Because of the wild wedding banquet on Tuesday night, Xia De actually did almost nothing on Wednesday.
But by Thursday, it was time to continue handling the matters at hand.
After getting up early in the morning, he first used the manuscript pages in his hand to schedule a meeting with Miss Daniste, the librarian, for the evening.
Then, he caught Mia, who was full of energy and wandering around the house after breakfast, and despite the cat's desperate struggles not to go out, he took her with him to Huntington City.
Yesterday, Xia De had already left a message for Sister Devlin in Middlesburg and arranged the specific time to use the magician's escape box.
He arrived at White River Valley Vineyard half an hour before the agreed time of nine o'clock.
To prevent the ancient god statue from affecting the 'escape ritual', he specifically left the wine cellar and set up the ritual in the vineyard's house.
The servants who stayed at the vineyard in winter were not qualified to use the house, so there was a lot of space here.
The old Vampire responsible for guarding the warehouse in winter, although he didn't know what Xia De was going to do, still cooperated and provided him with help.
Tobesk's first snow had already arrived, while Huntington City was still waiting in early winter.
Mia, who had come to Huntington for the first time, was clearly not interested in this strange place.
However, the cats kept at White River Valley Vineyard to catch mice quickly annoyed her.
After discovering that they had 'ill intentions' towards Xia De, the small orange cat bristled and 'roared' for a long time, scaring the three Carson Rick native cats, which were at least three times her size, into fleeing.
Xia De still doesn't understand why Mia has such a powerful deterrent effect on her own kind.
At nine o'clock, as the ritual base, which was completely different from contemporary mysticism rituals and should have been useless, glowed on the ground, Sister Devlin, with her head bowed and hands clasped, appeared in the light.
Using the relic, the magician's escape box, should have caused a slight sensation of being pierced by a sharp blade, but the Sister's expression remained unchanged.
When she 'saw' Xia De holding the cat, she merely greeted him softly, as if she hadn't traveled a thousand miles, but had just dropped by a neighbor's house.
After erasing the ritual base on the ground, Xia De led the Sister into the space behind the hidden wall in the underground wine cellar of White River Valley Vineyard and touched the ancient god statue to establish a waypoint.
Because the Sister had already touched the statue in the ruined tower in Sicar Mountain a while ago, she officially established the Middlesburg-Huntington teleportation channel.
After fetching horses from the stable, Xia De and Sister Devlin each rode a horse and set off.
Although a blind person riding a horse sounds dangerous, Sister Devlin, who still wore an eye patch, was indeed riding a horse.
They did not enter the City but went straight from White River Valley Vineyard, located on the Great Plain in the eastern part of the City, to the western part of the City.
Xia De was originally worried that Sister Devlin was not good at riding horses, but the blind Sister displayed astonishing horsemanship, even making Xia De wonder if people in this world learned 'horsemanship' as a basic course, like literacy.
It was a bit cloudy in Huntington today, but it didn't hinder them from enjoying the scenery of the distant suburbs of this wine City along the way.
When they approached Lake Carick, marked on the map as west of Huntington, Xia De signaled to Sister Devlin that they could stop:
"Sister, the hint the Lake Goddess gave me is to bring a sufficiently intelligent animal, and it can guide us.
So I chose this place.
Let's walk around here for a bit and try to forget our original purpose.
Mia will probably lead the way very soon."
The main reason was that there were no villages or towns nearby, so Sister Devlin's peculiar attire wouldn't attract attention.
"Meow?"
Hearing her name mentioned, the cat, sprawled on the horse's head, glanced at Xia De.
It sounds ridiculous, but after Xia De dismounted, he originally put Mia on the saddle, but the cat probably felt that the view from the saddle wasn't good, or simply thought it wasn't high enough, so she climbed onto the horse's head herself.
And that black horse wasn't angry at all; it gently carried Mia on its head, making the cat look like a cat-shaped 'horse controller'.
Sister Devlin walked beside Xia De, leading her horse, and the two walked along the country road by the lake.
The temperature in the early winter morning was not particularly low, but near the lake, one could still feel the biting wind.
In recent weeks, the temperature had been dropping daily.
At this time, the lake had not yet frozen, but no fishermen could be seen nearby either.
One side of the country road was the Great Lake, the other side was barren land with no discernible use, and in the distance, a patch of withered trees could be seen, which also looked like a purchased orchard nearby.
The two walked and chatted.
Xia De spoke about the discovery concerning the fourth Chosen One in Tobesk, informing the Sister about the clues of the Keeper and the wise man's stone.
He also asked the Sister how she planned to deal with the Pantanal Evil.
This was a rare existence that could be burned by the First Fire as fuel, and the Sister would not let it go.
