The Witch's Golden Fish

June 10th, mid-tier Nabistin, Berdette Happy World. "Whoa, look, Xiu! Azura really does look like a blooming flower from above!" "Huh? This clock tower in the mist in Fanmula—this carving, this structure, this exterior... it's definitely the work of a necromancer! It might have even been personally overseen by that legendary six-crest necromancer of the past!" "The fact that I actually expected any aesthetic taste from you, Harvey, is entirely my own fault." "Has Hemera become so beautiful? The last time I visited was thirty years ago..." "Eldest Miss, don't hold on to me so tightly! Are you afraid of heights?" "M-Me? How could I possibly be afraid of heights? Besides, this is just an illusion created by an illusionist, there's no way I could... Ah! Don't shove me out! You bastard!" When *Soaring Over Gospel* ended, Annan was so furious that she pummeled Yaxiu's shoulder. "How dare you scare me just now?!" Yaxiu couldn't help laughing. "Didn't you used to live in an inverted skyscraper hundreds of meters off the ground? You drive hovercars straight through the air all the time, so how can you be afraid of heights?" Fuming, Annan unleashed a barrage of punches against Yaxiu's arm. "That's completely different! Back then, I always knew I was safe! But this illusion got rid of the cable car entirely—we were flying directly over the city! And I've never specifically trained in flying with void wings, so of course I'd feel a little uneasy!" "Xiao Xiu!" At that moment, "Lisi" came over and tugged Yaxiu's hand. "Let's hurry to the next attraction! It's almost our turn!" "All right, all right, all right..." Although they wore cloaks to conceal their identities, the Funeral Agency group blended in naturally with their surroundings. The other tourists were dressed in equally varied and bizarre styles; the "Peerless Carp-Slaying Overlord" and "Red Hat Bunny Girl" who had just brushed past them were far more eye-catching. They even spotted someone dressed up as "Yaxiu Heath." At this point, even if Yaxiu walked around without a disguise, no one would believe he was the real deal. Finding the mermaid had happened the night before last. Yesterday, because Helaifeisi had desiccated and drowned in the middle of the plaza, they had been forced to switch hotels. Then Annan had suddenly shown immense benevolence, declaring that before assassinating the princess, they should unwind with a team-building outing: visiting Berdette Happy World in the mid-tier of Nabistin together. Yes, the underground city of Nabistin had entertainment venues too—far more than ordinary cities, in fact. After all, the lower and middle tiers used to be the imperial capital, and this Happy World stood on the former site of the old imperial palace. Furthermore, many in the underground city's floating population were "Nabistin drifters." Their emotional cravings were ravenous, and they urgently needed entertainment of all kinds to fill their empty souls. Incidentally, the city with the fewest entertainment facilities was Fanmula. Because the physical desires of the six-crest clans were satisfied by the white mist and their spiritual needs were satisfied by the family dreamscape, Fanmula had always produced far more than it consumed—one could even say it dumped goods onto other regions single-handedly. There was good reason Qinna was so wealthy. Some might wonder why the underground city was so peaceful. After all, "underground city" sounded like a place reeking of lawlessness and gunpowder smoke; even Yaxiu had assumed before arriving that it was an utterly chaotic slum where fresh flesh was fed to Lalafells every day. While there were no Red Hats in the underground city, the presence and oversight of various conglomerate clans had long since established a certain order. And because it wasn't constrained by legal regulations, it was actually more prosperous than many cities on the surface. The biggest difference between the underground city and surface cities was that combat sorcerers were the highest-earning, top-tier profession here—because underground conflicts of interest were settled directly through Sorcery Bloodbaths. The Nabistin lower-tier decision-making council mentioned by the mermaid was an organization responsible for hosting these Sorcery Bloodbaths. As the only bloody tournament in all of Gospel with no rules of engagement, most combat sorcerers came to participate in Sorcery Bloodbaths to gain battle experience. One could even say that every person currently on the combat factions' ranking boards had once been an "underground Nabistin drifter" in their youth. Annan was so familiar with the underground city precisely because she had fought three months of bloodbaths here in the past. However, the stories of the underground city had nothing to do with Yaxiu and his companions. They were merely here to stroll through an amusement park before heading to the surface city to assassinate the princess. Clearly, this team-building proposal was entirely meant to cater to Lisi. But among Lisi's sisters, apart from the Little Witch whose psychological age was relatively young, the elder sisters had psychological ages far beyond childhood—the oldest, White Queen, was nearly twenty-five. Therefore, when it came to Happy World... ...they were completely unable to refuse! "Lisi" eagerly pulled Yaxiu outside *Void Realm Thrills*. The staff had just opened the entrance. Having reserved this time slot in advance through their Books of Gospel, they could walk straight in and board the exploration boat—and right in the front row, no less! "This attraction is extremely thrilling. Children must be closely accompanied by a guardian, so Xiao Xiu, you have to hold my hand tight. This attraction may cause splashing, so please prepare waterproof measures in advance—it's okay, we're wearing cloaks. This attraction..." Yaxiu looked at the chattering "Lisi" and took her small hand as told. Did Lisi really love amusement parks this much? Enough to completely shift her personality? If nothing else, her way of addressing him had changed several times. When they first entered the amusement park, it was "Daddy," then "Ah-Xiu," just now it was "Xiu," and now it was "Xiao Xiu"... Yaxiu felt he'd need to discuss things with Annan later: if Lisi ever called him "Xiu-boy," Annan would have to spank her bottom black and blue. And names aside, more importantly, Lisi's