Interrogation

*Tap.* With a light landing, their footsteps stirred faint ripples in the darkness. A colossal wall appeared before their eyes. It was the longest, most immense wall they had ever seen. Whether looking up or down, left or right, they could not see where it ended. It seemed forged from the hardest meteoric iron, so massive and solid that tens of thousands of tons of seawater could hardly wash it away; yet at the same time, it was so ethereal and illusory, so gossamer that one felt they could reach right through it with an outstretched hand. "Ah!" Diya clung nervously to Yaxiu. Only then did they notice that their surroundings were teeming with black silhouettes. They were tall and short, men and women, paupers in tattered rags and nobles in splendid attire. Nor were they limited to humans; elves, goblins, orcs, and ogres were abundant, and there were even animals such as leopards and tigers. Looking a bit farther out, Yaxiu even spotted an ancient tree, though how it moved was anyone's guess. "A demigod frightened by dead souls—Witch, you really have broadened my horizons," Weixi sneered. Yaxiu conjured a frying pan from Heart Sword, raised it, and gave Weixi a rap on the head. "I've told you before: aside from me, you're not allowed to mock anyone with unkind words." Weixi rubbed her head, tugged at the corner of Yaxiu's robe, and put on a tearful, pitiable, and aggrieved look. "And here I thought my relationship with you, Master, was no longer what it used to be..." The corner of Yaxiu's mouth twitched. If the demigods Weixi had just devoured were to hear the Spectre Prophet utter words sounding so much like a woman heartbroken by a scoundrel, they would probably die all over again of pure fury. "Why?" Sonia asked immediately. "Why would you think that?" "Yeah, exactly!" Diya chimed in, joining the interrogation. "Before the advancement, weren't you and Yaxiu mutually repulsed by each other? Why would your relationship be different now?" "Never mind, forget it," Weixi said, winking at Yaxiu and covering her face. "In the end, it was just the wishful thinking of a humble maid..." "So," Weise changed the subject, asking, "where is this place? Hell?" Sonia and Diya looked at Weise with deep dissatisfaction. Weise seemed oblivious, yet when her gaze met Yaxiu's, her eyes rippled with endless tenderness and subtle affection, exuding captivating charm with the slight arch of her brow. "'Realm of Departure,' 'Curtain of Death,' 'Ultimate Answer.'" Weixi stopped joking and said solemnly, "Or a name easier for you to understand—'The Gate of Hell.'" Yaxiu watched the black silhouettes surge into the colossal wall like a tidal wave and murmured, "So all of these are dead souls entering Hell?" Weixi looked at the dead souls with keen interest. "Come to think of it, my God Soul Lock should be able to turn these resources into—" Yaxiu gripped Weixi's shoulders and turned her to face him. Weixi did not shrink back in the least; there was not a trace of guilt in her eyes for being a villain. She was so confident that one might think she was an ally of justice, proudly lifting her chin to meet his gaze and arching her brows. "I'm waiting for you to speak." "I can't out-argue you," Yaxiu said. "I don't even have the standing to say much... What Harvey does isn't really that different from you. If Harvey were here, he might do something similar." "And so...?" "I just don't want you doing that kind of thing." Yaxiu released his grip and said softly, "With me around, Hell has plenty of wronged demigod souls waiting for you to reap. Just like you might pick up a gold coin if you drop one, but if you drop a copper coin, there's no need to bend down, right?" "A dutiful maid who looks after the household ought to be diligent and thrifty, you know." Weixi beamed. "Still, since you put it that way... I'll just pick up the coppers whenever you're not looking." "Thank you." Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief. "Then all I need to do is keep a close eye on you." "That's just what I want." Weixi tilted her head slightly and continued her explanation. "Once we pass through this wall, we'll arrive in Hell. But there's no rush. This rest period at the Gate of Hell is the final chance the Void Realm gives us to organize ourselves: inspecting our Temples of Sorcery, adjusting our sorcery spirit systems, and even beginning to construct minor wonders. "Hell has no such thing as a 'spawn point.' We'll be randomly transported anywhere in Hell. Although the odds are low, demigods who perished from danger the instant they arrived in Hell truly exist. "During my second advancement to demigod, I constructed my first wonder, 'Burial Ground,' right here. As soon as I arrived in Hell, I ran into a demigod. The moment he saw me, he knew I was newly advanced, so his guard was down. I slaughtered him in a single move, made a neat little fortune, and enslaved a demigod's wronged soul." "Was he trying to harm you?" Diya asked. "Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't. He belonged to one of the few orderly factions in Hell; he might have invited me to join them, or he might have used that status to deceive others... But whether he was good or bad, what did that have to do with me?" Weixi glanced at her. "What's that look for?" Diya shook her head and exchanged glances with Sonia and Weise. They were gradually coming to understand this new teammate's personality. Although Yaxiu had introduced her before, it had always been hard for them to truly grasp what kind of figure an "evil demigod who had lived for thousands of years" was. Surprisingly, if one set aside the factor of Yaxiu and could guarantee control over Weixi, their acceptance of her was actually quite high. Weise was inherently the type who stopped at nothing; Diya's kindness was reserved solely for what belonged to her; and as for Sonia, while she felt Weixi was in the wrong, she harbored no real antipathy toward her. But the prerequisite was "setting aside the factor of Yaxiu." Yaxiu was actually puzzled as well. Having fought life-and-death battles with Weixi, he had long known she was an irredeemable scumbag, so Weixi couldn't be bothered to put on an act in front of him. But Sonia and the others had never met Weixi before; if Weixi had catered to them through female solidarity, it wasn't impossible for her to leverage the Sword Princess to command Yaxiu. Before the advancement, Weixi had keenly noticed that the Sword Princess was Yaxiu's most vulnerable point of compromise. As long as she had the Sword Princess backing her up, even without breaking free of her chains, she would be able to do as she pleased. Unless Weixi also shared irreconcilable conflicts with them, leading her to simply abandon all pretense and plant seeds of fear in their hearts—if not to manipulate them, then at least to make them too afraid to cross her... "Then God Soul Lock truly suits you," Sonia said in a strange tone, less sarcastic than loaded with hidden meaning. "You're a wicked woman who enjoys toying with souls, and you just happened to summon a god that toys with souls." "Thank you. Your gods are quite good as well. Your Shattered Lake, the Witch's Fairy Tale, and Silver Lantern has gained new authority... Everyone reaped immense rewards in the trial of Hell." Weixi's response was also subtle, as though deliberately steering the topic toward everyone's gods. "But God Soul Lock was summoned by you alone, wasn't it?" Sonia chose her words carefully. "After all, only you possess attainments above the legendary rank in the soul faction." "Hmm..." Weixi glanced at Yaxiu and said ambiguously, "I suppose you can't say it was entirely my doing... right?" "What about the rest of you? Your gods... were they also summoned by you alone?" The women exchanged glances, an unbelievable, wild conjecture springing up in all their minds at once. When they all looked toward Yaxiu, though their hearts were in utter turmoil, Yaxiu's expression remained as calm as a placid lake: "Let's organize our current intel." "Answer the question first," Sonia said. "When we were summoning our gods, did you..." She bit her lower lip gently. "Did you, you know..." "Together with each of us..." Diya, thinking who knew what, blushed so furiously blood could almost drip from her face, "...summon the gods?" Weise flipped through the silver tome in her hands without saying a word. Weixi fiddled with the chains in her hands, seemingly testing the power of God Soul Lock.