Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

But in any case, she cannot appear in the public eye now. Tia heard from Nogi that Brigitte has been spending all her free time studying church scriptures lately.

Thank you, Father of all things.

She really did a good deed...

Brigitte, upon receiving Tia's letter, felt as if she had grasped a lifeline, and her whole body burst with energy.

She immediately summoned Nogi and said, "Nogi! Prepare a boat for me!"

Nogi rushed in with paper and pen, and hesitated after hearing the request, saying, "Miss, given your current condition, it's not really appropriate to hold a banquet or meet with anyone on the ship, is it?"

"This isn't a banquet! I want to go out to sea to relax, to see the vastness of the ocean, to experience the local customs, and to cultivate my cultural sentiments."

"To experience different cultures and cultivate one's character?"

Nogi was taken aback; she hadn't expected those two words to come out of Brigitte's mouth.

Brigitte said impatiently:

"That's right, hurry up and go, don't ask anymore."

"Understood! But what type of ship do you want?"

"A medium-sized armed cargo ship will suffice."

Brigitte added, "But I need to get some people in there."

Swish swish swish~

Nogi quickly picked up her notebook and wrote it down. "What kind of people do we need?"

"Give me twenty Sequence 6s first, then twenty Sequence 5s."

"Uh... I'm afraid it will be difficult to find, Miss."

"Is there really no one here?!"

“We don’t have much money left… You only brought 60,000 gold coins with you when you came to the horse farm. We can borrow the ship from Governor Lost, but if we use it to hire so many superhumans, the remaining money will probably be hard to cover other expenses.”

"What about a Sequence 4? Hiring a Sequence 4 shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"No, Miss..."

Nogi's forehead was covered in cold sweat.

There are Sequence 4s, yes! But most of them have been transferred to the southern counties. With President Jeremiah in charge of Mistmoon City, that's enough. The remaining Sequence 4s are all old, weak, or disabled, some even holding high positions. Nogi would be willing to invite them, but they're unwilling to come.

When you're in your seventies or eighties, who's going to fight you to the death...?

If we look further, we'll have to go to the army in the border region. There are quite a few Sequence 4 officers in the army, and even some Sequence 3 governors, but Nogi can't get one...

Brigitte scratched her head, lay back in her chair, and said speechlessly, "Nothing here, nothing there. Let Bonaparte blow up Mistmoon City and let it go to her. If I ask her for some money, at least she can lend me some."

"If you don't have it, then you don't have it. Go hire a few Sequence 5 alchemists for me, and then go to my uncle and ask for a batch of military alchemy equipment that is specially used to create energy field barriers. I need large ones, I want to load them onto the ship."

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In the altar next to the ship's medical operating room, priests chanted hymns in unison, and a semi-transparent barrier faintly appeared above the warship.

Tia hadn't been on a boat many times, so she found it quite novel.

However, these barriers were not quite the same as the shields she had imagined that could withstand energy weapons. These barriers could only block the wind and rain at most, and their main purpose was to resist the extraordinary curses coming from the outside.

The Sea of ​​Ansu is relatively peaceful, but in the oceans south of the Sea of ​​Ansu and north of the Seven Seas, piracy and other such activities are frequent.

However, Tia cannot go that far.

The Rosey naval base she was going to was only a few hundred kilometers away from the Ansu mainland. She had just arrived in the southern part of the Ansu Sea and was still quite far from the Land of the Seven Seas.

But before they even reached the base, when they were still thirty kilometers away from Rose, the wind and rain were already quite noticeable, and there were occasional thunderclaps.

As you approach the outer edge of the South Island, the cluster of red-brick buildings and the white lighthouse creeping along the shore become increasingly conspicuous. The sharply defined breakwaters and defensive coastal guns, the long harbor, and the menacing giant ships awaiting maintenance also come into view.

Tia saw obvious signs of battle on the hull of a large warship on the deck and asked Earl Perrick with a puzzled look, "Did we encounter pirates?"

"Not a pirate."

Perrick, who was about to take a puff of his cigarette, saw Annie and Tia following behind like little tails, so he quietly took it off and said, "The pirates' small boats couldn't have been damaged like this. It would be fine if they went to the Seven Seas. But the Royal Navy can't patrol that far."

