The Legend of the Seven-Colored Tail

It was an extremely strange feeling—both manuals mentioned the same person, yet both coincidentally omitted her name. Sonia and Diya had no clue either, though it was merely an inconsequential detail. Yaxiu had only brought it up to Sonia because the coincidence was simply too striking not to gossip about, but in truth, he was not particularly curious. After all, no one knew how long ago the owners of these two manuals had lived. The "she" and "that woman" mentioned in the text might have died ages ago. If fate permitted, they might even get to whip her corpse! This was what made the Void Realm so captivating: it was the final resting place of knowledge, and even more, the graveyard of sorcerers. Every sorcerer manual here was inscribed with a life from thousands of years ago, and those unforgettable stories might have left behind no written record at all in reality. Reality was so cruel to everyone, yet the Void Realm doted on every child. Yaxiu handed the sorcerer manual back to Diya. After absorbing it, her hair swiftly turned back to white. "What ability did you get?" Yaxiu asked curiously. [Shouldn't this be private? How does he have the nerve to ask? White Queen, go tear him a new one!] [My lovely princess, we are teammates with them now. Information like this that might bolster our combat power ought to be disclosed.] Diya took a moment to sense it, a rather strange expression crossing her face. "I obtained a sensory ability called 'Love Hunting.'" "What?" "It means that if someone harbors romantic feelings for another person, I can easily detect it." The moment she said this, Sonia took an instinctive step back. However, seeing the Witch wink at her with a look that said, "Even without this ability, I can still see right through you," Sonia forced herself to maintain eye contact, though the blush on her face was impossible to hide. Yaxiu recalled the subsequent contents of the manual. "Speaking of which, that Task Sorcerer seemed to have apprehended a lot of secret couples in the temple later on. Did exposing Frank awaken his inner calling to become a romance police officer? Still, this ability isn't bad—at least it's more practical than my 'Litter Scooping Mastery' or 'Secret of Pleasure (only effective on females over two meters tall).'" The three returned to the sports car. Not long after setting off, they suddenly heard a loud boom in the distant sky, followed by a series of crackling, popping explosions. Obscured by the curtain of reverse golden rain, they could not see what was happening at all; they could only vaguely sense that a battle had broken out in midair. "So there really are people out to seek death." Although Sonia looked a bit surprised, she did not find it unexpected at all. Diya shrugged. "It happens roughly every two or three nights, sometimes as often as three times in a single night. After all, the chasm between Gold rank and Sanctuary rank is just too hard to cross." Yaxiu blinked. "You know what's going on?" "A sorcerer who fully unfurled two wings took to the sky." "Fully unfurled two wings... Oh, right!" Yaxiu suddenly realized something and looked at Sonia. "Can't we just fly? Flying has got to be faster than driving, right?" "No, we can't." Sonia shook her head and pointed toward the rumbling sounds. "Once a sorcerer attempts to fly, large knowledge creatures in the surrounding area will immediately sense it. They will ruthlessly slaughter any sorcerer who follows in the footsteps of the reverse golden rain, as if stepping onto the sky were like trampling the grass and merited punishment. "The ordeal a sorcerer faces while flying across the Time Continent is far worse than when we were driven out by monsters in the Sea of Knowledge. Monsters attack from every direction, and it's aerial combat—even the most resilient ascetic sorcerer would quickly be eaten down to the bone." Yaxiu recalled the horrifying experience of triggering the Expulsion Secret Poison and being hunted down by nine knowledge creatures; lingering fear still chilled his heart. "Then why do they take flight?" "Because they want to find the Seven-Colored Tail," Diya said. "The Seven-Colored Tail?" "A legend of the Void Realm, just like the Golden Fish," Sonia explained. "It's said that the Ox of the Sky Carriage has a Seven-Colored Tail. As long as one travels along the Seven-Colored Tail, one can reach the back of the Ox of the Sky Carriage—which is the third stratum of the Void Realm, the Distant Sky Realm." Yaxiu asked, puzzled, "Since the Distant Sky Realm is right on top of the White Ox, wouldn't flying straight up work? Why do they need the Seven-Colored Tail? It's not like the sky has a lid on it." "Mainly because it is fundamentally impossible for a Two-Winged Sorcerer to fly to the very top of the sky," Diya said. "Over the month or so since I stepped onto the Time Continent, I've heard about a dozen sorcerers being hunted down by swarms of knowledge creatures in the sky, and not a single one made it past five hundred meters. Every last one of them fell. "The sorcerers capable of flight and daring enough to take to the skies have undoubtedly unfurled both wings completely. Many have likely formed their own tactical systems and possess numerous two-winged sorcery spirits and miracles; calling them powerhouses among Two-Winged Sorcerers wouldn't be an exaggeration. If not for reaching a complete dead end in advancing their faction attainment to Sanctuary rank, they wouldn't take such desperate gambles to challenge the sky. "Yet when even they cannot touch the sky, it proves that reaching the Distant Sky Realm simply by flying is completely unviable." Yaxiu tilted his head. "Isn't the Seven-Colored Tail way up in the sky as well? After all, it's the White Ox's tail." "The information I looked up says the Seven-Colored Tail might be extraordinarily long—it might even droop all the way down to the ground," Sonia said. "The reason those sorcerers fly isn't to traverse the sky, but to search through the golden rain for the drooping Seven-Colored Tail. "Although there's no evidence whatsoever, many sorcerers believe that as long as they enter the Seven-Colored Tail, the knowledge creatures will cease their attacks, allowing them to fly along the Seven-Colored Tail all the way up to the Distant Sky Realm." "So the true meaning of the Seven-Colored Tail is a 'safe flight corridor'..." Yaxiu understood completely now. "What a wondrous smuggling route..." "In the past, I definitely would have dismissed the Seven-Colored Tail as just an unfounded rumor circulating among sorcerers," Sonia said, her eyes full of anticipation. "But things are different now. Do your best, Watcher! Just like you found the Golden Fish, find the Seven-Colored Tail for us too!" "As if it's that simple," Yaxiu said testily. "I have a feeling that whatever the Seven-Colored Tail really is, just like the true nature of the Golden Fish, it'll turn out vastly different from the rumors. Otherwise, other sorcerers would have discovered it long ago, and it wouldn't still be a mere legend." [They're so arrogant! Hardly any sorcerers in the entire Void Realm have ever found the Seven-Colored Tail, yet they make it their goal right off the bat. Quick, mock him!] [If your urge to speak up is so strong, do it yourself.] [White Queen, you've changed. You don't love me anymore.] [My dear princess, no matter how much I love you, I can still find you annoying.] Yaxiu drove the sports car forward in pursuit of time, watching the zone alerts on the Void Realm Map. He resolved to raid at least one more resource point tonight. Suddenly, a string of golden zones appeared on the Void Realm Map. Based on past experience, a golden zone indicated a fortuitous encounter, but the zone alert sent a chill down Yaxiu's spine: "Everyone will die of old age, including you. So you'd better hurry."