Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

That's true.

Anne was indeed very eager for promotion. Firstly, both Tia and Vera were advancing remarkably quickly, while she, with family support, was still only at Sequence 9, which made her a little impatient. Secondly, the pastors at church that morning had been somewhat impolite. If she had the power of Ms. Bernice, she could easily have punched those two pastors into mincemeat and then protected her beloved Tia!

But just as the promotion ceremony was about to begin, Anne realized something was wrong.

This promotion ceremony is so complicated!

Didn't the druid from the anti-smuggling bureau that Mom hired confidently say that 5000m was a normal water depth? How come she went straight to 8000m as soon as she entered Nightmare?!

And once inside the nightmare, one of Anne's main tasks was at the strike site, where a large group of artisans were demanding restrictions on factory expansion in a large square in Ansu. This wasn't inherently problematic, but the issue was that there were a full seven hundred cavalrymen in that square!

This strike had nothing to do with Anne's main mission, but based on the kindness, justice, mercy, and protective spirit of the Holy Grail Way, Anne couldn't resist setting fire to the place and slaughtering all the hundreds of cavalrymen.

Anne received a gift from a spirit whale in the Upside-Down Temple: a ritual called "Judgment Fire." This ritual, at the cost of significantly weakening the officiant's soul, indiscriminately ignites 60°C white flames on targets within a certain range for judgment. If any target within the range harbors evil intentions, they are immediately plunged into a nightmare within 500-8000 meters. The flames are contagious; witnessing them also results in judgment, but the intensity decreases with each level of witnessing.

—There is no nightmare within a nightmare, so everyone just faints.

Anne didn't keep specific statistics, but she took a lot of mental enhancement potions and a costly ritual to amplify her soul strength. As a result, at least six hundred cavalrymen were taken down by her—and her own soul was burdened and almost permanently damaged.

But when Tia asked, Anne felt a little guilty, afraid that Tia would worry too much, so she didn't tell her in detail.

The young lady hesitated for a moment and asked, "Tia, is it really that difficult to advance to Sequence 8?"

"Huh? Is there?"

"Yes! I've already reached 8000m this time! I almost didn't succeed at this level, but luckily my mom asked Mr. Kurd from the Anti-Corruption Bureau for help, and I was able to accumulate enough points."

"The one for surgery?"

Tia remembered, it was that Sequence 5 druid, but she never expected that the superhuman from the Anti-Corruption Bureau would come to the Mercury family begging for food...

Anne nodded, still shaken, and said, "I almost regret getting promoted. I should have taken some time to reflect. Tia, your promotion must have been dangerous too, right?!"

Yes, is there?

Tia's mind went blank as she thought back. Neither the great plague of Newport nor Rosalind's curse were difficult to recall.

Oh, I've already opened it. That's all right now.

Tia shut her mouth and stopped talking about it, instead asking Annie how she had ended up with such severe emotional trauma.

This is a sensitive topic, and Annie doesn't really want to talk about it.

Tia didn't press further. Everyone has their little secrets, and as long as everyone is alright, there's no need to dig deeper. She simply gave a stern reminder: "Be careful next time."

Tia genuinely cares.

"Hehehe."

Anne chuckled for a moment, then hugged Tia like a pillow and asked curiously, "Is there still pumpkin soup? I'm a little hungry now."

"Yes. There's still pumpkin soup in the kitchen, and I also made yogurt cups."

"Yay! Yogurt cup!"

"Go to sleep after you finish eating. I can ask the college for leave for you tomorrow."

As soon as she finished speaking, Annie cheered and went to the kitchen to find food.

Tia paused, glanced in the direction of the bedroom, remembered that there was a red-haired boy sleeping inside, and silently locked the bedroom door.

In the study, Tia mixed some essential oils, lit the aromatherapy diffuser to test it, and after confirming that it was working properly, she took away the waste wood from carving the doll.

By the time everything was ready, it was almost dawn.

The ascension ceremony consists of two rituals: ascension and meditation. Meditation requires complete silence and no disturbances, so Tia went directly to the courtyard to prepare for the ceremony as dawn approached.

This ceremony involves only one person, but the overall procedure is no different from a normal promotion ceremony.

The materials Tia prepared were hematite fragments, a gecko's severed tail, a moth's wing, the stomach of a bull that voluntarily swallowed nails, the blood-stained magnetic nails in the stomach, 156 intact bricks stolen from the ruins of St. Vincent's Church, a complete mirror, rotten sacred wood, and an hourglass left over from the last ceremony.

