"What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?"
"Who is the person you feel most sorry toward?"
Rewinding forty-seven steps before the Ox of the Sky Carriage: in the Time Continent, atop the sports car, the Sword Princess and the Witch were enthusiastically interrogating the Spectator about his secrets, but he kept his lips tightly sealed, refusing to utter a word.
Just then, the Sword Princess had a sudden inspiration and began asking about trivial matters:
"What's your favorite food?"
"Charcoal-roasted Lalafell."
"Which sorcery spirit is your favorite?"
"Substitute."
"What's your favorite time of day? Why?"
"After midnight, because that's my own private time."
"What do you dislike doing?"
"Working."
"Where do you like to go on dates?"
The Spectator was forced to ponder this question he had never considered before, then suddenly caught on. "How could questions like these be secrets I need to protect? Why are you even asking this?"
The Sword Princess pressed on, "Then I'll ask something serious—if the Witch and I fell into the Flowing Gold River, who would you save first?"
The Spectator gave her a suspicious glance, only to see her shoot him a meaningful look. Weighing his words, he replied, "The Witch..."
The Witch gasped, "Huh?"
"Now that we're both adept in the time faction, if we obtained a Time Orb, who would you prioritize giving it to?"
"The Witch."
"If we ran into the Empress Commander again and only one person could escape this time, who would you let get away first?"
"The Witch."
The Sword Princess asked several questions in a row that could raise the Witch's favorability, and the Spectator answered "The Witch" to all of them. Just when he assumed the Sword Princess was using this opportunity to put on an act and win over the Witch, he suddenly heard the Sword Princess ask:
"Who is the person you like most?"
"The Wi—wait, no, it's—"
The Spectator caught himself halfway through, but right after saying "wait, no," he realized he had stepped into another trap. Looking up, he saw the Sword Princess's sparkling eyes and abruptly shut his mouth. The Sword Princess hummed, the corners of her mouth curving upward, but she didn't press further. "Try saying it then. If you can't get it out, it proves that this is a secret sealed by the Secret-Keeping Authority."
"Actually, the secret itself isn't the point," the Spectator diverted the topic. "What's most important for the Secret-Keeping Authority is the desire to confide the secret."
"If you want to confide it, why keep it secret?" The Witch found it strange. "Isn't that completely contradictory?"
"It's not contradictory," the Sword Princess said, reaching out to gently press down the Witch's cowlick. "There are always things you clearly want to say, yet have no choice but to hide away in your heart, like planting a flower. If luck isn't on your side and no spring is willing to let it sprout, then no matter how fertile the soil is, to that seed, it's nothing more than the depths of darkness."
The Witch asked, "And if luck is on your side?"
"Then even atop a glacier, it will bloom into a hundred thousand wild roses," the Sword Princess replied, "bringing you a brand-new spring."
"Secret-Keeping Authority: When your lips are firmly sealed, none can know the deepest secrets of your heart, yet the secrets also guard your soul. You cannot speak the secrets you cherish most, and the more you wish to confide them, the stronger the secret-keeping effect becomes."
"Secret-Keeping (Urge to Confide: 100%): Your mental resistance is increased by 100%, and your soul's adaptability to gods of related factions is increased by 100%."
The Secret-Keeping Authority!
The Secret Incarnation!
The Soul Summoning sorcery spirit!
He was Yaxiu, and he was also the Spectator!
Looking at Yaxiu half-kneeling before her, Diya's mind was in utter turmoil.
Hadn't the Spectator met her at the very beginning? Hadn't he watched with his own eyes as she jumped from the high tower? Why did Yaxiu act as though he didn't know her?
First, it was impossible for Yaxiu to be faking; he truly had met her for the first time in the Four Pillar Cult's underground hall. At this point, Diya couldn't help judging him by her own standards and thinking of a possibility: Did Yaxiu also have an alternate personality?
But soon, she recalled another possibility that fit Yaxiu's situation even better—and one that had already happened to him once before: a god was impersonating him!
When Gospel impersonated Yaxiu to commit assassinations, it moved like a ghost, completely unbeknownst to anyone; when the Spectator met her at the tower, he was also half-illusion, half-reality, neither void nor solid—the two were virtually identical!
When it came down to it, the Spectator was only a two-wing sorcerer, yet he had been able to "forcefully" gather her and the Sword Princess from different countries to explore the Void Realm. Such power far exceeded the limits of any sorcerer!
Sanctuary Sorcerers couldn't do it, nor could Legendary Sorcerers!
Not to mention being chauffeured to and from work in a sports car every single time; according to the Sword Princess, they even had a boat back in the Sea of Knowledge.
Though they had never explicitly discussed it, both she and the Sword Princess had tacitly assumed the Spectator commanded a god—and an exceptionally versatile god at that, capable of creating objects and forming parties. If the Spectator were ever to conjure a Lalafell in the Void Realm, neither of them would be surprised.
