The Virtuous Dark Witch

Chapter 20

Was it really just a dream? Elara Dessey lay obediently in her mother's warm arms, feeling her big hand gently stroking her hair. Her silver-gray eyes were filled with deep worry. She gently twisted the black mandala on the Life Spirit Ring—for now, besides worrying, there seemed to be nothing she could do.

"How did the West Sea Witch Ancestor end up conflicting with the Twin Witch Progenitor?" She was extremely curious about this.

Speaking of this, Merlyn Dessey sighed helplessly. "As I said before—she had nothing better to do and meddled in other people's business on a whim."

In the end, she accidentally fell under a curse. But even so, the West Sea Witch Ancestor never regretted getting involved with the Twin Witch. Until her last moment, she was still obsessed with breaking the Twin Holy Spirit Curse, but unfortunately, her life force had been exhausted.

Is this how you talk about your own ancestor? Elara turned around and plopped down on her mother's lap. "It couldn't have been that she suddenly approached them for no reason, right?" That Twin Witch Progenitor seemed pretty unlucky too.

"Of course not." Merlyn held her little treasure, rocking her gently. "The reason the West Sea Witch Ancestor wanted to kill the Twin Witch Progenitor was because he tried to use his unique Witchcraft—Soul Projection—to control her. Unfortunately, he failed."

Elara turned to look at her mother. "Soul Projection?"

"Yes." Merlyn kissed Elara's forehead, her eyes as calm as water. "Because the Twin Witch Progenitor had two souls, his soul was extremely powerful. According to the journal left by the West Sea Witch Ancestor, Soul Projection is projecting one's will onto someone else's soul to control them."

"And that's how the feud started?" Elara didn't think her ancestor was meddling—this was all started by the Twin Witch Progenitor.

Merlyn knew what she was thinking. "In her journal, the West Sea Witch Ancestor said that the Twin Witch Progenitor couldn't actually cast Soul Projection on her. Because when she became a Supreme Witch, her soul had an accident and condensed into a physical form."

"What happened next?" If he couldn't control her, why did the West Sea Witch Ancestor vow to destroy the Twin Witch Progenitor? Elara had a hunch the answer would be a bit unexpected.

"As for what happened next…" Merlyn didn't want to go on, but seeing her daughter's eager eyes, she couldn't refuse. "After catching the Twin Witch Progenitor trying to cast Soul Projection on her, the West Sea Witch Ancestor stayed in the West Sea Forest for two years. She finally discovered that for the Twin Witch Progenitor to influence her with Soul Projection, he first had to fuse his two souls.

Is this… is this individual research? Elara couldn't help but think of the days she spent in the laboratory in her past life.

"But even if he fused his two souls, if his soul couldn't condense into a physical form, the result would still be the same." Merlyn smiled. "After drawing this conclusion, the West Sea Witch Ancestor went to the Alsace Mountains."

"To take revenge on the Twin Witch Progenitor?" When Elara saw her mother shake her head, she frowned and guessed. "Not revenge—could it be to verify her conclusion?"

Merlyn shrugged. "More or less. But that was only her initial plan. After luring the West Sea Witch Ancestor out of the Alsace Mountains, the Twin Witch Progenitor led her straight to Moai City."

"When the West Sea Witch Ancestor saw the Twin Witch Progenitor controlling the humans and Andros of Moai City to besiege her, she realized how dangerous he was. She changed her mind and decided to eliminate him."

"And ended up getting herself trapped too." Elara sighed. It really was, as her mother had said, all because of boredom. Wouldn't it have been better to stay in the West Sea Forest watching black crows?

Merlyn's eyes were filled with loneliness. "Without that Supreme Witch War, maybe the West Sea Witch Ancestor would still be alive." Such was life—full of surprises and helplessness.

"But after erasing one of the Twin Witch Progenitor's souls and sealing the other, even though the West Sea Witch Ancestor was cursed and seriously injured, she was extremely excited. For the rest of her life, she never left the West Sea Forest again. She kept researching the Twin Holy Spirit Curse until… the end."

After listening to the whole story, Elara couldn't help but sense a strong feeling of "seeking defeat in solitude." "Was the remaining soul good or evil?"

