Witch Troupe and the Undead

For example, her mentor had an alchemy book called "The Immortal Record". When she opened it, well, to give you an analogy, in alchemy books and esoteric spells, it's like you saw a cultivation manual called "The Longevity Manual". When you open it, you see that it says things like going to bed on time every day, drinking more hot water, exercising frequently, and controlling your diet. You tell me, can doing these things prolong your life?

However, those with simple names are not necessarily hidden masters. For example, "The Three Principles of Basic Alchemy" is an explanation and analysis of the basic alchemical laws and three fundamental principles, which is used to enlighten beginners in alchemy.

There's also the book "A Brief Analysis of the Four Elements Ritual Arrays" that Vivi bought from the Arcane Society of Hearth City. After being appraised by the Little Witch, it was rated as: it only involves the basic ritual arrays of 12 elemental subdomains, and 3 of them are wrong. It is only recommended for beginners to learn the basics. Any more than that may affect the students' ability to build a foundation.

With a "snap," after the assessment, the little witch tossed aside the magic book that had been deciphered but was utterly useless. The quill, magic bottle, and parchment beside her automatically flew to the side, and she began to write according to the little guy's wishes, copying down the only useful information in the book and making some corrections.

In the end, she only wrote three and a half pages in the thick magic book. One and a half pages of that was for her to complete and correct the derivative work. This made the little girl a bit overwhelmed. She drew a Q version of herself wearing a pointed hat, angrily stomping her feet and throwing the book in the blank space, and added the word "liar" under the magic book that was thrown away.

And this fraudulent book met the same fate as the other restless magic books piled together in the iron cage: it was disposed of in the arcane furnace thrown to her in the basement, its last remaining value being fuel.

At least one-third of the spellbooks she brought out from the Black Abyss Tomb received this treatment, which made her have some deep doubts about the quality of the library's collection in this world. After all, she had been exposed to high-end goods that her mentor had swindled and cheated from all over the world since she was a child. Even if she was fooled a few times, the proportion was no more than one-fifth.

Moreover, the fate of those fraudulent books that caught her teacher's eye was to be thrown into the fireplace and burned. Neal Riley would even solemnly bury the ashes and erect a tombstone with the inscription "Here lies a fraudster, blah blah blah."

It wasn't until later, when Niel Riley discovered that those idiotic nobles had even worse "magic books" in their collections, yet they could still fetch high prices at auctions just by using gimmicks, that she kept some magic books with particularly impressive names. Then she added some dubious mystical seals to them, so that even other mystical mages would be fooled.

Wait, is this how everyone in the magic book trading world does it? Livia tilted her head, somewhat confused. Otherwise, she couldn't understand why her mentor, with his strength, would be deceived. Could it be that this is how everyone in the magic book trading world does it?

The blonde girl, feeling a bit tired from reading, decided to find some fun for herself. With a wave of her hand, some old parchment left by her teacher flew out of the cabinet and landed in front of her. There was nothing special about this parchment; it was just that her teacher had bought too much of it during a promotion. Later, papermaking technology was updated, and better ritual paper appeared, so it ended up gathering dust at the bottom of the drawer.

Furthermore, these parchments are not made of sheepskin, or rather, they are not modern parchments; they merely inherit the name. However, they are indeed paper made by mixing glue treated with some kind of harmless monster hide with alchemical materials. They are quite different from paper on Earth and are closer to the texture of plastic paper.

A stack of papers about three sheets thick was placed in front of the little witch, and then she began to carefully copy the contents of the pile of fraudulent books. Of course, there were also some chibi-style hand-drawn illustrations in the style of Livia and deliberately crooked, childlike writing. However, these hand-drawn contents were the real stuff.

It involves potion-making, ritual techniques, and so on. As for whether readers can understand Livia's meaning from descriptions like "whoosh~" or "just hold your breath and exert force" and similar illustrations, that's another story.

What's left is just a hodgepodge of excerpts, which are then repackaged with various secret seals and ritual traces. Next, the "antiquated seal" invented by Nier Riley is added, and finally, a few techniques that Livia has learned from watching those "real things" these days are thrown in to reinforce the seal, resulting in a magic book that looks impressive but whose contents are hilarious.

"Come here, come here~" The bull had just finished turning over the ground when it saw the young lady beckoning to it. After being trained by the senior horse, it now knew what kind of situation this little girl was, and obediently went over.

