Chapter 541: An Old Acquaintance?

Chapter 541: An Old Acquaintance?

“I feel like you’re taking advantage of my trust,” Zheng Yichen said as he cast an isolation magic spell and took out the Ice Soul. The isolation magic was a bit unnecessary. The Ice Soul’s own isolating properties ensured that nothing sealed inside could leak out any aura, no matter how unique it was.

Through the Ice Soul’s hazy transparency, he could see the sealed being inside. Its form had now changed into that of another woman, somewhat resembling the Undying Witch Kasha, but with many differences—about fifty percent similarity.

“It’s not that serious. I just shared my own discovery. Let me see this,” Dan Marina said, taking the Ice Soul. She gently rubbed her finger over it a few times, and the area she rubbed became clearer, making it easier to see the being inside the Ice Soul. Though for them, this didn’t hold much practical meaning—even if it was a bit blurry, they could still see clearly.

“…Hmm, should we kill it?”

Zheng Yichen rolled his eyes. “Don’t say it so brutally. These Derivative Witches are also… victims of the Undying Witch, aren’t they?”

“Did Annie tell you that?” Dan Marina asked, sounding surprised.

Zheng Yichen shook his head. No one had told him. This was purely his own speculation. This Derivative Witch no longer had the appearance of that ordinary woman. Instead, it bore a fifty percent resemblance to the Undying Witch, while the remaining parts still showed that woman’s features. So, the original beings of these Derivative Witches were likely humans who had been implanted with some kind of trigger by the Undying Witch.

“Calling them victims is fine, but after the Undying Witch’s preparations went out of control, they were no longer their original selves. They became new existences, like offspring produced by a Mother Body,” Dan Marina said, handing the Ice Soul back to Zheng Yichen. “Keep it if you want. As long as it doesn’t break, the thing inside won’t escape. There aren’t many Derivative Witches left anyway… Hmm? Remnants of the Undying Witch in the town? You’re still thinking of pursuing that?”

After hearing Zheng Yichen talk about the follow-up issues in the town, Dan Marina seemed uninterested and casually waved her hand. “Ah~ you handle it yourself. Those remnants aren’t really a big problem. The Church has dealt with plenty of similar issues. Huh? This Derivative Witch is interested? That’s normal. After all, they share the same origin. Even if finding it won’t double her strength, she would still gain a huge boost. Even with low intelligence, she would instinctively seek power.”

“For others, that thing is either a source of danger or a stroke of luck. After all, there are so many remnants left behind by destroyed Witches. Even though the Church is always cleaning them up, some places get overlooked. Those overlooked places, when encountered by some lucky ones… well, it could be seen as the start of a Legend story. Even now, many places on the Continent still hold remnants left by destroyed Witches.”

“Not interested?”

“Not interested. It’s too much trouble to search, and even if I found it, it wouldn’t be much use to me. Why would I go to all that effort for useless things? Let the Church people search there slowly.”

“Alright then. My main purpose here was just to cover for this side anyway,” Zheng Yichen shrugged. “Keep an eye on things here… tsk, what a hassle!”

Zheng Yichen frowned. Only two compasses were still useful now. One was in Dan Marina’s hands, dealing with matters in the Containment Zone. The other was for tracking the last Derivative Witch. But Zheng Yichen was already operating on two fronts. The last one was hard to find.

If he went looking, the Church would also pay attention to his new Avatar. Oro wasn’t a fool. Dan Marina had confirmed his intelligence. If Zheng Yichen created another Alchemical Avatar, Oro would surely notice something off. So he had to delay… Ugh!

Zheng Yichen looked annoyed. “Fine, I’ll keep playing around in the town then.”

Progress in the Stone Forest wasn’t great, and there wasn’t much point in Zheng Yichen staying there. For now, he had nothing left to modify there. The rest basically involved waiting for progress in the Stone Forest to reach a sufficient level. Rather than wasting time there, it was better to continue matching wits with smart people.

“Hmm, can’t beat that!” Zheng Yichen looked at the cards played in front of him, glanced at Oro sitting opposite, and directly spread out his own cards. “Alright, I lost.”

