The Witcher: Start with the Lord Marrying a Wife.

Chapter 552 Exile for a Chance of Survival
"Rift, Flow Interruption, Exile!"

As the power of the incantation surged, a dazzling blue-white beam of light, as if tearing through the void, shot straight into the sky from David's palm, colliding violently with the dark clouds and triggering a thunderous explosion!

The behemoth roared repeatedly, sensing the threat posed by this powerful force, and instinctively brandished its enormous tentacles as it charged toward David.

But the azure dimensional energy formed a huge barrier, killing it halfway through its journey!
The biting cold seemed to penetrate to the bone marrow, yet it could not extinguish the burning determination within the soul!
As the pillar of light continued to expand, a vast rift in spacetime, large enough to swallow the heavens and earth, slowly opened.

Like a black hole, it devours everything around it, yet it possesses a peculiar rotating rhythm, as if gravity is resisting its rotation. After the chaotic and violent convergence of infinite space, a stable channel is formed.

"Entering turbulence!"

David roared, simultaneously manipulating his soul to scatter into countless fragments, driving a thousand puppets at the highest frequency to seal off all directions, preventing the turbulent flow from leaking out and causing even greater destruction to spread to the roots and core area of ​​the sacred tree.

The hundred-meter-long behemoth was instantly swallowed up by the azure turbulent vortex, and it struggled violently but was continuously pulled toward the void abyss.

Before it disappeared, its mournful roar shook the heavens and the earth, and the terrible corrosive aura suddenly dissipated. However, the entire field was rippled by the violent impact, and countless branches and leaves withered and spun away rapidly, as if time had reversed and accelerated its cycle a million times!

Suddenly, a heavy rumbling sound came from where the earth had split open—

Time has sped up.

Amy exclaimed in surprise, cold sweat beading on her forehead, but she gripped her staff firmly with magic. "It's like we've entered a different time flow plane here! The vegetation has grown and withered several times in an instant!"

Zelllos gripped his longsword and looked around: the once tranquil and desolate wilderness had instantly transformed into something unpredictable;
The outlines of distant mountain peaks flickered between light and shadow;

The swirling snowflakes, like uncontrolled, fine grains of sand, rapidly shift and disappear in the air.
Lena murmured to herself, "The price was too high. We used the exile ritual to achieve temporary peace, but this icy world has been completely disrupted by the torrent of time."

David was pale, but he remained steadfast at the front.

He was breathing heavily, and his body trembled slightly with each breath.

He knew how much he had exhausted his mental and physical limits to complete this exile, and he also understood that the harm caused by this tenfold acceleration of the flow of time was no small matter:
The cycle of life has suddenly accelerated, with countless organisms undergoing a continuous compression of the cycle of birth, growth, aging, and even death. This disorder is highly likely to cause the collapse of the ecosystem and pose a side effect threat to the root system of the Star-Eyed Clan's sacred tree!
However, they had no choice but to risk everything to protect the future of their community.
As night fell, heavy snow fell like a raging tide, sweeping across the entire region.

Inside and outside the camp, people knelt or stood, gazing at the distant, ever-changing scene—a dreamlike illusion where the wind whipped the vegetation into rapid growth and decay.

This is a victory, a wake-up call, and a stark reflection of the harsh reality following sacrifices!
Amy gently steadied the swaying altar slab, whispering a blessing for the land, hoping to lessen the harm caused to nature by the disorder of time: "May the holy power protect this place, so that life may continue."

Zellos gazed at the sparsely starry night sky and traced the mark on his chest with his finger: "We have gone through so many hardships, just to hold on to this moment. The future is still full of unknown challenges, but as long as we have hope, we must never back down."

Lena gripped the bloodstained hilt of her twin swords and said resolutely, "Every drop of blood, every sacrifice, will become the most solid foundation for our victory over darkness!"

The wind continued to blow, and a new order, a mixture of silence and desolation, had quietly descended upon this ancient wilderness.

The dawn had not yet completely faded in the frigid world of the far north, and the pale blue morning light, like a thin veil, gently fell upon the ravaged camp.

The air was still bitterly cold, and snowflakes drifted slowly down with the wind, covering the land that had just experienced the tearing of spacetime and the chaotic baptism of the torrent of time.

On the earth, everything seemed to fall silent, but every falling snowflake seemed to carry endless repression and tension, indicating that this battle was far from over.

David stood before the tent, his face pale but his resolve as firm as steel.