In the past, Diya thought the Spectator had complete control over the god. But now that it was her turn to personally host a god, she realized that was fundamentally impossible—she didn't even have the energy required to drive a god!
The only reason the Gospel god could function was through the concerted support of Legendary Sorcerers, and the Gospel system had nothing to do with past generations of the First Gospel; it was purely the god's own spontaneous expansion once it was fed and sated, just like breathing, eating, or defecating.
In the Gospel Country, Gospel was practically synonymous with natural phenomena like the sun, wind, rain, and earth. The cornerstones of civilization created by sorcerers—such as Gospel books, the Gospel database, and the Gospel intelligent system—were no different from farmers irrigating fields with manure to reap grain, or miners digging up ore to smelt it; sorcerers were merely somewhat more sophisticated.
Although the First Gospel was the god's host, they could only dabble in a fraction of its authority; they couldn't possibly drive the god to serve them. To use the sun as an analogy: ordinary people could only quietly endure the sunlight; the First Gospel, being closer to the sun, could harness more solar energy and even influence how sunlight was distributed among all living beings; but only angels and gods could control the sun's flare, extinction, and collapse.
The relationship between sorcerers and gods had never been one of domination, but symbiosis; at most, sorcerers could piggyback slightly on a god's benefits. And even that freeloading depended on the Gospel god being sated (fed around the clock without interruption by legendary chefs) and expanding spontaneously.
Yet Diya had spent so much time with Yaxiu; if he were carrying a vast throng of Legendary Sorcerers as batteries, there was no way she wouldn't have noticed. Since he didn't, it meant Yaxiu lacked any energy to drive a god—and even if he had some, it would be a drop in the ocean.
Yet the god still provided him with custom-tailored VIP service: every night assembling his party, parking his sports car, preparing maps—biological parents could do no better. This could only mean one thing: the god was serving him wholeheartedly, even striving to harvest energy on its own just to subsidize and support him.
At this thought, Diya recalled how the "Spectator god" looked almost identical to Yaxiu, and remembered the Sword Princess mentioning that the Spectator might be a powerhouse who had lost his memories after reincarnating. A new conjecture took shape in her mind: Yaxiu's god might have been personally summoned by him in the past.
Even independently summoned sorcery spirits shared numerous traits with their sorcerers, to say nothing of gods—it wouldn't be surprising in the least if they looked identical. Only such a bond could explain why the god sheltered Yaxiu so protectively.
Yet that god had kept many things from Yaxiu as well—like my true identity!
"Lisi?"
Yaxiu gently rested the back of his hand against her cheek, feeling her warmth. "Have you really come back?"
Not just Lisi has come back—I've come back too.
Diya's lips parted slightly. She had so many things she wanted to tell Yaxiu: tell him that she was the Witch, tell him that Lisi was actually her sister, tell him that she wasn't really a little girl... but she couldn't say a word.
The Secret-Keeping Authority.
While the conceptual incarnation isolated her from the god, it also stood between her and Yaxiu. The more she desired to confide her secrets, the tighter these shackles bound, and the more powerful the Secret-Keeping force grew.
That such a thing could actually exist: the person she loved was right before her eyes, yet her heart could not draw an inch closer. Like the mermaid in fairy tales whose voice had been stolen, no one could hear her feelings.
Meeting Yaxiu's hopeful gaze, Diya bit her lower lip, her eyes rimmed with red. She took a deep breath, yet tears still welled and spilled over. Rising from the throne, she wrapped her arms around his neck and choked out through her sobs, "I'm back."
At this moment, Diya broke down completely, burying her face in his chest as she sobbed under her breath—weeping her heart out, weeping in utter helplessness. She had thought escaping the high tower meant fooling fate, only to realize in the end that she was still inside the high tower. She had never escaped fate, and she would never get what she truly wanted.
The foreshadowing of this tragedy had been planted the moment she began deceiving Yaxiu under the identity of "Lisi." The night she begged Yaxiu to save Sister Nina had been her last chance to confess, yet she had let it pass.
Because she didn't want to be merely Yaxiu's Lisi; because she wanted to reunite with Yaxiu after restoring her original body; because explaining felt like such a hassle... But down at the root of it all, she was simply afraid.
Afraid that Yaxiu would despise her deception, she had kept running away. In this regard, she and Lisi were the same—both were children waiting for someone to come pick them up, passively waiting for Yaxiu to discover the truth on his own, complacently believing she would be forgiven.
Thus, when Lisdia bade Yaxiu farewell on their behalf, she had not revealed the truth about Diya and the others either, letting Yaxiu believe that from beginning to end, there were only "Lisi" and "Lisdia."
