Secrets were a fascinating vortex.
Without exception, every operator had thought of Yaxiu as a mysterious, bad man when they first met him.
After all, Yaxiu possessed unfathomable trump cards, seemed to be the reincarnation of an ancient ancestral soul, and shared an inextricable, tangled intimacy with the Four Pillar Gods. He was practically… a deluxe collector's edition of the Spectre Prophet!
Back when they were first recruited into the team, the Sword Princess, the Witch, and the Silver Lantern all harbored an anticipation of straying down an evil path. They constantly felt as though they had joined a wicked syndicate concealed beneath secular society, and that the Observer making them stronger was merely an upfront investment preparing them to overturn the world in the future. Once they were exposed before the eyes of the world, they would sound the war horn. They would usurp state power from nations, destroy the pillars of the world, clash with armies, do battle with divine lords, and lay hands upon supreme power…
When they thought about it carefully, it seemed they had already done everything a wicked syndicate was supposed to do.
Yet as they grew closer, they were completely disenchanted by Yaxiu. They realized with absolute clarity that this fellow… truly was an evil, bad man!
His evil lay in the fact that recruiting them into the team wasn't for power, but for… them!
Of course, Yaxiu could swear up and down right now that he hadn't harbored any impure thoughts at the very beginning. Furthermore, strictly speaking, aside from the Sword Princess truly growing close to him in the Void Realm, the Witch and the Silver Lantern had both deepened their bonds with him due to reasons in reality. As for Vichy, she didn't even have a Level 4 bond yet, and had nearly dragged down his feet when advancing to demigod. Therefore, aside from the Sword Princess, no one could accuse Yaxiu of having wicked designs when teaming up with female sorcerers.
Yaxiu would probably feel quite wronged as well. He wasn't a fool unable to distinguish what was important. Between a close-knit group of friends who trusted one another and progressed together versus a petty drama squad scheming every day about how to kick someone out, he naturally leaned toward the former.
Even when he discovered he liked the Sword Princess, he was still daydreaming about secretly dating her in reality while maintaining a normal comrade-in-arms relationship in the Void Realm so as not to spoil the team atmosphere.
Yet no one in this world would stand still with you. You might be content with the status quo, but others were all striving to make progress. If nothing else, expecting Vichy to willingly remain a prisoner bound by chains was pure fantasy.
Even though Yaxiu's trait of "bad man" had gradually morphed into "bad man whose rightful place is the recycling bin," the label of "mysterious and unfathomable" had never once been removed from the operators' hearts.
To say nothing of how he constantly stumbled into legendary-tier incidents, pulled out an assortment of bizarre resources, and shared void wings with four operators during his demigod advancement ceremony, the mere fact that he could team up with operators to log into the Void Realm—and forcibly so—meant he harbored unimaginably massive secrets.
Back when Sonia was still narrow-minded and inexperienced, she thought this was a miracle that only a legendary sorcerer could perform. But now she was at the demigod rank, yet Yaxiu's methods remained as elusive as flowers in a fog. It was just like how a layman merely thought an incredible feat was impressive, while an insider would realize how utterly absurd it truly was.
The others felt the same, including Vichy.
Compared to something like the Ruby Chains, which followed traceable rules of "soul domination," Yaxiu forcibly summoning her to the Void Realm from across vast distances was far more subversive to the Spectre Prophet's worldview.
You snatched the Soul Kingdom of Heaven? Fine, after all, the Silver Lantern helped you.
You snatched the Supreme Holy Grail? Fine, after all, the Princess of Dazzling Fireflies helped you. You got the Silver Lantern and the Princess of Dazzling Fireflies to help you? Fine, after all, you once put your life on the line.
*But on what grounds can you team up with people?!*
Every sorcerer in the world is playing a single-player game, yet only you get to bring female sorcerers along for multiplayer?! Even if you were the Void Realm's long-lost illegitimate son, you shouldn't be this outrageous!
Now, they faintly realized that Yaxiu was about to confess his most precious secret to them.
Almost simultaneously, the Sword Princess, the Witch, the Silver Lantern, and Vichy took a step closer toward Felix and Daedalose, subtly forming an encirclement around the two. The Silver Lantern and Vichy went without saying; while the Sword Princess and the Witch were somewhat hesitant, when the time came to harden their hearts, they wouldn't waver in the slightest.
Felix's face turned deathly pale, while Daedalose remained as calm as a placid lake.
However, Yaxiu waved his hand and sat down by the wooden table nearby. The operators were somewhat bewildered, but they all sat down one after another, and Felix and Daedalose naturally had to stay as well.
"You saw… the future me?"
