Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

Chapter 393: The Reverse Scale

Loren was fairly surprised that his sneak attack had worked.

All strong people had intuition warnings. Maybe he couldn’t detect Loren at all, but when facing the threat of death, one still felt something.

Yet the Robed Figure showed no sign of dodging. Either he was powerful enough to suppress his instincts, or he was too weak to sense anything.

Loren leaned toward the latter, but out of caution he didn’t finish him off. That one strike would still matter; even if a real fight broke out later, it would inflict a nontrivial effect.

“In case you brought others to bully them, I didn’t bring Noah. Hand the item to me; after I verify its authenticity, I’ll release the person.”

The Robed Figure tossed Noah’s hair and ear in front of Gwen and spoke.

“I don’t trust you. It has to be hand for hand, item for person!”

Loren, disguised as Gwen, faced off against the Robed Figure, fury thick in his tone.

The more like that she was, the more satisfied the Robed Figure became.

“What if the thing you give is fake?”“I have no reason to lie. I, Loren, always keep my word.”

“Besides, I have a ready bottle on me. If worse comes to worst, try that first!”

Gwen began to vouch with Loren’s reputation, and it worked—no one doubted Loren’s credit; those who doubted were dead.

“All right, tomorrow at this time, still here. Item for person, hand to hand.”

“Fine, you’d better treat Noah well, or I have plenty of ways to mess with you.”

The Robed Figure clearly didn’t take Gwen’s warning seriously.

“To be able to make Master Mentor this angry, I’m probably the first person to do it. I’m actually proud of that.”

After saying that, the Robed Figure turned to leave, and Loren followed.

Both his attitude and actions left Loren displeased, so Loren decided to complicate his plan.

Originally, following him to the base, killing him and rescuing Noah would have sufficed, but Loren abandoned that idea.

There was no other reason—simply because it wouldn’t satisfy him enough.

After walking a bit, Loren felt the Robed Figure’s aura abruptly vanish, but with True Sight Eye he could still see the Robed Figure clearly.

Now the Robed Figure had activated invisibility, which exposed a flaw of the True Sight Eye: Loren couldn’t observe what the invisibility actually looked like, and the True Sight Eye could not be turned off.

The Robed Figure walked far away and finally entered underground through a hidden door.

Loren did not go through the door with him; he chose to phase through the wall instead, because his body had been pressed against the door and it shut at the instant it opened.

Underground were many runes carved into the walls. Loren recognized them as perception-blocking runes. With those glyphs, even sensing magic could not discover what lay inside.

There were quite a few people here, wearing the same black robes, but underground they had taken off their masks.

Loren deduced the invisibility effect was likely applied to their robes, the masks merely a safety backup.

“Did you get the Ember Radiance formula?”

“No. Master Mentor… Loren demanded to see Noah. He swore using his own reputation. I think he can be trusted.”

Even speaking privately, they habitually called Loren Master Mentor, and when the Robed Figure had spoken those words earlier, they had shown agreement.

Both sides, righteous or not, recognized Loren’s character—only Loren was destined to disappoint them.

“Doing this, won’t Loren take revenge on us…?”

Now that there were no outsiders around, the Robed Figure loosened up and spoke honestly.

“They say Loren knows all knowledge; omniscience equals omnipotence. People say there’s nothing Loren can’t do in this world.”

“That voice…”

The Robed Figure’s voice now sounded completely different from before, and Loren found it familiar.

When speaking with Loren earlier, he had intentionally altered his voice.

“If you feel afraid you can leave now. If you back out, you won’t get a single copper of the promised reward.”

“No, no… I’m not afraid, I’m just curious…”

The Robed Figure’s attitude surprised Loren. He’d assumed this was a high-ranking member; instead, it was a worker.

Then again, for such a risky job, it made sense to use a temporary hand.

Maybe it wasn’t just him—everyone here might be expendable.

The higher the rank, the clearer the cost of doing this would be. Even the Chailros Family, if they provoked Loren, would face annihilation.

Loren was the spiritual totem of the Bountiful Church; even if he died, the annals would record him as a martyr.

“That’s just boasting. At most Loren is a street performer; a crowd put him on a pedestal.”

As he spoke, the man’s movements were awkward—legs crossed and constantly shifting, eyes darting. He was pretending to be composed.

“All right…”

The Robed Figure seemed to believe him, found a seat, and took off his mask.

“This thing is making it hard to breathe…”

“It’s for your safety.”

He had said Loren wasn’t scary moments ago, and now he was saying that. Loren had no patience for his contradictory remarks because Loren was looking at the Robed Figure’s real face.

“Evan…”

Loren hadn’t expected him to be Evan.

After a few deep breaths to steady himself, Loren smiled.

With the Robed Figure’s identity confirmed, the rest was straightforward. Loren began searching for Noah. Fortunately, Noah’s hiding place wasn’t far—he was in the adjacent room, trapped within a tree trunk, his body already occupied by plants so completely that Noah could not move at all.

Those watching Noah were cautious, continuously siphoning his life force with magic, with several people taking turns, afraid of accidents.

Loren ignored them and did not go home. He went straight to Evan’s house. Evan’s family was still awake, gathered in one room, and Loren simply phased through the wall to enter.

“Mother, do you think big brother is reliable? He’s so timid, he seems worse than me at…”

The young man who had earlier stopped the Scarecrows was now talking to his mother. She no longer looked sickly, but still aged.

“You have a great talent. Your future achievements will surely surpass your big brother; that’s what your brother himself wants.”

In a few sentences, Loren had learned the gist of the situation.

Evan was indeed the culprit, and his family knew it, even agreed with and supported it.

“The only worry is that man might not be weighty enough to make Loren hand over the Ember Radiance…”

“Mother, why not just seize Loren’s daughters? They look much weaker than that man, and would be sufficient…”

The boy asked. His mother shook her head.

“We only want the Ember Radiance, not to fight Loren to the death…”

“We are already fighting to the death.”

At that moment Loren suddenly spoke. He ended the Hermit card’s invisibility and revealed a strange smile.