Lisdia had undoubtedly meant well. First of all, Yaxiu was completely unaware of Diya's existence, and due to the Reverse Day sorcery spirit, their physical body was still "the little girl Lisi," not "the young maiden Lisdia." Blurtly telling him, "Inside your daughter's soul are several young maidens who are in love with you," would achieve nothing except plunging his mind into greater chaos. Second, Diya and the others had already resolved to sacrifice themselves for Yaxiu back then; buoyed by such noble conviction, they felt that leaving their feelings unexpressed and dedicating themselves in secret would be all the more romantic and moving.
Like angels in fairy tales, unfurling their wings to guard you in silence.
It was precisely because of this cowardice, hesitation, deception, sacrifice, and romance that deep within Diya's heart grew this secret—one she desperately wished to confess, yet had buried beneath a glacier—until the arrival of the Secret Incarnation allowed it to burst into a hundred thousand wild roses, imprisoning the Gospel god within.
This was the real reason Diya was crying.
Not because she hadn't spoken before, nor because the conceptual incarnation prevented her from speaking now, but because she would have to keep this secret forever moving forward.
The moment the secret was exposed and the Secret-Keeping Authority failed, the awakening god would drown her soul until she became the vessel known as Diyin—unable to see Yaxiu, and never again able to meet the Spectator.
Therefore, not only did she have to keep it hidden, but she also couldn't allow Yaxiu to catch the slightest clue; otherwise, the effectiveness of the Secret-Keeping Authority would decrease. She had to weave a colossal web, keeping both Yaxiu and the Spectator in the dark.
She had to maintain the form of a little girl.
She had to thoroughly conceal the changes to her sorcery spirits.
She could not let Yaxiu know she was the Witch.
She could not let Yaxiu know Lisi had sisters.
She could not let Yaxiu know that someone he didn't recognize, didn't know, and had never even seen had once been saved by him again and again.
How ridiculous: if Diya didn't hide it, she could no longer exist; if Diya continued to hide it, he still wouldn't know she existed.
Had fate pushed her one step forward, she could have confessed everything to Yaxiu and walked away free and untethered; had fate pulled her one step backward, she could have carried this secret into the Void Realm and quietly faded away. Yet fate stranded her right here, unable to step forward into the abyss or step backward into hell, left with no choice but to muster her courage and shoulder the secret, trying to carve out a future that no one had ever trodden before.
Yes, the future.
Perhaps in the future, Yaxiu would find a way for her to contain a god even without the Secret-Keeping Authority; perhaps once she became a Legendary Sorcerer, she would find another method to control a god; perhaps she could even become an angel...
At the thought that they were still young, that they still had a future and plenty of chances, Diya finally managed to stifle her tears. She couldn't help letting out a couple of hiccups, even blowing a snot bubble.
Looking down, she found her tears and snot smeared all over Yaxiu's clothes. Faintly hearing Yaxiu chuckle, Diya was too embarrassed to lift her head, though a sudden sense of relief washed over her: Thank goodness he thinks I'm just Lisi...
She suddenly recalled Burdette's maxim of domination: Fuel their desires, grant what they need.
From the moment she fled the high tower, she had been destined to return to it. It seemed everything had long been prearranged.
Did you orchestrate all of this, Gospel?
Diya couldn't help looking at the Gospel god within her soul. Wearing a blindfold, it looked like a quiet, gentle young maiden in a purple dress, quietly holding the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit. As if noticing Diya's gaze, it suddenly grasped its blindfold and slowly lifted it upward.
Yet beneath the blindfold was not a pair of eyes, but...
...a door?
In an instant, a door surged out from Diya's body, sucking both of them inside.
By the time Yaxiu and Diya came to their senses, they had arrived in a wondrous place: they were sitting on a spiderweb, with no end in sight above or below, before or behind, left or right. Everywhere they looked were spiderwebs of diverse colors, shapes, and sizes. Every single web was colossal, so vast that only "magnificent" could describe it, resembling the sky, resembling the earth.
They seemed woven into space itself, layer upon layer, web encompassing web, boundless and infinite. Light came from an unknown source, neither dim nor dazzling.
Compared to these spiderwebs, Yaxiu and Diya were as tiny as insects, as if any creature appearing here would be a terrifying entity capable of preying upon them with ease—
"This is the first time I've ever seen two First Gospels."
Yaxiu and Diya whipped their heads around to see a beautiful lady hanging upside down from the spiderweb above.
Though she was hanging upside down, her long hair did not dangle, nor was her skirt overturned. If she wasn't deliberately controlling them, it could only mean that "up and down" here was intimately linked to which web you stood upon.
Her expression was detached. She wore glasses and possessed a pair of amber eyes, but the most conspicuous feature about her was the luxurious headphones she wore—seemingly crafted from obsidian—with a small bell dangling from either side. Even in the Gospel Country, such avant-garde fashion gave her a touch of approachable charm.
Yet the moment she spoke, whatever warmth Yaxiu and Diya felt evaporated on the spot.
"Welcome to the All-Knowing Heaven," she said. "I am the Bell-Listening Angel under the Weaver. You may call me Bell."
Chapter 506