Shade did not ask Miss Chloe Yin any questions to prevent the witch from feeling awkward. While there was still some time, Shade asked the other two about the situation. Of course, during this period, Shade had to control his instinct to touch the cat. He had developed an instinctive reaction in his body during the six months he had raised Mia.
Mrs. Marquez decided to head for the top of the mountain, wanting to take the missing witch's boots to the top of the mountain and leave shoe prints on it, so Shade checked the boots. Although the boots were well made and the foot was unexpectedly as small as Miss Chloe Yin's, it was just an ordinary item, so it didn't require special attention.
As for the man who was hiding aside, he didn't speak because he was afraid of the witch. But when Shade approached and asked, he was willing to say something. The man lowered his voice, as if he was afraid of being heard by the witch.
He did not want to reveal his name, but admitted that he was exiled here because he stole something.
He was almost frozen to death in the snow when Miss Chloe Yin found him. Miss Chloe Yin was a relatively open-minded witch, so she kept him and let him do any work that required a living person to explore the way or sacrifice.
When Xia De asked the man what he had stolen, he was too scared to speak.
The witch who was drinking soup snorted:
"It shouldn't be something too valuable, otherwise he would be executed directly. But it shouldn't be something very ordinary either, otherwise it wouldn't be worth exiling him."
The witch's words made the man curl up again:
"I stole a card. The witch of the territory thought the card was very interesting and wanted to study it, but to no avail, so she threw it into the warehouse. After I was caught, the witch of the territory threw me here with the card, so that I would be together with the card forever."
This was consistent with Shade's understanding of the witches of this era. When the man took out the "interesting" card, he recognized the sun, moon and stars on the back of the card at a glance. They were located in three directions of the star map. The star map itself was circular with intertwined lines.
"They are everywhere..."
When the card was turned over, it showed a black humanoid creature, facing the outside of the card, with no hair on its head and wings extending from its back. The wings had curved spikes on the top. Its eyes looked like snake eyes, looking at the person outside the card at an angle. There were marks like scales on its exposed skin.
No matter which direction he looked, Shad felt that the snake's eyes were looking at him.
"Everything is impermanent and dark?"
This card was also given to Shad by Queen Diana. But the interesting thing was that the rules under this card, which would not fall into Shad's hands until more than 6,000 years later, were not the rules of the Rhodes cards that Shad was familiar with, but -
Sacrifice your own health points to create a black vortex on the table with the same number of health points sacrificed. You can move through the vortex, and each move will receive a fixed amount of treatment, which is one-third of the sacrificed health points, rounded down. When the enemy approaches the vortex, you need to roll the dice to determine the number of rounds they will be bound.
"The cards in the game of life?"
Chloe Yin Cat recognized what it was, but she had no interest in playing cards, so she didn't even think about taking the card and examining it carefully.
Xia De didn't expect that after nearly six thousand years, he would still see this card. But the appearance of this card could not help the witches change their current situation. They still had to climb to the main peak of the Silver Mountains on their own.
"What is the game of life?"
Xia De held the card and vaguely felt that he could control the card in his hand just like he controlled the card in the Sixth Epoch.
"It's a game that has been popular since the beginning of the Fifth Age. It's hard to verify who created it, but witches like to use this game to show off their lives... I heard that some of the cards are very valuable."
The cat in his arms said, and then saw the Shade command sign flying around, but no one here could realize what it meant.
There didn't seem to be anything special between Mrs. Marquez and the cowering man, so before leaving, Shade started chatting with Miss Chloe Yin in cat form again.
Now that the evil spirits of the snowy mountains have been expelled, the witch plans to rest here for a while before continuing to head higher up the Silver Mountains.
None of the three people here could tell how far away the current position was from the top of the mountain. But since the mountain was there, they just had to keep climbing up.
As for the god who had just appeared and helped them, not only Miss Chloe Yin, but the other two people had no impression of him. Although according to Shade's statistics, the three of them unexpectedly discovered that they all believed in the "Winter Girl" and had prayed to the Winter Girl for luck, but this ordinary prayer was definitely not enough to summon the god.
Xia De had a lot of contact with the old gods, and he knew very well that the appearance of the gods was not the result of the gods just happening to come here.
No matter how friendly the gods are to humans, they will only respond when mortals make requests. If you don't express your wishes in front of the gods, the gods will only watch and won't take action. The gods who appeared just now seemed to be actively protecting them, so someone must have actively called the gods in this snowy mountain.
He told Miss Chloe Yin, who was in cat form, his thoughts, but the witch couldn't explain the gods. She was only at the eleventh level, which was not outstanding in the early Fifth Epoch, and of course she was not qualified to know the secrets of those great ones.
