Because the story pointed to by the Mithril Cube stated that the gold mine was most likely near this ancient Night Temple, and the gold ore that Shade picked up downstream of the river indicated that the gold mine was very close to the upstream of the river. Therefore, the two left the cliff and searched carefully in the nearby area.
None of them have special magic skills for exploring mineral deposits, such as ore perception - the land with mineral deposits will turn red with a small probability, but if the magic is not mastered well, there is a high probability of making mistakes; treasure detection - white flashes will appear in boxes, land and cabinets with treasures, but be careful of those treasures that already have owners; money rat sense of smell - greatly improves the perception of wealth, but the deeper the mastery, the more they hate cats.
Fortunately, as a witch of the "Earth" seat, Miss Benannis has a very strong ability to sense the earth.
After she and Shade left the cave, she used magic to sense, but found nothing.
Standing together in the cedar forest, watching Miss Benannis retrieve the "ruby" from the snow as a medium for casting spells, Shade thought this was normal:
"Since it is worthy of being recorded in the Mithril Cube left by the guardian, it means that this matter is related to the extraordinary. The gold mine may be hidden by some power. Let's try to find it by other methods."
So the two of them first led the horses from the river, and then dug on the ground to determine what was under the soil. This method was extremely time-consuming and inefficient. But neither Miss Benanis nor Shad was too obsessed with the gold mine. Shad thought that if he really found the so-called gold mine, he would probably find it very troublesome.
So, this afternoon, the two of them walked through the cedar woods together, taking turns melting the ground with magic while talking about topics of interest, or rather, the relationship between Shad and the witches.
The magic that Shade used to melt the snow was "Filianna's Witch Light". This should have been a secret technique unique to witches, and even most of the witch followers could not learn it, but it happened to appear in Shade's hands.
Miss Benanis didn't know this before, so she curiously asked Shade how he learned the magic, and then she got an even more unexpected answer from Shade:
"I can even enter the Witch Council."
Xia De pressed his hand on the snow, and the golden light gradually melted the snow and soil:
"Sing the ballad, walk through the corridor, and finally enter the white mist door at the end. Unfortunately, I don't have witch jewelry, so although I can enter the white mist, I must be accompanied by the Great Witch to enter the parliament area."
Shade described it very clearly, and even hummed a passage of the witch's ballad. After possessing the magical sound of music, he could hum beautifully even if there was no music recorded by magic.
"Are you really a man?"
The blonde witch asked curiously, her eyes unconsciously looking downwards.
"This is not the first time you have asked me this question, but the answer is the same: I am indeed a man."
Shade was not surprised by Miss Benanis's question. After making sure that there was still soil under the soil, he stood up and continued to walk forward with her, but Miss Benanis grabbed Shade's clothes. Although the sky was a little gloomy, the sunlight in the cedar forest was still sufficient, and the pair of eyes with traces of green and gold seemed to be shining brightly:
"How about I take you into the parliament? I've never seen a man enter the parliament before. How about giving it a try?"
"But the gold mine..."
"Who cares about gold mines?"
She looked nonchalant, then excitedly grabbed Xia De's hand:
"I'll sing. You stop at the end of the corridor. Once I'm sure there's no one in the parliament, I'll take you in. Today is Sunday afternoon. Those women definitely won't want to enter the parliament."
Seeing that Miss Benanis was really interested, Shade could only agree:
"If there is a witch in the council that I don't know, I will definitely not enter."
"Don't worry, I'm not that kind... I mean, I'm not that enthusiastic about introducing other congressmen to you."
As she spoke, she stood side by side with Shad in the woods, stepped on the snow and looked ahead. Miss Benanis coughed lightly, and then sang softly in her incomparable voice:
"The princess in the castle will never understand that the freedom to walk in the world is what we pursue."
"If you meet a witch at a road crossing covered with lavender, where will you go to pick a handful of herbs?"
Even though he had heard many witches singing this song, this time the feeling was particularly different. Not only was it the voice of the greatest female opera singer of this era, but also because this was the first time that Shade entered the parliament outdoors.
The two of them walked in the cedar forest on a winter afternoon. There was not even a bird singing in the silent forest, and the witch's voice spread to all directions. Although it was gloomy, it was still daytime. As the two of them moved forward, the light around them gradually dimmed.