"Although I am a High-Ring Sorcerer and a Chosen One, I am still somewhat lacking compared to the mysterious Pantanal region.
The Spiritual Cultivation Order is in the process of acquiring a private hospital in Huntington City, developing it into a church property, and then dispatching Sisters from the Order to reside locally and conduct investigations.
After one to two months of intelligence gathering, I will seek help from the Witch Council and go deep into the Great Swamp with the Great Witch of the Council to find the sealing place of the evil."
Although this method was time-consuming, it was indeed very cautious and appropriate.
After Xia De expressed his appreciation, the Sister turned her head to 'gaze' westward, which was the true location of the Pantanal Great Swamp:
"The Spiritual Cultivation Order believes that all things have spirits.
The blind Sisters of the Order can perceive the world keenly.
The Pantanal Great Swamp is not as simple as we think.
Even though I have not yet ventured deep into that area, I can still feel those terrifying presences."
Although Sister Devlin used delarion, it was in an ancient grammar, so even if Xia De understood it, he had to think for a while to comprehend it:
"Do you mean that the Pantanal region is as dangerous as Sicar Mountain was a while ago?"
"No."
The Sister shook her head slightly, and Xia De's gaze lingered on her silver-gray hair for a moment.
"It's much more dangerous than Sicar Mountain."
"Ha~"
Xia De sighed, but he wasn't surprised at all.
Not only was he not surprised, but he wasn't worried in the slightest; no matter how dangerous the Pantanal Great Swamp was, it had nothing to do with him.
Although Huntington City was on the edge of the Great Swamp, it wasn't actually in the Great Swamp area.
The two walked and chatted, and time passed quickly.
Xia De and the Sister led their horses, the winter wind of the countryside blowing through their clothes; the horses carried Mia, who squatted on the horse's head, looking around.
Her cat eyes observed the unfamiliar scenery, her fur flattened by the wind, and she seemed to enjoy the sensation of the breeze.
At 10:43 AM, when Xia De asked Sister Devlin about her understanding of the Truth Society, the cat suddenly turned her head to look at the distant, silent lake, then, as if she had discovered something, she let out a soft meow:
"Meow~"
Her voice was not very noticeable outdoors.
Xia De initially didn't hear it, only noticing the cat's abnormality after 'her' reminder.
"What's wrong?"
Xia De immediately looked at the cat expectantly, reaching out to pick her up from the horse's head, but to his surprise, Mia actually jumped onto the horse's back herself, and then onto the ground.
Xia De was stunned at the time; ever since he had Mia guard Grace and Helen during the Battle of Middlesburg, he had never seen the cat's four small paws touch the outdoor ground again.
The orange and white kitten raised her head, wiggling her pink nose, sniffing the air vigorously, then looked back at Xia De, and then walked towards the river.
Xia De and Sister Devlin then led their horses and followed her down the riverbank slope, finding that the cat went almost directly to the shore of Lake Carick.
The natural lakes in this wetland area were surrounded by muddy ground, and the cat, who was always so clean, actually stepped directly onto it, but no paw prints were left on the mud.
Just as Xia De began to doubt whether the cat was normal again, he noticed that he and Sister Devlin, and even the two horses, also left no footprints on the muddy surface.
The cat continued further into the lake shore, eventually entering the lake.
But she didn't go into the water; instead, as if she had learned 'walking on water,' she stood on the surface of the lake and looked back, signaling Xia De to follow.
There wasn't a single ripple on the lake surface beneath the cat's paws, and the orange cat looked very energetic, constantly looking back, as if scolding Xia De for walking too slowly.
"Yes, Miracle element!"
"There is a hidden path ahead."
'She' said, laughing, into Xia De's ear.
Xia De tried to extend his foot onto the water as well and indeed found that there was an invisible, solid path above the rippling waves.
However, he wasn't sure how wide the path on the water was, or if he and the Sister could walk side by side.
Sister Devlin, as a knowledgeable High-Ring Sorcerer, naturally knew how to handle the current situation.
With a flick of her slender fingers, several stones emitting different lights irregularly dropped onto the water.
Most of them fell into the water, while the few that 'floated' on the surface marked the location of the hidden path.
"Curse - Luminous Stone.
Creates non-physical luminous stones that can be sustained for a long time by expending extra spirit during casting.
The caster can determine whether a target luminous stone was created by themselves.
In night expeditions and ancient tomb excavations, it is often used to mark paths and determine height, and sometimes also serves as weak light illumination."
Sister Devlin noticed Xia De's surprise and explained softly.
This should also be a basic curse, but unfortunately, Xia De's pink book didn't have this type of curse.
Although the list of basic curses in the pink book given by desire was quite long, it was more inclined towards... practicality.
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