In the master bedroom on the villa's second floor, everyone was gathered together, including Felix and Daidalos.
Yaxiu didn't mind them seeing him enter Hell, nor did he care if the Divine Lord of Stars and the Four Pillar Gods observed him through them. If the Divine Lord of Stars and the Four Pillar Gods were willing to meddle in this mess, he would welcome it with open arms.
Felix, however, clearly had no idea what was about to happen. Hiding behind Vichy, she asked timidly, "Is this really okay? When you guys have fun... do you really have to call me in too?"
Vichy moved her to the front and teased her with evident amusement, "Don't be nervous. With so many people in line ahead of you, you'll be waiting quite a while. Be sharp in a bit. Don't just stand off to the side spacing out. Take the initiative to join in the fun with everyone, or next time you'll have to sleep under the bed."
"Stop fooling around," Yaxiu said exasperatedly. "I called you all here to watch me go to Hell."
"Though in every sense of the phrase, everyone would love to see you go to hell, Master," Vichy said, wrapping her arms around the nervous Felix and resting her chin on the girl's shoulder, "I take it you mean descending into Hell literally."
"That's right." Yaxiu looked around the room and said calmly, "Tonight, I found a clue that allows me to log into Hell once again."
"Yaxiu," Weise said with a conflicted expression, "you just told me you would think things through carefully and wouldn't take reckless risks. Why are you already..."
As she trailed off, the Silver Lantern glanced toward the Sword Princess. Though the rest of her words remained unspoken, her reproachful gaze made her intense dissatisfaction abundantly clear—she had worked so hard to get this fool Yaxiu to finally cherish his own life, only for this little loudmouth of a Sword Princess to drag him right back onto the path of a death row inmate.
The Silver Lantern was genuinely furious, not merely because Yaxiu was going to venture into Hell, but even more so because he was returning to a state of high pressure and anxiety. Over the past week, Yaxiu had behaved himself scrupulously without crossing any lines. Part of it was that there were too many people around and he didn't want his personal life to ruin the team's precarious balance, but an even bigger reason was that he was constantly fixated on the expedition plan, leaving him afraid to let loose and indulge in pleasure.
To make an analogy, it was like a student who hadn't finished their homework: playing on their phone made them intensely anxious, so they favored shallow entertainment like short videos and fast-paced games—things that allowed them to fool themselves with "I'll stop and do homework in a minute"—instead of touching deep entertainment that easily demanded an hour or two of full immersion, which would otherwise induce overwhelming guilt.
The Silver Lantern had gone to great lengths to urge Yaxiu with "You don't need to try so hard anymore," hoping he would relax so the door to deep entertainment could finally swing open.
Even if Yaxiu's original intention was not to take that final step and cause the team to fall apart, as long as the mood was right, the atmosphere was there, and there were no heavy external pressures, the Silver Lantern was certain she could wrap him around her little finger.
So long as Yaxiu was willing to slack off and let things slide, the Silver Lantern could become even closer to him—possessing him not merely in dreams, but in reality. On top of that, she could further provoke the Sword Princess. After all, among the four operators, the Silver Lantern and Vichy probably had the lowest baselines, followed by the Witch, while the Sword Princess undeniably held the highest.
Aside from Vichy being a bit troublesome, the Silver Lantern was confident she could keep lowering the bar until she drove both the Sword Princess and the Witch away in anger. For instance, if a "developer conference" had actually taken place tonight, no matter how much Yaxiu tried to pacify her, the Sword Princess would definitely have torn apart the entire residential district—or perhaps even all of Jialesi.
Yet now, Weise's plan had died before it could even get underway. With Yaxiu refusing to slack off, his nerves were bound to remain taut, making it nearly impossible for Weise to get him to loosen up and abandon himself to sensual pleasures.
More importantly, when he was venturing into Hell for their sakes, how could Weise have the heart to pull petty tricks behind his back? She had never thought to play the devoted good woman for him, but neither was she willing to become the burden that crushed him.
Sonia's eyes were red as she clutched Yaxiu's arm tightly, having clearly tried to dissuade him just moments ago. Yaxiu raised an eyebrow. "The Sword Princess is part of the reason, true, but none of you can run from this either—I've sensed the erosion of personality drift in all of you as well. Waiting around for death is too foolish. Even if I'm the only one who can go to Hell, it's still better than doing nothing while watching you all turn into completely different people."
"We do not!" The Witch climbed onto the bed, hugged Yaxiu's other arm, and cried out, "Our personality models have always been perfectly stable!"
"The Sword Princess's personality model hasn't shown any abnormal fluctuations either," Weise said. "What exactly do you mean by erosion?"
"I can't say, but it's there. You're all just a little bit off," Yaxiu said firmly. "Still, don't worry too much. Right now, I can still eliminate the effects of your erosion. I'm just afraid the severity will worsen later on, which is why I have to find Dead Frenzy to learn more."
*Are we off too?*
The girls recalled what they had done earlier. The Witch blinked, hesitating for a long moment, but finally resolved to transform back into her adolescent form. Wrapping her arms around Yaxiu's neck, she whispered in a tiny voice, "I-I'm not off. I've wanted to fool around with you like that for a really long time..."
Having said that, she was so embarrassed that she reverted to her little girl form, burying her head in Yaxiu's chest without daring to meet anyone's eyes.
"...I didn't specifically mean that," Yaxiu's mouth twitched. "But I'm not lying to you. The erosion has already begun."
"Still, the most severe case of erosion should be the Sword Princess, right?" Weise asked.
Yaxiu hesitated for a moment before nodding. Sonia looked unsettled, lowering her head in silence as though she had done something wrong.
"Yaxiu, I mean, is there any possibility," Weise said calmly, "that the Sword Princess isn't affected by erosion at all, and it's purely that you're such a scumbag that she's unhappy from being angry with you?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Yaxiu rejected the thought without hesitation, shaking his head.
Then his head took a vicious blow. Sonia glared at him with puffed cheeks, mist welling up in her eyes once more. It was as if he had opened some emotional valve in the Sword Princess—tonight, she was exceptionally sentimental and prone to tears. Earlier on the terrace, when he said he wanted to enter Hell, she thought it was her fault, crying while french-kissing him, silly enough to try seducing him with his own tricks.
"In any case, I'm definitely going to Hell tonight," Yaxiu said. "I had you all come here so you could observe any changes in me. After all, I should currently possess a soul body where soul and flesh are unified. I suspect that once I go to Hell, I'll vanish from reality."
The immense distinction between ordinary mortals and demigods was that ordinary people could separate soul and flesh; their physical bodies could remain in reality while their souls descended into the Void Realm to adventure. Demigods, however, possessed the union of soul and flesh. The moment a sorcerer ascended to demigod, their physical body in reality was annihilated, leaving behind only a soul body about to step into Hell.
Yaxiu was somewhat curious as to how exactly he would log into Hell. If he vanished in reality, it would be the descent of his soul body; if he didn't vanish, it meant his soul was forcibly separating from his soul body to link to the Hell that had already been swallowed into Ouroboros's belly.
"Aside from that, I also want to test whether I can bring you into Hell with me."
Yaxiu took out a small cubic frame. The material forming it appeared to be some kind of transparent crystal, within which four distinct colors flowed and chased one another: blood red, deep blue, dark green, and peach pink. If one looked closely, however, a faint, almost rainbow-like fluorescent shimmer could be discerned.
Standing to the side, Daidalos's eyes went wide instantly. Had Vichy not held her back in time, she would have lunged straight at Yaxiu.
Chapter 1058