Miss Witch's Forbidden Book Secret

The prophets said dejectedly, “This is very troublesome, sir.”

Guzar frowned and said, "If we project Bylegas's consciousness over, could we speed things up?"

"Perhaps, maybe, we can find the echoes left in history by the Moon Gazing Tower within two days."

The prophets, sweating profusely, gave the most conservative possible answer.

"Two days... is still too slow. I need you to find the echo of the Moon Gazing Tower and locate the deep-sea coordinates of this sanctuary by tomorrow morning at the latest."

"That's completely impossible!"

"Just try your best!"

When faced with an inhuman boss, the prophets felt like the sky was falling.

To complete so much work in just two days! That's practically draining their souls! When they return to Tianfang, they'll need at least two months of recuperation to recover.

But Guzar didn't care.

These prophets drained their own souls, and they didn't care if they fell into weakness.

Once Barragas arrived, another batch of cattle and horses came. The search for the sanctuary, however, was of utmost urgency and could not be delayed.

After dismissing the group of prophets, Guzal walked to the corridor, looked out the porthole, and glimpsed the future.

He had already envisioned the magnificent tower beneath the moon amidst the surging waves and sea surges.

Through the firelight on the tower's stone walls, he could clearly see a figure struggling to climb the steps and pass through a magnificent gate adorned with reliefs of goats, lions, and pelicans.

But the climbers.

He was not a prophet.

Chapter 378 Deep Dive Ritual

A reef in the northwest of Jin Yue Bay coastline.

If you go ashore and explore, you can see the tower and many traces of stone buildings.

This is the very location that inspired the sanctuary known as the Moon Gazing Tower.

Several ironclad frigates, slightly smaller than the two-masted cargo ships, were patrolling nearby, and Tia was also on board preparing for the deep-sea diving ceremony.

If she had the precise coordinates of the sanctuary, she could have set up the deep-diving ritual in Golden Moon Bay without having to come so close. But unfortunately—the sanctuary doesn't have accurate coordinates.

In the case of a sanctuary with a Lord, the sanctuary can maintain a relatively fixed water depth underwater because its creator deity is anchored by real-world faith.

Once abandoned, the sanctuary will not only be destroyed, but its location will also drift randomly in the deep sea.

This is why we only hear about robbing sanctuaries belonging to gods, but never about robbing unclaimed sanctuaries or sanctuary ruins.

If Tia still wanted to find the Sanctuary at this point, she could only rely on the traces left by the Sanctuary in the mortal world—the so-called "echoes".

Inside the cabin.

With the help of Knight Lovisa, Tia tied up her long, smooth black hair with an indigo ribbon, put on white lace gloves that revealed the back of her hands, and wore a long, fitted dress specially made for her by Anne. The dress was decorated with multiple calming rituals, and was white and purple with layers of lace and embellished with sparkling gemstones.

If Lovisa hadn't known that Tia was going to perform a deep-sea diving ceremony, she would have suspected that Tia was going to attend some kind of wedding.

The ship's lookout quickly climbed down the ladder and shouted, "Grand Knight Commander! The moon has risen!"

One of the prerequisites for diving into the Moon Tower is that the moon rises, so this ritual cannot be performed on the new moon.

Then, the ceremony setup began.

First comes the usual deep-diving ritual—a black candle, a white candle, a yellow candle, and a red candle are placed at the four corners.

Then, apply two drops of vetiver essential oil, one drop of eucalyptus essential oil, one drop of benzoin essential oil, and a 1:3 ratio of chamomile and juniper essential oils, and finally myrrh and agarwood essential oils to the four candles.

With a hiss, flames simultaneously ignited on the four candles, the aroma of essential oils began to evaporate, and a small piece of antimony, about the size of a fingernail and the thickness of a nail, placed in the very center of the ritual, gradually melted and flowed along the engraved lines of the ritual into the water-soluble synthetic oil that had already been injected into the lines.

Then comes the ascension ceremony, which anchors the sanctuary.

