Chapter 2635: The Chocobo in the Woods

"Good morning, Detective; the things prepared for you have been made."

The priest handed the briefcase he had carefully protected to Xia De. After opening it, there were three white bone sticks of the same length and thickness inside. The bone sticks were standard cylinders, with dense runes engraved on the surface, and the runes were connected, with Miracle elements slowly flowing within them.

"Actually, making them into metal rods would be better, but even with some blacksmithing skills, I couldn't make them in one day. These should be enough; nailing any one of them into the heart of that Death Apostle will allow it to completely lose the ability to absorb vitality."

"Then use fire to burn it, and you can completely solve it. To prevent accidents, I made three for you. If there are any left, you can keep them yourself; this weapon can also deal with ordinary undead creatures and is also effective against that black mist monster in the woods you mentioned."

The length of the three bone sticks was about the same as a normal person's upper arm. According to the priest, they were more like nails than sticks:

"I understand; I will bring back the good news very soon."

The priest was very reassured by Xia De:

"Be very careful. I'm not worried about you, but I'm worried that you will disturb it and let it run away; it will be hard to find it again after that. This kind of thing has powerful flesh-and-blood transformation abilities; changing from man to woman, or old to young, are basic abilities. But with your ability, it should be no problem if you are cautious."

After finishing, the old priest left, not even giving Xia De a chance to invite him to stay for breakfast. Father Augustus looked very busy today; there was probably something going on in the church.

Since he had obtained suitable weapons, the operation to hunt the Death Apostle could officially begin. However, Xia De did not go to Vista City immediately after saying goodbye to Yin Luna and Lu Wei Ya at home this morning, but still went to the woods to find the elf girl first.

The place where he saw her today was not her treehouse, nor the flower sea where the two first met, but a small grassy area in the woods not far from the treehouse.

The grassy area was surrounded by a simple semi-open wooden fence, and runes for expelling wild beasts were drawn on the fence with simple runes.

And inside the fence, more than a dozen bird-like creatures of various sizes, white, yellow, and light blue, were waiting for the elf girl to feed them. And more similar creatures were poking their heads out from the woods opposite the inside of the fence, clearly having noticed that it was time to eat.

This was a bird creature with a huge body, with adult individuals standing about two meters tall. Their bodies were covered with bright feathers, their heads were relatively large, and there was a tuft of feathers pointing upward on the top of their heads. Their eyes were large and bright, full of spirituality, and their hard and slightly curved beaks looked very suitable for pecking at plants.

This was also Xia De's first time seeing a "Chocobo" in reality. The Great Witches of the Fifth Era liked to ride unicorns, while witches who were not so rich or high-status generally rode Chocobos, and even the "Feilianna Notes" mentioned the issue of raising Chocobos.

"Good morning; where did you get these Chocobos?"

Xia De asked curiously, standing beside the elf girl and reaching out to touch the feathers on the heads of the Chocobos waiting to be fed. They didn't mind being touched by Xia De, because all their attention was on the basin in the elf girl's hand.

"I remember that only the Zalas Academy of Literature and the Church of Nature raise Chocobos on a large scale, and Saint Byron's only has a few hundred as ornamental exotic creatures. Did you get these from the Academy?"

"I discovered them in the woods."

The elf girl said while working. She didn't just have to feed them; she also had to stop the Chocobos from fighting over food, but it could be seen that the Chocobos liked her very much:

"When I first lived here, I often went for walks nearby. These poor little guys lived deep in the woods to the west. Once, a little guy who was starving to death ran in front of me to ask for food, so I discovered them."

"Their population should have lived in this inescapable forest for many, many years. I guess they were left behind by the ancestors of the Night Song Elves before they left the woodland, or their ancestors wandered into this area by mistake before the Night Song Elves left. Chocobos don't have strong combat power, but fortunately, their intelligence is much higher than that of wild beasts, so they have only lived in this small area for so many years."

"I confirmed that they were ownerless, so I adopted them. Sometimes when I need to travel long distances in the woods, I pick one to be my mount."

Xia De said with a smile:

"I was originally worried that your life would be very boring, but it looks like life is quite fulfilling."

The elf girl threw all the remaining food in the basin to the inside of the fence, and the Chocobos gathered around to enjoy their breakfast.

"Actually, elves should live like this; the lives of elves now are a bit too modernized."

She patted the little Chocobo that hadn't grabbed any breakfast and was still standing in front of the fence, and was about to pour out the food crumbs in the basin, but saw Xia De pour a whole bag of cat food under the fence.

The little Chocobo with light blue feathers lowered its head to sniff, and then its eyes lit up and it lowered its head to eat.

