Chapter 983

In fact, Miss Theresa did not know what the "Child of the Formless" actually was. When the group was resting, the ground suddenly shook, as if something was burrowing out from beneath. Subsequently, they were attacked by invisible enemies. Because there were simply too many enemies surrounding the camp at that time, Miss Violet led them in a temporary retreat.

But Miss Violet was, after all, a thirteenth-tier witch. After temporarily breaking free from the enemy's encirclement, she quickly sensed the "nest" of these monsters. Therefore, she took her personal maid to deal with the source of those "Children of the Formless," while Miss Theresa and the other five maids stayed behind to intercept the pursuing enemies and avoid direct contact with the truth behind this attack.

"Over there."

Although the total time spent in contact with Xia De was only one hour, the bespectacled witch still instantly discerned Xia De's current thoughts:

"They went in that direction. I cannot give a specific time of departure, but the perceived time was not long. Mr. Hamilton, if you really must go over, you must be careful."

Xia De gazed into the depths of the fog:

"You all be careful too; stay here and do not move around."

After bidding farewell to Miss Theresa and the others, he continued walking forward, following footprints that were becoming increasingly difficult to discern on the ground. Miss Violet and that personal head maid were actually not very far from Miss Theresa and the others. Xia De only walked about twenty steps before he saw them, but in reality, before clearly seeing the two, their figures had not appeared in the thick fog.

This island was even stranger than Xia De had imagined.

When Xia De arrived at their side, Miss Violet and that twelfth-tier maid were not fighting, but were looking around just like the six witches from before. This was a clearing on the island without any thickets of thorns. The 【Night Watcher】 was being held in Miss Violet's hand, while the tall head maid with long brown hair was holding a wooden hand crossbow—that was not a relic, but an alchemical item.

"Long time no see, Xia De."

Miss Violet greeted him softly. Her spirit looked a bit better than last time, but a look of fatigue could still be seen.

"Are Theresa and the others alright now?"

She recognized the direction from which Xia De had walked over.

"They are fine; I helped them eliminate those invisible enemies. What are you looking for?"

"The nest."

The tall maid answered for Miss Violet, her voice very crisp:

"Your Majesty believes that the nest of the 'Child of the Formless' is the cause of the attack. If the nest is not eliminated as soon as possible, more enemies will appear on the island. The nest should be nearby in a place we can see, but we haven't found it yet."

"The Treasure-Seeking Compass provided me with help, but the nest is even harder to sense than those monsters."

Miss Violet said, then saw Xia De looking at the top of their heads. She blinked her eyes and immediately pulled her maid to dodge to the side:

"Above our heads?"

"The only 'big guy' nearby is this one. I can feel that it is something shaped like a beehive. But... it is very hard for me to describe what its structure and shape actually are; it is very strange."

The witches retreated to Xia De's side, and Miss Violet patted Xia De on the shoulder:

"Then don't try to sense it. Since you have pointed out the location, I can also vaguely sense that there is indeed something there."

She stuffed the 【Night Watcher】 into Xia De's hand and took the hand crossbow from her maid's hand:

"Let's do it together."

"No problem."

The familiar longsword entered his hand, and Xia De swung it a few times. Silver moonlight soaked into the sword body, and the "Moonlight Greatsword" enveloped the 【Night Watcher】.

"Miss Violet, please pay attention—one, two, three!"

The crossbow bolt and the silver arc of light flew into the air together. Under the gaze of the three, they touched an invisible object and then disappeared together. There was no explosion, not even any sound, but Xia De could feel the disappearance of the "nest."

"What exactly is this? Is it a monster unique to the Lost Lake?"

Confirming that the trouble had been resolved, Xia De then asked. Miss Violet shook her head, signaling Xia De and the maid to go with her to rendezvous with the others:

"The Child of the Formless is a very rare and eerie creature. It is a subspecies of some Third Era demon, the offspring of a demon and a Xiewu. They usually exist in the form of a nest in ancient ruins, tombs, and dense forests where human footprints are rare. Only by sensing them can one launch an effective attack against them. Don't look at how easily we won just now; that is because the Lost Lake is also suppressing their power."

Xia De could not imagine what a scene of a demon and a Xiewu crossbreeding would look like:

"Then if one really encounters a full-state 【Child of the Formless】 nest, how should it be dealt with?"

"Run. The Child of the Formless will only act around the nest and will not go too far away. The area of this island is just about the limit of their range of movement."

Miss Violet gave the answer decisively, which made Xia De think of the sealing point on the mountainside of Mount Xikar, where one of the methods left behind by this Witch Empress for dealing with the "Interstice" was to "run."

"What if one must face it?"

Xia De asked again, and Miss Violet thought for a moment:

"What a strange question... The power of any demon can launch an effective attack against the Child of the Formless without observing them. Oh, if you really encounter this thing in the future, you must never go find a demon to sign a contract to gain power. In fact, many well-known relics contain the power of demons. I have one, the 【Fire-Spitting Demon Skull】, but I didn't bring it out on this adventure; it is simply too ugly."

