Chapter 304: The Witches' Trouble

Hearing the sound at the edge of the clearing, Miss Feilian and the Giant Tree Witch looked up together, first seeing the Moon Witch appear with a torch, and then seeing Xia De following behind.

It was almost unchanged from when Xia De left last time; circles of powder were sprinkled on the ground with the bonfire as the center. Beside the crimson-gold bonfire were two small tents, a water kettle, a small mirror, a wooden box, a basin of water with clothes soaking in it, and other miscellaneous items. It was just that this time there was some more wood, which seemed to be stored for the bonfire.

"You're back."

The witches by the bonfire stood up, and they all showed smiles when they saw Xia De appear.

"Good evening, Miss Feilian. I came back alive, thanks to your advice. Oh, this is the information I found."

Xia De followed behind the Moon Witch to the bonfire and handed the briefcase containing the documents to Miss Feilian. The text inside was in the language of the Sixth Era, but he figured the witches would have a way to translate it.

It was obvious that the witches wanted to ask Xia De how he had faced a deity in the future, but in the end, no one spoke.

"May I ask, how long have I been gone? A few hours? A few days? Or a few weeks?"

Xia De asked curiously, but Miss Feilian shook her head and said with some regret:

"We cannot answer this question either."

"Why?"

"Because this forest is a special location of time and space. Time here is not fixed, and the perceived flow of time is not accurate, so I cannot answer your question."

When asking the Old God about the situation in Hope Town, the answer received was the same, which meant that this was a place similar to Hope Town. Xia De immediately used 【Time Perception】 to learn the time, and the answer obtained was only a vague result like "Autumn, 3002, Fifth Era."

"Is this some kind of large-scale location-type relic?"

Xia De was curious about this.

"It can be said to be a relic, but it can also be said to be something else. It's complicated to explain, but it's also fine to consider this a location-type relic."

Miss Feilian said, and then confirmed:

"This time you can still only stay for half an hour?"

"Yes."

"Then we don't need to waste time, sit down. You two, translate this information into our language, and then transcribe it. The original copy cannot be left behind; I don't want to cause instability in time."

The witches still didn't know that Xia De had come here through a Time Key.

The students looked bitter as they transcribed the information by the bonfire, but in fact, it wasn't handwriting; it was like manipulating puppets, operating quill pens to move on their own. Miss Feilian said this was a necromancy-type ability.

And Miss Feilian herself explained the current situation to Xia De. The three of them venturing deep into the "Forest of a Thousand Trees" in the Western Continent was not getting lost; the conditions for the God-Calling Ritual were harsh, and to succeed, it had to be held in a similar uncontrolled, unstable area.

The instability of time made it impossible for them to say how long they had stayed under the tree, but even as thirteenth-level and twelfth-level witches, they were almost unable to hold on.

The "Forest of a Thousand Trees" was eroding their power, corroding their spirits, and devouring their souls; they had to complete the God-Calling Ritual as soon as possible to leave.

"Why contact that deity? Since the situation is already so dangerous, why not give up the ritual and leave immediately?"

Xia De sat by the bonfire and asked in a low voice. The shadows of the witches and Xia De were cast far away, and the crackling sound of burning wood almost drowned out the sound of their conversation.

If it weren't so dangerous here, Xia De would actually quite like a similar environment.

"The initial purpose of contacting that deity is inconvenient to disclose, but it is certainly not to do evil. We don't leave because we can't leave anymore. This is the center of the Forest of a Thousand Trees, and I admit I underestimated the danger here."

Miss Feilian glanced at Xia De. Xia De was twitching his nose. On Miss Feilian, he smelled the perfume that the maid called "the smell of a witch," only this one had a hint of rose scent.

"Now we can only call out that deity; only with the help of the deity do we have a chance to leave."

Miss Feilian concluded.

The Old God 【Yaobian Doorway】 Himself was a deity who mastered the power of time and space, so helping the witches leave this eerie place shouldn't be difficult.

"What difficulties has the ritual encountered now? Missing necessary ritual materials? The ritual itself is incomplete? Or are some harsh ritual conditions not met?"

Xia De asked again. Although he had experienced it twice in Tobesk, strictly speaking, he hadn't understood this kind of super-large ritual in detail, but he also knew it certainly wouldn't be simple.

"All the difficulties you mentioned exist."

