When Yaxiu saw the third magnificent palace built in the depths of the ocean trench, he was not surprised in the least. Since the second layer of Hell was an azure world, it was only natural that the demigods' encampments were situated beneath the sea.
"This is it."
Dead Frenzy vaulted over the palace wall, looking down at the lake below that shone bright as a full moon. Only in the sorcerer world could one witness such a sight in the deep sea beneath eighty thousand tons of seawater.
"The grand spectacle of the Bone-Chilling Wolf Palace, 'Water Moon,'" Dead Frenzy said calmly. "A whole series of miracles I developed was derived from this spectacle as a foundation. The very first time I laid eyes on it, I realized it was the shortcut to breaking through in my swordsmanship. To seize this spectacle, we spent three whole months scheming and calculating... Now you can just take it away directly and give Sonia a pleasant surprise."
Yaxiu stored "Water Moon" into his soul kingdom of heaven and asked curiously, "We? Were you, the Observer, and the others traveling together in Hell?"
"A compromise forced by necessity." Dead Frenzy flicked off her cigarette ash and said coldly, "Back then, everyone knew we had seized a portion of the Supreme Holy Grail. There was no place in all of Hell for us to rest, no one we could trade with, and we couldn't even enter the 'No-Hunting Zone.'
"Although I didn't trust the Observer and the rest, and we were even coveting one another's Supreme Holy Grails, we had at least worked together several times before and shared some foundation of cooperation. We had no choice but to stay on guard against each other while braving Hell."
Yaxiu stepped into the Bone-Chilling Wolf Palace, carefully scavenging the supplies inside, and asked, "Just like us?"
"Aside from having the same number of people, what about it is alike?" Dead Frenzy's face was full of disgust. "We only banded together out of helpless necessity. If the circumstances had been even slightly better, I would rather have wandered alone. But you all—even without any pressure of survival, you probably wouldn't part ways, would you?"
"Hard to say," Yaxiu said self-deprecatingly. "It might sound too arrogant of me to say this, but if I weren't around, they'd most likely go their separate ways and never see each other again for the rest of their lives."
Dead Frenzy fell into a rare silence. After a long while, she said slowly, "If there has to be a similarity, that's probably the only one. Precisely because the Observer mediated between us, we were able to... I don't want to use a phrase like 'working together with one heart,' but during that long flight where we rampaged through Hell—despite the crushing pressure of survival and living hand-to-mouth every single day—we rarely had infighting. Even the slightest hint of a quarrel would be swiftly suppressed by the Observer.
"When it comes to leading villains, he truly is uniquely gifted," she scoffed with a cold snort. "Virtually a savior for villains."
"Oh, there's actually a tribulation strand here! Just two more and we can head to the third layer of Hell." Yaxiu retrieved a treasure box containing the tribulation strand from a hidden compartment and asked curiously, "In your eyes, what kind of person is the Observer?"
"Honestly, for all these years I've been trying to find a word more biting than 'bastard' to describe him, but people seem to think that's already the harshest accusation, which leaves me quite disappointed." Dead Frenzy bit down on her cigarette, her face dripping with contempt. "Calling him a bastard is letting him off too easily."
"What did he do?" Yaxiu asked.
"I won't go into the big things—you'd have a hard time understanding them anyway. Let me just tell you about one small thing," Dead Frenzy said. "Back when I was still a mortal, I collaborated with him for a time. Then, whether it was to control me or for some other reason, he sent... his subordinate to Fanxing to kidnap my mother."
Yaxiu froze, suddenly recalling Sword Princess's bond item, the "Silver Coin of Dead Frenzy Sword Princess."
"Did he succeed?"
"Of course not. If he had, even if the gods of Hell tore me to pieces and devoured me the next second, I would have killed him that very second," Dead Frenzy said. "Now do you understand how he operates? He isn't like Nether Demon. Nether Demon may be vile and shameless, but she's an overt piece of trash—the moment you lay eyes on her, you know to watch your back. The Observer is different. Before you see through his true colors, he's exceedingly deceptive. And even after you've seen through him, he can still fool you a second time... One of the reasons Dark Demon went mad was that she once harbored illusions about him."
Yaxiu fell silent as he listened. He turned to look at the glass curtain wall of the partitioned area beside him, where a dim, blurred reflection was gazing back at him.
"To put it simply, he's your sincerity mixed with Vichy's malice," Dead Frenzy sneered. "If you're so curious, go have a child with Vichy. You might just raise a bastard of that caliber."
Yaxiu halted his steps and fixed his gaze on her, asking calmly, "What do you mean by that?"
"Is my meaning not obvious enough?" Dead Frenzy looked at him sidelong, making no attempt to conceal her revulsion. "The Witch and Silver Lantern are one thing—I'll chalk that up to you not having known any better back then. But Vichy? Are you an idiot?
"I thought losing your memories of Vichy would return you to your senses, but you actually fell right back into it? Did you fantasize that you could dig some treasure out of the mud?"
