Witch Redemption

Monica was puzzled by this. "If it's to prevent future troubles, wouldn't it be better to ignore the so-called sealing artifacts and eliminate all these witches?"

Jeno pondered for a moment before replying, "The biggest problem right now is that the sealed artifact possessed by the Flame Witch is extraordinary. It would be best to recover it as much as possible. Giving these witches two more months is to try and find out who actually possesses this sealed artifact."

"Then we need to send relevant personnel to monitor..."

Before Monica could finish speaking, Geno interrupted her, "No need. The use of this sealing artifact requires the killing of a witch as a price. Once a witch harbors murderous intent, the Codex of Causality will capture her in time."

In the eyes of the Empire, such witches are nothing but ants. This time, the Empire is fully prepared, and anyone who dares to show their face will be the first to die!

"There's another reason why these witches are sent to fight the Goblin Kingdom alone. The warden has predicted that it's time to take action against the Goblin Kingdom, and this is the fastest opportunity for the witches to obtain the Silver Spellbook!"

Jeno didn't reveal any further information. Monica pondered for a moment, then nodded in response, "I understand. Furthermore, according to my investigation, Major General Eric, under the instructions of the Imperial Royal Family, is preparing to intervene in the Witch Cult's affairs. He has already used a man named 'Ryan Litt' as a liaison, and yesterday he made contact with those four special witches. Should we...?"

“Ryan Litt?” After a moment’s thought, Jeno quickly remembered a declining family, the Litt family. “It’s fine, let it go and we’ll get rid of it when the time is right. In addition, we can secretly leak the information that we will eliminate all the witches in two months.”

Chapter 85 Feather Kingdom Temple Sanctuary

Outside the border post of Mori, more than a dozen open-top steam cars had been waiting for a long time.

Since the Ruins of Mo City are quite far from Moli City, it would probably take half a day to travel there without transportation. Therefore, the Witch Cult chose a more direct method: to send the group of witches to the designated location.

Unlike the last time Li Lan and her group escorted a caravan, this time the large convoy chose a different route, and along the way they could see a large number of imperial troops, clearing a safe passage for them.

Perhaps it was because of this foolproof escort that most of the witches, apart from Li Lan and her three companions, were extremely moved.

After all, in their view, the series of measures taken by the Witch Order to escort them to this place all demonstrated the importance the Witch Order placed on them.

Soon, around noon, the convoy finally reached the edge of the Mocheng Ruins.

Charlotte City, the city protected by the Feather Kingdom Temple, was now fully revealed to everyone.

The local customs and culture here are completely different from those in Mori City. What separates the entire city from the monster area is not a tall wall, but many old, gray and white fences with the marks of time. The fences stretch out in the field of vision, and every five meters or so along the edge of the fences, there is a sentry post with many soldiers wearing imperial soft armor uniforms on duty.

After passing through countless fences, everyone entered a wide avenue, twenty meters wide, paved with rough gray bricks, which stretched all the way to a square at the end, where the temple ruins left behind by the ancient deity "Feather God" were located.

The buildings surrounding the square are all onion-shaped domes, each housing an independent family, with their own estates nearby.

Each manor is separated by numerous main roads, creating a neat and magnificent appearance.

In fact, before this, Li Lan and others had already researched a lot about the history of the Mo City ruins.

Legend has it that the ancient Feather God created a vast human kingdom in the ruins of Mo City, where people worshipped him. In order to express their worship of this god, the people built an enormous palace, which is Mo City.

Who knew that shortly after Mo City was built, the War of the Gods broke out, the Feather God completely perished, and a large number of demons began to ravage the Feather God's kingdom. Only a small number of humans managed to escape by hiding in the Feather God's temple.

After the catastrophe, Mo City was occupied by a group of intelligent demonic goblins, while the surviving people of the Feather Kingdom have lived a peaceful and prosperous life under the protection of the Feather Kingdom Temple ever since.

There are even rumors that the entire royal family of the Feather Kingdom perished in Mo City in ancient times, causing the surviving people to never produce any talents with magical abilities again, leading to their complete decline. As a result, they offered no resistance when they were ruled by the British Empire thousands of years ago.

Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that the descendants of the former Yu Kingdom who currently live in this "Charlotte City" have a strong xenophobic attitude, are hostile to all outsiders, and live a closed, self-sufficient life.

If it weren't for the low-level monsters that have lived in the surrounding area for hundreds of years affecting their survival, they wouldn't have opened up a separate area for adventurers to stay in. That area is now also known as Campfire Town.

The town of campfire is located north of Charlotte City. Once you step outside the protective barrier of the Feather Kingdom Temple, you will face a large number of Shadow Monsters. After walking another two kilometers, you will find the habitat of the intelligent monster goblins.