"Lower down," she said, grabbing his chin with her little hands and breaking off the bull's head. She then gently rubbed the mane on his head, and then... "snap," she broke off two bull horns, with traces of heat cutting at the base.

"Hiss!" For a demon, this wasn't much of a blow, but it was incredibly humiliating. The bull's eyes turned red and it was about to charge when it was pinned down by a claw. "Calm down, I advise you to calm down, or we'll be eating beef soup starting tomorrow. With a body this big... it'll probably take us several weeks to finish."

Suddenly, the bull's eyes became clear.

The bull's horns were deformed and twisted into the protective shells at the four corners of the cover. Instantly, the cover was eroded by hellish magic, leaving strange patterns and gorgeous flame marks.

"Hmm~ Hmm~" The little witch nodded in satisfaction, then stuck a small note on the spine of the book, tiptoed and put it in the corner of the upper shelf. The note read: "Don't take it" to prevent someone from taking the fake book and causing trouble. However, what she didn't know was that the more she wrote that, the more likely some lazy people would try to touch it.

As for the name "Unnamed Ritual Book", it's mainly because she couldn't think of a catchy name for the time being, like "Necronomicon" or something similar, which had already been used by her predecessors.

Meanwhile, in the Black Forest, Alessina led four adventurers to gather herbs. The Black Forest, rich in magic, teemed with a vast quantity of potion ingredients and common herbs. The little witch didn't need many herbs, but other herbs were still essential.

After consulting with the Imperial Investigation Team's apothecary, he obtained the recipes for common herbal potions. He was initially reluctant to share them, but upon learning that the Little Witch needed them, he agreed. For a potion master to want your herbal recipes is a sign of respect. He could even immediately double the price of these potions and label them as certified by the Witch and the Potion Master.

Of course, there were no advertising laws in this era, and Livia wasn't very famous, so others might not buy it. But when communicating within her own circle, she could simply say that a gold-level witch had once asked her for a recipe, and that would be enough to make a big splash.

"Today's main task is to collect Black Lotus Fungus, Snowflower, and Silver Velvet Longleaf Sawtooth Grass," Alessina distributed the task list to the adventurers. Vivi had already introduced them to these three plants before. They are all types with obvious characteristics that are not easy to collect by mistake, and they grow everywhere, but the quantity needed is relatively large.

Black lotus fungus is a type of fungus that grows in the soil under tree roots and is shaped like a lotus flower. Snow lily is a common ornamental flower in northern China, named for its association with good luck. When viewed from above, the petals and leaves form a structure that resembles a snowflake.

The slightly more troublesome one is the Silver Velvet Long-leaved Sawgrass. The biggest problem with this grass is that it is silvery-white. Finding a low-growing plant in the snow with long, thin leaves, serrated edges, and fine silvery-white hairs on the leaf surface... Tex even thought it was some kind of strange punishment game, or training to improve the eyesight of the scouts in the team.

"Don't cut your hand!" Essex quickly found a long-leaved sawgrass and demonstrated to his companion how to collect it. "Only the roots are useful..." He carefully lifted the leaves to expose the roots of the plant, dug away the snow, cut the roots with a knife, carefully pinched the bunch and threw it away, and finally dug out the ginger-yellow roots that were only as thick as his little finger.

"what's it for?"

"Well, as far as I know, it has the effect of enhancing the body's resistance and inducing sweating. It is generally used to prepare medicines for dispelling cold and treating colds, but I don't know why Lady Livia needs this herb."

"I heard that she seems to be sick."

"Perhaps it's an ingredient for some kind of high-level potion for treating illnesses." It would be a joke if a potion master couldn't be cured of an illness with a single potion, so no one would associate this herb with cold medicine.

"What about the others?" Tex, relying on his thick skin, grabbed a silver-velvet long-leaved sawgrass, not caring at all that the sharp serrated edges left a bloody mark on his palm.

In this world, gloves are generally not allowed when gathering herbs, just like gloves are not allowed when handling antiques. This is because it is difficult to sense and control the force while wearing gloves, and you might accidentally crush a magical plant fruit that is worth your entire family's lives.

However, this time they were collecting the most common and cheapest herbs, and everyone except Tex was wearing leather gloves while working.

