The passage to the seal is in the cave under the cliff, but not everyone has to go in; some people must be left outside to wait and prevent attacks from the rear.
Miss Aurora and Grandma Cassandra must go in, as only they understand the seals left by the Witch Emperors.
Of the remaining people, two High-Ring Sorceresses and four Middle-Ring Sorceresses stayed outside, and Xia De also stayed outside.
This was his own request, as he didn't understand the Witches' power.
Since there was time and the nearby evil spirits had been cleared, he decided to collect some corpse grass, mandrake, and black resentful woman flowers that Corpus wanted to acquire.
Compared to the route Xia De took when he entered the city in the Gap last time, such plants are more common in the mountains.
If the Gap wasn't so dangerous, this place would be full of pounds.
So, the group temporarily split, and the Great Witches led most of the people into the cave under the cliff.
The six Sorceresses who remained on the cliff were all Grandma Cassandra's followers, and naturally, they all knew about Xia De.
When Xia De said he was going to look around nearby, the brown-haired Middle-aged Eight-Ring Warlock immediately offered to go with him.
"No need, I'm just going to collect some plants."
Xia De shook the sword in his hand:
"I won't go too far. If there's danger, I can escape on my own."
Given Xia De's performance on the way, they didn't stop him.
The quantity of the three materials Corpus acquired was enormous; just the corpse grass alone was 200 pounds (about 90.72 kg).
Xia De's Toy Making actually had an effect on spellcasting materials, but the effect was very poor.
He collected some corpse grass and tried it, finding that he could turn them into toys, but the spellcasting consumed a lot of Ling, three times that of ordinary matter of the same volume.
And the mandrake, for which Corpus offered a higher price, consumed even more to turn into small toys.
The black resentful woman flower, at 20 pounds a bloom, could only be turned from a plant into a toy of the same volume, unable to even shrink.
"Although the resentful woman flower is large, one bloom is two Mias.
Corpse grass costs 3 pounds 7 shillings per pound, and mandrake costs 13 pounds 15 shillings 5 pence per pound.
Even if they are turned into the lightest plush toys, their weight is still astonishing. Hmm."
He brought the god's gift box specifically for holding plants.
Besides weekly gifts and containing relics, this box could also preserve plants.
This was not a remarkable feature, as most container-type relics had similar effects.
According to research, this was due to the influence of the whisper element.
"Collect more resentful woman flowers, and a bit less corpse grass."
Having decided on the plan, he left the bare cliff and entered the forest alone.
The black forest was exceptionally terrifying; the scorched trees and gray vines were like strange plants that could only appear after the end of the world.
The power of death eroded everything around, and even though he had barely adapted to the place, Xia De still felt uncomfortable all over.
"I wonder what the situation is like inside the boundary of my home.
I must hold a ritual to seal it tonight!"
To prevent any accidents, Xia De cautiously did not go too far.
It took him an hour to fill the god's gift box he was carrying.
Although this had not reached Corpus's acquisition limit, Xia De understood the wisdom of knowing when to be content, so he turned back to the cliff.
The six Sorceresses were still waiting there, and seeing Xia De return safely, they relaxed.
Miss Aurora and Grandma Cassandra's group had not yet returned.
Xia De and the Sorceresses waited for another hour, and seeing no movement, he suggested going down to check.
No one here could restrict his freedom, so despite some objections, Xia De eventually left.
The Outsider currently could not fly and could only climb down the black cliff using a rope.
The entrance that required parchment to open in the material world needed the special power of a Witch in the Gap.
So, Xia De illuminated it with The Witch's Light Ling Rune and saw the pitch-black cave entrance.
The cliff cave in reality was already very dark and terrifying, but this passage in the Gap seemed to lead directly to the bottom of a bottomless abyss.
This passage had power imposed by the Witch Emperor of the fifth epoch, making it impossible to generate any light to illuminate what was ahead.
Even Xia De's Light Spell could only produce a tiny speck of light.
Fortunately, after his actions in the Darkness Domain, he possessed a certain degree of dark vision, and the thick fog outside was not present here, so there was no need to worry about falling in this passage.
The further he walked inward, the more he could feel the howling wind blowing from ahead.
Upon first entering the passage, the wind only brought a slight chill, but continuing further, the aura of death cut at his skin like a knife.
It took a full twenty minutes to leave the passage and arrive at a platform on one side of the large cave in the mountain's belly.
In reality, an Balrog was once sealed here, and the bridge connecting the two platforms was broken.
But here, a bridge constructed from stark white bones connected both sides of the large cave.
Those white bones seemed to float in the air; at least, with Xia De's understanding of mechanics, it was impossible to analyze their stress from a purely materialistic perspective.
