At the foot of the mountain under the night sky, several braziers burned within the camp, illuminating three figures in the central clearing.

A witch in a long black dress sat holding a teacup, conversing with Viscount Xuefeng and Scholar Hyde beside her.

“Time truly flies. The last time I came to Scorchstone City was fifty years ago.” Her slender fingers, tipped with black-purple nails shaped like snake heads, cradled the teacup.

“Senior Merlinsa, you still look much the same as before, your appearance hasn’t changed much,” Scholar Hyde sighed with emotion.

Although her aura was completely different now, her facial features were largely the same as in the past, which was how he had recognized her at a glance.

“Forty years ago, I entered the Third Tier and officially joined the ‘Night Dream Tea Party.’ At the time, the organization gave me a bottle of ‘Shadow-Fixing Elixir’ which prevents the body from aging further and maintains one’s appearance unchanged. That was nearly thirty years ago.”

“If I had to mention a side effect, it would probably be the body’s unconscious tendency toward ‘shadowfication’.” She tapped her fingers.

“If you had successfully stepped into the Third Tier back then, you too could have enjoyed the benefits of being a formal member of Candlekeep, exchanging years of contributions for a bottle of ‘Elder’s Potion’ to halt your body’s age at around seventy, preventing further aging. Moreover, compared to the ‘Shadow-Fixing Elixir,’ the side effects of the Elder’s Potion are minimal.”

“Haha, what you say is true, senior. But all that is in the past now. I don’t dwell on such things anymore.” Scholar Hyde shook his head. Over the years, he had become more philosophical about life and death, no longer placing as much importance on it as he did in his youth.

“Since you harbor no great regrets, I won’t try to persuade you either.” Merlinsa’s gaze shifted, looking toward the distant mountains and wilderness.

“This time, as a representative of the Hidden Grove, I came here to assess the new students. I’ve passed through twenty-nine cities so far. Among them, only one newcomer possessed outstanding qualifications and completed all three objectives.”

“Originally, I thought Scorchstone City would be much like the records of previous years, holding no great surprises. But this time is different.”

“Oh? Has a student already completed the third objective?” Scholar Hyde asked, surprised.

Even though Iona and Sylutia possessed high talent and performed well, Scholar Hyde hadn’t held much hope that either of them would complete the third objective.

“The good news is, someone indeed has completed it.” Merlinsa seemed to want to tease this long-unseen junior of hers, deliberately keeping him in suspense.

“The bad news is, the two who completed the objectives still inevitably clashed and must fight to determine the final victor.”

“This…” Scholar Hyde stroked his beard for a moment before letting out a helpless sigh.

Both were his students. He couldn’t favor one over the other and could only pray that both would emerge alive.

“Is there really someone among the students who can rival Iona?” Viscount Xuefeng, on the other hand, was somewhat taken aback. His previous goodwill toward Sylutia was purely out of respect for Lady Franne’s face; he had never considered that girl to possess any significant strength.

“There is, Lord Viscount.” Merlinsa lightly tapped her cup with a fingertip, her other hand propping her chin, revealing an amused smile.

Golden Honey Blood, huh… Quite rare, though such a thin bloodline isn’t much to look at. That other girl, however, is rather interesting.

…

In the forest, the two originally engaged in combat stood facing each other, having temporarily ceased fighting.

Iona held one hand over her eye, the other gripping her sword planted at her side. Her body trembled slightly, as if enduring immense pain.

Seeing Iona’s strange condition not far away, Sylutia stopped her advance.

“Are you alright?”

However, the response she received was not an answer, but some kind of dazed, delirious muttering.

“No, no, I won’t admit defeat, I won’t…” As if talking in her sleep, Iona swayed unsteadily.

Unfortunately, no matter how unwilling she was, her body had reached its limit. Merely standing was an immense struggle now, let alone launching another attack.

Faced with her extremely unstable state, Sylutia dared not rashly approach. She could only watch from several meters away, waiting for the other girl to slowly calm down.

Unfortunately, events did not unfold as smoothly as Sylutia had imagined.

