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"Oh, baby, you..."
The boss's cries from the neighboring private room made Lin An, who had followed Chen Shuyun inside, wear a strange expression.
Chen Shuyun fell silent for a while, glanced at the girl in the super short shorts, and continued towards the seats inside the private room.
The girl in super short shorts pressed her ear to the wall for a while, her expression animated, which earned her a glare from Chen Shuyun, "Shasha!"
Shasha chuckled mischievously and turned to close the door before pulling out a necklace from her neckline.
The pendant on the necklace somewhat resembled amber, but the insect inside seemed to be alive, crawling around within it.
She gripped the pendant tightly, muttering under her breath when suddenly, the private room fell into an absolute silence.
It was that sort of profound quietness, the kind that could make one's heart flutter with unease.
For an instant, Lin An even heard his own heartbeat, as well as the sound of Zhou Xiaoxiao pulling at the hem of his T-shirt next to him.
After a while, the chirping of birds outside the window and the insect song in the corner of the private room returned to their ears.
But the panting sounds from the boss next door were no longer audible.
It was as if that girl named Shasha, the girl in super short shorts and a witch, was regulating the sounds around them.
Chen Shuyun, wearing a large fisherman's hat which obscured her expression, spoke in a gentle voice that came from beneath the hat.
"It is said that in ancient times, there were cultivators, but they all disappeared afterward, and no one knows where they went."
"With the disappearance of the cultivators, the Qi of Heaven and Earth dissipated."
Lin An and Zhou Xiaoxiao glanced at each other and listened quietly to Chen Shuyun's narration.
"The cut-off path to transcendence did not stop those who longed for power. They gathered in the Kale Sea Area to explore together."
"Eventually, someone named 'Azhu' found a method in the ancient text 'Eternal Joy: Shaman, Musician, and Various Professions,' gaining insight into hidden methods within their bodies from an obscure branch of ancient witchcraft, extracting power from within themselves."
"Women become witches, men become sorcerers."
"They succeeded and even discovered that the deepest hidden part of the human body is the very nature we live in, and even deeper, a sea of spirituality."
"People call that sea filled with spirituality the 'Spirit Realm.'
From under the brim of the fisherman's hat, Chen Shuyun's lips slightly pursed, "This Spiritual Energy of the Spirit Realm, surpassing the dimensions of the real world, is more powerful than the Qi of Heaven and Earth used by ancient cultivators, potent enough to allow a witch or a sorcerer to wield powers far beyond what the dimensions of the real world can comprehend."
At this point, her tone held not a hint of pride, only a soft sigh.
Chen Shuyun gently removed the fisherman's hat, revealing a delicate face, her eyes deep as she looked at Lin An and Zhou Xiaoxiao, "And then... that powerful group who called themselves 'Great Witches' collectively regressed to their ancestry under the influence of the Spirit World Aura!"
"Regression to ancestry?" Lin An keenly sensed the issue.
Chen Shuyun nodded slightly, "Abroad, they tend to call this phenomenon 'demonization.' They claim that wizards obtain power by praying to demons, ultimately having their souls pulled into hell and turning into demons themselves."
"Beastification, degradation, demons—based on their own cultures, the new generation of cultivators around the world have their own names for it. Here, we call them 'Sorcerer Zombies,' which means 'wizards to the extreme become specters.'
Shasha, leaning against the door with arms crossed, let out a snicker, her eyes full of mockery, "Everyone says they made a great contribution to science, because they proved that when humans regress, they don't turn into monkeys but into all kinds of strange animals."
Chen Shuyun looked up at her, "We should show the pioneers the basic respect they deserve."
Shasha rolled her eyes, "What's there to respect? That generation was crazy, mixing Sorcerer Zombie blood into cola drinks and selling it worldwide, claiming they wanted everyone to become witches..."
Chen Shuyun pursed her lips and continued her story, "Those who drank that drink back then and their descendants might all become 'witches.' Because they are born able to sense the Spiritual Energy of the Spirit Realm, they absorb it in whispers, day by day, and might suddenly reach a critical point and regress into a Sorcerer Zombie."
"A Sorcerer Zombie's heart is filled with a desire for destruction, they disown kin and kin, and their power is immense."
"To correct this mistake, and also to continue seeking a better path for cultivation, everyone eventually figured out 'witchcraft.' Those witches who mastered 'witchcraft' were called Wizards."
Chen Shuyun looked seriously at Lin An and Zhou Xiaoxiao, "We cannot be sure if the ways of the Wizards are correct. We can only inherit the will of our predecessors and continue to search for a way out for transcendent powers."
Lin An, frowning, listened thoughtfully, "Then those Sorcerer Zombies..."
"This is the key point!" Chen Shuyun's eyes brimmed with sadness as she turned to look out the window into the sky, her hair billowing in the mountain breeze, as if lost in some sorrow.
"Sorcerer Zombies cause destruction in the human world, and naturally, there were those who tried to stop them, these people were called 'Witch-hunting Knights.'
