Chapter 2768: The Moon, the Great Tree, and Xia De

"May I ask what happened here?"

The Thirteenth-Ring Sorceress asked in a very blunt tone. Since she was playing the "bad guy," Xia De naturally had to step out to play the "good guy":

"Good evening. We two are just passing through, and it seems something has happened here."

The two members of the Church exchanged a glance. Perhaps because it wasn't a major secret, they didn't hide it:

"A few days ago, we caught a cultist of the God of Curses—the 【Great Probability Demon】—who had fled into the woodlands. After interrogation, we discovered he had sold the item in his possession at a high price to the daughter of a local wealthy merchant."

The brown-haired Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi glanced at the two people by the lake:

"The merchant's daughter liked the young knight over there, so out of jealousy, she used the cultist's cursed object to curse the young woman there. By the time we found the merchant's daughter, she had already fallen into a coma due to the backlash of that cursed object.

It took us several days to determine who had been cursed. We didn't expect that when we came here today, we would find a new problem."

He sighed and spoke the rest of the matter as well:

"The young knight tried to heal the girl using low-concentration No. 4 Holy Water that his father had sought from the cathedral in Willandale over thirty years ago. But No. 4 Holy Water is ineffective against a curse of this level. Now, the curse has undergone an unknown change and has become like this."

He didn't hide this from the two people hugging and crying behind him, so the young man, Faris, pleaded:

"Let me bear this curse for Marisa. She is still so young; she shouldn't have to suffer such a fate."

The brown-haired Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi shook his head apologetically:

"I admire your spirit, but I have no way to transfer the curse. Curse study is a vast field, and besides, the curse has mutated; the curse-breaking methods we prepared might not be effective anymore.

In any case, we can only take her back to the church first, then seal the room where she lives to determine if the curse's effects are leaking, and you also need to..."

"Wait a moment."

The black-haired Sorceress called a halt to his words, then spread her hands to display the ring in her palm under the moonlight:

"I think this should be able to help them."

The story of Marisa and Faris was more like a small interlude to Xia De. The mutated curse was still just a curse, and after being weakened by the Holy Water, the 【Ouroboros Ring】 could completely suppress it.

Although the price for the girl no longer growing crow feathers was the addition of a tail, the Church could still resolve such trouble. And even if the Church couldn't, Saint Byrons would have a way.

The two Church members were very curious about who these two "good Samaritans" who suddenly appeared were, but neither Xia De nor Miss Helena Carter had any intention of staying.

After retrieving the ring, the two left the woodlands directly.

Afterward, the Sorceress smilingly invited Xia De to the Golden Music Hall to listen to the concert that night. When the concert ended, the cleaners finished tidying the interior, and the lights in the previously bustling performance hall were all extinguished, the two walked back in.

Xia De was wearing a black formal suit, and his hair was also groomed; Miss Helena Carter was not wearing the dress from the wedding banquet the night before, but had changed into a golden dress, though she still wore the beige wide-brimmed sun hat, which was actually the Angel-level Relic 【Tree Shade Dream】, on her head.

"I still don't understand what you are going to do. I admit that there is indeed a secret hidden here that wasn't discovered until my era, but that secret shouldn't have anything to do with whether I can go back, right?"

Xia De asked, and the lady leading him toward the stage asked:

"Did you forget? You said that at the Moon Dance Festival concert, it was here that you had a dream and mastered 'Secret Fire.' I think this speaks volumes. If there were no power of time, do you really think that kind of long-extinct flame could be mastered by you?"

She spoke to herself, her high heels making a clicking sound on the carpet:

"Besides, young man, the knowledge I possess is far greater than yours. That teacher of yours cannot compare to her teacher."

Xia De was amused by this statement:

"Alright then, what do I need to do now?"

"It's very simple, just sleep with me."

Saying this, she took Xia De's hand and walked with him into the aisle in front of the first row of the audience seats, then they both sat in the two center seats of the first row. The stage was pitch black, and there was no firelight in the performance hall. Sitting down and leaning against the soft backrest was actually quite comfortable.

"I can't turn the current midsummer into the autumn Moon Dance Festival, but I have done some research on the moon and dreams."

She handed the 【Ouroboros Ring】 to Xia De, signaling him to put it on, but Xia De hesitated and didn't want to take it:

"This is for you to suppress the curse. I must emphasize that my method of returning might exist in more than..."

"It is the first time I have known that Dianiste would choose such an indecisive student."

She then forcibly put the ring on Xia De's hand:

"Isn't that fine now? A time curse can never be solved by a single ring. I believe it can suppress the curse to a certain extent, turning part of the curse's power into a tail, but I don't want that. And I bet that even if Danister got this ring, she wouldn't be willing to do that.

Now listen to me, young sir, lean against the back of the seat, hold your sword, and close your eyes. I don't want to hear another word from you."

She deliberately put on a stern look, and Xia De had no choice but to close his mouth, lean against the soft cushion behind him in a comfortable position, and close his eyes.

It was only 9:30 PM, and he had no sleepiness at all. So the lady beside him cast a spell on him and instructed him not to refuse her entry into his dream later.

Soon, Xia De's consciousness, which didn't want to sleep, felt as if it were hooked and falling downward, until he landed like a light feather on that endless wilderness illuminated by the silver moon.

The familiar scenery was reassuring, and he soon felt someone trying to invade this dream. Because he knew who it was, Xia De didn't block it. Thus, the light and shadow under the moonlight twisted, a bronze-colored door appeared beside Xia De, and the black-haired lady pushed the door open and walked in:

"Is this your dream?"

She looked around, then looked up at the exceptionally large silver moon overhead:

"Although I would like to say I am surprised, in reality, I am not very surprised."

She tried to take a deep breath, then was very surprised to feel that the reality of this dream was higher than she had imagined. However, this action was not for the sake of the dream, so she didn't pay too much attention to it:

"Alright, next you need to try to enter a dream again within the dream."

Her rose-red eyes looked at him.

"What do I need to do?"

Xia De asked again, but the Sorceress didn't give a method, instead smiling and blinking:

"That depends on you. All I can provide is to help you trigger the power of the Tree Father."

She said this and took a few steps back, then her body slowly stretched upward, and the color of her clothes and skin deepened until it turned brown. In just a few seconds, she transformed from a black-haired lady into a large tree with a lush green canopy standing under the moonlight:

"Do you still remember the content of my time curse? Although I postponed the curse of 'irreversibly transforming into a large tree' until after my death, I still gained this transformation ability because of it."

A muffled sound came from inside the tree, and the canopy swayed gently under the moonlight, making a rustling sound. At this moment, the tree roots were deeply embedded in the ground, causing the Sorceress's soul to connect directly with this dream. More accurately, she placed a part of her soul onto the surface of Xia De's soul. When the two souls connected, the Tree Father's time curse also reached Xia De:

"Come, sit beside me now, and try to enter a dream again within the dream.

If we are lucky, maybe something will happen. If we are unlucky, we will just go back to sleep. Didn't you say this afternoon that you wanted to go back to Tobesk to take a look? We can go tomorrow."

"It's a deal then. If it doesn't work, we'll go to Tobesk tomorrow."

Xia De then walked under the tree shade. He originally wanted to sit cross-legged, but the canopy rustled and swayed to express opposition:

"Even if you want to show that you are a gentleman, don't choose this occasion."

So Xia De, who had already sat down, moved with one hand supporting the ground, finally letting his back lean against the trunk.

The large tree that Miss Helena Carter transformed into was not particularly tall, and the canopy didn't reach the extent of blocking the sky, so there was still faint starlight falling from above, and Xia De could still see that huge silver moon.

After he sat down, he didn't speak again, and the tree also remained quiet. The person and the tree watched the silver moon together, and facing that moon in the form of a tree, the Thirteenth-Ring Sorceress also felt a peculiar touch in her soul.

She gradually became obsessed with the silver moon in the starry sky, so much so that when she came to her senses, she realized that Xia De had already fallen asleep without knowing it.

The canopy rustled, which was her chuckling. Under the moonlight, in the endless wilderness, under the lonely tree was the young man leaning against the tree and falling into a deep sleep. At this moment, the dream had already solidified like an oil painting; he leaned against the tree, and the tree embraced him.

In the reality of the concert hall, the ring on Xia De's finger gradually emitted a faint light. In the dream, the large tree seemed to be lit up by the silver moon, and then emerald green light spilled down from the canopy of that large tree, until emerald green light spots were floating everywhere in the night under the moonlight.

She knew it was time to part again, so amidst the swaying tree shadows, her body separated from the large tree and embraced Xia De under the tree;

"Remember to protect yourself. Goodbye, Xia De. May the moon shine upon you and Danister thirty years from now. I cannot see the world at that time, please shoulder the responsibility. Even if I am already dead, I will always be with you."

She whispered into the ear of the already sleeping Xia De, and then, just like Xia De a moment ago, she looked past the tree canopy at the moon. That moon was still illuminating this dream.