Why Is the Sword Princess Angry?

"Watcher, why don't you just apologize?" During the battle at a large mercury resource point, seizing a brief lull in the fight against an overlord fox lantern dragon, Diya fell back beside Yaxiu and muttered in an undertone. "Even if I'm willing to apologize, I still have to know what I did wrong first," Yaxiu said helplessly. "But if you didn't do anything wrong, why would she be this angry?" With a mournful wail, the fox lantern dragon burst into three sorcery spirits and an Experience Orb. One of the spirits was a Two-Winged 'Transference' spirit, which happened to replace Yaxiu's One-Winged 'Transference,' while the Two-Winged 'Moon Silk' spirit and the Light Sorcery Orb were both well suited for feeding the Sword Princess. When Yaxiu passed the spirit and orb over, Sonia snatched them from his hand in an instant, as if unwilling to share even a fraction of a second of physical contact with him. Watching from the side, Diya shook her head repeatedly, wearing an amused 'see, what did I tell you?' expression while covering her mouth to gloat. Only when the Sword Princess glanced her way did she turn around to loot resources. Yaxiu wore an equally helpless look—he had no clue what was going on either! The Sword Princess was acting completely bizarre tonight. Her attitude toward him was abysmal, worse even than when they had first met. Yet Yaxiu couldn't recall doing anything to offend her. He hadn't even managed to scold her the night before last, and they hadn't logged on at all last night. How had the Sword Princess suddenly turned into some sort of 'Supreme Tyrant Sword Princess' tonight? Yaxiu pondered it carefully. He hadn't drawn any cards or arranged any special events for her recently, so it certainly wasn't his fault. That meant she must have run into trouble in her own life's storyline. Could the film she acted in have flopped, with critics tearing her role to shreds? Or had she lost a tournament match, giving the Anti-Sword Princess Alliance an opening to mock her mercilessly? Or maybe she got stabbed in the back by a classmate, and a traitor appeared in the Paw Stretching Club? It could also be the effect of her period... With far too many possibilities, Yaxiu couldn't guess at all. After some thought, under Diya's awed gaze, he walked up to Sonia. "Sword Princess, there's something I need to say to you." "Speak." Sonia kept her head down, rummaging through mercury materials. "While I don't know why you're in a bad mood, taking it out on innocent bystanders isn't very nice." Sonia looked up at him. "Does 'taking it out on innocent bystanders' mean venting your grievances on unrelated people?" "That's right." "Then I'm not taking it out on an innocent bystander." Diya tried with all her might to stifle her laughter, while Yaxiu sullenly went off to collect the mercury essence. They were currently in the Star Hall's turn, and since Yaxiu had previously obtained the Star Hall map from Demilo, they were essentially exploring the Time Continent with the full map revealed. Normally, a commander map couldn't be preserved and could only be used on the night the commander was slain. Fortunately, the 'Void Realm Map' possessed a memory function, turning a single-use item into an unlimited one and finally allowing Yaxiu and his companions to enjoy a planned sightseeing tour. Yaxiu didn't blindly choose locations in the Void Realm with special mechanics. After all, those sites were widely dispersed and offered wildly uneven rewards. For instance, at the cabin of lost memories, even without the incident involving the Empress's Heroic Spirit, their haul would have been meager. At the Legendary Library, Yaxiu had profited, but the Witch hadn't picked up a single scrap—though that was mostly because she had been too greedy. By comparison, gathering resources to upgrade the Alchemical Throne was of paramount importance. Condensing sorcery power was an enhancement guaranteed to pay off, not to mention that looting resource points also dropped sorcery spirits and Experience Orbs. Thus, Yaxiu mapped out a route passing through numerous rare resource points, which, barring any accidents, would raise the Alchemical Throne by several levels tonight. Just as Yaxiu and the others finished looting their fifth resource point without pause, Yaxiu noticed a Heroic Spirit Legion approaching on the map. This was the Star Hall's turn, so the legion supposed to be marching was the Spider Tower's. There was no way the Empress commander's legion could chase them here. Yaxiu paid it no mind, simply driving the car around them toward the next resource point. Yet the moment they finished gathering and stepped out, they found the Heroic Spirit Legion practically right on their doorstep! Several thousand-feather bird-dragons bombarded the sports car's 'Refraction Curtain Wall' from a distance. Yaxiu hastily stepped on the gas and slipped away. This Heroic Spirit Legion didn't seem to have many troops and made no attempt to close in for melee combat, so their escape proved relatively easy. Even so, this was already a massive red flag—how could the Star Hall's Heroic Spirit Legion pinpoint their location and hunt them down with such precision? "Our sweetheart really loves us to death, doesn't she..." Yaxiu ground his teeth. "She actually leaked our coordinates to every faction!?" That was the only possible explanation. Seeing that she couldn't kill Yaxiu and his team herself, the Empress had directly publicized their tracking method to all factions, perhaps even revealing that they possessed the 'Secret Incarnation' to entice the other powers into hunting Yaxiu down! As for why the Empress was willing to do this at the risk of losing the 'Secret Incarnation,' the reason was simple: she knew she could no longer catch them! The Empress likely had no idea that they had barely escaped with their lives while crossing the Flowing Gold River. But simply possessing the ability to cross it made Yaxiu and his companions practically invincible; no matter how formidable a Heroic Spirit Legion was, they could only stare helplessly at the river and sigh. If she couldn't have it, nobody else would either! Releasing the intelligence for all factions to eradicate Yaxiu and his team carried the worst-case scenario of the 'Secret Incarnation' being destroyed. The