My physics masters couldn't possibly be grand mages.

For a moment, Xia felt his consciousness waver.

His gaze began to focus.

The warm yellow glow of the fireplace vanished. In its place came a cold, white light, seeping from the leaden clouds.

Like a giant shroud.

What flooded my nostrils was no longer the clear, warm breeze from the valley, carrying the scent of firewood, but a damp, cold, sticky smell mixed with rust and decay.

The gravel crunched softly on the soles of my boots. On either side lay collapsed buildings, twisted steel bars jutting out of the concrete like the ribs of a dead giant.

Then, he met Cindy's surprised and uncertain eyes.

"Hello there."

As soon as Xia finished speaking, he felt a powerful force pull him towards him.

His neck was gripped tightly by Cindy, the air stuck in his throat, unable to come up or go down.

He suppressed the urge to activate the teleportation. Xia knew that he needed to obtain some information from the being before him.

Cindy tilted her head slightly and moved closer. Her dark red eyes resembled two blood moons.

"I'm asking you."

Her voice was soft, even gentle.

"Where am I?"

Char raised his hand with some difficulty and patted her palm, then made a guttural "hoho" sound.

Cindy raised her head slightly, but still let go of his hand.

"He-"

Xia Ya greedily inhaled the slightly sticky air around him, and the flush on his face quickly subsided, replaced by a look of relief at surviving a disaster.

He slowly raised his head.

The All-Seeing Eye activated at this moment, revealing this information about Cindy.

However, unlike the information about Einstein and Tesla, there is a great deal of information about Cindy, which is clearly within the scope of the database possessed by the All-Knowing Eye.

Cindy Vilvia.

Rank: Sixth rank.

Identity: Witch (a human who made a pact with a demon god)

Hint 1: A witch's magic and abilities all originate from the demons she contracts with. By understanding her contract partners, you can learn about the characteristics of her abilities.

Tip 2: Making a pact with a demon comes at a price. The pact itself is unequal. The demon grants power, and the witch pays the price.

However, there is a problem: the cost is often "persistent".

Without an "anchor," such a continuous cost would cause the witch to quickly collapse or lose control, thus violating the original intention of the contract.

Under normal circumstances, witches possess a kind of "associated artifact" used to "mitigate" or "counteract" the cost.

The vast majority of these forbidden artifacts are made by demons, because demons need them as their agents in the mortal world. At the same time, in order to ensure that witches do not "go out of control" or "break their promises," they deliberately seal a portion of their power/weakness in the forbidden artifacts.

In rare cases, the witches may create the items, or they may be created by other, more powerful third parties.

"Speak." Cindy's voice continued, and the unintentional killing intent it revealed made Xia's hair stand on end.

"As you can see," Xia said, looking around. "This is another world. You should know that the people of your world couldn't build a structure like this."

Cindy's gaze swept around. Although most of the buildings were damaged, their outlines still revealed the city's former glory.

"You've been exiled." Xia slowly straightened up and straightened his disheveled collar.

He looked at Cindy, trying his best to suppress the fear in his heart.

"By my teacher, Albert Einstein."

Cindy's face showed no obvious change in expression. But her dark red eyes narrowed slightly.

Her fingers curled at her sides, then relaxed, as if pressing down on something churning.

"Einstein," Cindy repeated, as if trying to remember the name.

"Go on," she said. Her tone was as flat as still water, but her eyes never left Xia's throat.

Suppressing the chill rising in his heart, Xia tried his best to make his voice sound calm: "Besides my teacher, the only person in this world who can take you away from here is me."

He paused, then continued, "My teacher gave me a task, which is like an exam for me. If you help me complete the task, I can help you get out of here."

silence.

Cindy stared at him for several seconds, then smiled. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, revealing the tips of her sharp teeth. Her dark red eyes held no smile, only a cold, predatory glint.

"Help you?" she said. "Where do you get your confidence from?"

Her tone wasn't harsh; it carried a disdainful nonchalance.

"Even if I'm no match for your teacher..." She tilted her head slightly, "believe it or not, I can still make him pay the price."

Xia Ya didn't back down an inch. He continued, "He's been watching this place the whole time."

As she finished speaking, Cindy's eyelashes trembled slightly, and then she slowly grinned, revealing her full set of fangs.

"Is that so... So... if I kill you, your teacher will appear?"

Char's Adam's apple bobbed slightly, his heart pounding, but he suppressed his fear and continued.

Don't you want to leave here?

"You think I can just leave whenever I want?" Cindy looked at him with a "Do you think I'm stupid?" look. "Did you go through all the trouble of exiling me to this world just so I could come here for a trip?"

She seemed to have finally made a decision and taken a step forward.

Just this one step. Xia felt the air around him grow heavier, as if an invisible hand was gripping his lungs.

The next instant, a surging, almost tangible killing intent enveloped him.

Dark red eyes trailed two piercing streaks of light in mid-air; pale fingers spread open, the fingernails gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen under the pale sunlight.

Char's pupils suddenly contracted.

She really dared to take action.

She wasn't afraid of Einstein. Why?

The moment this thought exploded in his mind, he activated time travel.

-

The warm glow of the fireplace enveloped him once more. The firewood crackled in the hearth, Einstein sat opposite him with a coffee cup in hand, and Tesla leaned against the window.

Char gasped for breath, the icy, almost tangible feeling of suffocation still lingering on his neck.

"Back?" Einstein put down his cup, his grey-blue eyes sweeping across his face. "She made her move?"

Xia shook his head, then nodded. "Almost."

He pressed his hand to his neck, remaining silent as fragmented information swirled in his mind.

In the eyes of Einstein and Tesla, Cindy's exile to this world had already proven the power of Einstein as a "grand mage".

Cindy then only has a few choices: either cooperate with Char and there might still be a chance to leave this world, or be permanently exiled to this world, or... be completely eliminated by Einstein.

But judging from her appearance, it seems she's trying to do something like this....

Kill Char, and then lure Einstein into fighting her.

Where does her confidence come from?

Logically, she should be bluffing.

But for some reason, at that moment, a deep unease welled up in his heart, so he activated the teleportation.

He always felt that he seemed to have some information gaps.

A deadly information gap...

Otherwise, she should have known that such bluffing was meaningless to Xia.

Char recalled the information he had just seen from the All-Knowing Eye.

Her abilities are similar to those of the demon she is contracted with.

So who is the person she has a contract with?

Cain... or Lilith?

If it's Cain, what's Cain's story again?

He was a patricide, the ancestor of all evil people in the world. He was one of the first two sons born to Adam and his wife Eve.

According to Genesis, Cain murdered his brother Abel in the field out of jealousy that Abel's sacrifices were more favored by God. Although God postponed Cain's punishment and banished him to the land of Nod in the eastern part of Eden, Cain was still uneasy, fearing that his family members would seek revenge in the future.

God once again showed mercy, declaring, "The one who kills Cain will suffer sevenfold retribution," and bestowed upon Cain a mark of protection.

and many more.

Killing Cain will bring sevenfold retribution!

A fleeting glint of light flashed in Xia's eyes.