Witch Redemption

Just like how Senior Number 47 refused to use it, if Li Lan really had no other choice, he would never betray his best friend in order to survive on his own.

At this moment, didn't Li Lan also think of her past and present lives?

As an adult who has entered society and witnessed a great deal of deceit and treachery, Li Lan's greatest strengths are honesty, kindness, and sincerity. He cherishes everyone who is good to him and every hard-won act of kindness.

Now, after time travel, he is the same!

"Excellent, the first use will definitely be successful."

"What will happen if I refuse to pay this price?"

The old woman closed the strange book in her hand, as if she had expected Li Lan to ask this question. "After you successfully use it, you have one hour to repay the price. If you cannot do it within one hour, then your fate is very simple. First, you will die on the spot the first second after the time limit is exceeded. Second, everything you have done will be in vain."

"..."

Li Lan looked terrible. This old woman, who was suspected to be a senior witch, had thrown him a question that was almost impossible to answer.

He knew very well that if he chose to refuse like his predecessor, number 47, then based on the existing information, he could only continue to search for that sliver of hope, to find a way to counter the "Code of Cause and Effect" mentioned by the old woman.

But do they really have enough time to search for it?

The encounter with Senior Number 47 was incredibly lucky for Li Lan and Lana, but behind this luck lay an even greater crisis: the Imperial Witch Cult suspected that Senior Number 47 had left a secret on one of them!

Then the Empire might take action immediately after they advance to the Silver Magic Book, launching the "Witch Hunt" right away.

"Is the price so high that it has to be Lana or Lorina's lives? Close friends? Perhaps to Lana and the others, I am not a close friend. I have kept too many secrets from them!"

Li Lan's expression changed several times, and suddenly she had a sudden realization. "The price must be paid! But the choice of people, it doesn't necessarily have to be Lana and the others. If it were me... In any case, I don't have any other way to deal with the Empire for the time being. It's better to find out what item can help me for now, and then consider how to deal with it when the time is right."

"Senior, please speak frankly. I am not an indecisive person. If necessary, I am willing to pay the price!"

The old woman was clearly taken aback by this response. She had originally thought that this would be a witch as decisive and upright as number 47, but she did not expect that there was still a big difference between them. Witch code name 001 has a ruthlessness that number 47 does not have!

Little did they know, Li Lan's ruthlessness was not directed at his best friend, but at all his enemies, and even himself!

"Good! Good! Very good!"

With great satisfaction, he handed the strange book in his hand to Li Lan, "This is the item that can help you, the sealed artifact, the Book of Fate's Judgment!"

"A sealed artifact? The Book of Judgment?"

The unfamiliar term surprised Li Lan for a moment. The instant he took the strange book, he felt an indescribable sense of dread emanating from it, just like when he used "Life Alchemy" earlier. It was as if some great being was spying on him for the first time, making him feel like he was being watched.

"Indeed, this is one of the secrets of the Imperial Witch Cult, a sealed artifact, whose true name is the Book of Judgment of Fate."

Having reaffirmed the item's identity, the old woman continued, "This involves the Empire's second secret, the secret of the 'Sealed Artifacts'."

"After advancing to the Silver Magic Tome, the death of a witch is divided into two types. One is dying in battle with conviction. Witches who die in this form will not have their souls contaminated, and their natal magic tomes will not undergo further mutations. They can trigger 'ashes' to become artifacts."

"The second type is when a witch is killed or commits suicide with extremely strong resentment. In this case, the witch's soul will be corrupted by the resentment, and her natal magic book will also change due to the corruption, making it unable to trigger 'ashes' to become a divine artifact, and it will remain in this world permanently. Such an anomaly is called a 'sealed artifact'."

“All ‘sealed artifacts’ contain only one special ability, which combines the witch’s professional skills and racial talents before her death. Their use will have a powerful effect that can trigger miracles, or even divine miracles!”

"However, the use of sealed artifacts always comes at a price, ranging from minor dizziness to sacrificing a part of one's own body or soul, or even directly using living people as human sacrifices. Furthermore, the person who possesses the sealed artifact will suffer from the resentment it carries for a long time, which should not be underestimated. But precisely because the price is so high, the power it unleashes is even more terrifying!"

"This Book of Judgment is the product of my killing my dearest friend, the witch 'North Enki'. It can deceive fate to a certain extent and produce causal effects!"

This involves a great deal of secrets. The old woman did not mention how she killed her best friend, but her calmness and decisiveness shocked Li Lan so much that she could not say a word.

