The original purpose of this operation was to find the descendants of Edwards in the Dragon Feast Cult, that is, Nadia Foran, the mother of the Foran brothers and the daughter of Edward, the fourth generation second son, but nothing was found after the operation. Instead, the group found the laboratory of the cult in the deserted village and discovered a large amount of experimental "materials" related to human transmutation.
The Abyss Drowned Cult represented by "Rotten Eye Barry" aims to create stronger water ghosts through human transformation; the Dragon Feast Cult aims to better integrate dragons with humans. In short, it's all disgusting content. There's nothing new except proving once again that the Dragon Feast Cult has been cooperating with Laplace Klein Howard on the island for many years.
"The Church of Nature also fought against the Dragon Feast Cult yesterday. This cult is quite troublesome to deal with. The few remaining pure-blooded dragons regard them as their mortal enemies, but this also proves that the Dragon Feast Cult is extraordinary. They take devouring dragons and gaining their power as their code of conduct. Because there are very few pure-blooded dragons now, they will eat any creature with dragon blood...even elves and humans."
After the battle, while the other girls were searching the deserted village, Siris whispered to Shade. As for the golden-haired witch, she was watching the burning half-dragon corpses turn into ashes. The corpses of these cultists all have "dragon poison". If not handled properly, it will pollute the land. The witch of the earth attaches great importance to this.
Soon, a black-haired girl came running over and handed Miss Benanis a letter she had just found. One third of the letter had been burned, so most of the useful content could not be seen.
However, because it was handled in a hurry, the words like "the chosen one" can be vaguely seen in the burnt part. Miss Benanis thought it might be related to Edwards, and after checking it, she found that it could not be restored by normal means, so she handed the letter to Shade.
Xia De touched the Ring of Immortality in his hand, and as he inhaled slowly, a gray air current flowed from the paper into his nasal cavity. The "Breath of Years" reversed time, and the letter that had been hastily burned returned to normal.
"The magic of time is always so fascinating."
Hillis muttered to himself, and Shad and Miss Benanis went to read the letter together, but the content was quite unexpected:
"Oh, that's much easier now. Most of the main ring sorcerers of the Dragon Feast Cult have already withdrawn from the Green Lake area. Now only a quarter of the force is left here."
"Why? Did their talks with the fortune teller fall through? Or is it really like what Shade said, that Edwards of the Dragon Feast Cult has long intended to rebel against the fortune teller?"
Hillis asked curiously, and Shade handed her the letter:
"When the Dragon Feast Cult was digging up the remains of an ancient dragon in the New World, they found a message from a Fifth Age witch on the dragon bones. The first sentence was something like 'so-and-so was here'... It was indeed something they could do. The rest was a fragment of a poem about the chosen one of 'light'. Now that the main force of the Dragon Feast Cult has withdrawn, they have more important things to do and no longer care about what's happening in Green Lake."
Xia De sighed slightly and looked at the clear sky:
"Although it would be better if there were fewer enemies in the Green Lake Showdown, there are more and more things to do."
"I remember the ancient god of light, often called the Dragon of Shining Light. This great one is also the oldest dragon god."
Hillis said, and Miss Benannis nodded slightly:
"Yes, so we can guess that the fragments of the poem they accidentally discovered are likely to involve dragons. However, these things do not need to be dealt with immediately. Let's solve the Green Lake issue first."
That night, Shade agreed to ambush the three ghouls, liches and other ghouls on the south bank of Green Lake with Father Augustus and Doctor Schneider. However, the three agreed to meet at 8 pm, so after leaving the deserted village that afternoon, he did not return to the Green Lake Hotel, but followed Miss Benanis and Hillis back to their residence in the Blast Furnace City of Mikaela.
The Golden Dawn Opera Company is currently staying in a hotel not far from the Glass Bottle Opera House. After dinner, it was still early. As the Golden Dawn Opera Company happened to have a performance tonight, the two ladies took Xia De to the backstage of the opera house for a look.
All the girls in the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe knew Shad, and he had been very familiar with them when he was in the Randall River Valley. Seeing Shad coming with the two directors of the opera troupe, some bold girls even joked and asked Shad whether he thought Miss Benanis or Shiris was prettier.
Hillis's face looked normal, but Miss Benannis blushed immediately and looked at Shad, thinking that he would give an answer.
It had been a long time since the battle of Randall Valley, and Shade had a lot to say to them. While wandering backstage, Miss Benanis mentioned that she was preparing to be promoted to the twelfth level, which reminded Shade of another thing:
"I used the magic - Sound of Music some time ago to record a very good song."
