I'll Wait for You in the Void Realm

Sonia asked curiously, "So what is your Silver Blessing?" Yaxiu was slightly taken aback and checked his newly acquired blessing. [Silver Blessing: Spectator's Visage: Your appearance is deceptive. Unless you engage in abnormal behavior, others will subconsciously overlook your presence. In the Void Realm, this blessing is enhanced; unless an intimate bond exists, others cannot see your face clearly.] "Can you see my face clearly?" Sonia was startled. "I can now." Yaxiu blinked and briefly explained, "My blessing makes others subconsciously overlook me when they look at me... But I'm not an infiltrator, and I don't plan to rob the rich to feed my own poor self in the future, so why give me a blessing like this? The Void Realm really has it out for me." Sonia giggled. "Or maybe the Void Realm saw right through your true nature..." "Don't laugh. You must have felt it too—we've caught another secret poison." When they had witnessed the Golden Fish displaying its scales, a piece of hidden knowledge had flowed into their minds. [Golden Fish Secret Poison] [Infected Individuals: 14] [Secret Poison Potency: 14%] [Current Effect: You can convert silver sorcery power into golden sorcery power at a conversion ratio of 64:36. (If potency drops to 10%, a tremendous buff is granted; if it reaches 51%, it turns into a negative effect).] It was only natural that the Golden Fish Secret Poison had not spread widely. After all, even deducing the truth hadn't been enough for Yaxiu and Sonia; one had to see the Golden Fish with their own eyes to become infected. On the contrary, the fact that there were as many as fourteen infected came as quite a surprise to Yaxiu. That meant besides the two of them, six other pairs had actually smuggled themselves from the Sea of Knowledge to the Time Continent by the same method—except Yaxiu had cheated to form a team, whereas those people had truly met by fate! "What an amazing secret poison," Sonia marveled. "I've never even heard of a miracle capable of converting sorcery power. Forget a conversion ratio of two to one—not even ten to one exists!" Generally speaking, silver sorcery power was silver sorcery power, and golden sorcery power was golden sorcery power. Lower-tier sorcery power would not improve simply because a sorcerer ascended to higher strata of the Void Realm, for the essence of sorcery power was the condensation of knowledge. Much like learning addition and subtraction in first grade, advancing to second grade didn't automatically turn them into multiplication and division. Although lower-tier sorcery power could activate higher-tier sorcery spirits, and higher-tier sorcery power could activate lower-tier sorcery spirits, the former was extremely inefficient, while the latter was far too wasteful. Therefore, to maximize resource efficiency, sorcerers typically activated spirits using their corresponding tier of sorcery power. However, as sorcerers acquired more and more higher-tier sorcery spirits, they naturally had no need to keep using obsolete, lower-tier ones, and lower-tier sorcery power fell out of favor right along with them. For now, Yaxiu and Sonia didn't have much need for this secret poison. After all, neither possessed many two-winged sorcery spirits, so silver sorcery power was more than sufficient. But once they upgraded their spirits to two-winged versions, they would realize how precious this secret poison was—even when facing Two-Winged Sorcerers with the same Void Realm progression, by converting silver sorcery power into golden sorcery power, their mana bars would naturally be a cut above everyone else's! "Drinking with Senior Sister, smuggling our way to the Time Continent, receiving a Silver Blessing, getting infected with the Golden Fish Secret Poison, and..." Sonia's gaze darted across Yaxiu's face. "Tonight really has been a lucky night." "The night isn't over yet. While we still have time, let's explore the Time Continent. Who knows, maybe we'll pick up a wild two-winged sorcery spirit—" "We don't have time," Sonia said. "We're about to die." Yaxiu froze. He opened the Void Realm Map and found that all twenty-five squares displayed the same prompt: [Just wait to die. There is no saving you.] "Haven't you noticed the change in me?" Sonia twirled a strand of hair beside her ear. "My hair has turned black." It wasn't just Sonia's hair. Looking around, Yaxiu discovered that the forest, which had still possessed a hint of green just moments ago, was now completely gray. Sonia had lost all color as well, resembling a character from a black-and-white film. He looked down at his own hands—they were frightfully pale, devoid of any flesh tones. "Sorcerers chase the White Ox's footsteps not just to bathe in the golden rain, but because time does not exist outside the Flowing Gold River," Sonia explained. "The Flowing Gold River moves as the White Ox moves. Thus, once a sorcerer fails to keep up with the White Ox, they fall into a timeless 'Domain of Stillness.' Its manifestation is the total loss of color, leaving only black and white all around." "If we had just—" "The moment I stood up, I saw the surrounding flora and ground tinged with gray, which means the Flowing Gold River nearby had already dried up. We were doomed from that very moment." Sonia shrugged. "Even if we gave chase, it would be useless. Mortals cannot outrun time." "Then what if we exit the Void Realm right now?" Yaxiu asked. Sonia smiled. "There is a massive time dilation between the Domain of Stillness and the outside world. Though we've been chatting for quite a while now, less than a few seconds might have passed outside. In the outside world it takes twenty seconds to exit the Void Realm, but in the Domain of Stillness, it would probably take several hours. "Falling into the Domain of Stillness and being frozen by time is the second most common way for a sorcerer to die. The most common is drowning in the Sea of Knowledge." "Then how long until we freeze?" "The textbook says that if you don't run and wait where you are, there's roughly a ten-minute delay. So there probably isn't much time left." Yaxiu looked up at the sky and found that the golden rain was already too far away to see. The entire world had turned into a deathly silent black and white. "Will we still come back here the next time we enter the Void Realm?" "Yes. There is no turning back in the Void Realm, nor are sorcerers permitted to retrace their steps. Even if I open the Gate of Truth with a one-winged sorcery spirit, I will only arrive on the Time Continent." "That's good, then." Yaxiu stretched and lay back on the grass, plucking a blade of grass to chew on, surprised to find it was actually a little sweet. A question suddenly occurred to him. "Doesn't dying in the Void Realm damage your soul...?" Sonia nodded. "Yes, but we weren't defeated by sorcerer projections, nor were we mauled to death by knowledge creatures, so we'll only suffer minor damage and won't lose any sorcery spirits. Until our souls fully recover, aside from being unable to enter the Void Realm, we'll feel a bit lethargic, unable to concentrate, drowsy, and our learning efficiency will drop." "Sounds like not getting enough sleep... But being unable to enter the Void Realm is a big problem..." "You won't be able to enter the Void Realm for the next few days anyway, and without you around, I have no interest in exploring the Time Continent alone. It's the perfect opportunity for me to train diligently, digest the knowledge I've newly acquired, and master the miracles I recently obtained. After pushing myself for half a month, it's about time to take a break." "A break, huh... Speaking of which, I haven't slept in ages. Now that you mention it, I am getting kind of sleepy..." Yaxiu yawned, rubbed his eyes, and suddenly felt the back of his head gently cradled, then placed upon something soft and pliant. A gentle, melodious song, like the chime of wind bells, softly drifted through the air. It was like a lover's soft whisper against the ear, yet also like the crisp clinking of ice cubes in a cup in midsummer—pure yet touched with a hint of bewitching allure, graceful yet threaded with a delicate charm. Listening to it made sleepiness settle in, relaxing every fiber of his being, leaving him in a dreamy daze. When the heavenly tune gently ceased, Yaxiu remained half-asleep and half-awake. "This is a lullaby my mother sang to me when I was little. You're the first person to hear me sing." Yaxiu opened his eyes to see Sword Princess looking down, her smiling gaze seeming ready to brush vibrant colors across this black-and-white world. "I'll wait for you in the Void Realm." In the next second, time froze them into a painting.