Chapter 161 : A Battle of Wits with a Flock of Women
Chapter 161: A Battle of Wits with a Flock of Women
On the lake-center island deep within an unknown forest
Beneath a gigantic tree whose age was unknown, all kinds of tree-made houses were scattered about. In the central plaza, there were also various facilities transformed from wood, looking both antique and practical.
This was a gathering place of the Witch Race. Aside from a massive magic array covering an area of dozens of meters, there were almost no other artificial structures to be seen.
Because of the witches’ special nature, they were lazy yet possessed a unique sense of vigilance. They would not live in one place for a long time. There were countless such gathering points scattered throughout the element-rich forests across the continent.
Through bloodline-activated arrays, they could rely on the array to disperse across the continent to explore or integrate into society, or they could comfortably live in seclusion deep within forests to explore the mysteries of magic.
“Is everyone here?”
A dignified voice echoed through the empty plaza. One after another, seven figures solidified out of the void and bowed slightly. Their forms were varied and different, yet they all shared the same eye color and hair color.
The figure of the Witch Queen also appeared at the center. The entire forest seemed to be nourished, flowers becoming increasingly vivid and dripping with vitality, releasing rich fragrances. The branches of the trees in the forest also rustled like waves.
Beasts and birds throughout the forest unconsciously looked toward the center, narrowing their eyes in enjoyment. Vigorous life energy covered the entire forest, and everywhere presented a scene of thriving harmony.
A section of branch slowly bulged up from the ground, rapidly growing and intertwining, transforming into seats behind several people. She waved her hand:
“Sit.”
The Queen crossed her legs and leaned back against the wooden chair, speaking unhurriedly: “Report the intelligence you’ve整理ed so far~ Miranda, you go first.”
The Great Witches present each represented a major racial category. Miranda was the foremost among human witches.
She was also the most protective of her own, hot-tempered and immensely powerful. The fact that the vast majority of half-witches took her surname as a way of seeking protection was clear proof of that.
Miranda did not speak. A surge of elements wandered within the wooden chair and was swiftly absorbed by her, followed by a brief silence.
“So that’s how it is... The little prince of Britian was the reincarnated emperor foretold in the Great Prophecy? He had returned~ An emperor who once unified the human race—how interesting.”
After speaking, she turned her head to look at the other Great Witches. They successively transmitted the information they had整理ed. On the ground before the Queen, the data converged and fused, forming a brand-new continental power distribution map composed of magic.
Unlike the map known to the general public, this one did not show nations, but instead the boundaries of racial forces behind them, their overall potential, and special or distinctive abilities.
It also meticulously marked various special individuals or creations. Among them was the reincarnated emperor from Miranda’s magical transmission.
In addition, there were the war ancient trees awakened by the Elves represented by the Tree King.
The Behemoth race hidden deep within the grasslands by the Beast Race.
The Dragon King currently in the final stage of ascension.
The Blood Race attempting to awaken their progenitor through rituals.
The Demon Race that toiled day and night, skeleton armies at the ready.
And the mechanical goblins with big heads and small bodies that were so ugly they barely looked human, along with the gnomes that were simply smeared into a bloody mosaic, labeled with “???” instead.
“Hm? What’s going on with the gnomes?”
The Queen’s gaze swept toward the smallest figure present.
The Great Witch of the Dwarven Race, Annabelle, was questioned.
Annabelle seemed to recall something unpleasant. The expression on her youthful, round face twisted:
“As for the gnomes, I don’t even know whether this half-race still counts as existing. They were almost completely eaten by their own creations...”
Eaten—literally eaten, alive and gnawed apart.
Thinking of that nauseating scene, Annabelle’s complexion grew even worse. Although she had destroyed the vast majority of them and protected some of the women and children of the gnome race.
However, it was impossible to eradicate them completely, because that thing’s racial traits were quite resistant to magic. It could remain relatively invisible under magical and mental detection, and could only be observed with the naked eye.
Simply put, they were easy to kill, but hard to hit. Because of this, she had even used a forbidden spell to completely erase the gnome homeland from the world.
