Dead Frenzy glanced at him and said with an amused drawl, "We advanced one after another around the same time, I suppose... But we only joined forces after arriving in Hell, which isn't quite like your bunch."
Yaxiu was puzzled. "If you weren't allied beforehand, why would—"
"We were all infected with the Hell secret poison and could delay no longer," Dead Frenzy said with a smile. "As for why we allied... It's because every demigod in Hell was hunting us down. Left with no choice, we had to join with the Observer. Then the Observer hooked up with Nether Demon, and only then did we barely manage to escape the demigods' encirclement."
"Why were the demigods of Hell hunting you?"
"Can't you guess?"
Yaxiu blinked, quickly grasping the crucial connection: all infected with the Hell secret poison, unable to delay and forced to advance, meaning they broke through to demigod at practically the same time—hadn't he experienced this exact situation just a week ago?
"You all entered the Cage of All Stars and took part in the Angel Hunt!" Yaxiu said with conviction. "You each acquired a fragment of the Seventh Imaginary Wing! That's why the demigods of Hell hunted you—who wouldn't covet the power that leads to the supreme?"
"In our original plan, you were supposed to temper yourselves for another half year on Ruby Mountain before entering the Cage of All Stars," Dead Frenzy said. "In the end, everything happened too fast. The Spectre Prophet revived ahead of time, the Angel Hunt opened early, and neither Sword Princess nor the Witch was able to enter the Cage of All Stars with you..."
"That's great." Yaxiu let out a long breath. "Thank goodness everything was moved forward."
Dead Frenzy gave him a look and said nothing more.
At that moment, an expansive, elegant manor appeared on the horizon. Enclosed by a fence separating inside from out, it was lush with blooming clusters of flowers and dotted with multiple mansions. The central main hall exuded an ancient, understated aesthetic, weathered cracks left upon it by time.
Most peculiar was an illusory, leaning tower standing in the center of the courtyard. At the top of the tower, an orange cat was scampering back and forth. With each step it took, more fissures spiderwebbed across the tower's structure, producing the ominous sound of cracking stone. Yet no matter how much it ran, the tower never collapsed, eternally locked in this precarious state. Without any reminder from Dead Frenzy, Yaxiu could tell that the orange cat was a sorcery spirit. Even the entire illusory tower was a special structure built from sorcery spirits, like countless miracles stacked together into...
"A wonder?" Yaxiu murmured.
"Yes, the wonder 'Overturned Tower,' or 'Overturned' for short." Dead Frenzy descended into the mansion grounds. "We're here."
"Aren't wonders only constructible inside a Temple of Sorcery—" Yaxiu's words came to an abrupt halt. Looking around at the mansion's architecture and gazing out across the vast fields of flowers spread over the wilderness, his pupils shrank. "The entire mansion... the entire wilderness is a Temple of Sorcery?"
"To be precise, it's an earthly divine palace formed by fusing multiple Temples of Sorcery," Dead Frenzy said, striding through the courtyard. "When demigods die, they leave behind Temples of Sorcery. These divine palaces can't be absorbed by other sorcerers, but they make exceptional building materials for strongholds—you can even fuse several together to expand their capacity. A place like Ten Strings Mansion covers an area equal to a high-tier divine palace, which is why they were able to construct a high-tier wonder on the scale of 'Overturned.'"
Dead Frenzy pushed open the main hall's heavy doors, glanced inside, and scoffed. "Looks like your luck isn't great—the people here packed up everything and fled in advance."
Yaxiu stepped inside and found the main hall in shambles. Furniture, documents, and records were strewn in messy heaps to the side, making it obvious that the former occupants had departed in extreme haste.
"Still, it's not a total wash." Dead Frenzy waved her hand gently, and gemstones of various colors scattered across the carpet gathered into her grasp. "Conveniently, you can make use of these."
"What are these?"
"Imaginary wings."
Yaxiu froze.
"Ouroboros devours a sorcerer's soul body and Temple of Sorcery; only imaginary wings can survive," Dead Frenzy explained, handing the gems to Yaxiu. "Demigods are treasures from head to toe. Their Temples of Sorcery serve as stronghold materials, and their imaginary wings turn into knowledge gems—the most vital of alchemical materials. It's just a pity that knowledge gems return to the Void Realm over time. Any later, and there'd be nothing left."
Looking at the gems in his hand, Yaxiu asked, puzzled, "How do I use them? I don't know the Alchemy School, and neither do the girls."
"We know," Dead Frenzy replied. "Don't you have an alchemical vessel so foolproof even an idiot could use it?"
Yaxiu blinked and opened *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*. A moment later, a gold-rimmed glass bottle materialized in his hand.
The Alchemist's Extraction Bottle! One of the legendary items he had drawn long ago!
"Just toss all the gems inside," Dead Frenzy said.
Yaxiu complied. The gems rapidly dissolved inside the glass bottle into multicolored mist. After churning and fusing for a few seconds, they condensed into a stream of golden light that flowed from the mouth of the bottle, coalescing in his hand as a small vial of potion—it really was completely foolproof; even the potion vial generated itself automatically!
