Chapter 2617

The second memory was relatively short; when the memory began, it was already the apocalyptic era.

The man who had become the Xiewu "Wisdom Bone Prophet" walked under the black sun, stepping on yellow sand, lonely and constantly moving forward, finally arriving beside the wreckage of a crooked building half-covered in gravel.

Around it, some spire-style roofs stood in the gravel; perhaps a huge city once existed here, but now only this building remained.

And two men sitting at the entrance of the building's wreckage hall with numb expressions only resisted symbolically before being killed by the "Wisdom Bone Prophet." They looked as if they had no sanity left, only surviving because of the obsession to guard this place, but now the "Wisdom Bone Prophet" had killed them.

Subsequently, the Xiewu entered the elevator leading to the underground deep in the hall, arrived at the underground Great Library, and extended its hand.

Countless glowing characters flew out from the books in the Great Library and were finally branded onto the books on its body, after which it left those blank books and continued on its way, walking into the sky full of yellow sand toward the direction of the black sun.

"This..."

Xia De could not evaluate this scene he had witnessed; this seemed to be the most authentic portrayal of the apocalyptic era, with Xiewu walking in a world about to collapse completely, and survivors living in a daze like living corpses long ago. Even from Mr. Bernhardt's past memories, he saw that even life and death had become blurred.

And the meaningless act of collecting knowledge that the Xiewu did in the apocalypse actually made him more interested in the mad "Liggins Puli Xia":

"Does he really know everything?"

In the dilapidated home, Adele's hand wrapped around Xia De's neck again, and white mist had already entwined him:

"Xia De, see you next time. Don't miss me too much... you only need to miss me when you are with Annette."

Both laughed, and with a light kiss on her corner of the mouth, Xia De disappeared. The witch touched the corner of her mouth and stood up, knowing she would see him again soon.

(Little Mia is running...)

Until he was walking in the Vista Woodland after the rain, holding the cat and wearing a flower wreath, Xia De was still savoring the kiss with Adele. If he could, he really wanted to stay there and talk to her more, but that was not the era he lived in after all.

At this moment, he had returned to the present—the Sixth Era. When walking in the woods and attempting to sense, four burning, slender silver flames immediately appeared in his perception.

He could easily distinguish the ownership of these flames, because those fire imprints were left in the soul and thus also stained with the soul's characteristics. Little Mia's flame was very warm, and the silver was even turning orange; Miss Jia Lin Na's flame was the most powerful and vigorous, representing the ferocity of a twelfth-tier Great Witch; and Luweiya's flame had a touch of noble purple, and the flame was exceptionally solid.

So the last flame represented Adele; although that flame could also be sensed, it was very illusory.

This surprised Xia De greatly—not surprised by the form of the flames, but surprised that he had actually sensed Adele, who was not in this time.

Because since he left the fire imprints, theoretically, all Adeles after that point in time had fire imprints. And if he could sense across time, what he would sense would be all the Adeles on an entire timeline, not a blurred point in time as it was now.

Similarly, if Xia De also left imprints on the witches of the Fifth Era, then theoretically he could not sense a certain point in time of the ancient witches, but traces of an entire timeline. Otherwise, once the other party arrived at "now," Xia De would sense two points—"past" and "now"—at the same time, which was clearly a paradox.

"She" then explained softly to Xia De:

【Introducing the "timestamp" concept of the hermits: what you sense of them first retrieves the timestamp identical to your time, i. e., whether they exist "now"; if they do not exist, it manifests their location after the time you last parted, plus the time elapsed in your body + the timestamp at the time of parting.】

Now Xia De understood: if it was the same time, what he sensed was the location of the girl or cat at the same time; if it was not the same time, however long Xia De had left, what he sensed was their location after that much time had passed at the corresponding point in time.

"This is good news. 【Undying Fire Imprint】 can not only sense across time, but even sense time that has already been destroyed; other miracles cannot do this."

Although the current perception was still very blurred, at least this successfully established a connection with past time by Xia De himself, outside of the Tree Father's power, which was a very good sign.

"Then let's try again... Mia~ can you hear me?"

He used the new spell 【Telepathy】, attempting to communicate with the cat on his shoulder. The cat immediately turned its head to look at him, probably not realizing the difference between a voice appearing in its head and a voice appearing in its ear.

Xia De smiled and stroked the cat's head; on the first day of the Month of Withered Leaves, he was in a very good mood.

