Chapter 379: Aftermath

Chapter 379: Aftermath

The information about the anomaly within the Windhowl Valley underground Ore Vein was kept extremely confidential. Apart from a few relevant individuals, there hadn’t been any leaks. If it were exposed, it would only invite more trouble. After all, the power of greed often blinds people to the consequences. Therefore, Achille immediately wondered if The Empire had secretly acted.

After all, the Lockdown Zone was already established. Even if Windwhisper Valley’s anomaly erupted, the affected area would be greatly reduced. While it might still reach inhabited places, it wouldn’t be nearly as severe as initially feared.

However, after finding the Empire’s envoy, they looked completely bewildered. If it wasn’t The Empire’s doing, then who was it?

No secret can be kept entirely leak-proof, but this was too fast! Although Achille had used this situation to lure out several ‘fish’, that was only feasible with sufficient preparation. There wasn’t enough time for a proper investigation now. So, while maintaining vigilance, the most crucial task was mobilising personnel to prepare for the worst possibility.

If the anomaly in Windhowl Valley erupted, they could only do their utmost to minimize the impact to the lowest possible.

“Heh heh… Only realizing something’s wrong now? Too late!” By the time Zheng Yichen had almost completely covered the massive hill-like Wind Elemental Crystal, the mutated Wind Dragonflies also sensed trouble. The blockage of the Wind Elemental Crystal’s power output became obvious, and they reacted instantly. They intensified their resonance with the crystal, aiming to make it release enough power to break through the constraints and incidentally eliminate the troublemaker.

But Zheng Yichen had already made preparations. The moment the Windhowl Stone acted unusually, he siphoned a huge amount of Mana from the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. He instantly covered the last exposed part of the Element Crystal with his Mana, completely severing the Wind Dragonflies’ resonance connection with it. The Dragonflies’ energies touched Zheng Yichen’s Mana and were immediately assimilated, rendered useless.

The Wind Dragonflies, unable to exert their power, split their forces. Part began violently destroying the ground, trying to forcibly dig out the troublemaker. Before they could make progress, however, Zheng Yichen had begun assembling something frantically. Leveraging the immense power within the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, just like he had moved the Ruins before, he forcefully tore open an enormous channel to his Personal Space. He shoved the entire hill-sized Wind Elemental Crystal, now entirely coated in his Mana, straight into it. This instantly occupied a gigantic portion of his Personal Space.

The Wind Dragonflies’ attack arrived immediately after – a colossal wind drill boring down from above, its tip aimed directly at Zheng Yichen. Zheng Yichen, controlling his Projection, made a sweeping gesture with his large hand. “You go first! I’ll block thi– Holy crap!?”

Feeling empty air behind him, Zheng Yichen’s eyes widened in shock. Dan Marina had already silently vanished at some point, leaving him standing there like an idiot, intending to buy her time? That woman!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Zheng Yichen dispersed his Projection. The massive wind drill striking down from above hit nothing but earth, leaving only a deep pit in the ground.

“They… they actually succeeded!?” Not just the onlookers were stunned; Achille was also momentarily dumbfounded. The disturbances in Windhowl Valley ceased. The storm overhead stopped intensifying and was even beginning to weaken. The Wind Dragonflies fought to maintain the storm, but with the loss of that vast core, the hill-sized Wind Elemental Crystal, the decline of the storm had become inevitable.

Well, different outcomes naturally evoked different perspectives. If the troublemaker had failed, Achille would have been deeply displeased for a while, but there wouldn’t be anyone left to pursue. Failure surely meant being pulverized to dust. No need for further action.

Now that they had succeeded, though, he couldn’t help but think: Well done! Then, after resolving the situation locally, he’d let the Empire worry about issuing a bounty notice. Decency? What decency? Their previous actions deliberately ignored the concerns of the majority. Praising ‘well done’ was only because they successfully removed that critical item affecting the situation. Yet, the negative impact remained undeniably, something that couldn’t just be overlooked!

Praise and punishment weren’t mutually exclusive, after all!

If it wasn’t the Empire behind it originally, they certainly had a major headache now. Achille didn’t value the Element Crystal much, but the Empire treasured it highly. In their eyes, something theirs had just been stolen. It was only natural they’d be frantic! Achille looked forward to seeing the Empire issue a hefty, high-reward bounty.

