Chapter 3345: Injured Witches

When the two red butterflies on Little Mia's head disappeared and Xia De reappeared in front of the tombstone, he still looked at the group of butterflies drifting away with some surprise.

"She" reminded softly in his ear:

【Outsider, the strength of your sorcery - "Red Butterfly Illusion" has been improved.】

The blue butterflies shared part of their power with Xia De; they seemed to have recognized Xia De as one of their own just now. Speaking of which, no matter what posture Xia De transforms into, he seems to be recognized as one of their own by the lives corresponding to that posture. His form transformation seems to be a bit different from ordinary transformation spells.

Not long after the butterflies left, firelight constantly approaching appeared in the depths of the thin fog. Afterward, Sister Belen and Theresa, carrying a tattered lantern, appeared in a hurry. Xia De greeted them happily after confirming that this was not an illusion this time:

"I'm back... What happened to you?"

Although their clothing was still tidy, their states were obviously wrong.

The left hand of the girl wearing glasses was hung around her neck with a bandage, and white hair had actually appeared in her beautiful blonde hair; Sister Belen looked no different from the original on the surface, but Xia De could clearly feel that the fire in her body had fallen into a state of silence. The fire was no longer rising, as if it had been sealed.

"Xia De!"

Theresa, carrying a shovel on her back, hugged Xia De with one hand and said softly:

"You finally came back... We encountered some troublesome things while you were away. Let's go back first; don't talk here."

Sister Belen just nodded to Xia De. The silver eye patch reflected the light of the lantern in her hand when she looked up. Xia De actually saw that the upper edge of the eye patch had broken off a small piece.

It seems that something very dangerous had indeed happened:

"Alright, let's go back first. How are Miss Violet and Miss Liard?"

"The teacher is fine, just forced to consume two more soul tears. Now that puppet body is in a weak state, so she didn't follow out; Miss Liard's injuries are all external. Although the injuries of the living cannot naturally recover in this world, and the recovery effect of secret arts and sorcery is limited, she is actually the one in the best state among us."

Xia De didn't ask much either. Holding Theresa's hand, carrying the suitcase, and carrying Little Mia, he followed Sister Belen onto the road back to the hut.

I don't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that the atmosphere of the 【Tombstone Wasteland】 at this time was very different from the previous two times. Although it was still tombstone-lined, fog-shrouded, and candlelight-flickering, the breath of death was becoming purer, closer to the reef beach on the edge of that dark water area.

The wasteland, which was originally soundless, became even more silent, making every breath of the living people become increasingly obvious. The feeling of being watched became stronger and stronger. This feeling did not come from a certain direction, but from all directions:

"It seems that the time we can stay has reached the limit, and we must get out as soon as possible."

However, fortunately, although the environment became strange, nothing else happened on the way back except for encountering a group of ghouls that Xia De solved casually.

After Theresa knocked on the door of the hut according to a specific frequency, Miss Liard, with messy hair, opened the door a crack with a fearful expression. Only after seeing that it was the familiar three people outside did she breathe a sigh of relief:

"You're back. I was a little worried just now."

She moved out of the way of the door:

"Long time no see, Mr. Hamilton."

It seems that the time Xia De left this time was very long. The interior of the room looked more dilapidated than before, and the supplies Xia De brought last time were basically gone.

The hound mother and daughter were huddled in front of the fireplace to keep warm, and the colors of both spirits had become somewhat shallow. Miss Violet, whose body had shrunk by another size, now looked only sixteen years old. She was lying on the bed as if asleep. Xia De hurried over after entering the room.

He breathed a sigh of relief after placing his right hand on her forehead to sense:

"This body is too tired and needs a good rest to wake up. Did Miss Violet use power beyond the capacity of this body?"

He took out the supplies he brought this time while asking, and then walked toward the fireplace to help prepare meals. Theresa originally didn't want Xia De to help, but she couldn't stop Xia De and could only watch him busy himself with them.

While preparing food, Theresa and Miss Liard also told Xia De about what happened here.

Before Xia De left, everyone had eight burial items and two shovels left. Although they learned from the Ancient Giant King that the passage to leave was in a tomb in the style of an Ancient God temple, the location of the temple still needed to be exchanged with 13 burial items.

So after Xia De left, the four ladies who stayed behind tried to get the missing five burial items before his third appearance.

With their current level, and with the help of the hounds who were familiar with the wasteland situation, it should not be difficult to find suitable graves to dig out burial items, but an accident occurred when the number of burial items reached 12.

