Chapter 977 - 485: In the Prime of Youth

Chapter 977: Chapter 485: In the Prime of Youth

This old man...

Facing the Great Witch’s words, Li Ang felt a jumble of emotions, his thoughts all over the place.

Although he couldn’t immediately recall when or where the old man had asked the same question, since there had been far too many similar phrases in different forms, Li Ang still felt he could clearly sense that all those questions already had answers.

"Great Witch, do you have the ability of prophecy? Have you already seen how certain things end?" Li Ang asked bluntly.

The art of prophecy was usually a power possessed by the top-tier figures of the Holy Servant line; it was very rare even among high-ranking priests. Yet Li Ang kept feeling that the old man’s mumbling, mystical manner was somewhat similar.

"The Ten Thousand Spirits will grant hints and revelations, but in the end, it still requires your own weighing and discernment. I think you can understand that."

After the Great Witch finished speaking, the smile on his face grew thicker.

"Yes."

Li Ang understood what he meant. No matter how close one came to the Ten Thousand Spirits, no matter how much one saw, the Ten Thousand Spirits were ultimately like phantoms of the world’s past. Whatever treasures It left behind still had to be caught by those who came later, or else they would never fulfill their purpose.

"Are you praising the Great Witch?" Diao whispered. Her moist eyes fixed tightly on Li Ang.

The old man looked at the dark‑skinned young girl, gently rubbing his chin with a smile, saying nothing. Under his gaze and that of the other Ancient Witches, the girl’s cheeks flushed ever redder.

Some Ancient Witches revealed meaningful smiles, clearly about to say something.

These people, once they opened their mouths, would certainly speak with none of the euphemism of modern civilization. Li Ang hurriedly cut in, "Maybe the Great Witch is praising himself."

The old man’s smile deepened. Though his wrinkles bunched together, making him look even older, in that instant something that had been pressing down on him seemed to loosen, as if only now was he truly in his prime.

He turned around and walked toward the village, his feathered crown swaying and trembling behind him, along with that long robe hung full of feather ornaments.

As they swung, the feather ornaments started to broaden, until he turned into a giant eagle.

The giant eagle never looked back. It took a running start, beat its wings, and shot straight into the clouds, seeming to fly right over Zultin Marsh and off toward the true Nebis sky.

Everyone watched silently as it disappeared into the distance. After a while, someone finally spoke.

"He won’t be coming back," a Witch Priest said.

"Then I..."

Diao looked at that giant eagle, then at Li Ang, then at the Ancient Witches in the village, suddenly unsure how to speak.

"Are you worried about whether you should leave with Li Ang?" Lily asked.

The Dragon God Witch seemed to empathize with this sort of situation—both the thoughts about leaving the past Illusion Realm, and the entanglements over all kinds of things.

"Wherever you go, that old man probably won’t interfere," one Witch Priest said.

"How come the moment he leaves, you stop using his title?" another Witch Priest asked.

"Will you say it?" the first one shot back.

"We’ll pick another Great Witch sometime. Still, that’s not urgent."

The Ancient Witches all began talking at once, the quiet dissolving into noisy chatter.

"Who knows, maybe when Diao comes back, she’ll be the most suitable one."

"Maybe it’ll be her child."

Diao pressed her lips together, grabbed Li Ang’s hand, and took off at a run. In the dust of light she turned into a Female Deer, scooping him up and lifting him onto her back with a single toss.

The Female Deer charged madly until they reached a small house, built with neatly cut timber and kept very tidy. This was Diao’s home—Li Ang had seen it in the dreams he shared with her, and he even knew the layout of the rooms.

Compared to the wild, primitive building methods of the other Zultinze People, Diao seemed more like a modern person. Her home and yard resembled a countryside farmhouse, with bird cages and fields; farming life and eating raw flesh and blood stood here with a gulf of civilization between them.

It seemed that, aside from certain issues that arose from a primitive mindset, her thinking was otherwise willing to advance.

Diao turned back into human form and silently gazed at her small house.

"What is it?" Li Ang laughed. "I thought going with me was just taken for granted."

The young girl’s cheeks flushed red again.