best-case scenario was that Yaxiu and the others would exhaust their soul power across other territories, leaving them unable to cross the Flowing Gold River when they reached the Spider Tower's domain, where the Empress's Heroic Spirit could easily seize them. If she withheld the intelligence, the Empress's legion would certainly never catch Yaxiu, who could simply cross the river. Weighing the two, even an idiot would know what to choose, let alone a woman as venomous to the core as the Empress! Furthermore, while the destruction of a conceptual incarnation caused all related sorcery spirits to shatter, given enough time, the incarnation could reform. Therefore, losing the 'Secret Incarnation' was a painful blow, but a recoverable one. On the other hand, if Yaxiu and his team permanently brought the 'Secret Incarnation' to the third layer of the Void Realm, it would be an irrecoverable, devastating loss! Even from far away in the Domain of Stillness, the Empress could still drive them to exhaustion! In truth, there was an easy way to counter this move: Yaxiu and the others could simply refrain from entering the Void Realm until the Spider Tower's turn. But doing so would drastically slow their growth, leaving it uncertain how long it would take to ascend to the third layer of the Void Realm, and thereby granting the Empress's Heroic Spirit far more opportunities to lay ambushes and slaughter them! Every move linked into the next, each step surpassing the last! When Yaxiu shared his deduction, the operators gasped. Diya asked, "Then what should we do?" "Race against time to develop!" Yaxiu said. "The sports car is faster than the Heroic Spirit Legion. We'll loot the resources and run before they can track us down! As long as we have a detailed map, we can carve out the time and space to grow, even if they try to encircle us!" Though they knew the Watcher's plan was thoroughly sound, Sonia and Diya still felt a sense of unreality. Ordinary Two-Winged Sorcerers treaded carefully across the Time Continent, counting an encounter with a single Ragecleaver Dragon as the day's great trial. Yet here they were, aiming to develop and grow under the encirclement and extermination efforts of the Time Continent's most ferocious entities—the Heroic Spirit Legions? Was this truly the kind of pressure a Two-Winged Sorcerer was supposed to bear? Even so, neither Sonia nor Diya showed the slightest hint of fear. After brushing past death multiple times and defeating a Heroic Spirit Legion with their own hands, they no longer felt terror toward the legions. Hearing that the legions were coming after them only stirred up a defiant fire in their chests! "We're here." Yaxiu suddenly pulled up outside a garden enclosed by wooden railings. White mist curled within, accompanied by vibrant, shifting light and faint strains of singing. Sonia blinked in surprise. "Mist Miracle Garden?" "Get down there and snatch the spirits!" The moment Yaxiu gave the word, all three sorcerers dashed inside using various movement miracles to seize sorcery spirits. The Mist Miracle Garden was a type of Miracle Paradise where sorcery spirits hid within patches of dense fog, and sorcerers could only fish for them by luck. Once sorcerers entered the paradise, the mist dissipated rapidly, and the spirits vanished along with it; it would take a full cycle before the mist spirits gathered once more. "Hey!" Yaxiu lunged this way and that without catching a single spirit. He felt like a profligate young lord chasing after a beauty—and an out-of-shape shut-in at that, while the beauty easily sidestepped his desperate dives. Could it be my turn to walk away empty-handed this time? Yaxiu drew a deep breath. The spirits here loved to sing, so he should track them by sound. Sound, sound, sound... Over there! Yaxiu pounced with pinpoint accuracy toward the source of the noise. With a loud smack, he collided with someone and rolled across the grass. Looking up, he found the notoriously foul-tempered Sword Princess straddling him. He instantly sucked in a sharp breath. "Sorry, that was an accident—" "Shh." Sonia leaned over him, covering his mouth. "The Witch isn't nearby, is she?" "(⊙_⊙)?" "Hehe," the village girl giggled. "Well? Was my act convincing today?" "What?" The cult leader froze. "Your bad temper today—" "All an act!" Sonia blinked at Yaxiu. "This way, the Witch is bound to think our relationship isn't that close, right?" Why did you do that... Yaxiu knew the answer before he even had to ask. Just as he had noticed the rift in their team, the Sword Princess had naturally spotted it as well. Before Yaxiu could figure out a solution, she had provided her own: since the Witch felt the two of them were too close and couldn't trust them, wouldn't everything be solved if their relationship appeared to sour? Simple and crude though the method was, the Witch happened to be an inexperienced, naive girl, so the deception had worked like a charm. "Phew." Yaxiu let out a sigh of relief. "And here I thought—" "Thought I suddenly started hating you?" Sonia looked at Yaxiu with wide eyes, starlight gleaming in her curved gaze as the corners of her lips curled up like a fox that had successfully stolen a treat. "Yeah. I thought I'd offended you somehow." "Oh, you've offended me plenty." At that moment, Sonia seemed to finally realize how awkward their posture was. Blushing furiously, she scrambled off him and sat to the side. Yaxiu also sat up, musing, "So should we keep communicating like this from now on?" "What do you think?" "I think it's pretty good. It takes the pressure off me too—" "Then tomorrow I'll tell the Witch that I've forgiven you and everything's back to normal. We've achieved the desired effect anyway." Yaxiu shot her a look, and Sonia tilted her head. "You're not... mad at me, are you?" "Why would I be mad at you?" "If it were me, I'd definitely be angry..." Sonia looked down, tapping her index fingers together. "Actually, I was having trouble keeping up the act just now. I wanted to find a chance to explain things to you all along the way, but the Witch was always right next to us." Yaxiu crossed his arms, looking terribly conflicted. "Going back to normal is fine, but if you're going to ambush me like you just did, it's better to wait until the Witch isn't around—" "As if I'd ever do that!"