Sharing Secret Poisons

"Heads up. Prepare for battle." Diya glanced at the sky ahead, veiled behind the curtain of rain, and had a sudden realization. "Watcher, you have an investigative miracle that works in the reverse golden rain?" If the white mist of the Sea of Knowledge reduced visibility through gloom, the golden rain of the Time Continent blinded the eyes through sheer glare. Aside from the flora right around them, a sorcerer could barely tell whether anything ten paces away was a large tree, a bush, or a small monster—everything was a uniform, glittering gold. Moreover, just like the white mist, the vast majority of exploration miracles couldn't pierce this curtain of rain. Exploration on the Time Continent was thus fundamentally no different from the Sea of Knowledge. The only difference was whether the monsters dragged you down into the sea or leaped out from behind a tree to bash you over the head. Yet in Yaxiu's eyes, the Void Realm was like a girl wearing a miniskirt who had lifted just enough of her mysterious veil for him—while he couldn't see the full picture yet, he could at least catch a glimpse of the absolute territory. The Void Realm Telescope still functioned, and the Void Realm Map continued to display the surrounding twenty-four tiles. Presumably because of the sports car, the map now even displayed the car's HP bar. Having plowed straight through quite a few trees along the way, the vehicle's HP had dropped below 50%. However, it regenerated 1% HP every few minutes, so there was no need to baby it as long as it didn't completely fall apart. On top of that, the Void Realm Map also displayed the White Ox's path, four ox hooves clearly stamped on the light screen. The White Ox of Heaven wasn't walking in a straight line; it curved slightly. But because the ox was so colossal, to ants like them, this slight curve was as imperceptible as the curvature of the ocean's horizon. However, Yaxiu noticed a problem—the map seemed inverted left-to-right. When the sports car steered left, their cursor moved right. No big deal. Yaxiu manually rotated the map 180 degrees to fix it. It was an internal closed-beta release, after all; even if the Void Realm Map suddenly froze, blue-screened, and spat out an error code, Yaxiu wouldn't be surprised. Come to think of it, what if this game crashed? He couldn't summon Task Manager, nor could he shut it down... Would knocking himself unconscious count as a physical shutdown? Amid his thoughts, the sports car approached the green zone marked "Worth a Visit." Yaxiu brought the automated car to a halt and glanced at the detailed information for the area. His expression shifted instantly: "There are some White Velocipreys ahead!" Sonia didn't react right away, but Diya's eyes lit up. "'Some'?" "That's right, 'some'!" [Some White Velocipreys. Worth a visit.] "Pack-dwelling knowledge creatures?" Sonia blinked, recalling the information she had read over the past few days, and immediately grew excited as well. "Could it be a resource point?" "What's a resource point?" Yaxiu asked, baffled. Although he had rested at Freya's house for several days and taken the opportunity to cram plenty of general knowledge about the sorcerer world, intel on the Time Continent was high-level knowledge. In his previous world, it would have been academic-paper-tier material on CNKI—Two-Winged Sorcerers were the only ones who had any reason to learn it. When Yaxiu had looked up the Time Continent on the Blood Moon Curtain, the most common search results were things like *Love on the Time Continent*, *Abandoned in the Fissure of Time*, and *Chasing Time to Find You*. Apparently, the general public viewed the Time Continent as... a convenient backdrop for romance. After all, in the Sea of Knowledge, one was swimming all day in miserable scenery, devoid of the Time Continent's romantic atmosphere. Moreover, the word "time" gave scriptwriters ample room to let their imaginations run wild, allowing both loose adaptation and pure nonsense. Yaxiu had browsed a few synopses; according to the Curtain, aside from time manipulation, the Time Continent was apparently a place where people could change sexes, speed up childbirth, die suddenly, or cheat on their partners with ease—in short, the perfect stage for melodrama and toxic romance. Afterward, when Yaxiu arrived in the Gospel Country, he hadn't spent much time on serious study either, and so he had come to take the Void Realm exam without any prep. But he had a good reason for slacking off—the Sword Princess had surely done her homework. Diya looked at Sonia in surprise. Sonia spread her hands. "The Watcher had amnesia before." "I see. Like the sorcerer in the fairy tale *The Amnesiac Sorcerer and the Innocent Maiden*?" "I haven't heard of that fairy tale." At that moment, both girls felt a slight stir within, but they didn't pursue the topic. Instead, they explained to Yaxiu, "Resource points are special areas that start appearing on the Time Continent, usually guarded by pack-dwelling knowledge creatures. These creatures employ sorcery spirits to operate the resource points, which is why they often contain rare resources that we sorcerers can use. If we're lucky, we might even obtain extra rewards beyond Experience Orbs!" Diya added, "However, pack-dwelling creatures at resource points are tough to deal