Given Yaxiu and Sonia's current situation, asking about the Golden Fish was undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice.
Sorcery spirits? Although they lacked them, the Destiny Q&A wouldn't just toss out a sorcery spirit. This was a question-and-answer session, not a wishing well.
Miracles? They weren't particularly short on those. Moreover, given how few questions they had answered correctly, the Void Realm most likely wouldn't provide a detailed miracle procedure anyway; at most, it would merely point them toward a specific direction for miracle research.
As for how to rapidly advance sorcery faction realms, the fastest method was inevitably consuming Experience Orbs. Since Experience Orbs came from knowledge creatures, the Void Realm would at best point out where suitable knowledge creatures could be found; it wouldn't reach inside a knowledge creature, yank out an orb, and hand it to them.
Thinking it over, sorcery spirits, miracles, and faction realms merely served to add frosting to the cake. What truly determined a sorcerer's combat capability was undoubtedly the number of void wings and the level of sorcery power!
As long as one advanced to Two Wings, one could adventure on the Time Continent and acquire two-winged sorcery spirits!
As long as one advanced to Two Wings, one's sorcery power could continue to grow!
As long as he advanced to Two Wings, Yaxiu would be able to use gold sorcery power to drive the two-winged sorcery spirit Earth Sword at a hundred percent efficiency, substantially increasing the defensive power of the miracle Sword Body Barrier—making the prison break far more secure!
Why else was Yaxiu so eager to feed the Sword Princess's swordsmanship faction up to the gold rank, if not in the hopes that once she advanced to Two Wings, she could smuggle him onto the Time Continent? And right now, an even better opportunity to sneak across lay right before them!
Still, if they asked about the Golden Fish directly, the Void Realm certainly wouldn't give a very detailed answer.
However, there was an obvious loophole in the Destiny Q&A: regardless of how many questions a sorcerer answered correctly, if the question they posed was a yes-or-no question, the Void Realm was bound to provide a correct answer!
For example, if a sorcerer hit a bottleneck while researching a certain miracle procedure, and after testing all possibilities had only two research directions left, A and B, then if he asked the Void Realm whether direction A was correct, the Void Realm could only answer "yes" or "no." Naturally, he would then know whether direction B was correct as well.
If someone were a master of logic, they could even formulate a complex yes-or-no question to have the Void Realm eliminate multiple uncertainties at once.
For instance, if Yaxiu indulged in wishful daydreaming and asked, "On a certain day ten years from now, will I wake up and see the Sword Princess sleeping beside me?" the key components were "a certain day ten years from now," "waking up," and "the Sword Princess sleeping beside me."
"Waking up" was a given; Yaxiu couldn't possibly spend every single night in the Void Realm. Sleeping in was a luxurious, wonderful pleasure, one that Yaxiu would definitely indulge in every now and then.
And "the Sword Princess sleeping beside me" was a controllable variable. Yaxiu could simply remember this and, in the future, ask her to play along and lie down next to him.
The only uncontrollable factor was "a certain day ten years from now."
If the Void Realm answered "yes," there would be nothing more to say—Yaxiu could confidently call the Sword Princess his wife right on the spot.
If it was "no," then there were two possibilities: either Yaxiu and the Sword Princess had already had a falling-out by then, so she wouldn't even agree to play along, or the Void Realm believed Yaxiu wouldn't live to see ten years into the future at all.
Therefore, when the Void Realm was stingy with the quality of its responses, asking a yes-or-no question was the most cost-effective choice. At the very least, they wouldn't receive useless information.
After a brief discussion, the two decided to pose their questions to the Void Realm one after the other:
"Does the Golden Fish require a specific ritual to be seen?"
Questions like "Where is the Golden Fish?" or "How can one find the Golden Fish?" would never yield detailed answers. The Void Realm would most likely give technically true nonsense like "In the Sea of Knowledge" or "Look with your eyes."
These questions stemmed from Yaxiu and Sonia's conjectures. Sonia had asked Professor Trozan before and learned that the Time Continent was an exceptionally vast place, not much smaller than the Sea of Knowledge. Logically, if the Time Continent was so immense, the Golden Fish must also be gigantic. Why, then, couldn't sorcerers see the Golden Fish in the Sea of Knowledge?
