Spoils of War

The value of the second spoil dropped drastically. "Demilo's Hand-drawn Map" "Recording everything that changes seems like a foolish thing to do, but Heroic Spirits usually have nothing better to do anyway." True to its name, it was literally a map. The material felt like parchment, and when Yaxiu unfurled it, he saw it was covered in detailed annotations. Glowing points: Current Location, Star Hall Main Cities. Terrain: Swamps, Mudlands, Forests, Caves, Mountains... Resource Points: Lumber Mill, Ore Pit, Crystal Mine, Mercury Factory, Gold Mine... Special Regions: Dragon's Nest, Flowing Gold River, House of Destiny Q&A, Miracle Paradise, Tree of Wisdom... "No Seven-Colored Tail, huh." Yaxiu and the other two quickly checked the map thoroughly, shaking their heads in disappointment. They had assumed a Heroic Spirit's map might contain intel on the Seven-Colored Tail. After all, Heroic Spirits had theoretically been integrated into the Void Realm's establishment and were effectively part of the system, so it stood to reason they might have access to such insider information. Still, aside from the Seven-Colored Tail, the map offered almost everything else. Leaving the resource points aside, the House of Destiny Q&A and Miracle Paradise alone were well worth a visit. The former allowed one to ask questions of the Void Realm by answering queries, while the latter offered the chance to acquire sorcery spirits for free. The Tree of Wisdom was even more terrifying. According to the Sword Princess, by paying a certain price, one could directly elevate a designated faction realm. It was practically a Sanctuary pass, a sorcerer's wishing machine, a life-changing tree. It sounded more reliable than the Seven-Colored Tail, but the catch was that the "certain price" was anything but reliable. While there were cases where people only paid a minor price to advance, the records were far more saturated with bizarre tales of sorcerers paying catastrophic tolls and ultimately taking their own lives. For instance, the Tree of Wisdom once demanded that a sorcerer lose all language abilities—including listening, reading, and writing—for three days. By sheer misfortune, that sorcerer became implicated in a murder case in reality during that time. Completely unable to communicate, the sorcerer assumed his other criminal acts had been exposed, violently resisted, and committed murder. Still incapable of communication, he suspected his wife and son were trying to betray him, and slaughtered his entire family. By the time the sorcerer recovered his faculties, the real murderer had already been caught. Upon learning the truth, his mind shattered, and his soul returned to the Void Realm. Yet despite such notorious infamy, sorcerers still flocked to the Tree of Wisdom like moths to a flame, because far too many knew they lacked sufficient wisdom on their own. Even so, sorcerers would generally rather search for the Seven-Colored Tail; failing to find the Seven-Colored Tail meant at most losing one's soul, whereas encountering the Tree of Wisdom meant having to sell one's soul. Logically, a map packed with such vital intelligence ought to have ranked first among their spoils, yet Yaxiu and his companions showed little enthusiasm. Because—it was genuinely just a map. It was not a sorcery spirit. Experience Orbs could be absorbed, and sorcery spirits could be commanded, but they had no way to take this map out of the Void Realm, nor could they keep holding it the next time they entered. Even if they forced themselves to memorize the map's contents, they had no idea where they would appear on their next descent. Even if they tried to search for reference coordinates, they would only lose themselves within the labyrinthine veil of the reverse golden rain. A map without reference coordinates was like falling in love with a fictional character; no matter how much you invested, all you ever reaped was emptiness. As for using the map to track down a special region tonight to reap some rewards, setting aside the fact that their car was on the verge of exploding, the main issue was that none of these high-value special regions were close. The map included a scale. They calculated that even the closest one, the Miracle Paradise, was over ten kilometers away. If their sports car were still functional, that would be one thing. But trudging there on foot, merely hacking through the thorn-choked path would bleed their soul energy dry. Distance aside, they had fought the dire wolf-dragons and then the Heroic Spirit Legion here, followed by a rest just now. Even though they had been traveling by car earlier, lingering in one area for so long meant the White Ox had already run far ahead. If they did not want to be caught by frozen time, their only choices were to press forward quickly or log off right where they stood to exit the Void Realm. They simply had no time to seek out the Miracle Paradise. Compared to the resource points, however, the few glowing key markers on the map drew far more of the sorcerers' attention. Apart from their current location, the glowing points featured four Star Hall Main Cities, located at immense distances—by visual estimate, all deep within the Domain of Stillness. Though there was no further information, the name "Star Hall Main City" alone gave Yaxiu and the others a glimpse of the tip of the Time Continent's iceberg: these Heroic Spirit Legions were not part of an organic, naturally formed ecosystem, but rather agents backed by organized Void Realm factions! Who in this world could establish covert powers within the Void Realm, enslaving sorcerer projections and knowledge creatures for their own ends? "Is the Star Hall a faction created by a god?" Sonia asked in a low whisper, as if afraid of drawing the attention of some exalted entity. "Maybe, maybe not," Yaxiu said, shaking his head. "We have too little intel right now; guessing is meaningless. These main cities could also be ruins from an ancient era, where every sorcerer projection that enters gets converted into a Heroic Spirit, awakens sapience, and prepares to raise a Void Realm army to invade the real world—" "Isn't that just the fairy tale I told earlier!" Diya pointed out sharply, noticing Yaxiu was blatantly recycling her story. "In any case, if we want to uncover the secrets of the Heroic Spirit Legion, we'll have to take a look at what's actually inside these so-called main cities," Yaxiu said with a touch of regret. "Too bad we can't take this map with us..." "Watcher, don't