As he said this, Zheng Yichen placed a gold coin in front of Oro. That’s right, they were playing cards—specifically, the legendary game of “Landlord.” But the person across from him was unexpectedly tough, making it hard for Zheng Yichen to keep up. They had played ten rounds, and Zheng Yichen lost all ten. Oh, total loss. He had lost ten gold coins. A whole ten gold coins! Damn!

“Next time,” Oro said, gathering the ten gold coins in front of him with a smile. After Zheng Yichen left, his smile faded, catching the attention of his silent bodyguard who was holding the cards.

“What’s wrong?”

“Couldn’t get anything out of him,” Oro rubbed his forehead, sounding a bit helpless. That Dragon—he had always wanted to extract some information from him. While this could easily offend the Witches, since it was an order from the Church, he had no choice but to do it. Though it felt uncomfortable… heh, he had already carried out the task. Yet Zheng Yichen proved unexpectedly difficult.

No matter how he approached it, he couldn’t learn any important information from Zheng Yichen. Here, Zheng Yichen’s main goal was to find the remnants of the Undying Witch. Anything else? Nothing else. But things couldn’t be that simple… So Oro suspected Zheng Yichen might have cast some kind of restriction magic on himself, preventing him from mentioning certain key words.

“Seems like you’re just looking for an excuse for your actions.”

“That’s right.”

“…Do as you like. My main task is to protect you anyway,” the bodyguard said helplessly. That was just Oro’s personality. When he didn’t want to do certain things, he always found suitable excuses—excuses that were hard to refute. And when he really didn’t want to do something, forcing him was useless. This guy had no attachments and could ignore too many things. Even if held accountable, he always found the right words to persuade those holding him accountable!

Whether the timing wasn’t right, or it shouldn’t be done, blah blah—he had a whole list of analytical reasons, logical and convincing.

“Exactly. I don’t want to get killed by the Cursed Witch the day after we ask something,” Oro chuckled lightly. “Anyway, let’s leave it at that. What That Dragon does is his business. We’ll focus on our own tasks.”

Later, the Church’s support team arrived. This time, there were forty people. Combined with Oro’s previous team, the number exceeded one hundred. These people in this town were more than enough to easily take over the place. Zheng Yichen watched the arriving Church members with crossed arms. Unlike Oro’s team, which consisted of half combat and half support personnel, these were all Church Knights—official ones!

To put it simply, any official Church Knight had at least the strength of what was temporarily classified as a Mid-Rank Professional. It was a difficult assessment. Many only held the title of entry-level knight, but there was a huge difference between being official and unofficial.

“Tch! That bitter, hateful look—did I do something to you?” Zheng Yichen noticed one Church Knight glaring at him quite unfriendly. He had come to check things out by chance, but didn’t expect this. With a slight curl of his lip, he left. Oro noticed Zheng Yichen’s departure and shook his head slightly before proceeding to arrange the newcomers. For now, these Church Knights followed his orders and arrangements.

Before they arrived, Oro had already prepared accommodation for them. After settling them, dealing with the remaining trivial matters took until around afternoon. The troublesome issues mainly came from the town mayor, who, seeing the Church people not leaving after handling some unknown matter and even receiving reinforcements, grew concerned about what might happen next…

Oro had to step in to reassure him, saying there was nothing to worry about, and they were just handling follow-up situations. They would also help eliminate some hazards in the town. After all, even small-time thugs could cause problems when they formed an underground network.

Expecting them to do good deeds was pointless, so clearing them out wasn’t a loss. Plus, it gave the Church Knights something to do. After all… one of the Church Knights who came had quite a heavy aura of hostility. It was time to give him a proper outlet.

Later, Oro found Zheng Yichen and handed him a summarized document.

“What’s this?”

Zheng Yichen picked up the file folder and couldn’t help but smile slightly—a smile Oro understood. Zheng Yichen had already come up with too many things. Like this file folder in front of him, it was designed by Zheng Yichen. Its practicality was on par with plastic bags, plastic tubes, and even plastic bottles.

After all, as a dragon—especially one considered an ultra-rare protected animal on the Continent—anything he introduced easily started trends.

Of course, these items were practical enough, too. Otherwise, any trend they started would only last briefly and not gain widespread use. What became widely used were always the truly practical things