Within Blackfall Hell, three streaks of light chased relentlessly over the tranquil Hidden Gold River, racing past a clock-tower cathedral perched astride the golden waters. The violent shockwaves of their supersonic flight battered a heavy dragon-roar bronze bell; the ancient, sorrowful resonance of the tolling bell rippled far and wide. Yet the chime was soon swallowed by an even more ferocious, magnificent surge—a dazzling, golden Great Deluge sweeping across everything, as if fate itself had hurled its most exalted spear to pass judgment upon the sinners of Hell!
With a single thought from Yaxiu, Heart Hunt Throne cut wildly across the expanse, laying down seventeen rounds of ink-black sword marks ahead. The moment the Dragonman Warrior pursuing him stepped into the center of the marks, Yaxiu backhandedly activated Sword Body Cage, binding and locking the warrior in place!
The seventeen rounds of ink-black sword marks converged at once, reaping like seventeen scythes of the Grim Reaper! Even if the Dragonman Warrior could block the blade marks, withstanding each strike was equivalent to being ravaged by Yaxiu's God-Leader-tier soul pressure once. To date, the Forgotten One with the sturdiest soul foundation Yaxiu had ever encountered had collapsed in will, self-combusted, and burned out after enduring just eight strikes!
Snap! Before the ink-black sword marks could converge, the Dragonman Warrior broke through Sword Body Cage and slashed a kick toward Yaxiu with unbelievable speed, space vibrating with a resonance like a mountain mist razor slicing down!
Yaxiu whirled around to meet the blow head-on, his twin swords wheeling like a windmill. Divine might cancelled out the moment sword met foot. The spatial tremors sparked by the clash even twisted the light, and layers of Refraction Ward across Yaxiu's body shattered and crumbled like glass! In the blink of an eye, the two traded dozens of blows within fractions of a second, razor-sharp precision colliding against tyrannical strikes in a blood-boiling melody, crashing all the way down toward the tranquil river surface!
Vicious flames ignited from deep within Yaxiu's heart, turning him into a living torch—even the sorcery spirits inside his Soul Kingdom of Heaven caught fire! Yaxiu violently lashed out a kick to the side, kicking off the maximally compressed air to detonate an explosive shockwave. Riding that thrust, he shifted his flight path, skimming low over the river surface at breakneck speed as he continuously used Refraction Ward to purge the venomous flames clinging to him!
Behind the Dragonman Warrior trailed a short Goblin Fire Dancer. It was precisely because he was pursued by these two Forgotten Ones that Yaxiu lacked even the leeway to scavenge resources. The Dragonman Warrior dually cultivated space and claw-fist arts, while the goblin cultivated fire and soul arts. The former excelled in close-quarters combat, whereas the latter specialized in ranged ignition; moreover, both possessed spectacles capable of bypassing defensive barriers to strike directly at the soul body. As a result, Yaxiu dared not engage them in drawn-out close combat. While he could forcibly slay this pair of Forgotten Ones, doing so would inevitably injure his soul body. Right now, they had no effective healing spectacles; soul body wounds could only mend with time, and if they failed to heal, they would become permanent curses!
"If you keep tangling with them, the Great Deluge is going to catch up," Dead Frenzy reminded him from the side.
"That's why they need to die right now!" Yaxiu glanced back at the Forgotten Ones giving chase, crushed two source crystals in his hand, and rapidly chanted in a low voice: "Sorrowful wind, overcast sky, ancient lantern, chord melody; twenty-two chimes of summer's end, sixty-six swirling flakes of snow—I am the far shore of all that surges! Rise!"
Superior Spectacle: Stem the Tide!
Yaxiu gave a forceful heave with his outstretched hand, and the tranquil Hidden Gold River was actually yanked into motion by sheer force, crashing down toward the Forgotten Ones behind him like collapsing mountains and oceans! In an instant, the tide of battle turned completely!
The Stem the Tide spectacle was a yield from Yaxiu's time in Deep Blue Hell; its effect permitted a sorcerer to control any body of water. Given a demigod's might, lifting eighty thousand tons of seawater casually was child's play. However, while the Hidden Gold River was a body of water, it also harbored the origin of time in an extraordinarily static state. The vast majority of water spectacles were utterly ineffective on the Hidden Gold River.
Yaxiu had tested it earlier and found Stem the Tide had negligible effect on the Hidden Gold River, so he had initially given up on it. But Dead Frenzy had told him that he could also use his supreme virtual wings to empower any spectacle, and the method of empowerment was roll call.
When he solemnly chanted the true names of sorcery spirits, their strength received a brief surge. If he could name every sorcery spirit comprising the spectacle, the spectacle could even undergo a qualitative leap—though the boost only lasted for a single activation. In truth, any demigod could empower a spectacle by chanting sorcery spirits' true names, except they used hell wings, whereas Yaxiu possessed supreme virtual wings, making the amplification far more pronounced.
If one could not chant the true names of all the sorcery spirits, calling out the core sorcery spirits while summarizing the rest with general phrases worked as well. So long as one showed adequate respect to the spirits and petitioned them with genuine sincerity, one could still obtain their utmost devotion. Indeed, the silliest and most innocent beings in this world were sorcery spirits.
Of course, chanting's greatest drawback was telegraphing what spectacle you intended to deploy. But the Forgotten Ones acted solely on their pre-death combat instincts and lacked the ability to analyze Yaxiu's true intentions!
The Dragonman Warrior was engulfed by the Hidden Gold River, vanishing completely beneath the serene surface of the waters.