Merlyn shook her head, frowning deeply. "Even the West Sea Witch Ancestor couldn't be sure. Her journal said that the evil soul was extremely cunning. Thanks to inventing Soul Projection, he was very good at pretending."

"To eliminate the threat once and for all, the seriously injured West Sea Witch Ancestor had to take a seed of Dark Nether Fire and bury it between the Twin Witch Progenitor's eyebrows. She then quickly fled Moai City, which was adjacent to the Alsace Mountains. "

Elara stroked the Life Spirit Ring, her little heart pounding. "With that Dark Nether Fire seed, if anyone tries to break the seal, the Dark Nether Fire will ignite spontaneously, burning the Twin Witch Progenitor's body and leaving his soul with no place to rest."

"Yes." After tonight's banquet, Merlyn was almost certain that the Larissa Clan had broken the Witch Curse sealing one of the Twin Witch's souls. She lifted her daughter's little face and said extremely solemnly, "Elara, in the future, the Dessey Witches will face a powerful enemy."

"Poppy Larissa's son." Elara narrowed her eyes slightly.

Merlyn nodded. "Yes, it's him." She hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. "You heard what that old witch Sophia Larissa said—the child in Poppy Larissa's belly won't have two souls."

Because that baby was just a vessel. Elara hugged her mother, her mood heavy. "The Twin Witch will come for revenge."

"The West Sea Forest also has scores to settle with him." Merlyn held the little one tightly. "Are you afraid?"

Not really. After all, she had never seen the Twin Witch Progenitor's power firsthand. "I've made up my mind—I'm going to double my efforts in practicing Witchcraft starting today."

Thinking about her past life: she studied clinical surgery, then took law as an elective after seeing too many social news, and privately loved traditional Chinese medicine. She handled everything with ease, excelling in every subject—her reputation as a top student was well-deserved.

"Good." When it came to studying, the little one had never disappointed her. Merlyn felt relieved.

Having said that, Elara was determined. She hugged her mother tightly, then got up, jumped off the bed, picked up her little boots, and put on a serious expression. "There's still time before dawn—I can't waste it." She said goodnight to her mother and ran back to her own room.

Merlyn followed her to the door, smiling. She had high expectations for her little treasure. Before she was lucky enough to conceive her, her mother had predicted that the West Sea Forest would welcome a powerful ruler. She knew it wouldn't be herself.

Back in her room, Elara threw down her boots with a thud—startling Cinderaven, who was still huddled on the bed. Its messy feathers puffed up slightly, and its two black bean eyes stared at Elara defensively.

"Are you hungry?" Elara approached slowly, like catching an old hen. "Cluck, cluck." Taking advantage of Cinderaven's confusion, she suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the crow before it could escape.

Caw… caw…

"Don't make noise." Elara carried it by its wings to the window, then pulled a small piece of bread from the hidden pocket of her skirt. "Time to eat." She let it go, tearing the bread into small pieces. "If I had known you were sick, I wouldn't have brought you along." Her spy plan had been derailed.

Cinderaven stared at the small pieces of bread scattered in front of it, dumbfounded. Under Elara's gaze, it finally pecked at one and swallowed it after a long while.

Elara couldn't help but mutter—was it her imagination, or did Cinderaven swallow the bread the same way she ate undercooked wild beef at home? "Could it be you want to eat bugs?"

Cinderaven, who had just swallowed a small piece of bread and was about to tuck its head to nap, suddenly perked up at the mention of bugs. It happily bowed its head and continued pecking at the bread on the windowsill.

Hmph. Elara looked down at the now docile Cinderaven, curving her lips. "That's better." She turned away from the black crow, sat cross-legged, placed her hands on her knees, and looked up at the moon, which had already moved west. Recalling what her mother had said earlier, she realized there were two questions that had been bothering her since she started practicing witchcraft.

First, according to the scientific theories of her past life, the moon didn't emit light on its own—it only glowed because of sunlight reflection. So what was the Moonlight Power she was gathering? Was it an alternative form of sunlight, or had the sunlight undergone some transformation after being projected onto the moon?

Over the past few years, she had tried gathering Witch Power during the day, but it was extremely difficult. The meridians of Dark Witches were different from those of Light Witches—they couldn't directly absorb sunlight into their meridians.

But one thing did indirectly confirm the scientific theories of her past life: it was possible to gather Moonlight Power during the day, but only in negligible amounts. Probably that's why Dark Witches gave up practicing during the day.