"So what is your position in the Zalaas Academy?"
Xia De asked curiously again, and the silver-white cat turned its head slightly:
“Just an ordinary member.”
She seemed a little embarrassed to admit it, and added:
"However, one day I will also become a thirteenth-level person. It is not impossible for me to even surpass the thirteenth-level person. The academy has the secrets of demigods, and I have also done some research on it myself."
Shade smiled:
"I'm sure you'll be fine."
None of the people he had come into contact with in the past were ordinary people.
Kloyinmao looked at Xia De unexpectedly, and nodded after a long while:
"You seem like a good guy... Do you have any witches you know?"
"Of course, and I am her lover. Although nothing happened between me and that lady, but with her maid..."
Xia De raised his right hand and saw that the white mist had already wrapped around his hand. Although this adventure lasted for forty minutes, which was longer than the previous half an hour, time was still limited.
The wind was howling outside the tent, but the temperature inside the tent was gradually rising. The campfire did not sway because of the wind, and the aroma of the vegetable soup made everyone satisfied. Compared with when Xia De came, this place has become safe and comfortable.
"Look, I'm leaving."
Shade said to Miss Chloë Yin, and the cat twisted its body and looked up at him:
"You promised that you would come back."
In this harsh environment of ice and snow, it is not easy to find someone strong enough to talk to her.
"Yes, I will definitely come back. Although you didn't ask me to find any information or precious items, there is a very powerful flame in my home. Maybe the nun holding the fire can find a way for me to turn the flame into a part of myself, which should be able to help you."
Shade said, politely saying goodbye to everyone in the tent. Mrs. Marquez responded to Shade nervously, the lady smelled strongly of jasmine; the unknown man held the card and waved goodbye to Shade timidly, he was afraid of the cat on Shade's body.
Miss Chloe Yin jumped off Shade and jumped into the white blanket. Unlike Tifa's transformation, which only changed the body, the transformation of this eleventh-level witch also included clothes:
"Goodbye, then."
Her red-gold eyes looked at Xia De, and she stretched out her hand to Xia De. When the two hands were clasped together, the rolling white mist completely enveloped Xia De. When the white mist dissipated, the stranger had already left the warm tent.
Mrs. Marquez was cooking vegetable soup mechanically, while the cowering man by the wall was staring at the ground. Only Miss Chloe Yin was holding up her face and tilting her head to look at the place where Shade had just sat, wondering what she was thinking.
Stranger, you have returned to the present time.
"oh!"
He stumbled out of the white fog gate, left the snowy mountain environment and returned home. The feeling of being frozen made his whole body tremble:
"Fireplace, fireplace, fireplace!"
As Xiaomia cast a concerned look at him, Xia De trotted to the fireplace in the living room and let the burning firelight envelope him. Bathed in the warm light, he felt that the feeling that even his soul was frozen was slightly relieved:
“Huh~”
I let out a long breath, only to find that what I exhaled was actually cold air.
"Meow~"
Because Shad was too cold, Mia just approached him and didn't jump on him. However, the cat seemed to smell an unusual smell on Shad, like a cat, but not a cat, which made the cat confused. It didn't know what Shad had encountered, so it couldn't be angry with Shad at this time.
After leaving the Silver Mountains, the temporary blessing of "eating snow" given to Xia De by the god disappeared, so Xia De behaved so badly. But fortunately, away from the strange snow mountain, the surrounding environment has become much more normal, and the warm home still makes Xia De feel at ease as before.
Thinking about it this way, it was really amazing that the three witches could withstand such severe cold, especially the man, who was an ordinary person, but he could...
"What's wrong?"
The blonde girl who was woken up by Shade appeared at the bedroom door in pajamas and slippers. The familiar action of touching her earlobe made Shade know that it was Lecia.
"I just came back from the snowy mountains. It's really cold."
Shade said tremblingly, wondering whether to go to the attic and swallow some of the sparks from the kerosene lamp that contained the "Sun Fire". But those sparks finally became flames, and he was thinking of taking them to Sister Defulin.
Leicia asked sleepily:
"Snowy mountains?"
Only then did he realize that Shad had returned from his past adventures.
"Let me help you keep warm, knight. I often see this kind of plot in knight novels."
As she walked towards Xia De, she untied her nightgown and threw it onto the sofa, covering the cat who was staring at the two of them with wide eyes. The girl, who had a high temperature, then pulled Xia De, who had a low temperature.
"Good, this time you only smell like a potpourri type perfume."
Her Royal Highness was very satisfied with this, but she was also somewhat puzzled:
"But you are really amazing. On average, you can win the favor of those ancient old ladies every time you take an adventure that lasts thirty minutes."
She unbuttoned Shad's coat and hugged him.