Tia built a stove out of stone bricks, hung an hourglass upside down, and lit a fire with sacred wood. She set up a cauldron, boiled water, and added all sorts of things to the cow's stomach—red, white, black, and gold. The red stuff was made from hematite shavings, the white stuff from moth wings, and Tia couldn't bear to use gold for the gold stuff. Luckily, there was a palm-sized bronze beast on a stone pillar in front of the gate, which Tia knocked down and stuffed into the stove.

After stuffing it full, the black iron nail pierced the cow's stomach, and the whole thing was thrown into the pot.

The hourglass was turned upside down seven times to bring it to a boil. The cow's stomach was then removed, the iron nails were pulled out, and a nearly transparent liquid with a faint smell of dried cow or sheep leather flowed out. As for the contents that had been stuffed inside, they had vanished without a trace.

Tia returned to her study with a full bottle of clear liquid.

She had assumed Annie was asleep, but it turned out Annie was wide awake and even came over to help.

Tia then had Annie draw a ritual circle for her with a ritual knife. This fell under the category of ritualistic practices and required spiritual items. Flesh and blood were spiritual entities, so this thing needed to be infused with blood.

But blood is hard to find! Tia hasn't gotten her period yet!

Annie paused for a moment, then asked, "What do we do now?"

Tia thought for a moment, then cut her arm open to let the blood flow, leaving Annie stunned.

Immediately, Tia asked Anne to open the window.

After opening the window, Anne carefully walked to the door and closed it.

As the sun was about to rise, and the sky was just beginning to lighten, with both the sun and the moon hanging in the sky, Tia picked up a hammer and nails. The mirror hung on the wall opposite the window, and the nails, with a gecko's severed tail embedded in them, were used to hold the mirror in place. With a bang—she shattered it into pieces with a single blow.

The nails were embedded in the wall.

"Never active, never dead."

Pick up the glass shards, make a small cross on the back of your left hand, draw a sun halo around the cross with clear liquid, and then apply turmeric essential oil above your middle finger.

A faint, spicy, and mild earthy or woody aroma lingers around the nose.

Drip bitter orange essential oil and rose essential oil onto the top of each of the five fingers of your right hand.

"Light falls from the center, like the first ripe fruit."

Everything is ready.

Tia drank a bottle of calming potion, slowly closed her eyes, and drifted into meditation, murmuring:

"We beseech the forging hammer to forge the God of Taiyi."

"We beseech the god of alchemy, the god of alternating before and after."

"We beseech the Ouroboros, the god of breaking and mending."

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I'm too busy to finish this now, so I'll just write one chapter for today.

Chapter 193 Ulrich's Funeral

When Tia woke up again, she felt someone pushing her hard from behind through something, and she was shaken.

A slightly familiar voice rang in Tia's ears—not the dark, slimy whisper of the ouroboros when she fell into nightmares, but a very clear and loud voice, about thirteen or fourteen years old.

She didn't even get to the stone table meeting or see the spirit apostles before she was plunged straight into a nightmare.

Tia tried to escape the nightmare, but a surge of water pressure immediately landed on her shoulders, preventing her soul from rising.

"Senior, Senior Sulf! Don't fall asleep here! We're still discussing the teacher's funeral arrangements!"

"Alright! Marn, sit down and stop making a racket."

"what?!"

Tia then realized that she was sitting in an armless chair with an iris design, in front of a banquet table, but there were only four people there.

One of them was a girl around twenty years old, sitting directly opposite her. She had long, dark brown curly hair, wore a laurel wreath, and had deep-set, sculpted features. Although she wore a rather traditional, almost retro-style robe, it couldn't hide her fair skin and full breasts. Her distinctive gold pendant and hair ornaments gave her the air of a graceful dancer from an ancient Arabian kingdom, but her face exuded an undeniable languor.

Beside her stood Rexar, dressed in a black robe—he had his name written directly on his name tag, so Tia recognized him at first glance as one of the three leaders of the Hand of Transformation. Just as rumored, Rexar always wore the Theocracy's silver cross around his neck.

As for the last one...

Tia turned her head and glanced at the still young Marn Cullen.

At this time, Marn was a rather handsome little boy with long black hair and bright blue eyes. His skin on his face and hands was quite fair and delicate. He was clutching a small bag of ice cream, making it difficult to tell if he was male or female. He was of typical noble birth, though far less refined than Tia, but completely unlike the scheming and fraudulent merchant he would later become.

