Chapter 2540: Dominance

She was not injured. After standing firm under the tree and seeing Xia De withdraw the Night Curtain Seal and beckon to her, Dannis Gustav then pinched a falling green leaf and threw it at Xia De:

"Strange Spell-Scarlet Moon Pulse!"

The leaf was dyed red the moment it left her fingertips, and in the next second, the bright red leaf veins detached from the decaying leaf and turned into a giant spider-web-like red monster that was enough to cover the entire clearing.

Dozens of leaf veins shot toward Xia De like tentacles, while Xia De just waved his hand behind him:

"Fireball!"

Dozens of orange-red fireballs raised the temperature around the clearing in an instant. The fireballs that appeared out of thin air bombarded the giant leaf vein web. The female warlock behind the monster was about to continue casting spells, but felt a hand press on her shoulder from behind:

"Miss Dannis, for the sake of your body, please don't cast spells so excessively."

"I haven't lost yet!"

She turned to look at her student behind her. The moment eyes met eyes—

Click!

Xia De held the pocket watch in his hand, and the female warlock in front of him had already solidified in the frozen time.

The monster controlled by no one was soon burned to ashes by the fire with the power of the initial fire, while Xia De stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the vivid expression of the girl frozen in front of him, and then placed his hand on her forehead:

"Luweiya's time curse makes her immune to any time power, whether it is benevolent or malicious. But Miss Dannis and Miss Wensilai Te are actually more easily affected by time-stopping powers... Does the curse weaken time resistance?"

He sighed, and after confirming that the fire was extinguished, he snapped his fingers. So the girl whose eyes were frozen had her eyeballs rotate again. She was confused and dazed for a moment, not understanding how Xia De suddenly appeared behind her, and why her strange spell had already failed, before she shook her head somewhat dejectedly:

"Should have expected it, you have mastered both time and space strange spells, even if it's me, I am not your opponent."

"You are only Seventh-Ring now, and you can't cast spells at full power to recuperate your soul, so it's normal that you can't beat me. I cannot be regarded as a normal Eighth-Ring."

Xia De comforted, and the latter looked up at him, and it took a long time before she whispered:

"Sorry, Xia De, I was too excited just now." 【2540-19

"I believe this also has to do with your current state, but since I won, you must listen to me until we return to the city today."

He emphasized, and the red-haired young lady nodded gently:

"Alright, I'll listen to you, but..."

"I will help you search for clues about your teacher; I will only stop you at the appropriate time to prevent you from doing anything impulsive."

"Xia De, you are so kind."

The Outlander felt this remark was strange.

Because of "Enhanced Spatial Perception," it was not difficult to follow the map to find that abandoned logging camp. The small path leading to the logging camp had long since fallen into disuse, and by the time Xia De and Miss Danister pushed aside the bushes to see the overgrown courtyard of the logging camp, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

The sorceress crossed past Xia De into the courtyard with quick steps, her fingers flicked, and several flying red moon blades precisely severed the venomous snakes lurking in the grass.

She looked around at the wooden houses and the wooden sheds originally used for storing timber, and finally looked at Xia De:

"The hermits didn't seem to say which room the lady from three years ago lived in."

"Let's search around; we cannot spend the night in the woods, otherwise the person at the inn will worry. We have three hours before we must leave by six."

"Alright."

The long passage of time had been enough for the woodland to erase the traces of human activity here; small trees had already grown in the courtyard enclosed by the houses and the sheds for drying timber, and vigorous wild grass and flowers had sprouted from the gaps in the wooden floorboards of the house where the loggers used to rest.

The scale of this logging camp was not large, so checking it was not laborious. Xia De followed Miss Danister, opening one door after another in a clockwise direction, and when they opened the fourth door, both frowned at the empty scene inside.

After all, even if the previous wooden houses had sparse flowers and intact roofs, they were not lacking in feces or food scraps left by wild animals that had invaded through the windows, but the house before them was excessively clean.

"This must be the place. I know my teacher mastered a wonderous art called 'Clean Dwelling.' This art can keep a certain area clean, inhibit the growth of weeds and wildflowers, and repel ordinary animals; it is a necessary spell for maintaining a library. If it was my teacher who cast the spell, it is normal for the effect to last for three years; she is also a Thirteen-Ring."

She walked in impatiently to inspect, while Xia De stood at the doorway looking around:

"But if your teacher really has been here, she should also have a time curse on her. Have you discovered any abnormalities in her?"

The red-haired young lady shook her head:

"No, I do not have your keen perception of time curses; before this incident, I didn't even know if time curses truly existed."