Before I knew it, the walls of the ancient corridor appeared on both sides of the wide road. When I looked forward, the White Mist Gate appeared at the end.
The witch finished singing and Shade also recorded the song. Miss Benannis motioned Shade to wait a moment, and she ran into the white mist door excitedly, holding up the hem of her skirt.
Xia De had always entered this place directly through the fog gate before, and he really had no time to look at this corridor carefully. Now he looked at it again, and he felt an indescribable strange feeling in his heart. Looking behind him, the way he came was a straight passage, with stone brick walls on both sides, and on the walls were lit torches and some old, but indistinguishable oil paintings.
This looks like the interior of a castle, but also like a corner of a ruin from before the epoch. Other spaces left by the ancient gods can be entered by simply passing through the white fog gate, but here one needs to enter the corridor first. There must be a secret in this.
While Xia De was thinking, a hand reached out from the white mist door, and Miss Benannis grabbed him:
"Only Sylvia is here, come with me."
The two walked into the white mist together. Next, they needed to hold the witch jewelry and recite the prayer softly. Among the thirteen witch jewelry rated as sage-level relics, Miss Vanessa Benanis, who was in the ninth seat, held the witch's golden ring, the left one. She asked Shade not to let go of her hand, and after praying to the ancient god Chaos Witch, the two entered the witch council that Shade was familiar with.
The light from the sky fell from above, shining on the stone round table surrounded by thirteen armchairs. All around were dilapidated steps that led upward, even more dilapidated than the sacrificial site of the spiritual cult, and these stone steps extended all the way into the white mist in the sky.
Just as Miss Benannis said, at this time only Miss Sylvia, the great witch of space, who holds the thirteenth seat in the parliament, is present.
For Shade, this was the first time he had seen Miss Sylvia since they said goodbye in Huntington before the end of the year. The young black-haired witch was also very happy to see Shade. She stood up and gave him a warm hug, and said to Miss Benanis beside her:
"Look, Benanis, I told you Shad could come in here."
"So, what's going on with him?"
“That’s what we’re curious about now.”
Miss Sylvia said, letting go of Shade, then lifted up her beautiful black and white plaid skirt and turned around - the upper body was a square-necked women's white shirt with a black bow tie.
She smiled and asked:
"Shadow, can you tell what's different about me?"
Xia De looked down and first noticed the pair of brown leather short boots, then continued upwards and saw the tight black clothes:
"Although I've already seen it once at Miss Carina's, I still have to praise it. It's really beautiful."
Miss Sylvia, whose face was slightly red because of Shade's staring at her legs, nodded in satisfaction, and then glanced at Miss Benannis beside her. Now only three witches have this kind of fabric. Miss Carina has shown it to Shade once, and the oldest blonde witch is too embarrassed to muster up the courage yet.
"Would you like to feel them? Evaluate the softness and elasticity of these fabrics now. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with better ideas."
Miss Sylvia boldly suggested, and Miss Benaise finally couldn't listen any more:
"Emma, young girls should be more reserved."
She said with a straight face. Sylvia tried hard not to say "If you are too reserved, you will become a bachelor like you." However, she did not insist on letting Xia De touch her. After all, she was a little shy.
"You probably misunderstood. I really want Shade to give me some advice. He is the only person in the Fifth Era who has admired and even touched the clothes of the Witch Emperors up close. The ideas he can provide will definitely be valuable... After all, we are business partners together."
As he spoke, he winked at Xia De, his eyes full of smiles.
Therefore, originally Miss Benannis just wanted to go into the parliament alone with Shad, but the rest of the afternoon was spent by Shad taking out transparent books from the bookshelf that sparkled with the colors of a dreamy starry sky, and discussing his past memories with Miss Sylvia.
But even the witches had to admit that some of the ideas and thoughts proposed by Shade were still very novel, such as making pants out of pure fabric, retaining the more obvious seams on the back of the fabric, and using leg rings and suspenders to decorate the fabric.
It was not until before dinner that Miss Sylvia had a brief and impatient conversation with Miss Benanis about Margaret's apprenticeship trial after being reminded by Shad. After confirming that Margaret was fine, she no longer cared.
Later, Shade and Miss Benanis returned to the Randall River Valley. The Witch Council was always warm like spring, while the material world was still in winter. Shade was still a little uncomfortable with suddenly returning to the dark cedar forest.