Chapter 595 – Sacred Cemetery

Though Mo Lan couldn’t wait to get back and work on magic candy that could tempt Angels, tonight’s Radiant Wood sap still needed to be collected.

And everyone had already agreed that tonight they would start collecting from the Sacred Cemetery.

“Oh yeah! Off the clock!” Holy Song Lily of the Valley hugged her flowerpot and bounced away from the entrance.

The witches who had been chatting about gossip and then perusing the newly arrived novels at the tea restaurant also closed their books and stood up.

“It’s time!” Garona said.

Holy City, and indeed many places throughout the entire Sacred Mountains, were bright as daylight even at night due to the omnipresent light elemental force. It was simply impossible to tell whether it was day or night based on the brightness of the surroundings.

Especially here in Holy City—in other places, at least you could look up at night and see a darker sky different from daytime, but in Holy City, looking up only revealed Heaven’s Peak radiating white light.

However, light-attribute plants like Holy Song Lily of the Valley could still sense the aura of dark elements that emerged at night.

When Holy Song Lily of the Valley went off duty, it meant night had arrived—time to go collect Radiant Wood sap.

The witches grabbed their brooms, walked out of the tea restaurant, and flew up into the sky side by side.

The Hermits watching the vivid colors streak across the sky looked on as if watching lost little lambs.

“How hideous! How can there be such ugly colors?”

“Sigh! The Radiant Wood in the city is going to suffer again. Why don’t they understand? Excessive desires only lead to one’s downfall. Only after embracing the Light will you know what true happiness is! Wealth is merely an external possession! To harm Radiant Wood for such things is truly deplorable!”

“Indeed! I used to think I couldn’t survive without money, but after embracing the Light, I realized that the Light would never let its followers fall into darkness. Whenever I couldn’t afford bread, I only had to pray to the Light, and the Light would bestow upon me coins enough to fill my belly.”

“Stubborn and foolish witches!”

“But there is one witch who is different. I believe that with her leading the way, the remaining witches will soon become our companions too!”

“Who? Oh! That beautiful golden-haired witch!”

“Wonderful! If one day, all the witches flying overhead were in beautiful white and radiant gold, I would see them as a beautiful streak of light, rather than the ugly colored ribbons they are now.”

…

The witches had long grown accustomed to the strange looks from the Hermits.

Garona, leading the group, even deliberately had them lower their brooms: “Fly lower! Let the Hermits get a good look at our witch version of a rainbow!”

The witches: “Wahoo~”

Mo Lan, the only one wearing a white witch’s robe: “…”

No wonder they had all worn vivid solid-colored outfits today—they were playing rainbow!

After their showy lap around the city, the “rainbows” finally landed in the Sacred Cemetery.

The Sacred Cemetery was the burial ground for Holy City’s Hermits, considered a public space that anyone could visit.

The cemetery was full of Radiant Wood trees, but the trunks of these Radiant Wood trees clearly lacked the crystal-clear, shimmering radiance of the ones outside. In Bella’s words, they had “a weary look of insufficient sap” about them.

Though the Hermits all claimed that the Radiant Wood in Holy City suffered at the hands of the witches once a month, in reality, the witches collected Radiant Wood sap with great restraint—not only harmless to the trees, but actually beneficial.

Each Radiant Wood tree was only collected from once a year, and after every collection, the witches would use Tree Friend, Fertile Soil spell, Lush Flourishing spell, and other plant-benefiting magic to nourish the Radiant Wood.

One could say that the reason the roadside Radiant Wood in Holy City grew so well was not only because of the rich light elemental force and favorable growing conditions here, but also because the witches’ sustainable collection and nourishment played a significant role.

Every Radiant Wood tree in the cemetery had a Honey-Light Vine climbing up it.

Tiny rootlets beneath the Honey-Light Vine’s leaves had burrowed into the Radiant Wood’s trunk, drawing nutrients from it.

“This is the oldest Radiant Wood tree in the cemetery. The tomb beside it belongs to the original designer of the Stairway of Light, who died during its construction. This tree was planted at the same time as the Radiant Wood flanking the Stairway of Light.” Garona pointed to the largest Radiant Wood in the garden.

“But it looks much smaller than the Radiant Wood on either side of the Stairway of Light,” Agnes said. “Is it because of these Honey-Light Vines?”

“That must be it,” Evelyn said.

“These Honey-Light Vines were probably planted deliberately to harvest Honey-Light Fruit,” Mo Lan said. “Below this tree there’s also Light Milk Grass and Frosted Sugar Moss, and over there is a cluster of Crisp Light Sugarcane. Light Milk Grass produces a milky sap that takes on a caramel flavor when heated, Frosted Sugar Moss has spores that taste as sweet as cotton candy, and Crisp Light Sugarcane has stems filled with glowing syrup. So many sugar-yielding plants in one place—it can’t be a coincidence.”

“Let’s just ask the Radiant Wood!” Garona used Tree Friend on the largest and most sentient tree, and in exchange, the Radiant Wood had to answer one question from her.

Radiant Wood from within the Gate of Heaven carried the same risk as Light-Shadow Sprites of being the eyes and ears of the Angels, so Garona asked: “Where is the Honey-Light Vine’s fruit?”

“Luwen picked them all,” the Radiant Wood answered.

“Garona, where does Luwen live? I want to go find him and see if I can trade for some Honey-Light Fruit. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to search the Sacred Mountains for candy ingredients, or exchange for resource cards with Gem Coins at the Dawn Society,” Mo Lan said.

Right now she was just a witch preparing to open a candy shop—searching for ingredients to make candy was perfectly reasonable.

This was the method they had previously discussed with the witches for making contact with Luwen.

“Go ahead, but we won’t be joining you. The optimal window for collecting Radiant Wood sap is only tonight, and we don’t want to waste time on those annoying Hermits,” Garona said.

“Don’t say that, Garona. The Hermits and us simply have different beliefs. We should respect other people’s faith,” Mo Lan said, reciting her prepared lines.

“Either way, we’re not going. It would only cause trouble for you—those Hermits have always looked down on us.” Garona wore a look of disgust.

Mo Lan was about to say more when Evelyn stopped her: “Moira, just go by yourself. Luwen lives in the white house deep inside the cemetery. We’ll be collecting Radiant Wood sap here in the cemetery today, so call for us if anything comes up.”

“Alright!” Mo Lan sighed and headed alone into the depths of the cemetery.

The other witches’ parts were done. From here on, it was her solo performance.

Deep in the cemetery.

A small Sprite bathed in a faint glow floated up to Luwen’s ear and whispered to him. Luwen frowned.

“What? Those annoying witches are here again? Haven’t they already given up on the cemetery’s Radiant Wood? No, I need to go check—can’t have them damaging the Honey-Light Vines!”