The Last Witch Lord

On the way back, Cat Girl was still thinking about Priest Ai Jing's last words.

"You've only just entered Spiritual Initiation, so you won't feel it yet," Priest Ai Jing had said. "But once you enter Star Glow, you might develop an extremely sensitive, deeply insecure personality. If you advance to Dark Moon, you could become radically independent and reject everyone else. Because of this, you need to start preparing yourself now. You have to understand what you truly want to do, what you truly desire. Only when your personal goals align with the core focus of a Priest will you have any hope of advancing to Divine Offspring Priest."

When Cat Girl asked why she was teaching her so enthusiastically, Priest Ai Jing had just smiled.

"Because Li Ban asked Qian Que to take care of you. Qian Que felt that given my special background, I'd be better suited to start you on your journey of cultivating the heart. And as for me? Like I said, I just really like you!"

The sudden, heavy weight of all this goodwill almost left Cat Girl breathless.

But now she knew this was a weakness she would have to overcome in her future heart cultivation.

Seeing Cat Girl fall silent, Priest Ai Jing said no more.

Cat Girl needed time to digest all of this.

Cultivating the heart was never an overnight epiphany; it was built through years of slow accumulation.

She walked ahead with her hands clasped behind her back, though she didn't forget to keep a watchful eye on their surroundings.

Suddenly, Priest Ai Jing stopped.

Even deep in thought, Cat Girl's reflexes were sharp, and she instantly dropped into a defensive stance.

"Look over there." Priest Ai Jing pointed toward a blurry alleyway in the fog. "There's an ice crystal over there too. Want to open it and take a look?"

Cat Girl didn't hesitate. "I do."

"Aren't you afraid there's another doomed person frozen inside?"

"I'm not," Cat Girl said, already heading toward the alley.

Priest Ai Jing smiled brightly and followed. Cat Girl stepped up to the crystal and cast the Rending Technique.

For their first spell, most new Priests chose arts like the Terror Spell, Shrinking Ground to an Inch, or the Flight Technique.

But after seeing Li Ban use it, Cat Girl had been most interested in the Rending Technique.

What she truly sought was the ability to kill her enemies in a single strike.

A fissure instantly tore across the ice crystal in front of her.

She had been careful when casting the spell, ensuring the Rending Technique didn't pierce completely through the ice.

She felt that if there was another doomed person inside, they should at least get one last look at the world before they died.

But when the ice crystal shattered and revealed the figure inside, both Cat Girl and Priest Ai Jing froze.

The person standing inside the ice crystal—was Priest Xiu Ye again!

"After the spiritual rhinoceros grew sluggish, we didn't immediately suspect a Mutated Element. At that time, although the Ten Provinces had already started banning Mutated Elements, no one had ever seen terrifying consequences that could devastate an entire province. Because of this, the Imperial Dynasty somewhat underestimated the mutation of the spiritual rhinoceros."

"Where did the anomalies first appear in Yun Province?"

"We have no record of where it first appeared. By the time we realized something was wrong, seven or eight different locations in Yun Province had already reported problems."

"If you went to those places now, could you still find them?"

"I can. I've stayed in Yun Province this entire time; I could find the places I want to go with my eyes closed."

"Let's go, then."

Li Ban stood up and set out again, bringing along Priest Xiu Ye, who didn't have much time left.

The mountains and towns that all looked the same to him were places Priest Xiu Ye recognized with crystal clarity.

Even though Li Ban's field of vision was limited to less than a hundred meters, Xiu Ye guided him precisely toward the nearest affected location.

Yun Province was massive. It took Li Ban an entire day just to reach their first destination.

When he finally stopped at Xiu Ye's prompt, he found himself in a village at the foot of a mountain.

The village was completely ruined, of course. He could only guess what this place used to be from the scattered architectural remnants.

"This is Great West Mountain Village," Xiu Ye said, actually able to name the place.

Most Priests were haughty and aloof.

Even some Imperial Dynasty Priests didn't know the towns under their jurisdiction, let alone the tiny villages.

"How are you so familiar with Yun Province?"

Li Ban had spent the most time in Yu Province, yet apart from a few fixed locations, he had no idea what other towns or villages were around, much less their names.

"I was born to a family of herb merchants in Yun Province. I used to follow my parents across every single mountain peak here."

In the past, Yun Province was a landmass situated even farther west than Yingzhou and Lan Province. It had more mountains, vaster forests, and naturally, a wider variety of exotic flora.

"On my way here, I saw many caves that used to hide a lot of people. Did you arrange those?"

"Yes!" Xiu Ye's voice finally gained a spark of life. "At the time, the strange disease in the towns was spreading from person to person, and from animal to animal. To prevent infection, we arranged for everyone to retreat into the forests and isolate themselves from one another. Did you see them later? Did anyone make it out?"

Xiu Ye didn't dare hope that everyone hiding in those caves had escaped with their lives. But as long as even a fraction of them had been saved, her day-and-night efforts back then wouldn't have been in vain.

"Yes."

Li Ban thought of the caves full of skeletons, and the hopeful whispers that still lingered within them.

He wasn't sure if anyone had escaped, and he knew the chances of ordinary people surviving were incredibly slim. But when Xiu Ye asked him, Li Ban gave her a positive answer anyway.

"That's wonderful."

As Li Ban walked into Great West Mountain Village, Xiu Ye eagerly explained the situation from back then.

"First, this village reported that someone woke up with their body completely covered in white fuzz."

"White fuzz? What did it look like? Were the strands distinct, or were several clusters joined together at the ends?"

"The latter. Have you seen it?"

"Then that was the Fluffy Dandelion, not the white fuzz from the Recycling Station that corrodes the world." Li Ban felt slightly relieved.

However, he immediately realized that the now seemingly harmless Fluffy Dandelion had actually been a lethal weapon during the Mutated Element disaster in Yun Province.

But they had already confirmed multiple times that the Fluffy Dandelion no longer possessed any offensive properties.

Could it be that after the Nihility State stabilized, the Fluffy Dandelion had also lost its former lethality?

Li Ban continued walking into the village. "I've seen something similar, but it's no longer harmful. What was the situation back then?"

"Back then, we called it Fine Down Disease. Anyone who grew that white fuzz on their body would die in their sleep. Some spirit practitioners with strong mental fortitude managed to stay awake for six days, but on the seventh, it was as if all their essence had been drained away. They became emaciated, lost consciousness, and died anyway."

"The common folk called it Sleeping Death Disease, while some—heh—gave it a more elegant name: Seven-Day Return."

Li Ban explored the village ruins while listening to Xiu Ye's explanation.

A tall shadow appeared vaguely in the fog ahead.

Li Ban approached and saw that it was another ice crystal.

"Don't tell me there's another Priest frozen in here?"

Li Ban immediately shattered the ice crystal. As the fog dispersed, he saw a figure inside, just as he expected.

But when Li Ban got a clear look at the figure's face, he froze in place.

Standing there was, once again, another Priest Xiu Ye!

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