Even counting Weixi, the only world secret realms their group had ever truly encountered were the River of Flowing Gold, the Dream Heaven, and the Wishing Pool.
Among them, the River of Flowing Gold was hardly "secret" anymore; it was practically a basic civil right, a public domain that every two-winged sorcerer had inevitably visited. Even if they had no idea what a world secret realm truly signified, they could still observe two distinct traits from the river:
It produced sorcery spirits automatically;
It possessed permanent effects.
Before the Dream Heaven shattered, sorcerers could obtain dream-entering sorcery spirits from within—one of the primary materials for the colorless dream sorcery spirit. But to acquire one, a sorcerer had to endure the natural trials of the Dream Heaven; otherwise, it would never have served as one of the great hurdles along the Path of Origin.
The River of Flowing Gold and the Wishing Pool were even more formidable. Not only did both generate sorcery spirits, but their permanent effects posed immense threats to sorcerers. The River of Flowing Gold could accelerate a sorcerer's personal time to an extreme degree; to date, the only defense capable of granting immunity to its flow was the "Six-Color Anchor" armaments. Meanwhile, the waters of the Wishing Pool forced a sorcerer to endure the collective desires of tens of millions of people; anyone lacking iron resolve would have their very selfhood dissolved away inside it.
Looking across all world secret realms, their permanent effects were never aimed at living creatures. They were simply natural phenomena brought about by extreme concentrations of resources, much like a bonfire fueled by a massive accumulation of wood. It was just that compared to these secret realms, sorcerers were lesser than moths, and diving into the flames naturally resulted in being burned to ash.
Yet if all around you was boundless darkness, how could you not throw yourself at the fire? Even if tens of millions of moths burned to nothingness, there would always be a few who could tread upon the ashes of burnt wings, slip through the crevices piled high with remains, and steal away the core ember of that raging fire.
Those moths were later known to the world as Divine Lords.
No one knew how many Divine Lords had ever existed in this world, just as no one knew how many spray-crested waves had surged forth from the River of Flowing Gold.
Not even Weixi knew how many epochs this world had weathered. This was not because sorcerers deliberately erased history, but because sorcerers could never retain any history at all. A clash of Sanctuaries could topple a city, and a legendary war could reshape the terrain—Weixi herself had once obliterated an entire nation.
Cultural heritage held no meaning in the world of sorcerers. No matter how magnificent and mighty an empire you established, with sorcerers as vast as the sea and Sanctuaries standing like forests, and with both sky and earth transformed entirely into the hunting grounds of civilization, the descendant of a lone runaway could quietly cultivate to the legendary realm in the wild, turning your famous sights into ancient ruins and your country into a wasteland... until eventually, no one besides her even remembered that such a nation had ever existed.
Culture existed to unite the hearts of the masses, but sorcerers were born to walk alone.
Yet when a sorcerer acquired a world secret realm, it was like a moth obtaining an ember. No longer a lowly creature confined to the dark, it became a new source of light. It could illuminate a patch of pure land, offering sanctuary to weaker moths, and smaller moths could borrow a flame from the fire. And then it could...
Burn every last one of these insolent ants to death.
The Angel of Sword Law swept back his golden bangs and plucked a strand of starlight from the Glazed Star Sword, tying up his long hair to reveal a swan-like neck, leaving only two strands of hair hanging down past his temples. As if invoking some miracle, his demeanor shifted in an instant from an elegant, welcoming noble beauty to a valiant, resolute warrior, and even the alluring charm in his eyes sharpened into a keen edge.
His loose, languid robe drew tight, transforming into a form-fitting swordsman's tunic. The six wings behind him flared out freely. His slender frame hovered in midair, and the tips of his leather boots tapped lightly against empty air, sending a faint ripple of light washing outward.
The Sword Rain Pool.
A chill seized the hearts of the cultists.
