It felt so good to be close to the witch!

What Roy couldn't understand was why Duke Soros of Blackstone would bestow such an important region as Star Lake upon the old lord of Blackstone.

This doesn't make sense.

If Roy were the border duke, he would definitely have placed such an important place under his own command and heavily guarded it.

But if you can't figure it out, you can only put it aside for now.

Roy's thoughts turned to the mysterious sealing array beneath the star lake.

He believes that there is a 98% probability that the Ice Witch Ais's deduction about the expansion pattern of the Crimson Rift is correct.

The unusual occurrences at Xinghu Lake have always started a week before the Feast Festival and have quickly subsided after the festival.

Roy had asked Red, and in previous years, the old lords of Blackrock Territory would only venture into Star Lake to collect low-purity magic crystals the day after the Feast Festival.

In his letter to Roy, Border Duke Breton Thoros only wrote that one should not venture into Star Lake during the Feast of Harvest, as there was a danger that even the Golden Knights might perish there; he did not say that one should not venture into Star Lake after the Feast of Harvest.

All the information combined basically supports Ais's point of view.

From this, we can also draw the conclusion that the conflict between the Second Prince and the Border Duke will reach its true peak on the day of the Bountiful Festival, when the deep red rift beneath the Star Lake opens to its maximum extent.

Without a doubt, if the Crimson Rift truly has a time period that can be touched or even entered, then that time would only be during the Fertility Festival.

If the Second Prince wants to obtain the [Arrogant Magic Source] magical item after the sealing array, he will definitely have to send people to venture deep into Star Lake during this period.

It's not hard to deduce that the Golden Knight stationed by Star Lake is Robert, the vice-commander of the Crimson Knights, a two-star Gold Knight, and the Bloodstained Fortress, who appeared on the border of Blackstone Territory some time ago.

It's clearly impossible to penetrate deep into Star Lake and retrieve the magical items behind the sealing array under the watchful eyes of such figures, relying solely on those few "little guys" of the Silver Knights.

It seems that on the day of the Feast Festival, the real battle will only just begin...

This is merely the calm before the storm.

The untouchable crimson rift thwarted Roy's plan to prematurely acquire the [Source of Pride] magical item.

He was disappointed, but not discouraged.

That's just how things are in this world; no matter how well you plan, there will always be unexpected changes.

All Roy could do was to prepare as much as possible.

Since it's impossible to obtain the [Arrogant Magic Source] magical items beneath Star Lake in advance and seize the initiative, the only thing we can do now is to maximize our own combat power.

Regardless of how we proceed, strength is the most fundamental element.

“Roy, inside this ice ball are some magical fish that I found beneath Star Lake. They contain a relatively gentle special magic that should be helpful for your cultivation of battle qi.”

At that moment, Ais's voice reached Roy's ears.

Ais felt guilty for failing to obtain the magical items beneath the Star Lake.

According to the "agreement," Roy helped her advance to the "Grand Rank," and she helped Roy obtain the "magical item" beneath the Star Lake. However, she has now failed to fulfill the agreement, which makes Ais feel very bad.

Ais's voice interrupted Roy's thoughts.

His gaze followed Ais's voice to the ice ball on the stone table. As the icy mist on the surface of the ice ball dissipated, he could clearly see hundreds of pale red fish frozen inside.

Ais's words stirred something within Roy.

His current cultivation speed of battle qi is already quite fast, but if he could speed it up even further, that would be even better.

"Thank you."

After thanking him, Roy shifted his gaze from the ice puck to the Ice Witch Ais:

"Miss Ais, let's go into the room."

"I'm here to cleanse your body of impurities."

"We will strive to help you complete the evolution of your talent and take your strength to the next level before the Harvest Festival arrives."

Chapter 78 Remarks on the launch

After more than a month of hard work, it's finally time to go on sale again.

The release time is set for 23:55 tomorrow night (April 7th). If there are no unforeseen circumstances, the daily update time will be at this time.

Here, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the readers who have supported me all along. Without your continued reading, donations, comments, collections, monthly tickets, and recommendations, this book would not have achieved its current success. At the same time, I would also like to sincerely thank my editor, Jiang Cha, for answering my questions and providing assistance along the way, as well as all the authors who have recommended this book.

Sanjiang failed to advance, but this has nothing to do with following the author; it's simply because too many top authors launched new books in the first half of the year, creating too much competition...

Dear readers, there's no need to worry about updates or abandonment issues.

The previous book only had 250 initial subscriptions, but I still persevered and finished it with over 120 million words. The sales gradually improved and eventually increased sevenfold.

This book is performing much better than the old one, so there's no issue of it being abandoned.

Enough with the small talk, let's get to the update issue that you readers are most concerned about.

Because the release was rushed, I didn't have time to save up any chapters, so the minimum guaranteed update for tomorrow's release is only 8000 words. If I'm in good form, it should be more (during the new book period, two chapters a day only add up to 4000 words, so 8000 words shouldn't be too little).

Subsequent daily updates will remain between 6000 and 8000 words (three to four chapters).

There's no need to worry about Guguzi's writing speed. Last month, while writing both the new and old books, Guguzi was still able to maintain perfect attendance and updates.

The rules for adding updates are as follows:

For every 300 more monthly passes, an extra chapter (2000 words) will be added, which will be included in the chapter for that day. You can see this by looking at the chapter's word count.

Five extra chapters (10000 words each, same as above) will be added as a reward from the guild leader.

