The Void Realm, Time Continent.
"On the left! Charge into the battle formation from the left and let me try one more time!"
"No good! We've lost our chance! The car's about to blow!"
Amidst the chaotic battlefield, a battered sports car scrambled desperately out of a disarrayed zone splattered in purple, cyan, and green. A Shadow Evil Dragon whose form blotted out the sky cast a fleeting glance at the scurrying little insect, then turned its gaze back toward the two supreme commanders in the distance.
"Walker. Poison Widow." Ferocious malice gleamed in the Shadow Evil Dragon's eyes. "Withdraw now, and I will let bygones be bygones. Otherwise, once the Distant Abyss raises the Mansus Woods, all of you will shatter like the setting sun and deplete like extracted blood in water—spent in an instant, your true names extinguished forever!"
"We came precisely to force you to activate the Mansus Woods," Denzel sneered with wild arrogance. "The Silent Spiral is already ablaze, and the Sky Garden has already fallen. Did you think the Distant Abyss could remain aloof? Come, then! Since the incomplete Spider Tower ignited this Investiture War, it will not permit a flawless conclusion!"
"The Oasis is an ally of the Spider Tower," Walker said calmly.
"Stubborn fools!"
After a shrill, piercing roar, the Shadow Evil Dragon suddenly fell quiet. An eerie voice caressed the eardrums of every sentient creature like a feather: "Traverse the woods, mirroring the Mansus."
*Roar!*
Countless sharp, ear-splitting roars shook the entire Time Continent. Even Yaxiu and his companions, who had already fled the battlefield, were caught in the shockwave. Their eardrums ruptured in an instant, and the intense ringing left them briefly disoriented until soul energy automatically restored their bodies.
Yaxiu panted heavily. "Good thing we got out in time."
Sonia glanced back and saw that the monstrous silhouettes on the battlefield were now so thick that not even the golden curtain of rain could fully veil them. A lingering fear seized her heart.
Beside her, Diya was frightened to the point that even the color of her hair dulled slightly, and she clung to Sonia for comfort.
To find the Seven-Colored Tail and advance to the Sanctuary, they naturally had to seek out the main cities of the other factions, baiting the Spider Tower and the Oasis to invade so they could hunt commanders amidst the chaotic warfare.
Up until now, they had encountered five Void Realm factions: Star Hall, Blood Tomb, Spider Tower, Oasis, and Garden. Today just so happened to fall under the exclusive turn of the final Void Realm faction.
Unlike the Garden, this faction's main city wasn't difficult to find; Yaxiu and the others located it in just an hour.
The Spider Tower and the Oasis arrived right on time, swiftly turning the peaceful city into a rotting quagmire of war. Yet when Yaxiu and the others attempted to reap easy pickings by assassinating a commander, they found this encounter unusually thorny.
Unlike any other main city, the Distant Abyss's main city wasn't truly a 'city' at all. From the outside, it looked like a bottomless cavern gouged into the earth, resembling an abyss. Aside from that massive abyss, the entire region was riddled with smaller holes from which Heroic Spirit Legions could erupt at any moment—practically a tunnel network, which was hardly an ideal combat environment for a sports car.
More importantly, none of the Distant Abyss's troop types were humanoid.
While the troop types of the other five factions varied greatly, they were fundamentally humanoid; even when applied to Void Realm creatures, they transformed them into humanoid units. The underlying principle wasn't that humanoid forms offered superior combat efficacy, but likely just that the gods who created those troops were humanoid, and thus favored that shape.
Troops of the Distant Abyss were different. Once equipped, Void Realm creatures were generally reinforced into larger, far more brutal and bloodthirsty beasts. Though they seemed to lose armor and unit-specific masteries in exchange, their individual combat prowess vastly outstripped humanoid units, allowing a single city's garrison to withstand a surprise assault by two factions at once.
The Distant Abyss's formidable might undoubtedly caused trouble for the Spider Tower and the Oasis, but their trouble was none of Yaxiu's concern. The real problem was that the commanders of the Distant Abyss had equipped themselves as large beasts too!
That Shadow Evil Dragon dominating the battlefield earlier was none other than the supreme commander of this Distant Abyss main city!
Nor were the other commanders any less terrifying; they had transformed either into rampaging Bombardment Tyrant Dragons or towering Storm Dragons overlooking the fray.
Even with the protection of the Secret Keeper authority allowing them to sneak up close for an ambush, assassinating a humanoid commander was an entirely different matter from instantly slaying a massive beast!
To make matters worse, map-wide bombardments rained everywhere across this battlefield, creating a level of chaos far exceeding previous fights. Had Yaxiu not poured recent resources into upgrading the Refraction Curtain Wall, a stray blast would have sent their car flipping into oblivion long ago while crossing the field.
After several perilous and fruitless attempts, it was only when the Sword Princess launched a sneak attack and triggered her innate talent, "Phantom of the Resentment Resplendent Dragon"—manifesting a tiger-like dragon wreathed in the bloody flames of a vengeful purgatory behind her, amplifying her sword miracle's power nearly tenfold while adding searing and piercing effects—that she finally cleaved down a Distant Abyss commander in a single strike, seizing a Commander's Handbook, a Soul Summoning sorcery spirit, and a map.