you have a Void Realm Map?" Sonia raised both hands and clapped them together with a sharp smack. "Can't you use some miracle like Super Polymerization to fuse them together?" Sonia's words woke Yaxiu as if from a dream. He opened his Void Realm Map, and sure enough, a prompt popped up: "Map information updated." A red exclamation mark had appeared on the "Zoom" button to the right of the Void Realm Map. Yaxiu had used "Zoom" at the very beginning, but enlarging the map had left all other areas blank and unknown, so he had never touched it again, keeping the map at its minimal display. Now, clicking "Zoom" expanded the map to its maximum size. Before Yaxiu's eyes lay what looked like an eighth of a pizza—most of the map remained uncharted territory, but roughly one-eighth had all its terrain, resource points, and special regions fully surveyed. Even the four Star Hall Main Cities were plotted upon it. Looking at this grand map stirred an irresistible urge to scour and uncover every last dark, uncharted corner. Beyond that, Yaxiu noticed a tiny, conspicuous patch of surveyed area sitting inside the unknown expanse. Looking closely, he recognized the "Stone Mine" and "Flowing Gold River" landmarks, confirming that this was where they had explored the previous night. It turned out the Void Realm Map possessed the ability to automatically record and chart geography! And he had never known all this time! Although Yaxiu had no idea how useful this mapping function would actually be—given that they arrived in different places each time they entered the Void Realm, and had explored quite smoothly without maps in the past—he still felt an agonizing sense of missed opportunity. It was like confessing to a childhood sweetheart only to discover she had liked you three years ago, leaving you to kick yourself over why you had hesitated for three whole years. Granted, he would have discovered this truth the moment he opened the map anyway, but Yaxiu was still deeply grateful to Sonia for the reminder. "Sword Princess, I'm so touched right now I could kiss you." "Be my guest." Sonia held out her hand, gesturing for him to give a courtly hand-kiss. Yaxiu glanced at it. "You've been swinging a sword with that hand the whole time. Isn't it all sweaty...?" Sonia clenched her hand into a fist. "Stand still. I can kiss your mouth with my fist just as easily, French kiss included—as long as your mouth can fit my knuckles." "Why only kiss the Sword Princess? What about me?" Diya looked on in shock. "Watcher, are you implying I didn't do well enough?" "Speaking of which, if we're distributing rewards by merit, you two ought to be kissing me," Yaxiu said, folding his arms. "Still, using a kiss to reward the MVP after every battle would feel pretty weird... Even if I don't mind, you two definitely would. "Let's take this chance to establish some basic etiquette rules: our intimate interactions as a trio stop at hugs and holding hands. Things like kissing and caressing are far too intimate and strictly forbidden. Otherwise, the odd one out will feel terribly awkward." Yaxiu paused. "Though doing it in private is totally fine." Sonia: "What on earth are you thinking?" Diya: "I think I know what the Watcher is thinking... Not gonna happen! The White Queen won't, the Red Apostle won't, the Black Butler won't, and neither will I!" "The information from this map has already been recorded onto my Void Realm Map," Yaxiu continued, steering straight back to business as if he hadn't heard a word. "If we ever descend into this region in the future, we can explore the nearby resource points and special regions." If the commander manual had given them a sweet taste of fortune, this resource map had served up a lavish banquet. However, the resource map had glaring limitations; had Yaxiu not possessed the Void Realm Map to import external records, he wouldn't have been able to partake in this feast at all. The Void Realm wouldn't drop a map specifically tailored for Yaxiu, which left only one possibility: sorcerers skilled in a certain faction had a way to "absorb" such maps. A term surfaced in Yaxiu's mind almost instinctively: the prophecy faction. And Gospel Country happened to be a land where the prophecy faction ran rampant and reigned supreme. Could it be...? Yaxiu promptly snuffed out the urge to grind. Rather than cultivating the prophecy faction himself, he was much better off hoping to pull a prophecy operator—far more efficient, and far more comfortable for him. Yaxiu, oh Yaxiu, when problems arise, never think first about what you should do; think about how to delegate the work to the right person. How could you forget the fine art of passing the buck you learned in the corporate world just because you crossed over into an alternate realm? Yaxiu silently reflected on his lapse in discipline, then picked up the third spoil with a clear conscience. The third spoil was exceedingly strange. Though Yaxiu could tell by touch that it was a sorcery spirit, it looked nothing like one—it had no wings. In appearance, it was a triangular bipyramid hexahedron, resembling an ornament that might be worn as an earring. It was completely transparent, though one of its faces faintly shimmered with blue light. Yet the feedback resonating from within it opened the sorcerers' eyes to a whole new horizon: "Soul Summoning" "Zero-Wing Sorcery Spirit" "Restriction: Can only manifest in the Void Realm; can only be used in the Void Realm." "Effect 1 · Soul Summoning: You can absorb soldiers' residual soul power." "Effect 2 · Command: You can bestow troop classes upon yourself and your retainers. Bestowing troop classes consumes soul power. A sorcerer may bestow multiple units of the same troop class, but only the armor stacks." "The following are currently summonable troop classes:" "Star Hall · Star Swordsman: Swords deal +15% damage to souls. 3 layers of armor. Humanoid creature, equipped with longsword. Costs 1 point of soul power per unit." "Star Hall · Star Archer: Ranged attacks deal +20% damage to souls. Attacks include lock-on aiming, and ranged damage does not attenuate over distance. 2 layers of armor. Humanoid creature, equipped with bow and arrows. Costs 2 points of soul power per unit." "This sorcery spirit cannot evolve." "This sorcery spirit can absorb spirits of the same name to unlock different troop classes." "You may only possess one sorcery spirit of the same name." "'Congratulations on becoming a player in this never-ending game, though you don't even qualify to be a pawn.'"