The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 81

The Alliance of Two Towers

The instant Cliff raised his scythe blades and swung them forward, a black-haired figure suddenly emerged behind Lucy.

As Olivia’s ten fingers clasped in the air and twisted counterclockwise.

The Time Shield, which required no construction of a witchcraft model, unfolded abruptly.

Both of Cliff’s sharp scythe blades froze in midair without warning, as though sealed inside transparent resin.

Cliff’s pupils contracted sharply, and he was horrified to find that he could not control his limbs.

The opening lasted only a heartbeat three Venomous Fangs flew in, forming a triangular assault.

Clang!

At the critical moment, Cliff’s scorpion tail swept sideways, barely knocking aside the fangs aimed at his heart and head, but the third one pierced straight through his right shoulder.

A hair-raising sizzling sound erupted at once, and his right shoulder began to rot down to the bone at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Cliff made a split-second decision. The scythe blade flashed with cold light, and his entire right arm, along with half his shoulder, fell with a thud.

He staggered backward, attempting to retreat toward the center of his squad, but his legs were suddenly bound by entangling vines.

Heavy footsteps thundered closer. Clad in thick armor, Karen charged like a war chariot, slamming Cliff to the ground and tearing the badge from his chest in one smooth motion.

All of this transpired in the blink of an eye.

By the time the other Witch’s Cottage apprentices regained their senses, their strongest fighter had already fallen.

Beside Lucy, the Venomous Fangs materialized once more, stabbing through two apprentices who tried to resist.

“Does anyone else want to try?” She twirled her staff lightly, pointing it toward the six who remained.

She was answered by a chorus of Withdrawal Badge activations.

The final six apprentices chose to forfeit almost without hesitation.

When the last flicker of blue teleportation light vanished, only six Witch’s Cottage badges remained scattered across the forest floor, along with Cliff, a Tier-2 apprentice pinned to the ground.

Lucy leapt down from the vine that Talia had summoned, and step by step walked over to stand before Cliff, who had already returned to human form.

She held the badge Koren had handed her, turning it slowly in her fingers.

“Don’t bother trying to ask me anything. I know you possess witchcraft that can judge truth and falsehood. I’d rather smash my own head open than answer you!” Cliff lifted his chin stubbornly, his expression filled with determination.

Lucy watched him with a smile that was not quite a smile.

“You can relax. When it comes to the Witch’s Cottage’s intelligence, I might know more than you do.”

Cliff paused for a breath. His gaze drifted instinctively to the dissection tools at the silver-haired girl’s waist, and his face grew even paler.

“Then you mean to… dissect me?”

“I’m not some kind of pervert.”

Lucy pressed her lips together. These wizards seemed to have a very deep misunderstanding about her. “Take a look at this.”

As she finished speaking, she held out the map of Godfall Gorge toward Cliff.

At this moment, the blank map of the gorge had already been marked with over a hundred tiny dots, like a scattering of sesame seeds.

Cliff was puzzled. “What is this?”

Lucy picked up a quill and connected all those little dots together.

“Look again now.”

Cliff’s eyes widened, and then his gaze sharpened in an instant.

“This is the array’s… guide markers!”

A complete witchcraft array was composed of three parts the physical layer, the energy layer, and the information layer.

The guide markers were part of the physical layer, serving as reference points for the energy nodes of the array, ensuring the precision of energy pathways.

The lines formed by linking those small dots were the conductors, and the entire arena itself was a colossal foundation.

When all three parts were combined, they formed a terrifying witchcraft array.

“That’s right.” Lucy closed her notebook and said, “Do you remember what Wizard Sarah told us about Godfall Gorge? This place is the grave of a quasi-divine being and a great Star Ring Wizard.”

“And those people from the Eternal Silence Blackthorn are using the flesh and blood of past tournament wizards to feed this entire Ghostface Tree forest, and with the crying-faced tree as the guide marker and the root system as the conductors, they are plotting something.”

Lucy’s words left the Tier-2 apprentice of the Witch’s Cottage frozen in place.

After a long time, Cliff finally rasped, “We were played for fools by those bastards from Eternal Silence Blackthorn?!”

Lucy shrugged. “I think so.”

At her signal, Karen released the Mud Armor Reinforcement covering his body and reverted to his two-meter-tall human form.

Cliff, who was also tall and broad-shouldered, sat up.

“This must be reported to the honored wizards immediately!”

“I’ve already sent someone, but that’s not the main point.”

Lucy shook her head. Even if the information was delivered, the wizards outside would be unable to enter the trial zone.

Cliff quickly reached the conclusion himself, his expression dark. “What do you want me to do?”

“Destroy the array. Eliminate every wizard from Eternal Silence Blackthorn.”

Two days later

With a sudden surge of magical energy, the first trial arena began its contraction.

The entire original competition area would be reduced by twenty percent.

Somewhere within the Ghostface Tree forest.

Lucy’s fingertip traced over the last marked point along the perimeter of the trial grounds on the map.

She looked up at the squad captains gathered around the temporary encampment. More than twenty official apprentices wearing blue and red wizard robes stood silently awaiting her orders.

In the three days since the tournament had begun, Lucy had gradually assembled twenty-one squads from the Tower of the Four Sages and the Witch’s Cottage.

The total headcount had surpassed one hundred seventy people, nearly a third of the combined contestants from both towers.

“According to the ninety-seven crying-faced tree nodes we have identified, we can now confirm that this is an enormous sacrificial array.” Lucy’s voice echoed against the canyon’s rock walls. “They intend to use the lives of all participants as the price to achieve some purpose.”

“For the past two hundred years, most of the apprentices who entered this tournament have become nourishment for this forest.”

Several of the newly joined captains looked at each other, and in one another’s eyes, they saw the same shock.

Those scum from Eternal Silence Blackthorn had actually done this to their own side.

They had thought it was simply an alliance of the weak, but instead, it turned out to be a scheme to devour everyone, strong and weak alike.

A sacrificial array that used the lives of wizard apprentices as its power… that alone was enough to draw the Star Law Institute’s intervention.

One-armed Cliff stepped forward, the red robe he had worn through countless battles whipping in the wind.

“Our cleanup squads have already swept away more than thirty Eternal Silence Blackthorn teams on the perimeter, but they were all low-ranking apprentices who had been kept in the dark.”

“They knew nothing about the sacrificial array and were clearly meant to become part of the offering as well.”

“So we must split up and act.”

Lucy unfurled a newly drawn map, marked with the routes of the crying-faced tree root systems.

“Cliff, you will continue to lead the cleanup squads and clear out the Witch’s Cottage wizards from the outer edge, but try not to kill anyone.”

Cliff nodded.

He had been doing exactly that for the past two days.

“Talia, find a way to alter the course of these roots and disrupt the array’s structure.”

Talia’s usually soft face took on a rare solemnity. Her fingers trembled slightly as she accepted the map. “Any witch from the Symbiotic Mutation School could sever the array’s energy circulation, but I’d better stay with you. We’ll still need me to scout out the core of the array.”

Lucy thought for a moment, then nodded and turned to the other captains.

“I, Olivia, Hain, Bren, and the rest of the captains aside from the cleanup squads will form an assault team.” Lucy’s silver hair glimmered coldly in the dim light. “We’ll follow the intact roots straight to the central altar.”

Everyone present exchanged glances. Then, one after another, they spoke up.

“Yes!”