Sonia rested her chin in her hands and asked curiously, "How many years in the future? Am I still pretty?"
"Did you see the future me?" Diya clenched her small pink fists, nearly standing up on the table. "Will I become mature and sexy in the future?!"
*Isn't your focus a bit off here…* Yaxiu asked, "Don't you think I'm losing my mind right now?"
Everyone exchanged glances, and Sonia stepped on the tip of Yaxiu's boot under the table. "We all know what you and Vichy did last night."
Yaxiu started, then immediately caught on. "The Gospel God?"
To say nothing of a tent, even if Yaxiu had erected a miracle barrier, it would be impossible to block the infiltration of the Gospel's authority. Although the Witch hadn't condensed a fifth void wing and lacked the source power to drive a god, she had originally driven the god using the legendary sorcerer batteries of Nabistine. Now that she was no longer threatened by the Gospel God and could enshrine it within her sorcery divine palace, as long as the Witch wished, the entire world was completely transparent to her.
"You'd actually rather believe a woman you haven't even known for half a year than believe we'd trust you." The Paw-Extending Sword Saint stomped hard on the tip of his boot, pouting. "We were just skeptical; it's not like we truly didn't believe you…"
Diya mused inwardly that Sonia hadn't known Yaxiu for a full year either, and that was mostly limited to the Void Realm. Once you subtracted the half-year he was imprisoned in the Country of All Stars spending day and night with Vichy, it was hard to say who had accumulated more playtime between Sonia and Vichy. Of course, she wouldn't point this out, since her own playtime was even shorter than the Sword Princess's.
"I actually had doubts about my own memories, which is why I asked Vichy to examine them. I didn't want you to know simply because I didn't want you to worry."
"Then you still trusted Vichy more!"
"I just didn't care whether Vichy worried about me!" Yaxiu said helplessly. "What if you were right and I was wrong? Was I supposed to drag you into being wrong alongside me?"
"Why not?!"
Sonia slammed both fists heavily onto the wooden table, biting her lower lip as she stared straight at Yaxiu. "If we're wrong together, then we're wrong together! Am I only your partner when you're right? And what if you were right and I was wrong? What would I do then? Did you want me to admit I was wrong to you?"
"I didn't think that."
"But that's what you did! As long as we stand on opposite sides, there's bound to be a right and a wrong!" Sonia kicked Yaxiu hard. "I can admit I'm wrong to my professor, to my mother, to anyone, but don't you dare expect me to admit I'm wrong to you! Not even once! I refuse to bow my head to you!"
Yaxiu pulled a bitter face. "Why…"
"Because none of those other people," Sonia lowered her head, drawing circles on the wooden table with her finger, "are going to spend their entire lives with me."
Yaxiu froze, feeling the spot on his calf that had just been painfully kicked being gently rubbed by her soft sheepskin boot.
"Whenever a disagreement arises, I can doubt you, but you are not allowed to not trust me." Sonia seemed to have just gotten out of bed without properly fixing her hair; her bangs hung before her eyes, slicing her petulant gaze into bashful, segmented glances. "Whether by acting spoiled, pleading, or fighting, you have to do everything you can to make me stand on the same side as you."
Truly an unreasonable woman with double standards.
She couldn't give absolute trust herself, felt displeased when seeing someone else believe him, and demanded that he shamelessly do whatever it took to win her approval first. When a disagreement occurred, everyone had to be right or wrong together; he was never permitted to cast her aside and be maliciously correct on his own.
Yet for some reason, Yaxiu was simply powerless against her.
"All right," Yaxiu smiled. "Even if it takes fighting and pleading, I'll definitely convince you to stand on my side from now on."
*What about acting spoiled?*
Sonia looked up and saw the corners of Yaxiu's mouth curving up slightly.
He knew what Sonia wanted to hear, but he deliberately refused to say it.
The Sword Princess bit her lower lip, a bit vexed yet also amused. Her sheepskin boot lightly rubbed against Yaxiu's steel-soled boot, carrying on a secret play beneath the table that no one else knew about.
"Actually, Master did the right thing," Vichy said gracefully, resting a hand over her chest. "Because I was never worried. I've always unconditionally trusted Master's judgment."
Weise's mouth twitched. "Who was it in the bathhouse methodically analyzing that Yaxiu was sick?"
"Speaking of which, Maid, wasn't there something wrong with your method for examining memories?" Diya remarked faintly. "Even if physical contact was needed, holding hands and kissing don't seem fundamentally different, do they?"
"All right, back to the topic."
Yaxiu clapped his hands lightly, his expression turning serious. "The person I met was only the Dead Frenzy Sword Princess from the future. But the people who returned from the future to the present aren't just her.
