Chapter 276 – Night of Thunder

“The Continental Travel Guidance course’s instructional videos touch on the Purple Night Grasslands a little, and 《The Valen Complete Travel Guide》 covers it in even more detail. I also came across some information when I was watching the Mo-Pic book of 《The Valen Complete Travel Guide》.

The senior witches are always like that—they breeze past beautiful, livable, peaceful, and safe places with barely a mention.

But dangerous lands like the Purple Night Grasslands? They describe every peril in painstaking detail, terrified we might put ourselves in harm’s way.

When I read about it, I couldn’t help mulling over whether there was any way to safely survive the night in a place like the Purple Night Grasslands.

Drawing on experience from my previous life, I figured hiding underground and using iron mesh for ventilation openings should be feasible.

I just never had a chance to test it in the field. All I’d done was study the reactions between lightning elemental force and water elemental force, metallic elemental force, and earth elemental force, and confirmed that lightning produces the same effects as on Earth when it encounters water, metal, and the ground.

That’s why I was able to respond so quickly just now.

I’m quite happy it worked, too. From now on, when our witch predecessors write about the Purple Night Grasslands in their books, it won’t just be ‘lightning hellscape, must leave before nightfall’ anymore!”

Mo Lan said with some excitement.

“You came up with the shelter method all by yourself, Moira?” Sylph said in surprise.

Vasida pulled her head back in, rested her chin on her hand, and said thoughtfully, “Then… the Headmistresses must be quite disappointed!”

Deep beneath the Academy Castle, No. 68, No. 69, No. 70, and Lady Amisha—who had been on high alert and ready to rescue them ever since the three girls entered the Greengrass Plains that afternoon—fell silent: “…”

Who could understand their feelings! The whole point of setting up the Greengrass Plains was to teach the young witches a lesson about memorizing the dangerous lands listed in 《The Valen Complete Travel Guide》 and not leaving anything to chance!

Some dangerous lands looked calm and peaceful on the surface, as if all was well with the world—they simply hadn’t revealed their fearsome true face yet.

It was supposed to be a trap. Over the years, countless young witches had stumbled and fallen here. But now, these three had cracked it.

“Moira, even we avoid the nights on the Purple Night Grasslands. How did all those wild beasts we encountered along the way survive them?” Sylph asked, puzzled.

“That was an oversight on my part,” Mo Lan sighed.

“There are plenty of wild beasts living on the Purple Night Grasslands, but they’ve all been tempered by nights of lightning and evolved skin that can resist electrical strikes.

They look the same as their kin outside the grasslands, but the properties of their skin are completely different. Since most of them are covered in feathers or fur, it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference with the naked eye.

But if you shaved away the feathers and fur, you’d find their skin has a faint reddish tinge. That’s the result of their ancestors’ blood potential erupting after being struck by lightning again and again, accelerating their evolution.

The sheep we killed had that same faint reddish tinge to their skin. I didn’t think of it at the time—otherwise I wouldn’t have been caught so off guard.”

“Then wouldn’t the hides from those sheep we just killed be lightning-proof?” Vasida said with some regret—they hadn’t kept the sheepskins.

Mo Lan shook her head. “If you could avoid the nighttime lightning just by using these beasts’ hides, the Purple Night Grasslands wouldn’t be a danger zone that our witch predecessors repeatedly warn us to stay away from.

It’s the combination of flowing blood and the outer skin that creates the resistance to lightning. Once the sheep are dead, the skin dies too—it becomes no different from ordinary sheepskin.”

No materials wasted, then. Vasida felt slightly better about it, but then she thought of their roast lamb sitting on the hillside getting rained on and struck by lightning, and her heart sank again: “Anything sticking up above the ground gets struck by lightning—our roast lambs won’t be charred to a crisp by morning, will they?!”

She hadn’t even eaten her fill at dinner!

The more she thought about it, the sadder she felt. “I don’t care—even if they’re burned to charcoal, I’m picking them up and feeding them to the Devouring Stomach! Can’t let them go to waste!”

The Devouring Stomach: “???”

Hearing this, Sylph seemed to remember something and began rummaging through her satchel. After a moment, she pulled out a paper-wrapped package and patted Vasida on the back. “Vasida, look what this is.”

“Breadfruit Cake?” Vasida said. “Sylph, don’t worry about me. I ate plenty before we set out at noon. Missing a bit at dinner is nothing. We should save the Breadfruit Cake for emergencies later!”

“No, that’s not it!” Sylph looked at what was in her hand. “I grabbed the wrong one.”

She continued digging through her bag. “Got it!”

Mo Lan and Vasida both looked over curiously.

It was a haphazardly wrapped sheet of oil paper, and inside were several fist-sized pieces of meat—bodies, legs, and all.

“Leftover roast lamb?”

“Sylph, when did you pack those away?”

Mo Lan and Vasida were overjoyed.

“I can’t do the Earth-Turning Spell, so I couldn’t help you dig the burrow. I figured nobody had eaten much yet, so I packed up the roast lamb,” Sylph said shyly, head lowered. “It’s a shame it’s gone cold by now. It won’t taste as good.”

“That’s fine!” Mo Lan said. “Let’s dig out some more earth and widen the space in here. Then I’ll open up a larger ventilation hole and use wind-element magic to help circulate the air, and we can roast the lamb again! The only thing is, we can’t dump the excavated soil outside—we’ll have to trouble your Devouring Stomach, Vasida.”

“No trouble at all! Getting to eat hot roast lamb would be wonderful!” Vasida said happily. “Besides, these were big sheep, and most of the meat was meant for me anyway. Most of what I eat goes to satisfy the Devouring Stomach, so it’s only fair it does a bit of work. It’s not like it hasn’t eaten dirt before!”

The Devouring Stomach: “…”

Sylph lowered her head, regretting once again that she hadn’t buckled down and learned all the earth-element magic.

Mo Lan noticed Sylph with her head nearly buried between her knees and gave her arm a poke. “Sylph, could you use the Growth Acceleration spell on the walls of the finished burrow to grow some vines or other plants to hold the walls in place and prevent a cave-in? It only needs to last one night.”

Sylph’s head shot up in an instant, every trace of dejection swept away from her eyes.

“I can do that! I guarantee I’ll get it done! I brought lots of plant seeds that can be quickly accelerated, and quite a few of them have extensive root systems. They can definitely hold the walls in place. My Growth Acceleration spell is close to Intermediate level too—forget lasting one night, two or three days would be no problem!”

“Then I’m counting on you!” Mo Lan said with a smile. “Let’s switch positions. You start planting from the entrance side.”

“Okay!”

The two of them carefully shuffled around each other. Mo Lan moved to Vasida’s side, and together they dug deeper into the burrow.

Vasida leaned close to Mo Lan’s ear and whispered conspiratorially, “Aren’t you worried that once Sylph learns earth-element magic, she’ll realize you did that on purpose and get mad?”

Using the Petrification Spell to turn the earthen walls into stone walls would obviously be more convenient and far sturdier.

The Petrification Spell was also earth-element magic—both Mo Lan and Vasida knew it.

“Sylph would never!” Mo Lan said with certainty. “She’d only work even harder to learn more magic!”