The sword rain that had failed to strike them had not vanished without a trace; instead, it collected upon the ground like real rainwater, forming a serene, translucent pool. Although the pool seemed to have inflicted no damage on the hall's architecture, and even the fallen Sanctuary and legendary figures lying unconscious upon the floor remained unharmed, the ripples of sword energy stirring across the water were proof enough that it could turn into a meat grinder at any moment!
The utmost softness and the utmost hardness, the sharpest edge and the bluntest mass—sword light and rainwater, two utterly unrelated concepts, had achieved a unified harmony of opposites. Yet none found it illogical, for this was the true nature of the world. That rainwater was soft while sword light was sharp had only ever been a relative truth defined by shallow sorcerers—much like someone catching a cicada and believing they held summer in their grasp.
A six-winged angel: Sword Law.
Yaxiu truly had not anticipated this scenario. He had assumed they would face at most a millennium-old angel possessing four wings or even six prison wings. Unlike a thousand-year demigod like Weixi, who had wiped her slate clean to be reborn, the wonders and sorcery spirits Sword Law had accumulated over a millennium would be unimaginably vast. A millennium-old angel was already a daunting opponent, but Yaxiu had still harbored a sliver of confidence.
Yet Sword Law could actually draw upon a world secret realm, transcending the rank of a demigod to draw infinitely close to the tier of a Divine Lord. This Star Bridge Hall, converted from an abandoned abyss, was already magnificent enough, intended as it was to serve as the trade hub of the six nations. Yet as a stage for the descent of a six-winged angel, it still felt far too cramped.
Only the boundless sky and the limitless earth were worthy of bearing such mountainous, oceanic pressure!
"Weixi..."
"I've never heard of this either! Angels don't usually go on field assignments carrying a world secret realm with them!" Weixi nearly shouted. Even the Spectre Prophet was rattled by this turn of events. "Usually, I'm the one dragging others down. Master, you've certainly made me experience a lot of firsts!"
"I'll cover you. Break through the strata with everything you've got." The source power of Yaxiu's prison wings boiled furiously. Drawing a circle with both hands, he cast an arc-like refraction barrier over the group.
Wonder: Refraction Guardian!
Lately, he had spent plenty of time discussing with the operators how to better utilize his wonders. Usually, however, they were the ones giving him pointers, since Yaxiu was mediocre in almost every school of sorcery except for having a bit of experience in swordsmanship. But asking Yaxiu to give Sonia advice on swordsmanship... would be just like kissing Sonia: aside from having inferior technique, he would only end up being thoroughly dominated.
Expanding the Refraction Guardian from a single target to an area effect had been Weixi's suggestion, offered while she lay limp and exhausted in his arms after scouring soul fragments. As for the optimal casting formula, it had been jotted down casually by the Silver Lantern and the Witch while they were cuddling. The Sword Princess had not offered any technical advice, but whenever Yaxiu made any progress in sorcery, she was always the first person he wanted to tell.
Shielded by the refraction barrier, the operators unfurled their virtual wings one after another. Wonder after wonder flared with dazzling radiance. The sorcery ripples radiating outward reached Jialesi four hundred meters above, evolving into destructive pulses terrifying enough to make ordinary sorcerers shudder in horror!
"I'll designate the target."
The Witch was the first to strike. In an instant, her gaze took on physical substance, piercing past the gaps in the sword rain to breach the hundred-meter-high ceiling. With a swipe of her ten fingers, she carved out a murky, darkened zone. The highest-grade concrete, meticulously prepared by the Starry architectural sorcerers to balance strength and malleability, practically disintegrated into scattered grit in that moment, spreading outward like a virulent toxin!
Wonder: Overturned Tower - Disintegration!
The core power of the Overturned Tower wonder was to corrode all non-living structural matter like poison. Diya had integrated it into her combat system, so her threads could now do far more than throttle flesh-and-blood monsters—they could tear down cities and shake the earth!
