This was not the first time Yaxiu and his companions had encountered other sorcerers in the Void Realm.
Although the odds of running into other sorcerers on the Time Continent were low, Yaxiu and the others drove fast, and his Void Realm Map allowed him to survey a twenty-four-square area around them. As a result, they had spotted yellow cursors representing other sorcerers on the map several times already.
Without exception, however, Yaxiu and his companions had always chosen to stay clear of strangers, never playing out any backstabbing dramas of fellow townsmen meeting only to put a bullet in each other's back.
First, other sorcerers held no value for communication.
This was easy to understand. Everyone was a Two-Winged Sorcerer, and they met purely by chance. Even if both sides felt safe confiding secrets under the assumption that they would never see each other again, what could sorcerers of different paths actually discuss? Exchange secret poisons and infect each other?
Second, other sorcerers held no value for murder.
Unless dealing with a specialized organization like the Blissful Tranquility Agency, which handled business like hunting targets from reality into the Void Realm, there was zero conflict of interest between sorcerers. After all, the Void Realm was vast; there was no zero-sum scenario where your feast meant my starvation. Sorcerers had explored and developed the Void Realm for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years. Far from being worn down by their cultivation, the realm had instead grown ever more lush and abundant under their nourishment.
More importantly, murdering a living sorcerer yielded no profit whatsoever.
In the Void Realm, a living sorcerer was worth only three things: their soul, their sorcery spirits, and their information.
You had no way of knowing which sorcerer you would meet, nor whether they possessed the information you needed. Thus, intelligence was never a motive for murder.
Sorcery spirits certainly had value worth seizing. If one found a way to thoroughly obliterate a sorcerer's soul in the Void Realm, one could indeed strip them of all their sorcery spirits. But there was a catch: with a single thought, a sorcerer could annihilate all of their own spirits.
Not just in the Void Realm, but even in reality, robberies to seize sorcery spirits were exceedingly rare—unless the spirits were stored inside containers like fluorescent orbs.
Even Shattered Lake Prison couldn't strip convicts of their sorcery spirits; at most, it could only seal their sorcery power.
On top of that, since you never knew who you would meet, how could you be sure they even possessed the sorcery spirits you needed?
If someone truly murdered another sorcerer in the Void Realm, the only plausible reason was coveting their soul. That was hardly unheard of; many rituals supposedly required souls as sacrifices. Even miracles along the lines of gaining experience points by killing other sorcerers and devouring their souls were perfectly normal tropes in the sorcerer world.
Yet Yaxiu and his companions possessed no such "Fourth Apocalypse" tier abilities. Naturally, they wouldn't murder other sorcerers for profit. At most, they might toy with running over a passing sorcerer just for kicks—letting some passerby experience the vast disparities of the world and the fickleness of fate while anonymously generating negative energy.
Tonight, however, they seemed poised to make an exception.
"This is the Desperate Colosseum."
As the sports car approached the "Worth a Visit" area from the other side, a majestic circular colosseum appeared before the trio. Sonia recognized the structure at a single glance, her tone carrying suppressed excitement. "My professor triggered this special structure before—it is every combat sorcerer's absolute favorite Void Realm landmark, bar none!"
Under the village girl's explanation, Yaxiu and Diya finally understood that the status of this structure in the hearts of Two-Winged Sorcerers was actually on par with a Vortex.
The Desperate Colosseum possessed three major traits: after every battle fought inside, a sorcerer's sorcery power was restored to full; sorcerers inside would only encounter enemies equal in number to themselves; and only after achieving a certain number of consecutive victories would sorcerers have the chance to leave.
With three consecutive wins, a sorcerer could obtain experience in their highest-realm faction, roughly equivalent to one Experience Orb.
With five consecutive wins, they would gain experience worth two Experience Orbs.
With ten consecutive wins, they would gain experience worth five Experience Orbs!
