Chapter 365: Preventing

Chapter 365: Preventing

“How many places similar to Secret Mining Zone Twenty-Three has Little Dragon actually developed?” At the Mining Zone Twenty-Three canyon, Dan Marina crouched down, grabbed a handful of dirt, and looked around. Even though no black mist was seeping out of the canyon anymore, a rather strong residual aura lingered here.

Some she could trace through her abilities, some she could not ‘see’ with her power s. The ones she could trace naturally stemmed from the aura left by the Undying Witch; the untraceable bits belonged to Zheng Yichen.

“Where is the Undying Witch?”

“Hmm… even though you brought me to this place, I still can’t find her.” Dan Marina spread her hands helplessly. “She was very well prepared this time, clearly guarding specifically against me.”

Her ability wasn’t flawless. At least for beings of her level, if they truly intended to, they could temporarily interfere with her power. However, that only applied to herself. If the interference was specifically targeting her, even if Dan Marina couldn’t foresee their specific actions, surely she could still glimpse what dangers she herself might face?

“An approximate location will do.”

“That’s also a bit difficult.” Dan Marina shrugged.

“…!” Loris’ cold eyes swept over this insincere woman.

“Alright, can you at least tell me what exactly happened? Wasn’t he sound asleep?” After being brought to this canyon, Dan Marina could largely understand some things by capturing and tracing the residual aura. For instance, something very remarkable had manifested here before, something even powerful enough to interfere with her Prophecy Art.

Such things were rare. Naturally occurring ones were limited to a handful. Moreover, this interference wasn’t absolute. From some ‘seen’ traces, she could roughly discern what had appeared in this place… an Element Heart? And the most domineering one, a Dark Element Heart at that.

That thing hadn’t fallen into the Undying Witch’s hands, so undoubtedly, Zheng Yichen had obtained it. The Undying Witch was probably furious, which Dan Marina was happy to see. But that thing was also trouble. If the Undying Witch leaked the information that Zheng Yichen possessed the Element Heart, the world would likely erupt into another wave of searches for Zheng Yichen’s true body.

Loris’ subsequent account largely matched Dan Marina’s deductions: Zheng Yichen sensed something unusual here, searched and hunted for treasure, after which the Undying Witch also set her sights on the place… or rather, the Undying Witch had known about it long ago. However, the Element Heart hadn’t fully formed back then, so she hadn’t collected it. Now it had formed, but Zheng Yichen snatched it right under her nose.

As for why he could pull off such a feat? Simple. Dan Marina hadn’t seen the Dark Element Heart herself, but based on records, she knew its precise effects. Within the native environment where the Element Heart was born, its power received a significant boost. Even a Witch coming here would be affected. Yet, Zheng Yichen’s ability was sufficiently unique, allowing him to conduct an area search even under such conditions.

Combined with arriving earlier than the Undying Witch, he found the Element Heart just before her. This lead time couldn’t have been long. He obtained the Element Heart and then either collided with the Undying Witch or was exposed before that.

Thankfully, Zheng Yichen was using a projection. Even after conflict erupted, he still managed to take the Element Heart away. Having gained nothing, the Undying Witch could only use a Secret Method to gather and extract the vast amount of highly concentrated Dark Element accumulated here. Of course, even after Zheng Yichen absconded with the Element Heart, that projection was surely doomed. After all, he was facing a Witch.

Did she think he could just waltz in, snatch the treasure, dispel the projection nonchalantly, and waltz out? Since when were Witches that weak?

Obviously, they weren’t. And that was likely why Loris was here now. She intended to confront the Undying Witch directly… But starting such a conflict now was inadvisable. Loris didn’t care about the bigger picture; Dan Marina did. The Undying Witch’s recent actions had already roused the Sanctuary Church back into activity.

The first Witch Hunt was a passive response; Loris hadn’t been the instigator back then. Now, with the Undying Witch actively causing chaos, if Loris sought the Undying Witch out for a fight, it was probable that the Sanctuary Church would explode into furious motion. Once they shifted from latent observation to active operation…

Then, not even she could roam and appear everywhere freely and openly as she used to. During turbulent times, the Sanctuary Church wouldn’t turn a blind eye. All Witches would become entangled in this, and Loris, whose actions contributed to the cause, would bear some responsibility. Some Witches were reasonable; others had hard tempers. Once certain ideas took hold, discussions could become difficult, and they might persistently cling to grievances.

There was absolutely no need to trigger such massive consequences over a moment’s impulse. Much less to share the blame for a dark outcome alongside the Undying Witch. So the question arose: how to change Zheng Yichen’s mind?

