"Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink: Whenever a powerful soul dissipates, a wisp of blazing soul escapes. Consuming a blazing soul greatly heals the soul; a gold-tier soul will rapidly mend within seven days, and sorcery power absorption rate in the Void Realm increases by 10% for seven days."
What kind of person and what kind of place could collect a bottle of Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink so casually?
"Fervor Potion: The user will become more honest and enthusiastic, proactively expressing their feelings with a strong desire to advance intimacy, while their sense of shame is substantially reduced. Operator bond gain rate +100%, lasting for one day."
Taking the nine bottles of Pure Spiritual Light Special Drink he had drawn plus the one stored in his warehouse, Yaxiu paired them up and refined them all using the Alchemist's Refining Flask. He succeeded four times, obtaining three bottles of the higher-tier Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink and one mutated Fervor Potion.
Without a doubt, Yaxiu had accomplished his basic objective. With these three bottles of Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink, he, the Sword Princess, and the Witch would all be able to completely heal their soul injuries before the next Spider Tower turn.
As for the Fervor Potion... While the effect looked promising, it felt like a recipe for a massive incident. If Yaxiu gave the Fervor Potion to the Witch and sent her intimacy with him skyrocketing—leading to all sorts of clinging, kissing, and hugging—just imagining it felt amazing.
Yet the Sword Princess would be watching right beside them.
Just getting the Sword Princess to accept the Witch into the team had exhausted every scrap of Yaxiu's accumulated office politics experience. Now, if the Sword Princess saw the Witch seemingly trying to pursue the "secretary-to-wife" route to success, it would be a miracle if that petty, jealous red-haired girl didn't throw a fit.
In that case, should he give the Fervor Potion to the Sword Princess?
That would turn into a gamble. If Yaxiu's bond with the Sword Princess advanced to a new level during that single day, Yaxiu won the bet. But if Yaxiu failed to make a breakthrough with her during that day, the Sword Princess would surely fly into an enraged embarrassment once she came to her senses. While it wouldn't kill him, he shouldn't expect life to look pretty either...
Beyond considering the Sword Princess's feelings, Yaxiu also had to consider the Witch's perspective.
After all, the interactions in the Amnesia Cabin might already have given the Witch the wrong idea. If she saw them suddenly getting all clingy, she would probably wonder whether she belonged inside the car or tied underneath it...
And... the Witch might not have misunderstood at all.
At the thought, Yaxiu couldn't help letting out a sigh.
He had been a working drone in the corporate grind and understood that certain office taboos existed for good reason. Colleagues could become close friends, but at most, only close friends.
Once that line was crossed, it didn't just cause negative fallout for others; it was bad for oneself as well. You went to work to rake in money and satisfy your material life, not to indulge your emotional needs. A team was a team, and a family was a family. The former required clear rewards and penalties, fairness, and impartiality, revolving around mutual interests; the latter revolved around mutual tolerance, adjustment, and sentiment.
The two could never be conflated.
Although Yaxiu had never worked in small startups, he had heard enough from classmates: small companies that failed to separate team from family basically fulfilled their historical purpose once they had donated enough rent to the landlord.
Even though it was only a three-person squad, Yaxiu possessed the awareness of a leader. He knew a three-person squad wouldn't be the end. And even if there really were only three of them going forward, he still had to figure out how to manage the relationships among them. The startup sob story of "two out of three people becoming closer, driving the third person away in estrangement" was as common a corporate affliction as premature balding.
Whether by reason or emotion, Yaxiu had to balance the seesaw of their relationships, so this Fervor Potion absolutely could not be used on the Sword Princess.
As for picking a day to kick out either the Witch or the Sword Princess and giving the Fervor Potion to the other, that was even more forbidden. Putting yourself in their shoes, if you returned from a break only to find your boss and coworker acting like thick-as-thieves co-conspirators, you would definitely feel excluded and doubt the company's distribution system.
Therefore, this bottle of Fervor Potion had to be set aside for now.
However, Yaxiu had no intention of discarding it.
After all, being intimate with only one person would provoke doubts in the other. In that case... what if he took a giant leap forward with both of them simultaneously?
If he managed to pull another bottle of Fervor Potion later and gave both bottles to the Witch and the Sword Princess together, maybe they would have a chance to achieve life's grand harmony and elevate everyone's bonds to a brand-new stage!
