Chapter 771: Sword Demon, Empress, Silver Lantern

Chapter 771: Sword Demon, Empress, Silver Lantern

The warm light of the luminous star spread across Galaxia, sliced into a perfect block by the villa’s window, shining on Ashe like pudding.

Ashe slowly opened his eyes. He sat on the bed in a daze for a while, picked up the kettle from the bedside table, poured half a glass of water, then took a sip. The trembling cup splashed drops onto his face.

It wasn’t the cup that was shaking, but his hand.

“I’m still alive…” Ashe let out a long, heavy breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and lay back on the bed. “I survived…”

Recalling the first night at Ruby Mountain, Ashe still felt lingering fear.

No one expected that, during the internal fight among the three of them, a legendary Blood Sorcerer would suddenly appear.

The moment the gun muzzle was aimed at him, Ashe felt as if he had reverted to a weak mortal. The terror from the depths of his soul paralyzed every nerve in his body. He lost all strength, and even his life seemed to flee his shell along with his blood. Boundless darkness engulfed him, as if the whole world was slipping away.

This was death.

Pain was merely the Tactile Sense of death; loss was its true essence.

It was only then that Ashe realized the gap between himself and a true legend. Facing a legendary killer move, he couldn’t even react. The most absurd part was that, though he was only a soul body, he somehow briefly condensed a physical body, only to be completely suppressed by rebellious hormones and blood, bleeding from every orifice!

This also revealed the tip of the iceberg of legendary sorcerers-if One-Winged Sorcerers are “using whatever they have,” two-wing sorcerers “create Miracles with intent,” sanctuary sorcerers begin to “handle all situations,” then legendary sorcerers are those who “win the infinite with the finite.”

The world is infinite, the Virtual Realm is boundless, and the sorcerer system evolves every second. Even legendary sorcerers can’t keep up with the times at all times, and it’s not uncommon for ancient Spells to be revitalized or obscure Spells to rise to prominence.

Not every Miracle can be countered. When an excellent Miracle is first created, there’s often no way to restrain it; encountering it means inevitable defeat. This period is called the Miracle’s “advantage monopoly phase.”

Many lower-ranked sorcerers believe legendary sorcerers must possess killer “unsolvable Miracles.” While legends do have such trump cards, their true strength lies in their ability to handle unsolvable Miracles.

When sorcerers push Spellcasting to the legendary realm, they’re no longer satisfied with back-and-forth Spell duels, because Spell duels are endless arms races-there will always be Miracles they can’t resolve. It’s not that they’re incompetent; it’s that every Sect’s Spellcasting has inherent flaws and limits.

So legends take another path: they make the chessboard their own. No matter what brilliant moves their opponent makes, they can’t escape the board’s constraints.

An excellent Miracle is “technique,” an excellent battle system is “method,” and turning any environment into their home turf is “momentum.”

The gun Ashe encountered was the beginning of momentum.

If he had been shot, his whole body would have exploded into a blood lotus, and the splattered blood would become the legendary Blood Sorcerer’s casting medium. Then, the legend would accumulate detonations step by step, until the entire environment became a vast sea of blood.

So not just now-even if Ashe reaches the peak of legend in the future, he could only weaken, not evade this gun. As the opening tactic of a legendary sorcerer, if there’s a way to counter it, then all subsequent tactics would be rendered useless.

The strength of legendary sorcerers lies in severing the connection between the enemy and the world.

When even your blood betrays you, what can you rely on?

Then, two beautiful answers appeared, shining as the only colors in Ashe’s blood-red vision.

After a clash of thunder and fire, the legendary Blood Sorcerer’s soul scattered with the wails of defeat. But he definitely wouldn’t die-how many years he’d spend as a vegetable in bed was another matter.

Though Ashe didn’t know why it was so easy to kill an old legend, the joy of defeating a strong foe and surviving a desperate situation made the three of them excitedly high-five each other. But the atmosphere quickly became awkward again.

When Ashe said, “The three of us are really amazing,” he was fiercely glared at by the other two.

So Ashe was very grateful to the legendary Blood Sorcerer. Though he was beaten to death, at least the sword Princess and Witch couldn’t keep fighting!

It was then that Deya remembered to share the basics of Ruby Mountain. The three chatted while trying to climb Ruby Mountain, learning about the sorcerer list, Ruby Mountain Angels, weather, and other survival Intelligence. Sonya also supplemented with her knowledge of legendary sorcerers, helping everyone quickly integrate into this new workplace.

Just when Ashe thought he could muddle through, Sonya casually said, “You’re living in Felix’s villa now, right? I know where it is-I’ll come find you tonight.”

Before Deya could speak, Ashe immediately objected, “Getting involved with me is too dangerous!”

“I’m not looking for you, I’m going to see Felix, okay? Professor Trozan asked me to notify Felix about something, so it’s perfectly reasonable for me to have contact with him. As for Felix, I can say I’m here to consult about Four Pillars Cult matters-he won’t suspect anything. When the time comes, you can tie him up, knock him out, and lock him in the basement, and he won’t know if I ever entered the villa.”

“And if I didn’t come to you, would you even dare to come find me at Swordflower College?”

Ashe was speechless. Of course he didn’t dare go to Swordflower College to look for the sword Princess. If anyone else found out, then Sonya would have no choice but to run away with him-she might even want to take that romantic route.

After speaking, Sonya lifted her chin, the corners of her mouth curling up as she glanced sidelong at Deya, practically writing “smug villain” across her forehead, as adorable as a kitten caught sneaking candy.

“Three days from now, I’ll open a portal from Gospel to Galaxia.” Deya said leisurely, “Ms. Anfel misses Aunt Bukin very much. Uncle Harvey’s injuries are so serious, he should receive proper treatment.”

Deya silently hugged Ashe’s arm, quietly glancing at the sword Princess, her lips curving in a contemptuous arc, her eyes full of triumphant delight, bewitching like a little fox whose scheme had succeeded.

Sonya instantly bristled-even though she’d never met Igor or Harvey, she knew how much these two men meant to Ashe.

For example, Sonya once jokingly asked Ashe, “If Igor and I fell into the water, who would you save?” Ashe’s answer was, “Can you change the question to you and Harvey falling in?”-even though both guys were men, on Sonya’s watchlist, their threat level was only slightly lower than the Witch and Vesser.

So as long as these two were used as bargaining chips, Ashe would definitely fall for it!

Sure enough, Ashe didn’t hesitate at all: “I’ll bring them back then.”

Sonya couldn’t object; she couldn’t even ask Ashe to stay behind alone-that was too dangerous-so she immediately said, “I want to go too!”

“But sword Princess, you can’t abandon your career, connections, and family in Stars, right?” The Witch smiled. “Wait until you can take control of Stars Kingdom, then let Ashe visit Stars as a guest, how about that?”

Sonya was so angry she could almost burn a hole in her stomach. She grabbed Ashe’s wrist, pressed her lips tight, her cheeks puffed up in indignation, her eyes full of grievance and stubbornness: “You’re not going to leave me, are you?”

Deya’s tone was also full of longing and sorrow: “We’re all waiting for you to come back… You promised us.”

These two sentences sounded fine at first-if you ignored that each of them was holding one of Ashe’s hands, if you ignored that they were using Miracles to bind his arms, if you ignored that they were about to tear Ashe apart…

Ashe had already forgotten what he’d said to survive that trial by ordeal, barely struggling back to reality, thinking he’d almost died.

But in 17 hours, he’d still have to enter the Virtual Realm, and before that, the sword Princess would come to catch him early.

What should he do?

After three seconds of thought, Ashe felt his brain wasn’t built for such high-powered calculations, so he decided to face life with optimism.

