The forest is quiet and peaceful.

As the girls walked, they looked around curiously. Although it was still a forest, this forest did give people a different feeling, not only in the atmosphere, but also in the plants. They even saw flowers emitting faint light and trees of strange shapes in the forest.

"It does have that kind of atmosphere here, but we haven't seen any vampires or anything like that."

Ling turned her head and looked around, complaining at the same time.

"According to the book, vampires usually appear at night..."

Theo answered while flipping through the "Geography of the Empire" in her hand.

"So we're staying here all night?"

Tita seemed a little uneasy. It was fine in the mountains yesterday, but now she was in the forest, and in a forest with some ancient legends...

"What does it matter? This is also a different flavor, isn't it?"

“That’s right…”

While listening to the little girls around him, Fang Zheng walked to a path deep in the forest. He stared at the forest in front of him, which seemed to be normal. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, revealing a smile. Then Fang Zheng stretched out his finger and lightly pointed forward.

The next moment, suddenly, everything around was covered in bright red, and all sounds disappeared. The three girls beside Fang Zheng seemed to be fixed, and they kept talking without moving.

At the same time, a voice sounded.

"What do you want here, stranger?"

As the voices were spoken, the air in front of Fang Zheng began to distort as if it was burning. Then, a girl with long golden hair, wearing strange clothes and bright red eyes walked out and stared at Fang Zheng in front of him.

"This is the Witch Village. If you have nothing else to do, please leave."

"So there are people living here?"

Hearing the girl's words, Fang Zheng put down his hand.

"Sorry, I noticed a strange barrier, so I wanted to open it and take a look... I didn't expect there would be someone inside... I'm sorry."

Originally, Fang Zheng thought that what was sealed here might be some kind of ancient relic, and he was thinking of taking the three girls in to play a game of Tomb Raider.

If it is a place where people live, it is indeed not a good idea to break in without permission.

"Who are you?"

The girl's bright red eyes stared at Fang Zheng intently, with no intention of relaxing her vigilance. Hidden in this forest is a village called Witch Village, which is the hometown of witches. They live in the narrow space between dimensions and lead their own lives. Naturally, the barrier protecting this hometown is also extremely powerful.

But what the girl couldn't imagine was that the powerful barrier was completely vulnerable in the hands of the man in front of her. In fact, when Fang Zheng raised his finger just now, the entire barrier had begun to tremble wildly. In just a moment, the barrier hiding the Witch's Home would be broken, and at that time... the situation would be very dangerous.

"A traveler."

Fang Zheng spread his hands.

"I'm very sorry, young lady. I have no ill intentions... I just thought that there might be some ancient relics hidden in this barrier, so I wanted to take the little girls in to see more of it."

"……that's all?"

The girl with bright red eyes showed a surprised expression. She looked in the direction of Theo, Tita and Ling. Of course, she could sense that the three little girls in front of her were just ordinary humans.

In other words, this man almost broke the witch's barrier for the sake of three ordinary human little girls?

What kind of monster are you?

"That's it. I'm sorry to bother you, but I think you should put up a sign to prevent something like this from happening again."

“…”

What nonsense are you talking about? It is impossible for ordinary people to detect the barrier, and even if they can detect it, ordinary people can't enter the witch's home! !

"If you want to come in and take a look, I can open the passage."

Finally, the girl sighed helplessly.

"Oh? Is it okay? Generally speaking, isn't this kind of place off-limits to outsiders?"

"If it were ordinary idlers, we would naturally not let them in, but... forget it, there's nothing much to say."

As she spoke, the girl snapped her fingers, and the bright red color covering the world disappeared instantly. At the same time, the three girls came back to their senses.

"Wow, there's one more person here!"

"Is it a vampire?!"

Seeing the blonde girl with red eyes suddenly appear in front of them, the three girls were startled and quickly hid behind Fang Zheng.

“Hehehe.”

Looking at the reactions of the three people, the girl chuckled and then turned around.

"Come with me."

As she spoke, the girl walked along the path into the depths of the forest.

"Big brother, who is she?"

Looking at the figure of the girl in front of her, Ling gently pulled the corner of Fang Zheng's clothes and asked in a low voice.

"Probably a witch... I told her we wanted to go for a visit, so she agreed to take us into the witch's village."

"Really?!"

"Of course, so you guys better be obedient, okay?"

"Um!!"

Hearing that they were going to visit the witch's village, the three girls immediately perked up and nodded vigorously. After all, they were also curious about the outside world, so it wouldn't be a bad thing to go out more and broaden their horizons while they were young, right?

Following the girl in front of them, Fang Zheng and his group walked into the depths of the forest trail. Then, accompanied by a flash of light, the next moment, the dense forest in front of them disappeared, and was replaced by a quiet and harmonious village.

“Wow…”

Looking at the village in front of them, the three girls opened their eyes wide and showed surprised expressions. The girl walking in front also coughed, then turned around and looked at everyone.

"Well, welcome everyone to the Witch's Village, Ai Ling..."

"grandmother!!!"

However, before the girl could finish her words, another girl ran over and grabbed her.

"Grandma, are you okay? What's going on outside? I heard the barrier was attacked?"

"grandmother?!"

Hearing the girl's name, Tita, Theo and Ling stared at the girl with blond hair and red eyes in surprise. No matter how you look at it, the girl in front of them is only a few years older than them, but why would the girl with a ponytail call them grandma?