"Judging from these injuries, it's either from the Navy of the Hand of Transformation or from one of the warships that the Twin Serpent Order purchased from the Seven Seas."

Chapter 274 Promotion Ceremony

—Thump!

On the dark brown walnut wood table, a coin engraved with a twin serpent symbol fell and spun a few times.

Santis sat at the table, picked up the coin and glanced at it: it was exactly the side with the two snakes climbing the broken staff. He then chuckled a few times and looked up at the Arabian man in front of him, whose face was covered by a long black robe.

He stood up, patted Abdullah on the shoulder, and patiently explained:

"Adullah, it must be tough working for Ibn Musa, right?"

The Tianfang man beneath the black robe subtly clenched his fists.

Santis gripped Abdullah's shoulder and laughed:

"Don't be angry, I didn't mean to criticize your teacher. Ibn Musa is a good man, but not a good teacher. Besides, you and your teacher have different temperaments. He was content with the ordinary, which is why he was able to achieve great things. But you are different—"

“If you’re content with mediocrity, you should go back to Gribland City now and inherit the two alchemy workshops your teacher left you.”

Abdullah said in a deep voice, "What do you want to use me for?"

Santis released his shoulder, clapped his hands, and tempted him:

"Listen to me, Abdullah, do you want to be an unknown nobody, or do you want to make a name for yourself?"

"Alchemy stipulates the principle of equivalent exchange. Let's talk about the cost first."

Having learned his lesson, Abdullah was determined not to repeat the same mistake.

The last lesson was already very painful.

If it weren't for Ibn's intervention, he would have almost died under the blade of the Victory Sword.

"interesting."

Santis whistled and said, "Well, it seems you've grown quite a bit. I won't keep arguing with you. I'm going to a sanctuary in Ulrich."

"The Sanctuary?!"

Abdullah couldn't help but shudder at the mention of those two words.

The aftereffects of his mistakenly entering the raven's sanctuary last time were still lingering in him.

Santis glanced at the burly Arabian man and said curiously, "That's right. Ulrich's Sanctuary. But as you can see, given my status, it would be very difficult for me to enter the Sanctuary undetected. So I need some cover."

"Of course, you don't need to worry about how to enter the Sanctuary. I will arrange a ritual to temporarily enhance your soul strength to ensure you can dive deep. At the same time, I have also entrusted Archbishop Lundell Mercury of the Twin Serpents to enter the Sanctuary. He has been in some trouble recently, so he agreed quite quickly."

Abdullah trembled as he said, "I must refuse!"

Santis raised his eyes slightly, somewhat surprised. "Are you really going to refuse? Abdullah, my brother. You don't have many opportunities left. I didn't sponsor your advancement to Sequence 6 just to throw away the gold shield."

Abdullah denied it, saying, "Mr. Santis, I will pay back the money you paid me! Besides, my teacher left me an alchemy workshop; I can just sell it!"

Santis patted him on the shoulder.

"That's not the point, Abdullah. You're almost thirty, and your thinking is about to plateau. Being at Sequence 7 at thirty means your talent and mindset have reached their limit."

"Thirty years of accumulation and habit have created an inertia in your consciousness that makes it so difficult for you to make any progress. Without my help, do you really want to be stuck in this lowly Sequence 6 for the rest of your life?"

"As far as I know, Sequence 6 is just the threshold of becoming firewood in the Palace of Wisdom, right? You've worked hard your whole life just to sacrifice your brain to the Palace of Wisdom and then burn it? Abdullah, my brother, once you accept the inheritance of the Palace of Wisdom, there's no turning back."

Santis advised, "Besides, there's nothing dangerous about this sanctuary, and Lundal Mercury is there too. Even if the sky were to fall, would it hit you first?"

Abdullah was trembling uncontrollably.

To be honest, he was indeed tempted.

He didn't believe Santis could support him to Sequence 4 or Sequence 3—after all, Santis himself had been stuck at Sequence 4 for decades.

He also didn't believe Santis's claim that the nightmare was safe; the sanctuary was not safe at all!

Even Santis might be lying to him.

However, Santis is a great platform. Through the power of this dragon hunter, Abdullah can directly access the Imperials and the upper echelons of the Transformation Hand, thus gaining access to more resources.

