Chapter 514 – A Letter from the Wilds

Chapter 514 – A Letter from the Wilds

The advanced golden bird stationery was the best Mo Lan could currently produce, with better confidentiality than the mid or low-grade versions.

She wrote a brief account of the sound she had just heard along with her concerns about Lady Anita, then used the Golden Bird spell to summon a golden bird.

She poured ample summoning power into it. The golden bird snatched up the letter and slipped through to another dimension, heading toward the Wilds.

“Today is Saturday, and I gave it plenty of summoning power, so the golden bird will definitely reach the Wilds within a day — in time for tomorrow’s opening of the Witch Academy half-plane’s letter delivery channel. Whatever the situation is, we’ll know then,” Mo Lan said.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph nodded.

After that, a long silence filled the carriage.

Mo Lan said nothing more. She summoned her Grimoire and, following her study schedule, continued reading.

If Lady Anita was fine, she would continue strengthening herself according to plan. If something had happened to Lady Anita, then she needed to grow stronger even faster — to become the new shield of the witch race and safeguard the peace of the Wilds.

Mo Lan’s actions roused the other three from their daze.

They blinked, then without a word between them, each summoned her own Grimoire, forced herself to calm down, and began reading.

The carriage did not stop that day.

All they could do inside was study to take their minds off things.

The carriage ran through the night, and they read through the night.

The next day, when it came time for the Witch Academy half-plane to open its letter delivery channel, none of them could read any longer.

Even Mo Lan could no longer focus — her eyes were still on the book, but her heart had already drifted back to the Academy.

Madam Amisha must have received the letter by now!

Was Lady Carmela in the Academy half-plane too? Were they writing a reply right now?

When would the golden bird’s letter arrive?

Never before had Mo Lan felt that golden bird mail was so inconvenient.

Too slow!

Before, she had thought that without satellites, even though she could make phones with cards, there was no signal for networked communication.

Later she discovered that the Book of Cards itself and the cards shared a connection that could serve as an internal local network. But then she worried that witches outside the Wilds frequently using cards to communicate would expose the link between the cards and the witches — even the Sorceresses — and jeopardize the Dawn Society’s development.

That was why she had kept putting off making communication-type cards.

But now, she regretted it.

If she had known, she should have made a pair of one-to-one communication cards and given them to Lady Carmela and Madam Amisha.

Then she wouldn’t be waiting in such anxious torment.

When the sun set, a golden bird finally slipped through dimensions and appeared inside the carriage.

A familiar-looking letter was dropped onto the table.

“This is… the letter I sent to Lady Carmela?” Mo Lan said.

The golden bird nodded, then shook its head.

Mo Lan used mind-reading magic to understand what it meant.

The golden bird had not been able to find Lady Carmela, so it had brought the letter back.

Golden bird mail could reach even the Underground, even the Abyss.

If it could not find Lady Carmela, there was only one possibility — she was no longer in Valen.

Originally, Lady Carmela, Lady Traci, and Lady Anita had been taking turns standing guard in Valen to watch over the Wilds.

Until Lady Traci and Lady Anita returned, Lady Carmela would not leave.

But now Lady Carmela was no longer in Valen. Had Lady Traci or Lady Anita come back? Or had neither returned?

Mo Lan’s heart sank. She knew it was most likely the latter.

Lady Carmela had once said that according to the arrangement among the three Sorceresses, Lady Traci would not return from the Well of the Sky for at least a hundred years. The time for their rotation was still far off!

About an hour later, five more golden birds arrived in quick succession.

Five letters now sat on the table.

Four of them were in the Witch Council’s official envelopes — sent by the Witch Council — one each for Mo Lan, Lilith, Sylph, and Vasida.

The last one was from Madam Amisha.

After letting the golden birds leave, Mo Lan opened Madam Amisha’s letter first.

Lilith, Sylph, and Vasida crowded around to read it together.

The handwriting was scrawled and clearly written in great haste. The contents were brief:

“Lady Anita’s and Lady Carmela’s Contract Magic bonds have also been severed, but the Firework Blasts in the defensive magic formation of the Wilds are still functioning.

Lady Carmela has already gone to the Well of the Sky to investigate. The exact situation is still unclear.

Don’t panic, any of you. Focus on what you need to do.”

“Lady Anita’s Contract Magic bond was severed too?” Sylph said. “A contractor can’t voluntarily break a contract, can they? Unless…”

“Unless the contractor no longer exists.” An irrepressible wave of despair welled up in Vasida’s heart.

“No, wait — that’s not right! The Firework Blasts in the defensive magic formation of the Wilds are still there!” Lilith said. “If Lady Anita truly no longer existed, the Firework Blasts should have disappeared too!”

“There’s another possibility — the contractor still exists, but has permanently lost the ability to use the corresponding magic,” Mo Lan said.

“A Sorceress who can’t use magic — you mean…” Lilith realized what Mo Lan was implying.

Mo Lan nodded.

“Sorceresses cast magic through Mana, and Mana comes from our bloodline. The bloodline depends on the physical body. When the body dies, naturally one can no longer use magic. But don’t forget — besides the body, there is also the soul!”

Mo Lan herself was an example of someone whose body had been destroyed while her soul persisted.

She had even wandered the cosmos for so long, still carrying memories of her former life, before being reborn as a witch.

“The only thing is, I’m not sure whether a Sorceress’s Manifested Gift is bound to the body or the soul. But it absolutely requires Mana to activate.

As for the Firework Blasts in the defensive magic formation of the Wilds… I don’t know how they’ve been preserved…”

In the end, this was only Mo Lan’s speculation.

But the existence of the soul still kindled a glimmer of hope in all of them.

They then opened the letters from the Witch Council.

They had already half-guessed the contents before opening them, but actually seeing the words still came as something of a shock.

“To all witches,

The Fireworks Witch Anita may have met with misfortune. Effective immediately, do not attempt to use Firework Blasts outside the Wilds, lest they be discovered by other races.

The defensive magic formation of the Wilds is still functioning normally. The Firework Blasts’ ability to automatically annihilate intruders may hold for at most ten more years.

Please make your preparations accordingly.

— The Witch Council”

“The Firework Blasts in the defensive magic formation can only hold for ten more years!”

What this meant, all four of them understood with perfect clarity.

When the time came, if a single member of another race tried to enter the Wilds and was not blasted to ash by Firework Blasts raining from the sky, then the news of the Fireworks Witch’s fall would be impossible to conceal.

When that happened…

“Ten years! We must spread the Dawn Society to every corner of Valen within ten years,” Mo Lan said.