As for the brand-new 【Calamity Card: Wisdom Bone Prophet】, theoretically, there also existed a supernatural ability that could be triggered by the First Fire. Xia De was actually looking forward to the "Moron Aura," and even when attempting to use it, he worried whether this would also affect himself, the caster.

But walking in the woodland, when the fingertip burning with First Fire touched the card, the cat on his shoulder remained silly, and the squirrels on the surrounding trees, the snakes at his feet, and the sparrows in the sky all showed no abnormalities.

So he experimented again and discovered that the effect of 【Calamity Card: Wisdom Bone Prophet】 was actually to record his own miracles, and then use that miracle at an appropriate time.

A card could only record one miracle at a time, but the advantage was that not only was it very convenient to release miracles through the card, but he could also allow others to hold this card to release miracles in this way, although if he really did that, he had to worry about whether the power of "Calamity" would erode other users.

But this still meant that even someone as weak as Angelina could throw out attacks like "Moonlight Wheel: Fourth State" with almost no loss... well, that wouldn't work; Angelina's mental power was not strong enough, and the thrown light wheels would only fly randomly and could not accurately aim at a target.

Therefore, although it was not the "Moron Aura" Xia De wanted, "Miracle Mirroring" was useful enough.

Time was still early. When Xia De arrived at the elf girl's treehouse, she was processing potions in the top-level treehouse. Seeing Xia De come, she didn't ask why Xia De hadn't appeared yesterday, but threw a small bottle to him:

"Here, this is the first potion made from the shells of paradox bugs; just let that red-haired female Shushi drink it."

The potion made from black insect shells was not black, but a translucent amber color, somewhat like syrup. The amount of potion was not large, contained in a glass bottle the size of a palm. No trace of insect shells could be seen in the liquid, only a strange buzzing sound when shaken.

He then excitedly set off for the city with the good news that the potion was finished. With the miracle "Forest Path," even without climbing a train, the speed of entering the city was shortened by more than half.

Therefore, when Xia De appeared at the Accordion Hotel this Wednesday, it was the earliest he had appeared in the last half month.

Having not appeared here all day yesterday, Xia De actually felt a strange sense of nostalgia when walking up the stairs.

As usual, he first went to Miss Danister's Room 317, and pushing open the door, he indeed saw the red-haired girl and the chubby, round-faced owl both there.

It was just that "Miss Owl" was clearly not in a good mood, because she did not immediately turn into human form to talk to Xia De, but stood on the back of the sofa and spoke directly:

"Look who it is? The knight from the North actually came so early."

Xia De cast an inquiring look at the red-haired female Shushi on the sofa, and the latter smiled and shook her head, so Xia De explained to Miss Owl:

"I encountered some small trouble in Tobesk yesterday. Miss Jia Lin Na probably hasn't told you yet, but an out-of-control Keeper-level relic appeared in the opera house rehearsed by the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe, and it was a time-type relic. I was asked to help, which is why I didn't come."

Miss Danister had heard of the identity of that Earth Witch a few days ago, so Xia De did not hide it. And Miss Owl, who had just wanted to complain a little, became worried immediately upon hearing this.

She wanted to turn back into human form to ask about the situation, but felt that this would make her seem very unreserved. So, to show that she wasn't actually angry, she flapped her wings, wanting to fly onto Xia De's shoulder to stand, so as to create direct physical contact:

"A Keeper-level time-type relic? Are you two alright?"

The chubby owl asked while flying over, but just as she was about to approach Xia De, the cat on Xia De's other shoulder lunged forward, pouncing on her as if hunting:

"Meow!"

The owl, who never expected to be attacked, panicked and flapped her wings to change direction and dodge; fortunately, Little Mia didn't hurt her either.

On one hand, it was because even if her race had changed, she was a genuine witch and Ringed Shushi, so no matter how "fierce" Little Mia was, she couldn't hurt her; on the other hand, it was because Xia De, who knew the cat's temper very well, grabbed it.

"What's wrong with your cat? I thought it liked me."

The witch then turned into human form, still sitting on the single sofa. Miss Bell smiled and brought over a teapot to pour tea for her and Xia De, while Xia De, who was warning the cat by kneading its face, replied:

"It generally regards my shoulder as its territory; it treats you as one of its own kind and just thought you wanted to grab its territory. Don't worry, it's not targeting you; it targets any cat or owl that wants to stand on my shoulder."

Miss Danister, who had been covering her mouth and laughing since just now, laughed even harder.