Witch Redemption

As if having a casual chat, the middle-aged fat man approached the witch who was cowering in fear in the corner, and suddenly grabbed her messy brown hair. The moment the girl tried to struggle and her carotid artery was exposed, his fat right hand burst out with a speed that was not commensurate with his fat pig status.

The silver-white dagger mercilessly cleaved the artery, and the gushing blood stained the dirty ground red. This middle-aged fat man, with his smooth and effortless movements, was no different from slaughtering a chicken.

They let this guy, whose life force was constantly draining away, lie on the ground groaning and making his last dying struggle.

The many followers outside the cage looked at each other in bewilderment. They only knew that this bishop had a penchant for torture and killing. The informant from the orcish duchy had already instructed them to give this witch a quick death. But now, seeing the bishop's enthusiastic appearance, they dared not utter a word of advice and ended up not daring to say a word.

"It hurts...it hurts so much...what did I do wrong? Why are you doing this to me?!"

When I opened my eyes, I found myself transported to a bizarre new world, reduced to a slave who was arbitrarily bullied by orcs, and struggling every day to survive.

However, fate played an incredibly cruel joke on her.

Every day she watched her comrades die one by one, and as she grew stronger, she was met with even more terrifying suppression. In the end, the butcher's knife of death finally fell upon her head.

The individual's will, desire to survive, and struggle on the verge of death were all ruthlessly shattered by this world, leaving only an unspeakable rage and even resentment!

"Am I going to die? Why must I die like this? Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all—"

"Damn orcs! Damn humans! I curse you to a horrible death!"

...... ...... ......

In an instant, the witch's memories before her death flashed through Li Lan's mind as an illusion.

Immediately afterwards, the "Book of Dark Fusion" erupted with an unimaginably vast resentment, which suddenly transformed into a half-illusory, half-solid form in front of him and rushed straight at him!

"Oops!"

Caught off guard, Li Lan was horrified to find himself completely unable to move, as if he had been nailed to the spot. A feeling similar to "sleep paralysis" left him only able to watch in horror as the resentful ghostly figure lunged at him, its dark, deep mouth opening wide, about to devour him completely.

At that moment, a pair of small hands, exerting all their strength, suddenly grabbed Li Lan's left arm and pulled her behind her back without regard for anything else.

As the fingers of his right hand detached from the sealed object, the ever-expanding ghostly shadow finally dissipated into green smoke less than a few centimeters from Li Lan's face, as if nothing had ever happened. However, the cold sweat that kept pouring out soaked Li Lan's cheeks and back.

The feeling of surviving a disaster!

It was only at this moment that he vaguely guessed that once a witch's grimoire mutated into a sealed object, it absolutely could not be touched by other witches. Perhaps the stronger the sealed object, the stronger the resentment it represented. This resentment might not be able to harm the natives of this world, but killing its own kind would be a piece of cake.

In other words, this thing is practically poison to witches! It's something they absolutely cannot touch lightly!

In comparison, the Book of Fate in his hands was a hundred thousand times gentler. The former North Enki, who had once existed as a resentful spirit, not only did not harm him, but even lent him a helping hand when he was in deep crisis.

"Senior North is an extremely special existence. She voluntarily became the resentment of the Book of Fate's Judgment, and there are many complicated relationships involved. Perhaps it is for this reason that she has never harmed Senior Flame Witch, and even after coming to my side, she has never attacked me."

But what is this Dark Fusion Book right now? The moment it came into contact with it, it wanted to devour him. If it weren't for the little loli Yu Hui's help earlier, he would definitely have been defeated here.

"What would have happened if I had been devoured? Would this guy's resentment have taken over my body?"

This damned world is full of traps. With lingering fear, Li Lan took a few steps back with Yu Hui's help, barely managing to give up the idea of ​​taking the "Book of Dark Fusion".

"I can't touch this thing. What if Yu Hui does it?"

After all, in Li Lan's view, although this thing was very evil, it was very likely to be an incredibly powerful thing in some respects. If she could get her hands on it, it might be of great help to her in the future.

At that moment, he was like a cat that had smelled fish, but after a tentative probe, he discovered that the thing on the ground was not some rotten fish or shrimp, but a giant shark from the deep sea, which he could not afford to mess with.

After feeling frustrated for a while, still somewhat unwilling to give up, he fixed his gaze on the terrified little guy beside him and gestured to the strange book on the ground, "Try picking it up and taking a look?"

The little one hesitated for a moment, instinctively wanting to resist, but after seeing her owner's expectant expression, she pouted and cautiously approached.

As expected, the little loli Yu Hui could pick up the sealed object at will, and the resentment of the sealed object did not affect her.

"I see. It seems that witches are indeed unable to directly touch sealed objects, but the natives of this world and my creations can, so there shouldn't be any major problems with their use. The fact that I was able to directly touch the Book of Judgment, a sealed object, and even caused it to undergo purification, should not have been a coincidence."

