Hearing the sound from the edge of the clearing, Felianna and the Giant Tree Witch looked up together. First, they saw the Moon Witch appear, holding a torch, and then they saw Xia De following behind her.
The place was almost unchanged from when Xia De last left. Circles of powder were sprinkled on the ground with the bonfire as the center. Beside the reddish-gold bonfire were two small tents, a kettle, a small mirror, a wooden box, a basin with clothes soaking in it, and other miscellaneous items. However, this time, there was more wood, seemingly stored for the bonfire.
"You're back."
The Witches by the bonfire stood up, smiling when they saw Xia De appear.
"Good evening, Felianna. I'm back alive, thanks to your advice. Oh, this is the information I found."
Xia De followed the Moon Witch to the bonfire and handed the briefcase containing the documents to Felianna. The texts inside were in the sixth epoch script, but the Witches likely had a way to translate them:
"Excuse me, how long have I been gone? A few hours? A few days? Or a few weeks?"
Xia De asked curiously, but Felianna shook her head and said with some regret:
"We can't answer that question either."
"Why?"
"Because this forest is a unique place of time and space. The time here is not fixed, and the perceived flow of time is incorrect, so I cannot answer your question."
When he asked the Old God about Hope Town, he received the same answer, meaning this place was similar to Hope Town. Xia De immediately used Time Perception to find out the time, but the answer was only a vague result like "fifth epoch, autumn of 3002."
"Is this some kind of large location-type relic?"
Xia De was curious about this.
"It can be called a relic, but it can also be called something else. It's complicated to explain, but it's fine to consider this a location-type relic."
Felianna said, then confirmed:
"This time, you can still only stay for half an hour?"
"Yes."
"Then we don't have to waste time. Sit down. You two, translate these materials into our language and then transcribe them. The originals cannot be left here; I don't want to cause temporal instability."
The Witches still didn't know that Xia De came here through the time key.
The students reluctantly transcribed the materials by the bonfire, but they weren't actually writing by hand. Instead, it was like manipulating puppets, making the quills move on their own. Felianna said this was a necromantic ability.
As for Felianna herself, she explained the current situation to Xia De. The group of three venturing deep into the West Continent's Thousand Tree Forest was not due to getting lost. The conditions for the summoning ritual were strict; for it to succeed, it had to be performed in a similar unstable, out-of-control area.
The instability of time prevented them from stating how long they had been under the tree, but even the Thirteen-Tier and Twelve-Tier Witches were almost at their limit.
The Thousand Tree Forest was eroding their power, corrupting their minds, and devouring their souls. They had to complete the summoning ritual as soon as possible to leave.
"Why do you need to contact that deity? Since the situation is already so dangerous, why not abandon the ritual and leave immediately?"
Xia De sat by the bonfire and asked quietly. The shadows of the Witches and Xia De stretched into the distance, and the crackling sound of burning firewood almost drowned out their conversation.
If this place wasn't so dangerous, Xia De would actually like such an environment.
"The initial purpose of contacting that deity is inconvenient to disclose, but it's definitely not for doing bad things. We can't leave because we're stuck. This is the center of the Thousand Tree Forest, and I admit I underestimated its danger."
Felianna glanced at Xia De, who was sniffing. He smelled the perfume that the maid called "the Witch's scent" on Felianna, but this particular fragrance had a hint of rose.
"Now, we can only summon that deity. With the deity's help, we will have a chance to leave."
Felianna concluded.
The Old God - Shifting Door itself is a deity who controls the power of time and space, so helping the Witches leave this strange place should not be difficult.
"What difficulties is the ritual encountering now? Is it lacking necessary ritual materials? Is the ritual itself incomplete? Or are some strict ritual conditions not yet met?"
Xia De asked again. Although he had experienced it twice in Tobesk, strictly speaking, he had not thoroughly understood such a super-large ritual, but he also knew it would certainly not be simple.
"All the difficulties you mentioned exist."
