Chapter 982

"Is something not right?"

Cold fog shrouded the lake surface, and Xia De, continuing forward, suddenly asked in his heart.

【Yes, the previous two times, they had already thrown a rope to you.】

At this moment, Xia De could already see the blurry scene at the edge of the island in the center of the lake in the fog, but the witches had not thrown the rope to pull him onto the island. The red butterflies that turned the white fog red continued forward, and Xia De didn't even see the light of the campfire at the camp:

"Could it be that the direction I landed on the island this time is wrong?"

But the 【Father of the Infinite Tree】 always made him appear at the same location every time; there shouldn't be an exception this time.

The butterflies turned back into Xia De on the lake surface. While the scattered red light had not yet disappeared, Xia De squinted his eyes and looked at the edge of the island not far away. He could vaguely see the scenery at the edge of the island, saw the extinguished campfire, and the camp surrounded by simple fences, as well as tents and living supplies.

When he finally broke through the mist on the lake surface and stepped onto the island, Xia De finally confirmed that there was not a single witch in the camp; they were all gone.

The camp didn't look like it had been abandoned for a long time; it hadn't completely merged with the scenery of the island, and one could see quite obvious traces of human life. When Xia De reached out toward the charcoal in the campfire, his frozen hand could still feel the temperature. However, this campfire itself was not a normal flame, so it was impossible to judge the time Miss Violet and her party left based on the temperature.

"Six maids, the Witch Empress, and a prospective graduate of the Success Higher Medical College—are they all not here?"

This island was not completely safe. When Xia De first came, he and the eight witches encountered a big guy that fell from the sky, and the second time, he heard that the witch party encountered crazily growing plants. Therefore, discovering they were not here, Xia De was not particularly surprised, just hoping in his heart that these ladies were all safe and sound.

He warmed himself for a while with the residual heat of the campfire and then searched the camp, trying to find if the witches had left any clues before leaving. Just as Xia De thought, Miss Violet had indeed anticipated that he might return at any time, so she left him a note, pressed down in the tent with a gold brick.

As for why Miss Violet had a gold brick in her luggage when traveling, that was not something Xia De could understand.

【Try not to leave the camp; we will return.】

It didn't state what danger they encountered, nor did it state where they went. Xia De had seen their handwriting in the witches' theses, so he could confirm that this was indeed written by Miss Violet. The letters were very scribbled; the party of eight must have been in a hurry when they left.

Combined with the fact that he found they hadn't taken too many living supplies when checking outside, it seemed the evacuation of the camp was a very abrupt accident.

"But I don't have time to wait; half an hour passes in the blink of an eye."

Xia De put the note away, bent down to exit the tent, and then looked out at the island shrouded in white fog. Last time he came, there were some hard thorn bushes on the island, but this time it looked like nothing had changed—at least nothing around the camp had changed.

"I'd better go find them."

Pondering in his heart, his right hand drew the Moonlight Greatsword from the air, the holy silver blade glowing with a hazy luster in the fog. Taking another look at the empty camp, Xia De jumped over the simple fence.

【Careful!】

Landing, he stabbed his sword into the ground beneath his feet:

"Heaton Seal!"

A dazzling golden spherical shield bloomed in the mist. A silent and invisible attack touched the shield, forming ripples on it.

"Silver Moon!"

The moment the shield disappeared, the silver light blade slashed toward the front left. The Silver Moon slash clearly hit something in the air, and then "She" reminded Xia De that the enemy had disappeared. From beginning to end, Xia De hadn't been able to see what had attacked him.

"An invisible enemy?"

He passed through the thin mist and walked quickly toward the position where the "Silver Moon Slash" had hit the enemy. He kicked the ground a few times but didn't hit anything, then bent down and tried to touch it with his hand, but still didn't feel anything.

"How strange. Is the enemy a monster that cannot be seen or heard, leaves no traces when attacking, and leaves no corpse after death? So, am I really not fighting a hallucination?"

Xia De thought silently in his heart, but "Her" perception could not be wrong. The enemy indeed possessed a physical form, just one that could not be perceived by any means other than the sixth sense. Although this characteristic would make the battle troublesome, the attack power and defense of this kind of monster were not strong. As long as the opponent's position was determined, one could basically achieve a one-hit kill.

"The Lost Lake area suppresses perception. I just came here from a normal environment, so this suppression doesn't have much effect on me, but Miss Violet and the others have been living here for quite a long time."

The soil on the island in the center of Lost Lake was very soft, and the witches left very clear footprints on the ground when they left in a hurry. Xia De followed these footprints and walked into the hazy foggy island. However, the footprints were not continuous and sometimes disappeared abruptly for a distance, but fortunately, the traces of the thorn bushes they had broken through were very obvious, so Xia De didn't have to worry about losing his way in the fog or becoming "fog-ified" due to prolonged contact with the fog.

The real danger was that kind of invisible enemy. There weren't many of them, and he only encountered them four times during Xia De's subsequent journey.

The counterattack process after encountering the enemy was also very simple: first, "She" perceived the attack faster than Xia De, then Xia De stabbed his sword into the ground beneath his feet to use the "Heaton Seal," and finally, he used Silver Moon to attack the enemy in the gap after the attack—that was the whole counterattack process.

Even when encountering an attack for the last time, due to the timing of the shattering of the "Heaton Seal's" golden spherical shield, it was exactly the moment the invisible attack touched the shield. The triggering of the miracle's special effect caused the shattered shield to spray golden light marks toward the surroundings, and the exploding streamers directly killed the invisible enemy.

The opponent's defense was even weaker than Xia De had imagined.

Moving forward quickly, in the seventh minute of Xia De's arrival at Lost Lake, he saw shadowy figures ahead. Following the footprints forward, after getting closer, he discovered that it was indeed Miss Theresa and the five maids, excluding the head maid.