While there might be a tiny bit of unspeakable selfishness involved, Yaxiu felt his reasoning remained quite wholesome. It was for the team's brighter future, after all—apart from that tiny bit of selfishness.
All in all... right now, Yaxiu had to face the unknown Weaving Ceremony in reality and flee the Spider Tower's pursuit in the Void Realm. Their team's interpersonal dynamics could not afford violent turbulence.
This truly was a critical juncture of life and death!
As the saying went, when one was warm and well-fed, thoughts turned to worldly desires. He had to at least guarantee material safety before contemplating higher emotional pursuits.
Still, the moment he recalled what had transpired in the Amnesia Cabin, Yaxiu couldn't help bursting into laughter.
O(∩_∩)O Haha! He definitely had to repeat the Sword Princess's passive-aggressive green-tea remarks during an encounter that wasn't too dangerous. It would be a crime to let such golden ammunition go to waste!
The card draws had achieved the basic goal of "warmth and food." Next came the thrilling stage of "worldly desires." Since his heart's will had allowed Yaxiu to pull Pure Spiritual Light Special Drinks, it could surely allow him to pull a golden legendary!
He wanted a new operator!
He wanted more useful Void Realm items!
He wanted wondrous relics that would grant faction experience even when operators were resting!
However, feeling his emotions weren't quite intense enough, Yaxiu calmed himself and checked what he desired in this period's limited banner...
"Bridal Sword Princess."
It was surging up! Something was welling up inside!
Yaxiu thought, *Now's the time! Amplify my heart's will!*
"The faithful Gospel is about to amplify your heart's will. Countdown: 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second... You have entered the amplified heart's will state, remaining duration: 10 seconds!"
Draw!
A golden flash—"Black and White Witch's Magic Mirror Shard"!
A white flash—energy potion!
A white flash—experience potion!
Everything after that was white flashes!
"Black and White Witch's Magic Mirror Shard: No one knows how many magic mirror shards the Black and White Witch has lost, but anyone who picks up a mirror shard will swiftly die an unnatural death until the shard returns to its original owner's hands. It is said that the Black and White Witch shattered the magic mirror of her own accord because she wished to escape the reflection of herself. Unlocks extended bond functions upon use."
Yaxiu fell into deep thought.
Did this count as a success or a failure?
It could be considered a success, yet it succeeded only once, pulling an enhancement item for the Black and White Witch. But calling it a failure wasn't entirely accurate either.
Still, Yaxiu had previously gone ten draws without a gold card. By logic, the odds of pulling one were reasonably high, so this might just have been a normal hit, unrelated to his amplified heart's will.
Naturally, there was another possibility: Yaxiu had never actually seen the Sword Princess in bridal attire. Merely imagining it without an image had its limits, so his heart's will hadn't been strong enough to genuinely interfere with the draw mechanics.
Even so, an enhancement item for the Witch was obviously far more practical than a bridal skin for the Sword Princess, so it wasn't a loss... Yaxiu could only console himself with that thought.
Although he still had Gospel points and game points remaining, Yaxiu decided to stop here. After all, he only had 190 Gospel points left and needed to save them for emergencies.
In the Gospel Country, points capable of procuring any piece of intelligence were an unparalleled strategic resource, exceeding even a sorcerer's own strength in importance.
Using the "Black and White Witch's Magic Mirror Shard," the Black and White Witch's profile updated.
"Black and White Witch"
"Human · Female · 19 years old"
"Bond Level: 1 (35% experience sharing)"
"Bond Resonance: Toying with Hearts: Even without relevant mind sorcery spirits, you and the Witch possess the supernatural ability to influence hearts."
"Profession: Clan-Exterminating Follower"
"Profession Trait: Damage dealt to swarms of knowledge creatures increased by 5%."
"Silver Blessing: Witch's Taboo: Secrecy grants you power, and concealment is your weapon. The fewer people who know your true inner self in reality, the stronger you become in the Void Realm. Currently, the Black and White Witch's concealment rate is 85% (Scarcely Known), granting an 85% sorcery power recovery speed bonus. (Observations by the Watcher are not included.)"
"Items Held: Training Gloves"
"Mastered Sorcery Spirits: Mask, Water Therapy, Claws, Torrent..."