Let's not even talk about silver and gold; they're impossible to achieve. If they were, feel free to make any requests you have.

that's it.

I hope all my readers will support Guguzi's first subscription. If you are able and like this book, you can also click on the auto-subscribe button. Thank you!

-

[Below is the list of sacrifices requested by our friends]:

"From Witcher to Emperor": A fanfiction about the Witcher. This type of story is quite rare on Qidian. If you like this kind of story, you might want to check it out. It's quite well written.

"After Being Raised, They Became the Mastermind Villains": A story of love triangles and multiple female protagonists. Those interested in love triangles shouldn't miss it.

"The Rainbow Dragon's Dimensional Journey": Of the three legendary dragons, the Time Dragon has already been written by a renowned author, and the Power Dragon is coming soon. This is the only one left, the Rainbow Dragon, and it's unique on Qidian!

"The Mute at Hogwarts": A Harry Potter fanfiction. The protagonist is a mute who cannot cast spells. What kind of exciting stories will unfold in the Harry Potter world?

"My Wife is a Passerby Villain": The title itself is intriguing, isn't it? Passerby, villain, wife, hmm, all the key elements are there.

"Psychological Forensic Doctor": A rare forensic suspense novel on the suspense channel. Each case is very exciting, so please do not watch it at night.

"What Evil Thoughts Could Batman Have?": A novel about Batman's rebirth, based on American comics, and a very successful book.

"My Company Went Bankrupt at the Start, and I Became a Chaebol Tycoon": A chaebol novel about rebirth in South Korea. I bet you haven't read any of these before.

"The Great Celestial Master of Liaozhai": Liaozhai text, Great Celestial Master, well, everyone should understand.

"My Socially Anxious Girlfriend Can't Be a Virtual Streamer": A story featuring a socially anxious female protagonist, geared towards lighthearted entertainment.

"This Celebrity is a Bit Niche": An entertainment novel; you can tell what it's about from the title.

that's all.

Love you all, Gugu~

Chapter 79 The Ice Witch Ais's "Nervousness"

(Please subscribe!)

Upon hearing the words "Let's go into the room," the Ice Witch Ais's expression remained unchanged. However, Lilia and Shanika, standing to the side, were startled and froze for a moment. But as Roy uttered the next two sentences, the two women quickly realized that they had misunderstood.

But you can't blame them, it's just that what Roy said was too easy to misunderstand!

"Won't we run out of time?" Ais asked in a cool voice.

She remembered what Roy had said before, worrying that if she were to undergo a talent evolution, it might not be completed in time before the Feast Festival.

She already felt guilty for not being able to retrieve the magical items beneath Star Lake for Roy. If her talent evolution prevented her from waking up before the Bountiful Harvest Festival, and something happened to Roy, then she…

“It’s about five in the morning now. There are still twenty-one hours until the Feast Festival. We should be able to make it. Even if we don’t make it, we can still act later.”

Roy said calmly.

In his original understanding, the Grand Witch's strength was already sufficient.

But the appearance of the mysterious sealing array and the deep red rift that even Ais couldn't touch made him realize that the area affected by the Blackrock Territory conflict was far wider than he had imagined.

Ais couldn't touch the deep red gaps on the mysterious sealing array, meaning that this thing involved a power level even higher than that of a Grand Witch.

Ais's current strength is still not secure.

Admittedly, with the Grand Witch protecting him, it would be virtually impossible for the Second Prince to "casually" eliminate him.

After all, eliminating a "troublemaker" who doesn't even have the strength of a silver-ranked warrior comes at a completely different price than eliminating a Lord of Blackrock, who is secretly protected by a "Grand Witch" and whose elimination would require at least several Gold Knights to accomplish.

The second prince is a nobleman, and the empire is currently undergoing a transition. He absolutely does not want to suffer the loss of his gold-level combat power in order to "vent his anger" and thus lose the battle for the throne.

But Roy also had his own concerns.

While the Ice Witch Ais's Grand rank power could protect him temporarily, her status as a wandering witch meant she couldn't act rashly.

Her actions, whether or not she wiped out all the enemies, revealed that Blackstone Territory possessed combat power comparable to or even surpassing the Gold rank.

This certainly created a certain degree of deterrence, but it would also inevitably attract the attention of the Second Prince and the border dukes.

The situation is relatively easier with the Second Prince, as the distance is extremely far, making it difficult to send reinforcements and gather intelligence. However, the situation is different with the Border Duke. Blackstone Territory is not that far from the Border Duke's territory.

Once both sides discover any clues and unite with the temple, things will become very difficult to handle.

Having stood in the empire for so many years and forcibly controlled so many witches to serve it, wouldn't they have a way to deal with "Grand Witches"?

Ordinary witches can be dealt with by the Divine Punishment Knights, so wouldn't the temple have an even stronger elite knight team for witches of the Grand rank and above?

The answer is obvious.

While the Grand Witches are powerful, they are by no means the strongest in the Empire. Otherwise, the Grand Witches before Ais would have already rescued many witches from the clutches of the temple.

The fact that the witches are still enslaved and hunted by the temple shows that although the Grand Order is no longer afraid of the knights of divine punishment, it is powerless to change the witches' predicament and does not have the power to overthrow the temple.

Therefore, we need to be cautious about the Ice Witch Ais's actions.

Currently, the only witches Roy can attack without hesitation are the Healing Witch Shanika and the Light Witch Vivian, both serving witches.