Chapter 3587: The Breeding Arc and the Nature Spirit

Compared to Xia De's previous companions, the witches with this safe room lived relatively more at ease. After Xia De sat down in front of the fireplace, he had originally wanted to tell them that he had found a way to handle the forty-layer rune lock, but Miss Corns asked with concern:

"You look like you just went through a very difficult battle. Did you run into danger in the corridor?"

Xia De had come directly from the battlefield with the Falling Star Beast, so it was perfectly normal for Miss Corns to be able to tell.

Considering that although there was no time-doubling this time, there were still sixty minutes, and the only thing to do this time was to check the situation on the 40th floor, Xia De nodded:

"Ran into some very troublesome matters...... Do any of you recognize this?"

The star-blue great book unfolded beside him, and then the silver-blue arc frozen within its pages was taken out by Xia De. Although the current time was the early Fifth Epoch, Xia De actually did not hold much expectation of obtaining clues, but he did not expect that after the three witches separately examined the arc in Xia De's hand, they actually gave three different answers:

"A shard of fate?"

"A shard of the starry sky?"

"The Ring of Fate?"

The three answers came respectively from Miss Corns, Miss Novarei, and Ms. Gerd. Although the three answers were different, they were all correct, and Ms. Gerd's answer was the most correct.

"I have seen records about this kind of arc in my predecessor's notes. It is said to be related to the origin of the 【Shou Mo Yin Zhang】, and is called a shard of fate. But I don't know more information; even the hunters have multiple theories about the origin of the 【Shou Mo Yin Zhang】."

"I have seen something similar in the ancient documents of the clan. It was the diary of a great astromancer the clan once had. She called this kind of thing a shard of stars that fell into the material world when the star realm shattered. If you embed it into your own body, you can obtain power beyond the mundane."

"I have seen this in my mother's research materials."

The last was Ms. Gerd's answer. The understanding of the female hunter and the vampire-kind witch was of no use to Xia De, but this witch with the lowest level provided the most effective reply:

"Mother once researched this. She called it the Ring of Fate, the product of flowing fate solidifying. But Mother, who always resorted to some unscrupulous means in pursuit of truth, was also very wary of this kind of thing. She said no one should lightly get involved with the power of fate, otherwise it would be like a moth entangled in a spider web — the more you struggle, the closer you get to Si Qi."

The middle-aged witch paused slightly:

"But later, in pursuing human body transmutation, in order to give artificial humans everything human, Mother also considered whether they should be additionally granted fate. I don't know where she got it from, but an arc very similar to the one you took out once appeared in her hands."

"Oh?"

Xia De asked with great interest:

"She embedded that arc into the artificial human's body, did she?"

"Mother rarely let me come into contact with her human body transmutation experiments, and I don't like it either. Later she was expelled from the Zalas Academy. When the academy sent people to seal up the dangerous items Mother left behind, that arc was not on the list of dangerous items that were found. I also don't know whether the arc was taken away by Mother, or whether it was inside some unknown artificial human's body.

But later an organization called the 'Association of Prophets' actually came to the academy specifically for that arc. They are said to be a very ancient organization. They told the academy that the arc they were looking for was the fate of breeding, representing the fate of life giving birth to the next generation. They hoped that once the academy learned of the arc's whereabouts, they would definitely notify them."

"Breeding?"

It seemed that anything related to the Ring of Fate would involve the Association of Prophets.

As for the "Ring Beast" that Xia De was currently encountering, none of the three witches had heard of it, but they could understand how dangerous a scene of "the crimson star falling from the night sky, about to hit me" was.

"Seek help from that deity."

Miss Novarei took out the two unredeemed room keys that the three of them jointly held:

"Although each of us came here with our own wishes, we all also hope that as our friend, you can be safe and sound."

Among the three, Miss Corns's wish had already been fulfilled. The vampire-kind Miss was actually thinking of giving her share of the keys to Xia De. Although she had not yet made up her mind to give up the power of her right arm, she had already decided that once there was a chance to leave, she would return to the Ordinary World at the first opportunity, so she did not need the keys to search for other Pantanal Pantanal Xiewu.

No one could say clearly how long Xia De had been away this time, but Miss Corns had recovered well. Although she had not yet returned to normal condition, participating in a small amount of combat was no problem.

As for the reason that caused Miss Novarei's mental state to be very poor, it was not that they had encountered danger during their outing — the danger came from the Whispering Hills outside.