"Sorcerer Zombies that could be killed were killed, and those that could not be..."
"People found that Sorcerer Zombies could enter the Spirit Realm, and once they went in, they couldn't come out, so these Sorcerer Zombies were all driven into the Spirit Realm."
"But this desperate measure clearly had many hidden dangers, as no one knew how powerful the Sorcerer Zombies would become under the nourishment of that sea of spirituality."
"So the 'Witch-hunting Knights' went mad, not only hunting Sorcerer Zombies but also Wizards, and even ordinary people with witch bloodlines who might awaken as Sorcerer Zombies."
Chen Shuyun took a deep breath, turning back to everyone, "Wizards differ from the witches of the pioneers, as we rarely transform into Sorcerer Zombies, but our witchcraft is performed by connecting to the Spiritual Energy of the Spirit Realm, which means..."
"Our existence is becoming a bridge connecting the Spirit Realm and the real world."
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"People believe that when a sufficient number of wizards appear, that bridge will allow those powerful Sorcerer Zombies to return to the real world from the Spirit Realm."
"In that case, it would be a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions."
"We..."
"Indeed are unjust beings."
"The Witch-hunting Knights wanting to kill us is not wrong!"
"So what, we have no choice!" Shasha said, clenching the pendant in her hand tightly as she walked over, looking at Chen Shuyun and also at Lin An and Zhou Xiaoxiao, "Even if we do nothing, we might one day suddenly turn into Sorcerer Zombies and then be killed!"
"Rather than that, we might as well grasp our spellcasting abilities early through the awakening ritual, learn witchcraft, and become a powerful wizard."
She narrowed her eyes, and the anger and unwillingness on her face finally turned into a cold sneer, "I control my destiny, not heaven; why should I wait for them to come and kill me?"
Chen Shuyun interrupted her contentious words with a wave of her hand, "Regardless, all we can do is try our best to awaken those who might turn into Sorcerer Zombies one day earlier, teach them witchcraft, and help them become a wizard."
"It not only alleviates the burden of a future crisis but also gives you a chance to seize control of your own destiny."
"But you will also have to face the Witch-hunting Knights' pursuit even earlier."
She looked steadily at Lin An and Zhou Xiaoxiao, "You may blame me, hate me for turning you into wizards, I understand, but actually, you don't have a choice, neither do we."
"With the threat of the Witch-hunting Knights closing in on us, us wizards must stick together for warmth and try to have more companions."
"After all, we truly are unjust beings..."
Silence.
The air suddenly fell silent.
The two witches obviously gave them time to digest the content of their talk.
After a while.
Chen Shuyun picked up the hat in her hand and tossed it gently into the air, the burgundy fisherman's hat quickly deformed in mid-air, eventually turning into an ancient door frame made of burgundy wood.
The door was open, revealing inside a fire pit, a kettle hanging over a bonfire emitting smoke, next to which was a row of sofas encircling a small round table, placed in front of a large shelf.
"So..."
Chen Shuyun looked seriously at Zhou Xiaoxiao, "Do you wish to join our 'Witches' Gathering'?"
Zhou Xiaoxiao was stunned, disbelievingly pointing at the door and the space inside, until Chen Shuyun asked again, as if she had suddenly thought of something, she excitedly looked at her, "I... I want to know if becoming a wizard can cure heart problems, my dad..."
Chen Shuyun raised an eyebrow, looking toward Shasha standing by the door.
Shasha laughed heartily, "Believe me, if it weren't for the existence of scum like the Witch-hunting Knights, I would surely be the most famous doctor in the world!"
"I'm joining!" Zhou Xiaoxiao's voice rose sharply in excitement.
"Leave it to me, consider it done!" Shasha patted her chest, promising with a thump that resounded.
Chen Shuyun then turned to Lin An, "As for you..."
Frankly speaking, Lin An really didn't want to join any group of wizards, but before he could speak, Chen Shuyun's delicate face was already full of apology.
"I'm sorry we are a Witches' Assembly and don't admit male witches; there is a Male Witch Organization in Shenhou City called 'Crazy Male Witch's Tree Hole', and I will refer you to them."
With that, she took out a prepared beige paper envelope and drew a red letter from it, on which she wrote an introduction for Lin An, the new wizard member.
After sealing it, she handed it to Lin An.
"You can burn it directly when you go back, and normally someone will take the initiative to contact you within half an hour."
Lin An held the letter with a complicated expression.
Just by taking this one trip, he became a wizard?
And might at any time face the pursuit of the Witch-hunting Knights?
Oh, no, even more, as a wizard, unless he resigned from that promising job, would he have to deliberately approach the Witch-hunting Knights?
Lin An walked out of the private room holding the letter, his heart full of complexity.
Whom had he provoked to suddenly become a wizard, to become an unjust being?
Everything had been fine when he arrived...
He felt inexplicably aggrieved and could only let out a deep sigh. Life wasn't easy; the pressure didn't ease with this 'Yunlu Mountain outing'; it only became heavier.
"..."