That's not how you use a witch!

Chapter 35 Crimson and Deep Blue

In the plaza of Thornholde, Ronan met with the two witches.

She has beautiful long pink hair and a baby face, giving her a youthful appearance. However, according to Scarlett, this witch codenamed "Li Yan" looks young, but in reality, she is second only to the mysterious leader in seniority.

Her magical power is called "Crimson Hymn," and her fighting style involves summoning flames, allowing her to remain unharmed even when engulfed in flames. In the encounter with the rebels, it was Li Yan who burned the undead soldiers commanded by the rebel witches to ashes and used a wall of fire to cut off the battlefield, allowing them to successfully shake off the rebels.

Another witch, codenamed "Sea Moon," is a woman with long, straight black hair and an expressionless face. Her unremarkable figure is a perfect match for her indifferent demeanor, which suggests she is almost dead.

Her magical ability is called "Deep Blue Sigh," and her fighting style involves summoning water currents. She can also dive into deep water without suffocating or being harmed by water pressure. Haiyue herself claims that before joining the Witch's Eye, she even had the experience of walking on the seabed and saw a magnificent sunken city.

"However, since there is no way to verify it, the women generally tend to take the second half of the sentence as her bragging."

Li Yan added that Hai Yue appears aloof and indifferent, but is actually the youngest of the sisters. One of the few pleasures of the Witch's Eye is teasing Hai Yue, and whoever teases her too much is responsible for calming her down...

"My physical age may be the youngest, but my mental age is more mature than yours."

Haiyue wrinkled her nose, clearly very dissatisfied with Liyan's additional explanation.

Li Yan, on the other hand, grinned and surrendered, his smug look rivaling that of Scarlett O'Hara.

"Ahem, guests are always welcome. Welcome to Thorn Territory with your two demon girlfriends!"

Ronan gestured for Li Yan to proceed, "Are you satisfied with Thorn Territory?"

"Satisfaction is an understatement. It's the first time I've ever seen ordinary people line the streets to welcome us. To be honest, I was quite startled at first, thinking you were up to no good."

Li Yan smiled and said, "When we received Scarlett's message, the sisters were generally skeptical. We never expected there to be a place that welcomes witches. Lord, you've shown us a completely new vision!"

Ronan chuckled, thinking to himself, "Why wouldn't I welcome this? This trick would still work in modern times."

However, after entering the office, Li Yan, who had checked on Meidel's condition, poured cold water on Ronan's enthusiasm.

"My lord, if I may be so bold, then the situation of Maddale is not optimistic. At the latest, she will face the test of advancement in three days, and the difficulties she will face will probably be greater than those of any other witch."

Li Yan explained the advancement process to Ronan: once the magical energy grows to a certain level, a special critical point will be triggered, forcing the witch into a state of deep meditation.

This is because advancing in magical power requires reconstructing the magical energy cycle within the body, an extremely painful process that causes violent fluctuations in the body's internal pollution.

In this state, past and present suffering manifests as inner demons in the spiritual world, eroding the mind of the advanced practitioner. Even in defeat, the best outcome is permanent slumber.

The worst-case scenario—Li Yan didn't elaborate, but she knew Ronan already knew something about it from Scarlett.

"Although advancement is a personal battle, the Witch's Eye provides an environment where sisters can encourage each other. With this spiritual support, those who advance have a greater chance of getting through it."

However, the Thorn Territory lacked such an atmosphere, leaving Maddale fighting alone and inevitably resulting in low morale. For advancement, even this slight dip in morale could potentially alter the outcome.

More importantly, Madale's corruption had reached extremely dangerous levels, and although she has recovered somewhat, it is still more severe than that of most of her sisters in the Witch's Eye. Frankly speaking…”

Li Yan paused, clearly hesitant about whether to be so direct.

"Frankly, I've never seen a case where someone could reach the advancement threshold under such severe pollution conditions. As for the successful ones..."

As the second most senior member of the Witch's Eyes, Li Yan's words clearly dampened the atmosphere considerably.

