Chapter 219: If Not Science, Then What About Magic?

Chapter 219: If Not Science, Then What About Magic?

Being thrown by Zheng Yichen as a projectile felt a bit strange to Deya, but now was not the time to dwell on weird feelings alone. The stubborn power behind her had been drained away by Zheng Yichen using some unknown method. She wasn’t too surprised by this, having already witnessed him tearing through the White Moonlight conversion screen in the sky back then.

He had some incredibly mysterious way of grabbing energy.

But the fact that he could so ‘easily’ drain even a Witch’s Power made Deya regard Zheng Yichen even more highly. Of course, at that moment, after throwing her, Zheng Yichen had already turned and left this place without hesitation. The wound on her back that had been hindering her recovery had already healed. So even if Zheng Yichen left, it wouldn’t affect her much. Fighting the Undying Witch one-on-one would be troublesome, but without the previous ambush, she wouldn’t lose either.

Watching Zheng Yichen turn and run immediately, the Undying Witch’s face darkened. She glared unfriendly at Deya, not pursuing Zheng Yichen. With this woman blocking the way, she couldn’t possibly catch up. Besides, when Zheng Yichen fled, he had already attached many Propulsion Devices to himself. His speed was so fast that in the blink of an eye, he was just a tiny speck in the distance. Chasing him was hopeless.

Hearing the sounds of battle starting up behind him, Zheng Yichen shrugged. Good, finally he didn’t have to face that terrifying woman alone. If he fell into her hands, Zheng Yichen really didn’t know what his fate would be. In short, when it came to hostile Witches, it was best to avoid contact as much as possible.

Not long after Zheng Yichen left the combat zone, he encountered another acquaintance…

“Damn it, you finally showed up!” Seeing Dan Marina appear before him, Zheng Yichen pointed at her and couldn’t help but shout, “Standing me up for a day or two is one thing, but for over half a month? Were you trying to get me killed?”

“Aren’t you perfectly fine?” Dan Marina gave Zheng Yichen a strange look. “You even have a little pet… a girl accompanying you. Not lonely at all.”

“Pah!” Zheng Yichen turned around angrily, exposing his back to Dan Marina. The scene was basically the real-life version of a tough guy never looking back at an explosion—lighting a cigarette casually face-forward might seem relaxed and natural, no problem. But turn around and see if there’s a problem or not!

“Ahem, that does look pretty bad. But with your abilities, this effect should fade quickly, right?” Dan Marina asked, slightly puzzled. The residual power in the broken Scales on Zheng Yichen’s back was troublesome, easily agitated. But Zheng Yichen could definitely extract it completely using his grabbing ability. Why suffer and leave it there?

“I can’t reach it,” Zheng Yichen said with a dark face. If he were Human, he could basically reach all parts of his back if he could endure it. But a dragon isn’t Human. His body structure made it very difficult for him to do that unless he broke his wings.

“Well… then just endure it. I can’t help you either.” Dan Marina shrugged. She lightly hooked the air beside her with a finger, and a crack appeared near her hand. From it, she pulled out something that looked somewhat like a Magic Cube. It also had cut lines on it. Looking carefully at those lines gave one a very strange illusion, like looking at a picture. That picture was full of straight lines, but due to its structure, the straight lines seen with the eyes appeared curved.

The lines on the Magic Cube were even more bizarre. At a glance, one could feel there were a countable number. But when trying to count them carefully, one would be shocked to find that no matter how they counted, they couldn’t determine how many lines there were. Even though it seemed like there were just a few… or maybe over ten, or dozens?

Argh! So brain-burning. Zheng Yichen rubbed his head and shook it hard, suppressing the involuntary feeling of irritation. He looked down at the basket he was holding. Inside, Lily’s eyes had turned into swirling spirals. She was sprawled out in the basket, fallen into an indescribable deep dizziness.

“What kind of weird thing is this again?”

“Of course, something to solve the trouble on you.” Dan Marina smiled, giving Zheng Yichen an extra look. The more she interacted with this Little Dragon, the more she discovered how unusual he was. This Magic Cube wasn’t just brain-burning; it was super brain-burning. Dan Marina could only say that beings with strength similar to Zheng Yichen’s, if they stubbornly stared at this Magic Cube like he did trying to see its essence, would generally either suffer severe Mental Energy damage or die outright.

