The Virtuous Dark Witch

Chapter 21

Caw… caw…

Elara looked down, her little eyes sweeping over the black crow that was contradicting her like a knife. What—did it actually want to stay in a birdcage? Then what was the point of having wings?

Under her stare, Cinderaven slowly shrank its neck. Thea raised her eyebrows, smiled at her sister, then leaned forward, pushing the annoying Cinderaven aside and asking. "How do you know I didn't come back last night?" Also, hadn't the little one forgotten—she was the elder?

"Hmph." Speaking of this, Elara pouted. "I have my ways, of course."

After clearing her mind last night, she quickly felt the Witch Power in her meridians. But feeling it didn't mean she could freely drive it to flow along the path she had set.

She sank her consciousness into her meridians, becoming like a shepherd. She extracted a wisp of Witch Power above the Guanyuan Acupoint, then urged it to sink from the Guanyuan Acupoint. The Witch Power flowed backward, causing her meridians to ache. She gritted her teeth, struggling until dawn, and that wisp of Witch Power finally reached the Zhongji Acupoint, four inches below the navel, via her lower abdomen.

Oh my god! Thinking that the Guanyuan Acupoint was three inches below the navel and the Zhongji Acupoint was four inches below, that meant she had worked hard for hours, sweating half a catty, just to move a wisp of Witch Power as thin as a strand of hair by one inch—3.3 centimeters!

A deep sense of sorrow filled her chest. She hid that wisp of Witch Power in the Zhongji Acupoint and stopped practicing.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a certain unaccounted-for young lady sneaking back. How could she not be suspicious? The world was so dangerous now, especially with an Andros earl who had been craving flesh living upstairs.

"Your ways?" Thea rested her chin on one hand, reaching out to hook the little one's chubby hand. "What ways could you have?"

Elara slapped her hand away, speaking angrily. "Alexander Stirling still has someone locked in his room—how come you didn't see that?"

"Of course I didn't—we weren't in his room." Alexander…" Thea felt a cold glint, immediately swallowing the words on her lips. She glanced at her sister, whose expression had turned cold, and instinctively cleared her throat. "The night was beautiful." She sat up straight, leaning back against the carriage wall. "We went to watch the moon on the chimney."

Trying to fool a three-year-old? Elara turned her little head away, resting her forehead on her mother's arm. "Remember to buy me a birdcage later."

She now had to consider the feasibility of guiding—or rather, artificially driving—the Witch Power to flow along a certain path. Should she give up or continue?

After watching the two calm down, Merlyn, who had been observing silently, finally opened her lips and recited a Witch spell. She then quickly drew a circle on the long table with two fingers of her right hand. A transparent glowing bubble floated up, slowly expanding. In less than five seconds, it enveloped the three of them.

"Thea, I want to remind you again—Alexander Stirling is the child of Andros Progenitors Alexandra Stirling and Lisandra Stirling. What he needs is a woman who can bear him children." Merlyn looked coldly at her sister. "Not you."

Thea frowned, looking confused. Was this really necessary?

"Sister, I don't need you to remind me—I know very well." Her and Alexander's encounter had just been a moment of passion, with no lingering aftermath.

"I hope so." Alexander Stirling wasn't that slave. Merlyn was worried about her.

"Aren't you going to ask me when Alexander is leaving Anastas City?" Thea tapped her fingers lightly on the long table, waiting for her sister to ask.

Merlyn indulged her. "When is he leaving?"

"I don't know." Thea's mood improved. "But judging by his personality, he probably won't leave anytime soon. So the Charlotte Witches and the Annel Clan still have a chance to escape Anastas City safely."

Although Rocky Anastas' mother, Ana Stirling, was also a child of Progenitor Alexandra Stirling, her status was far lower than Alexander's. She believed Alexander wouldn't have mentioned the Moon Glow to little Elara for no reason.

"I'm afraid it will be difficult." Merlyn sighed. "I suspect Rocky Anastas has already colluded with the Larissa Clan."

Thea was stunned, blinking her eyes after a long while. "Do you mean that even if the Charlotte Witches and the Annel Clan leave as soon as possible, and Rocky Anastas doesn't dare to act boldly out of fear of Alexander, they still won't be able to escape the Larissa Clan's entanglement?" She couldn't help feeling uneasy. "What about us?"

Merlyn fell into deep thought after hearing this, then looked back at Thea. "The Dessey Witches won't meddle in other people's business anymore." Of course, if anyone dared to provoke them, they wouldn't back down—they would fight to the end.

"That's right." Thea's shoulders slumped. "The Charlotte Witches and the Annel Clan have always complained about the West Sea Forest. To put it bluntly, they're just jealous. But who can blame them—their ancestors weren't up to par?"

"Didn't you overlook something else?" Elara had made up her mind to keep going, deciding to wait and see the results before making further plans.

"What?" Neither Thea nor Merlyn disrespected Elara because of her young age.

Elara had just remembered a key point that had been overlooked earlier. "Alexander Stirling's real purpose in coming to Anastas City." She looked up at her mother. "Looking for Austin Corell—does that mean there's some connection between Anastas City and Austin Corell?"

After listening, Merlyn couldn't help but frown deeply. Something flashed through her mind, but it left no trace.

"It might not necessarily be Anastas City itself." Thea looked at Merlyn. "Rodrik Valley to the east of Anastas City, Caesar Plains to the south, Luohe Plain and the West Sea Forest to the west—Austin Corell has set foot in all these places before."