Why worry so much? Life is an unpredictable stage-what if he died in the next second!

With his mind set, Ashe quickly washed up, then opened Aurora’s Sorcerer Handbook again, and suddenly saw three new messages pop up.

They were long-lost growth reports.

Ashe hadn’t seen a growth report in ages-probably because after he stopped setting a training strategy, the reports stopped appearing. He didn’t know why they’d shown up again now.

“Growth report of Death Maniac Sword Princess 7.4~10.17”

“Bond Level: 4 (75% Experience Sharing)”

“Swordsmanship Sect: Gold → Sanctuary”

“Light Sect: Silver → Silver”

“Water Sect: Silver → Gold”

“Time Sect: Gold → Gold”

“Spatial Sect: Silver → Gold”

“Spellforce: sanctuary one-winged → legendary wingless”

“Training Evaluation: SS!”

“Due to receiving an SS rating, Death Maniac Sword Princess has obtained class enhancement from the Sorcerer’s Handbook: Sword Demon!”

“Sword Demon – Class Trait: When Sword Demon locks onto any target, the target must make a will check every 10 seconds. If the check fails, for the next 10 seconds they will fall into a state of chaotic fear, greatly increasing Miracle failure rate; if the first check fails, the target will experience 0.5 seconds of absolute terror, completely losing control of themselves.”

“Due to increased spellforce, Death Maniac Sword Princess’s talent enhancement!”

“Due to receiving an SS rating, Death Maniac Sword Princess has received the class assessment task ‘Sword Demon’!”

“Sword Demon: In the next 360 days, by intimidating more than ten sanctuary sorcerers or three legendary sorcerers with the Sword Demon trait and defeating them, you can permanently fix the Sword Demon class trait! Current progress (0/10)/(0/3).”

Damn!

Ashe was stunned. This Sword Demon class trait was way too strong-equivalent to a legendary Mental Miracle, and it didn’t even need spellforce to activate, triggering every 10 seconds. Once it succeeded, the target would immediately enter a state of chaotic fear.

He wanted such a powerful class trait too!

More importantly, now that the sword Princess had this Sword Demon class, would she just have to glare at him to make him too scared to resist and obediently do as told?

But Ashe quickly let it go-even without this class, he didn’t dare resist the sword Princess anyway.

The sword Princess’s talent had also undergone some changes in terminology:

“Innate Talent – sword Princess (Celestial-tier): Additional acquisition of 250% swordsmanship experience, Low chance to obtain 10000% swordsmanship experience, occasionally triggers Phantom of the Resentful Dragon (Talent levels unlockable upon strength upgrade)”

The sword Princess’s bound dragon evolved from the Resentful Dragon to the Extinction Resentful Dragon, but strangely enough, even though Ashe had now arrived at Ruby Mountain, he had never heard of any Resentful Dragon.

“Growth Report of the Black and White Witch 7.4~10.17”

“Bond Level: 4 (75% Experience Sharing)”

“Mental Sect: silver → gold”

“Soul Sect: 0 → silver”

“Fist-Claw Sect: gold → Sanctuary”

“Time Sect: gold → Sanctuary”

“Water Sect: silver → silver”

“Spatial Sect: silver → silver”

“Spellforce: sanctuary one-winged → legend wingless”

“Training Evaluation: SS!”

“Due to receiving an SS rating, the Black and White Witch receives the Sorcerer’s Handbook class enhancement: Empress!”

“Empress – Class Trait: When the Empress is present, all allied units receive a morale boost based on their loyalty to the Empress. Spellforce recovery speed/spirit resonance probability/Virtual Realm inspiration frequency are greatly increased. At the same time, the loyalty of inspired allied units to the Empress will also continue to deepen.”

“Due to increased spellforce, the Black and White Witch’s talent is enhanced!”

“Due to receiving an SS rating, the Black and White Witch receives the class assessment task ‘Empress’!”