The Goblin Fire Dancer, situated slightly further away, dodged thanks to its superb flight technique. Yet by the time it recovered, it found the space ahead empty.
*A Cobra maneuver! He's behind me!*
Even though the Goblin Fire Dancer reacted instantly using its extensive combat experience to evade, Yaxiu had already circled behind it. His twin swords thrust forward, piercing straight through its back. Even as the goblin instantly set Yaxiu's soul body ablaze, Yaxiu drove forward like a burning train, shoving it ahead in a wild charge as Heart Hunt Throne continuously activated and converged!
When the sixth round of ink-black sword marks snapped shut, the Goblin Fire Dancer was completely extinguished, dispersing into nothingness. Yaxiu dared not pause for a second; beating his virtual wings with all his might, he swept across ten li of the golden river, narrowly evading the Great Deluge surging right behind him!
"How much time do I have left before I can leave Hell?"
"Thirty-two minutes."
"Meaning I still have to flee thirty-two minutes under pursuit from the Forgotten Ones—"
"No." Dead Frenzy shook her head. "In twenty-five minutes at most, Blackfall Hell will be completely submerged. Blackfall Hell is a circular world connected end to end. You see the Great Deluge behind you, but in truth, there is an identical Great Deluge ahead of you. They will ultimately meet."
"Is it possible for me to hold out in the Great Deluge for seven minutes?" Yaxiu asked. "A demigod soul body should be able to withstand the erosion of time, right?"
"You wouldn't last even a single minute," Dead Frenzy said calmly. "The Blackfall Great Deluge is not the same as the River of Flowing Gold. Once the Great Deluge fills all of Blackfall Hell, it will return to a static state and form a new Hidden Gold River. Flowing water is the scour of time; static water is a temporal prison. For any sorcerer trapped in the Hidden Gold River, their soul body will neither rot nor move, yet for every second that passes in the outside world, their consciousness will endure ten thousand years."
Hearing this made Yaxiu's scalp tingle, cold sweat seeping from every pore. He subconsciously flew higher to distance himself from the Hidden Gold River. Ten thousand years in a single second, body utterly immobilized, like an insect trapped in amber, slowly withering away amid eternal silence... Compared to that, even death seemed merciful.
"This is the Void Realm's judgment upon the demigods of Hell," Dead Frenzy said. "No one can survive on their own."
Yaxiu keenly caught the subtext: "Do the Blackfall demigods have a way?"
"The Blackfall Council headquarters: the Necro-Ark," Dead Frenzy replied. "'Dead men's nails construct the hull, dead men's hair weaves the sails; ribs pave the deck, skulls form the walls; when the golden waves drown all, only white bone may breach death's curtain'—the Necro-Ark is the sole demigod stronghold capable of resisting the Great Deluge. Right now, the Blackfall demigods are definitely making their last stand there, hoping the Great Deluge will swallow the Forgotten Ones!"
"Your only hope right now is to find a way into the Necro-Ark to survive the final minutes, or to gather four calamity marks and head directly to the Fourth Hell... But leaving aside whether anyone hoards calamity marks, even if someone did, you wouldn't have the leeway to thoroughly scavenge resources."
Yaxiu nodded. Who knew what crossed his mind, but the corners of his lips curled up slightly, even as the light in his eyes dimmed a fraction.
Dead Frenzy glanced at him, fell silent for a moment, and asked, "Are you afraid?"
Yaxiu shook his head and said softly, "No. I just thought that the Necro-Ark sounds like a necromancy spectacle that would make Harvey ecstatic." As the words left his mouth, he felt a little childish; this was hardly the time for sentimental melancholy.
Yet Dead Frenzy remarked, "In fact, though it's difficult to trace, rumors have always circulated in Hell that the Necro-Ark is the legacy of the Necromancer Sovereign, Häagen-Dazs."
Yaxiu was startled. "Even you don't know the Necro-Ark's origins? I thought you people had pierced all the secrets of the sorcerer world..."
"If the Necro-Ark truly dates back to Häagen-Dazs's era, it's only natural that we wouldn't know," Dead Frenzy said. "According to our deductions, during the age when Häagen-Dazs was active, the sixth layer of the Void Realm had not yet appeared, and the Four Pillar Gods were merely three... if three Pillar Gods even existed back then."
"Such a distant tale..." Yaxiu sighed in wonder. "You must have had so many magnificent experiences."
"You—"
"I know, I know. You must have endured endless suffering as well." Yaxiu tilted his head to look at her. "But if you're willing to share your magnificent experiences with me, I'd love to listen. Just as Häagen-Dazs is still remembered after millions of years, wouldn't it be a terrible waste if your incredible stories simply vanished?"
Dead Frenzy glanced at him, biting on her cigarette holder without smoking.
"...You don't have time for that this round."
"Then save it for the next time I enter Hell."
"You aren't afraid I'll summon thousands of Forgotten Ones to ravage you anymore?" Dead Frenzy said sarcastically. "Ready to pay the price for your naivety again?"
*She really knows how to hold a grudge...* Amused inwardly, Yaxiu raised his head and saw a fortress emerge on the horizon. He cast a backward glance at the Great Deluge behind him. "Should I head straight toward the Necro-Ark now, or roughly scavenge some resources on the way?"
"That's Ironforge. I don't recall any noteworthy spectacles inside; don't stop," Dead Frenzy said. "However, I do remember the Sword Tower further ahead has swordsmanship spectacles and quite a few resources. Hurry up—"
"Got it, got it."
Chapter 1146