A supreme armament!
Everyone unconsciously held their breath. In that moment, the refining bottle seemed to be caught in the spotlight, becoming the absolute star of the stage.
Yaxiu blinked and casually tossed the refining bottle to Sonia. "It's nothing that special. Feel it for yourselves."
Sonia scrambled to catch the refining bottle with both hands, closed one eye to peer down the neck and examine its inner structure, and after turning it over for a moment, handed it to the eager Diya beside her.
Diya tapped and stroked it, then stood on tiptoe, thoroughly satisfied, to pass the refining bottle across to the Silver Lantern. Weise studied it for a moment, then handed it back to Yaxiu.
Yet Yaxiu glanced at Weixi and tossed the refining bottle over to her. Weixi startled, nearly fumbling the supreme armament.
Sonia, Diya, and Weise turned their heads in unison, their gazes locking dead onto the demon maid. Weixi had never cared how these girls viewed her, but at this very moment, an inexplicable twinge of annoyance surfaced in her chest.
Only when she handed the refining bottle back to Yaxiu did the female sorcerers withdraw their sharp gazes. Diya's eyes darted thoughtfully as she said, "Actually, we don't really need hell wings. In reality, no one can beat us anyway. You should drink these essences yourself. You need strength more than we do while exploring Hell."
Sonia nodded as well, petting Diya's head. "The Witch is right. Even if you don't drink them now, you can carry them with you and drink them if you run into danger. We're in no rush to increase our battle prowess."
Yaxiu, however, shook his head. "No. That would leave you far too weak compared to me. It would feel like I'm toying with you using brute force..."
"Actually, the most widely accepted rumor on the market right now is that Sonia is being toyed with through violence," Felix spoke up. "Rest assured, Observer Seat, even if you don't do that, no one will believe you two are genuinely in love anyway. Besides, you don't look like a normal person who cares about outside opinions."
Daidalos rapped Felix sharply on the head, and Felix obediently clamped her mouth shut.
"I've never worried that you'd mess with me just because you became stronger than me," the red-haired girl said, spreading her hands.
"Actually, it's fine even if you're not stronger..." The white-haired young witch tilted her head, murmuring shyly under her breath.
Still, Yaxiu shook his head. "No. We're a team that improves together. I don't want to monopolize all the resources."
The Silver Lantern looked at him for a moment and suddenly asked, "Yaxiu, did someone say something to you?"
Yaxiu froze, shifting his eyes away. "Anyway, just take the knowledge essence. We won't be short on this kind of resource in the future, so don't worry about it."
*He was probably roasted by someone,* everyone thought.
Yaxiu cared about face yet had fragile feelings; the fact that he was fond of so many girls yet still refused to admit he was a trash-can-constellation scumbag was proof enough.
The Sword Princess and Witch's suggestion was reasonable, and under normal circumstances Yaxiu wouldn't react so strongly even if he declined. Someone had definitely scolded him about how he might use power to toy with girls, which made him so adamant about dragging everyone forward together... It was childishly endearing.
"Then at least keep Weixi's essence, right?" Diya said. "Giving her the power of a demigod... do you really think that's appropriate?"
Yaxiu paused. "Is it not?"
This time, it was Diya who froze. She darted suspicious glances back and forth between Yaxiu and Weixi, frowning. "As long as you think it's fine, then whatever."
The Sword Princess and the Silver Lantern were equally puzzled, looking at Yaxiu with strange expressions.
Sensing vaguely that he had said something wrong, Yaxiu quickly moved past the subject. "Aside from knowledge essence and wonders, I also obtained... some source crystals. Each of you take three source crystals as spares for now, and I'll keep the rest for exploring Hell."
He had originally meant to say 'a lot of source crystals', but most of them had been burned through during the war against the Forgotten Ones.
"Come over here. I'll transfer the wonders into your temples," Yaxiu said. "These wonders are all quite large, but your temples should have room for them, right?"
"Don't try skipping the most important topic," Sonia caught his hand. "What did you go through in Hell? Did you run into any danger?"
