After finishing a day of training, the girls bathed together and then sat in a circle to share their treats, enjoying dinner while listening to Yaxiu recount last night's journey through Hell.
"The Black Downfall Hell swallowed by the River of Flowing Gold, the Fantasy Hell where one can customize worlds, the Necro Ark, Evernight..." Diya listened in rapt fascination. "I really want to go with you, Yaxiu."
"I don't know why," Weise remarked, "but nowadays, Witch, even when you speak normally, I feel like there's an unimaginable sexual innuendo hidden in it."
Sonia's face darkened, and Weixi's expression turned subtle; evidently both shared similar thoughts with Weise. To be fair, the Witch wasn't truly that daring. As long as she was restricted from deploying her Witch Domain in bed, her behavior wasn't any more outrageous than anyone else's—at the very least, Silver Lantern was far more unhinged than her.
Where the Witch truly excelled, however, was her extraordinary imagination and the sweet, glib tongue capable of depicting it with vivid detail. Forget Sonia—even Weixi could barely handle it, especially since the Witch cast them as the protagonists of her tales. Simply put, the Witch liked to imagine fanfiction about them. For instance, during a break last night, she had casually spun a scenario whose sheer explicitness made everyone engaged in the 'original work' feel pushed to the brink of defeat. In the end, it was Silver Lantern who salvaged the glory of the original—by reenacting the exact scene the Witch had described.
"Silver Lantern, you dare talk about me!" Diya said in outrage. "Last night it was clearly you who—"
"Now then, let's distribute the spoils!" Yaxiu clapped his hands loudly, thwarting Felix's hopes of watching the gossip unfold. "First up is the knowledge essence. This time, I essentially looted all the resources of the Deep Blue Hell. Unfortunately, I was only passing through the Black Downfall Hell in a hurry, so the knowledge essence I gathered is just enough for all of us to condense triple Hell wings."
The operators looked at one another, and the room fell into an eerie silence.
"Great, none of you have objections," Yaxiu said, pulling out several bottles of knowledge essence. "Then take them back and drink them—"
"I have only one question." Sonia held up a single finger. "If you drank all the knowledge essence yourself, how many tiers would your Hell wings reach?"
"Do we really have to go through this argument every single time—"
"How many?" Sonia's tone hardened.
"A bit over four tiers," Yaxiu muttered reluctantly, but quickly added, "Even if I drink it all, I'd only gain one more tier of Hell wings. But if I distribute it to you, each of you can advance from single Hell wings to triple Hell wings. Which option offers the better return is completely obvious."
"Even Gospel knows who needs Hell wings more," Diya chimed in, siding with Sonia. "With single Hell wings, we can already handle demigod warfare. In fact, if the Angel of Sword Discipline hadn't ambushed and trapped us, we never would have fought to the death against an angel last time. Warfare is always a last resort for us. We advanced too fast and our foundation is too shallow; a few extra tiers of Hell wings won't bridge that gap. Other demigods have a millennium—or even thousands of years—of accumulation over us. Even if we encounter them, there's no reason to tangle with them. Avoiding battle, hiding away, biding our time, and building our strength until we're ready to break out—that is the proper path for us."
The Witch spoke with clear logic, evidently having prepared her points well in advance with the aim of utterly shutting down Yaxiu's intentions. "Last night, I heard you say with my own ears to Sonia that you wanted to book a hotel room and lock yourself away with her for an entire month without stepping outside..."
Felix's face went pale with shock. "A whole month?!"
Had Diya not been on her side, Sonia would have drawn her sword to cut her down in mortification. Forcing down her embarrassment, she snapped, "Is that supposed to be your main point?!"
"Of course it is—and you agreed!" Diya bit her fork and huffed. "Don't even think about leaving me behind. Count me in when the time comes."
No wonder Silver Lantern said the Witch's normal speech sounded like innuendo; Felix understood completely now. Furthermore, with both her and Daidalos present as outsiders, the Witch could still say such things so openly—what she might say in private was probably unfit to appear in this book.