In comparison, Fang Zheng seemed very calm. He had seen many over-age lolis. For example, the star god Eluko at the first coordinate point was tens of thousands of years old and looked younger than Tida. Who could he go to for justice?

“Huff, huff, huff.”

The blonde girl seemed to enjoy the surprised looks of the little girls. She smiled at the three little girls and then looked at the girl with ponytail beside her.

"It's all right now, just some minor incidents."

"Is that so? That's good... By the way, Grandma, they are..."

"My name is Fang Zheng."

Fang Zheng also nodded and greeted the two of them, then spoke.

"I am a traveler from Erebonia. I am sorry to bother you so much, as I am my first time in your precious land."

"My name is Ling, Ling Haiwas."

"I'm Tita Russell."

"...Theo Prato."

The three children introduced themselves politely, and after hearing their greetings, the blonde girl coughed lightly.

"I am Roselia Milstein, the elder of the Ai Ling of the Witch Village, and this is my granddaughter Emma Milstein...Emma."

"Yes, Grandmother."

"Take these three children around the village. It's a rare opportunity for them to come here, so let them enjoy our scenery. As for you..."

As she spoke, Roselia looked towards Fang Zheng.

"Would you mind joining me for a cup of tea?"

"certainly."

Fang Zheng doesn't mind as long as he has a beautiful woman by his side.

The Witch Village was a very peaceful and tranquil place, and the buildings here also showed a unique ancient charm. Fang Zheng sat at the table, looking at the steaming black tea in front of him, and felt quite comfortable. Opposite him, Roselia also put down the teapot, then sat on the chair and stared at him.

"You...are not human?"

"At least I think I am."

Fang Zheng shrugged.

"What you think is another matter, but I can tell you clearly that I stand on the side of humans."

"Who are you, then?"

Roselia was obviously not fooled by Fang Zheng's lies. She narrowed her eyes and stared at Fang Zheng.

"I told you, I'm a foreign traveler. I came to Erebonia just to relax with those three little girls. Don't worry, I have no plans to cause trouble on this continent at the moment."

"Foreign travelers..."

Hearing Fang Zheng's answer, Roselia lowered her head and said nothing. Fang Zheng took a sip of tea and then looked at Roselia.

"So you don't mind if I ask you some questions?"

"What's the problem?"

"Questions about the Goddess of the Sky."

"…The Goddess of the Sky?"

Hearing this, Roselia frowned slightly.

"You should ask the church about this question. We are just witches hiding in a remote place."

"Yeah?"

Facing Roselia's answer, Fang Zheng's lips curled up slightly.

"But I remember that the Goddess of the Sky gave the Flame Treasure, one of the Seven Treasures, to the witches for safekeeping, didn't she?"

"…That was a long time ago, and now the Flame Treasure is no longer there."

At this point, Roselia's voice became more serious, and the look in her eyes as she stared at Fang Zheng became more hostile.

"You misunderstood, Miss Roselia."

Fang Zheng waved his hand again.

"I'm not here to steal your treasures. I just have a few questions for you."

"question?"

"Yes, you are a witch clan, right? If so, do you have any records of the goddess's situation? Also, are you able to contact the goddess now?"

That's right, this is the real reason why Fang Zheng came here to find the witch. After investigating the situation of the entire world through "The Whispering Banner", Fang Zheng's first reaction was naturally to find the "Goddess of the Sky" directly. If his guess is correct, then the Goddess of the Sky believed in by this world should be the symbol of the core of this world's order.

However, the results of the investigation surprised Fang Zheng.

According to legend, before the Seven Luminaries, the Goddess of the Sky created seven treasures and gave them to humans, creating the prosperous and powerful ancient Semria civilization. However, humans eventually got out of control and encountered a disaster that spread across the entire continent. After that, the Seven Luminaries Church rose up, leading humans out of the disaster era and ushering in a new civilization.

But the Goddess of the Sky has disappeared.

That's strange.

Fang Zheng used the Whispering Banner to investigate the Goddess of the Sky, but the results were all garbled, which was not a good sign. However, Fang Zheng could not act casually with the Seven Lights Church, so when he came to the Empire, he went to the Witch Village on the way to see if he could find any clues from the witch.

"Contact the goddess?"

However, when she heard Fang Zheng's request, Roselia showed a look of surprise and astonishment. She didn't understand what Fang Zheng meant. When ordinary people talked about the Goddess of the Sky, they either worshipped her as a god or regarded her as the embodiment of faith. But Fang Zheng's tone was as if he was looking for someone. Do you have her contact information to give me?

Do ordinary people talk like this?

If he was an ordinary person, Roselia would naturally think he was an idiot. But the power Fang Zheng showed clearly didn't belong to that kind of person, nor did he look like a madman who tried to challenge the gods because he had power...

What kind of person is this man?

At this moment, Roselia felt a deep doubt in her heart.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have that ability. I suggest you look for it in the church."

Roselia shook her head.

"Well...if things are normal..."

That's right, this is why Fang Zheng didn't reveal his identity to the church. The garbled data of the goddess is likely that she has been contaminated by chaos, or something may have gone wrong. But in any case, in this case, going directly to the church is like jumping out of the bush to get nothing...

"What do you mean?"

Hearing this, Roselia became more confused, but Fang Zheng smiled slightly.

"Sorry, that's a secret."