"Black lotus fungus is an ingredient in an insecticide, and snow lotus leaves are said to be able to stop diarrhea when ground up." These are the most common basic medicines. Of course, since these medicinal materials grow in areas similar to the Black Forest, for most ordinary people in villages and towns, it is best to rely on willpower to get through illness.

In other words, the common people were able to enjoy the treatment of herbalists. Even so, the price was not too low. However, compared to the medieval times on Earth, when bloodletting and smearing feces on the face were used to exorcise evil spirits, it was already quite advanced and fortunate.

“Let’s split up and gather them. Gathering together like this is not very efficient.” Each person wore a small amulet around their neck, made of stone shards. These were lent to them and could mimic the aura of high-level monsters to scare away some low-level monsters. After all, gathering herbs is not like logging. Gathering a group of people together is of no use except for destroying the habitat of herbs.

Therefore, this amulet is a simple rune device made by Roach, and the recorded aura comes from Vilandella. However, if you trespass into the habitat of a high-level monster, you can expect to die.

However, these common herbs cannot live in places where high-level monsters can appear, because high-level monsters only appear in places with abundant magic power. In such places, even if you transplant an ordinary long-leaved sawgrass, it will mutate into a form you don't recognize.

It is even said that the downy hairs on this silver-velvety long-leaved sawgrass are a result of the magical influence of the Black Forest, which is why it has healing effects, with a value similar to that of Isatis root or dandelion root on Earth.

Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Witch Burns the Book

The dark woods were completely silent except for the rustling of boots on the snow. Ray, leaning on his cane, huddled trembling at the base of a tall black pine tree, his pale face filled with fear.

Her waist pouch was stuffed full of yellowish-brown roots and stems. She followed the lush clumps of herbs and strayed away from her teammates. This is a common mistake made by newbies and novices: when they find good loot or treasure, they forget or deliberately fail to notify their teammates, resulting in them getting separated from the main group.

Of these, about 30% succeed, get lost for a while, reunite with their teammates, and then get a scolding; about 45% will run into trouble and become another missing person in the adventurer industry, only to be found later as skeletons clutching treasures or spoils; and only about 50% will be able to wait for their teammates to rescue them.

You ask what's left? What's left is that there are no people left, no treasures left, just roadside remains, and maybe decades will pass without anyone noticing where you fell.

In the dim sunlight, the gnarled branches of the black pine trees looked like outstretched, jet-black claws, while the thorny bushes covered with poisonous thorns rustled in the breeze, as if some dangerous monster might jump out at any moment.

Whether it was the occasional wind or the snow sliding off the branches, it would cause Lai Yi to tremble and feel nervous. Fortunately, whether it was because of the amulet or because most of the monsters in the Black Forest were in hibernation at this time of year, she successfully found the place where she had gathered herbs before. Although she did not see any of her companions, she at least knew where she was.

“Location lost…” “…How…The Empire…” Faint voices came from behind her. Just as Lai was about to call for help, a hand covered her mouth. She struggled frantically, but in the face of that iron-like arm, she finally collapsed.

Only then did he realize that it was Alessina who had covered his face, and beside her were his companions, each of them with their faces covered by coarse cloth and wearing white cloaks, crouching under the tree as if they were invisible.

“You…” “Shh!” Alessina gestured for him to shut up. Soon, Lai saw a group of people passing by in the distance. Each of them was deeply concealed by cloaks, but for some reason, there was a strange feeling about them, as if there were something else under their clothes instead of people.

“The Holy Disc can no longer be sensed…” The leader raised his head and stared at the walls of the Imperial camp in the distance. “Either the Guardians have discovered it, or it has been completely sealed away.”

"And what's the approximate location?" "Ahead, perhaps inside the Imperial camp," the leader said in an inhumanly hoarse, flat voice. "There are knights and mages guarding it; a direct assault is not advisable, and..." He pointed to a much dimmer barrier in the distance, "...there's a Sin Demon."

“I have an idea. We can use these demons to let the power of sin cover this forest,” one member said, his voice like dry, hard wood rubbing against each other. Spots of blood spread along the edges of his robes, like plum blossoms blooming one after another.

“Even these imperial people will become our allies. Those foolish imperial mages still cling to their prejudices and ignorance, and the Holy Church only knows how to kowtow to the gods.” The young member’s voice was still clear, but everyone knew that this was only a temporary situation. “In this world, as long as there is life, there will be desires. As long as there are desires, sins will never cease. Is there any power closer to God than this?”

