Chapter 23: The Old Witch

In a simple room in Cold Ice City, Anna Luofang inserted her fingers into her messy hair, rubbing her scalp hard, wanting to soothe her numb head due to overusing her brain. When she withdrew her hands, she found a few hairs brought down on her fingers, which made her mood even worse.

"If this continues, my hair will fall out, ah ah ah ah!!" Anna said frantically: "I am just a princess, why do these things have to be done by me!!"

"Because your brother ran away." In the shadow of the corner, a thin black shadow held his arms and replied slowly.

"Damn Lu Se, these things should have been done by him. He is the first in line!" Anna was even more frantic. That dog-shit brother of hers who was first in line ran away quietly, throwing all these things to her.

Dealing with them well had no benefits. One day when her brother returned, the position of city lord would still be his. If not dealt with well, she would be the one taking the blame. It was simply harming oneself to benefit others, making her psychological balance very unbalanced.

"You can not deal with them," the black shadow in the corner said.

Anna shook her head, and the expression on her face became serious: "No, that hateful demon is still hiding in the west and east, raiding our poorly defended planting area. If I don't find him, we will fall into a serious food shortage next year."

The black shadow was silent for a while and sighed helplessly: "Indeed too vicious. Our planting area is too scattered, and some are connected by karst caves, extending in all directions. As long as a demon sneaks in quietly and sets fire to burn the fields everywhere, it will cause our food to fail. And we have no other way except to futilely disperse soldiers to every food production area to surround and block him."

"Doesn't matter, I will definitely catch them. When I catch them, I will tie them up and throw them to the Lich City, letting those liches tear him apart along with his soul," Anna said fiercely.

"You might have some misunderstanding about liches. They stopped tearing souls apart long ago. But it doesn't matter. Relying on the intelligence on the table, how are you going to catch the demon?" the black shadow asked in confusion.

A confident smile curved at the corner of Anna's mouth: "Every time an event occurs, it will reveal a lot of information. For example, events one to three all happened continuously, but there was a three-day interval between event three and event four, yet the two locations were only a one-day journey apart. Where did he go during these two days?"

The black shadow thought for a while and said hesitantly: "Tired?"

"Right, exactly. With the planting areas of these two events as the center, within a two-day journey, what places are there to rest? The one setting the fire is likely a lava demon. He likes magma the most," Anna opened a map and spread it on the table.

The black shadow couldn't help but walk out of the shadow in the corner, revealing a face full of wrinkles and a thin figure. The skin on the face and arms exposed outside was covered with tattoos like runes.

If someone who recognized this kind of tattoo were present, they would definitely exclaim in surprise—Holy Light Corpse Lich! And it was a corpse lich purified by the church. Those tattoos were the traces of the purification magic patterns branded on the skin.

In the human world, undead creatures were listed as heretics by the church. If caught, they would be purified. The church believed that ordinary methods couldn't kill a lich; only purification could eliminate their body and soul together. Otherwise, even if the head were cut off, their soul could turn into an undead and escape.

Wrap in a holy shroud, burn with flames until the body and soul are turned into ashes.

This was actually reasonable because some liches could indeed not be killed by ordinary methods because they would refine life boxes.

Refine one's own heart into a life box, place it in a special container, and hide it in a safe place, while the heart position is replaced by soul fire. In this way, even if one is killed, one can be reborn through the life box.

Aiming at this kind of lich, the church also invented a corresponding method: first wrap it with a holy shroud, then burn it with flames, burning both the shell and the soul together. In this way, the lich reborn with the help of the life box will lose all memories, and there will be a brand on the body that even rebirth cannot erase.

The black shadow was a lich who was purified and then reborn, but she had already lost the memories before rebirth. She didn't remember who she was, didn't remember how she died, and only saw one word from the emblem engraved on the life box—Lan, so she was now called Lan.

Lan came to the table and looked, quickly finding a name on the map: "Here, Molten River."

"Right, just at Molten River. Only here nearby has magma, which is the environment that demon likes the most," Anna said.

Lan nodded: "Makes sense, but these are all speculations. You have no evidence to prove your speculation is true."

Anna smiled and took out a piece of paper, handing it to Lan: "I have already sent people to investigate. The road leading to Molten River indeed found the demon's footprints. A demon really passed by nearby during that time."