"The reason you even had such a thought, Yaxiu, is because you just narrowly escaped death in Hell," Diya said, propping her cheek on her hand as she looked at him. "We can flee and avoid battle, but you have no choice but to plunge deep into Hell. Focusing resources on you first is the optimal solution right now. As long as you are safe, I have no doubt that we can advance to Divine Master in the future, or even go further. But if you meet with an accident in Hell, how could the rest of us possibly survive?"
Yaxiu was left speechless, because Diya was entirely right. His efforts today to get on the good side of Sword Princess and Weixi were actually groundwork laid for tonight's distribution of spoils, an attempt to make them dizzy with affection and agree. He hadn't expected the Witch to dominate the meeting—if he had known, he would have paid the Witch a visit this afternoon.
"Being so much stronger than you makes me feel insecure."
"Master," Weixi couldn't help but chide, "do you mind running your words through your brain before opening your mouth?"
Weise was caught between laughter and tears as well. "Shouldn't you feel insecure if they're stronger than you?"
"I'm just a little afraid," Yaxiu said, leaning back against his chair. "Afraid that this method of distribution will become a habit, and then I won't be able to stop myself from falling in love with power and authority. If I grow stronger and stronger while you grow weaker and weaker, handing out resources to you will no longer feel natural, but will become charity and favors. To me, you would no longer be just operators, but subordinates I have to manage and worry over."
"Even if the day comes when we end up like that," he tapped his fingers on the table, "I still hope that day arrives as late as possible, so that our team can stay together a little longer."
The atmosphere at the dining table grew somber. Felix, who had been focused on eating, sensed something was amiss and carefully slid the last piece of steak onto her plate.
"Distributing resources to us has never been taken for granted," Sonia suddenly said. "We're going to stand beside you against the Supreme Sorceries. This is what we've earned."
"And we aren't just your operators," Diya said. "No one is content with being just an operator."
After a brief silence, Weixi couldn't resist saying, "The Witch's words sounded completely normal, but for some reason, the word 'operator' coming out of her mouth feels a bit..."
Everyone nodded in agreement, even Yaxiu. The Witch let out a soft huff, resolutely refusing to admit it: "You're clearly the ones whose minds are in the gutter."
"To be honest, Master, your reasoning doesn't convince me at all; it sounds full of naive wisdom," Weixi said, reaching out to take a bottle of knowledge essence. "Still, if you're willing to give it, I'm certainly taking it. Nothing gives me a greater sense of security than power."
Weixi's decision completely tipped the scales toward Yaxiu's plan—since Weixi had taken hers, Sword Princess and the Witch had no choice but to take theirs as well. They would never accept the Spectre Prophet becoming stronger than them.
Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief. "Remember to drink it back in your rooms. The physiological reaction from consuming knowledge essence is extremely intense—you remember that, right?"
"I remember. That time we drank it together in the bath, and we ended up seeing each other at our most embarrassing," Diya said, looking at the knowledge essence. A sudden thought struck her. "Let's play a game tonight. Whoever loses has to drink the knowledge essence on the spot!"
"You want to go that far?" Yaxiu was shocked. That was a social-death-level physical reaction.
"If you're afraid of losing, you don't have to play."
"Bring it on! Whoever backs out is a puppy!"
Yaxiu noticed that Weixi's face had gone pale. After all, while it would be humiliating for anyone, Sword Princess and the Witch carried little psychological baggage, whereas Weixi had her pride and image as the Spectre Prophet to maintain. Even so, Yaxiu had no intention of stopping them, as he was rather curious to see what would happen when the others drank the knowledge essence.
"Next is the distribution of wonders," Yaxiu said. "I looted many wonders this time, but the vast majority are water sorcery wonders. I found that only six are suitable for you: three for Sword Princess, two for the Witch, and one for Weixi. Still, you can also take a look at the water sorcery wonders to see if any suit you."
"Wonders that suit me should suit you as well, right?" Sonia asked. "Is it really necessary to give me so many?"
"Heh-heh, I didn't favor you guys this time," Yaxiu smiled. "I kept the most precious and powerful wonder for myself. Even if you combined all six wonders distributed to you, they wouldn't compare to it."
"Namely, the sole wonder upon the Necro Ark—the fate healing wonder: False Promise!"
Chapter 1157