With prior examples like the Vortex Secret Poison and the Expulsion Secret Poison, they naturally suspected that the Golden Fish might not normally "exist" in the Sea of Knowledge, appearing before a sorcerer only when they performed a specific ritual to trigger a Void Realm mechanism.
However, the answer took them completely by surprise:
[No.]
The Golden Fish didn't require a specific ritual to be seen? In other words, at this very moment, the Golden Fish was right there on the Sea of Knowledge?
After a brief discussion, they asked their second question:
"When does the Golden Fish surface from the sea bottom?"
No matter what, Yaxiu and Sonia were certain that normal sailing would never encounter the Golden Fish. After all, even Yaxiu, who held the Void Realm Map, had never spotted a trace of the Golden Fish, making it even less likely for other sorcerers to find it.
Since it wasn't on the sea, it naturally had to be submerged beneath it. Combined with the fact that seeing the Golden Fish didn't require a specific ritual, they guessed that it might periodically rise from the deep sea to the surface. Thus, they asked directly when it surfaced, intending to try their luck looking for it when the time came.
Because this wasn't a yes-or-no question, they were quite nervous that the Void Realm might give some half-baked answer.
The result surprised them once again:
[The Golden Fish is always floating on the surface of the sea.]
The Golden Fish was always floating on the surface of the sea, and could be seen without any specific ritual?
Although this conclusion ran entirely counter to Yaxiu and Sonia's experience exploring the Void Realm, they had no choice but to believe it. If the "future" mentioned in the Destiny Q&A might not necessarily come to pass, the Golden Fish was information the Void Realm definitively possessed. The Void Realm was the ultimate authority on this matter!
"Could it really just be our bad luck that we've never encountered the Golden Fish?"
Though it was hard to believe, Yaxiu had to accept the conclusion. At that moment, the paper dissolved into wisps of smoke, and their chairs vanished abruptly, nearly sending them tumbling onto their rears.
Returning to their little boat and watching the Destiny Q&A islet sink, Sonia said faintly, "That felt like such a loss. We barely got any useful information."
"At least I know I'll make it out of the Blood Moon Country alive." Yaxiu, on the other hand, looked relaxed. In his eyes, the Destiny Q&A was a free bonus opportunity. Gaining something was great; gaining nothing was just broadening their horizons. "Plus, in the future, we'll have a falling-out for various reasons, and then reconcile for certain reasons—"
"Now that we've gone through the Destiny Q&A, that future won't necessarily happen!" Sonia glared at him. "Besides, there's always been a saying that many prophecies in the Destiny Q&A never come true, but those who knew about them died before they could be fulfilled. So nobody ever finds out about the failed prophecies, and naturally, no records exist."
"If you die, I'll report this precious case regarding the Destiny Q&A to the university. Maybe I can earn some academic credits..."
Survivorship bias at its finest... Yaxiu spread his hands. "So, do you want the prophecy to come true, or do you want it not to?"
Sonia gave a soft snort. "I only believe prophecies that favor me. Anything that doesn't is a lie."
"Classic you."
"What about you?"
"Me? Well, how should I put it... I don't care about the prophecy itself, but I'm looking forward to the duel between the prophecy and me."
"A duel? What do you mean?"
"Hmm, let me think how best to explain this... Sword Princess, do you think the you of today and the you thirty years from now will still be the same in terms of personality, worldview, values, ideals, and habits?"
Sonia thought about it and shook her head. "I suppose not. I'm not even twenty yet. Thirty years is longer than my entire life from birth until now. A lot is bound to change."
Yaxiu nodded. "Then if the soul of the you thirty years from now suddenly possessed your current body, could that be seen as the future you killing the present you?"
Sonia knitted her brows slightly, looking a bit unsettled. "I suppose you could put it that way?"
"Now extend that 'possession process' across thirty years. Knowing through a prophecy that thirty years from now there exists a Sword Princess who is completely different from you in every way, and yet you still inevitably become the Sword Princess of the prophecy—could that be considered the prophesied Sword Princess slowly killing you over thirty years?"