Originally, they still needed to slay an Oasis commander to snatch an Oasis map and complete the full set. However, both the Spider Tower and the Oasis were aware they were hunting commanders. Every commander was surrounded by dozens of soldiers, leaving the Sword Princess and the Witch unable to find any opening to exploit. Even when they forced a raid, they were swiftly driven back.
Returning to the battlefield was out of the question. Now that the Distant Abyss had unleashed a divine miracle, the Spider Tower and the Oasis would naturally respond in kind. That place had become a forbidden zone of colliding divine miracles.
Never mind that the durability of their Refraction Curtain Wall was entirely drained; even a brand-new, fully restored sports car would be blown apart within a minute.
Yaxiu drove farther out and parked beside the Flowing Gold River. That way, even if a Heroic Spirit Legion gave chase, they could escape across the river.
"You both worked hard tonight," Yaxiu said with a relieved sigh and a smile. "Watching you cross that battlefield terrified me."
"Yet we're still missing one map." Sonia thumped her seat in frustration. "Just one map short..."
"Let's divide the spoils first." Yaxiu produced a Commander's Handbook. "Who wants it?"
"Give it to the Sword Princess!" Diya chimed in at once. "She fought the hardest just now. And if she hadn't slain that commander in one strike, we wouldn't have gotten anything at all."
Yaxiu handed the Commander's Handbook to Sonia. The village girl's cheeks flushed slightly. "It was so dangerous; of course I had to give it everything I had."
Diya muttered, "If you hadn't thrown yourself into it so recklessly, maybe it wouldn't have been so dangerous..."
While the Sword Princess and the Witch bickered playfully, Yaxiu summoned his other prize: the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit, its six-sided crystal faces gleaming with distinct hues.
Although he hadn't unlocked all advanced troop types, Yaxiu could now equip himself with troops from any faction: the blue troops of Star Hall, the red of Blood Tomb, the purple of Spider Tower, the orange of Garden, the green of Oasis, and the cyan of Distant Abyss...
His special hybrid troop type had also upgraded to 'Six-Colored Anchor.'
'Six-Colored Anchor: 6 layers of armor, 100% anchored, consumes 6 points of soul power per unit.'
Being 100% anchored meant that as long as they were equipped with this troop type, Yaxiu and his companions would take zero external damage! At the same time, however, they would be unable to affect the outside world in any way.
It was splendid for crossing the Flowing Gold River, but useless for scavenging on the battlefield. After all, the Heroic Spirit Legions scavenged the dead as well; if you didn't personally kill the commander and seize the spoils on the spot, other legions would quickly sweep the loot away.
Staring at the sorcery spirit radiating six colored glows, a strange thought suddenly surfaced in Yaxiu's mind, though he quickly dismissed it—it was only six colors, not seven.
Putting the sorcery spirit away, Yaxiu opened the Void Realm map and said, "Even though we're still missing one map, we already have five-sixths of it. If there really is any clue on the map, we should still be able to piece it together."
Sonia and Diya nodded, waiting tensely for his discovery. Yaxiu studied the map intently. Before long, his furrowed brow smoothed out, and the corners of his mouth curved upward.
"Did you find something?" Sonia asked with cautious delight.
Yaxiu smiled at her and shook his head. "Nope!"
"Then why do you look so relaxed?!"
"What else should I do, wear a face full of deep, bitter sorrow?" Yaxiu said, throwing up his hands. "If the Seven-Colored Tail were that easy to find, so many Two Wings sorcerers wouldn't be stranded on the Time Continent."
"Finding no clues is normal. After all, the Destiny Q&A only told us to 'obtain the complete territory map of the Time Continent.' It never said this would definitely lead us to the Seven-Colored Tail—at best it's an aid, and perhaps not even a direct one," Yaxiu said. "When you get right down to it, advancing to Sanctuary via the Seven-Colored Tail isn't an orthodox method anyway. We can hold out hope, but we can't pin everything on it."
"Everyone is exhausted tonight. Why don't we call it here? In any case, we've already unfurled our Golden Wings, so there's no need to linger on the Time Continent—"
"No."
Sonia caught Yaxiu's hand, saying each word deliberately: "We can't give up yet."
Yaxiu looked at her and smiled, nodding. "All right, then we'll keep looking for the Seven-Colored Tail. Sword Princess, you will achieve Sanctuary."
"We will all become Sanctuary Sorcerers." Sonia turned to Diya. "Witch, do you still remember those hypotheses regarding the Seven-Colored Tail?"
"Of course I remember. I never forget any sorcerer manual I've read," Diya said. "The White Ox hypothesis and the Seven Sorcerers hypothesis."
"The White Ox hypothesis states that the four hooves of the White Ox are channels to the Seven-Colored Tail. When white light passes through a triangular prism, it refracts into seven colors; thus, when a sorcerer's soul enters the White Ox's hooves, it will refract the Seven-Colored Tail."