"The Terminal Observer, the Dead Frenzy Sword Princess, the Black and White Witch, the Silver Lantern Mirror Master, and the Spectre Prophet. Assuming she wasn't lying, this group of spacetime wanderers from the future are the future selves of the five of us.
"It is precisely because of their arrangements that the five of us were brought together.
"To help us form a better team, they even personally guided us, preventing real-world matters from hindering our exploration of the Void Realm."
Yaxiu glanced at his teammates. "You may have seen my future self as well."
Sonia and Diya froze, dusty memories gradually rising to the surface.
"That phantom who urged me to practice swordsmanship…"
"The person who talked to me when I fled the tower…"
"Before entering the Void Realm for the first time, I had already met the Sword Princess's phantom in Shattered Lake Prison; she taught me the most foundational sorcerer knowledge," Yaxiu said. "On my first night arriving in the Gospel, the Witch's phantom came to visit me as well. Their appearances were all intended to guide me in connecting with you more smoothly.
"On the other hand, the phantoms of Weise and Vichy never appeared. Vichy goes without saying; the way she joined the team was completely different from yours." Yaxiu looked toward Weise. "Have you ever seen a phantom of me?"
Weise pondered for a long time before shaking her head. "I've never seen a phantom of you. However…
"I might have seen the future me.
"The Mirage Dragon allows me to summon avatars from different worldlines, and then I share sorcery attainments with them through means like memory sharing. That's how my sorcery factions were able to draw from diverse strengths. Before officially joining your team, I met an avatar who claimed her worldline was similar to mine. She warned me that I would be pulled into a sorcerer team whose captain was named Yaxiu Heath."
"No wonder you integrated into the team so quickly." Diya realized in enlightenment. "But weren't you still enemies with Yaxiu back then?"
"Yes, I originally planned to scout for intelligence from the start to see if I could set a trap to capture this group of lingering pursuers." Weise spread her hands, crossing her legs with a chuckle. "Who knew I'd end up getting trapped myself instead."
"Looks like I'm the only one who hasn't seen one." Vichy gritted her teeth. "Though if I haven't guessed wrongly, this Ruby Chain… is probably a 'gift' the future me prepared for me!"
In fact, Vichy had suspected this possibility long ago. After all, as a soul demigod, even if she couldn't resist a domination miracle of the divine lord tier, she could at least discern the spellcraft traces. Yet the Ruby Chains bore no traces at all, as though Vichy was naturally meant to wear this chain and become Yaxiu's prisoner.
A divine lord definitely couldn't achieve such an effect; only she herself could!
*Damn it, you forged a dog chain for yourself, didn't wear it yourself, and used it to screw over the past me?!*
Weise suddenly asked, "Did the Observer phantom you saw differ much in personality from Yaxiu?"
Sonia and Diya exchanged a look and shook their heads together. "Not much difference."
Yaxiu found it somewhat odd. "But I remember the phantoms of the Sword Princess and the Witch I saw in the past actually had certain differences from you. It's just that I didn't think of this possibility back then, so I didn't look into it deeply."
"In other words, the phantoms Yaxiu saw might have been their true personalities, while the Observer phantom you saw was definitely role-playing," Vichy analyzed. "If they truly were reborn from the future, it would be at least several years or even decades later. You are still young, nowhere near the point where your personalities are fixed; it's impossible to remain unchanged in your initial disposition after several decades.
"Moreover, if I haven't guessed wrongly, the mastermind behind this multi-person rebirth should be the future Yaxiu. Only that scenario explains why the future me would prepare a chain for Yaxiu to dominate me."
Though fuming so hard her stomach burned, Vichy had to admit that if she had been reborn into the past to exploit her former self, she would certainly forge a chain capable of dominating herself as well.
No one understood better than her just how rebellious and unscrupulous she was. Reasoning, inducement, and intimidation were all utterly meaningless; only an absolute dog chain could ensure she would obediently comply.
Even if a "future Vichy" appeared before her, Vichy wouldn't listen to a single word of her nonsense. She would first find a way to restrain the other's soul and slowly search her memories. Because she knew full well that she would never help anyone else—not even her past self. Her sole possible reason for being reborn would be to seize her past body and challenge the supreme path of sorcery once more!
"If your future selves were reborn," Felix, who had remained silent all along, suddenly chimed in, "why didn't they directly replace you? Just like the Spectre Prophet did."
Indeed, the main reason everyone could accept the notion of "their future selves being reborn" so quickly was Vichy—she was a genuine reborn individual! Counting her resurrection, she was already living her third life!
