Looking at the Void Realm Map, Yaxiu asked, "Speaking of which, Witch, do you practice the time faction?"
"Yes."
"Is it true that cultivating the time faction is only truly effective on the Time Continent?" Yaxiu asked.
"That's right." Diya nodded and reached out to touch the reverse golden rain rising from the surrounding grass and trees. "In fact, every single drop of golden rain contains temporal knowledge—or rather, all the time of the Time Continent is condensed within it. When I absorb the golden rain to condense sorcery power, the temporal knowledge inside is converted into my faction mastery at nearly a hundred percent. Compared to other factions, I gain an extra ten to fifteen times more time faction experience."
"That good?" Even Yaxiu, who knew little about cultivation, grew envious. "Then why haven't I felt my own time faction growing?"
Because the question was frankly idiotic, the White Queen paused for a moment before explaining patiently, "Because you haven't crossed the threshold of the time faction yet, Watcher. When you absorb the white mist in the Sea of Knowledge, it only develops factions you've already advanced to the Silver realm. As for factions you've never grasped, you won't gain any experience either."
Sonia offered an even more vivid analogy. "The knowledge within the white mist and golden rain is like a professor's voice during a lecture. Only those who understand it can actually hear the words; to anyone who doesn't, it's just white noise."
Yaxiu understood completely. After a moment of thought, he said, "Still, cultivating the time faction on the Time Continent is absurdly lucrative. Just walking around raises your mastery... Sword Princess, do you have any way to initiate into the time faction?"
"None," Sonia said, shaking her head helplessly. "In theory, the best way to get initiated into the time faction is simply setting foot on the Time Continent. But if you can't absorb temporal knowledge from the golden rain once you're here, it proves you lack the talent for it, and nothing you do will get you through the door. The time faction is one of the sorcery factions most dependent on innate talent. Effort is entirely pointless—talent decides everything. It's not something you can get just by envying it."
"Aren't you envious?"
"Not at all."
"Well, I've already initiated into the time faction," Yaxiu said, looking at the newly appeared [Time Faction: Silver Rank] on his operator interface. He chuckled, "Now you're the only one left who hasn't taken advantage of the Void Realm."
Because of their bond, the time faction experience the Witch gained was also channeled to Yaxiu. Though Yaxiu had no natural talent, as long as the experience fed by the Witch carried him past the Silver threshold, he could naturally enjoy the Void Realm feeding him directly from then on.
Sonia's lips twitched. What had started as pretend anger flared into real fury. She reached from behind and locked her arm around Yaxiu's neck. "You already knew that, yet you didn't help me think of a way! What about that sorcery spirit summoning ritual from last time—"
"That depends on luck! Aren't you afraid of getting another 'Sincerity' and being forced to speak nothing but the truth for days?"
"How could my luck always be that bad?!"
Watching the two fool around, the White Queen said silently in her heart, *Diya, I don't think I fit their dynamic. Mentally, I'm too old and mature. Perhaps if you came out yourself, you could blend in with them better.*
*No.*
*Definitely not.*
*I only trust you guys.*
*I don't want to deal with other people.*
The White Queen sighed. Right at that moment, Yaxiu suddenly let out a screech. A silhouette abruptly materialized right in front of the sports car, and then—
*Wham!*
The sports car slammed on its emergency brakes, and the inertia nearly hurled the three of them out of their seats.
They looked back and saw that the figure who had suddenly appeared had been sliced clean in half by the car's Wicked Edge, flopping onto the grass like a pair of rags.
Yaxiu immediately deflected the blame. "It's your fault, Sword Princess! You were harassing me!"
Sonia retorted, "You're clearly the one who wasn't paying attention to driving!"
Diya murmured, "...Did we just run over and kill a sorcerer?"
...
Fortunately, they hadn't committed murder. What died was merely a sorcerer projection, meaning they had only desecrated a corpse.
In other words, the first sorcerer projection Yaxiu and Sonia encountered on the Time Continent hadn't been slain in combat—it had been run over by their car.
Forget seeing its skills; they hadn't even caught a glimpse of what the projection looked like before blindly mowing it down... It sounded a little like reckless homicide.
Unlike in the Sea of Knowledge, sorcerer projections on the Time Continent did not linger in one spot; they wandered at random. Stumbling into an enemy unexpectedly during Void Realm Exploration was therefore a very common occurrence.