"He has traveled almost all over Mal Continent. Given Alexander's status, Lisandra Stirling wouldn't let him come to Anastas City without any leads." Merlyn thought carefully about the geographical distribution of Anastas City and its surrounding areas.

Caw… caw…

At that moment, Cinderaven, who had been standing quietly in the corner of the long table, suddenly screamed, lost its balance, and fell off. Its wings flapped frantically.

As soon as Elara saw its two black bean eyes bulge, she knew it was having another episode. She quickly pulled a silver needle from her skirt and scrambled under the long table. But before she could squat down, a black blur crashed into her.

She instinctively turned her face to avoid it. With a bang, the black blur hit the front carriage wall, but it didn't faint—it continued to struggle frantically.

"Pfft, pfft." Elara's nose felt itchy, filled with the stench of bird droppings. Even though she had kept her mouth shut, she still felt like she had gotten something unclean on her tongue.

She was definitely going to give Cinderaven a good bath when she had the chance. She reached out and grabbed the black blur that was crashing upward. It was her second time doing this—without hesitation, she pricked it directly on the head with the silver needle. Suddenly, the black crow's head seemed to be pulled upward forcefully. After two seconds, an extremely shrill crow's cry echoed.

Elara immediately let go of her hand, nimbly crawling out from under the long table. There was a clattering sound from under the table. Merlyn, who had been silent, suddenly bent down to check on Cinderaven, who was flailing wildly under the table. She stared closely at it. "I remember something."

"Maybe we're thinking the same thing." Thea sighed helplessly.

Elara waited eagerly, but the two of them didn't continue. "Aren't you going to finish?"

"In her journal, the West Sea Witch Ancestor wrote that if she hadn't lacked Witch Power back then, she would never have sealed one of the Twin Witch's souls in his physical body. Instead, she would have stripped it out and sealed it in a dark spirit using Dark Witchcraft. That way, he would never be able to escape—unless a Witch Progenitor more powerful than her appeared among the Witch Clan."

Merlyn wasn't sure if there was something wrong with this black crow's soul. But the last time it had an episode, she had tried to nourish it with Witch Power, but the Witch Power had scattered as soon as it entered the black crow's body. That meant the black crow was rejecting Dark Witch Power—which shouldn't be possible under normal circumstances.

"Guess who it is?" Thea looked at Elara.

Elara blinked her big eyes. "How would I know? It can't be that remaining soul of the Twin Witch, anyway."

Bang…

The long table shook from the impact. It was a powerful blow. When Elara heard that there was no more movement, she immediately bent down to check. She saw Cinderaven lying on its back, like it was dead, with its claws pointing upward. If it weren't for the light still in its black bean eyes, she would have prepared to mourn it. "What illness does it have, anyway?"

"It's not an illness." Merlyn reached out and picked up the black crow. "It should be the soul struggling against an attempted possessor—its body is still intact."

Could this be how Austin Corell disappeared too? As soon as this thought arose, Merlyn dismissed it. Who among the current Witch Clan could defeat Austin Corell and strip his soul?

In the Rodrik Deep Valley not far from Anastas City, there was a barren Blazing Sun Sinkhole. Because it was covered with poisons, no one had set foot there all year round. But at that moment, an angry old voice came from the bottom of the sinkhole. "Damn it—failed again."

An old witch dressed like an Indian sat cross-legged beside a stone pond filled with mercury. Her cold eyes stared hatefully at a handsome man whose limbs were chained and floating in the center of the stone pond. She had come so close to waking Progenitor Fisher—she had clearly seen his eyelids twitch, but he still hadn't opened his eyes in the end.

“Why?”

After watching for a long time, confirming that Cinderaven had returned to normal, Elara pulled out the silver needle. "I've made up my mind—I'll buy Cinderaven a birdcage later, and melt a silver needle into the bottom of the cage. That way, if it has an episode when I'm not around,…" With the silver needle there, it could just crash into it on its own.

"Good idea." Thea picked up an apple from Elara's treasure chest. "Aren't you curious why the silver needle works on Cinderaven?"

Why would she be curious? Elara put away her silver needle. "Because the silver needle hurts a lot." But after her mother's hint earlier, she couldn't help but suspect that the soul sealed in Cinderaven's body belonged to an Andros.

"Don't talk about it anymore." Merlyn lifted the barrier. "We're here."

"So soon?"

It hadn't even been half an hour since they left the Lord's Mansion. Although she had been mentally prepared, Elara's heart sank when she actually saw their family's shop.

"It hasn't changed at all after all these years." Thea stood at the archway, looking up. The sunlight was so bright it made her squint. Merlyn stepped forward and used Witch Power to open the shop's sealed door.

With a creak, Elara's wandering gaze came to an end. She really wanted to sigh to the sky. "Mother, our shop is on the busiest main street in Anastas City."

“Yes. Is there a problem?" Merlyn stepped into the shop. Thanks to the maintenance of Witch Power, the shop was exactly as it had been when it closed. She touched the counter—there wasn't a trace of dust.

Elara took a deep breath. "No, I just think our family is sitting on a mountain of gold and complaining of poverty." Was being a landlady really that hard, or was gold not tempting enough?

To leave such a shop empty for so many years—looking at the neighboring shops, she had an urge to cover her face. The neighbors were all peeking, probably wanting to see what the wealthy landowner who didn't care about trivial gains looked like.