Whoosh—
The night wind howled in her ears. Her body felt completely free, untethered by any restraint, just like the freest of little birds. Looking down at Fanmula, which resembled a scattered pile of toy building blocks, Diya surprisingly felt no fear. Instead, a faint sense of joy welled up inside her.
When the Watcher and the others had shared the secret poison, what Diya envied most was not that they had formed a team back in the Sea of Knowledge, but that they had once flown together in an embrace to unravel the secret of the Golden Fish.
To Diya, flight was the greatest wish in her heart. Countless times, gazing out toward the distant sky from the window of the high tower, she had yearned to sprout a pair of wings.
After becoming a sorcerer, Diya's greatest expectation was to quickly condense the Golden Wings. Even if it was only in the Void Realm, even if she might face danger, Diya still wanted to know what flying felt like—just like this moment.
Yet the problem was that she did not have wings of her own to fly.
Last time, the Bronze Dragon had helped her.
This time, she was truly falling.
*When a princess falls from a high tower, will a knight catch her down below?...*
Diya suddenly remembered this fairy tale she had told her sisters countless times, and then she thought of the people she knew.
If Annan were falling, Banjie would surely catch her, wouldn't he?
If the Sword Princess were falling, the Watcher would surely spread his arms wide, wouldn't he?
Then when I fall, will someone...
"...Every single time, I'm the one who has to save you."
A helpless sigh came pursuing her through the howling wind, and the girl was held tightly in a pair of arms.
Diya tilted her head up. In the tumbling, inverted world of their descent, she saw her destiny falling alongside her.
"Why did you—" Her tender voice was instantly swallowed by the wind.
"At times like this, all you need to say is, 'Thank you, Brother Yaxiu.'" She felt Yaxiu's body trembling violently. "I'm actually a little afraid of heights..."
Diya could not understand. She shouted at the top of her lungs, "Yaxiu, why did you... You haven't condensed the Golden Wings either! From this height, we're both going to die... Why are you being so stupid!?"
"Wonderful. Now you're not even calling me 'Daddy.'" Yaxiu looked down at the rapidly clearing ground below. "Did you forget? I have a contract with you. I have to save you."
Diya froze slightly. Reversed tears welled up from her swollen, reddened eyes as she buried her head deeply in Yaxiu's chest. "I'm sorry... I'm really sorry..."
"No need to apologize either," Yaxiu said. "The instant I saw you falling, my body moved on its own. I kicked hard off the wall to catch up with you... I don't know if that was the compulsion of the contract or not, but I hope so.
"Besides, don't make it sound like I'm here to die with you."
Diya lifted her tear-streaked face and saw Yaxiu wink at her. "I was determined by the Weaving Ceremony to be a harbinger of doom who'll stir up winds and rain in the future. How could I possibly splatter alongside you into an inseparable pulp of parent-child meat paste?... Hmm, that analogy would probably make Igola scowl, but Harvey might love it."
As Yaxiu spoke, buildings whipped past them, and the ground came rushing up to smash right into their faces!
"Hold on tight to me."
Diya threw her arms tightly around Yaxiu's neck, pressing her little messy face against his chest. The roaring wind in her ears vanished, leaving only heartbeats that pulsed at the exact same rhythm.
"And turn into a miracle with me."
Yaxiu raised Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart high above him, plunging toward the ground like a falling meteor!
The instant the blade of Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart stabbed into the asphalt street of the first-level city, two warm yellow pillars of light erupted violently.
One beam rose from the asphalt pavement, enveloping Yaxiu and Diya. The other beam surged on the fifty-sixth floor of the Sennheiser Building, cloaking Igola, who had driven the Substitute Sword into the intact corridor floor!
Speaking of which, there was a notable difference between the architecture of the second-level cities in Fanmula and Azula, which was clearly evident from their floor numbering. Azula's second-level cities were constructed with inverted towers; the highest level was ground level, and everything below was counted in negative floors—Annan lived on floor minus fifty-one, and the lowest tip of an inverted tower never made contact with the first-level city.
Fanmula, however, was different. Between the first-level city and the second-level city stood hundred-story skyscrapers connecting top and bottom directly. Consequently, floor numbers were counted from the ground of the first level all the way up to the ground of the second level. For instance, the highest floor of the Sennheiser Building, the 112th floor, was also ground level for the second-level city.
All of this explanation served only to illustrate a single point:
The ground of the first-level city and the internal corridors of the Sennheiser Building formed a relationship that was continuous and differentiable.
Which meant...
Starting coordinate: Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart.
Target coordinate: Substitute Sword!
Guided by 'Heart Sword,' paved by 'Earth Sword,' transformed by 'Transference'!
Miracle: Rushing Toward.
Yaxiu and Diya transformed into a pale yellow streak, flying straight back from the ground below all the way into the corridor of the fifty-sixth floor.
Igola blinked, and there Yaxiu stood before him, holding his daughter.
The Swindler let out a soft, long breath and pressed a hand covered in blood and grime against his forehead. Yaxiu had braced himself to be mocked or scolded, yet Igola merely leaned against the wall and slowly slumped to the floor, looking thoroughly drained and haggard.
"It actually worked."
Yaxiu made small talk to break the silence. "I'd heard before that as long as the conditions are met, a sorcerer's miracle can disregard all physical laws of reality. But I used to think miracles were only at the level of outlaw vigilantes. Looking at it now, miracles aren't mere outlaws—they're absolute warlords and tyrants. They don't just ignore reality's rules; they trample all over them."
Yaxiu had always treated Rushing Toward as a short-range teleportation miracle. It was precisely because of this teleportation trait that, the instant he leapt out, he had tossed the Substitute Sword to Igola.
Fortunately, Igola also understood the mechanics of this miracle and caught on immediately, helping him plunge the Substitute Sword into a safe patch of ground.
In theory, as long as an unbroken path along the terrain existed between Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart and the Substitute Sword, Earth Sword could establish a teleportation route, transferring Yaxiu—who was holding Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart—straight to the Substitute Sword's coordinates. But this time, Yaxiu had been plummeting from a height of several hundred meters. Had the miracle's activation been delayed by even a tenth of a second, the two of them would have been flattened into two-dimensional shapes.
Yet so-called miracles existed precisely to overturn destiny.
Inertia, kinetic energy, the laws of physics—all those tedious concepts bowed submissively to the sorcerer's will the moment the miracle took effect.
Yaxiu reflected on it and could not help giving himself a mental thumbs-up. This cast of the 'Rushing Toward' miracle could easily be hailed as the finest miracle he had performed in his life—unequaled, at least for now.
Yet no one chimed in to agree with him, bringing his self-praise to an awkward halt. Igola sat on the floor, seemingly still recovering his breath, while 'Lisi' remained clinging to Yaxiu like an octopus.
"You guys really went over the top this time. Qinna is definitely going to blow a fuse."
They looked over and saw a hovercar gliding up outside the shattered corridor. Annan, Banjie, and Harvey were all inside.
The young miss waved at them. "Hurry up and get in! I don't have the money to compensate for several destroyed floors!"
Chapter 356