Yet she had personally witnessed the incubation speed of that thing, and her intuition told her that it was highly likely to return again.
Goblins and gnomes, strictly speaking, belonged to the same race group. However, due to differences in ideology, they had gone their separate ways. Their differences manifested mainly in their application of runes. Their appearances were largely similar, so confusion in naming was inevitable.
Of course, the biggest reason was that their race had no powerhouse above the level of a half-god. There was no officially defined racial name, and no one cared what they were actually called.
Precisely because of this, Annabelle, the Dwarven Great Witch, was also responsible for overseeing these two races. After all, they both belonged to the “little folk” races~
Hearing this explanation, the Queen frowned slightly: “In this era of great contention where demons and monsters run rampant, any strange thing can happen. Is there still no news from the Sea Race?”
At her words, everyone shook their heads. The Sea Race was far too mysterious, and the oceans of this world increasingly suppressed elements with depth. The Witch Race, being the most sensitive to elements, deeply disliked this.
The stronger the suppression, the more their strength would decrease exponentially. As such, it was very difficult for them to enter the Sea Race’s sphere of influence, and they had no idea whether witches were even born among the Sea Race.
“Forget it. The data has all been consolidated here. As for the future positioning of our race, you may begin to express your own thoughts. Should we continue multi-sided investment like before, or?”
Everyone once again fell into silence.
In the past, relying on the diversity of their race, the Witch Race had always placed bets on multiple sides. Although the gains were not great—generally just obtaining privileges to absorb new witches into their race.
No matter who won, they did not lose, and they could maintain relatively good surface-level relations with all major races.
However, the premise was that the scale of war remained within a range that could end peacefully. A situation where all major races laid bare their entire foundations like this had never happened before.
No matter how one looked at it, this was not a war that could easily end. It might even become a fight to the death.
The Witch Race was strong overall. The seven present were all Great Witches at the minimum, ranking in the mid-to-upper tiers even among god-level combatants. The Primordial Queen herself had reached the very pinnacle.
But if they spread their bets and divided their strength, they would no longer stand out. Even if other races had fewer god-level existences than the Witch Race, the difference was limited. A two-on-one scenario had a very real chance of killing one of them.
In the past, others still had to consider the future. But in the current situation, this could very well turn into a world war. Losing meant death and racial annihilation. In that case, did the lives of allies really still matter?
The voluptuous Dragon Race Great Witch suddenly laughed: ‘Did you all see the projection little Aisha sent back last time? It was incredibly interesting.’
The women were momentarily stunned, puzzled by her sudden remark. When Aisha had previously projected magic, the viewing window had been opened toward the Dragon Race witches’ garrison. What was seen were all young dragon loli, and witches from other regions were not aware of it.
Seeing everyone’s puzzled expressions, the Dragon Girl smiled and projected the image into midair for playback. Upon seeing the scene of golden light flooding into the body, everyone raised their brows.
‘Whose child is that? Who taught her this move? She’s really clever!’
‘Looking at her height and that smooth, bare head, she should be human, right, Miranda?’
‘Shut up! What do you mean smooth and bare? Not growing horns or big ears—what’s wrong with that? What if an opponent chops them off with one sword, wouldn’t that hurt you to death!’
‘But she doesn’t have pretty pointy ears either.’
‘Only you Elves think your pointy ears look good!’
‘Even if you’re strong, be careful or we’ll gang up on you!’
‘Fine, fight then! Who’s afraid of who! Watch me yank off that furry tail of yours.’
‘And you, Blood Race—what are you staring at! You think only your teeth are white? You’re showing them off every day.’
‘You!’
Miranda sat on her chair, verbally battling the women without losing ground at all, leaving several nearby Great Witches glaring with widened eyes, itching to move.
The Queen looked helplessly at the scene below. What had been a proper discussion suddenly turned into a noisy mess. Miranda’s combat power being strong was not without reason—if she had been any weaker, she would have been beaten to death long ago.