On the afternoon of April 1, 1669, spring had yet to reach Jialesi. Snowflakes drifted down from the sky, draping the city in a pure white bridal gown.
It wasn't just Jialesi; extreme weather was cropping up across the Starry Kingdom, swinging between blistering heat and torrential downpours, even accompanied by earthquakes and tsunamis. Wind, Water, and Earth sorcerers from the Gryphon Company and the Fortress Legion were urgently mobilized, rushing to provide emergency relief nationwide under the direction of the Meteorological Bureau. Disaster Heralds, for whom taking office had once been tantamount to retiring, found themselves utterly baffled as they were thrust into roles as temporary commanders of various cities. These sorcerers, who had only ever wanted to slack off in an idle post, inexplicably reached the pinnacle of their lives, leading sorcerers across the nation to combat natural disasters.
Sometimes, a windfall of the era landing on a single person's head turns into a monumental achievement.
By all rights, Jialesi, as the capital, ought to have been a top priority for the Meteorological Bureau. The trouble was that nearly all the other cities were functional—purely industrial, purely agricultural, or purely dedicated to entertainment. Those were the most precious productive resources; failing to save them would mean catastrophic losses.
In contrast, almost no productive enterprises set up shop in the capital, where land was at its most expensive. Jialesi was purely a consumer city, so leaving it unassisted would not harm national interests. After a vote, the council unanimously decided to downgrade Jialesi's disaster relief priority to the lowest level.
To put it bluntly, Sonia's hometown held a higher relief priority than Jialesi—at least it was an agricultural town.
Consequently, the weather in Jialesi was regulated only to the minimum acceptable threshold: the point where it wouldn't disrupt public transit. As for whether people might freeze to death... well, the poor who couldn't afford warm clothes didn't have the right to settle in Jialesi in the first place. Even ordinary One-Wing sorcerers weren't worthy of staying in Jialesi after graduation without connections.
Yaxiu walked along Queen's Avenue in a trench coat and a mask. Beside him stood low-key yet luxurious pawnshops, because directly across the street was Jialesi's largest gambling establishment. Its vulgar facade of gold and silver couldn't be masked even by the spotless white snow, and blast after blast of warm air rolled out from the entrance, as if stacks upon stacks of gold were being burned within. Even across a spacious four-lane road, Yaxiu could feel the frenzy inside.
Even without feeling it, one glance at the two bunny girls standing by the entrance made it clear how warm it was inside. In fact, it wasn't just at the door; right ahead of Yaxiu, a catgirl wrapped in an overcoat was handing out flyers. Perhaps seeing Yaxiu as someone with more money than sense, she stepped decisively in front of him and spoke rapidly: "To celebrate the four dependent nations merging under the Starry Kingdom, 'Holiday Void Realm' is giving every customer 1,000 chips, plus a complimentary buffet and round-the-clock heating! Claim it right at the door—don't miss out as you pass by!"
Yaxiu took the flyer and glanced at it; it was much as she had described. Because the four nations were about to join the family of the Starry Kingdom and become the four most brilliant stars in the night sky, even the casino owner couldn't help but feel proud, rolling out lavish perks for new and returning patrons alike. Free food and entertainment for the entire day was indeed quite appealing.
Yaxiu looked at the catgirl again. In such freezing weather, she wore only a plush coat over a skirt, black stockings, and high-heeled boots, blowing hot breath into her hands from time to time to warm them.
"Take it back."
The catgirl was about to tell him he could fold it into a paper airplane if he wanted and didn't need to return it, but Yaxiu gave a casual flick of his wrist, and the flyer flew neatly into her coat.
The thin sheet of paper radiated a gentle warmth against her chest, chasing away the chill seeped into her bones, more comforting than a hot-water bottle. Realizing what had happened, the catgirl turned around, but the somewhat dorky young man had already vanished without a trace... She hadn't really been trying to rope him into gambling; she had simply thought he looked a bit pitiful wandering the streets all alone in the freezing cold, so she had struck up a conversation... Running off so quickly—did he look down on her for working part-time at a casino?