Lan was silent for a while and couldn't help but exclaim: "You are really amazing, really catching his trail."

"That's it," Anna raised her eyebrows proudly and said: "This is how I inferred that he is a lava demon, thereby judging that he needs magma to recover his strength. As long as I know his rest interval, and then pay attention to those places with magma, there will always be a chance to block him."

"Then it must be as soon as possible. If he sets a few more fires, our food for next year will have a large gap, and many people will starve to death," Lan said.

"Rest assured, I have already contacted the human world through the teleportation array. Their food there is a bumper harvest. As long as the price can be paid, they can use a large teleportation array for a one-way projection, sending dozens of tons of food at once."

Lan shook her head: "The cost is too great. Just opening a large transit station requires more than ten magic crystals. We don't have a corresponding large teleportation array here. The world transit station here has long been unable to open. Otherwise, ten magic crystals would be enough, but a one-way projection requires more than a hundred magic crystals. Even if all the valuable things in our underground city are scraped together, we can't exchange for so many magic crystals."

Anna frantically scratched her scalp again, irritably saying: "Then what can be done?? Wait to starve to death? The Lich City also lacks food. Some time ago, they even sent people to buy food, but I refused. If they have a lot of food, it would be good if they could support us a little."

Just as Anna was irritably scratching her head, a soldier came to report: "Reporting to Your Highness, Lisa August from the Lich City requests an audience."

"Lisa August? Who is that? Didn't Eiske always come before? Why is there a new person this time?" Anna muttered in confusion.

Lan's eyes, however, flashed with sharp light: "This is no newcomer. This is the true master of the Lich City. This old hag hasn't shown her face in hundreds of years; I thought she was dead. Go and see her; this old lich is not simple."

"The true master of the Lich City? Isn't the City Lord Lord Feilin?" Anna's curiosity was piqued, and she hurriedly tidied her makeup and clothing, preparing to go meet her.

"Feilin is afraid of his wife; this is his wife."

When they arrived at the reception room, there was only a young woman with fair skin and a plump figure, leaning there in a black gauze dress; there was no 'old hag' as Lan had described.

Lan's attention did not fall on the young woman in the black gauze dress either, but rather she looked toward the door of the reception room and asked bluntly: "Where is that old hag of yours named August?"

The young woman in the black gauze dress turned her head, a careless smile hanging on the corner of her mouth, and said lazily: "Are you talking about me, this old hag named August?"

Listening to this familiar voice, Lan was shocked and turned her gaze to the face of the young woman in the black gauze dress, her brows knitting together.

She had met Lisa in a lich state; the Lisa she knew was a corpse lich just like her—shriveled, gaunt, deathly gray, and withered. How could this plump, supple woman before her have features that looked a bit like that old hag? And the voice was so similar? What was going on?

The young woman in the black gauze dress slowly opened her mouth and said: "Lan, it seems that from now on, only you will be able to enjoy the title of 'old hag'."

Lan's expression changed drastically, and she flew into a rage: "So it really is you! August, you are too hateful! You actually occupied a living person's body?! I'll beat you to death!"

"What?! No, no, no, you misunderstood. This is my body. Hey, stop! Ouch, don't hit my face! Stop! If you hit me again, I'm going to flip out!"

Watching Lisa and Lan fighting in a chaotic mess, Anna, who had wanted to go up and help, suddenly realized what was happening and stopped her steps.

Two thousand-year-old liches were actually not using magic, but were fighting like children with their bare hands. If this were a real fight, Anna would dare to eat this chair.

Sure enough, after fighting for a while, the two liches stopped, disheveled. However, the shriveled and gaunt Lan looked exceptionally disheveled and wretched, while the plump and supple Lisa, though disheveled, had a unique charm.

Lan asked, both angry and jealous: "How did you become like this? Are you really not occupying a living person's body?"

Powerful liches and undead have a type of ability to occupy a living person's body, but the living person will die, and the body will lose its vitality, only maintaining activity for two or three days before beginning to rot. If it wasn't occupation, Lan couldn't think of any way to make a lich become so vibrant.

Lisa smiled slightly and asked indifferently: "If you were given a chance to restore the vitality of your body and become like me, what price would you be willing to pay?"