Something she spent so long collecting materials to create—how could it be an ordinary, unremarkable thing? Even if tossed on the ground, it wouldn’t affect the environment, but the visual pollution it brought was immense. Yet its mesmerizing characteristic was particularly eye-catching. As for direct contact?

Did they think they were a Witch? Daring to touch this thing directly. If not touching it, ordinary people could restrain themselves from looking at it. But after direct contact, they wouldn’t stop staring at it until they died… Lily was quite lucky. She was a Corpse Puppet, with no Mental Energy or Soul. So after seeing the Magic Cube, even if affected, she only fainted instead of dying. In a sense, she was already in a state between life and death. Physical death was true death for her. As for the Soul… she couldn’t die again in that aspect.

“Huh? How do you use it?”

Dan Marina didn’t speak. Instead, she waved a hand to the side. “Hmm~ There’s still a little time. Consider it compensation for your hard work. Thank you~”

As soon as she finished speaking, several black Phantoms separated from her shadow. The color of these black Phantoms was no longer as deep as before, having lightened somewhat. Before Dan Marina found Zheng Yichen, she had encountered quite a lot of trouble, even many tough enemies. But under the clearing effect of these black Phantoms, those enemies basically didn’t affect her. Of course, they weren’t without cost. Their power was much weaker compared to two days ago. Those enemies were no pushovers.

After these black Phantoms appeared, they silently dissipated into the air, as if they had never been there.

“Here.” Dan Marina walked up to Zheng Yichen and stuffed the Magic Cube into his hand. Zheng Yichen pinched the small cube, squinting one eye to examine it carefully. “How do you use this thing?”

Its size was just right for Dan Marina’s palm to hold. In Zheng Yichen’s hand, it wasn’t even enough to fill a gap between his teeth.

“Just hold it for now. It depends on what you choose.”

“?”

“The first choice is to hold it and wait for it to slowly wear away the Prophecy Art power on you. This might take about five days. The other way is to go with me to find another Witch, and then immediately eliminate the Prophecy Art on you.”

“I just want to know, is she reasonable?”

Dan Marina thought for a moment. “That’s hard to say. She rarely goes out normally and seldom interacts with others. I just know her and understand her personality a bit. As for anything else, I have no idea.”

Zheng Yichen thought about it. He didn’t seem to have any strategies for dealing with recluses in his mind. “If she helps, how difficult would it be to handle this matter?”

“Of course, very troublesome!” Dan Marina said without hesitation, her tone filled with a kind of pride. Zheng Yichen found this pride somewhat mysterious… but the person herself didn’t think so. The Prophecy Art was her doing. Given her deep understanding of it, if solving it was this troublesome, wasn’t that another way of proving how capable she was?

So Dan Marina was very proud.

“Then the first one,” Zheng Yichen said.

Dan Marina looked at Zheng Yichen in surprise, confirming with an uncertain tone, “Are you sure?”

“Oh, I changed my mind. The second one is better.” Zheng Yichen blinked, saying without blushing—after all, his face was black; even if red, no one could tell. His previous answer had clearly been beyond Dan Marina’s expectation. The first choice was definitely the worst. The second one she said was troublesome, but it surely had to be better than the first, right?

Witches were old monsters. Zheng Yichen often couldn’t figure out their thoughts. Instead, his lack of Otherworld common sense sometimes exposed his shortcomings through his actions. “Tell me the consequences of choosing the first one.”

“Consequences? Let’s talk on the way.”

Dan Marina unceremoniously jumped into the large basket where Zheng Yichen had Lily. She reached out and pinched the little girl’s cheek. After Zheng Yichen took off, she pointed in a direction for him and then slowly began to speak. “The first choice… although the Fate-Killer can slowly remove the Prophecy Art on you, during the removal process, it will greatly disturb the power of the Prophecy Art, causing it to become completely chaotic. The consequence? You will truly become a walking disaster. Wherever you go, you’ll find everything there seems to be deliberately making things difficult for you.”

“… Putting aside the name of this thing, I just want to know, if this thing has such a huge drawback, what’s the point of its existence?”