with. Unless one is a combat sorcerer specializing in area-of-effect attacks, being mobbed by a pack will throw anyone into disarray. I once attacked a resource point, but in the end I had to flee after nearly getting killed. But now there are three of us..." "Then let's assign tactical roles," Yaxiu said. "The primary abilities I command are the miracle 'Sword Body Barrier' and the sorcery spirit 'Heart Sword.' Sword Body Barrier provides ranged defensive support, while Heart Sword delivers ranged attacks. Barring any surprises, I'll be the ranged attacker. Oh, and I recently created a new miracle, 'Rushing Toward,' which is a short-range mobility miracle." "You created a miracle? Show me later," Sonia said. "Not much has changed for me. I have the counter miracle 'Water Moon' and a series of melee miracles derived from Wave Sword." "Didn't you advance to Two Wings? Didn't the academy give you a reward?" "How could I dare reveal that I advanced to Two Wings?!" Sonia complained. "It hasn't even been a month since I became a sorcerer! Last time, when my full silver wings were exposed, I could still explain it away by claiming I stepped into a vortex. This time, I advanced to Two Wings, but my faction mastery hasn't reached the Gold rank. The academy would know immediately that I reached the Time Continent by finding a Golden Fish... I won't dare come clean to the professor about my progress until I elevate my swordsmanship faction to Gold rank and obtain a two-winged swordsmanship sorcery spirit." The White Queen was utterly dumbfounded listening to this. Becoming a sorcerer less than a month ago? Reaching the Time Continent by finding a Golden Fish? Even fairy tales didn't dare fabricate such nonsense! She couldn't resist asking, "You two found a Golden Fish? Is it the Golden Fish from the fairy tale *The Fisherman and the Golden Fish*?" "Never heard of that fairy tale, but it really was the Golden Fish of the Sea of Knowledge." Sonia looked at Yaxiu. "Should we tell her?" Yaxiu immediately caught the Sword Princess's drift. He pondered for a moment. The sorcery power conversion effect of the Golden Fish Secret Poison was immensely practical, so he told the Witch the details of the secret poison and asked, "Do you feel yourself infected by the secret poison?" "The secret of the Golden Fish is actually a secret poison?" Diya sensed inward for a moment and shook her head. "I don't feel anything." Yaxiu remarked with some regret, "That means you need to actually see the Golden Fish with your own eyes to become infected. Merely knowing the relevant intel doesn't reach the threshold for poisoning. Come to think of it, if speaking of it doesn't cause infection, then information about these secret poisons should be widely circulated..." "I know why," Sonia said. "I looked into it at the academy and discovered similar accounts for the Vortex Secret Poison, the Expulsion Secret Poison, and the Golden Fish Secret Poison. Especially the Golden Fish Secret Poison—I found that an animated cartoon I watched as a child already featured 'two-person flight.'" Because the Vortex Secret Poison and the Expulsion Secret Poison no longer applied to the Time Continent, Yaxiu gave Diya a brief overview without detailing the exact specifics of those secret poisons, before asking, "Then wouldn't a lot of people at your academy be poisoned?" "Not at all." Sonia shook her head. "Because those secret poisons are blended into fairy tales, travelogues, and even pure fiction. Even if sorcerers read them, no one would believe speculations that lack any credibility." Yaxiu grew thoughtful. "As long as you don't believe, you won't be poisoned..." "It was the same for us. Before we saw the Golden Fish with our own eyes, neither of us fully believed the truth about it. Only at that moment did the secret poison take root and sprout in our minds." Sonia looked toward Diya. "That's why you can't be infected by the Golden Fish Secret Poison, Witch—no matter what we say, the truth of the Golden Fish sounds too absurd. You have to witness it firsthand to be completely convinced." "But there's still a loophole here." Yaxiu suddenly spotted a blind spot. "If a Two-Winged Sorcerer were willing to offer up their memories to prove the existence of the Golden Fish Secret Poison, wouldn't that provide credibility... Ah, I get it." Putting himself in their shoes, Yaxiu knew the answer to his own foolish question: if it were him, would he dare stake his personal credibility before the public just to make everyone believe in the secret poison he described? He wouldn't dare. No sorcerer would commit suicide like that. Sorcerers who dared to do so had long since been eliminated by the Void Realm—and not just that one sorcerer, but everyone who listened to the secret poison would be eliminated as well. Those sorcerers infected with secret poisons only dared to write them down in secret because they couldn't suppress their urge to show off. How could they ever dare stake their credibility? What grudge did they have against their readers that would make them drag everyone down to mutual destruction? Sorcerers possessing a secret poison would, at most, share it with family members they trusted implicitly, keeping the number of infected within a tightly controlled circle. "What a pity." This time, it wasn't just the White Queen; even Diya herself felt sour. "A secret poison capable of converting sorcery power... I'm so jealous of you, Sword Princess, being able to explore the Void Realm with the Watcher from the very beginning. I didn't have that kind of luck." "It's actually not that useful yet, seeing as I don't have a two-winged sorcery spirit." Sonia spoke with airy nonchalance. "Sigh, honestly, I'm jealous of you, too. In less than a month with the Watcher, I've contracted three secret poisons. It feels so dangerous, you know..." *Showing off again...