Chapter 133: The Ritual Begins Again

In the second half, Tally joined in as well.

It wasn't until Vivian knocked on the door in the middle of the night that Rod remembered the daytime invitation.

It nearly scared Miss Xiao Ke to death.

Without caring that Rod was still inside, she grabbed him and dragged him to brace the wooden door.

She refused to open it no matter what.

Then she lied to Vivian that she was learning to cook, and the tree spirit's naive nature actually bought it.

Rod got a brand-new experience too.

Every time Miss Xiao Ke and Vivian talked and lied.

The pressure would sharply increase, which directly caused Rod to be unable to lock his apertures.

Five days later.

The spell ritual setup in the Willow District was activated once again.

The three apprentice mages—Vernon, Leon, and Pavla—regained consciousness two days ago and, after a brief rest, decided to continue participating.

But from then on, every time they ran into Rod, they would respectfully greet him.

As for Sharon, her situation was not optimistic; she was still recuperating.

The spell ritual was presided over by Dimia.

Lady Kali stood by to monitor and patch any gaps.

Last time there was an accident, and Sharon still hadn't recovered; the elf just complained it was troublesome verbally, but in reality still chose to come help.

"Why do you want me here?"

Miss Xiao Ke said, displeased.

She hated crowded places and rarely took part in such things.

And now Vivian was standing right beside her.

That made her feel deep self-reproach and a sense of wrongdoing.

She unconsciously distanced herself from that man.

Since the heat period was already over, let the memories drift away with the wind.

"You said I could freely divine for you."

Rod said.

【Time Echo】 was an extremely powerful divination spell.

The withering spell that even Lady Kali couldn't see through was laid completely bare under Miss Xiao Ke's powerful divination.

'A spell cast by a male mage around thirty years old, the spell's name is 【Plant Withering】.'

It could even see through age and gender!

As expected of a half-deer person.

And since she had recently divined that the ritual would be dangerous, Rod simply put her to maximum use.

He came every day to watch this bunch of fellows work, to see who dared to cause trouble.

"It's hard for me to divine every single moment, so just consider it as accompanying Vivian."

Ever since the appearance of 【Plant Withering】, the tree spirit feared humans would damage the trees, so she planned to serve as overseer here.

Rod smiled.

He sat under the tree and began adjusting the coordination between mana and spirituality.

Yes! After using the 【Auxiliary Art】 given by the witch, he smoothly entered a meditative state!

And in just three short days, he raised his mana accumulation to the mid-stage of first-tier.

Enough to use magic missiles.

But he had no plans to learn spells for now, focusing entirely on raising mana accumulation.

"Master~ you spend all day learning this useless stuff; the urgent matter is to keep raising your spirituality."

Tally pouted, thumping her leg as she spoke.

By her account, mana tasted far worse than spirituality.

"If you don't learn, you'll squeeze me dry later."

Time flew by in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, another three days passed.

The cutting ritual and the stabilizing labyrinth ritual setup succeeded and officially began.

That day, the two inspectors Martin and Valerie arrived to record.

And Oona, the deputy head of the Containment Department, also came to observe.

Facing these three, Rod only exchanged a few brief words with Martin.

A half-elf looking to pick faults, and a scheming deputy head of the Mage Control Union.

He couldn't be bothered with them.

Facing Oona's several attempts at conversation, he always gave her a polite but distant smile.

First came the cutting ritual.

To ensure smooth operation, Rod directly grew an extra arm for the ritual.

None of those present were surprised.

Limb regeneration wasn't a particularly advanced spell.

That night.

The ritual ended.

The classic pink earth of the open-air labyrinth appeared beneath the Dark Vortex Rift Barrier.

But plans can never keep up with change.

The sand tornado's rotation intensified, and under the new impact, the labyrinth showed clear signs of instability.

Lady Kali judged that the labyrinth's current state made it difficult to proceed, so she set an observation period — everyone rested on the spot and waited for changes.

Taking advantage of this gap.

Rod climbed up a tree and fed Tally her dinner first.

They almost got spotted by Deputy Director Ona, who was wandering about, but luckily they fed her while leaping and moving between the trees.

To make movement easier, the succubus clung to him tightly like a koala.

When the feeding was done, he brought Tally back to the Willow District, her face full of satisfaction.

Miss Xiao Ke looked at them with disdain.

Clearly, through Time Echo, she had seen the whole picture.

"You perverts. Is this how you two usually play?"

"Ahem, have you found the one disrupting the ritual?"

The half-deer snorted and pointed into the distance at the half-elf Valerie, who was serving as examiner.

In the night, thick shadows draped over her, making her look utterly gloomy.

Rod shook his head.

I knew half-elves were never easy to deal with.

"Can we find out what she's going to do?"

Miss Xiao Ke shook her head.

"Her rank is higher than mine. A lot of things I can only prophesy vaguely."

Time Echo is more precise when looking back at the past.

But when divining the future, it becomes vague and inaccurate.

Actually, Rod had poured another dose of Growth Spirituality into Miss Xiao Ke during her heat, but what came out was Spiritual Throw.

It's a skill that hurls a spiritual spear — the farther the distance, the more spirituality accumulates as it glides through the air, so the burst of damage is also stronger.

"Tally, go tie her up. Tie her up on the sly."

"Okaaay~~"

With that, she dove into the shadows like a fish.

Since activating the Archduke Bloodline, Tally's shadow magic had risen by a large margin, and her disappearance on the spot went unnoticed by anyone.

Maybe Ona could.

But it didn't matter.

Now no one was allowed to obstruct the ritual's progress.

Not long after.

Tally leapt out of the shadows and clapped her hands smugly.

"Done."

Rod looked at Miss Xiao Ke.

Miss Xiao Ke spread her hands and said helplessly:

"Prophecy of the future isn't like what you imagine — that the moment you interfere, you get immediate feedback? Even the turning of the stars takes time, let alone time itself."

"Hmph, trash," Tally commented.

"You!"

The half-deer flared up, wanting to retort but not knowing what to say, and could only huffily turn her face away to sulk.

Rod was about to offer a few words of comfort.

His expression changed.

He suddenly looked toward the grafting labyrinth deep within the Death Desert.

At this point, the mages had set up a large number of Light spells in the Willow District for observation and to make spell deployment easier.

Under the white glow, the Willow District was lit up like broad daylight.

And the giant sand tornado in the distance, set off by the Light spells, appeared even darker.

The faintly visible spiral tornado and its accompanying magical creatures were magnified infinitely beyond the light.

Right below, the pink earth sent up a wave of heat visible to the naked eye.

Accompanying it were wisps upon wisps of pink-purple resentful wraiths.

"It's the labyrinth's consciousness. It has discovered us grafting the labyrinth — this act is tantamount to an affront."

Lady Kali said.

Her expression was heavy.

(End of this chapter)