Miss Samuel spread a blanket by the bonfire. After Xia De carefully set Miss Olanorde down, he asked about the stone platform with five indentations that had appeared there.
"Yes, this is the altar that seals the book of nameless sacrifices. After you left, Blainey and I found a way to move it here."
The stone altar was about half a person tall, shaped somewhat like the courtyard fountain Xia De had seen at Miss Jialinna's estate.
Around the circular altar were five equally spaced indentations, and in the very center of the altar was a raised square stone block. The book of nameless sacrifices should be inside it.
Miss Samuel handed the bottle containing the kindling to Xia De, then reached into her robe and gave him the relic, the Corpse of the Sun Worm, seemingly treating it as a hot water bottle.
But Xia De didn't immediately retrieve the five items he had prepared. Instead, he rummaged in his pocket for Mia's doll, then used a handkerchief to restore her to a real cat:
"Meow!"
The cat, crouching in Xia De's palm, tilted her head, basking in the firelight, and let out a gentle meow, then curiously widened her amber eyes to look around.
This truly made Xia De breathe a sigh of relief. He had risked bringing Mia into the land of death. Although Mia was in toy form, Xia De had always worried that the cat would be affected. Now it seemed his worries were unnecessary.
Carefully placing Mia on the ground, the timid cat indeed didn't dare to run around. Instead, she lay beside Xia De's leg, observing everything around her with some timidity.
Miss Samuel was also mentally healed by the appearance of this cute little creature, and she smiled and said softly:
"Is this your pet cat? Most Witches in the Society keep pets, but we prefer magical creatures that can be used as combat pets, or birds like Owls that can deliver messages. However, this cat is so cute, she's definitely more popular than those practical pets."
She reached out to pet Mia, but was dodged by the somewhat startled orange cat.
"She's not quite my cat yet, but I'm trying to claim her."
Xia De said with a smile. Seeing Mia, his heavy mood also improved a little.
Mia, the orange cat, who was probably less than a year old, was usually very afraid of unfamiliar environments, but then would show the curiosity characteristic of cats. After realizing that the only stranger here was the woman wearing glasses, she shifted her attention to the two items in front of Xia De: the Corpse of the Sun Worm and the glass bottle containing the kindling.
She stretched out a paw, wanting to grab something, but Xia De mistakenly thought the cat wanted to touch the bonfire, so he quickly picked her up with one hand.
"Miss Samuel, do you think this cat has any problems?"
Amidst "her" laughter, Xia De asked this question again.
The Witch of Zaras chuckled:
"What, do you also, like a few Witches of our epoch, believe that your pet cat will one day turn into a pretty girl? That kind of thinking won't do. Without a potion or special relic, a cat is just a cat."
Although she asked this, she still adjusted her breathing and then gently sprinkled some grey light points on the cat Xia De was holding. The light points also touched Xia De's arm, but since they were not solid, there was no tactile sensation.
"A completely normal pet cat."
"That's good. Let's get back to business. We need five items. I collected some after I left."
He started pulling things out of his pocket:
"This will definitely work."
The sun holy emblem brooch made by Iluna was placed together with the two items prepared by the Witches.
"Then there are these five. We can try them one by one."
The five items were: a "parchment engraved with sun runes" and an "antique badge that can slightly enhance sun power" purchased from Mr. Edmund; a "heating pebble" and a "broken sword suspected to be a Sun Knight's sword" gifted by Miss Jialinna; and a "ruby with naturally formed sun-patterned flaws" obtained from Old John.
The ruby was the most expensive, and Miss Jialinna didn't charge Xia De for her two items.
He didn't have much time and didn't delay further. He stood up and took these items to the altar. Although Miss Samuel was not in good condition, she still tried to stand up and followed behind Xia De.
Xia De first put the bottle containing the kindling and the relic into two of the indentations on the altar. As the items were placed, dense warm yellow lines spread from the circular indentations towards the square stone box in the center of the altar. Upon closer inspection, they were actually two-fifths of the sun pattern.
"Meow!"
Mia seemed particularly excited and wanted to break free from Xia De's embrace, but Xia De held her tightly.
"See, Blainey and I were right after all."
Miss Samuel said.
"And then..."
The brooch made by Iluna was placed into the third indentation. More dense patterns covered the surface of the stone altar in front of them, and Xia De's guess was also correct:
"Then it's two out of five. I hope my luck isn't that bad."
Xia De said softly, first stuffing the ruby into the indentation, which had no effect. Then the heating pebble and the broken sword, neither of which had any effect.
He immediately became nervous, and the Witch behind him was the same.
Gu Zang
"Miss Samuel, you place the next one. I think my luck might be a bit bad."
"Is this some ridiculous superstition?"