She reached out to cast a spell to inspect the walls, while Xia De turned around and looked again at the overgrown courtyard. The old stable had completely collapsed, but a stone mill in the corner of the stable propped up a corner of the rotten wooden pillars.

Beside the stable, there had originally been a fence to prevent animals from breaking in, but Xia De had just seen that the wooden fence had long since broken and lay in the weeds.

Continuing to move his gaze clockwise, what appeared in his field of vision was a well, but because the loggers had already left, the well was covered by a heavy stone slab. Dense tree shadows covered the bluestone slab, and as Xia De looked at the wellhead, a female ghost who had revealed half a head from under the slab was also looking at him, and after making eye contact with Xia De, she hurriedly let her spirit body submerge back under the slab.

"The hermits said this place was abandoned because it was haunted, right?"

Xia De asked, and the young lady in the wooden house behind him replied:

"Yes, and the hermits said they had already dealt with the evil spirit here. Besides, even if they hadn't, if my teacher had really lived here, evil spirits or whatever would have been easily dealt with by her, right? Why ask this question?"

"Because I saw a ghost."

Two chains rattled out from his sleeves like long snakes, piercing through the stone slab of the wellhead with a sonic boom. By the time Miss Danister walked to the door in confusion, Xia De had already skillfully manipulated one of the chains through "Living Rope Trick" to pull up the ghost that was fleeing to the bottom of the well.

The ghost appeared to be a woman in her twenties; she grabbed the weeds at the edge of the wellhead in terror with both hands, but was immediately pulled to the front of the wooden house by the chain wrapped around her right leg.

Her spirit body was rapidly dissipating in the sunlight, so Xia De gave a forceful flick, throwing the soul directly into the house.

"Ah, what are you doing?"

The chain loosened, and the soul immediately wanted to pass through the wall to escape, but Miss Danister pointed a finger, and complex red runes immediately covered the surface of the spirit body.

Consequently, she, who could originally pass through walls, bumped into the wooden wall with a *thud*, then squatted down holding her head.

"Not an evil spirit, just hasn't left because there is still an obsession."

The sorceress said; although she had lost her power, her experience remained:

"This is not an evil spirit from ten years ago; looking at her appearance, she has been dead for at most two years. She must have appeared here only after the lady from three years ago left."

The ghost of the young lady holding her forehead stood up against the wall, shivering as she looked at the two people in front of her. Her soul showed almost no signs of alienation, so she was indeed not an evil spirit.

"Found it, the other chain discovered a skeleton in the silt at the bottom of the well."

Xia De said again, and the soul then said in terror:

"No, don't! Please don't touch my corpse."

Xia De and Miss Danister exchanged a look; the meaning in their eyes was the same—"You do it or I do it." But because Xia De was the student, in the end, it was Xia De who played the villain:

"We are not bad people; may I ask how to address you?"

The chain that pulled her into the room kept trembling under her feet, so the shivering soul replied:

"Ashley Bethany."

"Miss Bethany, hello."

He smiled, then discovered that the smile that used to quickly win people's favor didn't seem to work this time:

"Why are you here?"

"Because my corpse is here... Please don't touch my corpse, okay? I don't want to leave yet; I like this place."

She said pitifully; her pure white soul made it impossible to tell her hair color, but she must have been very beautiful when she was alive.

"Then let me change the question, how long have you been here?"

Xia De asked again, and the soul shook her head;

"I don't know, I am not always awake, and sometimes my memory is very blurry."

This indicated that her obsession was not very deep; even if left alone, she would dissipate in a few years.

"We are looking for you to inquire about some things."

As he spoke, he glanced at Miss Danister, who then erased those red moon runes on the soul. The latter immediately drilled out through the wooden wall behind her; Xia De stood still, and a few seconds later, the cautious soul drilled back in, but only revealed half her face inside the wooden house:

"Alright then, ask away; what do you want to know?"

She actually didn't need to be so cautious; Xia De's second chain was still at the bottom of the well next to her skeleton, and she couldn't escape even if she wanted to.

"Miss Bethany, have you always been active in this logging camp?"

"Occasionally I go for walks in the woodland, but I can't go far."

"Then are there any abnormal situations in this logging camp? I mean abnormal situations other than you."

Xia De pointed outside, and the ghost Ashley Bethany pursed her lips and said nothing.

Xia De was all too familiar with this situation, so the Outlander, who was very experienced with the process, was just about to speak, but Miss Danister on the side preempted him and said unceremoniously:

"You absolutely must not say that we have to do things for you before you are willing to tell us the situation here.

Listen, the very good-looking gentleman beside me might have the kindness to help you, but I don't have that kind of patience. Answer the question now; you wouldn't want to know what I will do!"