In short, that pivotal element shaping events was gone. Now was the time to decisively end the Windhowl Valley incident. Most Wind Dragonflies were now desperately trying to uphold the failing storm. This presented an opportunity for a frontal assault. The enemy had a dilemma: Fight back against the attackers? That would accelerate the storm’s collapse. Ignore the attack? Then they’d just proceed to uncover the secrets within Windwhisper Valley. If the Dragonflies attempted to manage both, well, constant harassment was also a viable tactic. Though mutated, they were still alive. Even if their stamina wasn’t human-like and didn’t cause immediate weakness upon exhaustion, they weren’t limitless.

These mutated beings didn’t have infinite endurance; they probably just had a big, buffed-up ‘Stamina +99′ effect. As long as it wasn’t unlimited, that was their vulnerability. What could have been a prolonged siege, Achille was now confident could be resolved within days, and with minimal collateral damage.

The Sanctuary Church’s defenses were robust. Had the storm continued intensifying, their barriers might eventually have failed, as the storm’s growth outpaced their reinforcement capacity. Now that the storm was weakening, even if it finally blew, stalling for a few more days meant its explosive force would likely be contained entirely within the Lockdown Zone, unable to spread far.

“…You two…” Irene stared at the hill-sized Wind Elemental Crystal. She reached out and lightly touched its surface. Not only its sheer size, but its purity matched the absolute best Wind Elemental Crystal available on the market. After all, it condensed the entire essence of an Ore Vein. Its extraordinary quality was only to be expected. This thing was procured by Dan Marina and Zheng Yichen working together. Where they got it from… Irene had a pretty good guess.

She cast a glance at Dan Marina, who stood beside her, beaming mischievously. That woman only dared attempt this stunt because she knew the unique properties of Zheng Yichen’s Mana. Others, even Sorceresses like them, wouldn’t risk such a dangerous gamble. If those Wind Dragonflies had been truly cornered, they might have simply detonated this Element Crystal. The sheer force of that blast, focused and amplified by the Wind Dragonflies’ guidance onto a single point… Not even a Sorceress could withstand that! Any lesser Sorceress caught in the heart of such an explosion, without extraordinary defensive measures, would be utterly annihilated!

“What did you call me here for?” Irene withdrew her hand and asked. This colossal Element Crystal held enough elemental power for Zheng Yichen to use for centuries… Being a solid, unrefined block, its internal power reserves easily surpassed what ten times its volume in processed pieces could provide. This was due to its integral structure. Its immense size and intact form endowed it with unprecedented storage capacity.

“I recall you’ve done related research, haven’t you?”

“…You went through my notes?” Irene shot an unhappy look at Dan Marina.

“It’s your own fault for leaving those notes lying around! How can you be mad if someone saw them?” Dan Marina’s retort was utterly matter-of-fact. Irene paused to think. She certainly wouldn’t misplace anything truly important. Dan Marina knowing about this research probably meant she had found one of the truly discarded notebooks. If it was discarded, it couldn’t have been that vital anyway. Though it was entirely possible Dan Marina deduced her area of study from mere snippets within those notes.

“During my research developing Mana Crystals, I did conduct related studies…” Irene snapped back to focus, deciding against hiding it now. “…Involving research into Element Hearts. The Mana Crystals were developed based on certain principles and characteristics of Element Hearts. Sadly, they lack the key self-recovering property inherent to true Element Hearts. You want me to process this crystal into an ‘Element Heart’?”

“Wouldn’t something like that be much easier to carry around? We can’t start exploiting this thing directly yet.” Dan Marina patted the enormous Wind Elemental Crystal beside her. It dwarfed Irene’s Ruins shelter. Zheng Yichen could barely squeeze it into his Personal Space for temporary storage, and there was another big problem!

This wasn’t a natural formation. Without the Wind Dragonflies’ constant maintenance and resonance, its structure would eventually collapse on its own. That would be an enormous waste. A proper solution was needed.

“Agreed,” Irene nodded immediately. “But I demand rights to utilize it whenever I need it.” She was also immensely curious. How much difference would there really be between this unprecedented Wind Elemental Crystal, once processed into a pseudo ‘Element Heart’, and a genuine one? She added, “Also, I’ll need to borrow the Dark Element Heart for some research for a while.”