"'Lesser Knowledge Essence: Consuming this condenses a small amount of knowledge imaginary wings,'" Yaxiu murmured. "Is cannibalism in Hell really this convenient?"
"Hardly. That bottle is a masterpiece of the Sorcery Supreme," Dead Frenzy remarked lazily. "An alchemist capable of refining knowledge essence sits at the absolute top of the pecking order in Hell, supported by major organizations. Converting thirty percent of a knowledge gem into knowledge essence is considered good. Those who can manage fifty percent can be counted on one hand in all of Hell. A conversion rate above seventy percent can only be achieved by divine lords who have mastered alchemy, like the Lord of Joy and the Lord of Extremity."
"Guess what kind of conversion rate that extraction bottle achieves?"
"One hundred percent," Yaxiu said. "But didn't the Lord of Joy and the Lord of Extremity fail to become Sorcery Supremes?"
"There's always a worldline where They became Sorcery Supremes," Dead Frenzy laughed. "If Ouroboros hadn't chased after us, you could've whipped up a bloody storm across Hell on this extraction bottle alone."
Indeed. Even with Yaxiu's current grasp of schemes and politics, he could sense the terrifying potential of the extraction bottle. Regular alchemists refining knowledge essence suffered from low efficiency and required various supplementary materials, making mass production impossible. Coupled with the fact that knowledge gems couldn't be preserved, "killing people to level up" had never become the dominant path in Hell.
But the extraction bottle had near-flawless efficiency, required no extra ingredients, and could be operated by anyone. Handled properly, Yaxiu could entice other demigods to kill and collect knowledge gems on his behalf. Even if he skimmed a ninety percent commission, people would still line up to do it, because no one had ever been able to produce knowledge essence this efficiently before!
If Silver Lantern and Vichy were running this, they would definitely cull Hell until only a single person remained, laugh cheerfully as they lopped off that final head, wash the entirety of Hell in demigod blood, and forge their solitary throne from demigod bones!
"Let's go. There's nothing good left in here," Dead Frenzy said, turning to leave. "Go collect that big toy outside."
"Big toy...?" Yaxiu stared, then turned his gaze toward the tower wonder in the courtyard.
"Right," he murmured. "When they withdrew, why didn't they take this wonder with them?"
"Because their divine palaces couldn't fit it," Dead Frenzy said. "'Overturned' is a high-tier wonder. Only a high-tier divine palace can house it, and once it's inside, there's no room for any other wonders. Even demigods with high-tier divine palaces find 'Overturned' too massive.
"'Overturned' was probably their most presentable wonder. It took a long time to construct and could be used repeatedly, so they couldn't bear to destroy it, deluding themselves into thinking they might return one day to use it again. So they left it behind.
"But you're different. Your Soul Kingdom can easily fit this wonder inside." Dead Frenzy looked at him. "So, do you understand now?"
Yaxiu looked at her. "Understand what?"
"Hell is empty, and you are here," Dead Frenzy said, spreading her hands. "There has never been such a marvelous start. You can plunder every legacy, wonder, and gem the demigods left behind to your heart's content. Hundreds and thousands of years of accumulation are all yours for the taking! You don't even have to pick and choose—your Soul Kingdom can swallow the fruits of ten million years!
"The demigods racked their brains to hollow out the Void Realm, yet you can hollow them out with zero effort! You don't need to lift a finger. Even from a moral standpoint, you should take it, because without you, their achievements truly would be utterly forgotten.
"It's a curious feeling, isn't it? Getting something for nothing, yet feeling an inexplicable sense of mission." Dead Frenzy smiled. "That is what it feels like to bury a civilization."
Yet Yaxiu looked at her quizzically and shook his head. "No, not particularly.
"Haven't sorcerers always drawn knowledge of their predecessors from the Void Realm under the mission of carrying on their heritage? What's so surprising about it?" He shrugged. "In the course of their growth, doesn't every sorcerer end up burying dozens, if not hundreds, of sorcerer projections?"
Dead Frenzy gave him a long look, quietly pulled out a cigarette, and puffed away. Only after a while did she say coldly, "In the future, when I'm showing off my seniority, just flatter me and play along like a good boy."
Who would have thought she was the kind of person who cared so much about saving face, acting completely unreasonable the moment she couldn't refute an argument... But the moment he remembered she was one of Sword Princess's possibilities, Yaxiu found it easy to accept.
"You went out of your way to bring me here and make me realize I can claim everything in Hell," Yaxiu asked. "So what do you want?"
Dead Frenzy held out a hand toward him. "Give me your hand."
Yaxiu looked at her as if she were an idiot—he wasn't a Lalafell; how could he fall for the same trick twice?
Dead Frenzy tossed her cigarette into the air and repeated herself, "Give me your hand, or it'll be difficult to explain."
Yaxiu hesitated for a second, but extended his hand anyway. Dead Frenzy caught the falling cigarette and snubbed it out against his palm once more.
"First," she said, "I want you to stop making Sonia cry... My hints were blindingly obvious, yet you couldn't even manage that.
"Second," Dead Frenzy stared into Yaxiu's eyes, "we want *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* back."
Chapter 1061