The "Moon-Gazing Tower" ritual is also the one with the simplest requirements of all the rituals Tia has encountered; it requires the blood of nine kinds of birds.

These include owls, eagles, roosters, swans, hummingbirds, pigeons, crows, storks, and phoenixes.

While preparing the ceremony materials, Tia couldn't help but sigh:

Pigeons are really useful in every sense of the word.

Of course, there is no such thing as a phoenix in the material world—the genetically modified superhuman creatures created by the Great Icefield Clan don't count.

Therefore, Tia used broom flower and broom flower essential oil, which are often referred to in mysticism as "phoenix tail feathers" and "phoenix blood".

The nine birds symbolize nine paths, and of course, there are other symbolic meanings as well.

The tower and the moon are two elements that are strongly associated with the prophet.

Birds also carry connotations of the sky and ascension.

Furthermore, considering that the Moon Gazing Tower was also Ulrich's sanctuary.

The book most closely related to it should be "The Book of Ascension".

Six drops of blood fell into the patterns of the ritual track, mixed with the oil, and flowed slowly.

All six have been lost.

Knight Lovisa, leaning against the iron gate and resting her hands on her sword, solemnly declared, "Sulph! The ceremony may begin!"

Tia smeared the blood of the owl, the crow, and the stork on the back of her hand.

"We beseech the Prophet, we pray to the God without feet!"

"We beseech the god of alchemy, the one whose light shines brightest!"

"We beseech the Ouroboros, the god of nightmares!"

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

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

"Prepare for the promotion ceremony."

"Promote her now? My little princess, are you out of your mind?"

In the Knights' office at the Golden Moon Bay City Hall, Marn Cullen saw the cawing crow on Anne's shoulder and felt like his head was about to explode.

The eldest daughter of the Mercury family is actually going to complete her advancement to Sequence Six right now!

Anne said, "I need to complete the ascension ceremony in the shortest possible time. Your Majesty King of Ravens, Shrike, how long would it take at the fastest possible time?"

The shrike immediately perked up, cawing and flapping its wings with delight, "Two hours! And two more bottles of wine, the kind from your dad's cellar."

"I will consider it."

Anne added, "If I get promoted."

Marn said with a headache, "This is simply unrealistic! Although my Sheathless Blade has been rapidly upgraded to Sequence Seven, even if I agree to let you enter the Nightmare Realm, I still need at least four more people to help me. Six people are the minimum requirement for an advancement ceremony. Where are you going to find four people so quickly?"

The large silver raven clapped twice, jumped onto the table, and said, "Yes, yes. There are more than a hundred such extraordinary individuals; they're everywhere in the Knights Order."

Marn was speechless.

The Knights—he had never even considered that.

But coincidentally, the Shrike can be mobilized. Because on the surface, he is still Saint Vincent's contractor, the lord of the laurel grove, the king of the ravens, and the controller of the holy seal of the ravens, which is practically equivalent to a living saint of the Church.

This is why the Shrike has been able to freeload at the Knights of St. Enggard for so long. Although he's gotten a bit tired of the flying dog now, he can still drink his fill.

As for its laurel grove, it has long been rendered useless, with a large flock of ravens constantly circling around that witch, and even the signing of the Raven Seal requires the consent of those two elves...

Hey, the knights don't know this either.

So it can continue to deceive people.

Marn hesitated, saying, "I need to think about it."

What this eldest daughter of the Mercury was trying to do was rather far-fetched—she wanted to quickly complete her advancement to Sequence Six and then use the hammer-forging ritual she had already mastered to help Ibn Musa's Philosopher Stone.

However, even a Sequence 6 forging hammer is still far from adequate for processing the Philosopher's Stone, serving no purpose other than assisting Ibn.

That's what Marne thought.

However, the actual situation was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

Because Anne had read the entire "Book of the Hearth" with Tia, a secret text specifically about the preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, her role became much more significant.

"Three thousand gold pounds."

Anne's voice was firm and resolute.

