Chapter 614 – Crisis and Challenge

“I’ll head over to Sylph’s place first, and then I’ll stay in the Emerald Creek Plains until Lady Carmela and the others return to Valen,” Mo Lan said.

This period was the most dangerous time for the Wilds. Only by staying here could she respond to any emergencies in a timely manner.

It was also a good opportunity to research whether she could infuse the power of will into various spells to effectively amplify their magical effects.

After all the effort in the Holy City, that was really the only worthwhile gain she’d come away with.

“Alright! Off you go then! I still need to continue using Hybrid Magic to stimulate the mutated Ironthorne Trees nearby, to make them grow even taller. If Angels or Dragons come attacking, at least it’ll cause them some trouble,” Amisha said.

The Demons, who also possessed the ability to fly, had bat-like membrane wings that could only manage low-altitude flight. The towering Ironthorne Tree wall was already tall enough to block most Demons.

“Don’t worry, Headmistress. The Angels and Dragons most likely won’t launch a large-scale attack on the Wilds. Even if some of them hold personal grudges, they wouldn’t choose to come all the way out to the Wilds to take on all the witches,” Mo Lan said confidently.

“Why do you say that?” Amisha asked. “I can understand the Dragons — we’ve never had any deep blood feud with them. If the witches are weakened, at most they’d restrict the freedom of the Culinary Witches on Delicacy Island. But what about the Angels? Lady Anita shattered Heaven’s Peak back then! If they find out something happened to Lady Anita, they’re very likely to attack the Wilds.”

Mo Lan took out a card. “Take a look at this!”

This {Knowledge Card – Angel} had been crafted from all the useful information she’d extracted and organized from the memories of Otaros and Koltama.

Amisha used the Speed-Reading Spell to read through the card’s contents, her eyes growing increasingly astonished. “Is the knowledge in this card from a reliable source?”

Mo Lan nodded. “Extracted from Angel memories using Psychic Magic.”

Amisha recalled the Psychic Magic spells in the Card Shop that had clearly originated from mages, and set her mind at ease.

“If High-Ranking Angels have all discarded their emotions and only retained their rationality, then they probably can’t generate feelings of vengeance either!”

Even during the Divine Descent Era, the Angels had never considered witches as potential believers. Witches were too few in number and each one was too tough a nut to crack. The Angels had only constantly oppressed and persecuted witches to drive a wedge between them and humans, thereby consolidating their own faith.

Now, the humans of Valen were no longer the ideal choice for harvesting faith either. Targeting witches truly held no benefit for the Angels.

If they had no intention of seeking revenge, then the Angels might very well choose to sit this one out.

“That’s exactly what I mean,” Mo Lan said. “As for the Dragons, the only thing they covet from witches is the cuisine witches prepare.

“I believe that as long as I announce the Dawn Society belongs to the witches, and that any existence that persecutes witches will be blacklisted by the Dawn Society, they definitely won’t give up the Dawn Society’s millions of gourmet cards just for the Culinary Witches on Delicacy Island.

“Compared to controlling the Culinary Witches’ personal freedom to obtain food, they’d probably prefer having the Culinary Witches trade their recipes to the Dawn Society, so they can buy whatever food they want, whenever they want, in any quantity they want — without having to wait for the witches to cook it.”

These two races — one with inherited memories, the other with Miracle Shards — both had guaranteed baseline levels of education. It was virtually impossible for hot-headed fools who’d do pointless things to emerge among them.

Mo Lan felt fairly reassured. “Right now, humans are number one on my vigilance list, and Demons are number two.

“Human populations vary wildly in quality, and I don’t understand Demons well enough — their behavior is unpredictable. If any race were to launch a major assault on the Wilds, I think it would be one of those two.”

“The Demons won’t wage open war,” Amisha said. “From what I know of them, what they’ve always coveted are our witches’ souls, not our lives. To harvest our souls, simply killing us isn’t enough — they need to make us abandon our own lives in the depths of infinite despair, or trick us into signing demonic contracts to sell our souls to them. Only then can they claim our souls after death.

“At most, they’ll scheme in the shadows, inciting other races to jointly suppress the witches, thereby driving witches to suicide or into signing contracts with them.

“The reason human mages conducted such cruel magical experiments on witches in the early Magic Era — the Demons had a hand in that.

“The Beastmanprophet’s foretelling of Lady Anita’s demise this time also had Demon involvement.

“They’ve never given up their desire for witch souls.

“But they’re dreaming if they think that’ll work. In the past, when witches didn’t know the truth about Demons, they might have mistaken them for saviors in desperate times and fallen into their traps. But nowadays, every witch knows exactly what Demons are, and none of them would carelessly sign any contract of unknown origin.”

“Then… that leaves only humans.”

Humans were only slightly more cohesive than a heap of loose sand. In a one-on-one fight, no witch feared humans.

Mo Lan and Amisha exchanged a smile, the pressure suddenly lifting.

“Perhaps this isn’t a crisis for the witches at all, but rather our chance to make our name known across Valen once more!”

A sudden inspiration struck Mo Lan. “How about when we announce that the Dawn Society belongs to the witches, we add a little something extra? Create some difficulties for everyone — nothing life-threatening — to give them some training, and also let the other races of Valen know that even without Lady Anita, even without the other Sorceresses, the witches are not to be trifled with!”

“Go on?” Amisha’s interest was piqued.

The visit to Sylph’s place was temporarily postponed. Mo Lan went to the Spatial Tent that Madam Amisha had set up beside the Ironthorne Tree wall, where the two of them began planning how to use this opportunity to train the witches — and to ensure the witches’ brilliance would no longer be entirely overshadowed by the Sorceresses.

The witches’ talents might not match those of the Sorceresses, but every single one of them was capable of holding her own. Under the Sorceresses’ protection, they had never once given up on strengthening themselves.

Mo Lan and Madam Amisha drafted and revised the 《Dawn Society Announcement》 no fewer than a hundred times before arriving at a version they were fully satisfied with.

They then took this version and remotely discussed it with the witches of the Witch Council via Communication Cards, finalizing the draft, agreeing on the timing of the announcement’s release and the parts that required the Council’s coordination, before calling it done.

When a crisis was reframed as a challenge and training opportunity, the entire mindset shifted dramatically.

“I hope the Demons move quickly on the Beastmanfront and don’t keep us waiting too long!”

Amisha could barely contain her eagerness.

Mo Lan felt much the same.

“The Council will be closely monitoring the Otherworld Information Filtering Card. I’ll also find time to check on the movements of the Dawn Society’s Demon and Beastmanmembers. The moment the situation starts spreading, we’ll detect it and release the announcement immediately.”