"The Book of Fate's Judgment can only be used every three days, and each use only allows for a three-minute recording period. Within these three minutes, you are the planner of fate, able to rewrite events that are about to happen or have already happened within the next half hour. This rewriting is not about time travel changing your destiny, but rather, deceiving fate! It veils the fate that has already occurred with a false facade, or makes the fate that is about to happen believed by anyone other than the person involved. In other words, it is merely a smokescreen, and the only function of this sealed artifact."

Fate cannot be changed, only intervened upon, just as time can never be reversed—this is an ironclad truth.

Just a small intervention in fate has resulted in such a huge price—human lives. Not only Li Lan now, but also the old woman who has used this sealed artifact many times, have had this thought: is it worth it or not?

"The interval between uses is three days, which means that three days ago..."

Li Lan suddenly understood why this witch senior wanted him to come back here again in three days.

“That’s right. Three days ago, I used a sealing artifact to deny the fact that you came here for divination.”

"That price..."

"Note that using the Book of Judgment comes at a great cost the first time. The soul of the witch you sacrifice will be imprisoned in this seal. Each subsequent use will cause irreparable damage to her soul. Only by finding a new master for this seal and infusing it with a new witch's soul can she be freed."

The old woman explained the usage and precautions of this sealed item clearly and without reservation.

Li Lan felt that the item in her hand was not a book of fate, but a signpost that led its holder to destruction; it was an extremely evil item!

"I understand, I will use it with caution."

Li Lan took a deep breath, not daring to delve deeper into this matter. He was afraid that if he listened any longer, he would return the sealed artifact to the witch senior without hesitation.

"I trust your choice and I won't be disappointed."

After taking one last look at the strange book with its gray-blue cover, the old woman quietly concealed the pain and reluctance on her face. After tonight, she would finally end the suffering of her former best friend and place her final and biggest bet in this gamble with the whole world!

"Keep it safe and don't reveal its existence until the time is right."

Without making a sound, the old woman gave her final instructions, then continued, "Next, I will tell you one last secret, and I will need you to give a trivial answer."

"If, if a witch were to descend upon this world, truly given the mission of saving it, what would you do?"

“I don’t believe that,” Li Lan said frankly. He never believed any of those childish nonsense about saving the world. “What needs to be saved is not the world, but the witches. I have witnessed the deaths of four of the kindest witch predecessors, seen the Sunset Temple with its mountains of witch corpses, and seen living witches die like weeds in front of me.”

"We are so fragile, so helpless! And yet this world is full of malice towards us! Given this, what reason or right does this world have for us to fight with all our might to save it?"

After suppressing his emotions for more than a month, Li Lan was able to release them completely at this moment. He was very calm, calmer than ever before.

"Another question: If the world's destruction is inevitable, and the way the empire and other nations treat witches is solely for self-preservation, to prepare for the apocalypse, then if you don't save humanity before that day arrives, you too will face destruction. What would you do?"

In other words, the Empire is not an evil entity to the people of this world. The Empire also has its own justice and will, and their evil is only directed at the witch.

"I will only help those who treat us kindly. If this world has always been hostile towards us, then let us all perish together. For me, the witch codename 001, Kallen Elf, it doesn't matter whether the Empire is evil or other nations are evil. I only know that whoever wants to take my life, take the lives of my friends, and build their hopes on the suffering of witches, then they are my mortal enemies, to the death!"

"As a transmigrator from another world, I never care whether this world is destroyed or not. I only live in the present and enjoy life to the fullest."

If you repay evil with good, how will you repay good?

Li Lan was never a sanctimonious saint; he was just a thirty-year-old single office worker driven to desperation by the realities of this place. He only wanted to survive with Lana and the others, and they would do anything to achieve that.

"Live in the moment, seek revenge and vengeance?"

This was an answer that satisfied her immensely; it was simple, direct, and dispelled all her previous confusion.

"If number 47 gave me the motivation to resist, then this code name 001 gave me the conviction to die!"

She kept those words deep in her heart, a chilling smile creeping across her wrinkled face as she spoke again in an aged, approving voice, "Very good! Very good! A witch shouldn't live such a tiring life!"

She smiled as she stood up and slowly walked towards the dilapidated wooden door. "That's enough for today. You should go now. Remember not to look back. Go as far away as you can."

Just as she was about to ask him to leave, Li Lan suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

He was certain that this "old lady" was a witch, and a senior among seniors, but he couldn't understand why such a witch senior, who knew so many secrets and possessed such a powerful sealing artifact, was still staying in the dangerous area of ​​Mori City on the border of the empire.

"Senior, I..."

Li Lan wanted to say that he would continue to visit in the future, and if the plan was about to succeed, he would personally come to invite this senior to participate in the escape plan.

