Yaxiu and Vichy

In the underground passage of Sunset Hall, the largest commercial center in Jialesi, Vichy wove light-footedly through the crowd. Without question, Sunset Hall was a public venue promptly outfitted with heating facilities; even just walking past the storefronts facing the street, one could feel the almost embrace-like warmth radiating from inside. On one hand was an icy-cold home; on the other, an entertainment center complete with every pleasure of eating, drinking, and recreation. Any normal person who didn't have to work knew which one to choose. During this period, Sunset Hall's turnover had surged more than tenfold. Its operating hours, originally from 10:00 to 22:00, had now expanded around the clock to twenty-four hours, single-handedly driving up Jialesi's per capita consumption. Families out shopping, couples on dates, friends idling in twos and threes—the underground passage was bustling with people. A pink-haired maid walking alone among them was so eye-catching, yet not a single person's gaze lingered on her for even an instant. She was like a ghost walking the mortal realm, coldly scrutinizing all living beings, aloof and detached from the crowd. This was a specialized application of the Wonder: Soul Screech Sonic Wave, emitting an extremely faint ultrasonic field that caused all surrounding living beings to overlook her presence. But this was an offensive Wonder after all; if mortals remained in this ultrasonic field for prolonged periods, they would suffer soul debilitation at least, and mental breakdown at worst. Vichy casually surveyed her surroundings. Whenever she saw something she wanted, she simply reached out and took it, since no one noticed her anyway—not that she minded being noticed. Still, deep down she looked down upon the craft goods of Starlight. It was only when passing dessert or candy shops that she would pick up a few treats to taste, though even when something tasted good, she wouldn't pack any to go. She had no one to share them with, nor did she want anyone knowing her preferences... Exposing what she liked or hated was, to Vichy, far more serious than standing stark naked. She had always been a murderous spectre lurking in the shadows, and she relished the way all living beings feared her like an erratic natural disaster. Contrary to what most people assumed, Vichy didn't like fighting, just as a tyrant didn't like fighting. What she liked was ravaging, plundering, and ruling. "Soul Refining Through Slaughter" was not only her method of cultivation, but also her code of conduct. Only by maintaining such a cruel and violent style could she achieve the effect of "slaughtering one city to make ten surrender," ruling the souls of tens of millions through sheer fear. Yet a demon had to remain unknown and mysterious. Once people discovered her joys, sorrows, likes, and dislikes, she would no longer be an erratic natural disaster, but merely a sorcerer who could be calculated and countered. Even so, looking at the marshmallow in her hand, Vichy hesitated for a second before grabbing a handful, stuffing them into her pocket, and briskly leaving the candy shop. She just had to finish them before heading back. The maid unwrapped a marshmallow and popped it into her mouth, savoring the burst of soft sweetness as she chewed. "You haven't paid yet." Vichy spun around abruptly to find Yaxiu standing behind her. In an instant, she hid her snacks and gulped down the marshmallow in her mouth whole. Seeing this, Yaxiu chuckled. "It's not like I'm going to steal yours... Hurry up." Looking at Yaxiu's outstretched palm, Vichy was puzzled. "Hurry up with what?" "I went out without any money!" Yaxiu said with total righteous confidence. "Give me money, and I'll go pay." "Bastard." "Huh?!" "I said you look very handsome, Master." Vichy took out a silver coin and handed it to him. "Here, and there's extra." Yaxiu entered the candy shop and came out with his pockets stuffed full of marshmallows. Now that she had already been caught, Vichy didn't care anymore. She plucked a treat from his pocket. "I thought you'd just leave the silver coin and walk away." "I'm not an idiot. If I paid money, of course I'm taking the goods. I just paid for yours, too." "What did you tell the clerk?" "I told them my maid had a craving earlier and sneaked some treats." Yaxiu looked at her twice. "Are you activating a Wonder?" "Mm. It has a stealth effect." "I'm not invisible, so why are you invisible?" Yaxiu tore open a marshmallow wrapper and munched on it as he spoke. "You're making me look like an idiot. People will think I'm talking to thin air." Vichy shot him an annoyed glare, her gaze conveying sheer helplessness toward her master. She burned the wrapper in her hand to ashes and deactivated Soul Screech Sonic Wave. Soon enough, passersby noticed a super sexy, cute, pink-haired maid suddenly appearing in the underground passage. These admiring gazes, void of fear, made Vichy rather uncomfortable. So she leaned in a little closer to Yaxiu, and those looks instantly turned twisted, jealous, and venomous, coiling tightly around Yaxiu as if wishing they could take his place. It would be one thing if he just had a girlfriend; it would be one thing if the girlfriend were a gorgeous girl. But the problem was that this gorgeous girl was wearing a maid outfit out shopping with him! A pretty girl willing to play master-servant games and attend to you as her master—what greater proof could there be of her complete devotion? Yaxiu looked at these jealous fellows with a touch of pity. They only saw the surface and knew nothing of the truth. If they knew this wasn't some master-servant roleplay, but a real master-servant dynamic—and that Vichy was no innocent maid, but the legendary Spectre Prophet—then they would definitely... become super jealous? "Why are you here? This isn't your search area... Ah." As Vichy spoke, she suddenly looked down at the ground, her voice tinged with surprise. "I