Because they could not stay outside the gravedigger's hut for a long time continuously, going out to find burial items was also done in turns.

That time it was Theresa's turn to go out with Sister Belen. As a result, they had just left the empty area next to the gravedigger's hut when they ran into a woman who was over 2.5 meters tall, wearing a bright red dress, with white long hair, holding a folding fan made of human bones and skin, and covering half of her face with the fan.

That woman's attire was exceptionally gorgeous. She seemed to have been standing in the fog long ago, and it was only when Sister Belen and Theresa saw the other party that they realized the other party's existence.

At that time, the two had not gone far, so Miss Violet, who stayed in the gravedigger's hut because she had just returned from going out, saw the tall woman at once.

Although she didn't know what the other party was, they were either living people or monsters here, and the woman was obviously the latter.

It looked at Theresa and Sister Belen and chuckled. After taking away the fan that covered the lower half of her face, it revealed a circular oral cavity densely packed with sharp teeth inside.

"They encountered the 【Swollen Lady】 I mentioned."

When Xia De controlled the fire to warm the food, the hound, who was snuggling with her daughter, said weakly:

"Ghoul Marquis, Swollen Lady, and the Gravedigger of the Underworld Coffin are the three most terrifying existences for the living in this wasteland, but they also know the secrets here very well."

"I once said that the Swollen Lady is an ancient evil thing, but it wasn't until these respectable ladies encountered it that I realized its true body is a female corpse."

"The teacher said that the Swollen Lady should be a corpse that died in the early Mythological Era, and later somehow became an evil thing."

Theresa said in a low voice. Her left hand was inconvenient to move, but there was no problem with one hand holding a plate:

"It is truly terrifying, very terrifying... When facing her, I almost couldn't control the shaking of my hands. Now my brain is still making me forcibly forget the process of fighting the Swollen Lady."

"I only remember the teacher tried her best with the puppet body and consumed two soul tears. I also used the bullets of the 【One-Hit Kill Pistol】 until only six were left before it was finally repelled by us."

"Even if the teacher's true body could be here, we might not be able to defeat it head-on. This is the home field of the undead; it is almost immortal here."

At that time, in order to rescue Sister Belen and Theresa who were entangled by the "Swollen Lady" and could not return, everyone left the hut to help. Most of the injuries suffered by the girls were caused at that time, and the injury states of different people were different.

The hound mother and daughter's souls were injured, Sister Belen's fire in her body was suppressed by unknown power and fell into silence, Theresa's soul of her entire left arm was sealed, causing her left arm to be unusable, and Miss Violet was forced to sleep because of excessive spellcasting.

Although Miss Liard only suffered external injuries, her left eye was now half-blind. Although it had little impact on fighting and action, it was not completely without impact after all.

No one knew how the "Swollen Lady" found this place, but it was highly likely that it was trouble caused by them staying here for too long. After repelling it, everyone stayed in this stone house and never went out again until the sister sensed Xia De's return.

However, repelling that ancient evil thing was not without use. During the battle, many of the gorgeous gold ornaments on the other party fell off. Later, after inspection, the burial items held by everyone were increased from 12 to 16. Coupled with the gold bracelet Xia De brought back this time, the number of 17 burial items was enough for them to find the last temple.

The spirits of the witches were all in a state of deficiency, so they could not heal their own injuries. So when everyone started to eat, Xia De prepared treatment plans for them one by one.

Miss Liard's left eye was temporarily blind due to external injuries. It was not treated because the injury of the eyeball was related to the power of that evil thing. Rash treatment might lead to the residual power invading the brain.

However, it was fine after Xia De came. He first released "Light Spell" on Miss Liard's eyes. Although this caused the girl's eyes to be completely blind, it also purified the weak power remaining from the evil thing. Afterward, it was much easier to treat the eyes blinded by the light; "Sunlight Healing" could do it.

It was just that when Miss Liard looked in the mirror afterward, she found that there was a faint silver color in her left eyeball.

Xia De could not treat the soul injury of the hound mother and daughter. This could only be slowly recovered by themselves, and it was best not to join the battle afterward.

Theresa's soul left arm was sealed. After untying the bandage on her left arm and tearing open the sleeve, the black runes on the surface of the fair skin had already caused her left arm to partially rot.

But after Xia De carefully checked, he found that it was not a seal, but the power of the "Swollen Lady" was cursing and assimilating Theresa's body, wanting to turn her into her own clone.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3346 =====