"If you have such a big problem with it, you can vanish and let someone else talk to me," Yaxiu said, resting his right hand on his hilt. "I welcome your care for Sword Princess, but I do not accept you having the right to interfere in my life, and even less do I accept... you insulting them."
"You want to fight me for Vichy?" A crimson gleam surfaced in Dead Frenzy's eyes as she slowly drew her blade. "For a piece of scum whose crimes know no bounds?"
Yaxiu looked at her quietly. Source power surged in his soul, grand spectacles vibrated, and sorcery spirits cried out. After facing each other down for a moment, Dead Frenzy snapped the hilt back into place, the crossguard and scabbard colliding with a crisp clatter. She kept walking forward. "Even if you don't find it embarrassing, I find it boring."
"Not even a word of apology?" Yaxiu asked.
"You are so annoying." Dead Frenzy glanced sideways at him. "I'm certainly not apologizing to a demon like the Spectre Prophet.
"At most, I'd apologize to the child who would be born having to bear the burden of their mother being a demon... assuming a demon even deserves to have children."
Yaxiu sighed and caught up with Dead Frenzy's stride, saying, "I actually thought I would meet someone else this time. For example... the Observer."
"You cannot meet him. When the two of you meet, only one of you will survive."
"Why?"
"Because the vast expanse of time will force you to merge," Dead Frenzy said. "If you were still a mortal, you might have been able to meet. But now you are a demigod. The River of Flowing Gold remembers you; you possess uniqueness across all timelines.
"Mortals are merely droplets in the River of Flowing Gold. When a droplet splashes into the air, that is its entire life; when it falls back and merges into the river, it vanishes without a trace. But demigods are different. In theory, demigods are an immortal species capable of reaching the end of time. Thus, a demigod is a jewel in the River of Flowing Gold, washed forward along the vast expanse of time.
"The five of us travel against time; we are loopholes that should not exist. Time will not recognize the simultaneous existence of two Yaxiu Heaths, or two Sonia Seviers. Therefore, between you and the Observer, or between me and Sonia, meeting means the end.
"As for why I am the one receiving you—" Dead Frenzy blew out a smoke ring, casually tossed away the cigarette butt, and shoved her hands into her pockets. "It's simply because the others have no interest in chatting with you."
"Really?"
Dead Frenzy smiled disdainfully. "What else? Did you think you could win over Dark Demon and Mirror Demon the way you conquered the Witch and Silver Lantern?"
"Just as I'm curious about them, I figured they would be curious about me too..." Yaxiu shrugged. "Besides, I never had that kind of thought. Before this, I thought you might all be... but seeing it now, it seems unlikely that anything beyond friendship could ever develop between you... perhaps you don't even have friendship."
Dead Frenzy blinked, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Not quite."
"Huh?"
"The Observer was married to Mirror Demon." Dead Frenzy's smile carried a faint, barely perceptible mockery. "A very formal wedding ceremony, complete with wonderful entertainment."
"What?!" Yaxiu was stunned. He pressed on, "Was he only married to Mirror Demon?"
Without a second word, Dead Frenzy raised her hand and smacked Yaxiu's head repeatedly, grinding her teeth as she said, "Aha! In this respect alone, the Observer truly wasn't as much of a bastard as you. Proud of yourself, are you?"
"Don't just hit me—tell me the details about their marriage!"
"There's nothing to tell. I didn't pay attention, and they basically divorced before ascending to demigods anyway." Dead Frenzy stopped her strikes, tapped a cigarette out of the pack, and said testily, "Though they remained entangled, I suppose, since they traveled together the whole time after that... At least Mirror Demon never gave up on winning him back, right up to the present."
Yaxiu continued lighting big sis's cigarette and asked, "Then did they... have children?"
"Never heard of any."
"Actually, I've always been curious: can demigods have children with other demigods?"
Dead Frenzy frowned. "Why do you ask? Who are you thinking of having one with—"
Right, who else could he have a child with?
Before the Witch was separated from her sisters, no matter how depraved Yaxiu was, he would still hold the line;
Silver Lantern was a god, so that function didn't exist;
Someone like Vichy who cared about saving face wouldn't do it either;
Thinking it over from every angle, there was only one possibility...
Dead Frenzy held the cigarette between her lips, cracked her knuckles as she loosened her muscles and joints, and strode calmly toward Yaxiu.
Yaxiu blinked and took an instinctive step back. "Wait, why are you starting again all of a sudden? At least give me a reason!"
"A reason?" Dead Frenzy said, suppressing her fury. "It's equivalent to traveling back to your childhood, seeing your younger self playing happily in the park, and then some mischievous brat pushes little you to the ground, yanks off your underwear, and pulls out the elastic band to make a slingshot!"
"That's completely different! I'm not bullying Sword Princess!"
"Yet you both take off people's underwear."
Chapter 1139