They were not hallucinations. The six people stood in a circle in the thorn bushes, each looking in one direction. The witches first saw the glowing Moonlight Greatsword in Xia De's hand, and only then did they see Xia De's figure walking in the fog.

To prevent being suspected, Xia De even waved the gold brick in his hand:

"It's me!"

He tried his best to lower his voice to prevent disturbing other existences on the island. But the fog itself absorbed sound, and at this moment, the witches could only see Xia De opening his mouth. Fortunately, they recognized the object in Xia De's hand.

Xia De also couldn't hear the witches' voices, but from their expressions, he could tell they were very nervous. Miss Theresa was making warning gestures at him. Along the way, Xia De's direct perception of that kind of invisible monster was also rapidly increasing. At this moment, without "Her" reminder, Xia De sensed that there were at least 6 invisible monsters prowling nearby.

"Although I can't see them directly, why not use area-of-effect attacks like Witch's Light to counterattack?"

Xia De was very curious about the approach of Miss Theresa and her party, but there was no time to think too much. Perhaps because he had taken the initiative to make a sound, those invisible monsters were gathering toward him.

"She" quickly informed Xia De of the positions of all the enemies. Combined with Xia De's own direct perception, the positions of the six monsters immediately appeared clearly in his mind.

Those enemies whose specific images were unknown used some kind of materialized "meat arrows" to attack. Although the witches couldn't know the position of every monster like Xia De, they at least knew the attack had begun.

Miss Theresa knew the power of invisible attacks. Ignoring the plan they had just formulated, she anxiously wanted to open her mouth to warn him, but at this moment, the Moonlight Greatsword had already been stabbed into the ground beneath his feet, and the golden shield bloomed in the white fog.

The silent and invisible attacks stirred up ripples on the shield. Xia De, inside the golden shield, canceled the spellcasting posture of his left hand at the same time the sixth attack hit the shield. The exploding golden streamers, accompanied by a slight sound of shattering glass, directly annihilated all the enemies.

The witches weren't quite sure what the current situation was, while Xia De let out a sigh of relief and walked over, carrying his sword:

"Long time no see, Miss Theresa. The enemies have been eliminated. Where are Her Majesty Violet and that head maid? What did you encounter?"

"The 'Children of the Invisible' have all been eliminated?"

The tenth-tier witch asked cautiously, then added:

"Be careful, come stand over here quickly. They cannot be perceived by normal human senses, and only by determining their positions can attacks be effective; otherwise, even if you happen to hit them, you cannot eliminate them."

"Can only counterattack if perceived?"

Now Xia De knew why the witches didn't use area-of-effect attacks.

"Six in total, all eliminated."

Xia De nodded very firmly. Miss Theresa and the young maids around her, wearing black and white maid dresses and small black leather boots, exchanged glances and asked somewhat embarrassedly:

"Um... weren't there only five?"

Although each of the six people was higher in level than Xia De, when dealing with this kind of enemy that required high perception to counter, they didn't add up to as much as Xia De.

The attacks of the monsters known as "Children of the Invisible" would cause the flesh of the injured to rot into meat paste, which was somewhat like plasticine melting under extremely high temperatures. Although the six of them, including Miss Theresa, were not hit directly by those attacks, the youngest maid in the team had accidentally been grazed on the arm.

After confirming that the surroundings were safe, the girls gathered together to help her treat it. At this moment, on the upper part of that arm, an area about the size of a palm had already turned into quivering "meat jelly."

That appearance was very terrifying, and no treatment method could reverse this kind of injury. To prevent the injury from spreading, the "meat jelly" was quickly dug out completely from the arm with a silver knife. The girl, having drunk painkiller potion, lay on her companion's lap with cold sweat on her forehead. Fortunately, after digging out the infected part, the spreading injury stopped immediately.

That piece of meat was burned directly, and the maids were casting spells to try to stop the bleeding as quickly as possible. Their consumption at Lost Lake was already very high, so Xia De took the initiative to help.

Water treated with "Gluttonous Food" was poured onto that terrifying wound. The 【Gluttony】 spirit rune, having twice devoured the divinity of the 【Lord of the Blood Feast】 through Xia De, was more powerful than most of his spirit runes. Those liquids radiating extreme blasphemous spiritual light touched the wound and took effect almost immediately.

The missing flesh didn't grow back immediately, but a layer of pink meat membrane had already wrapped around the wound. Seeing that Xia De's miracle effect was so good, Miss Theresa immediately took out a pink bottled potion she carried with her and poured it onto the wound as well.

Sizzle~ After a burst of white smoke, the young girl, who was only nineteen years old this year, almost tore her companion's silk stockings due to the excruciating pain.

Fortunately, after the white smoke disappeared, the arm had returned to normal, only the skin color at the location of the wound was a bit more pink and tender than the skin in other areas.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Seeing Xia De staring at the maids' long stockings, Miss Theresa said with a smile:

"These are made of ice silk, clothing that only the top seamstresses can make. The price is very expensive, but they are very beautiful, have good elasticity, and are also very breathable. Only someone like Her Majesty Violet... I mean someone so generous, would be willing to give each maid a pair. Have you never seen them?"

The Outsider had seen fine long stockings made by knitting machines in this world; those were products of the Steam Revolution and mechanization, very popular among ladies. Luvia, the Princess, and Dorothy, the commoner novelist, both had similar clothing. It was just that the elasticity was very poor, requiring garters and elastic bands to prevent them from falling down, which, in the Outsider's view, was not particularly excellent.

But what the maids were wearing at this moment was clothing very similar to that kind of fabric from his hometown. This was the first time Xia De had seen it in this world. It seemed the technological level of the Sixth Era 1853 was not as good as that of the Fifth Era 5177.