"This kind of cat food is very expensive, right? Your cat will throw a tantrum."

The elf said with a smile.

"Anyway, Mia doesn't know. As long as I replenish the consumed cat food in time, it won't find out that I'm feeding other creatures outside."

Xia De rubbed the little Chocobo's head again and watched these cute creatures eat breakfast with the elf:

"I have already read the method you gave me yesterday for containing tree holes. Although I know that containing this kind of thing will be very difficult, isn't this a bit too exaggerated?"

"Use the Philosopher's Stone for extreme spellcasting 【Ancient Elven Stability Principle】, and then fill the tree hole with a sufficient amount of 【Time Sand】 melted with special flames. Finally, you also need an Angel-level time-type weapon to destroy the integrity of the physical body of the twisted tree hole."

Xia De took a deep breath:

"Although the Angel-level time-type weapon, 【Time Flute】, is obviously the most suitable, isn't this method a bit too expensive?"

The elf girl turned her head and asked him with a smile:

"Look, in your view, this method is just expensive. But if I told this method to others, their first thought would definitely be: the conditions are too harsh, it's impossible to complete."

"Actually, this method is very simple. A twisted tree hole is a channel that incorrectly connects two times, so you must first stabilize it, then fill it, and finally sever the connection between different times. Now you have already learned the miracle, whether it is the Primordial Fire or the Sun Fire, both can melt Time Sand. As for the 【Time Flute】, you can obviously borrow it, right?"

"But every time you destroy a tree hole, you have to use a Philosopher's Stone. Even the Orthodox Churches wouldn't choose to destroy every tree hole. Fortunately, the large-scale ritual collected by the Church of Dawn can contain tree holes, so it's not that there is no way to deal with them other than destruction."

The elf had nothing to say to this; at least the method she provided was true and effective:

"I admit it is indeed a bit expensive, but destroying a twisted tree hole also has rewards."

"You use 【Earth Power - Healing Aura】 to soothe the restlessness of the earth and can obtain a Holy Grail. Similarly, you can also obtain a reward for destroying a twisted tree hole: the wood has died, but it will sprout new leaves to give to you as a gift."

Xia De was startled and asked with some surprise:

"【Youth-Preserving Ye Zi】?"

But he immediately shook his head again:

"The preciousness of the Youth-Preserving Ye Zi is also far inferior to the Philosopher's Stone. To consume a Philosopher's Stone + a portion of Time Sand for the sake of a leaf, no matter how you look at it, it's not worth it."

"What if it's not just leaves?"

The elf continued to say with a smile, fully whetting Xia De's appetite:

"Don't you always want to know how to 'recharge' those tree holes, strengthen the power to maintain stability, and allow you to increase the number of times you can normally use the tree holes?"

Twisted tree holes all have a normal number of uses. Once the number is exhausted, they will completely collapse, thereby forming an uncontrollable, expansive time rift.

"Yes... Destroying a tree hole?"

"Yes, destroying a tree hole, the remaining maintenance power on it will be attached to the leaves, and you can use those leaves to 'recharge' other tree holes. Of course, this won't consume those leaves. So, what a Philosopher's Stone actually exchanges for is at least one Youth-Preserving Ye Zi, and at least one extra time-travel opportunity."

Calculated this way, this kind of exchange is actually acceptable. And Xia De currently has a Philosopher's Stone in his hand, but he hasn't decided which tree hole to destroy yet.

With thoughts in mind, he said goodbye to the elf girl and the Chocobos. When entering the city, he thought about discussing the matter of destroying tree holes with the two ladies in the hotel. And when he arrived at the hotel, he discovered that Miss Wen Si Lai Te and Miss Dan Ni Si Te seemed not to have slept last night.

It was still Room 321. Xia De happened to meet Miss Bei Er at the door, who was preparing to enter the room with a tea tray, so the black-haired girl told him about what happened last night.

And after entering the room, he only saw the red-haired girl looking listless, wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, while Miss Wen Si Lai Te sat on the side, holding her shoulder to comfort her. As for the corner of the room, there was a new oil painting on the easel.

"Oh, what happened?"

He immediately walked toward the red-haired female sorcerer, and the witch on the side stood up and gave up the position on the sofa.

"I wrote a letter last night, asking the Academy to send professors to Mount Caras to search for the cursed large tree. I waited all night for news... There was none, nothing at all. That mountain, that area, there is no cursed large tree... Was the teacher's corpse taken away by someone?"

She started to cry while talking, and Xia De patted her back and comforted her softly:

"It's okay, it's okay."