“Empress: In the next 360 days, recruit 100 followers using the Empress trait. After completing the task, the Empress class trait can be permanently fixed! Current progress (0/100).”

Ashe blinked. He hadn’t expected Deya’s new class to actually be a group enhancement aura, and an exceptionally powerful one at that.

Spellforce recovery speed aside, spirit resonance probability was equivalent to critical hit chance, and increasing Virtual Realm inspiration frequency was like increasing the chance for a sorcerer’s Flash of Insight. Ashe felt like he wanted to stick by Deya’s side every moment.

Moreover, this Empress assessment task was practically a piece of cake for her-she was a real Empress, after all. Recruiting a hundred followers? The Gospel Family would fight tooth and nail for that!

But the Empress trait actually caused others’ loyalty to the Empress to continuously rise…

Ashe pondered for a moment, feeling there was nothing to worry about-his loyalty to Lise and Deya had long since maxed out!

The Witch’s talent also underwent some changes:

“Innate Talent – Witch (Celestial-tier): Additional acquisition of 250% Time experience, with a low chance to gain 10,000% Time experience, and may occasionally summon the assistance of the Bronze Dragon of Chimes (Talent levels unlockable upon strength upgrade).”

The Bronze Dragon evolved into the Bronze Dragon of Chimes… But at least Ashe had seen the Phantom of the Resentful Dragon once, while he had never seen the Witch’s Bronze Dragon even once.

After these two growth reports ended, there was one more message.

Ashe had a vague premonition in his heart. He mustered up his courage and clicked it open:

“Growth Report of Yolan Vesser 7.4~10.17”

“Bond Level: 4 (75% Experience Sharing)”

“Spellforce: sanctuary one-winged → ???”

“Training Evaluation: SS!”

“Due to receiving an SS rating, Yolan Vesser receives the Sorcerer’s Handbook class enhancement: Silver Lantern!”

“Silver Lantern – Class Trait: All areas illuminated by the Silver Lantern will be continuously silverized. Everything silverized falls under the control of the Silver Lantern-destruction, purification, alteration, reorganization, reconstruction… Specific effects await further exploration by the Silver Lantern.”

“Due to increased spellforce, Yolan Vesser’s talent is enhanced!”

“Due to receiving an SS rating, Yolan Vesser receives the class assessment task ‘Silver Lantern’!”

“Silver Lantern: In the next 360 days, thoroughly purify the decayed Green Beasts of the Senlo world. After completing the task, the Silver Lantern class trait can be permanently fixed. Current progress 0.8%.”

Ashe was stunned for a while, then suddenly punched forward, causing faint ripples to spread across the Sorcerer’s Handbook interface.

“This damn game…” The corners of his mouth twitched, revealing a smile uglier than crying. “Are you mocking me?”

She had already become a deity… Trapped in the distant, dark, annihilated Doomsday… What was the point of continuing to give her growth reports? Was it pretending she could still meet us in the Virtual Realm?

Ashe lay on the bed, holding his forehead, and let out a soft sigh as he swiped to the operator interface.

“Innate Talent – the fates (Celestial-tier): Additional acquisition of 250% Truth and Fate experience, with a low chance to gain 10,000% Truth and Fate experience, and may occasionally attract the gaze of the Reincarnation Mirror Dragon (Talent levels unlockable upon strength upgrade).”

He stared at Yolan Vesser’s portrait for a long time, then suddenly sat up and patted his face to clear his mind. Taking a deep breath, his eyes shone. “That’s right, even the Sorcerer’s Handbook hasn’t given up-so why am I feeling down here?”

“I will definitely bring you back from the Senlo Doomsday,” Ashe said to himself, clapping his hands lightly and closing his eyes. “I will never give up on my operator.”

After checking the information, Ashe was about to close the Sorcerer’s Handbook, but suddenly remembered something and opened the “Operator Search” interface.