attitude toward him kept fluctuating. Sometimes she acted like a little girl, sometimes like a young maiden, and now she was behaving so maturely it was as though she were Yaxiu's guardian instead. A little girl's moods really were as fickle as the weather... The exploration boat suddenly started up. After passing through a short tunnel, it entered a Sea of Knowledge watercourse heavy with white mist. Just as Yaxiu was trying to locate the boundaries, over a dozen ferocious Fishcleaver Dragons suddenly lunged out from the mist. By reflex, he shoved his fingers into his mouth, almost wanting to draw Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart. However, the pack of Fishcleaver Dragons merely leaped over their exploration boat, kicking up countless sprays of water. Before the passengers could turn to look, a small island abruptly appeared ahead. The foxlantern dragons on the island summoned foxfire lantern flames for long-range attacks. As the flames chased them down, the exploration boat's speed surged. Yaxiu and the others instinctively tensed, as if genuinely terrified that the foxlantern dragons' flames would burn the boat down. Sorcerer projections, mudfish dragons, arrowfish dragons, and other sights common to the Sea of Knowledge made appearances one after another. There were even classic wonders Yaxiu had never seen before, like the Great Road, the Sea Waterfall, and the Sky Bubble. Even though they were already two-wing sorcerers who had left the Sea of Knowledge behind, their eyes were still opened wide—much like players who had reached the main city looking back to find that the starter village had held so many unexplored secret Easter eggs. As they fled along the voyage, pursued by countless creatures of knowledge, it seemed they were about to be caught when the exploration boat suddenly capsized and plummeted into the sea. The sudden drop gave everyone a fright, and "Lisi" gripped Yaxiu with both hands. Only then did they realize this was a recreation of a Vortex. The boat soon broke free of the Vortex tunnel and returned to the ocean surface. Just as the tourists thought the ride was ending, a single Silver Wing extended from each of their seats, and the surrounding scenery began to plummet rapidly, making it look as though they were flapping void wings and ascending at high speed! "Flying upward can take you to the Time Continent?" Igola chuckled from behind. "The designer of this attraction certainly has quite the imagination." "Even if a Silver Sorcerer had a flight sorcery spirit, they couldn't fly for this long," Harvey remarked. "Not unless they had a pair of void wings." "How could a Silver Sorcerer possibly have a pair of void wings?" Banjie said. "If you had a pair of void wings, you wouldn't be a Silver Sorcerer anymore." "If two sorcerers whose Silver Wings were fully formed met in the Void Realm, perhaps they could meet that condition," Annan said. "Two sorcerers holding hands and flapping their void wings together to take flight... sounds like something straight out of a fairy tale." While the other passengers commented on the imaginative novelty of the sequence, the pair sitting in the very front row—one big, one small—felt stormy waves churning in their hearts! Yaxiu had never imagined in his wildest dreams that someone would leak the secret poison of the Golden Fish in broad daylight, even brazenly designing it into an amusement park ride as if desperate for people to notice! Yet the world was funny that way. Even someone at the peak of two-wing sorcerers like Annan or Igola, and even though the Sea of Knowledge's mechanisms, creatures, and environment here were identical to the real Void Realm, refused to believe that this fanciful flight sequence was the true method to find the Golden Fish! In truth, Yaxiu could understand. After all, for a Silver Sorcerer, "taking flight" was an almost impossible requirement. When faced with such an unattainable goal, rather than saying they couldn't believe it, it was more that they refused to believe it. Wait... following that train of thought, the method to find the Rainbow Tail must also be something a two-wing sorcerer was completely incapable of doing... "Xiao Xiu, lean in a bit," "Lisi" suddenly called out. "And close your eyes." Yaxiu did as told, only to feel his cheek rapidly kissed four times in succession. "...Are you really that happy?" Yaxiu wiped his cheek and coughed twice. "I mean, I'm glad you're happy, but don't do that out in public, it's a bit embarrassing... And preferably don't do it after we get back either. I'm not really used to such overly affectionate gestures..." "Nope, this is just making up for what you owed before," "Lisi" said. "Huh? When did I owe anything?" "You just owe it, Xiao Xiu." "Lisi" cast him a sidelong glance, her eyes shimmering like ripples on water, before looking down at the hand mirror to address the other four sisters. Little Witch: [Ahhhh, Sister Bai, give me back the body! I want to ride Void Realm Thrills too!] White Queen: [The Golden Fish Secret Poison really was true.] Black Butler: [Back then, Spectator and Sword Princess must have held hands and flown up in the Sea of Knowledge just like this to discover the Golden Fish.] Red Apostle: [I never doubted the authenticity of the Golden Fish Secret Poison.] Secret Princess: [Back then, rather than saying we didn't believe the Golden Fish Secret Poison, it's more accurate to say we didn't believe two sorcerers could exist in this world who trusted each other so deeply—who were willing to become each other's wings and carry one another out of that lonely sea...] [But now...] "Lisi" looked at Yaxiu, her small hand turning over to clasp his. Yaxiu glanced at her, relaxing his grip and letting her squeeze his hand however she liked. [We've found our Golden Fish too.] Suddenly, a stream of information flowed into the witch sisters' minds. [Golden Fish Secret Poison] [Secret Poison Infected: 15] [Secret Poison Intensification: 15%] [Current Effect of Secret Poison: You may convert silver sorcery power into gold sorcery power at a ratio of 65:35. (When intensification drops to 10%, gain a massive boon; reaching 51% turns it into a negative effect).] A secret poison that couldn't be transmitted no matter how many ten thousand times Spectator and Sword Princess spoke of it had actually been contracted by the Witch inside an amusement park ride at Happy World!