Chapter 732: The Cave in the Mountainside

The passage leading to the seal was located in a cave beneath the cliff, but not everyone was to enter; a portion of the personnel had to remain outside to wait and prevent being attacked from the rear.

Miss Aurora and Granny Cassandra had to go in; only they understood the seals left behind by the Witch Emperors. As for the rest, two high-ring sorceresses and four mid-ring sorceresses remained outside, and Xia De also stayed behind.

This was his own request; after all, he did not understand the power of the witches. Since there was time, and the nearby evil spirits had been cleared away, it was better to collect the corpse grass, mandrake, and black grudge-flower that Mr. Copse wanted to purchase.

Compared to the route Xia De took when entering the city in the Narrowed Space last time, such plants were more common in the mountains. If the Narrowed Space were not so dangerous, this place would simply be paved with gold pounds.

Thus, the group temporarily split up, and the great witches took most of the people into the cave under the cliff. The six sorceresses remaining on the cliff were all followers of Granny Cassandra and naturally knew about Xia De.

When Xia De indicated that he wanted to wander around the vicinity, that middle-aged eight-ring sorceress with brown hair immediately offered to go with him.

"No need, I'm just going to collect some plants."

Xia De shook the sword in his hand:

"I won't go too far. If there is danger, I can escape on my own."

Given Xia De's performance along the way just now, they did not stop him.

The quantity of the three materials Mr. Copse wanted to purchase was enormous; the corpse grass alone amounted to 200 pounds (about 90.72kg). Xia De's 【Toy Making】 actually had an effect on spellcasting materials, but the effect was very poor. After collecting some corpse grass and testing it, he found that he could turn them into toys, but the spiritual energy consumed for the spell was very high—three times that of ordinary matter of the same volume.

And for the mandrake, for which Mr. Copse offered a higher price, the consumption to turn it into a small toy was even higher. As for the black grudge-flower, priced at 20 pounds per flower, he could only turn it from a plant into a toy of the same volume, and he couldn't even shrink it.

"Although the grudge-flower is large in volume, one flower is two Mias. The price of corpse grass is 3 pounds 7 shillings per pound, and mandrake is 13 pounds 15 shillings 5 pence per pound; even if turned into the lightest cloth doll toy, the weight is still staggering. Hmm..."

He brought the 【God's Gift Box】 specifically to hold the plants. Besides the weekly gift and containing relics, this box could also keep plants fresh. This was not a characteristic worth praising, because most relic-type containers had similar effects. According to research, this was the influence of the whisper element.

"Collect more grudge-flowers, and less corpse grass."

Having decided on the plan, he left the barren cliff and entered the forest alone.

The black forest was exceptionally terrifying; the scorched trees and gray vines looked like strange plants that could only appear after the end of the world. The power of death eroded everything around it, and even though he had barely adapted to this place, Xia De still felt uncomfortable all over.

"I don't know what the situation is inside the boundary at my home; I must hold a ritual to seal it tonight!"

To prevent himself from having an accident, Xia De was very cautious and did not go too far. It took an hour to fill the 【God's Gift Box】 he was carrying on his back. Although this had not yet reached Mr. Copse's purchase limit, Xia De knew how to be content, so he turned around and returned to the cliff.

The six sorceresses were still waiting there, and seeing Xia De return, they were relieved to see he was fine.

Miss Aurora and Granny Cassandra's group still had not returned. Xia De and the sorceresses waited for another hour, and seeing that there was still no movement, he proposed that he would go down to take a look. No one here could restrict his freedom, so although there were dissenting opinions, Xia De eventually left.

The Outsider could not fly yet and could only climb down the black cliff along the rope. The entrance that required parchment to open in the material world required the special power of a witch in the Narrowed Space, so Xia De shone the 【Witch's Light】 spirit rune on it and saw that pitch-black cave entrance.

The cliff cave in reality was already very dark and terrifying, and this passage in the Narrowed Space felt like it led straight to the bottom of a bottomless abyss.

This passage contained the power exerted by the Witch Emperors of the Fifth Era, and it was impossible to produce any light to illuminate what was in front of one's eyes. Even Xia De's "Light Spell" could only produce a faint glimmer the size of a grain of rice. Fortunately, after the action in the 【Darkness Domain】, he possessed a certain degree of dark vision, and the thick fog from the outside did not exist here, so there was no need to worry about falling in this passage.

The further inward he walked, the more he could feel the howling wind blowing from ahead. Upon first entering the passage, the wind only brought a slight chill, but as he continued to walk, the aura of death cut his skin like a knife.

After walking for a full twenty minutes, he finally left the passage and arrived at a platform on the side of the large cavern in the mountainside. In reality, a Balrog had once been sealed here, and the bridge connecting the two sides of the platform had broken. But here, a bridge built of eerie white bones connected the two sides of the large cavern.

