Today Is Also a Day Full of Hope

Sword and Rose Sorcerer University, meditation room. The moment her consciousness returned to her body, Sonia collapsed onto the floor in sheer exhaustion. Only with great effort did she manage to drag herself up against the wall, sitting and gasping for breath. The soul's fatigue took its toll on her physical form; before long, beads of sweat streamed like rivers down her cheeks and collarbones, rolling like pearls into the depths of her dress. She was thoroughly spent. Outside, dawn had not yet broken. This was the earliest she had ever exited the Void Realm, yet Sonia still felt she had withdrawn far too slowly. Just moments ago, a full eight knowledge creatures had hunted her and the Watcher across the Sea of Knowledge for over an hour. No matter how far or fast they fled, the beasts pursued them relentlessly. Even when the Watcher deliberately veered into another creature's territory, their pursuers hadn't hesitated for an instant! And after the Watcher did that, the pursuers merely increased from eight to nine. Logically speaking, they had no reason to be so terrified. After all, they were merely Silver Sorcerers; at worst, they would surrender their Void Realm first-blood. Sorcerers were bound to die in the Void Realm eventually—it was only a matter of how many times. To have held out until forming their Silver Wings before suffering their first death already placed them among the most elite handful of sorcerers in history. If the sorcerer world had a "Leaderboard of Virgin Sorcerers Delaying Their First Death," Sonia felt confident she would rank at least in the top hundred, if not the top ten. Yet the moment they discovered the knowledge creatures surrounding them, a piece of secret knowledge had suddenly surged into Sonia's mind, and during their escape, the Watcher had explained the "poison" brought by this secret knowledge. [Expulsion Secret Poison] [Secret Poison Details: When a sorcerer lingers in the same place in the Void Realm for too long, their scent will be picked up by surrounding knowledge creatures, provoking their hostility as an act of defiance against the native inhabitants. The Void Realm is the home of knowledge creatures; they do not permit intruders to settle here. They swear to hunt and expel any intruder displaying "settlement tendencies," devouring their soul down to the last scrap.] [Number Infected: 31] [Intensification Level: 31%] [Current Effect: Easier to detect surrounding knowledge creatures. (Converts to a negative effect at 51% intensification; grants a massive boon when lowered to 10%.)] Only then did Sonia understand why university professors always taught that "lingering in the same place in the Void Realm for too long" was a strict taboo, yet none could explain the reason—despite sorcerers being the sort of people who loved getting to the bottom of everything. It turned out to be a secret poison. Unlike the Vortex Secret Poison, where the secret itself held immense practical value, leading those in the know to share it with close friends and family even at the risk of poisoning, the Expulsion Secret Poison held virtually no value. Now that Sonia knew the truth, she would firmly imprint "never linger in the same place for long" into her mind—yet the university had taught them that point ages ago! Consequently, anyone aware of the Expulsion Secret Poison would never bother actively spreading it. The number of infected naturally remained pitifully low; most were likely unfortunate souls who had lingered too long by mistake. Furthermore, judging by the harrowing ordeal Sonia and the Watcher had just suffered, most who learned of this secret poison were probably torn apart and devoured by knowledge creatures on the spot. One had to keep in mind that she and the Watcher had a small boat to ride the wind and waves, and working as a pair, they had only barely shaken off their pursuers to exit the Void Realm in the nick of time. Sonia could hardly imagine the sheer despair a solitary sorcerer, reliant solely on swimming, would feel upon finding themselves encircled by several knowledge creatures. Most terrifying of all, a quantitative shift in knowledge creatures triggered a qualitative shift in a sorcerer's death. As established before, dying in the Void Realm brought grave consequences because as a sorcerer's consciousness returned to their body, their soul still lingered within the realm, allowing knowledge creatures to take a huge bite and damage the soul. Yet after being bitten, the sorcerer's soul became lighter and returned much faster, preventing the damage from being entirely catastrophic. That was precisely why Sonia and the Watcher had fled in such madness—they weren't being chased by just one knowledge creature, but by nine! If each beast took a bite, their two souls would be devoured completely clean, with perhaps not even enough to go around! This was the true reason why "staying in the Void Realm too long leads to death": sorcerers were devoured whole by knowledge creatures, their souls utterly unable to return to their bodies. Left waiting too long, the physical body would assume the soul had wandered off and abandoned it, dropping dead on the spot. Because of this sudden emergency, they had no time to explore tonight. Once they put a bit of distance between themselves and their pursuers, they had exited the Void Realm immediately. Aside from a microscopic increase in their faction masteries, tonight had essentially been another wasted effort, even yielding a net loss. Having the Vortex Secret Poison had already been headache enough; now, adding the Expulsion Secret Poison made Sonia feel as though her mind were becoming increasingly tainted. Although the low number of infected meant the Expulsion Secret Poison currently granted a beneficial effect, if the secret ever spread in the future, it would inevitably turn negative. Still, surviving was what mattered. Back there, Sonia had genuinely thought she and the Watcher were about to die in the Void Realm. Exhaling a long breath, Sonia stepped