Perhaps driven by extreme unwillingness, or perhaps by the complete inability to accept her future life, Iona slowly reached a hand toward her own neck, where a golden pendant hung.

Her fingers opened the pendant, revealing a miniature portrait of Iona’s family. In it, she appeared to be only about ten years old, smiling with exceptional joy. Standing beside her were a well-dressed man and woman, presumably her parents.

However, Iona’s purpose did not seem to be reminiscing over this small portrait. Her fingernail directly pierced and tore the figures in the portrait, ripping it open to reveal a hidden black-purple gemstone nestled within.

When this black-purple gemstone was extracted, Sylutia sensed a strange and familiar fluctuation.

That was… the power of the [Distortion] Aspect.

[Black Misfortune Gemstone] (Second Tier · Distortion): A special gemstone condensed in the Abyssal Lands, containing the ‘Distortion’ Aspect. Can be used in certain rituals and experiments.

As this gemstone was taken out, the sound of flapping wings came from the forest. Thirteen night birds appeared on branches—seven owls and five other unfamiliar birds.

These night birds fixed their eyes on Iona below, faint purple-red hues swirling in their pupils. They seemed to be monitoring something, not intervening.

Iona picked up the black-purple gemstone. Her chaotic crimson eyes peered out from between her bangs, gazing at the gemstone before her. Then, she slowly pressed it into her eye.

At that moment, the night birds in the forest cried out in unison, emitting a series of eerie sounds. An intangible murmuring spread.

The black-purple gemstone, upon contact with Iona’s eye, slowly melted, dispersing into strange, silky threads. These black-purple smoky filaments condensed without dissipating, floating like tentacles.

*Thump*

Just as Sylutia thought to step forward, a peculiar pulse rhythm spread from Iona’s body, like the heartbeat of an intangible entity, twisting the surrounding world.

Whispers began to sound in her ears, as if many people were speaking around her, though at this moment, besides her and Iona, there was no one else in the forest.

The surrounding trees also began to twist unnaturally. Her perception of the surroundings became bizarre; the soil beneath her feet seemed to churn and surge, yet when she looked closely, nothing had changed.

Though clearly in reality, it felt as if she were trapped in a nightmare.

And at some unknown point, the dancing black-purple filaments around Iona’s eye had vanished. But her originally crimson eyes were now pitch black, with no discernible change in the pupils.

The once blazing Blazing Sun now underwent a strange, twisted distortion in Sylutia’s vision.

This is…

Sylutia inexplicably recalled the history once taught by Scholar Hyde.

[Corrupt Ritual · The Black Sun Eclipse] (Blazing Sun · Distortion · Nightmare)

‘In the final years of the Golden Honey Dynasty, facing the Corona Dragon that had once again ascended to the position of the ‘Blazing Sun,’ the entire dynasty laid out tens of thousands of giant magic arrays across the continent. They communed with the endless abyss at the bottom of the Twilight Sea, using ‘Distortion’ as a catalyst, striving to swap the newborn Blazing Sun with the shadows within the abyss, to immerse the Blazing Sun into the abyss, and then raise a brand new black sun.’

– Condition: This ritual targets an individual of the ‘Blazing Sun’ Aspect. It requires the environment to be of the ‘Nightmare’ Aspect and have the ‘Distortion’ Aspect as a catalyst. The more your various arrangements and the historical legends of that era align with the history of the Golden Honey Dynasty’s final years, the stronger the effect.

– Record: After activation, this ritual summons the ghostly resentment of the ‘Golden Honey Dynasty’ from history. They will call upon that once-unfinished grand feat, murmur the ancient prayers of the Golden Honey Dynasty. The process must involve a descendant of the ‘Golden Honey Dynasty’ bloodline. The ‘Distortion’ Aspect serving as the catalyst cannot be of a lower tier than the targeted ‘Blazing Sun.’ The stronger the ‘Nightmare’ Aspect in the surrounding environment, the more stable the ritual’s progression.

– Effect: Twists the target’s ‘Blazing Sun’ Aspect into ‘Nightmare.’ However, due to the incompleteness of the legend and the side effects of the Distortion Aspect, after the Aspect reversal, it causes an unknown mutation and transformation in the target.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep