189 The Quicksand Fog


    Selma Payne’s POV:


    We gained nothing.


    We’d wasted the entire afternoon and found nothing.


    The coverage of the ruins of the witch n was not veryrge, and there were only about thirty families. Dorothy and I spent the entire afternoon searching through six houses, even the underground cers. Other than being covered in dust, we did not find anything.


    Dorothy and I were eating dinner by the fire. Either Mullwica lived underground, or she was an unprecedented space sorcerer.


    “We have no choice. This is the only clue we could find. Mullwica’s home must be here, but we can’t see it.”


    “Maybe Mullwica is a loner? ording to the legends, she has experienced a series of major blows, so she might not want to be around people.”


    “Who knows? Captain Frank also sent people to search the valley area except for the ruins of the witch n, but unfortunately, they didn’t find any traces of life in the habitable areas.”


    Outside the house, people started shouting. Immediately after, the outside team members hid in the houses closest to them.


    “What’s going on?”


    Dorothy looked out the window and replied, “The werewolf grandmasters are preparing to start the ceremony.”


    “Now? But it’s going to be dark soon!”


    “We’ll have to wait until it’s dark. To some extent, the consciousness of the undead is very simr to that of undead creatures. They are afraid of light, and like darkness, so you can only find them at night. However, performing a soul-rted ritual at night might attract some less popr guests, so everyone except the werewolf grandmasters has to leave.”


    I was nning to explore a few more houses at night, but I had to give up now.


    “Speaking of which, I have a question to ask.” I had this question in my mind since I stepped into the ruins of the witch n. “Why are the buildings here so strong? This is a snowy mountain. With years of wind and snow and no one maintaining it, even the strongest stone house would copse, right?”


    I didn’t know either. The werewolf grandmasters spected that it had something to do with the remaining magic fluctuations here. Dorothy sipped on the hot pea soup and said softly, “Maybe a few years ago, this ce still had a rtively intact enchantment that could slow down the flow of time. That’s why nothing has changed. It still looks the same as when the witches evacuated.”


    “It looks the same as when they evacuated?”


    “Yes, the ruins of the witch n you saw have been sorted out by the team members. When Master Mary and the others first discovered this ce, it was covered in snow and scattered scorched wood, probably the traces left by the witches’ battle with the demons. These traces left a strong evil aura. For their safety, the werewolf grandmasters had to purify them first.”


    “Oh, really? I really couldn’t tell.” I didn’t sense any evil aura at all. What surprised me was that I didn’t feel relieved at all. Instead, I felt even more regretful that I lost the chance to eat ‘snacks’.


    Dorothy suddenly burst intoughter as she thought of something. “The grandmasters evenughed at themselves. If the Historical Society of Magical Creatures saw what they did, they would publish a 100000-word paper to denounce the grandmasters for ruining the historical remains.”


    The sky waspletely dark, and the ceremony began.


    The three grandmasters surrounded the triangle in the center of the formation, each chanting a different incantation. These incantations were bizarre. I couldn’t hear a single word.


    It wasn’t that I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t hear it.


    Dorothy exined to me in a low voice, “Don’t worry. It’s fine as long as you can’t hear it. This is for the past living and the undead. Those who live in the present can’t understand it.”


    The chantingsted for about ten minutes. The grandmasters’ mountain suddenly exuded some indescribable pale smoke when thest syble was chanted. The smoke spread rapidly, and it didn’t take long to cover the entire ruins of the witch n.


    Dorothy pulled me along to check the doors and windows, confirming that no smoke had snuck through the cracks.


    “Is this a bad thing?”


    “Not really. I can only say that it negatively affects specific groups of people. This thing is called the Quicksand Fog. It is a kind of filler that exists in the historical gaps. Its presence indicated that history is about to ovep. People from the present can’t have any contact with the Quicksand Fog of the past. Otherwise, they’ll fall unconscious or get lost in the long river of history and never return.”


    “What about the grandmasters?”


    “Don’t worry about that. The grandmasters are the originators of the ritual. From the moment they chant the spell, they temporarily don’t belong to our time. In short, they are now traveling through history.”


    The Quicksand Fog covered the window with a thick gauze curtain, and we couldn’t see anything.


    “How long will the ceremonyst?”


    “It’s hard to say. ording to Master Mary’s prediction, it will end in three hours. Moreover, they can’t stay too long in the stacked history space. Otherwise, it will cause damage to their bodies.”


    The waiting time was very boring. We couldn’t do anything but talk to pass the time.