A Strange Yaxiu

Yaxiu was acting a bit strange today. As the Spectre Prophet who had once suppressed an entire era, looming over all living beings like a nightmare—making the weak fall silent and forcing the strong to swallow their bitterness and yield—Weixi's insight into human nature was already near the level of a miracle. The petty schemes aimed at her by the likes of the Sword Princess, the Witch, and the Silver Lantern seemed to Weixi little different from children playing in the mud. The moment they made a move, Weixi knew what mischief they were plotting. Such was the confidence instilled in her by a thousand years of slaughter. Yet the change in Yaxiu after returning from Hell left Weixi somewhat uncertain. He seemed unchanged, yet there was an indescribable difference. Take that docile good-morning peck, for instance, or how his gaze wandered to avoid meeting her eyes whenever they passed in the hallway, his attitude perpetually wavering between intimacy and aloofness. In truth, Weixi was no stranger to such tactics. Playing hard to get—keeping someone at arm's length while pulling them close—was indeed a rather practical conquest strategy between men and women. In romantic relationships, humans were sometimes scarcely different from animals; both were hunters and prey. Alternating between sweet coaxing and concussive shots to keep them at bay, one could easily make the prey fret over gain and loss, ultimately dancing in the palm of the hunter's hand. However, Weixi believed Yaxiu wasn't playing any high-level mind games. Leaving aside the fact that he wouldn't be idiotic enough to believe that playing hot and cold could work on the Spectre Prophet, more importantly, judging by Yaxiu's romantic track record, his emotional intelligence wasn't high enough to master any advanced skills beyond basic attacks. When Weixi combed through Yaxiu's memories, she had also reviewed his experiences, discovering that aside from the Sword Princess, the Witch and the Silver Lantern had actually been won over by Yaxiu putting his life on the line. There were no tactics to speak of whatsoever—though, of course, they weren't female sorcerers who could be won over by mere tricks in the first place. Sometimes Weixi found it quite miraculous. After all, normally speaking, prodigies like the Witch and the Silver Lantern would never bare their hearts, let alone fall in love with someone. Don't be fooled by the Witch's usual silly, adorable demeanor; at their very first meeting, she had sent Lisi to set Yaxiu up. In terms of cunning, she was far above him. Yet a Witch longing for a family's doting warmth happened to cross paths with a lonely wandering knight... Yaxiu truly treated her like a daughter. Even when he could barely protect himself back then, he still incorporated raising Lisidiya into his life plans... And when the knight carried the princess charging out of the imperial palace, he also planted a twisted love within the Witch. As for the Silver Lantern, a world-destroying zealot whose will burned fiercely enough to incinerate the world, her feelings should have long been sacrificed upon an altar. She and Yaxiu had initially started as enemies hunting each other down, yet sharing life and death time after time ignited the lamp light in her heart, finally culminating at the Silent Spiral. The people of Senluo all possessed a self-destructive tendency to burn themselves out, and Weixi strongly suspected that when the Silver Lantern sacrificed herself before Yaxiu, she might have felt a fierce thrill at the thought of leaving him in lifelong regret... That was why, upon learning that Yaxiu was still chasing after her even after her death, a fulfilled Silver Lantern was willing to burn out her own light for him. Only Yaxiu and the Sword Princess's long-distance romance was comparatively unadorned. But they seemed to be each other's first love; there was zero technique to their romance, only pure emotion. The women who fell simply for Yaxiu's charm didn't seem to be operators—such as the Veela, Purple Moth, Crow Cull, Feili... Wait, that didn't make sense. Yaxiu's emotional intelligence clearly wasn't high, nor was he extraordinarily handsome, so why did so many people still like him? Could it be that during the thousands of years I was asleep, the world crossbred some male Veela bloodline? "Weixi?" The maid snapped her head up and realized everyone was looking at her. "What is it?" Yaxiu asked, "Do you have any objections to this distribution of wonders? Bladestorm, Fighter's Stele, and Blink Assault go to the Sword Princess; Time Lock, Thunderbird Shift, and Toppling Tower go to the Witch; and Soul Reflection and Soul Shriek Wave go to you." Although Yaxiu had notified Sonia and the others at noon, the female sorcerers only returned in the afternoon. An auction had been held at the sorcery spirit black market, where many rare sorcery spirits had made appearances. Naturally, they wouldn't spend money to buy them, nor did they have that much money, but a conflict had broken out midway through the auction. Multiple Sanctuary sorcerers stormed the venue to loot it, and later, even figures suspected