Only at this moment could Li Lan truly understand the depth of the friendship among her former witch predecessors.

Even if it means forgetting everything and risking his own death, he will do everything in his power to help his trusted comrades survive.

Perhaps it is this very will that allows the so-called "sealed artifacts" to be used by witches, exerting unimaginably powerful effects.

Little did they know, Li Lan's guess was almost entirely correct. It was precisely because the Book of Judgment was such a magical and unique sealed artifact, the only one that could be directly touched by a witch, that the Imperial Witch Cult paid such special attention to it.

If it weren't for the desire to discover how many deeper secrets this sealed artifact held, the Empire would probably have massacred this entire group of witches the day after the Flame Witch was killed, instead of giving them so many opportunities.

"Letting Yu Hui hold onto it like this isn't a solution, but losing it would be such a waste, so why not..."

He pulled over his natal magic book that was floating beside him and subconsciously wanted to take out his subdimensional pouch, but instead saw that the magic book displayed information about this sealed artifact.

"The Book of Dark Fusion"

Resentment's real name: Morgan Bago

Effect: Fusion of corpses within five meters that have been dead for no more than ten minutes will unleash the maximum potential of the fused body and assist in combat.

Cost of Use: The fused entity must be sacrificed to the Book of Dark Fusion, and after completion, three drops of the user's blood must be consumed.

"I see!"

Li Lan suspected that the dangerous contact just now might have triggered the "appraisal" of the magic book. He curiously clicked on the information on it, and then his natal magic book automatically turned a page and registered new information on the new page. The "Book of Dark Fusion" appeared as a separate entry, and he could browse the contents of the entry at will.

"The usage conditions are very strict, with a large gap between the upper and lower limits. The only advantage is that the cost is not high."

Upon seeing this information, he couldn't help but recall the numerous hallucinations he had witnessed earlier. "What a pity, that dead witch suffered such a tragic fate..."

Only through comparison can one see the difference. Li Lan is now grateful for her past, and the series of times she spent on the run up to this point seem like a dream.

"There may still be a large number of witches in this world, each representing an unfortunate transmigrator. Unfortunately, I am currently powerless to end this nightmare, and I don't know how much longer I can live. Perhaps my death will be declared the moment I cross the border of the Viana Theocracy tomorrow..."

Anything is possible. Faced with the terrifying gap in strength, Li Lan clearly felt just how insignificant she was.

This feeling of powerlessness is simply despairing.

A strong will to survive made him clench his fists without showing any emotion. "The road ahead is still long. This is just the beginning. I escaped from an impenetrable empire. What is there to fear from a mere theocratic state? Everything depends on my own exploration and struggle. Just because I can't save others now doesn't mean I can't save them in the future."

Regardless, the most important thing to consider now is how to survive, and he has already figured out a little bit about how to survive.

First, he took out a subspace cargo bag and gestured for the little guy to store the dangerous item inside. Then he muttered to himself, "This guy also left quite a few monster corpses and two suspected living intelligent beings in the center of the area. This might be a good starting point. The monster corpses can be used for now, but we might have to revive these two living intelligent beings and then use them to obtain information about the borders of the Divine Kingdom."

Today is definitely his lucky day!

Chapter 8 Pig-Headed Men and Human Adventurers

The man named "Karl" brought over a number of monster corpses, all of which were ground trolls unique to the Olmar Giant Forest. Li Lan quickly processed these monster corpses and directly took out the intelligence cores and magic cores of a few mid-level monsters that she had previously stored, and performed life refinement on the spot.

Fortunately, out of seven attempts at "life-forging," one was successful.

"Servant: Thomas"

Race: Intelligent Monster

Level: LV1 Experience: 0

Talents: Faith LV1 Proficiency: 0; High-Speed ​​Learning LV1 Proficiency: 0; Basic Brute Force LV1 Proficiency: 0; Earth Element Affinity LV1 Proficiency: 0.

Unlike creators made from the corpses and intelligence cores of low-level monsters, creations made from the corpses and intelligence cores of mid-level monsters have their own names and are also distinguished by race.

"Your faithful servant greets you, Your revered Creator."

As always, once life is successfully forged, the product will inevitably be this kind of humanoid life form.

The guy who was bowing to Li Lan was two meters tall, with dark skin and exaggeratedly muscular build. He was incredibly devout, but he had a face that looked no different from a human's and messy, shoulder-length hair. The only thing that showed he wasn't human was his pair of reddish-yellow beast eyes.

The eyes of those beasts held a profound reverence, devoid of any superfluous impurities.

"So this is a creation made from the corpse of a Voldemort combined with some mid-level monster whose name I don't know? Hmm, it looks just like a real human, and it even has intelligence and can communicate."

After a curious examination, I discovered that this guy had something inhuman about him: he had no reproductive organs or excretory organs.

"Although he doesn't need to cover up in this state, running around naked is not a good idea."