His eyes were fixed on the frost golem legion in front of him, which was surrounded by ghostly blue soul fire and still shimmered with a faint light.

This immortal legion, created and controlled by the split of his soul, is like an invisible net, tightly protecting the entire perimeter of the sacred tree.

Despite the recent ecological upheaval caused by the accelerated flow of time, they remain standing.

In this perilous northern wasteland, such protection brings an indescribable sense of security.

Just then, a soft yet mysterious light emanated from the depths of the Star-Eyed Clan's sacred land.

It was the aura emanating from an ancient and mysterious power that made people involuntarily hold their breath and concentrate.

David sensed the message carried by that power: "You need this."

Accompanied by a faint but long chime, an elder of the Star Pupil Clan slowly walked into the tent.

He wore a silver-blue robe symbolizing his noble status, with small runes that appeared and disappeared on his shoulders, seemingly containing the mysteries of the universe.

He held a strange instrument in his hands, a small device with a unique shape, resembling an ancient compass fused with stars.

"Elder David" spoke solemnly, his voice deep and steady, as heavy as a rock striking ice, "This is a Chaos Observation Instrument passed down from the ancestors of the Star-Eyed Clan. We give it to you in the hope that it can help you detect those points where the laws of chaos are hidden beyond the dimensions of space."

The crowd gathered around, observing the object with curiosity and caution.

At the center of the instrument is a huge, crystal-clear eyeball that appears to be immersed in a deep blue liquid. Its structure is exceptionally complex and delicate, with every blood vessel clearly visible. The eyeball itself is the soul eye that was condensed and extracted by generations of sages of the Star Pupil Clan through a special ritual.

This "eye" is no ordinary object; it can look directly into the most obscure and difficult-to-understand dimensional folds in distorted spacetime, revealing information hidden beyond conventional perception.

David took the observation device with both hands. The moment his fingertips touched the surface of the eyeball, he felt a chilling cold and a surge of life force intertwined. That energy seemed to pull his consciousness into an infinite abyss, and then quickly propelled him to a higher level of existence.

His gaze suddenly became deep and unfathomable.

"It is truly a living thing."

Amy exclaimed, taking a few steps closer and carefully observing the shimmering, eerie core. "It seems to be conscious, resonating with our minds."

Zellos frowned and looked at David: "Using this is a big taboo. This kind of thing directly interferes with the core of the laws of space. Once you touch it rashly, it may cause irreversible consequences. Your spirit must be extremely strong, otherwise you will be overwhelmed."

David did not respond immediately; he lowered his head to examine the chaos observer closely. In appearance, it resembled an ancient compass, covered with an intricate metal frame engraved with complex runes and rotating gears. Whenever the environmental energy fluctuated, it would emit a slight humming sound, as if responding to changes in the external environment.

Around the core living eyeball, there are five small crystals embedded, which capture spatial oscillation information at different frequencies and provide real-time feedback to the user.

He took out a small knife he always carried and gently cut his palm, dripping the blood into a groove at the bottom of the observation instrument.

A chill ran through the drop of blood into the device, and the small blade reflected a faint blue fluorescence—the mark of the human soul contract necessary to activate the artifact.

This contract means that the user must bind their mind to the device. During the exploration process, any mental fluctuations will be amplified and fed back to the user's mind, like riding the waves but also potentially falling into the abyss at any time.

"are you ready?"

"Zellos asked, his eyes fixed on the changes in David's facial expression."

"Ready."

Dai Wei said in a deep voice, raising the observation device to his chest and lightly touching the central living eyeball with his fingertip.

A faint silvery-white light burst forth from the core, like the morning sun piercing through thick clouds, casting dappled patterns inside the tent and reflecting the expectant and worried expressions on everyone's faces.

As the activation incantation was slowly chanted, a layer of hazy, transparent ripples spread outwards from the device, as gentle as ripples on the surface of water, yet filled with boundless and unpredictable power.

Invisible lines silently emerged in the air, continuously weaving into a complex network. This was the data mapping image generated by scanning and analyzing the escape points of the chaotic laws.

These escape points are located at the intersection of various spatial fissures, serving as important coordinate systems that harbor enormous risks while also presenting opportunities for breakthroughs.

Suddenly, the buzzing became more rapid!

Several colorful lines spun and jumped rapidly from the outside of the compass, accompanied by irregular flashing pulses, making the originally stable picture dark and shaky.

This means that an extremely dangerous location is undergoing dramatic changes at an alarming rate!

