Chapter 456 – Long-Tailed Blue Scale Bird

Chapter 456 – Long-Tailed Blue Scale Bird

Greta spent every day holed up in the cave meditating and stockpiling cards, so there wasn’t much worth paying attention to. Mo Lan and the others pushed the two flying carpets together and retreated into the tent to do their own things.

They left Zhizhi, along with Egg Fried Rice, Spicy Hotpot, and Nick—the four of them—sitting outside the tent to keep watch.

The death servants didn’t need rest. They just weren’t terribly bright, but with Zhizhi there, everything was perfectly secure.

This area was close to the Black Forest and had been affected by the Death Force—even the grass grew sparse and withered. Mo Lan sat at her desk reading and couldn’t even be bothered to roll up the tent’s window flap.

Greta really could hold out. She stubbornly kept going until she’d stockpiled two thick stacks of Food Cards before finally showing signs of being ready to depart.

When Zhizhi called Mo Lan and the others out to look, they could hardly believe it.

“She’s leaving now?” Vasida poked her head out to look. Greta was wrapped in her weathered, tattered black robe, only her dirt-caked face visible. Beneath the robe, something bulged conspicuously.

She’d probably just climbed out of the cave—her legs had gone numb, so she was squatting on the ground. She pulled out all the grass from the fake bush covering the cave entrance, then used Grass Rope to weave new grass ropes and widen the original grass netting. Finally, she draped the whole thing over her black robe.

It happened to be nighttime.

“At first glance, I thought it was some kind of magical beast!” Lilith said.

“Didn’t she trade for three Shoddy Mage Robes? Why isn’t she wearing one?” Sylph asked, puzzled.

“Those are just ordinary clothes—and the shoddily-made version at that. She’s probably afraid of ruining them,” Lilith said. “She’s in the uninhabited zone right now, and nobody would expect someone to be watching her, so image and all that just doesn’t matter.”

“Click~”

Mo Lan turned to look at Vasida. “What are you doing?”

“Taking an embarrassing photo! Hehe!” Vasida rubbed her chin. “She might never know we exist for the rest of her life, but we can still keep a memento for ourselves!”

As she spoke, she floated the camera behind her and stepped into the frame herself. “Come on, come on, let’s take a group photo! Once we leave the uninhabited zone, we won’t get another chance like this.”

Once they reached the human empire, they wouldn’t dare fly around so openly on their flying carpets anymore.

The invisibility barrier wasn’t foolproof, after all.

The photo was captured, and Vasida tucked the camera away with satisfaction.

Greta, still squatting on the ground, fumbled around and pulled out a card and a compass, placing them side by side. “Pathseeking! Capital of the Duchy of Lance!”

The card vanished, transforming into a bright, fluorescent-green magical arrow pointing northeast.

“Is this really a card made with the Pathseeking Spell?” A large question mark appeared above Lilith’s head.

“I made some slight modifications,” Mo Lan said. “I added a conspicuous marker.”

The Pathseeking Spell originally worked by giving the caster an intuitive sense of the target’s direction in their mind. A more skilled caster could even divine the exact distance and location.

But this world had produced someone as spectacularly direction-challenged as Greta!

Mo Lan was afraid that if the Pathseeking Spell pointed east, Greta would head west, so she’d had no choice but to add an arrow indicator.

However, the arrow indicator wasn’t permanent.

“You really went above and beyond,” Vasida said, patting her on the shoulder.

Greta was well aware of her own shortcoming, which was why she’d placed the compass beside her.

By the time the arrow indicator vanished, she had already matched it against the compass dial and found the direction the arrow had been pointing. “This way, I shouldn’t go too far off course!” A hoarse voice emerged from beneath the grass-netted black robe.

She hadn’t spoken in so long that she almost felt like she’d forgotten how to talk.

Three Pathseeking Spell cards weren’t enough to guide her all the way to the capital of the Duchy of Lance.

But combined with the compass, getting her out of the uninhabited zone wouldn’t be a problem. Once she was out, she’d be able to find a way to the capital.

Greta cradled the compass and headed in the direction the Pathseeking Spell card had indicated.

“Oh no, at this rate she’s going to end up walking straight into the parts of the Emerald Creek Plains swarming with magical beasts,” Lilith said. “In her current state, even with healing cards, she’d barely stand a chance against magical beasts!”

“Should we go ahead and clear out the magical beasts in her path?” Vasida licked the corner of her lips. “I wonder what Emerald Creek Plains flying beast wings taste like roasted!”

“Let’s wait a bit longer. Though roasted wings can definitely be arranged,” Mo Lan said. “Common flying magical beast materials from the Emerald Creek Plains have already been sampled and uploaded by other witches—there are corresponding cards for them.”

She wanted to see how far Greta could get on her own.

Greta walked along in her grass-netted black robe, collecting grass the entire way—dry grass at first, then green grass—stuffing it all into the grass netting draped over her.

She didn’t even know why she was doing it. She just instinctively felt it would be safer this way.

Even though dragging all this extra weight made walking much more strenuous and seriously slowed her pace, she didn’t give up.

The darkness of night in this place felt safer to her than daylight.

So she set out at night, walking and resting in turns. When she saw a sliver of pale light breaking on the horizon at dawn, a sharp sense of danger suddenly surged within her. She looked up, and in the distant sky, two enormous blue long-tailed birds shot skyward, letting out piercing cries.

Without a word, Greta threw herself flat on the ground.

She curled her entire body beneath the grass netting, slowing her breathing as much as possible.

Now she finally understood why, when she’d been preparing to set out, she’d felt compelled to bring the grass netting along—and why she’d kept adding fresh grass to it the whole way.

“Those are Long-Tailed Blue Scale Birds. Advanced magical beasts, skilled in water magic attacks—’Water Chain’ and ‘Water Wave Surge,'” Mo Lan couldn’t help but marvel. “Greta is truly lucky!”

“How is luck useful right now? Those are Advanced magical beasts! Greta would be killed in a single encounter! She wouldn’t even have time to use a healing card,” Vasida said worriedly. “She’s wearing a grass net full of holes—you think that’s going to fool an Advanced magical beast? One sniff and they’d know something was off!”

“If it were any other Advanced magical beast, she’d definitely be in danger. But these are Long-Tailed Blue Scale Birds,” Mo Lan said.

“Long-Tailed Blue Scale Birds spend most of their lives in water. The feathers on their wings have partially degenerated into scale-feathers.

Compared to their flying ability, they’re much stronger at killing prey in the water. When it comes to flying, they can’t go very high or very far.

At this distance, as long as she doesn’t move around recklessly, there’s a good chance the Long-Tailed Blue Scale Birds won’t detect her.

If she had turned and run just now, that’s when she’d truly be in danger.

With Long-Tailed Blue Scale Birds in the area, other magical beasts probably won’t come near either.

That’s why I said she’s lucky.

When the Blue Scale Birds go back into the water to rest, she’ll still have a very good chance of slipping away!”

“That’s absolutely incredible!” Sylph said. “She doesn’t even know where the Emerald Creek Plains are, let alone what Long-Tailed Blue Scale Birds are, yet she managed to make exactly the right choice.”