"...Generally speaking, no one thinks like that."
"Don't you think it's fascinating, though?" Yaxiu spread his hands. "If you didn't know the prophecy, that would be one thing. But once you do know it, it's as if a 'future you' has appeared. Only one of you can survive: either they kill you, or you kill them. There is no other possibility.
"The only difference between 'prophecy' and 'possession' is the span of time. 'Possession' happens in an instant, so you see it as the 'future Sword Princess' killing the 'present self.' But a 'prophecy' is a long succession of days and nights, where the 'future you' uses time to carve the 'present you' into their own image."
Sonia parted her lips slightly, wanting to say something but holding back, seemingly trying to figure out how to refute him. Yaxiu continued:
"Have you heard of that game? Where children write a letter to their grown-up selves when they're young."
"I have. I even wrote one myself."
"Tell me, when the grown adult reads that letter, might they feel as if it were a will left by the dead?"
"Why would anyone think that?"
"Because they are entirely different people. Their thoughts, habits, worldviews, values, and ideals are worlds apart. And yet, they once inhabited the very same body. Isn't that just the latter killing the former?"
Sonia shook her head repeatedly. "But they are continuously the same person! That kind of change is called growth, not possession!"
Yaxiu laughed. "When a child writes that letter, it's equivalent to freezing the person they are at that very moment onto the paper. The soul on that letter is torn away from the continuous flow of time, turning into an independent, immutable individual.
"Isn't that just like a prophecy? A prophecy extracts your future self from a specific point in time and displays it to you. Isn't that just your future self writing a letter to your present self?
"The self at a different time is not yourself.
"That's why I don't care about the prophecy, but I'm looking forward to my duel with it. Of course, things that are obviously going to happen—like me making trouble for Xilin after breaking out of prison—don't count as prophecies. But if we really do fall out in the future over those baffling reasons, then that will mean the Watcher of the prophecy killed me, and the Sword Princess of the prophecy killed you."
Yaxiu suddenly fell into thought. "Speaking of which, it's strange. Why was love listed as a reason for reconciling, but a breakdown of affection wasn't among the reasons for falling out? Could it be that love only sprouts after the falling-out, when both sides realize how indispensable the other is—"
Snapping back to reality, Sonia blushed and gritted her teeth. "That just means it wasn't because of love at all! We reconciled to stand against a common crisis!"
"Alright, alright, don't get so worked up."
"I'm not worked up!"
"Mhm, sure, you're right. Time to go kill a Fishcleaver Dragon to liven up the mood."
They hunted two more knowledge creatures. Not only did no Experience Orbs drop, but Sonia spaced out and failed to intercept an escaping knowledge creature. Still, such mistakes were normal, and Yaxiu didn't mind. After bidding each other farewell, both logged out of the Void Realm simultaneously.
...
Her consciousness returned to her body in the meditation room, but Sonia remained dazed for a long time, the Watcher's words continually echoing in her mind.
In fact, after growing closer, Sonia couldn't help harboring doubts: was the Watcher truly the reincarnation of a mighty figure, as she had imagined?
Mainly, the Watcher didn't seem like a legendary figure in any respect. He didn't pursue power, had no fondness for study, and didn't even harbor strong ambitions. If he were placed in Sword Flower University, Sonia wouldn't spare a single glance at such a dull, subpar nobody with zero potential.
Yet the Watcher's remarks just now made Sonia realize that he could never be an ordinary person. Even if he seemed like one now, he certainly wouldn't be one in the future.
That madness cloaked in logic, that unorthodoxy so alien to common sense—Sonia had seen it countless times in *Analysis of Sin Sorcerer Psychology*. Sin sorcerers weren't all evil people; many were content with a quiet life and had families. But once life was shattered by the unexpected, they would shed their "old self" like a chrysalis emerging as a butterfly, daring to trample upon every law in the world, chasing the light in their hearts like moths to a flame.
She recalled the book's epigraph:
"They haven't changed; they have simply awakened."
Chapter 112