Vichy harbored some guesses in her heart and exchanged a glance with Yaxiu. Yaxiu nodded slightly. "Each of us is a drop of water in the Flowing Gold River. The direction of our flow is what we call destiny, but our trajectory is indeterminate because the 'future' hasn't happened yet. Even a prophecy divine miracle can only speculate on our probable course.
"A reborn individual is different; a reborn individual returns to the past carrying their own trajectory. In other words, in the eyes of time and destiny, the direction of a reborn individual's flow is already predetermined. If weaving the future of all living beings is an examination, then a sorcerer being reborn into the past is equivalent to bringing a set of 'model answers' to destiny.
"A sorcerer's rebirth doesn't merely represent herself; it includes the thousands upon thousands of people she once interacted with. One could even say that if a sorcerer returned to the present from a hundred years later, then through her experiences, destiny could directly weave the trajectory of everyone over the next hundred years.
"If a reborn individual doesn't act according to their original trajectory, destiny will cause them to suffer what cannot be attained, what cannot be let go, separation from loved ones, and union with the hated—all to force them back into being the 'model answer.'
"Destiny gets lazy too. Since it completed its work a hundred years ahead of schedule, it won't allow you to ruin that correct answer.
"Regarding this," Yaxiu glanced at Vichy, "Spectre Prophet, you should feel this most deeply."
The playful smile on Vichy's face vanished, turning as calm as a lake.
Although the early stage of her second-cycle rebirth had been smoother than her first life, her achievements in the second life fell short even of her first. In her first life, she had been able to find the Second Cycle God to be reborn, but in her second life, she was never able to lay hands on a single god.
Conversely, after resurrecting thousands of years later, the Monarch of Wind, Rain, and Snow immediately presented her with an opportunity to steal a god, and she largely succeeded—it was only that the Knowing and Guarding Fire god degraded into a sorcery spirit.
It was only when preparing the steps for resurrection that she realized rebirth wasn't a shortcut, but a detour. If rebirth could truly make up for every regret, then the Glazed Time Lord ought to be the most powerful divine lord, and the time faction ought to be the most powerful sorcery, but reality was not so.
"No wonder…" she murmured. "After I was reborn, the number and strength of prophecy sorcerers increased dramatically. It turns out that because of my rebirth, the future became easier to determine…"
"So even after being reborn, nothing could be changed," Daedalose said softly. "Just like a predetermined fate. That's hardly miraculous at all."
"Fate, destiny's corrective force—you've heard many aliases for it," Yaxiu said. "Yet a normal world contains no such thing; it is a byproduct of rebirth. When you choose rebirth, you are essentially bringing the future's fate into the past world.
"Initially, everyone is an unknown, until someone brings fate back from the future."
The Witch realized with sudden clarity. "So the reason the Observer and the others didn't directly replace us was because they didn't want us to be restricted by fate?"
"It feels a bit strange," Sonia said. "Hearing 'Observer,' I might get confused…"
"Observer, Dead Frenzy, Black Demon, Nether Demon, and Mirror Master—those are the names they call each other, so let's call them that too." Yaxiu smiled. "Terminal Observer was just a code name given to me by the Four Pillar Gods; I feel no attachment to it whatsoever."
"But I still like calling you Sword Princess."
"But I still want you to call me Sword Princess."
Speaking at the same time, Yaxiu and Sonia froze slightly, then exchanged an amused glance. Sitting beside Yaxiu, Diya immediately raised her small hand. "Me too! I want you to call me Her Imperial Majesty!"
Yaxiu looked at her helplessly, lowering his head in a respectful bow. "As you command, My Imperial Majesty."
Diya hadn't expected Yaxiu to actually play along, but seeing his respectful demeanor didn't make her happy in the slightest. She didn't lack subjects calling her Her Imperial Majesty; back in the Gospel, they were everywhere. What she truly wanted was…
"…You'd better just call me Daughter."
"Hmm?" Yaxiu shot her a nuanced look. "Are you sure?"
Diya instantly recalled that chaotic evil dream. Her face immediately flushed red all the way to her ears, and she shook her head frantically. "No, no, no, you'd better just call me Witch."
Weise asked, "So, with what objective did Dead Frenzy appear before you and confess the secret that they are reborn individuals?"
"I don't know about the others, but if I were to be reborn again, my goal would definitely not be to help my past self reach the summit." Vichy tugged at her collar, not bothering to hide her resentment in the slightest. "There's no better proof than this chain."
"To put it simply: when the Six Hells completely vanish,"
Yaxiu said, enunciating every word, "they will replace our existence."
Chapter 1033