The leader of "Quiet" tapped his cane lightly. "The world is foolish and cannot see the truth, but the path of transformation does not change according to human will. Those butterflies that cannot break out of their cocoons can only become dead pupae." The subtext of this statement was that he agreed with the plan proposed by his subordinates earlier.

Meanwhile, in the little witch's basement, "Hmph~" the little girl angrily threw a large stack of books on the ground, then used an iron hook to pull open the furnace door of the magic furnace. The spherical fireball, bound in the center by the magic circle, resembled a tiny sun.

Livia forcefully tore open the first book, leaving only the cover and corner protectors that could be reused, and stuffed the remaining pages into the furnace, watching these books, which in the eyes of others contained precious ancient knowledge, turn to ashes. After one book was burned, the next one would begin.

These are all things that the Little Witch identified as "fraudulent books," "academic flammable garbage," "a Frankenstein's monster of cobbled-together excerpts," and "only valuable for ancient scripts and literature." To put it bluntly, it's like the way your professor looks at an ordinary undergraduate thesis. All I can say is that the next step is the defense, yes, the defense!

But the meticulous Livia wouldn't tolerate this garbage. After recording the parts that were somewhat insightful or at least "common sense," the rest were only good for burning—the young lady's bookshelf couldn't hold this trash, get out of here! by the animated bookshelves.

“Isn’t this a bit too wasteful? These ancient magic books could fetch a lot of money.” Leslie thought it was a real shame to burn these magic books. Roach shared a similar view; he felt that these books had considerable cultural value and that preserving them could at least be used to study ancient culture and writing.

After burning the last book, Livia expressionlessly led the two back downstairs, pulled a small booklet with a brown cover from the bookshelf, and opened it. It was clear that Livia's little class was about to begin.

The booklet was titled "Detailed Explanation of the Secret Source of Negative Cycles." It was a teaching booklet that Nierleli had made for Livia, essentially the former witch's lesson plan. Livia solemnly flipped to the corresponding page.

"There are many domains beneath the Void Source, the most famous and simplest of which is the Great Sin Subdomain. As a subdomain of the Desire Domain, it has advantages such as rapid magic regeneration, swift guidance, immense power, and ease of setting up ritual sites. However, the Great Sin Subdomain is also the most difficult subdomain to master among the many Void Subdomains."

This was Livia's monotone reading, but Roach and Leslie could barely understand it, probably because this area was easy to learn but difficult to master. Then Livia started highlighting the key points, skipping the operational and technical details, mainly focusing on what Roach and Leslie needed to know.

"The magic of Great Sin originates from the sinful subdomain within the realm of desire. This sinful subdomain is the negative aspect of the realm of desire. In other words, prolonged manipulation and contact with Great Sin magic will lead to being influenced by the sinful subdomain. Thus, two situations arise. The first is that one truly masters Great Sin magic, understands how to maintain a balance between sin and punishment, and comprehends that the essence of sin is desire, and the essence of desire is the instinct of life. Sin is merely a projection of the human mind's perception..."

The long philosophical discourse left Roach and Leslie dizzy, but they still understood some of it: the Great Sin Magic was like nuclear radiation; if you took proper precautions, you were less likely to get hurt, and you could even use its enormous energy to do things.

"Therefore, the Great Sin Magic has a very strict rhythm and practice process. It is easy to go wrong if you rely on the notes of predecessors to learn it on your own." Livia finished reading the annotations left by her mentor, then looked at Roach and Leslie, pointed to herself, and showed a smug look on her face. Obviously, she was the one who had mastered this nuclear reactor. Of course, while the others wore protective suits, Livia was not afraid of radiation.

"The second type involves learning sin magic through abnormal means, or encountering setbacks during the learning process. In such cases, one will be affected by sinful magic, causing the magic to interfere with one's physical form..."

What followed was a long string of incomprehensible technical terms, and it took quite a while to reach the conclusion.

"...Therefore, based on the principle of unity of mind, both the Great Sin Mage and the Hell Mage will experience corresponding abnormal reactions in their physical form and appearance due to the influence of their respective magical powers..." Another long passage of incomprehensible stuff.

However, Roach roughly understood the situation. "In other words, if we use proper means and strictly abide by the work safety regulations, we can safely use this kind of magic that is inexhaustible as long as there is life and desire, just like some kind of..." some kind of reactor, but there was no corresponding word here, so Roach didn't know how to describe it.

