CHAPTER 1321: CHAPTER 1321: MOONLIGHT WHEEL

"I see, I... understand now!"

The inspiration that arose in the café in the City of Eternal Night when giving off a glimmer, the feeling gained near the Moon Worship Ruins at the Osenfort Estate, the blessing of the Silvermoon, and the final touch upon seeing the giant halo, made Shade Ming realize what kind of power he truly wished to obtain.

On the shore, the Blonde Witch faced the dark great lake, the ground beside her had already been dyed silver-white. With her hands behind her back, she watched the "giants" battling. The blizzard blew her beautiful long golden hair backward, the hair which could become excellent Spellcasting Materials and ritual supplies faintly emitted a glimmer, while her crimson golden eyes genuinely flickered in the wind, including the Power of the Earth by the shore with her:

"Ah, the power of the Earth, I originally thought my limit was only at the Eleventh Rank, but now it seems..."

At this moment, Miss Lathis and two other Nine Rings Female Sorcerers had also hurried over out of concern, the group of four listened to the increasingly turbulent tide, first witnessing a soil-yellow shock halo in the blizzard pushing back that terrifying golem, then the right hand of the Stone Giant lifted up, a silver halo emitting glimmer appeared on its wrist, as if the halo of the Silvermoon had been taken down at this moment.

"Is this Shade’s Binding Light?"

Miss Lathis recognized the truth of the Arcane Technique:

"It’s truly beautiful, such dazzling moonlight... Vanessa, is this what you spoke of, the power Shade received from the Guardian?"

The Witch remained silent, gazing into the distance, just like most people by the lakeside. At this moment, even if someone with night blindness approached the lake, they could see that halo. No one would question the power of that halo, the Power of the Earth had always been so profound and magnificent.

That halo illuminated the side face of the Stone Giant, as well as showing the full aspect of the Rain-Prayer Golem charging toward the Stone Giant.

However, that bright silver halo ultimately did not fly out with the Giant’s punch. The right hand of the Stone Giant paused in mid-air, then the halo on its wrist disappeared and appeared in the palm of the Stone Giant.

Meanwhile, the clouds in the sky somehow broke open a big hole, and moonlight shot through the Silvermoon’s opening, onto the stone statue in the lake. That hand-held halo underwent further transformation under the moonlight, serrated bent arcs evenly distributed around the smooth halo, with the bending direction coincidentally the same as the direction of the halo’s rotation.

The original halo could not be seen to rotate, but once the serrated arcs appeared around it, it was clear to see the ring was indeed rotating.

The others by the lakeshore did not understand what this meant, but Miss Benanis watched the scene expressionlessly, because of the Arcane Technique’s linkage, she could sense something significant happening to Shade in the distance. Miss Lathis, on the other hand, looked at the spinning light wheel in astonishment, she could feel the ancient and profound power.

"What is this?"

"It’s already over."

The Stone Giant made a throwing motion in the blizzard, and the massive silver serrated halo flew out just like that:

"Moonlight Slash - Fifth Form!"

The Binding Light itself lacked aggression but had tracking and multiple features; Moonlight Slash possessed strong attack power but lacked tracking and had a broad attack range.

And through one battle after another and multiple epiphanies, Shade finally combined the two Arcane Techniques he had, creating an entirely new Arcane Technique at this moment.

"Outlander, this can’t be considered Arcane Technique - Moonlight Slash. You created a new Arcane Technique; this power is unique to you, please name it."

"Arcane Technique - Moonlight Wheel."

The flying light wheel struck the charging Rain-Prayer Golem head-on, the latter joined its large hands, trying to grip the spinning light wheel, but the wheel passed straight through the gap in the palms, the rotating serrated edges cut into the golem’s chest with a piercing sound, then flew out from the back of the golem, disappearing into the darkness.

The Demon Power covering the Relic tried to repair the damage, but under the moonlight that restrained the Evil Fiend, it couldn’t function.

The golem remained in the pose of leaping toward the statue, its entire body frozen in its self-caused blizzard. Just as people began to wonder, the golem fell backward, and before it crashed into the water, it completely vanished.

"It’s a success!"

Luviya’s voice softly reached Shade’s ears, though Mr. Fleming said there was only one chance, Shade felt he could barely use the Arcane Technique once more, only this time he had to bear a small part of the consumption of Spirit himself.

Shade hesitated not at all and took out a fresh stone that turned into soil from his pocket, placing fresh flower petals in the soil.

As the Stone Giant’s hands assumed a lifting posture, the phantom of a huge Soil Holy Grail emitting silver light appeared below its palms.

Bathed in that moonlight shooting from the cloudy hole, the spray of soil-yellow Spiritual Energy surged even more fiercely. In just a few breaths, the Spiritual Energy falling from the high holy grail to the lake surface covered the entire great lake, the Spiritual Energy shrouded in glimmer swirled above the lake like mist, and the boundless Spiritual Energy even spread to the lakeshore surroundings, purifying the slightly polluted land.

"What was that just then?"

In the camp across the lake, the Incantation Professor from Zaras Academy stroked his beard and asked the middle-aged man beside him, who wore a Ritual Robe with a Sun Pattern Holy Emblem on his chest, and whose hair was half-white:

"Mr. Morris, do you have such powerful individuals in the Randall Valley Parish? If I didn’t know, I would even believe the Chosen of the Moon is in the lake center."