A silver tome appeared in the Silver Lantern's hand. As its pages fluttered at blistering speed, countless silver miracles manifested around her. Hundreds of blazing silver spears spiraled into motion, every single one breaking the sound barrier as it blasted toward the disintegrated zone!
Silver Scripture Authority: Boundless Blazing Radiance!
During the demigod promotion ceremony, everyone else had advanced to demigod, while Weise's rank alone remained unchanged, granting her only the Silver Scripture Authority. Yet that authority had not betrayed the suffering she had endured. Reinforced by the Silver Scripture, her light could solidify into impenetrable walls and razor-sharp blades, no longer acting as mere energetic blasts.
More importantly, she could replicate any miracle composed of matter and energy and forcibly elevate it to the level of a divine miracle. Aside from the three esoteric schools, she was free to wield any sorcery without being bound by sorcery spirits.
Never in history had a god possessed such an all-encompassing authority. It was as though every sorcerer in Senluo over the past thousand years had been distilled into her strength... After all, by tradition, she ought to have been the divine monarch following the Grey Fox Divine Era. Had Senluo not fallen, the Silver Lantern Divine Era would have followed—and now, she alone was an entire divine era!
The Sword Princess did not bother with such flashy displays. She merely stood silently in front of Yaxiu, tearing open a tempest of blood and wind.
"Pity all living beings, trapped forever in a world of suffering."
Sword Law whispered softly. Behind him appeared the phantom of a heavily armored female knight, her delicate features forming a stark contrast with the ponderous armor she bore. Resting a flamberge upon the ground, a single tear traced down from her closed eyes.
Hundreds of silver spears, the Blood Moon tide, and the threads of overturning detonated simultaneously, yet not a single sound rang out. A transparent, densely woven net emerged within the ceiling, halting even the corrosive poison of the Overturned Tower. Every attack that struck the net was swallowed whole, triggering an even denser deluge of sword rain that flooded the hall!
"A barrier." Diya immediately extracted the exact information through the Gospel God, a strand of variegated color surfacing in her black-and-white hair. "The dense net completely encases the hall; all damage is absorbed and converted into sword rain... This is a wonder barrier anchored to a world secret realm, and the core of the wonder is the 'Sword Net God'! If we want to break through, we have to deplete the world secret realm first. Otherwise, even spatial relocation will be shredded to pieces by the wonder's sword cascade!"
"A Heaven-rank wonder!?" Weixi inhaled sharply through her cotton candy, looking utterly appalled.
The greatest difference between a Heaven-rank wonder and an upper-rank wonder was that a Heaven-rank wonder required the participation of a god. Without a god, no matter how vast and magnificent a wonder was, it could only ever be an extreme upper-rank wonder.
"Not just a Heaven-rank wonder, but a Heaven-rank wonder built upon a world secret realm..." Diya's voice trembled slightly. "In theory, this wonder consumes none of the caster's source power; it draws directly from the resources of the world secret realm. In theory, once such a wonder is constructed, it can run for eternity. That's why the Gospel calls it..."
"An Eternal Wonder," she said. "An eternity that only a Divine Lord can engrave!"
Transcending Heaven-rank, reaching directly for eternity!
What trapped them now was not merely an angel, nor merely a world secret realm, but the crystallized wisdom of a six-winged Divine Lord!
This was the ultimate proof of the world's greatest sorcerers conquering immortality; this was the glory of their sorcerous intellect engraved permanently into the river of time! Which meant escaping was impossible, the cultists realized.
No wonder Sword Law was so confident he could keep them here. Even if they burned through all their source power in a desperate burst, spending a day and a night might not be enough to exhaust a world secret realm cultivated by a Divine Lord over a millennium. This resource disparity accumulated over vast stretches of time struck squarely at the greatest vulnerability of these newly ascended demigods. They could not even hope to wait for the angel to run out of source power to open the cage... And would the angel commanding this sword net truly stand by and watch them try to escape?
Chapter 1093