"Corns's condition was not good, only Ms. Gerd and I could go out, but we only wandered below the fifteenth floor, so we didn't encounter too much danger. The danger came from outside. I remember that Ms. Gerd and I had just brought supplies back, and we were resting when the sound of knocking on glass came from the window."

Xia De looked toward the room's window. The windows here, like those of other rooms, were all nailed shut with planks of wood, but there were also gaps for peering outside.

"We didn't know what this meant; this had never happened before. You said it was very dangerous outside, so we didn't dare go check the situation. But later the sound of glass shattering came from the window. Although I knew this might be an illusionary sound created by the other party, I still went over to check the situation. After all, once the other party really came in through the window, probably everyone here wouldn't survive."

The red-haired vampire-kind witch showed a look of lingering fear:

"I didn't look out through the gaps in those planks, but placed my hand on the plank, wanting to sense the situation of the glass behind the plank. Then my perception touched......"

She stopped her description, and Ms. Gerd finished the rest of the story:

"At that time Miss Novarei fell straight backward, and black light seeped into the room through the gaps in the planks. But fortunately the shrine suddenly glowed, suppressing the black light invading the room back outside the window. After that a very terrifying sound came from outside the inn. I cannot describe what it sounded like.

We gathered together wrapped in blankets doing our best to stay calm. Then after all the sounds outside disappeared, we fed Miss Novarei that bottle of blood wine you made last time, and only then did she come to."

"It's a good thing you left behind the blood brew, otherwise I would definitely have to go find some...... prey to recover."

The red-haired vampire-kind Miss said while also glancing at Xia De, meaning that during Xia De's absence she had not used the power of her right hand to devour any Pantanal Pantanal Xiewu.

Miss Novarei had not fully recovered yet. Although the situation was slightly better than Miss Corns's, her combat ability was definitely affected. So among the witches present, the only one in perfect condition was Ms. Gerd, and she happened to be the only mid-rank one present.

"Let me wake up our nameless friend first."

After hearing their story, Xia De looked at the unconscious black-haired Miss:

"This way at least we can have one more combatant."

"Speaking of this, last time I mentioned that she only kept human form for too long, so even after falling unconscious she couldn't revert to her original appearance. Now I know her race."

Ms. Gerd added:

"After you left I was responsible for taking care of her. I don't know if it's because you entered her dream, but afterward she would intermittently show a state of bodily elementalization.

At first I guessed her true race was an ice elemental life, but after checking later I felt it wasn't. Compared to elemental life, she is more like a legendary race, a certain kind of existence born from the world and nature. This is a race even more powerful and rarer than unicorns and dragons."

Xia De said:

"She is a nature spirit born from ice and snow?"

"Yes...... you know?"

Xia De shook his head:

"Some time ago when learning about the origins of a relic, I heard about this kind of life from someone. But compared to actual records, that was more like a fairy tale or even a myth."

He was referring to that stone zither 【Frost's Sorrow】...... 【Winter's Fate】. When Miss Ai Si Bo Ge mentioned that zither, she told the story of a nature spirit who fell in love with a mortal girl.

Ms. Gerd nodded:

"Indeed, nature spirits have rarely appeared since the end of the Mythic Epoch. There is a theory that this is because the First Epoch and subsequent epochs have obvious differences.

Legend has it that this kind of existence has an innate talent for manipulating nature. Although saying they are born as demigods is a bit of an exaggeration, they are definitely very strong. I am very curious — if this Miss is really a nature spirit as I infer, how was she possessed by a demon."

"I am even more curious — can this kind of noble existence born from the world and nature also be possessed by a demon?"

Miss Novarei asked, and the professional Miss Corns answered the question:

"Yes, every mundane thing in the world can be possessed by evil spirits and demons—even soulless dead objects, without any exception. I'm very glad we encountered that ice-and-snow demon in the inn. If it had been outside, a demon with such a vessel for possession would probably require the half-goddess witches to be called in to deal with."

The story of the unfamiliar black-haired witch was still unknown to everyone for now, but the answer should be revealed soon.

There was still some of the dream-entry potion left from last time, and the secret art that connected Xia De's dream with the young lady's—even in her injured state, Miss Novelle could still perform it:

"Then let's begin."

After drinking the potion, Xia De lay down beside the black-haired young lady. Miss Novelle then dabbed the blood from her finger onto both their foreheads and connected their fingers with a silk thread. Xia De closed his eyes, emptied his mind, and tried not to think about the many troublesome matters he was currently facing. A few seconds later, his consciousness gradually sank into the dream, and he opened his eyes once more on that ice plain with extremely poor visibility.

?? PS: Bonus chapter 1/4, begging for votes!!!