to be legendary sorcerers showed up. Jialesi, whose public security had always been top-notch, had actually broken out into a Sanctuary-level war over an underground auction. Even though the surrounding area was an abandoned factory district, a radius of a hundred meters was reduced to scorched earth, and Yaxiu could feel the tremors from over a dozen kilometers away. Yet this was within everyone's expectations; at most, it had only been a matter of time. After all, during this window of opportunity where the starry sky was shattered and the Nobility Code had lost its effect, all Starry sorcerers had temporarily shaken off the chains of the stars compelling them to "obey the law"— They could commit crimes now. As long as crime was possible, people would inevitably commit it. Counting on decorum and morals to restrain a group like sorcerers was less realistic than expecting a Lalafell to leap into a boiling pot of oil to cook itself. Take Dimi, who even dared to harbor his sister who followed the cult leader Yaxiu... Yaxiu was a sinner personally designated by the Divine Lord of Stars! Without the restraint of the Nobility Code, a mere Duke of Vosloda dared to defy the Supreme of Sorcery for the sake of his kin! The rare sorcery spirits at the auction had definitely been stolen by nobles from the Starry treasury, and the Sanctuary and legendary figures who looted the auction were bound to be prominent high nobles of Jialesi. One could probably even narrow it down to specific individuals—there were only so many Sanctuaries and legends around, and eliminating them one by one would easily reveal their identities. Still, no one would report them, because everyone participating in the underground black market was breaking the law. Reporting someone else meant proving the source of one's information, so how would that be any different from turning oneself in? Right now, the Starry Kingdom was the greatest country, and they still wanted to reap the dividends of this era. None of them were foolish enough to throw away their noble titles at a time like this. As long as they erased the memories of their crimes, they would still be spotless Starry nobles even if the Nobility Code went back into effect. Conversely, however, this window might be a once-in-a-millennium reckoning period for the Starry Country: those with vendettas settled scores, those wanting to pillage pillaged. Once they missed it, there would never be another chance to commit crimes again. Even Yaxiu could sense that during Jialesi's first winter in a millennium, many people would not survive, and the ruling class was bound to undergo a thorough reshuffle. None of this concerned Sonia and the others, however. In the midst of the chaos, this group of demigods had swept up all the sorcery spirits and looted the vault for good measure. Returning laden with spoils and seeing Yaxiu waiting at the villa's entrance to welcome them, they felt a sense of pride akin to returning from a hunt. Even when Diya and Weise hugged Yaxiu together, Sonia merely huffed; once Yaxiu gave her a kiss, she cheered right back up. After dinner came the pleasant task of sorting through their haul. Although Sonia and the others were mentally prepared, watching Yaxiu display wonder after wonder still gave them a sense of defeat: "Damn it, we still can't keep this little rascal after all." Coming back to her senses, Weixi asked, "What wonders did you keep for yourself?" "Refraction Guard and Heart Hunt Throne," Yaxiu replied. "The former enhances my defensive capability, while the latter is an offensive method I can easily master... Do you want them?" Weixi blinked and countered, "If I say I want them, would you actually give them to me?" Yaxiu's lips twitched slightly. Glancing at the expressions of the others, he skipped the topic entirely and produced three potion bottles. "Besides the wonders, I also obtained three portions of knowledge essence. It should be enough for you to condense your first-tier hell wings." Weise asked, "What about you?" "I've already condensed second-tier hell wings, so this knowledge essence won't do much for me—" "There's no such thing," Weixi said, resting her chin on her hand and speaking lazily. "The only way to condense hell wings is by drinking specific essence. You might as well say this essence doesn't align with your sorcery... Wait, perfect essence?!" The maid snatched the essence immediately, scrutinizing the bizarre liquid swirling within, which drifted between transparent and iridescent. A gleam of greed flashed in her eyes. "Not tainted by any sorcery color, automatically allocating the feather hue of the hell wings according to the demigod's realm... No one could resist drinking a treasure like this. Did you capture an alchemy demigod to refine essence for you?" "Actually, it's because of this refining bottle." A gold-rimmed glass bottle appeared in Yaxiu's hand as he explained, "It can refine any material into perfect essence without requiring any manual operation. I refined all of this using materials I collected after taking a tour around Hell. Dead Frenzy said this is a treasure created by the future Alchemy Supreme."