He has to become a big shot! He can't live a mediocre life and then not even know how he died!

At least we can't let our souls be taken by the Palace of Wisdom and burned for nothing after we die!

Abdullah felt his mouth was extremely dry, and he couldn't even drool. He could only say with difficulty and effort, "I promise, I promise."

“Very good. Abdullah.”

Santis grasped Abdullah's hand with satisfaction, lifted it high, and joked, "You'll be glad you made this choice later. Trust me, I assure you in the name of the Dragon Hunter."

"As for now, prepare a ship and I will protect you to the designated location. The medicine has also been prepared for you; just prepare to take it later."

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Unlike the calm and sunny land, the sea off Ansu continues to be stormy.

After arriving at the Roseau Naval Base, the thunderstorms became very noticeable. The daytime was gloomy and overcast, and at night, it was even more so, with frequent thunder and lightning after dark.

The weather is like a typhoon, even worse.

At least on Earth's typhoon days, Tia had never seen anything like Pikachu unleashing a hundred thousand volts in the sky, with lightning flashing like a giant tree revealing its roots in an instant.

Tia couldn't even imagine what the situation was like in the deeper parts of the Nan'an Suhai Sea where the thunderstorms were even more severe.

After spending two days at the naval base, Tia boarded the battleship "Glory," which was on a maritime patrol mission.

The battleship was much more spacious than the ships Tia had ever been on; the military even provided her with a small bedroom of sixteen square meters.

While it was still dark, Tia waited in the restaurant for the officer she was to meet.

The officer arrived a little late and quickly apologized, "Please forgive us, Director Sulf. There was a small problem earlier, and we had a meeting."

Tia asked, "Was there some kind of accident?"

"You guessed right. It was our colleagues who were searching for the Twin Serpent Cult who discovered the cultists' ships. They seem to have a base on a nearby island. Grand Knight Commander Ye Haifa of the Golden Furnace Knights led a team to raid the base, but their main force escaped by ship. So we held an emergency meeting and dispatched some ships to provide support."

"I see. I wish you good luck in your military endeavors."

"By the grace of the Father of all things, thank you for your blessings."

Tia nodded and said, "I actually wanted to check today's moon phase. The storm is too big, and it's difficult for me to observe from the ship."

To check the phase of the moon, one must resort to meteorological rituals to disperse the clouds.

Such a work is very difficult for bishops of Sequence 5, but the ship's church itself is the culmination of the church's technology. It acts as an amplifier, and as long as there are enough people, it can amplify the ceremony to the level of Sequence 4.

Ritual at the Sequence 4 level can influence celestial phenomena.

Of course, it is a luxury to employ so many bishops and priests.

But Tia came with a royal decree—which made many complicated things much simpler.

The officer immediately went to inform the messenger, who then went to the ship's church, where the bishop and senior priests briefly dispelled the dark clouds at the church altar.

Tia observed the phases of the moon; the sky was completely empty.

On the new moon, the moon and the sun move in the same direction, so the lunar phase is not visible.

After confirming the new moon date, Tia bid farewell to the accompanying officers and returned to her bedroom to prepare for the ceremony.

There are three sets of ritual materials in total. This is to avoid problems with lunar phase observation. For example, it is not easy to observe the moon after the 24th of each month based on the lunar calendar. Tia has never seen a proper lunar calendar in this world, so the time is all guesswork.

The ritual materials included: the left hind foot of a Angora rabbit, a raven that died in its sleep, an anvil, a rusty dagger, rope fibers used for hanging nobles, a bull's penis, bone powder from a rib or a handful of yellow mud, and black rock salt.

The use of ribs and yellow clay is special and depends on gender; yellow clay is used for men, while ribs can be used for women.

As for the other genders of the mythical creatures—Tia didn't know what to do either.

In the bedroom.

Tia carved the ritual array with a silver-plated dagger, prepared the eight ritual materials, lit the sacred candles, lit incense, and applied essential oils, waiting for the scents to dissipate.

The rabbit's foot was first placed alongside the raven's, along with an anvil and a sharpened dagger. A rope was then suspended from the wall, suspending the rabbit's foot and penis, with the iron dagger piercing the penis from the tip.

Then, a sacred candle is lit on the anvil, while the rabbit's feet and genitals are burned.