Even if a sorcerer couldn't win, they could surrender in time. The price, however, was having their vitality, energy, and spirit drained completely by the colosseum before being kicked out of the Void Realm—effectively cutting their Void Realm Exploration short for the night.
Although Two-Winged combat sorcerers could generally defeat knowledge creatures—unlike Silver Sorcerers, who could be killed just bumping into a single Fishcleaver Dragon—sorcerers like Yaxiu's crew, who spent every single day slaughtering monsters, setting fires, and raiding nests, were a tiny minority. Most sorcerers were lucky if they could kill one knowledge creature and reap a single sorcery spirit each day.
Even on the Time Continent, Experience Orbs remained a scarce resource.
The only way most sorcerers could advance their faction realms was by studying like mad while they were young. While there was always the off chance of growing sharper with age, reaching one's learning peak in youth was the norm for ordinary people. If one couldn't elevate a sorcery faction to Sanctuary rank before the age of fifty, there was practically no hope left in this lifetime.
Therefore, a beneficial landmark like the colosseum, which reliably provided vast amounts of faction experience with virtually no risk, naturally drew crowds like moths to a flame. In the "Top Ten Tourist Attractions of the Time Continent" that Sonia had read, the Desperate Colosseum ranked second!
Yet compared to the mechanics of the colosseum, Yaxiu and the others were paying attention to something else.
"Then why are two sorcerers in a free-for-all with a Heroic Spirit Commander and a thousand-feather bird-dragon?"
Sonia shook her head. "I don't think it's a free-for-all—it should be two sorcerers teaming up against the Heroic Spirit and its minion."
"Most of the time, the inside of the Desperate Colosseum is empty. But when a sorcerer arrives, the colosseum has to arrange an opponent for them, so it usually plucks a combatant from outside on the spot."
"By the way, because sorcerers aren't native creatures of the Void Realm, the colosseum can't forcibly snatch them. If a sorcerer steps in on their own, the colosseum will most likely pull a sorcerer projection from outside to duel them, followed by knowledge creatures as a secondary option."
"However, if another sorcerer enters the colosseum, it will immediately pit the two sorcerers against each other. It seems to treat duels between sorcerers as the highest priority."
Yaxiu suddenly asked, "If a sorcerer kills a knowledge creature or a sorcerer projection inside the colosseum, then..."
"They drop loot just the same," Sonia said. "That's another reason the colosseum is so coveted—sorcerers don't have to waste time trekking around looking for enemies; the colosseum grabs them and brings them right over."
Diya had a sudden realization and looked up at the colosseum shrouded behind the curtain of rain. "So the two sorcerers inside are using the colosseum's mechanics to trap and kill the Heroic Spirit Commander!"
The colosseum prioritized grabbing sorcerer projections, and a Heroic Spirit Commander was essentially a souped-up, heavily modified version of a sorcerer projection.
As long as one managed to lure the Heroic Spirit Legion close to the colosseum and then entered, the colosseum would very likely pull the commander inside to fight!
"Wait," Yaxiu noticed an issue. "Can you form teams in the colosseum? Why didn't the colosseum arrange an internal duel between those two sorcerers first?"
"Those two must know each other," Sonia could only guess. "They probably used some method to make the colosseum recognize them as belonging to the same faction, so the colosseum plucked the Heroic Spirit Commander and his minion for them."
"Why would they team up as two..." Before Diya could finish asking, the White Queen and the others spoiled the answer in her head.
Putting aside the combat synergy between two cooperating sorcerers, the most important factor was that the unknown sorcerers wouldn't have to fear having their battle interrupted by others!
As mentioned earlier, once a sorcerer entered the colosseum, it prioritized setting up a duel between sorcerers. With two sorcerers grouped together, only another two-sorcerer team could be forced by the colosseum to battle them!
Yet how could there possibly be so many sorcerer teams wandering the Void Realm?
