream area, where the magic had surged. She then withdrew a Magic Desk from her Card.

A pale scroll was affixed to the surface of the Magic Desk.

It was the Temporary Leave Scroll.

Diana set the Magic Desk down at the foot of the hillock, then swiftly ripped the scroll off the desk.

Boom!

In an instant, a magic circle over thirty meters wide flared to life on the hillock. Massive spatial ripples manifested, vacuuming the ambient magic from the air and creating a brief void utterly devoid of mana.

Even Lan Qingyou, hovering in the distant sky, was swayed slightly by the tremor, proving just how massive the disturbance was.

About a dozen seconds later, both the magic circle and the spatial ripples vanished.

In their place, a semi-circular door had appeared before the hillock.

"Is this your Shelter?"

Diana pushed the door open to inspect the interior, and Lan Qingyou followed her into the Shelter.

"Yes, it really is my Shelter. The walls, the interior decor, and my belongings are all completely intact. It seems we have truly succeeded this time."

Diana nodded happily.

Thrilled by the success of the experiment, she even took Lan Qingyou on a brief tour.

It was a burrow-style Shelter. Aside from a few functional laboratory rooms, its most striking feature was the endless rows of bookcases, packed with neatly organized volumes.

It was a fitting aesthetic for the title of 'Knowledge Witch'.