"This should not be a Circle Sorcerer from this parish... Is the God Summoner here again?"

"The Church shouldn’t attribute everything to the God Summoner anyhow... now this is the ancient Divine Arts of the Power of the Earth, wielded by a Stone Giant, it’s as though we’ve returned to the Ancient Mythological Era... the Poem Chapter of the Chosen of the Earth is so..."

With a thunderous crash, the two shifted their gaze back to the lake. The Stone Giant standing in the blizzard now finally could no longer bear the force and crumbled in the cloud-like Spiritual Energy that remained.

A dark silhouette in the high sky caught Shade and Luviya; it was the Witch who had foreseen the end of the matter in advance. Without waiting for the True God Church’s High Ring Sorcerers to arrive, she coughed once and said loudly across the air:

"This matter is under the Council’s jurisdiction, yes, remember to provide the reward for resolving the trouble to us, calculated at 1.3 times the regular employment fee. Also, Randall Valley’s Guardian sacrificed one for this, you must accept responsibility. The epic of the Chosen of the Earth has formally commenced! True God Church, don’t disgrace yourselves like the previous occurrences."

The disguised female voice was sharp and piercing, then she let out the laugh often described in stories, directly flying away with Shard and Luviya.

"Aren’t you afraid the Council will suspect that the witch is in Randall Valley?"

"Tomorrow, find a journalist and have him capture a picture of me kissing Shard; then, no one will ever suspect Vanessa Benanis, who doesn’t get close to men, of being a witch."

The witch spoke casually as she flew, as if she were discussing breakfast for the next morning.

"Hmm?"

The weakened Shard looked at her in surprise.

"Huh?"

Luviya was equally surprised that the witch would do such an ungraceful thing.

The group quickly returned to the camp set up in the dense forest. Miss Lathis and her group had also retreated by now. They didn’t hurry to leave. After everyone entered the camp, the witch personally cast the Arcane Techniques "Closed Door" and "Soil Camp." Although there seemed to be no change when looking out from inside, from the outside, the camp was now completely invisible.

The bonfire was still bright, providing warmth to everyone on the stormy snowy night.

At this moment, Luviya was holding the somewhat weakened Shard, and Shard was carrying the brand new Soil Holy Grail. The Holy Grails he had possessed before were Pure Water, Fruit of Success, Healing, Sweetness, and Warm Food, and this time the Holy Grail was engraved with the rune "Goldstone."

Shard temporarily had no time to explore the use of the Holy Grail because Luviya had fished out the small pink bottle from his pocket:

"Quick, drink a sip."

But Shard refused:

"No, no."

He shook his head:

"The consumption this time is large, but not complete exhaustion. Unless it’s necessary, I won’t casually use this to supplement Spirit... you know this thing is also a relic."

"Alright then."

The purple-eyed girl put the stopper back in with concern, half-embracing Shard, letting him face the flames. At this time, Miss Benanis walked back from the camp’s edge, noticed their posture, smirked a little, but didn’t let anyone else notice:

"It’s alright now, let’s rest a bit before returning to the city. Tonight was truly interesting—I mean, dangerous. It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced something like this."

Miss Lathis handed a blanket to Shard, showing her concern for him.

Miss Benanis sat by the bonfire, gesturing for the two Nine Rings girls to scout the camp’s perimeter, then lowered her voice to ask Shard:

"What’s the situation, did Guardian Fleming have an accident?"

She had informed the Church earlier that Fleming had sacrificed himself, but she wasn’t actually sure.

Shard nodded, then shook his head. The witch immediately understood something was amiss, so she didn’t ask further.

Seeing Shard still somewhat weak, Luviya took the initiative to narrate what happened in the brief ten minutes. The witch and Miss Lathis frowned as they listened; Luviya did not mention the demon, so they just assumed the cultists had used some other evil power.

"Shard said his information came from that weird Osenfort, so is Osenfort related to the cultists?"

Miss Lathis extracted the crucial point, but Shard immediately stopped her:

"I’ll handle the Osenfort matter; you mustn’t interfere, it’s even best if you forget it. The point is, Guardian Fleming said that the paths Miss Benanis and I chose were both correct. That means retracing Mr. Lathis’s path and investigating those three auction items could both help us pass the Guardian’s challenge. And if I’m not mistaken, the Chosen of the Earth is among the Guardians."

"That’s good."

The witch revealed a smile, the firelight casting shadows on her extraordinarily beautiful face, only making her features more pronounced, like a piece of art:

"If the Chosen of the Earth is Ciris’s father, that’s the best outcome I can think of. If it’s Thomas Granger, that’s not bad either; he can be considered a friend and guide to Shard."

"Father..."

Miss Lathis pursed her lips, speaking with a determined look:

"Since the path is correct, I will continue to walk it. Shard, Vanessa, and little Annette, Luviya, the epic of the Chosen has truly appeared among us this time. Although I’m not ready yet to face such a significant matter, if the Chosen truly is my father, I will ensure he makes the right choice."

Luviya looked at her, slightly frowning. The purple-eyed diviner had discovered something interesting, but now wasn’t the right time to speak. She wasn’t sure if Mr. Lathis was truly the Chosen of the Earth, but she knew who one of the subsequent candidates was.

"This is really too interesting."