Chapter 1562 - 28: West Bay

Chapter 1562: Chapter 28: West Bay

The half-finished train pulled away, Su Xiao took out a map to confirm his direction and waited in place for the approaching carriage from behind. With nothing else to do, he opened the task list. The main task, Origin of Blackfish Bug, was completed, and he chose to receive the rewards.

[You have received Soul Crystals (Large) ×3.]

[You have received Dark Raven World Reputation +2 points, due to the Hunter killing Blood Resentment·Mira, you have gained some fame among the witches.]

...

Su Xiao put away the rewarded Soul Crystals directly. As for the ’Dark Raven World Reputation +2 points’ reward, this thing was quite interesting.

After Su Xiao hunted down Blood Resentment·Mira, because the kill happened in a public place (train), the news would spread quickly, allowing more witches or lords to know about this witch hunter, Cuchulainn·Bai Ye, which had its pros and cons.

While Su Xiao was planning the next course of action, A Mu drove the carriage over, with the three-head Dokuns panting visibly, clearly exhausted.

Having just hunted a fourth stage witch, Su Xiao had consumed not a little stamina with the large amounts of Blade Auras he unleashed before, thus he decided to rest in the wild for 2 to 3 hours, at least to let the Dokuns pulling the carriage recover their strength.

After 3 hours, the three Dokuns were visibly much more spirited. Although their pace was slow in pulling the carriage, their endurance was extremely strong.

"Let’s go."

Su Xiao boarded the carriage first, while Bubu Wang jumped to the front of the carriage, seemingly wanting to enjoy the scenery along the way.

"Can’t we rest a bit longer?"

Meilodi stretched lazily, being the one with the weakest stamina among the group, the continuous traveling for days made her feel as if her whole body was falling apart.

"Where to next? Or should I say, which unfortunate witch have you set your sights on now?"

Accompanying the journey, Meilodi realized one thing, that any witch targeted by Su Xiao was in for no good end.

"To West Bay."

"West... West Bay?"

Meilodi looked at Su Xiao in shock. She knew where West Bay was, or rather, it was Meilodi’s former home.

"You know West Bay very well?"

On the slowly moving carriage, Su Xiao noticed Meilodi’s unusual behavior, he put down the map in his hand and looked at Meilodi.

"Somewhat."

Meilodi spoke vaguely, snuggling against the inner side of the carriage, sitting on a bag of gold coins.

"Really, then tell me what you know about West Bay."

With the lighting of a cigarette, blue smoke filled the carriage, Meilodi pushed open the window and took a deep breath.

"I lived in West Bay until I was seventeen..."

Meilodi looked at the scenery outside the carriage, a slight smile forming as she spoke.

"I have no interest in your life story, skip the meaningless details and directly talk about the situation in West Bay."

"Uh... okay."

Meilodi’s lips twitched twice, she initially wanted to recount her unhappy childhood, like how her parents were slaves, becoming a witch’s handyman at a young age, with the constant threat of death.

Evidently, appealing to pity was useless with Su Xiao. If Meilodi dared to continue rambling, Su Xiao would take coercive measures.

"West Bay is bordered by the sea on one side and mountains on three sides, located at the far west of the Holy Healing Church’s domain, nearly isolated from the outside world, or rather, it’s a place where witches have implanted a thorn on the Church’s border."

Thanks to Meilodi’s description, Su Xiao had a better understanding of West Bay. First, West Bay was bordered by mountains on three sides, made almost impassable due to artificial constructions, filled with elements and curse traps.

As for the sea at the back, it was the main food source for West Bay residents. The place wasn’t occupied by witches alone; witches did not like labor, and most had a hostile disposition; hence, they needed commoners to live in West Bay. As for the source of commoners, it was simple; buy slaves.

The witches in West Bay had a rule: they couldn’t harm local residents of West Bay. As for foreigners, they could do whatever they liked.

When the famished slaves first arrived in West Bay, they were nine parts terrified and one part fascinated by the witches, understandably so, as they had close encounters with supernatural power.

Over time, the slaves realized the witches wouldn’t harm them but would instead collect food, minerals, and daily necessities from them periodically. The amount collected was plenty, but far more lenient than a slave master.

This established a positive ecological balance. After generations, the descendants of these slaves fully integrated into the witch society, willingly working for the witches, their females priding in becoming witches.

80% of witches roaming within the Holy Healing Church’s land didn’t originate from the southern Witch’s Country, they came from West Bay.

For this tumor, which they didn’t know when it had grown large, the Holy Healing Church was equally troubled. The road was simply too long to bring the army for a siege, and the terrain didn’t allow it. As for launching a sea assault, don’t joke about it; in the vast Dark Raven Continent, over 50% of soldiers were landlubbers, and moreover, the Church’s navigation technology was extremely backward. Diverting resources for maritime attack on such a small witch gathering point wasn’t worth it.

The real threat to the Holy Healing Church was the southern ’Witch’s Country’, not West Bay’s gathering point. Moreover, given West Bay’s border location and limited resources, it couldn’t cultivate enough witches to threaten the Church. As for the death of commoners, cold as it was, it wasn’t worthwhile for the Church to go to great lengths over it, they had to consider all of humanity’s survival.

While West Bay sounded like a tumor, life there wasn’t easy either. Witch hunters occasionally focused on it, giving a routine greeting before withdrawing.

"So if you reach West Bay, all humans you see are your enemies, including those commoners, they are like... livestock."

Involuntarily, Meilodi clenched her fist.

"Before I left West Bay, I always thought of witches as holy, not to be hostile towards the Black Witches, they were merely extreme in temperament..."

Here, Meilodi gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"It wasn’t until I saw a broader world that I realized, West Bay’s witches were rearing humans, corrupting their spirit to ensure compliance. Can you imagine being destined to be a slave at birth? More frighteningly, the residents of West Bay take pride in it, they’ve forgotten resistance, and in their hearts, Moris is like a living god..."

Just as Meilodi concluded, she noticed Su Xiao was staring at her.

"Moris?"

"Yes, Moris, the ruler of West Bay is Moris."

"Does she know the location of Death Land?"

"Of course not, Death Land has nothing to do with Moris, although there’s some similarity..."

Meilodi suddenly remembered something, quickly shutting her mouth, her face showing a look of fear. She had violated a taboo, and at that moment, a hand pressed on her face, engulfing her in Blue Steel Shadow Energy.

Almost immediately, Meilodi felt pain saturate her entire body, the agony so intense that her whole body went numb.

"Ugh!!"

Meilodi, her mouth covered, sobbed loudly, tears streaming from her eyes as three energies collided within her. Darkness took over and she fainted, only regaining consciousness after several minutes.

"I... haven’t been killed by the old witch from the south?"