Those white bones seemed to be suspended in the air; at least with Xia De's understanding of mechanics, it was impossible to analyze their stress from a purely materialistic perspective.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, there was actually a bonfire in front of the bridge corresponding to the Balrog seal in reality. But only after getting closer did he discover that this bonfire had just been lit not long ago; it must have been left by Miss Aurora's group. The bonfire was still quite vigorous, and after getting closer, one could feel the warmth; even his physical strength and spiritual energy, which had almost completely stopped recovering, were slowly recovering under the firelight.

"They are indeed well-prepared."

After resting for a while, Xia De bypassed the bonfire and stepped onto that bone bridge.

As his feet lightly stepped onto it, he immediately felt the entire bridge shaking. Then, a sudden, eerie sense of dizziness almost made Xia De lose his footing and fall to the side:

"Oh."

He covered his head, feeling only that the sky was spinning and the earth was spinning, and only he was not spinning.

【There is the power of a curse on this bridge.】

"Although this kind of curse that makes one lose balance is simple, it is truly vicious in this kind of setting."

Just thinking about how deep the abyss under the bridge was, Xia De felt cold sweat break out on his back.

After barely recovering a little, he took out the extract of the weather vane blue grass and touched it to the tip of his tongue, wanting to rely on 【Lagley's Leap】 to leave this bridge in a few dozen steps. But this wonder failed; space movement was actually prohibited on this eerie bone bridge, and the effect was very similar to Xia De's 【Space Stability Halo】.

"Although extravagant and licentious, the Witch Emperors are worthy of being Witch Emperors."

He could only brave the shrill black wind and continue walking forward, every step taken with trepidation. And before the dizziness had ended, another anomaly occurred on the bridge.

Viscous and strange liquid seeped onto the bridge surface from beneath the bridge through the gaps in the bones. Those formless, strange liquids were like some kind of bizarre creature, and accompanied by the whisper element, they gathered together to form a strange, human-sized shape that kept shaking.

The appearance of this monster was particularly terrifying; on the surface of its wriggling body, small flesh buds kept trembling. And between the flesh buds, white particles like acne constantly grew, burst, and then grew again.

The intense dizziness combined with the appearance of this thing in front of him made it very difficult for Xia De to endure the urge to vomit:

"A humanoid relic? What kind of ghost is this again?"

His right hand lightly slashed through the air, and a bright trail of light flew forward silently parallel to the bridge surface, successfully cutting the body of the liquid creature. But this was useless; the opponent's body could deform and combine at will, and having an extra wound was simply not a problem for it.

"How did Miss Aurora and the others get past just now?"

He lifted the 【Night Watcher】 in his hand but immediately put it down again. The wriggling anomaly was now shaking its body and slowly walking toward Xia De, and the wet, slippery sound was particularly noticeable in the extremely quiet large cavern in the mountainside. Xia De could even imagine that once the two sides engaged in melee combat, the opponent would attach its mucus to his body until it completely "swallowed" him into its body.

"How could the Witch Emperors use this kind of weapon? I always thought they only liked beautiful and expensive things."

He cautiously took a step back and pointed his finger forward:

"Feilianna's Witch Light."

The power belonging to the witch bloomed at his fingertips, and in the golden light, the liquid monster's footsteps stopped abruptly, and the surface of its body was slowly melting. But judging from the speed of melting, even if Xia De exhausted all his spiritual energy, he wouldn't be able to eliminate the opponent.

A clattering sound rang out on the bridge surface, and pitch-black Sin Chains surged out from Xia De's sleeve, easily binding the enemy's ankles—or rather, being actively absorbed into the body by the opponent.

The power of sin polluted those liquids, but the most critical thing was that the binding effect of the 【Sin Chains】 began to exert its power. Although the 【Sin Chains】 were not very strong against relics, they did indeed make it difficult for the opponent to move for the time being.

Throwing the frog legs off the bridge, Xia De bent down slightly and ran forward a few steps, then jumped up violently:

"Ha!"

Excellent physical fitness combined with the power of the spell allowed him to leap over the head of the liquid monster. Maintaining the effect of the chains, he seized the time to run toward the other side of the bridge.

The bridge surface shook violently with his footsteps, and when Xia De finally stepped off the bridge and arrived at the platform on the other side of the large cavern, the dizziness almost immediately disappeared. Looking back, the end of the 【Sin Chains】 lay on the bridge surface, and there was simply no trace of that terrifying monster on the bridge.

"Hallucination?"

【It is not a hallucination; the traces of abnormal whisper elements have not disappeared.】

"It really is powerful."

Leaving the bridge surface just now, the light that had been suppressed since entering the mountainside finally returned to normal. The light of the silver moon shone all around, and Xia De's fingers shook left and right, discovering a stone tablet on the side of the cave entrance leading further inward.

Walking closer to observe, the inscription was written in the language of the Fifth Era, and it was probably also left by that ruler of Weidun, Witch Emperor Violet Marshall:

【Dead end ahead.】 ===== CHAPTER 733 =====