Chapter 1587 - 53: The Southern Part and Warm-Up

Chapter 1587: Chapter 53: The Southern Part and Warm-Up

At the border between the Central Plains and the Southern part, there’s a vast plain. Due to financial and resource constraints, there are no bastions here, just a dark plain, seemingly scorched by a great fire.

On a withered tree, a gentle breeze blows, and the bodies of several witches hanging from it sway slowly. Three male corpses are nailed to the tree trunk; these are the Witch Hunters.

This withered tree marks the border monument. Beyond it lies the witches’ territory. The Central Plains and the West belong to the Holy Healing Church, the freezing North Border is governed by the King of the North Border, while the East belongs to the tribes and aborigines, and the South is the Witch’s Country.

The entire Dark Raven Continent is divided into three major parts: the Central Plains and the West make up one, the North Border another, and the East and Southern part form one large area.

The barbarians in the East have no ruler. Conflicts frequently erupt between the tribes, with small tribes wandering everywhere. The North Border is too cold for the wild men of the East, thus the Southern part bordering the East is unlucky.

The Southern part is the witches’ territory, and its internal chaos is imaginable. The Mo Yi Family holds a high position in the Southern part, but given the witches’ defiance and unruliness, it’s impossible for the Mo Yi Family to bring all witches under its command. This almost represents the extent of the chaos in the Southern part.

The East and Southern part is a bordering region, with environments very similar, leading to the possibility of primitive tribes from the East flooding into the Southern part. Of course, the witches welcome newcomers; they indeed won’t easily enter the East, but they don’t refuse test subjects delivered to their doorstep.

If the Witch’s Country in the Southern part and the Holy Healing Church mutually hold each other in check, neither sending large forces, then the witches and the primitive natives from the East are in a perennial state of conflict.

More witches have died at the hands of primitive tribes than witch hunters; the environment of the region leads to this. As for allying with the tribes of the East against the witches, it’s completely impossible.

Especially after Mo Yi·Nora scattered the witches, the number of primitive tribes from the East quickly increased. They don’t care if this is the Witch’s Country; as long as it’s suitable for them to live, they will immediately occupy a piece of land and start developing.

It appears that the Witch’s Country in the Southern part is under invasion, but in reality, Mo Yi·Nora intends for the witches to invade the East and develop the undeveloped resources there. The Southern part has been developing rapidly lately for this reason.

On the carriage, Su Xiao looked ahead in puzzlement at a few natives. The group had just entered the Southern part, hadn’t encountered any witches, and was instead blocked by a few half-naked wild men covered in various graffiti. Clearly, these natives intended to rob them; of course, treating Su Xiao and the others as lunch was also a possibility.

"Carmen, who are these natives?"

Su Xiao didn’t get off the carriage, just opened the carriage door.

"Not sure, but it seems like the Southern part has changed a lot. Should we catch a few to interrogate?"

"It might be a waste of time."

"True, judging by their expressions, they seem ready to use us as lunch. In that case, let’s kill them. Blood Bear, stop sleeping, some tribal wild men say you look like a dumb donkey."

"Nonsense! You can’t understand those wild men’s language."

Blood Bear, who was dozing in front of the carriage, stood up. Beside him, Carmen smiled mischievously.

Blood Bear jumped off the carriage and bent down to pick up a few stones from the ground. The spear-wielding tribesmen shouted loudly, with two of them charging directly.

Bang, bang!

Two stones flew out, smashing the brains of the two charging tribal wild men, who collapsed to the ground. Seeing this, the other wild men turned and fled.

"These wild men... have they really become so spineless? Ten years ago, they would have rushed at us, howling."

The One-Eyed Dragon Blood Bear grinned, hard to believe he’s a respected Senator.

"Kill them all to prevent other troubles."

Clearly, Carmen wasn’t a good person in his youth. His principle is, either don’t kill and pretend to be a good person, or kill them all without leaving anyone.

Blood Bear’s arm muscles bulged. After a few sharp whipping sounds, the few running wild men fell to the ground.