"A brilliant plan," Yaxiu marvelled. "Using the colosseum's mechanics to isolate the Heroic Spirit Commander completely neutralizes the legion's numerical advantage. And thanks to the surrender mechanism, even defeat costs them nothing... I see. This is the proper way for sorcerers to take down a Heroic Spirit Commander. Before the Heroic Spirit Legion, sorcerers are the weak; but before the Void Realm, the Heroic Spirit Commander is weak too!"
Diya said, "Still, isn't that too much of a coincidence? Two sorcerers who know each other just happen to meet in the Void Realm, happen to run into a Heroic Spirit Legion, and happen to have a colosseum nearby..."
"Precisely because it requires so many coincidences, a sorcerer killing a Heroic Spirit Commander is considered an impossible miracle." Sonia was also full of admiration. "I wasn't certain before, but now I'm sure: in the past, sorcerers definitely used Void Realm landmarks to kill commanders. A sorcerer's greatest weapon isn't sorcery spirits, sorcery power, or miracles—it is 'sorcery,' the art of utilizing the truth of all things!"
Even though Yaxiu and his companions had defeated a Heroic Spirit Legion through raw strength—at least, the Void Realm hadn't aided them—they didn't look down on other sorcerers because of it.
On the contrary, seeing the commander on the verge of being trapped and killed by fellow sorcerers in the colosseum, genuine admiration welled up inside them.
Though they had never met, Yaxiu was lavish in his praise for the two strangers: strength, luck, strategy, decisiveness... They possessed every quality required of the strong. If they successfully slew the commander, in time, they would undoubtedly become Legendary Sorcerers.
Too bad.
They had run into the three of them.
"Sword Princess, is there any way to snatch the commander away?"
Sonia looked at Yaxiu, the corners of her mouth curving up slightly. She laughed and gave his shoulder a pat. "Of course there is!"
*What a scoundrelly pair in cahoots...* the Witch sisters silently lamented inwardly.
Normally, there was no reason for Yaxiu and his crew to attack other sorcerers, but this was no normal situation: the spoils of a commander were at stake!
Leaving aside the Commander's Handbook and the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit, Yaxiu had to butt in if only for the map in the commander's hands!
A standard commander kill would drop the commander's map. To ordinary sorcerers, such a map was practically useless, but Yaxiu's Void Realm Map could directly import other maps for navigation and positioning. As long as he defeated the commanders of every faction once and pieced together a complete map of the Time Continent, the continent would become his personal playground, allowing him to scour resource points and experience Void Realm landmarks to his heart's content.
Visiting Miracle Paradise each night to get free sorcery spirits, heading over to the colosseum for a warm-up, and finally dropping by the Legendary Library to read and cultivate his mind... It would be so delightful he might never want to move on to the Void Realm's third layer.
Moreover, Yaxiu hadn't forgotten the countdown on the Empress Heroic Spirit's pursuit.
If a Spider Tower map happened to drop, their chances of survival would double at least. If nothing else, as long as they could dash along smooth, level highways during the chase without getting bogged down in treacherous jungles or swamps, it would be enough to shake off the Heroic Spirit Legion!
For future resources and for their present crisis, Yaxiu mentally offered the two sorcerers an apology: *You guys did a fantastic job on this project. Please take a well-deserved rest—I'll handle the finishing touches for you!*
As for Sonia, she hadn't thought that far ahead. She simply enjoyed pillaging other people's spoils, and she loved doing mischievous deeds together with the Watcher. With two joyful things stacked together, excitement naturally bubbled up within her. "It's simple. There happen to be three of us. If two of us enter as a team first, the colosseum will set up a two-on-two duel among four sorcerers."
"At that point, the commander should get ejected from the colosseum. Then the third person steps inside right away, and the colosseum will prioritize dragging the commander in to duel the third person one-on-one!"
"Just like them, all we need to do is exploit the colosseum's mechanics, and we can easily reap the fruits of their labor." Sonia clasped her hands together in devout prayer. "Here's hoping they've already drained the commander's soul power."
Chapter 379