"Of course, even setting those dreams aside, I now feel that I want to watch you all the way until the moment the world’s balance is restored."

She squeezed Li Ang’s hand, then rushed into the yard and raised her hand to start Casting.

Within the Power of Nature, vines left the trellis, coop doors swung open, and the poultry inside flapped their wings and flew out of the yard. She poured out the Water in the tank, scattered some unprocessed grains across the wasteland, and packed away another portion.

After tidying and sealing up everything in the house, she came back to stand before Li Ang, smiling, her eyes full of expectation.

The clock on the system panel started turning again. It was now Guild Calendar year 300, October 7th. Only then did Li Ang realize that a month had already passed since they entered the Sanctuary of All Spirits.

In that transcendent dimension, the time they felt hadn’t seemed that long, but perhaps crossing between the two realms consumed time as well. In short, time had indeed been lost.

As for Liluliss, she herself couldn’t even say how long she’d been inside.

She had originally rushed to seek a place of recovery only because she was wounded. Before that, she had lived in the Sect for years and had little real sense of time and dates, only vaguely remembering that it had been a long time since she left Satus Island—long enough to have definitely exceeded the time promised to her daughter.

When they left Zultin Marsh, the Ancient Witches didn’t say much, only silently watched them go. From this, Li Ang could tell that it wasn’t just the Great Witch and All Spirits who cared about him.

During his earlier conversation with the Great Witch, the old man had mentioned several times that the Ancient Witches’ cultivation lay precisely in seeking "revelation" and "awakening." From that perspective, only the Great Witch and Diao truly met the standard; now Li Ang did as well, while the rest of the Ancient Witches still followed their primitive way of life, searching for their own selves.

The faintly glowing marshes receded behind them. They stepped once more into the dense veil of mist. Underfoot, things changed from Spiritual Light‑filled, vibrant Water plants to wetlands soaked in foul muddy Water. As the fog thinned further, twisted, monstrous trees revealed their shapes.

This was the outer ring of Zultin Marsh, a part that belonged entirely to the Material Dimension.

"Wow."

Even before the mist had fully dispersed, Lily lifted her head to gaze out and already saw the Lotus of Reincarnation blooming in the sky.

"Oh, you two haven’t entered or exited the Land of Ten Thousand Spirits from here before, have you?"

Whether it was Liluliss or Inanna, neither of them had entered the Land of Ten Thousand Spirits via Zultin Marsh—the route they chose was rather unconventional.

Still, Inanna had a rough grasp of how the world was structured and where the flows gathering Spirits existed. As for Lily, she probably hadn’t studied this kind of knowledge before.

Admiring the strange Lotus of Reincarnation, Diao quietly leaned against Li Ang, tightly holding his hand, savoring the rare tranquility of these past few days.

When the mist scattered once more, a clear, unobstructed sky opened up ahead, and all four of them let out a long breath.

"We’re back! Nebis!"

Lily happily raised both hands, gazing at the boundless blue sky.

The wind of the Ignis Sky Realm, with its faint sulfur smell, wasn’t as relaxing to body and mind as the Flos Sky Realm’s, but upon suddenly returning to the Material Dimension, Li Ang finally realized there was still a difference between the two.

Life, the pulse of bloodlines, the tangible clarity of the senses—even though he hadn’t been away from the Material World as long as Lily had, Li Ang still felt a distinct, special joy.

Those ancient myths, the old tales from the dawn of Creation, faded once again from seemingly real experiences back into hazy, distant legends.

Leaving the mist, they walked forward only a short distance before reaching the edge of Zultin Marsh, where muddy rivers spilled off the island’s end toward the Bloody Red Land.

The four of them fell into Silence for a few seconds. Lily asked, "Where’s the ship?"

Diao turned her head to look at Li Ang. "Great Witch, don’t tell me you forgot to prepare for leaving the island?"

She was the one who’d brought Li Ang into Zultin Marsh earlier, so she clearly remembered that he hadn’t left any Flying Airship on the island at the time.

"I did. The moment you showed up back then, I completely forgot."

"Huh? Then what do we do?" Lily scratched her hair. "How about you buff me again with that Enhancement Magic, and I’ll transform and fly you all out?"