"No danger at all," Yaxiu shook his head. "Hell was completely empty. All the demigods were eaten by the World-Devouring Serpent. I just picked up trash and collected wonders along the way—I didn't even see a single soul."
"What about Dead Frenzy? What did she say to you?"
"Not much. She just explained how Hell works and took me to scavenge resources from the first hell. The travel between the Six Hells is peculiar; moving within Hell consumes tribulations, but tribulations can only be obtained once a year by surviving a calamity. So if I want to enter the second hell, my only option is to find the tribulations demigods use for trade..."
As Yaxiu described the conditions of Hell, he transferred the wonders into the celestial temples of the Sword Princess and the others. When it was Weixi's turn, she stared at the two high-tier soul wonders added to her Temple of Sorcery, still finding it hard to believe—had Yaxiu lost his mind?
She looked up at Yaxiu, who grew somewhat embarrassed under her stare. "Because these two wonders match your affinities so well, the other wonders went to them first... Do you like them?"
The Sword Princess and the Witch each received three wonders; only the maid got two.
Weixi blinked, averting her eyes. "...They're decent enough, I suppose."
"That's good then," Yaxiu said. "Let's call it a night for now. You must be eager to drink the knowledge essence and master the wonders. But drinking knowledge essence causes an intense physiological reaction, so I suggest drinking it in the bath."
"Wait," Weise asked. "According to what you said, Yaxiu, you had a leisurely stroll through Hell reaping the massive legacy of the demigods, without facing the slightest danger?"
"That's right," Yaxiu said with an open face. "Nothing happened at all."
The Silver Lantern reached out, smoothing his hair, and said calmly, "That's good then."
*
Yaxiu returned to the master bedroom, while the girls chose to head to the bath together, Daidalos and Felix included.
Though they didn't have a share, they were curious about what would happen upon drinking the knowledge essence.
A while later, in the bath filled with swirling steam, there were three women struggling to hold back their laughter, alongside three demigods who had just condensed their first-tier hell wings.
Sonia pretended nothing was amiss, but the flush on her face had crept all the way to her ears. Diya covered her small face and hid behind Sonia, too embarrassed to show herself.
Only Weixi recovered quickly, leaning lazily against the edge of the pool. "As expected of perfect essence. When I drank soul essence in the past, I could at least remain standing. This is the first time I've been stimulated to the point of my legs turning to jelly..."
"Stop talking!" Sonia had reached her limit as well, her entire figure turning ashen gray with a look of utter social death. "To think you all saw that..."
"Would you rather Yaxiu see you like that?" Weise asked with a smile. "It's a pity I can't drink it. Otherwise, I'd love to drink it together with him. That would definitely be interesting."
"No way!" Sonia glared at Weise, puffing her cheeks in annoyance. "No being lewd!"
"Then are we still sleeping together tonight?" Diya asked. "Let me make this clear first: if you sleep with him, Sword Princess, I'm definitely joining in too!"
The Sword Princess glanced at the Witch, who stood with hands on hips, matching her gaze blow for blow and refusing to back down an inch.
"...He just got back from Hell. Let him get a good night's rest," Sonia turned her head away. "I'm not going, and neither of you are allowed to go either."
It was so reasonable that no one could refute it. Diya grumbled, "Fine, let Yaxiu rest for a day then..."
While they chatted, Weise moved silently to Weixi's side. Their arms pressed together, ample softness meeting firm curves, silver hair tangling with pink strands, looking just like a pair of close friends.
Yet Weise's voice was laden with wariness. "What did you do?"
Weixi glanced at her. "Nothing at all. If you don't believe me, you can use the Gospel to check everything that happened today."
"You'd better not have." Weise reached out and hooked an arm around Weixi's neck, their breasts pressing against each other. Narrowing her eyes, she stared straight into Weixi's face, whispering coldly, "I'll be watching you."
The maid quietly met the Silver Lantern's gaze. The Sword Princess and the Witch also ceased their idle chatter, the atmosphere in the bath steadily turning tense. Daidalos kept silent, lowering her presence as much as possible.
"Miss Maid!" Felix suddenly shouted as she bathed. "Could you scrub my back?"
Chapter 1071