At this time, a full twelve minutes had passed since Xia De arrived at the Lost Lake, which meant that half of the half-hour time had already passed. Fortunately, the location of the Child of the Formless's nest was very close to the Obsidian Tower in the center of the lake island. After rendezvous with Miss Theresa and the other five maids, Miss Violet looked at the young maid's recovered injuries, and then the group of eight set off directly for the tower instead of returning to the camp.

"How much time do you have left?"

After entering the safe area under the tower without fog, Miss Violet asked Xia De, knowing that Xia De had a fixed duration of stay:

"A little over ten minutes; we must be as fast as possible. However, I have already found the sacrifice."

Xia De patted the water bag tied to his chest. Although the 【Father of the Infinite Tree】 did not allow special items to be brought into the past, mission items were an exception.

"We also found some things, but we are not sure if they are useful... You only have such a short time? In fact, even if you didn't come to find us, you could still complete the god's trial."

Miss Violet reminded him, but Xia De shook his head. Although telling the god directly, "My wish is to help Miss Violet learn of eternal beauty," would also work, he could not abandon the companions who were adventuring with him:

"I promised to help you all; how could I go to climb the tower all by myself?"

The witches revealed smiles.

According to the speculation Xia De made before leaving last time, the trial given by the Great One residing in the Obsidian Tower must have a solution. This not only referred to Xia De being able to find a solution, but also meant that Miss Violet and her group could also find a way on the lake island of the Lost Lake.

Before Xia De appeared, the group of witches had indeed worked hard to analyze and speculate on the sacrifices that might exist on the island. Miss Violet even risked going deep into the island's fog, touching more of the taboos on this island. Although in Xia De's view, this Witch Empress had a very problematic personality, she was a genuine thirteenth-tier witch and a formal member of the 【Witch Council】 of this era.

She was even more powerful than Xia De had imagined. Before the "Child of the Formless" incident, Violet Marshall had gone deep into the depths of the Lost Lake's island alone dozens of times holding the 【Night Watcher】, eventually discovering a cube buried deep in the mud on the other side of the island.

"Yes, the Secret Keeper-level relic 【Water Cube】. I remember it was lost 300 years ago; I didn't expect it to appear in such a place."

That small blue cube was now being kept by Miss Theresa. The group of witches did not know the relationship between this cube and the sacrifice. Before being forced to retreat from the camp after encountering the Child of the Formless, they even speculated that they needed to activate the 【Water Cube】 to obtain a water source, but that would also mean they had to provide at least 1,000 living human sacrifices to allow that perpetual water source to close.

Fortunately, Xia De brought good news; it only needed to be soaked in water, which made Miss Violet heave a sigh of relief.

The water in the water bag soaked the Water Cube, and then the water that could serve as a sacrifice re-entered the water bag. Miss Violet signaled her maid to hand the water bag to Xia De. This was an ordinary water storage container, and its volume was not large:

"If I had known earlier that you could also find the sacrifice, I actually wouldn't have needed to take such a risk. Although an extra sacrifice means an extra blessing, we shouldn't be so greedy, should we?"

She said to Xia De with regret, and this feeling was genuine. Compared to an extra blessing, this cautious thirteenth-tier witch truly hated adventuring.

Arriving under the Obsidian Tower for the third time, both Xia De and Miss Theresa had many emotions. Miss Violet instructed her maids to wait under the tower, then patted Miss Theresa on the shoulder, and while taking off her pointed hat, asked:

"Schultz, I will ask one last time: are you sure you want to go in with us? This tower has three floors in total; the higher you go, the more dangerous it is. You almost didn't hold up last time."

She looked at Xia De, and Xia De, who was looking up at the tower, nodded:

"The god is now on the top floor; this is the final destination."

Miss Violet looked at her distant niece again, and the latter hung the relic 【Proof of Faith】 around her neck:

"I am prepared to face any situation."

The Great Witch shook her head, instructed her maids again, and then signaled to Xia De that they could set off.

Xia De inserted the 【Night Watcher】 into the soil and took a look; no water flowed out, so he knew that although the combat experience inherited by the sword could appear in this era through his touch, the new characteristics bestowed upon this sword by the "Goddess of the Lake" had not yet appeared in this era.

He was just about to push open the tower door, but hesitated and turned his head to look at the silver sword again. In his heart, he recalled the dangerous trial in Huntington City not long ago, and thinking that he did not have an "arrow" this time, he reached out and pulled the 【Night Watcher】 out again:

"Let's go."

"Why bring a weapon?"

Miss Theresa asked nervously. Xia De pursed his lips and tentatively said:

"Is it possible... that after offering the sacrifice and completing the second trial, the content of the final trial is that we must join forces to defeat that god?"