The Witch asked, but still picked up the scroll of parchment from the New World in the sixth epoch and placed it in the indentation. Warm yellow patterns slowly spread from around the indentation towards the center of the altar, making the sun patterns on the surface more obvious.
"You see, your luck is better after all."
Xia De breathed a sigh of relief. The Witch then picked up the last badge and placed it in the last indentation. Both of them watched, but there was no effect. Even though neither of them spoke for a full ten seconds, nothing happened.
"Fortunately, there's a backup plan. Xia De, summon that God. Use my power to form a book."
Miss Samuel stumbled, wanting to sit back by the bonfire. Xia De worried she would fall and quickly reached out to support her, which also gave Mia a chance to jump out of Xia De's arm's restraint.
"Miss Samuel, we can try to think of other ways. If the last wish is used here, how will you leave Dead Silence Valley?"
He supported the seemingly frail High-Ring Witch. This scholar from the Zaras Society said softly with a helpless expression:
"But do we have any other options? If we can't open the seal and get the book of nameless sacrifices, the God won't allow us to make a wish to leave."
"Let's think of other ways. Maybe you have other..."
A burst of warm yellow light appeared behind Xia De, a light that instantly overshadowed the bonfire's glow. Warm, sacred—Xia De couldn't find more precise words to describe the light behind him, but he truly felt for a moment that what was behind him was the sun.
Turning around, the complete sun pattern had already appeared on the altar's surface. As the light subsided, cracks appeared on the surface of the stone box in the center of the altar. Finally, the square stone box completely split open, revealing the stone tablet inside.
Even without getting closer, he could see Mia quietly squatting in the last indentation, her back to Xia De and the Witch, looking at the stone tablet in the center of the altar.
Xia De couldn't see the cat's front, only the fur on her back and the short tail dangling from the edge of the altar.
"This..."
Before Xia De could approach again, Mia ran towards the stone tablet with her short legs. She wiggled her nose and sniffed, then lifted a paw and stepped onto it, finally sitting down. Xia De was very familiar with this posture; she always lay down like this when she was about to sleep.
"What's going on? How is my cat..."
Xia De couldn't understand at all, looking at the cat in surprise. Then he looked at Miss Samuel, who asked softly:
"Has this cat ever shown extraordinary power?"
Xia De thought for a moment:
"Aside from being unusually intelligent, she isn't special."
Except for absorbing a trace of divine power, but the divinity Xia De used at that time came from the Blood Feast Lord. That God had no connection to the "sun" whatsoever. In fact, not a single drop of the divinity Xia De had absorbed so far was related to the sun.
"Has she shown any abnormalities? For example, occasionally disappearing for a period of time, or using a potion related to the sun?"
Miss Samuel asked again.
"At least while I've adopted her, no. This cat is even a bit timid and very unwilling to go out with me. As for before I adopted her, her owner, Miss Mia Gaode, was an ordinary girl who went back to the countryside to inherit her ancestors' legacy."
Miss Samuel nodded:
"Then there's only one possibility..."
Xia De looked at her expectantly.
"Your cat has a special bloodline, a bloodline related to the sun, and a very noble bloodline."
Xia De was greatly disappointed. Miss Jialinna had said this conclusion, and even Luvia had said it. They all believed that Mia's high intelligence came from a special bloodline of an unknown ancestor. Perhaps her paternal and maternal lines hadn't expressed this specialness, but by Mia's generation, the bloodline suddenly became dominant.
This was not impossible; Success Higher Medical College had corresponding research.
【So, why do you expect this cat to have other special qualities?】
The voice in his ear also sounded at this moment. Xia De couldn't give an answer, so he didn't reply:
"I'll investigate this cat's matter slowly later. Let's quickly give this to the Old Sage in Grey Robes."
Xia De said, reaching out to pick Mia up from the stone tablet and then take the tablet. But unexpectedly, the cat uncharacteristically resisted Xia De, clinging to the stone tablet and refusing to move, which reminded Xia De of the scene of a hen brooding that he had seen in the countryside of Middlesburg.
After a long while, Mia reluctantly stood up, brushed the surface of the stone tablet with her tail, and then jumped into Xia De's hand. Whether it was an illusion or not, Xia De thought that the orange part of the cat's fur had become shinier than before.
Xia De reached out and squeezed the cat in his arms, first her ears, then her belly, then her paws, then her tail, and then he got a claw from Mia. He had hoped that he could squeeze out some new clues about this cat from Mia, but Mia probably didn't have the characteristic of dropping small notes with a squeeze.
He reached out and took the stone tablet, and the altar immediately collapsed. The stone material scattered into a pile of dust, and the three items that were originally in the indentations, except for the relic, the Corpse of the Sun Worm, all turned into dust as well.
Xia De once again painfully lost the brooch made by Iluna.