Although the sorcerer projection had perished far too quickly, they could still determine his faction from the dropped sorcery spirits: he was likely a fire-mortification sorcerer, someone who dual-cultivated fire and mortification. In total, he had dropped two two-winged sorcery spirits and three one-winged sorcery spirits. For their first business transaction on the Time Continent, the harvest was quite decent.
None of them had any use for these sorcery spirits. After some thought, Yaxiu asked, "Witch, do you have channels in reality to exchange sorcery spirits for other resources? Before you joined the team, our distribution method was to sort unneeded sorcery spirits by value: the valuable ones went to Sword Princess to sell for money, and the worthless ones were left to me to convert into special resources that only I could use."
Diya shook her head. "It isn't convenient for me to exchange sorcery spirits in reality. Let's just keep dividing extra sorcery spirits the way you did before. But in exchange, could I have priority in reading sorcerer manuals?"
Yaxiu's eyes lit up. "Can you read all sorcerer manuals too?"
"Too?" Diya blinked, then shook her head. "No, my success rate in reading sorcerer manuals is around eighty percent. I can't read all of them. For instance, manuals that are exceptionally aberrant, utterly revolting, or deeply bizarre are ones I can never accept, no matter what."
"The Watcher can read every single sorcerer manual," Sonia said breezily, patting Yaxiu's shoulder. "Even the ones you can't stomach, he can read cover to cover with relish. Pretty impressive, isn't he?"
The White Queen clapped along on the surface, but inwardly, she raised the Watcher's threat level another notch. Since entering the Void Realm, the Watcher had acted far too gentle and a little absentminded, oblivious even to basic common knowledge among sorcerers. It was enough to make one forget he was a terrifying dark sorcerer capable of tracking, dominating, and defeating her.
The main reason Diya dared not face the Watcher in person was largely because he had once utterly defeated her within her own mental realm.
Before an existence that could not be overcome even in thought, Diya was terrified and could only hide behind the White Queen.
Now, Diya was even more frightened—a soul capable of reading every single sorcerer manual might not be noble, but it was certainly devoid of any bottom line, ten thousand times more wicked than the nastiest villain in a fairy tale.
Yaxiu paid no heed to how thoroughly the Sword Princess had trashed his reputation. After a brief thought, he said, "No problem. From now on, Witch, you get first crack at reading sorcerer manuals, and whichever ones you can't read will go to me... Wait a minute. Sorcery spirits the Sword Princess doesn't want go to me, manuals the Witch can't read go to me... Why does it feel like I've become a trash can?"
"Of course not," Diya said at once. "It's because we lack the ability to make use of those resources that we have to give them up. The fact that you can utilize them so efficiently, Watcher, is proof of your great strength!"
"So have some confidence in yourself." Sonia narrowed her eyes and let out a cheerful snort. "Drop the 'feels like'!"
While they spoke, Diya picked up the dropped sorcerer manual. It had gilded edges, and its cover bore the image of a black flame flower. As she opened the first page, she discreetly activated the Mask sorcery spirit.
*Personality Fission—Mask Reshaping—Temporary Mode: Ever-Changing!*
Diya's hair began shifting through a spectrum of colors—red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, and purple—though fortunately without causing any blinding light pollution. At first, the hues were clear and bright, but gradually they grew murky, like cheap dye poured into a puddle, blending into a dirty, dark crimson.
Now, not only Yaxiu, who knew the truth, but even Sonia realized that Diya wasn't relying on flexible moral values to read sorcerer manuals, but rather on some kind of miracle.
This was how Diya, without having received any formal sorcerer education, had managed to become a Two-Winged Sorcerer and step onto the Time Continent—she had acquired most of her sorcerer knowledge by reading sorcerer manuals in the Void Realm!
Even without Yaxiu's exploration abilities, she had spent two full years in the Sea of Knowledge and read over forty sorcerer manuals. While her foundation wasn't as structured as Sonia's, she had mastered all the essentials needed to roam the Void Realm. She was a feral cat sorcerer, forged entirely through practical survival.
A stray cat might not be as pampered or robust as a house cat, but its survival instincts were not inferior in the slightest—they were often far superior.
Before turning to the final page, Diya paused and handed the manual to Yaxiu. "Would you like to take a look too? Every sorcerer manual might contain intel worth recording. If you're willing to let me have it, just stop before reading the last page."
Yaxiu had no objection. He took it and skimmed through it for a moment, then suddenly gasped.
"What is it?"
"I think... I just saw someone we know in here."
Chapter 218