However, the old woman interrupted him. She knew what Li Lan wanted to say. "The relevant matters could go on for three days and we still wouldn't finish talking about them. You don't need to know too much about me, nor do you need to know who I am. You just need to know that I am also a senior who failed to escape due to many hardships."

“The junior number 47 is right. We are all transmigrators from the same world. In this dark and miserable world, we are one family. Your hope is our hope.”

"One last piece of advice: your fate of being interfered with is very likely to be brought forward, but hopefully you will be able to seize the opportunity."

"Go on, and remember, never look back! Then, I pray that you have a smooth journey!"

After reminding Li Lan a second time not to look back, the solitary old woman gently pushed open the door, revealing the deep and dark night.

The night wind was cold. As Li Lan stepped out of the room with a blank mind, she suddenly thought of the four witch seniors again, and felt an overwhelming pang of sorrow in her heart.

Chapter 80 The Flame Witch

Nearly two hours had passed since Li Lan left.

The cramped room had become empty. After losing the Book of Judgment, her former best friend "Noss" was no longer by her side in the form of resentment, leaving her with a strange sense of emptiness.

"This meeting has been erased from the Book of Fate tonight, so their future should be fine. It's time to pave the final path for them."

A massive burst of pure white magic erupted from the "old woman's" body. The next second, her hunched figure suddenly swelled up two sizes, and this magic, called "false," leaked out wildly like a deflated balloon.

Immediately afterwards, another slender arm tore open the chest, ripping open the well-disguised, foul-smelling skin with a "rip".

The girl, who had completely revealed her naked body, had long, fiery red hair that flowed freely, with many faint, sparkling lights floating on her elegant, smooth hair.

Without making a sound, she pulled open the closet next to her and forcefully twisted open the hidden compartment inside. At that moment, her thoughts returned to a distant past, to that confused and painful era.

On that day, in order to escape the prison of the empire, she killed her former best friend "Noss," turning her best friend's natal magic book into a sealing artifact. Then, on that night of raging torrents, she personally facilitated the possession of a high-level monster, concealing the monster's secrets and thus causing countless tragedies.

It can be said that she orchestrated the deaths of a large number of imperial civilians and soldiers, killed a total of sixteen witches, and even assassinated a hero who possessed a "divine artifact," bringing her to the brink of extinction in the empire.

However, she ultimately underestimated the Empire's capabilities. Behind that open door stood a clear-headed prison guard, the warden of the Witch's Prison, the Undying Iris.

From the moment she killed North, her fate was captured by this terrible being, who cursed her, preventing her from leaving the borders of the Empire, and all her and North's efforts vanished overnight.

Everything forced her to choose a life beyond her control, confining her to a stinking body and hiding in the border town of Mori, the most dangerous yet safest place, for more than three years.

She had long forgotten how she had spent those years, how many hardships she had endured, and what kind of belief had kept her alive until today. All she knew was that she was still alive today, and that she would change history once again.

The moment she appears, the Empire's "Codex of Causality" will once again reveal her true name as the oldest living witch.

Vesta Hestia, the Flame Witch, was once a figure who brought fear to the Empire!

"Nors, you once said that fate is not unchangeable, that fate has always been in our hands, and that death is our strongest and most intense form of resistance, so intense that it can leave a mark on this world that we once existed."

Quietly tucked away in that hidden compartment was a gray-white witch's outfit that held countless memories, along with a greatsword embedded in the wall. The girl stared blankly at this familiar outfit, which stirred up even more unforgettable memories.

"Nors, you once said that even if our future is dark, we cannot lose our fighting spirit. We have never compromised while we are alive, and we will have no regrets or complaints when we die."

She awkwardly zipped up her witch outfit, then snapped open the Libra Cross Greatsword embedded in the wall. The confusion in her crimson beast eyes was gone, replaced by unwavering resolve.

She seemed to be living in yesterday, and what she was facing at this moment was tomorrow's escape.

Confidence, courage, and anger propelled her fighting spirit to its peak!

With her slender right hand, she casually picked up the large book on the side of the desk. It was her personal magic book, a gold magic book that no witch had ever been able to successfully advance to before, a book even stronger than a silver magic book.

With a "whoosh," the open grimoire floated beside her, radiating a fiery red glow.

She pushed open the dilapidated door again and walked out calmly and slowly.

"From this moment on, let this world feel pain."

"The Blazing Sun of the End!"

………………

The terrifying red flames suddenly dispelled the darkness of the night, blooming completely in the sky above the Mori City defense zone, transforming into a huge, fiercely burning sun, so dazzling that it was difficult to look directly at it.