Element Hearts were exceedingly rare. Irene possessed extensive theoretical knowledge about them but never had the chance to examine one physically. Knowing Zhou Yechen had one, the urge to study it had been gnawing at her.

“No problem. I don’t have much immediate use for that thing anyway,” Zheng Yichen readily agreed to Irene’s request. The Dark Element Heart had a strange property. Once placed inside a sealed container effectively blocking Elemental Power, the container would gradually fill with thick, potent Dark Element. Observing the Dark Element Heart later would reveal it was still brimming at full strength, not diminished in the slightest. The source of that newly generated Dark Element power remained a fascinating mystery.

“Maintain your Mana coating over the Wind Crystal,” Irene instructed. “Its structure should hold for about ten days. It’s tight, but sufficient. Now, where’s the Element Heart?”

“Eh? You need it now?”

“Time is critical. Starting work immediately is preferable. Having the Element Heart as a reference will let me save some time with the conversion process,” Irene stated crisply. “Also, I require no disturbances during this period.” Her eyes lit up sharply as Zheng Yichen produced the transparent sphere containing the Dark Element Heart. Though the sphere blocked all esoteric probing, simple visual inspection was fine.

Upon securing the Dark Element Heart, Irene promptly dismissed Zheng Yichen and Dan Marina, the non-professionals. Before they left, she requisitioned several dozen Alchemical Puppets from Zheng Yichen as assistants, demanding absolute control permissions over them as well.

“Next, we just have to see how quickly the Sanctuary Church resolves the Windhowl Valley incident,” Dan Marina remarked lazily, flopping down onto a soft sofa. Her next steps involved discreetly guiding the Sanctuary Church’s attention towards the Undying Witch’s hidden purpose. Doing so would free up her own hands.

The Sanctuary Church was acting far more proactively in this matter than Dan Marina anticipated. The Undying Witch had already caused chaos on such a vast scale – not just Windwhisper Valley, but the frequent incidents elsewhere were prompting unusually large-scale mobilizations by the Church! Knowing she harbored an even more secret, critical objective was certain to increase their zeal tenfold.

While confident she could manipulate the situation against the Undying Witch without revealing her own involvement or arousing suspicion, Dan Marina harbored serious doubts about permanently killing her. Back in her Sanctuary Church days, such an opportunity might have presented itself, but she would never have taken it. Working for the Church while specifically targeting a fellow Sorceress, even an unpopular one, would have invited disastrous consequences. Back then, no opportunity was worth it.

This time was different. All the Sorceresses knew Dan Marina had broken free of Sanctuatry Church. Antagonizing and even attempting to eliminate another Sorceress carried far less damaging aftermath. The problem was… permanently killing the Undying Witch remained near impossible.

Even if you shattered ninety-nine percent of her resurrection contingencies, a single infinitesimal oversight meant she still lived. Merely delayed. The absolute baseline for destroying the Undying Witch involved targeting the core problem: the Stone Forest itself! The true name “Wendy” was just a shell. Therefore, complete annihilation felt out of reach. The optimal solution would be eternal confinement – sealing her forever beyond any hope of escape… So, what method could achieve that?

No, the method itself wasn’t the main hurdle. Lots of powerful sealing techniques existed. The crucial consideration was what to seal her within to ensure that confinement was truly permanent, offering her zero chance of breaking free?

Seals were like membranes – meant to be broken. Against the Undying Witch, maintaining the original seal strength indefinitely was key. Should its power ever wane, allowing even a sliver of her strength to leak, she could simply abandon the sealed portion and resurrect elsewhere. An endless headache.

Watching Dan Marina deep in thought, Zheng Yichen shook his head. He picked up a book lying nearby and began reading. This book was given to him earlier by Loris. It contained descriptions of various Sorceresses’ Witch Power systems, meticulously compiled by Loris herself. It offered quite detailed explanations of the unique characteristics of several Sorceresses’ abilities – not an exhaustive list, but it covered all the known ones. Many details were precious insights obtainable nowhere else.

This single book, presented to the Sanctuary Church, could earn the bearer immense wealth, enough for multiple lifetimes of extravagance. Here, it was merely an educational text for Zheng Yichen… His current focus was the section detailing the Undying Witch’s capabilities. The more he read, the more apprehensive he became. Fighting an opponent who simply refused to die was truly the worst kind of encounter!