Yaxiu naturally had no idea he had left behind another girl caught in self-doubt. He was measuring the length of Jialesi with his feet, carefully sensing the spatial ripples around him.
He wasn't the only one; at that moment, the Sword Princess and the others were also strolling through different districts of the city, searching for the permanent Sky Gates that the Starry Kingdom was constructing.
They were preparing to leave the Starry Kingdom.
Leaving the Starry Kingdom wasn't simple, however. In the past, one could only wait for a spatial rift to appear abruptly, but now the only controllable method was to create a Sky Gate.
Ordinarily, with the Gospel God assisting her calculations, creating a specific Sky Gate would have been a simple matter for the Witch. But whether due to the destruction of the Distant Sky Realm or the emergence of the seventh layer of the Void Realm, space had become exceptionally unstable. A Sky Gate created by the Witch could last at most a single second, and they had no interest in gambling their lives on that.
Furthermore, they had to consider another issue: escaping the Starry Kingdom did not mean escaping danger. Once the five nations were linked, the Starry Kingdom could mobilize the elites of all five realms against them with a mere snap of its fingers. Even if Yaxiu and the others weren't afraid, they wouldn't enjoy a journey spent constantly on the run.
The demigods had reached a conclusion: they would leave through a Sky Gate built by the Starry Kingdom, and then destroy it behind them to cut off pursuit.
The foundation of connecting the five nations was the construction of permanent Sky Gates. Yaxiu and his companions didn't need to destroy every gate; they only had to burn their bridges by destroying the gate leading from the Starry Kingdom to their destination, which would secure them temporary peace. A permanent Sky Gate was not something easily rebuilt.
Combat would inevitably ensue, and their hands would be stained with innocent blood, but everyone was mentally prepared—to pray for peace, one inevitably had to fight against others who prayed for peace just as desperately.
Yet that brought up a second problem: they couldn't find the Sky Gates the Starry Kingdom was building.
Diya had expended three source crystals to have the Gospel God sweep across the Starry Kingdom, but she still couldn't turn up a single clue. There was only one explanation: the Starry Kingdom had shielded the Sky Gates with anti-prophecy and anti-reconnaissance wonders, making conventional methods useless.
Prompted by Weise, however, they adjusted the Gospel God's filtering criteria to search for regions exhibiting spatial fluctuations instead. Constructing a permanent Sky Gate inevitably warped space on an ongoing basis, creating ripples that could not be concealed. Therefore, wherever large-scale spatial ripples appeared, that had to be a construction site for a Sky Gate.
The result defied everyone's expectations: across the entire Starry Kingdom, spatial ripples were occurring only in the vicinity of Jialesi. In other words, every single Sky Gate was being constructed near Jialesi. And precisely because the gates were clustered so densely and the spatial ripples were so chaotic, the Gospel God was unable to pinpoint the exact location of any individual gate.
Left with no other choice, they had to resort to the most primitive search method: scouring all of Jialesi on foot!
Every member of their group, including Daedalose and Felix, had attained the Silver rank in the Space school. If they approached a Sky Gate, they would surely notice the shift in the flow of spatial ripples and confirm its exact location. However, this method required intense focus and attention to detail; riding in a car wouldn't do, so they could only walk slowly.
Thus, everyone had to split up, or a single sweep would take weeks. While it seemed like an excellent opportunity for a date, none of the girls showed the slightest inclination toward romance... When serious business was at hand, they unfailingly displayed the caliber expected of operators, reminding Yaxiu that long before he had fallen for them, he had already come to trust and rely on them as companions.
Then again, it might also have been because when assigning specific search zones, the girls had shoved Yaxiu aside and huddled in a room for a private chat. By the time they emerged, Yaxiu's patrol route had already been finalized—whenever a meeting concerned how Yaxiu was to be allocated, Yaxiu had no right to participate.
Actually, that was just as well. After all, Yaxiu hadn't been in the mood for dating these past few days anyway.
Chapter 1074