“Wah! Wah! Wah!!” Zheng Yichen, sleeping deeply, suddenly had a rare dream of returning to Earth. He dreamed of being back in his old home, saw his parents, dreamed he was proudly introducing the pseudo-Loli beside him to them… then dreamed that soon after, police sirens wailed and he was taken away by cops in a whirl of flashing lights…

!?

Rubbing his head, Zheng Yichen suppressed the ceaselessly vibrating Magic Weapon Summoning Book. It was one of his preset mechanisms. If specific critical situations arose, this forced wake-up state would trigger a prompt. Currently, those with access to this alert channel were the Witches, Lily, and himself, the top authority holder.

Grabbing a clock, he checked the time – he hadn’t even slept two hours yet! Who could be this vicious? Taking out the Magic Weapon Summoning Book for a look, Zheng Yichen’s lingering drowsiness vanished instantly. Knocking his slightly throbbing head, he scrambled out of the large bed, startling a Ghost Maid who was cleaning the room. Oblivious to her confusion, he charged out in a frantic hurry.

Arriving at his personal Laboratory, sure enough, things on the experimental table had been disturbed. Regarding items in the Laboratory, if things were strewn messily on the floor, the Ghost Maids would clean them up. But items on the tables? Even if there were several discarded paper wads, those Ghost Maids wouldn’t touch a thing.

They were extraordinarily loyal. For matters explicitly instructed, they wouldn’t overstep boundaries or presume to act autonomously.

Taking control of the alchemical puppet in Mining Zone Twenty-Two once more, Zheng Yichen commanded that puppet to pull a higher-grade alchemical puppet from his Personal Space. He stowed the previously used puppet back into its egg-shaped stasis chamber, then scrambled out of the mine cave and hurried off towards Mining Zone Twenty-Three at high speed…

His arrival was timely. Loris and Dan Marina hadn’t left yet. The moment Zheng Yichen appeared, Loris immediately shot a glance at Dan Marina, a subtle killing intent – accompanied by palpable displeasure – leaking from her eyes.

Zheng Yichen wouldn’t have woken from that sleep until the next day at the earliest. He certainly wouldn’t have appeared here beforehand. Had he woken up naturally, even if he found the Undying Witch later, perhaps nothing serious would have happened. But now he was here, obviously because this woman, Dan Marina, had snitched!

“Uh-hah~” Dan Marina’s gaze wandered shiftily, putting on an air of complete innocence.

With Zheng Yichen present, any planned confrontation was naturally impossible now. Unexpectedly, Zheng Yichen felt Dan Marina had done exceptionally well this time. If conflict truly broke out between Witches, the outcome would inevitably be mutually destructive. Given their negligible power discrepancy, deep-seated clashes could easily escalate into genuine fury. With that fury unleashed, there’d be no holding back; it would be an all-out fight. Securing a benefit only to have Loris go risk an all-out fight with the Undying Witch? No way.

Noticing Dan Marina subtly signaling him, Zheng Yichen chuckled awkwardly: “Ahem, what a coincidence, running into you both right here.”

As he spoke, he began pulling items from his Personal Space. These were mainly new alchemical puppets and mining tools. “Sudden thoughts during sleep… the mine caves below underwent some mutation, the ordinary ore transformed into Demonized Ore. Couldn’t miss that…” Uttering reasons even he didn’t believe, Zheng Yichen rapidly issued commands to the alchemical puppets. “Care to come down and take a look?”

“Let’s go, let’s go. I haven’t really taken a good look at these mining zones you’ve developed,” Dan Marina was the first to agree.

Loris continued watching the pretending Dan Marina expressionlessly. The layout within the mine cave was simple; it wasn’t designed for habitation. But since the ore within the cave had undergone a property change, the old mining tools were useless now.

Being Dark Element Demonized Ore, and Dark Element possessing strong inherent corrosive attributes, even regular Enchanted Material left here would gradually have its internal energy eroded away by the Dark Element, reducing it to ordinary scrap metal. Ordinary metallic objects here would rust tens, even hundreds of times faster than outside.

Such a mine cave was incredibly harsh. An unprotected normal worker laboring here for a week straight, even performing non-strenuous tasks, would require a lengthy recuperation period afterward.

Therefore, the excavation tools used by the alchemical puppets couldn’t be the previous models. A simple solution presented itself: plenty of ore had already been excavated but not yet transported for refining. Zheng Yichen directly used Alchemy-related magic to refine batches of that ore on-site, extracted the metallic components, and forged an entire set of usable tools.

Even though he consciously tried to slow down the pace… time still seemed to pass incredibly swiftly!