Meilodi, who witnessed the entire scene, shrank her head back. She’d heard about the ruthless methods of the previous generation of witch hunters.

After dealing with the few road-blocking tribal wild men, the two carriages continued onwards, gradually delving deeper into the Southern part.

...

At ten o’clock that night, under the pitch-black night sky, two carriages were parked next to a bonfire.

"Gunte, have you figured out the situation at this witch gathering spot yet?"

Carmen sat in front of the fire, his hunchback more pronounced under the firelight, as Witch’s Grave Gunte came to his senses.

"Got it figured out. There are about twenty witches here. It’s similar to a market where witches exchange items. This time, the main commodities are a few wild men, since humans are scarce resources in the Southern part."

Witch’s Grave was already in the zone, his witch-hunting instinct overcoming senility.

"Can we make a move tonight?"

Carmen’s old face beamed with a radiant smile, delighted that his old partner Witch’s Grave was back in his prime.

"Ninety percent chance of success."

"If you say ninety percent, then it’s practically guaranteed."

The Drunkard downed several gulps of liquor, then stood up.

"Shall we set off now?"

Blood Bear’s eyes seemed to glimmer; he hadn’t hunted a witch in over a decade.

"Of course."

Carmen and his three companions didn’t call on Su Xiao for one simple reason: with only about twenty witches, and the strongest being a Fourth Stage Witch, if they couldn’t handle this, how could they aim to hunt Misfortune?

The few old men headed to the carriage to fetch their weapons; Carmen stayed put because his weapon was that cane.

The Eye of the Apostle hovered in the air, and Su Xiao prepared to watch how these old witch hunters kill witches.

Twenty minutes later, in a wind-sheltered valley nestled in the hills, there were dozens of wooden huts, some of which had collapsed, clearly not often inhabited.

This was a small market for witches. Every month, during the last week, witches would gather here to exchange items.

An ugly synthetic beast lay in the pitch-black valley, its nose twitching as if it sensed something.

Swish —

A crossbow arrow shot out from the darkness, striking the synthetic beast before it could let out a roar, severing its central nervous system. The lethal poison on the arrow quickly incapacitated it. ℴ

A shadow flashed through the night and stopped in front of the synthetic beast, carefully stroking its paw pads.

"Sharp teeth, hooked claws, its fur has volcanic ash, it’s a Fourth Stage Elemental System."

"Flush them out."

Upon hearing this instruction, the Drunkard untied the package from his back and pulled out two clay pots. Opening them, a plume of white smoke drifted out. He was standing upwind.

Inside a wooden hut, a scar-faced witch suddenly sat up. At that moment, a cold gleam flashed across her throat.

Carmen limped out of the wooden hut, as the Fourth Stage Witch clutched her throat, with Qing spreading visibly from her wound towards her head.

With a click, the wand whip in Carmen’s hand tightened and transformed back into a cane.

The Fourth Stage Witch wasn’t weak, but she didn’t even have the chance to use her avatar.

Five minutes later, with a crisp crack, Blood Bear snapped a witch’s neck as the wooden door behind him was pushed open, and Witch’s Grave Gunte emerged carrying another witch.

Fierce flames spread throughout this market, and the few old witch hunters walked out of the valley. There was a cripple, a drunkard, a One-Eyed Dragon, and even one with senility, but they were experts in witch hunting, the most experienced remaining Witch Hunters alive.

Behind one of the wooden huts, a witch filled with dread pressed against the wall. Her body was somewhat translucent, and given it was nighttime, it was nearly invisible to the naked eye. This witch saved herself by waking in the middle of the night from a need to urinate.

About ten meters away, as he was about to leave the valley, Witch’s Grave Gunte sniffed the air and stopped, clearly a bit cross-eyed.

"I smell a witch."

"Of course, there’s a witch’s scent here."

Blood Bear wiped the blood off his hands and strode towards the exit of the valley.

"No, I mean a living one."

Witch’s Grave turned his head. The wrinkles on his ancient face looked terrifying in the firelight.