out of the Meditation Building. Stars glittered across the night sky, bright as day. The largest among them was the Waning Gibbous Moon Star, casting a deep blue radiance like a celestial sphere with a chunk carved out, illuminating the paths across the campus. According to the lunar calendar, the meteorologists would swap it out for the Last Quarter Moon Star tomorrow... Sonia suddenly wondered what the Blood Moon was like on the Watcher's side. Was it also managed and replaced by a meteorological bureau, just like the moon stars of the Starry Country? Suddenly, a rainbow glow blossomed across the night sky, startling her. Looking closely, she realized the disturbance came from the White Giant Tower. Between being designated an alert zone and gathering sorcerers from all across Jialesi, Sonia faintly recognized that the "Void Realm turbulence" capable of dropping people atop the White Giant Tower had to be of immense importance. But her standing was far too low to access such high-level intelligence. She could only watch from afar, wondering if a bunch of professors were throwing a wild party in there. Returning to the dormitory, Sonia moved softly to avoid waking her roommates. With no hot water running so late at night, she showered with cold water, then stood out on the balcony to catch the breeze while waiting for her hair to air-dry. Tapping her miracle bracelet, she brought up a light screen, planning to watch the new drama starring Daidalos. A full-length mirror stood on the balcony. Catching a glimpse of her reflection out of the corner of her eye, Sonia subtly adjusted her posture, combed her fingers through her hair, and scrutinized her appearance from multiple angles. "What are you doing in the middle of the night?" Adele, who had been hiding under her blanket watching dramas, poked her head out and asked curiously. Sonia looked at Adele, thought for a moment, and asked, "Do I count as a pure, cute, shapely beauty?" Adele blinked. "You do, but still a bit behind me." She held out two fingers pinched close together, signaling the gap was really only by a tiny hair. * * * Shattered Lake Prison. Yaxiu rolled off the bed in a sudden tumble, the icy floor seemingly grounding his panicked soul and taking the edge off his post-escape agitation. Rising to his feet, he found himself drenched in sweat, so he headed into the bathroom for a hot shower. Although ordinary dorms lacked bathtubs, hot water was provided around the clock—depriving inmates of hot water was considered abuse by human rights organizations. Leaning against the pristine white tiles as the water cascaded over him, Yaxiu opened his light screen to sort through tonight's gains. Indeed, there were gains tonight. While others might view the Expulsion Secret Poison as an outright burden, within *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*, it had triggered a new change. [You have contracted the "Expulsion Secret Poison."] ["Expulsion Secret Poison" has enhanced the End Watcher's ability to sense knowledge creatures in the Void Realm. The Void Realm map has undergone a new change.] [Notice: The Void Realm map has updated. You can now detect knowledge creatures within your observation range on the Void Realm map and obtain brief information.] Earlier in the Void Realm, Yaxiu had opened the map to find slight changes in the surrounding twenty-four tiles. Most still read "Wasted Effort" or "Beneath Notice," but several tiles now displayed additional details: ["Mist Fish Dragon, worth a visit"] ["Burst Fish Dragon, a bit troublesome"] ["Umbrella Bird Dragon, a bit troublesome"] Though it only displayed the names of the knowledge creatures, this marked a monumental breakthrough for Void Realm exploration! Previously, Yaxiu could only rely on map prompts to vaguely guess whether a region held a legacy islet or a knowledge creature's habitat. Generally speaking, "worth a visit" mostly indicated legacy islets, while "a bit troublesome" usually meant knowledge creatures. Though occasionally inaccurate, it was infinitely better than blundering around blind. Now that areas inhabited by knowledge creatures were clearly labeled, any unmarked combat areas had to be legacy islets! Furthermore, while Yaxiu knew little about knowledge creatures, the Sword Princess had read the *Illustrated Guide to Knowledge Creatures*. Just from their names, she could deduce their proficiencies, general combat capabilities, and exact weaknesses, allowing them to cherry-pick beasts they could hard-counter! They could even hunt specific knowledge creatures that dropped Swordsmanship Orbs—such as the Fishcleaver Dragon or Umbrella Bird Dragon—to feed the Sword Princess's swordsmanship mastery all the way to Gold rank, aiding her breakthrough to Two-Winged Gold! Once the Sword Princess reached the Time Continent, Yaxiu could naturally repeat his previous trick, using her as a shortcut to smuggle himself there. Just as he had become a Silver Sorcerer in the Sea of Knowledge, Yaxiu could advance to a Gold Sorcerer on the Time Continent without possessing a single faction at Gold rank—or even cultivating a single day on his own—purely by clinging to the Sword Princess's coattails. The mere thought would probably drive other sorcerers mad with fury. With Yaxiu's exploration abilities and the Sword Princess's knowledge, as long as they didn't deliberately trigger taboos and court death like they had tonight, their future exploration of the Sea of Knowledge would be smooth sailing, free of danger! Yet all of this hinged on one premise: Yaxiu had to survive, escape this prison, and regain his freedom. Shutting off the showerhead above, he wrapped a bath towel around himself and walked over to the sink. Looking into the mirror at his soaked reflection, Yaxiu watched droplets of water trickle down the tips of his hair onto his lean shoulders and glide down his collarbones. "Damn, I'm starting to kind of like this world." He tilted his head slightly upward, the corners of his mouth curling into a faint grin. "Today is also a day full of hope."