Everyone's breath caught in their throats for a moment. All that could be heard was the howling wind mixed with the cracking sound of ice crystals breaking in the distance, making the atmosphere instantly heavy!

Lena took a deep breath, her grip on the knife tensed, her entire body taut like a beast ready for battle.

"Where is the location? We must act immediately!"

Amy closed her eyes and meditated, using her spiritual power to guide the images to appear clearly.

"It's located near the northern extreme cold zone, connected to the area where the spore mother erupted before. It also seems to be accompanied by the spread of unknown energy ripples."

At this moment, under the light morning mist, countless tiny snowflakes were stirred up and flew up, like silver butterflies fluttering in the sky. But behind each flutter, a violent upheaval was gathering and spreading.
Zellros stood solemnly, pressing the hilt of his sword against his chest: "We cannot sit idly by and wait to die! We must use this artifact to track and deploy defenses in advance, lest we fall into a passive position again!"

Dai Wei looked up at the distant sky, where a vast area filled with purplish-black mist, flickering and constantly writhing and twisting, resembled a black hole swallowing the heavens.

A resolute determination appeared between his brows: "I will use the Chaos Observer to do everything in my power to find every potential danger. We cannot make any more mistakes, and we cannot allow the forces of darkness to erode our homeland again!"

The group exchanged unwavering glances, knowing that the road ahead was fraught with peril, but as long as they held onto hope, there was still a glimmer of light to overcome the darkness!
As the first orange-red dawn broke across the sky, snowflakes on the ground silently melted into water droplets that slid off the branches. Meanwhile, the living, eye-shaped compass continued to emit a ghostly blue phosphorescent glow, isolated from the mundane world and connecting to the void, seemingly becoming an entrance to unknown mysteries.
As night completely receded, a new day officially began.

From this moment on, no matter what storm of despair comes, they will have a sharp blade that can see the truth of chaos—this is the new talisman of the Star-Eyed Warriors, and the only hope to protect the future!
The sky over the frigid world of the far north remained gloomy, with thick clouds pressing down as if they could be reached, and icy winds carrying snow dust and the smell of sulfur raged across the broken wasteland.

The aftershocks of the explosion had not yet completely subsided; smoke and steam swirled in the air, mixed with the pungent smell of burning and corrosive toxic fumes, making breathing increasingly difficult.

The bare earth was covered with scorch marks and cracks, and boulders were shattered and smashed into pieces, everything looked like an apocalyptic ruin.

In the center of the camp, the lights flickered dimly inside a makeshift wartime tent.

Amy lay unconscious on the bed covered with a silver-white robe. Her face was ashen, and fine beads of sweat glistened on her forehead, but her breathing remained weak and unsteady.

A faint chill permeated the air; it was the cool aura emanating from the residual spiritual energy within her body that had frozen her bloodline.

The faint sounds of the soldiers' low, intermittent breathing and the wind and snow beating against the tents could be heard from outside the camp.

David crouched down in front of the bed, veins bulging on his forehead, but his eyes were unwavering.

He held Amy's cold, slender fingers tightly, the touch carrying the chilling essence of everything frozen in the depths of winter—both withered and alive.

He sighed softly, "Amy, you can't just leave like this. We still need you."

Lena stood to the side, her fists clenched tightly against her chest, as hard as solidified rock, her entire body tense. Whenever the shockwaves of an explosion came from outside the tent, she would unconsciously hold her breath.

"We cannot let her die, and we cannot let this disaster continue to spread."

Zelllos's gaze was sharp as he slowly walked toward David: "Time is running out. You have all consumed too much crucial power during this period. I suggest using the Star-Eyed Clan's ancient secret technique, 'Heart's Ice Coffin,' to forcibly awaken Amy. This will come at a huge cost, but it is the only way to temporarily stabilize the situation."

David gazed intently at Zellos's wrinkled yet resolute face. "We must try," he nodded in agreement. "I won't give up on any hope."

Then, everything was ready.

An ancient altar, constructed from the Star-Eyed Clan's mysterious crystal, stood in the center of the tent. Its patterns shimmered with a deep blue and extremely cold power, like a starry river in the night sky frozen in eternity.

The altar was surrounded by runes that vibrated and glowed continuously, creating an atmosphere of oppression and extreme solemnity throughout the space.

Lena carefully lifted Amy and placed her in the center of the altar. Her delicate yet resilient spirit was clearly palpable, and at the same time, she was surrounded by holy light, pulling her back from the murky space to the edge of reality.

(End of this chapter)