However, her mission on this trip was not only to assist in advancement, but also to stop losses if advancement failed. A mature leader will not be swayed by wishful thinking.

Bart asked doubtfully, "From what you're saying, the success rate of advancement is very low, especially for witches bound by a lord's contract. But the Great Territory clearly has many elite first- or even second-tier witches stationed there?"

Li Yan laughed: "You know that's a vast territory. Before those survivors who successfully advance are selected, countless poor sisters are silently reduced to the denominator. Those high and mighty lords won't tell you that."

The chief knight paused for a moment, then fell silent.

"In reality, even in the Witch's Eye, successfully advancing is a low-probability event. Learning to say goodbye is a required course for us."

Seeing Ronan remain silent, Li Yan continued, "Please rest assured, even if the advancement fails, with Haiyue's and my strength, we can ensure that Thorn Territory remains unaffected. If we're lucky, Meidel might not even perish."

Ronan clenched his fists: "But..."

"I will succeed."

Meidel, who had been silent all along, finally spoke.

Unlike when she faced Scarlett's persuasion last time, she spoke each word clearly and resolutely, without avoiding any gaze.

"Elite Tier 1 is not my final destination. I will not stop here. In the future, I will become stronger and go further. Ronan believes in me, and I believe in myself."

"Is that so...?"

Li Yan smiled wryly, as if she had remembered something.

"Alright. Let's believe in the power of belief one more time."

Despite Meidel's apparent confidence, Liyan and Haiyue did not become blindly optimistic.

For the next two days, they provided Madel with herbs concocted by the Witch's Eye for advanced cultivators, supposedly effective in stabilizing pollution fluctuations. The system showed that Madel's status curve was stabilizing, indicating that this was not merely psychological comfort.

Ronan was curious about the herbal recipe, because it consisted of just some of the most common plants that grew in Thorn Territory.

In fact, the three witches were also very curious, because these herbs only worked when collected near the stronghold of the Witch's Eye; they were useless when collected from other places.

Li Yan mocked herself for this: Perhaps there really is a god protecting the Witch's Eye, even if the god worshipped by the church shouldn't be protecting the witch in theory...

At the same time, Li Yan and Hai Yue completely took over the work of eliminating evil beasts from Mei Dai Er in order to minimize unnecessary pollution accumulation before advancing.

Because Ronan had already informed the people and the militia beforehand, they were not surprised to see two unfamiliar witches on the battlefield.

Even when Li Yan summoned flames to instantly kill a level four evil beast, the local people watching from afar and the militia fighting nearby cheered, which can be said to have provided plenty of emotional value.

In comparison, Haiyue received slightly less attention, firstly because it wasn't as visually stunning, and secondly because the splashing water sometimes soaked the nearby militiamen, so Liyan often had to help dry them off and clean up the mess.

However, both of them are very popular.

While Ronan's earlier groundwork certainly played a role, the more important reason was that they had genuinely contributed to the Thorn Territory, which is why the people were so sincerely grateful.

To Li Yan's slight surprise, many people were concerned about Meidel's situation.

"Miss Liyan, how is Miss Meidel?"

Training had just ended that day when Li Yan saw the militia leader named Payne approach her. "Has she been feeling unwell lately, which is why the lord asked you to come and help?"

"That's one way to understand it."

Li Yan asked curiously, "You care about her so much?"

"Of course! Miss Medall is our lucky star in Thorn Territory!"

Payne grinned and pulled out a bundle of cured meat.

"My family doesn't have anything special, this is just a small token of my and my wife's and children's appreciation. Could you please give it to Miss Meidel? I've also prepared a gift for you and Miss Haiyue."

Seeing that Payne had taken the lead, the other veterans, as if signaling with a broken glass, rushed over, each carrying their own prepared gifts.

"Miss Liyan, could you please deliver this for me too?"

"My things aren't heavy, give them to me first!"

"Get out of the way, I was here first! Didn't the lord teach you to queue?"

Looking at the cured meat, wine, honey, and other trinkets they offered, Li Yan was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

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