He smiled and said:
"But it needs lute accompaniment, but I just memorized the tune, I don't know how to play the lute."
"I'll accompany you."
Hillis then said, Miss Benannis was very curious about what Shade was going to perform:
"Come to the performance hall over here. There's no one here at the moment. Do you need anything special to prepare?"
"No need. I'll set up the venue. But, it's best to make sure there's no one nearby. I don't want to make too much noise."
So in addition to the blonde witch and Hillis, they also called a few girls from the middle and high rings who were temporarily free in the backstage to serve as the audience.
The group came to the small performance hall at the end of the second floor of the Glass Bottle Opera House. The other girls took their seats one by one, but only Miss Benanis sat in the special seat in the middle of the second row that had been specially widened, looking at the stage with a smile.
Xia De walked out from the backstage and dropped a small piece of silver:
"Spell - Traveler's Camp."
The spell that consumes precious metals to generate a camp can add different extraordinary effects according to the quantity and quality of precious metals used. However, Shade only wanted the appearance of the camp this time, so a small piece of silver was used to arrange a camp consisting of a bonfire and a dilapidated tent on the stage.
The lights in the performance hall went out, and under Shade's instructions, Hillis used the thread of memory to conjure up a forest of trees that surrounded the two of them. Later, Shade even used an incomplete puzzle lock to make the ceiling "melt" to reveal the silver moon and stars.
Everything was ready, and he and Hillis sat on the ground next to the bonfire on the stage.
The girl with the same beautiful golden hair plucked the strings of the harp, and Shade said:
"Please allow me to introduce the background of this ancient ballad -
That was a story from a long, long time ago. The old horse, the loyal dog, the parrot, the unicorn, and the traveler under the moon set out on their journey together. They passed through the forest, crossed the river, crossed the desert, and climbed the snow-capped mountains. On a quiet night during the journey, when they were resting by the campfire, a bard they met by chance learned their story and composed this ballad for them.
He gave Sirius a look, and as the lute was being plucked, he used magic to bring the song sung by the gods that night to the spring night of 1854 in the Sixth Era:
"Lost travelers gathered around a campfire,
Let’s start a new journey together.
I picked a piece of white chrysanthemum to bid them farewell.
The mottled shadows of the trees guide the journey ahead.
The reason for departure is not important.
May they enjoy the scenery along the way.
The old horse on his way home will eventually find his separated relatives.
The boring parrot became the protagonist of his own writing.
The jealous dog remains loyal.
The ignorant unicorn is looking at her lover.
oh,
Don't forget the lonely traveler under the moon,
May he be able to see the unknown path ahead in this maze.
Through the forest,
Across the river,
Deep into the desert,
May you sleep well this night.
There is still a long way to go.
Only now is everything safe.”
Shade didn't even change the language of the fifth era that the god used to sing into the language of the sixth era, and he sang the song in its entirety. The god on the journey had superb performance skills, and his voice was just the right amount of hoarseness when he sang the ballad. Accompanied by the breeze in the forest and the bonfire, the people who listened to the ballad at that time felt a long-lost peace in their hearts.
Although Shade sang with magic, he knew that his singing skills were definitely not as good as that god's. Moreover, the atmosphere brought by the dangerous environment of the "Lost Forest" at that time was completely different from the safe and comfortable opera house performance hall at this time. Therefore, although he was able to obtain the spell with just this song at the beginning, the effect was definitely not that good now.
When the song ended, Shad sighed, recalling the companions he met during that interesting and difficult journey, then he stood up holding the hand of the thoughtful Hillis and thanked the audience.
The girls who listened to the songs finally took their thoughts away from the bonfire in the forest. Because there were only a few people, the applause was not loud, but everyone had their own gains.
The only one who didn't applaud was Vanessa Benanis, who was sitting in the middle of the second row. Her golden eyes looked at Shad and Hillis holding hands. Even though the performance on the stage had ended, her fingers were still tapping the armrests of the chair and she was still humming the ballad that had just ended.
Behind her, eleven dazzling golden steps appeared one by one in the performance hall after the lights were turned off.
Xia De heard Sirius counting quietly beside him:
"... Nine, ten, eleven."
Above the last eleventh step, a golden phantom staircase appeared in everyone's eyes. It was not stable, indicating that it had not yet been fully formed. Finally, a brass life ring appeared in the steam mist. The rotating life ring allowed the golden staircase to pass through it, and a new spiritual rune also appeared on the rapidly rotating life ring.