"I can carry Li Ang and fly." Having just stepped out of the mist, Inanna was a little dazed.

As an incarnation of the Six Dragons, even Inanna, who represented the Earth, could fly. The principle was similar to how a Sky Island hovered, just not as fast as the other Six Dragons, that’s all.

"I can too." Seeing Inanna say that, Diao hurried to speak up as well.

The brown-skinned Young Girl bent forward, arms spreading into feathers, and leapt off the island’s edge.

Then she went straight plunging toward the Bloody Red Land.

"Hey, hey!"

Li Ang quickly pulled her back with a Force Field.

"Sorry, Great Witch, I—I think my transformation’s gotten kind of clumsy..."

Back on the island, the Young Girl finished transforming. In the form of an Eagle, she looked herself over in surprise, as if she couldn’t understand why her shapeshifting had slowed.

Even if Li Ang hadn’t saved her, she still could have flown back—but what Diao couldn’t understand was why she couldn’t transform once she came out.

"Last time you came out... oh, right, you completed your transformation while inside." Li Ang realized halfway through speaking.

"Last time it was because, well, I was about to see you, and I... thought it’d be more... um... appropriate to use my Deer form..."

Oh, so she was shy. Li Ang nodded.

"Because you were shy?" Lily said bluntly.

"Th-tha—fine, fine, let’s just say that’s how it was." Diao muttered, lowering her head.

Looking at her status panel, Li Ang saw that the entry that had once appeared under the Energy Source overview—about not needing to worry about Magic Power thanks to the Land of Ten Thousand Spirits—had now vanished.

After he told her this, a wistful expression surfaced on Diao’s face; she seemed to more concretely realize that she was no longer in the familiar environment.

Even though she’d experienced the outside world in dreams, the difference between Illusion Realm and reality was still palpable. Unconsciously, she edged even closer to Li Ang.

"You don’t need to bother flying me. The reason I didn’t prepare a little boat in advance is because we didn’t actually need one."

Li Ang took out Contan Helm’s beacon, explaining to them what this thing was as he did.

He’d already explained it to Zoe and then the later companions; having to go through it again now gave him a strong sense of déjà vu, and he couldn’t help but smile.

The beacon released a wave, and before long, a passenger ship from the shipping company would arrive.

Previously, when crossing the Ignis Sky Realm, the Guild had already suppressed most of the Empire’s military forces, so a shipping company like Contan Helm—one that would keep operating as long as it wasn’t a top-tier danger situation—was definitely still in business.

"What if it doesn’t come?"

"If something that unexpected happens, we’ll just grit our teeth and fly." Li Ang raised Orichalcum. After obtaining the Magic Power Magic Scripture, he could use High-tier Magic to control the Wind Element far more efficiently, and he wouldn’t be too slow in the air.

Sure enough, after they waited a little over two hours, the outline of a ship appeared at the edge of the sky.

"It really came?" Lily watched the Flying Airship on the horizon with curiosity and interest, as if this were some kind of magic trick.

So powerful, yet clueless about passenger routes. Li Ang asked her, "Have you taken a passenger ship before?"

"I have, but they didn’t feel this big. And they don’t come to pick you up—catching a ship is exhausting."

Lily lifted her hands to frame the oncoming vessel from afar, using the "window" to estimate its size.

Li Ang nodded. From Zoe’s father’s notes, he knew these two must have spent a stretch of time traveling by ship. Fixed schedules weren’t subject to personal whims, which really restricted their freedom of movement.

"I’ve never been on one. Before, they said it was best if I didn’t go out." Inanna finished speaking, her face a bit flushed.

After Lily and the Dragon Maiden said that, Diao, who also had no firsthand experience, didn’t bother repeating it.

Li Ang smiled. "All the better, then. Time to experience some luxurious airborne passenger travel."

In truth, the Flying Airship in the distance was incredibly fast; once its silhouette started to grow larger, the last stretch was almost covered in an instant.

As soon as the ship stabilized, Lily dashed toward the boarding ramp that was slowly being lowered, while Li Ang frowned.

Wasn’t this vessel a bit over-armed?