Fortunately, he now had an excellent helper. Li Lan took out some fabric from the magic book's storage space and gestured for him to pay attention to his personal appearance.

"I hope you will start identifying yourself as a human being from now on. I'll explain the details to you later when I have time. For now, you can read these enlightenment books for a while."

The many books I bought for the slime, which were still lying around in the storage space of the magic book, came in handy now.

"Thank you, Creator, for your grace!"

Thomas, the big, dark-skinned man, once again spoke in a devout, gruff voice. Unlike the little fangirl slime he once knew, this new creation of his gave him the feeling of a fanatic.

...... ...... ......

Using "Life Transformation," Li Lan disposed of the large number of demonic corpses without leaving a trace. Afterward, she turned her attention to the two still-breathing creatures.

First, there's this pig-headed man. How should I put it? This pig-headed man is somewhat similar to the Pigsy from his past life, but his face looks even more ferocious.

This was a genuine pig's head, with large, thick ears adorned with iron rings, a protruding, dark snout, huge tusks extending from its long snout, and a multitude of stiff, short black hairs that stretched from the top of its head all the way to the back of its neck. Everything about it gave Li Lan an extremely surprising visual impact.

Aside from the pig's head, his body was not the pot-bellied, fat man Li Lan had imagined. Instead, he had exaggeratedly strong muscles, and his dark skin was much rougher than human skin, with a lot of light-colored hair.

"He was dressed in the simple attire befitting an adventurer, suggesting that this orc likely possesses moral values ​​similar to those of humans. His hands were covered in calluses, indicating that this guy might be a rather hardworking orc. Hmm, are his feet human feet? They're not pig hooves, which makes sense; if they were pig hooves, walking upright would naturally be a problem."

Something's not right. Li Lan remembers that most of the beastmen in novels or comics should be 90% human with animal ears or tails, right?

The current appearance of this pig-headed man, as well as the appearances of the dog-headed and tiger-headed men observed in the darkness, are all far too simplistic and crude.

The beast-headed, human-bodied design evokes a strange feeling of dreams being shattered.

"Based on the information I've reviewed, it seems that only witches in this world have the concept of sub-beastmen. The native inhabitants don't seem to have any so-called sub-beastmen. It's said that there is reproductive isolation between intelligent races, so there's no such thing as hybridization. Even the legendary dragons, who are said to be able to have sex with anyone they meet, have no records of giving birth to things like Ya Zi or Suan Ni."

After examining all the general features of the pig-headed beastman, Li Lan couldn't help but ponder, "The features of a pig... I wonder how different its meat tastes from real pork?"

Although he was somewhat eager to try it, his moral compass ultimately stopped him in time.

Imagine that in Li Lan's original world, Earth, it was perfectly normal for people to eat pigs. But what if they were eating a talking, thinking pig?

Frustrated, Li Lan cleared her mind of all distractions and used the first aid skill from her "Priest" profession to assess the pig-headed man's condition. "His injuries are severe. The three wounds on his back, neck, and chest are the most fatal. It seems that whoever injured him didn't want him to die on the spot, so they handled these injuries very well, only bringing him to the brink of serious injury."

"The orcs' stamina and healing abilities are indeed very strong. Even with such a large blood loss, he can probably hold on until dawn."

"Saving him with recovery potions alone probably won't be enough. He has two wounds with a very peculiar corrosive aura, an aura that has penetrated deep into his bone marrow... His neck, that black wound is strange; it's probably caused by the black daggers those two men used before. This aura gives me a very familiar feeling..."

A considerable amount of time has passed, and it is believed that the former Ann Gnath is long dead. How could Li Lan possibly imagine that this similar aura is unique to the Abyss Gods!

"Well, to save him, we need to use the life element to cleanse these wounds, and then we need to use my faith imprint to implant it into his heart to suppress this evil aura. If used properly, this evil aura can even be used by him in the future."

For some reason, saving just one person required using a "faith imprint" made from a magic core. With her mind highly focused, Li Lan didn't think too much about it and quickly took out a complete set of "surgical tools" from her magic book, preparing to operate on the person without hesitation.

Tearing off the pig-headed man's clothes, Li Lan instinctively raised the short sword enhanced with "life element." With a series of exquisite sword techniques, combined with a recovery potion and a hastily made faith imprint, she treated most of the man's wounds.

Ten minutes later, the mark of faith melted and merged with the pig-headed man's chest, and Li Lan finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Damn it, the price was too high just to get some information! When this guy wakes up, it would be a real shame not to extort some money from him!"

His gaze then fell on another corpse lying to the side. This guy wasn't an orc, but a genuine human, a skinny man.

The skinny man's adventurer's clothes were very shabby, and he had similar injuries to the pig-headed man, but this guy probably wouldn't last much longer.

"His face is sallow, like he's on drugs. I have a feeling he's not a good person. Should we save him?"