"Mind Faction: Silver rank"
"Fist and Claw Faction: Gold rank"
"Time Faction: Silver rank"
"Water Sorcery Faction: Silver rank"
"Knowledge Secret Poison: Bronze Dragon Secret Poison"
The Witch's concealment rate had dropped. It had previously been 93%, but now fell to 85%. Because the Witch's Taboo only counted people in reality who knew her truth, neither he nor the Sword Princess counted. Thus, someone in reality had definitely figured something out about her... How careless of her!
As for this Bond Resonance... Setting aside how the system had previously declared that he and the Sword Princess shared an "Insatiable Greed" resonance, why did it now claim that he and the Witch shared a resonance called "Toying with Hearts"?
When had he ever toyed with anyone's heart?!
Still, this was probably an innate setting imposed on the player, so Yaxiu didn't dwell on it.
He fed the Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink to the Witch, then scrolled over to the Sword Princess's operator interface. At first glance, he noticed an abnormality—
"Knowledge Secret Poison: Golden Fish Secret Poison, Vortex Secret Poison, Expulsion Secret Poison, Bronze Dragon Secret Poison, Concept Secret Poison"
How did the Sword Princess gain an extra secret poison?
Was she secretly growing stronger behind his back?
However, this secret poison could be clicked directly to inspect, which meant... he already possessed the knowledge and insight required to acquire it?
"Concept Secret Poison"
"Secret Poison Details: In the Void Realm, certain ethereal overarching concepts gain physical form for special reasons, manifesting as Concept Incarnations. When you possess a Concept Incarnation, you gain highest-priority buff effects. When a Concept Incarnation is eliminated, it signifies that the Void Realm has temporarily lost that concept; all sorcery spirits related to that concept will be directly destroyed and unable to form until the Void Realm generates that concept once more."
"Infected Count: 79"
"Secret Poison Intensity: 79%"
"Current Effect: You occasionally catch sight of traces left behind by all miracles (reduces to 50% intensity to gain a buff; reaches 100% intensity to turn into a major debuff)."
Yaxiu failed to process it for a moment. Shouldn't being able to see traces of miracles be considered a buff?
Yet the moment Yaxiu raised his head, the entire world transformed.
The desk lamp, the walls, the ceiling, the carpet, the quilt... everything in his room abruptly shifted into post-modern art constructed from spider silk.
Guided by a gut feeling, he subconsciously turned to glance out the window at Fanmula.
At this moment, the prosperous cityscape had quietly vanished, replaced by a spider's nest bound in countless layers of cobwebs. A titanic web stretched across the sky all the way to the far horizon—boundless, suffocating, and impenetrable.
Walking along the mist-shrouded streets were spiders, every single creature linked together by dozens of silk threads. They didn't seem to be moving of their own accord; rather, they appeared to be hauled forward by the silk, wandering among the nests like marionettes.
Terrified, Yaxiu leapt to his feet, only to find his hands sticky. Looking down, he realized his body was coated in innumerable strands of spider silk, and the bed where he had just sat had turned into a cocoon storing prey. He was now like an insect trapped upon a spiderweb, his skin thoroughly covered in thick, viscous white fluid. Silk threads seemed to be wriggling into his mouth and eyes, attempting to seal his lips, blind his sight, and seize his heart—
The next second, the world snapped back to normal.
The room was still a room, the city was still a city, and the white sheets lay neatly spread across the bed.
Yaxiu touched his face; it was smooth and tender, without any slime.
This was the second secret poison he had acquired that brought negative effects.
The other was the Vortex Secret Poison, which made him averse to water. However, Yaxiu had largely overcome its influence. As long as he avoided looking straight at water itself and mentally convinced himself during baths that he was soaking in cola rather than water, it generally wouldn't trigger—a handy life hack taught to him by the Sword Princess.
Compared to the Vortex Secret Poison, the impact of the Concept Secret Poison was likely far greater.
Because for weaklings like them, ignorance truly was their protective coloration.
Yaxiu was well aware that the Gospel was omnipresent like air, but experiencing its horror rendered in such a manner would drive anyone into hysterical terror and despair sooner or later.
After all, if you hated water, you could still drink cola or milk. But if even the air, the earth, and food filled you with dread, where could you run?
"...This is probably the first time since coming to the Gospel Country that I've started missing the Blood Moon Country."
Chapter 325