After the gathering, Ethan and Lindong returned to the northern cave, during which she fiercely drove away the overly curious Rowena, letting her show her knightly side by capturing the Magic Master who might peek at any time for questioning. Only after Rowena was dragged away amidst unwilling shouts did Lindong feel at ease.
Although she considered Ave and the others as friends and didn’t mind mentioning the scenes inside the anomalous space, the latter part of the content was somewhat embarrassing. Even as experienced as she was, she couldn’t discuss such matters in public.
As soon as Ethan started speaking, he was stunned by the small package Lindong produced from nowhere.
Lindong was kneeling on the ground, shaking out the items inside, and laid out a maid uniform nearby.
For a moment, the northern skies thundered, the proficiency of the lightning element steadily rising. With the end of the battle in the imperial capital, the third element he mastered stood at the pinnacle of proficiency, and the lightning element was very pleased with his actions at the execution grounds.
Lindong lowered her head, not saying a word.
She secretly rejoiced that her hair was long enough to cover her expression; just looking at the items on the ground made her feel like closing her eyes in embarrassment.
"Teacher, is this what you meant by researching you?"
This was something Ethan hadn’t expected, but on the other hand, he was indeed a scholar of witch studies, and as a modern person, he could completely understand and accept Lindong’s hobbies.
He had always been open-minded.
"When you and Rowena were talking earlier, I went to a place that’s related to the person I mentioned last time who looks exactly like me."
This explanation was a bit complicated. Lindong racked her brains and couldn’t figure out how to explain why she had stayed in the tavern booth without leaving, yet her consciousness wandered around the imperial capital and the north, and got swept into that void-filled space through a ruby.
As Ethan’s teacher, this time she found it difficult to explain the theory to him.
So, she decided to try with practical action.
"It’s alright, we have plenty of time, you can tell me everything in detail."
Ethan was well-prepared; no matter how outrageous the things Lindong would say, he would accept them gladly.
Lindong composed herself and recounted all her previous encounters to Ethan, including the process of the world breaking down and the suggestion given by the other her—she emphasized that these little items were the other’s idea, she was far from reaching the super expert stage.
However, if these were necessary means to explore the truth, she could attempt them.
She even seemed not to have much internal resistance.
"I understand, Teacher."
Ethan’s expression became solemn; this was an unexpected gain, solving many unclear details, for example, why that mysterious witch seemed to always be masquerading under Old Ba’s name, but never actually took actions of an Evil God’s Followers against Ximu Town.
"Maybe we’ve always misunderstood her actions; the stolen Doomsday Forbidden Book and the scarlet plague might be her way of hinting to us."
These events directly led to the unrest at Wolf Head Castle, resulting in Bloody Priestess Mary’s past being rewritten. She mastered the means to cure the plague, becoming the chosen of the Goddess of Life, and during the divine descent ceremony, she became crucial evidence that the Goddess of Life was dead.
Even the most devoted priests of the church couldn’t refute the facts presented by the chosen one.
"The purpose of what she did was to reveal the fact that High Gods and Middle-Level Gods fell one after another, and that Doomsday is imminent."
The swift consensus reached by the Empire’s high echelons and the four transcendent factions after the coup owed much to Doomsday. To insightful people, infighting in the face of a major crisis would only hasten everyone’s demise.
Ethan said, "The little items she suggested, to me, seem like a form of hint."
"The shackles represent confinement, can also be understood as restraint, referring to the current state of the Evil God."
Neither Kane nor Old Ba’s physical form is in the real realm but somewhere in the anomalous space, isolated from the real realm by restrictions set by High and Middle-Level Gods in the past, "Blinded refers to the closer you are to the Evil God, the more distorted what your sight can see becomes, if we want to explore the essence of the Evil God, we might need to rely on some way outside of sight.
"As for the muzzle, the phrase was ’if you’re willing, you can bite the muzzle’—it’s an action listed after the other two, very likely hinting at avoiding communicating with the Evil God as much as possible in a perceptual state."
Lindong was dumbfounded listening on the side—this Ethan, just how did he interpret so much information?
And she, could only think of...
Lindong found herself increasingly hating riddlers, even including herself, "Then why doesn’t she just say it clearly?"
"Teacher, have you heard of the butterfly effect?"
Lindong knelt on the ground, bewildered yet obediently shook her head.
She seemed to somewhat understand Ave’s feelings now.
Nominally, Ave was Ethan’s boss, but in the actual work, their roles often reversed, and now, the relationship between teacher and student had reversed as well, with Ethan imparting knowledge to her that she had never heard of and could not imagine.
"It’s an important theory about time fluctuations; even changing a tiny detail of the past could potentially lead to earth-shaking changes in the future."