only just noticed. Is your attainment in the space faction really that much higher than mine?" Yaxiu paused, and then sharply detected an anomaly in the spatial ripples, noticing an extra distorted angle among them. Clearly, there was a source nearby bending space itself. A permanent spatial gate! No one would have imagined that Starlight would build a permanent spatial gate right near a bustling, densely populated commercial center! Yaxiu cast his original intentions aside. Eating marshmallows together, the two attempted to trace the flow of the ripples. By the time not a single marshmallow was left in his pockets, they finally deduced the spatial gate's precise location from the ripple flow—below! "How do we get down?" "Follow me." Striding briskly in her high-heeled boots, Vichy led the way to the nearest fire exit down to the B2 parking garage. Down here, the spatial ripples were even more pronounced, yet still some distance from the source. From the changing angle of the distorted ripples, Yaxiu could tell that the spatial gate was at least a hundred meters underground. "It's true that a Void Gate is more stable the deeper underground it is, but in such a short time, how could they have excavated a passage this deep underground?" Yaxiu was a bit puzzled. "Even for earth sorcerers, construction on this scale couldn't have gone completely unnoticed, right? Not to mention Sunset Hall is operating as usual." "Which means this isn't a makeshift underground facility built recently." Vichy looked around the parking garage. "It's most likely an abandoned abyss." "An abandoned abyss?" "Although abysses are inexhaustible, most have a bottom. Once the final floor of an abyss is breached, that abyss will temporarily fall into abandonment. If sorcerers artificially create another abyss before it resumes normal operation, the abandoned abyss will sink into perpetual silence." Vichy explained, "Abandoned abysses aren't common, but they aren't rare either; they've existed throughout history. When an abyss happens to sit in a key geographical location, people can only blast through it by force to shut down its operation, then open up a new abyss in a peripheral area. Because the total number of abysses is constrained by the total number of sorcerers, once a new abyss is born, the old one often loses its energy and ends up abandoned." A bit like a corporation: the budget is limited, so when a new project launches, old projects can only limp along half-dead... Yaxiu nodded and asked, "Even though abysses are formed because of sorcerers, what exactly is the connection between them?" "Save topics that could fill a hundreds-of-pages thesis for your halftime breaks with Sword Princess and the others." Vichy crouched down, touched the emery-hardened floor of the garage, glanced left and right, and walked over to the darkest corner of the parking structure. Yaxiu walked over and immediately noticed something odd: in the corner sat an ordinary sedan caked in dust. But this was a commercial center parking garage with no private parking spots. This car had gathered so much dust that the accumulated parking fees probably exceeded the vehicle's worth. "This car was parked here to hog the space." Yaxiu turned his head to find Vichy gazing at a concrete pillar unreached by the lights. "Is it inside?" Vichy tapped on the concrete pillar, producing a crisp sound. She nodded thoughtfully, grabbed Yaxiu's wrist, and said, "Close your eyes and follow me." Yaxiu complied. Suddenly, a powerful pulling force came from his wrist, dragging him forward in a dash. Yet he remembered that a concrete pillar stood directly ahead; if he blindly slammed into it like this— Instead of stopping, however, he actively accelerated, clamping down on his body's instinctual alarm, his eyes shut tight as he plunged headlong forward! Smack. He did crash into something, but it wasn't a rock-hard concrete pillar. It was a soft, supple body. Yaxiu opened his eyes to see the pink-haired maid with curly twin tails pinned against the wall beneath him, looking at him as though he were an utter fool. "Not that I mind you suddenly turning beastly," she said, pointing toward the upper right, "but there's a surveillance camera up there, you know." They were inside a sealed, circular space, right next to an alloy elevator door. Yaxiu gave a start, but Vichy tilted her head, a trace of a smile playing at the corners of her eyes. "Then again, my sorcery spirits have been jamming all surrounding electronic devices the entire time, so no one will see after all. You may proceed, Master." Yaxiu turned toward the spot where they had entered, only to find a solid blocking wall. Puzzled, he asked, "We didn't use a Miracle. How did we pass through the wall?" "Because this is a permanent barrier Miracle with passage conditions," Vichy said. "As long as you charge through at high speed with your eyes closed, the wall allows you to pass. If your eyes are open or you tap at it slowly, it merely exhibits the properties of a concrete pillar. "It's not an especially profound barrier, but as a secret entrance, it's practical enough." Vichy stepped up to the elevator door. Beside it were fingerprint and iris scanning devices. She examined them for a moment and shook her head. "We can't go down by normal means." "We could wait for someone to come by and coerce them into opening it—" "A covert facility would never rely on fingerprints and irises for identity verification. Those are far too easy to forge." Vichy shook her head. "This is just an insignificant decoy. If I'm not mistaken, the real verification happens inside the elevator, likely scanning our sorcery power ripples. Everyone's sorcery power is unique and impossible to disguise. If everyone entering and leaving is a sorcerer, sorcery power ripples are without doubt the safest method of authentication." "Then should we call Silver Lantern and Witch to help?" "No need," Vichy said. "I can take you in right now... Follow me!"