The Cornflower Witch Chapter 80

Chapter 80 Ancient Ruins (Thanks to Tower LP Pope for the Alliance Leader)

After familiarizing herself with the new abilities of her fate card, Hylial moved through this twisted forest like a fish in water. When the unknown becomes known, fear significantly decreases, and this was currently true for her.

Once again, she emerged from the gray-white world into a colorful clearing in the forest. Hylial discovered a strange sight here. In the center of the clearing, there were remnants of stone brick structures, including a fountain with a pool that had once sprung from the ground. However, this fountain had been dry for a long time, and the pool contained only fallen leaves and stones.

Carefully approaching the pool, Hylial found nothing strange, but the fountain itself seemed out of place with its surroundings.

The stone bricks and the soil on the ground, separated by only a foot, were distinctly different, as if the fountain didn’t originate from here but was forcibly moved to this spot from somewhere else, crashing into this world.

“Perhaps it’s like me, originally a structure from the outside world,” Hylial mused, her gaze turning to the center of the fountain, where there was a water bottle carved from white stone. Water should have flowed from it previously.

Ignoring the abandoned fountain, she continued forward.

Passing through layers of trees, Hylial entered a new area that was clearly dangerous. Three jet-black panthers surrounded her, poised to attack.

[Star Shadow Panther] (Tier 1 – Alien Star): A panther twisted and polluted, its starlight dim and unclear, attack method unknown.

“Roar—” The lead panther attacked first, dashing forward, its body transforming into strange colors, as if it had stepped into a fold in the world, disappearing from the visible spectrum.

Invisible? No, it’s more like traversing another dimension, but this dimension is only a hair’s breadth from the real world.

Hylial’s eyes gleamed with determination as she calmly responded. When the panther attacked from the side, she was already prepared to dodge, then swung her blade, tearing an opening in the panther’s back.

The first panther’s attack failed, but the other two didn’t stop. They accelerated separately, their bodies also transforming and morphing, disappearing into strange dimensional rifts.

Unfortunately, this strange attack method had no effect on Hylial. She could easily track these creatures and precisely strike their vital points.

After several such exchanges, the panthers were wounded, while she remained unscathed.

“If it were other extraordinary beings without my observational skills, you’d probably give them a lot of trouble,” the girl murmured, her short sword twirling lightly.

“But since we’re all ‘Alien Stars,’ there’s no need for these theatrics.”

Seeing that they couldn’t defeat the girl, the three panthers growled, hesitated for a moment, then swiftly fled, disappearing into the gray-white world and heading towards other colorful bubble nodes.

“Sigh, they actually run away?” This was the first time she had seen an opponent flee after encountering so many colorful bubbles.

Perhaps these creatures were more resilient and not completely twisted and corroded, retaining much of their intelligence.

Chasing them was out of the question. Traversing the gray-white world would consume a lot of alignment power, and she couldn’t afford to be so extravagant.

After repelling the three panthers, Hylial wandered around the forest clearing a few steps, looking for something.

“Is there still a puddle here?” She found a small puddle in a crack in the stone slab.

The water in the puddle was exceptionally clear, like morning dew, appearing in this twisted forest, which was simply incredible.

No wonder all three of them were gathered here, Hylial thought, taking out a wooden bottle and filling it with the clear water.

She wasn’t sure if it was drinkable, but she decided not to drink it unless she was extremely thirsty.

After tidying up and finding nothing else, Hylial stood up and continued forward. At this point, she was not far from the stone pillar ruins she had seen on the mountaintop.

…

After much hardship, Hylial finally arrived at the architectural ruins in this forest. The area of this colorful zone was several times larger than any node she had seen along the way, vast and expansive.

When she truly stepped into it, she realized that the buildings here were actually exceptionally large. From the standing pillars and partial walls of the ruins, it could be seen that this was once a large temple, with white stone structures everywhere.

The style was grand and elegant, quite aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, Hylial had never seen a similar architectural style in history, and she was also curious about who this temple was built for.

This world indeed had beings similar to deities. They were beings above ‘Tier 10,’ mostly masters of a certain alignment law, and such great beings were often overlords across multiple epochs.

In the Second Epoch, the Sky Sea Epoch, the overlords were the ancient true fish that roamed the heavens and seas. Their bodies could grow up to millions of kilometers long, and their movements alone could change the flow of the entire Sky Sea, guiding the water currents.

In the Third Epoch, the Sun-Moon Epoch, the ancient true fish died from the scorching sun, and the entire Sky Sea was separated. Light gases expanded, making this world exceptionally vast.

In the Fourth Epoch, the Star Beast Epoch, the primal beasts that gazed at the stars became the overlords of the era, and this was also the origin of the ‘Primal Beast’ alignment.

In the Fifth Epoch, the Fairy Epoch, ‘Emerald Honey’ and ‘Moth’ reconciled, and fairies were born into the world. They began to resist the ‘Primal Beasts” control over other alignments and cultivated the world tree that supported the heavens and earth. Its roots gathered all the true fish remnants, forming a complete and unified land. The fairy lords began to divide the seasons, control the rising and setting of the sun and moon, and debase the ‘Primal Beasts,’ turning them into ‘Beast Fangs.’

In the Sixth Epoch, the Seven Dragon Epoch, the Black Serpent burned the roots of the world tree and was cut down by the fairy lords. It then transformed into Seven Dragons, which gnawed at the world tree, devoured the fairy lords, and became the seven great law dragons that controlled the seven alignments of sun, moon, and stars, splitting the unified land.

In the Seventh Epoch, the Erosion Epoch, the Star Dragon, one of the Seven Dragons, summoned an Alien Star to descend and impact this world. The paradise in the sky fell, and countless beings perished.

…

Hylial recalled the complete secret history in her mind, searching for clues in these ruins.

It should be a product from after the Seventh Epoch, because the world before that was largely destroyed, and humanity hadn’t risen then, nor would structures be built according to human scale.

Hylial pondered this. As she walked through the open area of the ruins, eyes opened in the corners of the forest, observing the unfamiliar figure in this relic.

A subtle hum spread through the trees…

Soon, Hylial stopped, having seen the only completely intact large fountain in the ruined architecture. Clear water flowed from a bottle carved from white stone, held by a veiled female statue.

Even though it was a statue, the light, flowing dress on the woman was incredibly detailed. Her shoulders and wrists had ties that tightened the long openings on the dress, both showcasing the woman’s delicate figure and revealing her beautiful shoulders and arm skin.

The water flowed continuously, and a faint, clear mist enveloped her, refreshing Hylial and making her feel comfortable.

This is… the aura of ‘Glorious Moon.’

She was surprised to find that the clear water in the pool contained the ‘Glorious Moon’ alignment. Such a precious resource, and it possessed complete alignment power. Even though she had only recently entered this world, she could guess how valuable this legacy was.

“Why is no one maintaining it? Has no one come here?” As she thought this, an alarm suddenly blared in her mind.

Countless buzzing sounds echoed through the forest. The trembling sound of wings caused anxiety, and when Hylial turned around, she saw an overwhelming swarm of white bees, like a net covering the sky, diving towards her.

[Withered White Bee] (Tier 1 – Moth): A special type of bee that feeds on tree honey and can turn into stone to hibernate. They are the sworn enemies of ‘Glorious Moon.’

—

Alignment [Moth]: (The first creeping life, new鞘翅 after the ancient centipedes)

(End of Chapter)