"So, in that case, this ruin is equivalent to..."

Chernobyl, and the current situation is that the outer sarcophagus has collapsed, exposing some areas around it. Those demonic entities are equivalent to anomalies or mutated creatures, while these adventurers and the Imperial investigation team are civilian or official infiltrators. The items they recovered are the "artifacts" of the contaminated area, which need to be purified before use.

"What if we don't follow the proper procedures...?"

"Hmm~ Hmm~" The little witch stood up with a smile and patted Roach's head. Hmm, even when he was sitting or squatting, Livia had to stand up to touch his head, which showed that Roach understood correctly.

"In that case, those books really need to be burned." Just kidding. They're like heavily contaminated and radioactive things. If it weren't a metaphor, Roach would have wanted to go back immediately and get a professional protective suit before coming into contact with these things again, and then disinfect everything in the room that had been contaminated.

"If I learn great sin magic on my own, will I mutate? Like, grow strange limbs?"

"Hmm!" The little witch nodded, meaning that was the case. Then she opened another book and showed it to Roach, explaining what kind of honor a high-ranking sin mage would have if things got seriously out of control.

Eyeballs of different sizes were set on a forehead like a lotus seedpod, dry hair hung down along the sides of the unusually raised back of the head, and the two arms were long and thin, with different numbers of fingers on each hand, but both were like sharp claws.

Beneath the cloak, countless human hands of varying lengths stretched out from between the waist and abdomen. These hands were as delicate as an infant's arms, with skin covered in ulcer-like marks. The spine was high and protruding, with a considerable number of sharp spikes growing on it. Rather than a human, it was more like a monster that was beginning to take on a human form.

Its body was also entangled with all sorts of things, including ugly thorns and beautiful flowers.

“Jealousy~” The little witch pointed to the thorns fixed to her body and the bright roses at the tips of the thorns, then to the lotus-shaped forehead and eyes, “Peeping~”, followed by the long tongue “Lies”, countless arms and claws “Greed”, and the festering sores on her body “Color”.

In fact, all the side effects of major sin spells and domains are on this diagram. Theoretically, if you reach a certain level with this thing and master all the domains, you will look like this strange creature. As for how many anomalies are hidden under the cloak and clothes, no one knows.

"Do people actually practice spells that make them ugly?"

"Yes!" The little witch nodded vigorously, because ordinary sorcerers couldn't distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate spells. They even came to learn this sorcery ritual with a get-rich-quick mentality.

In Roach's understanding, it's similar to the practices of the Vidyaraja and Vidyaraja, or the Joyful Zen. If you really immerse yourself in them, you've really gone astray, and what you've practiced is an evil method. In reality, it's about separating the spirit and the body in this way in order to comprehend Buddhist teachings.

The Great Sin Spell is similar in that its purpose is to reflect one's own sin through sin, much like the situation in Silent Hill, where one accepts, overcomes, and redeems oneself, ultimately cleansing oneself of the Great Sin Magic so that it no longer affects one.

Of course, as the saying goes, "whitewashing weakens one by three." After whitewashing, the amount of sin magic power will be greatly reduced. Although it is safe, it is not only slower but also weaker than the evil path where one can freely use and control the omnipresent sin magic power.

"Then who would still walk the right path?"

"People who hate ugly things," the little witch replied, "and people who want redemption."

"Then there's no hope. Let's just burn this thing." Roach agreed that it was best to burn it. As for the loss of the lineage, that wasn't a problem. Even without a Great Sin Mage, the Great Sin Magic was still there. Sooner or later, someone would try to use this thing. After killing a group of people, they would naturally know what safe operation meant.

Anyway, all the truly authentic teaching materials and standard methods are here. If you're not willing to learn well, even a god can't save you.

"It's burned clean~" After the lesson, the little witch went down to check, scooped up the ashes in a small bucket, and poured them into a pit that the bull-headed man had just dug. "Make sure the ashes from the magic book are buried properly~"

"why?"

"..."

"Because the ashes of the spellbook also contain magic, it's best to bury them deep so that the ley lines can absorb and purify them," Roach explained. "Although I don't understand why either, you'd better follow the safety manual."