The information Miss Feilian revealed was even worse than Xia De had thought:

"The basic ritual array has been laid out in this clearing. But the process of entering the Forest of a Thousand Trees did not go smoothly; we lost some key ritual symbols on the way. Staying here for too long, the Forest of a Thousand Trees gradually erased our memories, and coupled with the damage to the notebook recording the ritual information, we forgot what the last step of the ritual was. Opening the God-Calling Ritual requires witches with time, space, and natural powers to be present. Originally, we prepared two Angel-level relics to replace the witches with time and space powers, but those two relics were actually devoured by the Forest of a Thousand Trees. It wasn't a physical devouring, but their power was drained by the forest. One time when we woke up, they were already two ordinary antiques."

There was no daytime here, only eternal night, so Miss Feilian didn't say they woke up in the morning.

She had her students rummage through the tents to find an ancient hourglass pendant and a cubic block that looked like glass. Xia De also took them in his hands to check, and sure enough, he couldn't feel any elements.

"Time and space powers might be solved by me. In fact, I master these two powers, but I am not a witch."

He said when handing the hourglass and the cube back.

Summoning his life ring, he pointed to the core spirit rune in the center. The witches also couldn't recognize this ancient rune:

"This represents time and space, so I possess the ability to perceive time and jump short distances in space."

"That's good. I knew that since you could travel through time without a price, it was impossible not to be favored by time and space."

Miss Feilian showed a smile:

"It doesn't matter if you aren't a witch; it's just because our era only has witches, so I used the term 'witch.' In this way, one of the three troubles is solved."

She waved her hand to the side, and the stacked wood automatically flew into the bonfire, making the strange crimson-gold flames more vigorous. The Giant Tree Witch and the Moon Witch were listening to the two talking while directing the quill pens to transcribe. Xia De was actually very curious about this technique, but thinking about it carefully, Miss Lu Yisha's 【Mind Writing】 was more convenient.

"We can look for the lost ritual items; leaving the bonfire and venturing deep into the forest one after another, besides wanting to find some firewood, was also for this reason. But the forgotten ritual conditions cannot be conjured out of thin air; you need to go to your era to find them."

"But I can only find information about that deity. The time point I am in might be a bit different from what you imagine; that era's..."

The Sixth Era had lost too much knowledge of past eras.

"No, don't say any more."

Miss Feilian softly stopped him, her bright golden eyes looking at Xia De in the firelight:

"Don't tell us any news about the time point you are in. If I really wanted to know the future, the most important thing to ask would be why you know me when witches don't leave descendants. Now, answer a question: why don't I want to hear about the future?"

This tone was like a teacher asking a student a question, so Xia De also became serious:

"Because... although I myself won't bear the price of traveling through time to obtain information and won't cause large-scale time chaos, you cannot bear the price of obtaining future information."

"Yes, then answer my second question: why don't I choose to let the future me find a way to leave the answer directly to you? Since you know me, it means I won't die here and must have successfully left the Forest of a Thousand Trees."

Miss Feilian asked again. Xia De took some time to think this time. He looked at Miss Feilian's face, and there was some expectation in the latter's eyes:

"Because... you don't want to manipulate time?"

The witch smiled:

"Yes, don't try to manipulate time, otherwise time will tell us its power. I would rather die in the forest than be involved in chaotic time events."

"Just like don't manipulate destiny!"

Xia De's words blurted out, and the smile on Miss Feilian's face became even thicker:

"Yes, a very good example. It seems you have a deep understanding of this. All actions that defy time must be completed by you, not by us, otherwise, something will definitely go wrong."

Although the witches hadn't experienced time exploration, her words gave Xia De a lot of inspiration.

Miss Feilian changed the subject:

"Although I cannot ask you directly, I can obtain information in a limited way through indirect means, thereby finding a way to help us. So now I ask again, and you answer; you absolutely cannot say any answer other than my question."

After the witch finished speaking, she looked at her two students. The young witches shook their heads at their teacher with dissatisfaction, but under Miss Feilian's gentle gaze, they still got up and moved to a place further away to transcribe.

"Please ask."

Xia De and Miss Feilian also sat closer together, the tree canopy overhead swaying with the wind. Xia De realized that he still didn't know what this surprisingly large tree was, but Miss Feilian didn't give him time to ask.

"The first question: do you belong to an organization originating from the Fourth Era or even earlier?"

"No."

Xia De shook his head; the founder of the organization he belonged to was right in front of him.

"Then the second question: do you know of any organizations existing in your era that originated from the Fourth Era or even earlier? Name one."

Miss Feilian asked again. The other two witches, although sitting slightly further away, could actually hear a word or two. ===== CHAPTER 305 =====