Seeing that Marne was stunned and did not respond, Anne added, "Five thousand gold pounds."

"Wait a minute, Miss Anne..."

Marne was immediately tempted and was about to negotiate the price further.

Anne frowned and added, "I'll help you settle all the debts and bad debts of Silver Castle Financial City."

"Alright, Your Excellency! When are you going to be promoted?"

Chapter 379 The Prophet in Action

When the sixth hour before the moon rises, and the thirty-eighth hour after the prophets evacuated from Mistmoon City.

An old-fashioned wooden two-masted sailing cargo ship crashed into the horizon, parting two waves in the bright moonlight as it cut through the thorns and brambles.

On the warship's high-rising bow, in the ceremonial array engraved in the center of the deck, six prophets chanted and whispered with hand gestures.

The clay figurine at the center of the ritual array clicked a few times and came to life in the moonlight. Its joints became more flexible, its hair began to grow, and its clay shell quickly transformed into soft, white skin.

Immediately—Byreges Alcmene opened her emerald green eyes, twisted her wrists to move her body, and a childlike voice, incongruous with her appearance, rang out.

"Is the matter of the Sanctuary so urgent that you're coming to me now to spy on the deep sea?"

“Madam! We are not in a hurry, but Master Guzar is asking too much. I guess he saw something in the future... Uh, please come with us.”

The prophet was about to look up at Barragas when he was suddenly mesmerized.

Judging from her appearance, Barregas is remarkably well-preserved, looking as if she's not even twenty years old, radiating youthful energy like a student still in school. However, her tall and slender figure, long chestnut-colored curly hair, side-swept bangs that obscure her left eye, and charming smile and posture give her both mature allure and girlish innocence.

If you then look at her upright back and flat chest, the heroic eyebrows revealed after she brushes her hair aside, and the broad, long sword at her waist, you will get a sense of disorientation as if this woman embodies both men and women, young and old.

The prophet quickly lowered his head, not daring to look directly at him—not because of the difference in status, but because the dean of the Nightmare Department had been thoroughly immersed in the deep sea!

Just like the nightmares she studied in depth, she herself was also tinged with a color that was both illusory and real.

Barragas followed the prophets to the cabin, where the ceremony had been prepared in advance.

The prophets on the road gave way to him, and even Guzar, who was in the very center of the ceremony, glanced at him.

Baileygas glanced at it a few times and commented, "The ritual is too inefficient, but it's enough. But Guzar, why did you call me here more than two days in advance?"

“There’s a reason for this.” Guzar said worriedly, “I saw a figure climbing inside the sanctuary. I guess someone has already entered the sanctuary. This matter cannot be delayed!”

"who?"

"I don't know—but I smell alchemy in it, so it's probably Jeremiah's doing..."

“Marn Cullen?”

"impossible."

Guzal commented decisively, "If he comes, the sanctuary will be given to us for free. Jeremiah isn't that stupid."

"That's true. That great inventor might have a sharp mind, but his character was far from perfect."

Barragas's smile faded slightly as her expression darkened.

Seeing this, Guzar decided not to say anything more—it was probably because this woman was thinking about herself, and she and Maen were essentially the same kind of people.

To put it nicely, they're venture capitalists or pragmatists. To put it bluntly, they're just mediocre people without any beliefs.

Pragmatism may work in the secular world, but when you enter the extraordinary world, without a sincere belief and ideal, or rather, without treating pragmatism as a belief, you will run into obstacles everywhere.

Take, for example, this lady who has mastered the art of nightmares.

She delved deeply into the study of nightmares, becoming a master known as a "historian of secrets" and a "nightmare scholar," and even served as the dean of the Nightmare Studies Department at the Palace of Wisdom—not because she was born with a love for it or because of her nature.

Rather, it's because she doesn't have a deeply held belief in anything; she doubts everything yet accepts everything.

Ultimately, abandoning the pursuit of the extraordinary path and studying nightmares and history itself became one of the few remaining options.