Chapter 587 – Light-Shadow Sprites

Chapter 587 – Light-Shadow Sprites

It was not until the Morningstar Dwarves discovered that the light-element ore veins of Shadowless Mountain were rapidly deteriorating that, in order to survive, they increased their mining efforts. In doing so, they inadvertently uncovered the secret of the Light-Shadow Sprites, and only then did they realize that everything had been a conspiracy from the very beginning.

The Light-Shadow Sprites — elemental creatures unique to the Sacred Mountains, born when light and dark elements accidentally intertwined, notorious for pickpocketing and tormenting travelers — were in truth eyes and ears created by the Angels using the power of faith.

When Mo Lan saw this revelation in Forgestar’s memories, she was utterly shocked.

Who could have imagined that the Light-Shadow Sprites, whose manner of birth and behavior bore absolutely no connection to Angels, were actually the Angels’ eyes and ears!

She had even specifically added a location where Light-Shadow Sprites frequently appeared to her travel route, planning to collect some of their blood, copy their memories, and see if she could learn their magic of turning intangible and becoming immune to attacks!

Now she could only feel grateful that she had a habit of casting luck spells on herself whenever she had the chance. Before she had even found the Light-Shadow Sprites, she had already learned this enormous secret from the Morningstar Dwarves.

Otherwise, when she used Psychic Magic, there was a very high chance the Angels would have detected her.

A Witch who could use mage-level Psychic Magic — if the Angels were even slightly clever, it wasn’t impossible for them to guess she was a Sorceress.

If she then went to Holy City knowing nothing, it would be no different from walking straight into a trap.

Although the Dawn Society could serve as a useful tool for Mo Lan to pressure other races into maintaining friendly relations with witches, the prerequisite was that she herself must not fall under anyone else’s control.

How could the Light-Shadow Sprites possibly be the Angels’ eyes and ears? Moreover, based on what the Morningstar Dwarves had discovered, every single Light-Shadow Sprite had an Angel controlling it from behind — it was essentially the same as the Angels deploying remote-controlled robots with mobile cameras out in the world.

The Angels maintained their sacred, inviolable posture, sitting high atop Heaven’s Peak and rarely descending to the mortal world, yet they sent Light-Shadow Sprites out to wander the Sacred Mountains, stealing travelers’ belongings and pulling all manner of pranks. The more she thought about it, the more contradictory it seemed.

Could it be that they’d kept up their lofty act for so long that the repression had become too much, and this was their way of letting loose and blowing off steam?

Come to think of it, the Light-Shadow Sprites were supposedly born from the interweaving of light and dark elements, but aside from their nasty temperaments having nothing to do with light elements, all of their abilities were light-based!

Had anyone actually ever witnessed the birth of a Light-Shadow Sprite?

Mo Lan searched through the books she had read, and not a single one had ever recorded the birth process of a Light-Shadow Sprite in detail. They all contained nothing more than the single line: “born when light and dark elements intertwine.”

And where did that line originate? The Angels.

Heaven’s Peak hung inverted above the summit of Mount Celestial Pillar. The elemental force from the Gate of Heaven radiated outward, causing the plants and animals of the surrounding mountains to undergo light-element mutations, even giving rise to some entirely new species. The Angels then named this range of mountains the Sacred Mountains, designated the light-element creatures within as sacred beings, and compiled a book called 《Sacred Creature Compendium》, which they bestowed upon Temples of the God of Light everywhere to disseminate.

People’s earliest understanding of the Sacred Mountains came from this very 《Sacred Creature Compendium》, and the Light-Shadow Sprites were no exception.

Over time, the information recorded in the 《Sacred Creature Compendium》 had proven to be highly credible.

To this day, the 《Sacred Creature Compendium》 remained required reading for anyone entering the Sacred Mountains, and Mo Lan had read it as well.

Hiding one convincing falsehood inside a book full of genuine, reliable information was indeed very difficult to detect.

Now Mo Lan found herself wondering just how many other traps were hidden in that book.

How many more creatures of the Sacred Mountains were similar to the Light-Shadow Sprites?

She even worried whether the Winged Ones might also be the Angels’ eyes and ears, just like the Light-Shadow Sprites.

Frightened by the thought, Mo Lan hurriedly used her Fortune-Telling Spell to divine her luck for the present and the near future. Only after receiving an auspicious reading did she relax. The divination had succeeded and yielded a favorable result — regardless of whether the Winged Ones were the Angels’ eyes and ears, she wouldn’t suffer any great misfortune. That was enough.

Besides, given the Winged Ones’ insufferably arrogant yet insular nature, and the fact that they were universally known as Angel devotees, even if the Angels used them as surveillance, they would hardly see any information of value. The likelihood of them being the Angels’ eyes and ears was very small.

Mo Lan’s original route had included settlements of several races native to the Sacred Mountains — some were indigenous races that had undergone light-element mutations, others were new species like the Light-Shadow Sprites. But now, she deleted every single one of them from her route.

Until she got her hands on Angel magic, she would absolutely never again use any mage-level magic unbefitting of her “White Witch” identity anywhere in the Sacred Mountains.

She had to weld her disguised identity shut, no exceptions!

What if the Angels truly had more than just the Light-Shadow Sprites as their eyes and ears?

In truth, locally mutated light-element species were unlikely candidates for direct Angel surveillance, but Mo Lan didn’t want to take even the slightest risk.

Compared to the scraps of light-element magic knowledge she could glean from these races, the magical knowledge the Angels possessed was far richer.

Mo Lan knew perfectly well which option to choose.

Moreover, the whole Light-Shadow Sprite affair had truly given Mo Lan a fresh perspective on the Angels.

Before, reading various materials, she had only felt the Angels were hypocritical — putting on an act of kindness and righteousness to harvest the power of faith. But she hadn’t expected them to be this cunning as well.

Without a sound, they had brought the entire Sacred Mountains under their surveillance.

This made Mo Lan deeply curious about what kind of race the Angels truly were.

It seemed the people of Valen had never really understood the Angels well enough.

The secret of the Light-Shadow Sprites — apart from the nearly extinct Morningstar Dwarves, no one else had discovered it to this day.

Compared to this secret, the Morningstar Dwarves’ knowledge of Pure Light Flame magic was hardly worth mentioning.

Pure Light Flame was essentially a type of magic that burned elemental force of light.

Compared to flames produced by fire-element force, light flames possessed an additional ability to dispel dark elemental force, curses, and similar effects.

Based on the characteristics of Pure Light Flame, Mo Lan developed a version more suited to witches — a witch-adapted Pure Light Flame she called the Light Flame Spell.

She compiled the Light Flame Spell along with her findings on the Light-Shadow Sprites into a document, then summoned her golden bird to send it off to the Witch Council. By that time, Forgestar had also finished preparing to leave Shadowless Mountain.

Mo Lan watched as he used light elemental force to dispel the shadows beneath the trees and walked into the forest, before she guided her flying carpet into the air.

This time, the route map programmed into the flying carpet’s automatic flight function — which had originally wound through numerous settlements of races unique to the Sacred Mountains — had been replaced with a single straight line heading directly for Holy City at the foot of Mount Celestial Pillar.

What would have originally taken several more months to reach the base of Holy City now, with the changed route, took only a few days before Mo Lan caught sight of the towering Mount Celestial Pillar, and the pure white Heaven’s Peak hanging inverted from its summit.