Second, Witch cultivation followed nature—naturally absorbing Moonlight Power, naturally condensing it into Witch Power. So far, she hadn't found any traceable pattern in this process. Could it be possible to artificially find a pattern to improve cultivation efficiency?

Frowning in deep thought, Elara pinched her round chin and muttered in Chinese. "All humans have the same meridians, so acupoints should exist too." Why not try opening the Guanyuan and Zhongji Acupoints, and use Qigong circulation to artificially guide the Witch Power through a Small Circulation to see the effect?"

If the Small Circulation worked, she could try the Large Circulation next, and then open the Three Dantians to store power. Once she had this idea, Elara couldn't contain her excitement—her inner self was cheering. But… but could it be life-threatening?

"Qigong is practiced this way, so it shouldn't be life-threatening." Elara bit her lip. "At worst, it won't work, and I'll just be practicing Qigong." She slammed her knee. "No more hesitating—let's try… No, just do it and see." She felt a little unsure, but practicing Qigong didn't seem like a bad idea either.

Think about it—if it worked, her Witchcraft cultivation would be freed from nature, turning passivity into initiative. It would definitely get twice the result with half the effort.

Taking two deep breaths to calm herself, Elara cleared her mind and closed her eyes. First, she needed to feel the Witch Power scattered in her meridians…

As the eastern sky turned red, in the westernmost room of the castle's fourth-floor corridor, a low growl ended the intense pleasure. In the darkness, blood-red eyes sparkled like stars. Hands propped on either side of the woman, staring at her post-orgasmic expression, Alexander felt immense satisfaction. Unfortunately, before he could fully recover from the passion, he was met with a sharp kick.

"What are you doing?" Alexander fell off the bed, almost doing a somersault. Fortunately, he was agile enough to avoid hitting his head on the floor. He sat there openly, looking at the heartless woman on the bed, smiling bitterly. "I served you all night—won't you even let me stay in bed after making you feel good?"

Thea panted heavily, finally calming down after a long while. She swallowed hard, then sat up abruptly. With a wave of her right hand, the clothes scattered on the floor flew toward her. She got out of bed, threw a blanket at Alexander, covering him exactly. "I should go back."

Pushing off the blanket, Alexander lost his earlier joy. "It's almost dawn—won't you sleep for a while?"

"We're leaving the Lord's Mansion soon." After getting dressed, Thea picked up the ring chain bracelet from the bedside table and put it on. "When are you leaving Anastas City?"

Alexander hugged the blanket, resting his chin on his knees with his elbows. "Why—are you eager for me to leave Anastas City as soon as possible?"

"Suit yourself." Thea looked at herself in the glazed mirror, fixing her hair. She didn't ask any more questions. After confirming there was nothing amiss, she picked up her small top hat and turned to leave. She stopped beside Alexander, lifting his chin with one hand and looking into his blood-red eyes.

"Tell Rocky Anastas to give up his inappropriate thoughts." Silver edelweiss fluttered in her beautiful blue pupils. Thea curved her lips. "If he dares to touch Elara Dessey even slightly, I'll personally cut off his head. That goes for you too, Earl Alexander Stirling."

"Hmph." Alexander smiled. "I'll make sure to pass it on."

Thea pulled her hand back, turning around and leaving without hesitation. "Thank you."

At the sound of the door closing, the smile on Alexander's face faded. He puffed out his cheeks, took a deep breath, rubbed his face vigorously, and combed his hair back. He let out a helpless sneer—he really wanted to wash his hands of everything and leave Anastas City immediately. But he knew he couldn't let go of that damn, arrogant woman.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the Lord's Mansion was quiet. Merlyn led Elara, who was holding Cinderaven by both claws, walking in front, with Thea following behind. The three of them and the crow left the castle without stopping—two old horses were pulling a carriage that were already waiting at the gate.

Getting into the carriage, Elara sat next to Merlyn, staring at her aunt without blinking.

Even if Thea wanted to ignore her, she couldn't. She glanced at Cinderaven standing motionless on the long table. "Later, I'll buy you a beautiful birdcage."

"No need. Cinderaven won't run around." Elara snorted, questioning in her soft voice. "But where were you last night—you didn't come back."