"The Seven Sorcerers hypothesis claims that once seven pairs of Golden Wings are assembled, the sorcerers will turn into seven drops of rain, falling upward alongside the reverse golden rain into the Distant Sky Realm. The so-called Seven-Colored Tail actually refers to seven sorcerers."
Sonia said, "We can analyze the clue provided by the Void Realm—'obtain the complete territory map of the Time Continent'—alongside these two hypotheses and see if we can find any common ground."
After a few moments of pondering, the Witch surrendered. "I can't think of anything at all. How on earth does obtaining a complete map relate to the Seven-Colored Tail?"
"Since I couldn't see any clues on the map, we might as well consider it a smokescreen from the Void Realm," Yaxiu said. "The Void Realm map itself may have no meaning, but the process of searching for it might bring us closer to the Seven-Colored Tail."
"The only way to search for the Void Realm map is to slay commanders," Sonia murmured. "Could slaying commanders bring us closer to the Seven-Colored Tail?"
"The spoils from a commander are the Commander's Handbook, the map, and the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit," Diya noted. "The map is bait offered by the Void Realm, and the Commander's Handbook contains no clues on this front. Which means..."
Under Sonia and Diya's watchful eyes, Yaxiu summoned the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit again, each of its crystalline facets glowing with a distinct color.
"I was just wondering if this thing has any connection to the Seven-Colored Tail," Yaxiu said. "But... it only has six colors, and there are only six factions in the Void Realm."
A possibility suddenly occurred to Diya. "Could there be a seventh faction in the Void Realm, one that can only be found after assembling the complete map?"
"Or maybe the final color is inside the four hooves of the White Ox?" Sonia suggested.
"Do black and white in the Domain of Stillness count as colors?" Diya asked. "Are we supposed to take the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit and deliberately enter the Domain of Stillness?"
With only one color left, the Sword Princess and the Witch spun out numerous possibilities. Yet after listening, Yaxiu shook his head and said, "Do you still remember the Golden Fish?"
"Though a sample size of one isn't very convincing, I feel the Seven-Colored Tail is probably similar to the Golden Fish. What restricts you from finding it is ability, numbers, and imagination, but definitely not geographical location. No matter where you are in the Sea of Knowledge, flying upward will eventually lead you to the Golden Fish. The same is likely true for the Seven-Colored Tail: no matter where you are on the Time Continent, if you look for it, you can definitely find it."
Truth be told, Yaxiu's point lacked any solid reasoning, but having witnessed the Golden Fish herself, Sonia accepted it at once. It was like reading two books by the same author: if the first book featured an ingenious narrative trick, it was hard to believe the second would merely tell a hackneyed story that barely qualified as a mystery.
Yet this brought their train of thought to an impasse. Diya held her head, murmuring, "Found anywhere... Seven-Colored Tail..."
Sonia bit her fingernail and looked around. "Resource points? Special structures? Miracle Paradise? ...Where on earth is that last color?"
Yaxiu, on the other hand, reclined quite casually in his seat, looking up at the sky soaked by the reverse golden rain. "Don't rush. You'll become Sanctuaries sooner or later; don't waste too much energy obsessing over the Seven-Colored Tail."
Sonia said in irritation, "But I want to become a Sanctuary right now!"
Yaxiu chuckled and said softly, "Thank you."
Looking up at the sky, he suddenly felt as though he had lived too hastily on the Time Continent, never taking the time to properly appreciate the scenery around him. Only now that their journey across the Time Continent was at an end did his overdue curiosity flare up: "Sword Princess, why does the rain on the Time Continent flow upward?"
"Because it's rain from the Flowing Gold River."
"Why does rain from the Flowing Gold River have to flow upward?"
"It's always been like that," Sonia tutted. "Stop staring at the rain and hurry up and think about where the Seven-Colored Tail could be."
"Thinking, thinking," Yaxiu said perfunctorily, yet his mind continued to mull over why the rain flowed upward. He was always like this: whenever he faced a difficult test problem he didn't want to solve, his mind wandered to random, irrelevant nonsense to escape reality.
Because time inherently flows upward? That didn't make sense.
Because the golden rain was actually a gas? It didn't feel like one.
Why on earth was it...
Suddenly, a memory from not long ago flashed through Yaxiu's mind:
*...I was completely engulfed and washed away by a river of seven-colored streaming light, and by the time I came to, I had already reached the Distant Sky Realm...*
Yaxiu bolted upright, muttering, "Right... why *does* the rain flow upward?"
Sonia was genuinely annoyed this time. "We're both seriously thinking about the Seven-Colored Tail. Can you please not—"
"This *is* the answer to the Seven-Colored Tail!"
Yaxiu sprang to his feet and pressed the Sword Princess and the Witch back into their seats, his face alight with the thrill of revelation. He asked, almost showing off, "Why does the rain flow upward?"
"Because rain is supposed to flow upward! Because the sky isn't the sky, and the earth isn't the earth!"
"Because the entire world is upside down! The Time Continent is the sky, and the sky is the ground beneath us! The golden rain of time isn't flowing in reverse—we are the ones inverted!"
"The Seven-Colored Tail isn't above us; it's right beneath our feet!"
"The Flowing Gold River is the final color we're looking for!"
Chapter 480