All safety rules are rules that only people who have actually killed have followed, so no matter how absurd they may seem, it's best to follow them.

Meanwhile, in the Black Forest, Alessina led her team cautiously past the edges of those strange creatures. However, leading rookies in stealth was bound to cause trouble, but this trouble wasn't something as simple as stepping on a dead branch; it was something far worse.

Overly nervous, Ray accidentally stepped on the hem of Rosa's cloak in front of him, and with a thud, the four of them fell to the ground, sending snow and mist flying everywhere.

"Run!" Alessina drew her greatsword and held it in front of her. Several sharp thorns pierced towards her, the steel-like thorns striking the greatsword and creating a spark.

"A Great Sin Mage!?" Alessina immediately recognized the opponent's spell style. Only the spells of a Great Sin Mage could be so... strange and unpredictable. After all, people's hearts are fickle, and the effects and forms of sin-based spells are also unpredictable. After the thorns hit, they quickly caused a large number of spikes to grow on the surface of the greatsword. Alessina had to switch back to her fox-human form, where her thick fur blocked the damage from the spikes.

The fox spirit forcefully pulled on the sword hilt, snapping the thorns in two. Two white-cloaked figures approached from the left and right like ninjas, one wielding a sword with both hands and the other holding a sharp dagger.

"The Knight of Judgment!?" The greatsword swung, blocking the two-handed sword that was coming at her, and kicked the dual-wielding warrior, sending him flying back. The greatsword that had been swung back was now rested on the fox girl's shoulder, and she sank a bit.

"How could a Knight of Judgment be mixed up with a Sin Mage?" It's like a firefighter and an arsonist working together. Both are absorbing the magic of sin. Knights of Judgment, also known as Knights of Martyrdom, are the most respected paladin faction in various sects.

They believe that someone must bear the sins of the world, so they will actively absorb the power of great sins, believing that this can alleviate the sins of the world.

Although this is like a drop in the ocean, their faith holds that even if sin is reduced by half, it is still less than a cup of water. In addition, besides sacrificing themselves and enduring the mutations brought about by the magic of great sin, the Knights of Judgment will also literally sever the birth of sin. For evildoers, this group is quite troublesome, especially for clergy. These knights are like military police, specializing in internal inspections, and they will kill anyone they catch.

Of course, they wouldn't bother with petty evils. Although they are ugly and mutated in appearance, they still maintain a heart of gold. Therefore, their weapons are shrouded in a bright and pure holy light, and they receive the most divine blessings.

It's truly bizarre that a wicked sorcerer who spreads evil everywhere, tempting others to depravity, and a knight who willingly sacrifices himself to bear the sins of the world and vows to cleanse it of all evil are mixed together.

“It’s no use. In their eyes, we are just clergy of the Knights, while you… you are the monster.” A great sin mage chuckled and took off his hood to reveal a beautiful woman’s face. Thorns were rooted in her eyes, which were replaced by two delicate roses.

Countless thorns were entwined inside the clothes, their sharp points digging deep into the flesh—the power of jealousy, a power gained by harming oneself.

“Blind faith and foolish belief are also sins!” Accompanied by the words of “jealousy,” another great sinner emerged, with countless arms growing from his body. Two arms covered his mouth and eyes, one above the other, while another pair of small arms blocked his ears, preventing him from seeing, hearing, or speaking.

"Blindness will confuse them about who the enemy is; foolish faith will make them readily believe the illusions we create," the envious giggled. "Mighty warrior, accept your fate, the Ring of Original Sin sends you its sincerest greetings."

"Tch!" Alessina dodged the attacks from both sides again, giving a apt assessment of her opponent's confidence, "Idiot!" With that, she crushed the amulet, and a strange magical power shot into the sky.

Chapter 100 The Invincible Witch Has Fallen Again (Sad)

"What's going on?" "Jealousy" suddenly retreated, and a large number of black and red thorns emerged from under his robe, piercing into the snow and transforming into a wall of thorns that surged towards Alessina. "Whoosh~" A warm wind blew by, and flames quickly ignited on the wall of thorns. The silvery-white spiritual fire swiftly burned away the thorns.

“Nothingness originates from cognition, cognition influences the spirit, nothingness and spirit are one and the same,” Livia’s calm and soft voice rang out. It was clear that she was trying her best to imitate the image of a powerful witch, but the unnatural trembling of her voice still revealed her nervousness.