In reality, those who come to Campfire Town are mostly adventurers of Silver rank or higher. Their target is not the elusive goblins, because there is nothing to gain from them.

Their goal is to hunt Shadow Monsters and obtain their magic cores. The magic core of a Shadow Monster is worth more than ten times that of a Mimicry Chaos.

After about thirty minutes, led by Major General Aibo, Li Lan and many other witches were finally brought to a very special and bustling area. Most of the buildings here were familiar Gothic buildings with pointed towers.

In addition, the dozen or so long streets in sight were bustling with shops, including restaurants, weapon shops, magic core exchanges, brothels, casinos... you name it, they had it all. And the large number of adventurers coming and going all looked armed to the teeth, and they looked incredibly fierce.

Lana glanced at the bustling area and whispered to Li Lan and the other two, "When I came here last time, I came from the southern direction. All adventurers enter from that border."

It seems that these witches came through special channels to highlight their special status.

Perhaps it was because they rarely saw so many witches that the many adventurers around them, as well as the shop owners and waiters, couldn't help but turn their heads and whisper their guesses about the purpose of these witches' visit.

"Hey, isn't this too much?"

Inside the restaurant, a waiter paused his work and muttered to himself as he watched the many witches slowly passing by outside.

"Yes, it's said that the incident a while ago caused the Witch Cult to lose all its prestige."

Another waiter, while wiping the plate in his hand, also glanced sideways at the witches passing by.

"What's the matter?"

"You do not know?"

"Hehe," the lazy waiter chuckled, "I haven't been back to Mori City for a long time, I wonder what it's like there."

"It is said that there is a witch who has defected from the Witch Cult for three years, I think her name is the Flame Witch. She hid for a long time before the Witch Cult caught her. As a result, many people died in the capture process, and the slums in the border area were also razed to the ground."

"real or fake?"

"Believe it or not, this incident enraged Emperor William 46, who fined the Witch Cult a considerable sum. You may not know, but the scene of that terrorist attack was incredibly brutal! I had only ever heard that these witches were terrifying, but I never imagined they could be that terrifying."

After briefly mentioning the number of soldiers and civilians who died in the terrorist attack of the "352 Incident," the waiter, who continued wiping the plates, speculated, "The Witch Order is probably trying to save face, so they plan to transfer all the witches from Mori City here to deal with that goblin kingdom. It may be a long time before things get peaceful."

"Isn't this great? It makes these monsters' deaths worthwhile... Strange, the Empire never considered dealing with the Goblin Kingdom in previous years. There's no profit in dealing with those intelligent monsters that are hiding somewhere."

"Who knows? Didn't the empire casually find a pretext to wipe out another goblin kingdom near the Nazan Temple hundreds of years ago? Isn't the motive now the same as before?"

Ultimately, it's all about maintaining the empire's security. These commoners shouldn't pry too much, since those goblins hiding underground are definitely not good people and pose a great threat to adventurers venturing out of the empire.

"This time might be different from last time; those goblins at the Mo City ruins aren't so easy to deal with..."

The lazy waiter suddenly felt a chill behind him, and his body stiffened instantly.

A slightly annoyed middle-aged man's voice rang out slowly, "I didn't hire you to freeload. How long do you plan to slack off?"

"I'm...I'm sorry, boss! I'll be right there! I'll be right there!"

..................

The town of campfires is a cluster of spire-like buildings near the border in a rather open area.

A large number of Imperial soldiers are stationed in this area, and they are all conducting daily training and taking turns patrolling the border area.

"Hello, Major General Abbott, I am Hughesri Jono, the commander of the border defense force here."

The middle-aged officer, who had been waiting in front of one of the spire-like buildings, saluted.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Colonel Hughes."

Abo smiled broadly, squinted, and shook hands with the middle-aged officer. "These witches are the key to this operation. Colonel Laussius will need to make arrangements next."

"Major General Aibo, you're too kind."

Facing this Imperial Major General, whose rank and status were higher than his own, Hughes was extremely respectful. After bowing, he quickly summoned his subordinates and said, "Charle, distribute the operational requirements to them."

Soon, ten burly soldiers in Imperial Army uniforms stepped out from a nearby column and, led by one of their captains, quickly distributed packages containing military rations, a paper map of the ruins of Mo City, and a mission message to the witches.

Li Lan glanced at it quickly and found that the paper map was much more detailed than the information in Ryan's notes, and it also marked many entrances to the underground area.