Rexar, Marn Cullen, and that leaves Jeremiah—these three were students of Ulrich Bonhoeffer, the president of the Alchemist Society.

His identity and the time of his nightmare are about to be revealed: the non-existent fourth student, at the moment of Ulrich's death.

Tia glanced curiously at Jeremiah across from her.

Indeed, this older sister, who seemed to have stepped out of a mural, was completely consistent with the legendary "sage" Jeremiah in every way.

Apart from two points.

First, his pectoral muscles were too big; second, Tia remembered that Jeremiah was a man...

Nightmares are projections of history, not entirely representing actual history, and are certainly subject to change. But does this change include gender swapping?

Tia immediately felt a deep respect for the ouroboros.

Tia's current doubts return to herself: she seems exactly like the person in reality...

Rexar said somewhat impatiently:

“Sit down, Marn! Now our problem is how to bury our teacher! He is now trapped in an eternal curse and has decided to move from the Great Bell Tower to the Chapel of St. Pantheon. We must complete the funeral before he moves and announce his death to the world.”

Jeremiah glanced at the senior student and spoke up in rebuttal.

The voice lacked any masculine quality, possessing only a languid and seductive quality: "Rejected. Rexar, if you want the Book of Transformation, you should have said so sooner. I will not allow anyone to arrange a funeral for the teacher before he is completely dead. Not to mention that you are the one who wants to arrange the funeral; you've been eyeing the Book of Transformation for a while now, haven't you?"

Jeremiah glanced at Mum again, then looked at Tia apologetically and said, "Tia, keep an eye on that brat for now. The teacher isn't here, so it's all up to you."

"Holy crap, really?"

Tia snatched the Marngen ice cream and ate it; the little brat was so bullied by Tia that he didn't dare to fight back.

The ice cream is a bit like a small pudding, sweet and milky.

Jeremiah said helplessly, "Who else can I rely on? I cultivate the path of the moth, still hatching and reborn in the womb and cocoon. As for Marne, at his age... Marne, eat less ice cream! Don't you know what's wrong with your teeth?"

"Okay, okay, I got it, Senior Jeremiah! I promise I won't add sugar to the next ice cream..."

"......"

Jeremiah took a deep breath and resisted the urge to punch Marne on the head.

Rexsa said, “Jeremiah, I’ll say it one last time, whether we like it or not, the eternal curse is death. The loss of cognitive and mental abilities means that the teacher’s life is completely over, and the teacher’s funeral has already begun in effect. The teacher must be buried, whether in a cemetery or a chapel.”

"Then go ahead, Rexar!"

boom!

Jeremiah pushed back his chair, stood up, and stared intently at Rexsa, saying, "But I will absolutely not allow you to prematurely announce the death of your teacher. The Academy needs a totem. Either you become the totem, or you'd better leave now, go as far away as you want, and roll out of the Iris with your faith."

"You... Jeremiah, you!"

Before Rexsha could get angry, Jeremiah had already slammed the door and left the banquet hall.

After Jeremiah left, Rexa looked at Tia, his voice heavy and hoarse, "Junior, I have other things to attend to, so I'll leave this place to you for now."

"Huh? You've assigned it to me again?"

Tia was confused for a moment.

What kind of mess is this?!

She knows nothing!

Tia tried to break free from the deep dive, but it was completely impossible; the water pressure was too great—and there was a force suppressing her, preventing her from escaping the nightmare. It was probably the work of that old man, Ulrich.

I tried to break the meditation.

This step is very dangerous. The purpose of meditation is to maintain the stability of the soul and avoid violent fluctuations that could cause one to get lost in nightmares. If one goes directly into a nightmare without meditation, there is a danger similar to lucid dreaming or a dream within a dream, where one is aware that they are in a nightmare but cannot escape it.

But even ending the meditation didn't work; Ulrich's large hand was still exerting force.

Tia was stunned for a moment, then looked at little Marn, who was not even as tall as her neck, and snatched the ice cream away.

Marn's face also froze for a moment, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.

He loves ice cream the most, and this bag of ice cream was bought with two weeks' worth of spare change.

Tia used both threats and inducements: "Don't cry, what exactly happened just now? Tell me clearly, and I'll give you the ice cream."

"The teacher is dead."

“I didn’t know he was dead. I’m asking you what happened to Jeremiah and Rexsha, and what they’re doing here?”

"Senior, have you lost your mind?"

"Shut up. Answer the question."