“The point? It’s very dangerous.” Dan Marina smiled mysteriously. “In others’ hands, this thing is the root of disaster. The best way to handle it is to find a place no one can find and bury it deep for storage. As long as no living thing touches it, it’s an inert object and won’t affect the environment. But in my hands, heheh…”

“Wait, did you create this thing?”

Dan Marina gently flicked her long hair. “I have moments of boredom too. When bored, naturally I find something to do. So unfortunately, I mastered the method of creating the Fate-Killer. Impressive, right?”

“Heh… heh…” Zheng Yichen gave a dry laugh, not agreeing with Dan Marina’s words at all. In his view, Dan Marina being able to create such a dangerous thing was probably to use it against the Sanctuary Church at some opportune moment? She didn’t explicitly state the true effect of the Fate-Killer, but Zheng Yichen felt that if she didn’t say, then fine. Seeing it? Even more so, forget it. Some things, just knowing about them is enough. Actually witnessing it face-to-face…

Tsk! Nuclear Bomb explosions are something people can learn about, but aside from seeing them on a Computer or elsewhere, no one really wants to witness that thing in person, right?

So, some things shouldn’t be delved into too deeply. He even felt like he was holding a Nuclear Bomb in his hand now, unable to resist looking at it again and again. “Hmm… this thing seems to contain some very strange power.”

“Strange power?” Dan Marina gave Zheng Yichen a strange look. “You don’t mean the power of the Fate-Killer itself, right?”

“Uh, of course not. Look, my ability doesn’t work on this thing. Doesn’t that mean it has strange power?”

Dan Marina looked at Zheng Yichen somewhat teasingly, not exposing him. “You’re overthinking it. Your ability is indeed very powerful, but for things you cannot touch, it definitely can’t take effect.”

“Aren’t I holding this thing?”

“Are you sure you’re holding it and not the layer of space around it?” Dan Marina retorted. Zheng Yichen was speechless. He observed carefully and found that there was truly no gap between his claw and the surface of the Magic Cube.

“The power of space isn’t so easy to understand, nor can it be ‘seen’ with eyes. When you contact the Fate-Killer, there is indeed no gap, but that doesn’t mean you’ve contacted its true form. Just think of it as the self-protection of a special item or… self-restraint.” Dan Marina didn’t explain too clearly. Zheng Yichen’s strength wasn’t enough. Telling him too much now would only disrupt his normal thinking. Some things, when his strength is sufficient, he’ll gradually understand. If his strength is insufficient, forcing understanding would be like looking at a Magic Rune Array beyond his comprehension.

Mild cases: dizziness and nausea. Severe cases: Mental Energy damage.

“Hmm~ By the way, counting the time from before, using the time calculation method you always use, there’s a little over four hours left until the Prophecy Art becomes completely chaotic.”

“I want to ask, how long does it take to get from here to the location of the Witch you mentioned?”

“At the current speed, two days.”

“… Why didn’t you say so earlier!” Zheng Yichen stopped. He attached the subsequently replenished Propulsion Devices to his body. His speed earlier wasn’t full flight, only one-third of his maximum. With the Propulsion Devices, his top speed could increase by nearly two times more. Of course, going even faster wasn’t impossible, but the materials for these additional Propulsion Devices weren’t great, so their effect was limited. Besides… any faster and he couldn’t take it.

Zheng Yichen could create sparks when scratching his head normally, but his body honestly wasn’t made of materials comparable to a rocket or Spacecraft, nor did it have such a shape or structure. Even though his body was sharp and streamlined enough.

In a real comparison, Zheng Yichen could only regretfully say his Scales had seams, couldn’t be polished smooth on one side, and he didn’t have horns on his head. But since his body hadn’t fully recovered yet, Zheng Yichen couldn’t achieve full-speed flight using the Propulsion Devices. Even maintaining this high speed now, Zheng Yichen felt the thrilling soreness from the friction between the wound on his back and the air. It felt better only after using a Protection Magic… After using Magic, air friction wasn’t a concern.

Since this is the Otherworld, if we don’t talk about science, we should at least talk about Magic, right? Flying with a Magic Shield ignores the effects of air friction. But you at least have to consider the friction between the Magic Shield and the ambient magical elements, right?

Tsk… the Otherworld version of science.