"Gentlemen, you will rest for the day. Starting tomorrow, you will be the vanguard of the Empire, launching the first attack on the Goblin Kingdom at the ruins of Mo City. Rest assured, all you need to do is hold them back for seven days, using whatever methods you prefer. After seven days, the military will take over the plan to wipe out the entire Goblin Kingdom."

As always, Abbot explained the general requirements to the witches, and then said with a smile, "Because the nights in the monster region are extremely special and require other auxiliary means, you must report to me before you leave tomorrow. I will make extra arrangements for you then."

As Major General Abbott spoke, most of the witches in front of him became unusually excited, their eyes burning as they stared at the young and handsome Imperial soldier.

"Please rest assured, Major General Aibo, we will definitely be able to kill those guys who threaten the Empire, and we will absolutely not let you down!"

One of the most enthusiastic fans had her eyes shining, and her words quickly drew agreement from many of the surrounding witches.

After all, they are all witches favored by the Imperial Witch Order, and their experience levels are rising rapidly. Hunting down the mimicry of chaos is a piece of cake for them.

They were probably still thinking that the goblin monsters in the ruins of Mo City were nothing special.

Aibo waved his hand, appropriately displaying the demeanor of an elder, "Never be careless at any time. You are all treasures of the empire. No matter what dangers you encounter in the ruins of Mo City, please prioritize your own safety."

With a squinting smile, Major General Abbott quickly scanned the witches, unaware that he was looking at them as if they were already dead.

How many witches will be able to advance to the Silver Spellbook level during this opportunity?

Abbott was unaware of the details; all he knew was that the situation these witches would face next would be extremely dire, and the Empire would not offer any assistance to any of them.

"Now, let's assign you your rooms. Please follow me!"

Soon, Li Lan and the other three were arranged to live in a nearby building. Also squeezed into the same room was a short man who seemed unwilling, Ann Gnath.

..................

In a dilapidated residential house in the Mori City Defense District.

Major General Eric Dick's sudden visit to Ryan Little caught the latter somewhat off guard.

"The gist of the situation is this: they're unsure if they can complete the task, and they've stated they're not interested in the so-called witch's secret, hoping to exchange the reward for..."

Ryan subconsciously embellished the story, portraying Li Lan and the others as cowards who only cared about any tangible benefits that could help them survive, and who had no need for any unverifiable witch secrets.

Eric's expression wasn't good after hearing this. According to his original idea, these witches might have some doubts about the Witch Cult. If he used the relevant witch secrets as a reward, he could not only save a lot of money, but also secretly turn these witches against him.

However, things have not turned out as expected.

However, it doesn't matter. It would be best to obtain the so-called "Scepter of Satogua" if possible. Possessing this trump card would also add a lot of leverage to the Dick family in the future.

Over the years, Eric has witnessed the decline of countless families. Even the currently powerful Dick family may very well follow the path of decline and extinction, just like the Litt family to which this man belongs.

"There are two objectives this time. One is to take revenge on the Witch Cult and settle the score for Gabi Dick's death. The second is to secure a new foundation for my Dick family. If those witches can obtain the Scepter of Satogua, then this deal might not be impossible."

Having made up his mind, Eric calmly replied, "Tell them that this commission can be completed, and I will also give them a big gift. As long as they can provide the 'Scepter of Satogua,' they can have anything else I can do, not just a space backpack. Also, tell them that the Empire will completely eliminate this group of witches in two months, and let them decide for themselves what to do."

Chapter 86 Preparations in All Aspects

The nights in Campfire Town are much more lively than in the border town of Mori. Perched on a building near the monster area, one can hear various noises coming from the distant streets.

By the dim light of the magic crystal lamp, the simple layout of the room can be clearly seen: two bunk beds, a desk against the wall, and three old wooden chairs.

This layout easily reminded Li Lan of her past campus life, somewhat like the school dormitory in the impoverished area back then.

Since no missions were scheduled for Li Lan and the others today, the four of them, along with the somewhat reluctant short man Ann Gnath, spent the entire afternoon and evening in this room.

Li Lan and the other three had been looking at the relevant knowledge in the magic book, while Ann Grenas, after reading the paper book he carried with him for a while, calmly lay down on the bed and seemed to be fast asleep.

Perhaps because he didn't have much affection for Li Lan and the others, Ann Gnas only greeted them briefly and then didn't speak to them again, making the atmosphere somewhat awkward.

With one more person present, the four of them became a little more reserved than usual in order to keep some secrets.

"Karen, what are your plans for tomorrow?"

Noticing that Li Lan was staring at the paper map again, Lana couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know if we should join forces with those witches. We are facing a kingdom, and our enemies are all intelligent."

When Li Lan said those words, she seemed quite worried.