* Yaxiu glanced at Sonia, then asked Diya, "By the way, Witch, don't you have the Bronze Dragon Secret Poison? Is the effect meaningful or practical? Do you think it's worth sharing with us?" The White Witch didn't hesitate. "The Bronze Dragon Secret Poison means that when time faction sorcerers explore the Void Realm, there's a chance they'll encounter a Bronze Dragon. The Bronze Dragon has the highest chance of appearing on the Time Continent. Upon meeting the Bronze Dragon, it bestows a cursed trial on the sorcerer. The sorcerer can freely choose when to start the cursed trial, and once the curse is broken, the sorcerer gains the Blessing of the Bronze Dragon." The moment she finished speaking, Yaxiu heard the ticking sound of a clock hand moving. Opening the light screen, he discovered a new knowledge curse: [Bronze Dragon Secret Poison] [Infected Count: 23] [Secret Poison Amplification: 23%] [Current Effect: Upon taking damage, immediately rewind 1 second to evade the attack. Cooldown: 23 hours. (Reducing amplification to 10% grants a massive enhancement; reaching 51% turns into a negative effect.)] It was a bit nuanced. To say it was useless would be unfair, as it could save a life in a pinch; but to say it was useful, a 23-hour cooldown was painfully long... "Did you two get infected?" "I did." "I didn't." Both looked toward Sonia, who was equally bewildered. "Why couldn't I get infected?" Yaxiu checked the operator interface; the Sword Princess indeed hadn't contracted the Bronze Dragon Secret Poison. Diya explained, "Actually, back then, I not only saw the Bronze Dragon with my own eyes, but the secret poison only triggered after I activated the cursed trial. I thought you two wouldn't be able to..." She paused, suddenly remembering that the Watcher seemed to have witnessed the Bronze Dragon with his own eyes—when she had leaped from the tall tower, the Watcher had been right beside her watching! Sonia looked at Yaxiu. Yaxiu held out his hands. "I confirmed she indeed triggered the Bronze Dragon's Favor through a special ability. You don't have that avenue, Sword Princess, so..." "Oh?" The White Queen blinked, sounding pleasantly surprised. "So just like how you and the Watcher share the Golden Fish Secret Poison, I now share a secret poison that belongs only to the Watcher and me?" Sonia bristled with vexation, her tone dripping with sourness: "It's just a secret poison. It's not like it matters that much to a sorcerer..." "Wait," Yaxiu mused. "If all it takes is believing to become infected... Sword Princess, are you willing to believe me unconditionally? Without verification, without thinking, setting aside the rigor of a sorcerer, letting go of vigilance toward others, and trusting me as if trusting absolute truth—can you do that?" "I..." Sonia's expression was conflicted, but in the end she shook her head. "I can't." She couldn't even bring herself to trust her own mother completely. How could she entrust her entire self to the distant Watcher? Her upbringing wouldn't allow it, her knowledge wouldn't allow it, and her pride certainly wouldn't allow it. "What about just this once?" Yaxiu blinked and reached out, tapping Sonia on the forehead. "The Bronze Dragon Secret Poison is real." "Sword Princess, believe me this once." *Tick-tock.* When Sonia heard the ticking of the clock hand, she almost jumped out of the car in excitement. But she restrained herself, simply folding her arms and shooting Diya a sidelong glance. "Mm, this Bronze Dragon Secret Poison isn't bad after all. To think it can evade damage once. Thank you, Witch." Yaxiu checked the operator interface. Sure enough, the Sword Princess had gained the secret poison, and the infected count for the Bronze Dragon Secret Poison had risen to 24. "This proves that you might be able to contract the Golden Fish Secret Poison too, Witch," Yaxiu said. "As long as our bond is deep enough and you trust me completely." Diya stared blankly at the scene. Inside, the White Queen's thoughts raced furiously before arriving at a conclusion: she couldn't shake the Sword Princess's place in the Watcher's heart. At least, not yet. "All right." The White Witch beamed with a bright smile. "Let's do our best together." "Speaking of which, did we forget something?" "Right." Yaxiu came back to his senses. "We were supposed to assign tactical roles... But now that we've shared secret poisons, our combat strength has increased anyway. Witch, what miracles and sorcery spirits do you mainly use? How do you usually fight? Melee combat with fists and claws?" "Theoretically, it falls under the fist and claw faction, but it's not quite fists and claws." Diya bumped her fists together, pulling out three transparent threads that seemed to flow with light. "I prefer to call them," she offered a pure, sweet smile, "dead lines."