The information Felianna revealed was even worse than Xia De had imagined:
"The basic ritual array has been set up, right here in this clearing. But the process of entering the Thousand Tree Forest was not smooth; we lost some key ritual symbols along the way. Staying here for too long, the Thousand Tree Forest gradually erased our memories, and coupled with the damage to the notebook containing the ritual information, we forgot the last step of the ritual. To start the summoning ritual, Witches with the power of time, space, and nature need to be present. Originally, we prepared two angel-level relics to substitute for Witches with time and space powers, but those two relics were actually devoured by the Thousand Tree Forest. Not a physical devouring, but their power was drained by the forest. One time when we woke up, they were already just two ordinary antiques."
There was no daytime here, only eternal night, so Felianna didn't say she woke up in the morning.
She had her students search through the tent for an ancient hourglass pendant and a cubic block that appeared to be made of glass. Xia De also held them in his hand to examine them, and indeed, he couldn't feel any elements.
"The powers of time and space might be solved by me. In fact, I possess these two powers, but I am not a Witch."
He said as he handed the hourglass and the cube back.
He summoned his Destiny Ring and pointed to the core Ling Rune in the center. The Witches also didn't recognize this ancient rune:
"This represents space-time, and because of it, I have the ability to perceive time and perform short-distance spatial jumps."
"That's good. I knew that since you can travel through time without cost, it's impossible for you not to be favored by space-time."
Felianna smiled:
"It doesn't matter if you're not a Witch. It's just that in our era, there are only Witches, which is why I use the term 'Witch.' This way, one of the three problems is solved."
She waved her hand to the side, and the stacked firewood automatically flew into the bonfire, making the strange reddish-gold flames burn even more intensely. The Giant Tree Witch and the Moon Witch listened to the two speak while directing the quills to transcribe. Xia De was actually very curious about this technique, but on second thought, Louisa's 【Thought Writing】 was a bit more convenient.
"We can search for the lost ritual items. Leaving the bonfire and going deeper into the forest repeatedly, besides looking for firewood, was also for this reason. But forgotten ritual conditions cannot be conjured out of thin air; you need to find them in your era."
"But what I can find is only information about that deity. My time point might be different from what you imagine. In that era..."
The sixth epoch had lost too much Knowledge from previous epochs.
"No, don't say any more."
Felianna gently stopped him, her bright golden eyes looking at Xia De in the firelight:
"Don't tell us anything about your time point. If I really wanted to know the future, what I should really ask is why you know me, given that Witches don't leave descendants. Now, answer one question: why do I not want to hear about the future?"
Her tone was like a teacher asking a student, so Xia De also became serious:
"Because... although I myself won't bear the cost of acquiring information by traversing time, and it won't cause large-scale temporal chaos, you cannot bear the cost of obtaining future information."
"Yes, then answer my second question: why wouldn't I choose to have my future self find a way to leave the answer directly for you? Since you know me, it means I won't die here and will definitely successfully leave the Thousand Tree Forest."
Felianna asked again. This time, Xia De took some time to think. He looked at Felianna's face; there was some anticipation in her eyes:
"Because... you don't want to manipulate time?"
The Witch smiled:
"Yes, don't try to manipulate time, or time will show us its power. I'd rather die in the forest than get involved in chaotic temporal events."
"It's like, don't manipulate Destiny!"
Xia De's words blurted out, and Felianna's smile deepened:
"Yes, a very good example. It seems you have a deep understanding of this. All actions that defy time must be completed by you, not by us, otherwise, problems will definitely arise."
Although the Witches had not experienced time exploration, her words gave Xia De much inspiration.
Felianna changed the subject:
"Although I cannot ask you directly, I can obtain limited information indirectly to find a way to help us. So now I ask again, and you answer. You absolutely must not say anything beyond the answer to my question."
After the Witch finished speaking, she looked at the two students beside her. The young Witches shook their heads at their teacher in dissatisfaction, but under Felianna's gentle gaze, they still got up and moved to a more distant spot to transcribe.
"Please."
Xia De and Felianna also moved closer. The tree canopy above their heads swayed with the wind. Xia De realized that he still didn't know what this astonishingly large tree was, but Felianna didn't give him time to ask.
"First question, do you belong to an organization originating from the fourth epoch or even earlier?"
"No."
Xia De shook his head. The founder of the organization he belonged to was right in front of him.
"Then the second question, are you aware of any organizations in your era that originated from the fourth epoch or even earlier? Name one."
Felianna asked again. Although the other two Witches were sitting a bit farther away, they could actually hear snippets of the conversation.