Whether by coincidence or not, there was also a bonfire in front of the bridge, corresponding to the Balrog's seal in reality.
But upon closer inspection, it was discovered that this bonfire had only just been lit, likely left by Miss Aurora's group.
The bonfire was still strong, and approaching it, one could feel warmth; even his stamina and Ling, which had almost completely stopped recovering, slowly recovered under the firelight.
"They were indeed well-prepared."
After a short rest, Xia De bypassed the bonfire and stepped onto the bone bridge.
He lightly stepped on it, and immediately felt the entire bridge swaying.
Then, a sudden, bizarre sense of dizziness made Xia De almost lose his Balance and fall to the side:
"Oh."
He covered his head, feeling only the sky and ground spinning, but he himself was not spinning.
【There is a cursed power on this bridge.】
"This kind of simple curse that makes people lose their Balance is truly malicious in this kind of setting."
Just thinking about how deep the abyss beneath the bridge was made Xia De's back break out in a cold sweat.
When he had barely recovered a bit, he took out the weathervane bluegrass extract and dabbed it on his tongue, intending to use Raglai's Leap to cross the bridge in dozens of steps.
But this Miracle failed; this strange bone bridge actually prohibited spatial movement, an effect very similar to Xia De's Space Stabilization Aura.
"Although extravagant and dissolute, the Witch Emperor is indeed a Witch Emperor."
He could only brave the howling black wind and continue forward, each step filled with trepidation.
And before the dizziness ended, another anomaly occurred on the bridge.
A viscous and strange liquid seeped onto the bridge surface from beneath the bridge, through the Gaps in the bones.
Those amorphous, strange liquids were like some peculiar creatures, and accompanied by whisper element, they gathered together, forming a constantly shaking, human-sized, bizarre shape.
The appearance of this monster was especially terrifying; on the surface of its writhing body, small fleshy buds constantly trembled.
And between the fleshy buds, white particles, like acne, continuously grew, burst, and then grew again.
The severe dizziness combined with the appearance of this thing made it difficult for Xia De to suppress the urge to vomit:
"A humanoid relic? What the hell is this."
His right hand lightly swiped through the air, and a dazzling streak of light flew silently forward, parallel to the bridge surface, successfully cutting the liquid creature's body.
But this was completely useless; the opponent's body could deform and combine at will, and an extra wound was no problem for it.
"How did Miss Aurora and the others get across just now?"
He raised the Night Watchman in his hand, but immediately lowered it.
The wriggling oddity now slowly walked towards Xia De, swaying its body, its slippery sound particularly noticeable in the extremely quiet large cave within the mountain.
Xia De could even imagine that once they engaged in close combat, the opponent would attach its slime to him, until it completely "swallowed" him into its body.
"How could the Witch Emperors use such weapons? I always thought they only liked pretty and expensive things."
He carefully stepped back one step, pointing his finger forward:
"Felianna's Witch Light."
The power belonging to a Witch bloomed at his fingertips.
In the golden light, the liquid monster's footsteps suddenly stopped, and its body surface slowly melted.
But judging from the melting speed, even if Xia De exhausted all his Ling, he wouldn't be able to eliminate the opponent.
A rattling sound echoed on the bridge surface, and the pitch-black Great Sin Chains surged from Xia De's sleeve, then easily bound the enemy's ankles, or rather, were actively absorbed into its body.
The power of sin contaminated those liquids, but most crucially, the Great Sin Chains' binding effect began to take hold.
Although the Great Sin Chains' effect on relics was not strong, it did indeed make the opponent temporarily unable to move.
Throwing the frog leg off the bridge, Xia De bent slightly, ran a few steps forward, and then jumped up sharply:
"Ha!"
Excellent physical fitness combined with the power of the spell allowed him to leap over the liquid monster's head.
Maintaining the effect of the chains, he seized the time to run to the other side of the bridge.
The bridge surface shook violently with his footsteps, and when Xia De finally managed to step off the bridge and onto the platform on the other side of the great cave, the dizziness almost immediately disappeared.
Looking back again, the end of the Great Sin Chains lay on the bridge surface, and there was no trace of the terrifying monster from just now on the bridge surface.
"An illusion?"
【It's not an illusion; the traces of abnormal whisper element have not disappeared.】
"That's truly impressive."
Leaving the bridge surface, the light that had been suppressed since entering the mountain's belly finally returned to normal.
The silver moon's light scattered all around, and Xia De's fingers waved left and right, discovering a stone tablet on one side of the cave entrance as he continued inward.
Approaching to observe, the inscription was written in the language of the fifth epoch, likely left by that ruler of Witten, Witch Emperor Violet Marshall:
【Dead end ahead.】
PS: With the help of the operations officer, I found a true big shot for mutual promotion.
