"Miracle: Sword Body Barrier!
"Miracle: Touch of the Shadow Spirit!
"Miracle: Boiling Murderous Intent!
"Miracle: Void Wings Overload Gun-Rage Tempest!
"Miracle: Wind-Severing Sickle Leg!
"Miracle: Fuel Bomb!
"Miracle: Soul-Suppressing Sanctuary!"
The instant the Book of Gospel underwent an abnormal mutation and vines burst from its pages, almost everyone attacked simultaneously!
Harvey shook both hands bound in the Ghost King Shackles, partially transforming his body into a shadow spirit. All the shadows across the palace leaped up to strike and kill the vines. Igola snapped his fingers, bloodshot veins blooming across his pupils, inciting a fierce surge of murderous intent toward the vines in everyone present. Annan instantly tore off her amethyst pendant, morphing it into a submachine gun. A pair of purple wings manifested on her back, gun barrels extending from the tips of her void wings as they silently unleashed a tempest of bullets!
Evalyn threw her leg high and hooked it down, her supersonic razor kick cleaving waves of clouds as scythe-like air currents sliced toward the vines. Nona's body flashed with an oily sheen, raising her handgun to fire fuel bullets capable of burning for a day and a night. Qinna charged forward while expanding her sanctuary until it grew large enough to envelop the vines, radiating an abyssal, prison-like pressure that hammered down like an iron mallet!
A Sanctuary sorcerer who had immersed herself in the Distant Sky Realm for years and cultivated the space faction to the gold tier could attempt to fuse other factions into her sanctuary. Qinna had infused the soul faction into hers, allowing her to rely on sheer sorcery power to crush the souls of all living beings within the sanctuary, driving animals insane and withering plants!
Faced with the sudden mutation of the Book of Gospel, Yaxiu reacted swiftly without panicking. He instantly converted his sorcery power into iridescent sorcery power with the Seven-Colored Tail secret poison, then cast a three-winged-tier Sword Body Barrier to shield himself and little Banjie from being caught in the crossfire of the other miracles!
*Boom!*
Shadows, gun rounds, blazing flames, blade winds, and soul suppression surged forward in waves, burying the vines beneath them. Diverse sorcery energies slammed together like a traffic collision, weaving into a dazzling, explosive firework display!
"Da, da!" Seeing the erupting shockwaves, little Banjie excitedly raised his hands and cheered.
Yet when Yaxiu looked at the vines already wrapped around his legs and his completely unaffected, intact Sword Body Barrier, his pupils contracted sharply. Seeing a slender vine branch off toward little Banjie, he immediately yelled, "Stop! Annan, catch him!"
Hearing him, Annan lowered her gun barrels. Looking up to see little Banjie flying toward her, she immediately discarded her submachine gun and reached out to catch him. But in her haste, her body lost its balance, her legs stumbled, and she fell. Even with her arms fully extended, she failed to reach him, her heart skipping a beat in that instant—
"You're not nimble at all for a moth. Why don't you change your name to Little Pig?"
A lunar arc traced across the air as Evalyn leaped from above, arriving second yet landing first. With exquisite precision, she caught little Banjie with one hand and landed lightly in front of Annan, looking down condescendingly at her best friend, the Purple Moth.
Yet a second later, she panicked as well. "Hey, hey! Why is he squirming so much? Hurry up, get on your feet and take him back!"
"Annan!"
Yaxiu's roar echoed from behind. Without looking back, Annan dodged to the side, evading a sudden lunge from the vines, then dived forward and leaped back beside Evalyn. When she took little Banjie into her arms and turned to look at the bizarre sight filling the hall, she drew in a sharp breath.
By now, Yaxiu was completely smothered by vines. They wove together like threads into a throne, forcing him down onto it. The autonomous vines did not stop there; they spread rapidly, forming a vine barrier centered on him as the framework of a spherical green fortress took shape!
Besides Yaxiu, the vines also attempted to coil around Igola, Harvey, Qinna, Evalyn, Annan, and little Banjie. Compared to the supreme service afforded to Yaxiu, however, their treatment of the others was like staff dealing with freeloaders who hadn't paid a copper—sluggish and thoroughly perfunctory.
"Shadows don't work, bullets don't work, fuel doesn't work, blade winds don't work, and soul suppression can't suppress the spirituality inside them. None of the attacks can damage them in the slightest..." Qinna sidestepped to evade an encroaching vine, her expression grave. "This is..."
"A divine miracle."
Without anyone noticing, Diya had stepped down from her throne. As she walked toward Yaxiu, no vines reached for her, but she could not enter the barrier either. These nearly invincible vines completely cut Yaxiu off from the outside world!
"This is a summoning divine miracle." Even without opening her Book of Gospel, Diya could now obtain Gospel's response with a single thought. "An unknown power is forcibly summoning Yaxiu, teleporting him to another location!"
"Why him?!" Igola asked the very question the family of a cancer patient would ask. "He was perfectly fine! Why would he become the target of a summoning divine miracle?!"
Although Yaxiu could not move, he could still turn his head. He noticed that while the vines were attempting to drag the others in, their enthusiasm varied depending on the target.
Evalyn, Nona, and little Banjie were in the lowest tier, pursued by only a single vine. Qinna and Anfeier were slightly higher, pursued by two or three vines. Annan, Igola, and Harvey received the highest level of invitation, cornered and intercepted by five or six vines.
The only person the vines did not invite was the future Empress, the host of Gospel.
Seeing Diya's face turn pale as an expression of realization dawned on her, Yaxiu asked, "Were we played by the Weaver?"
Hearing Yaxiu link that supreme title to such a shameless verb, everyone froze for a moment. Just then, Igola scooped up the stunned red-haired little angel beside him, avoiding a vine that suddenly accelerated toward them.
Anfeier blinked. "Thank you."
Once they reached a safe spot, Igola immediately set her down. "Be careful. Don't drag anyone else down."
From inside the green fortress, Yaxiu continued, "The vines' desire to attack you corresponds exactly to your rankings on the Weaving boards. Banjie, Lady Nona, and Miss Evalyn only appeared once, so only one vine pursues them. Lady Qinna and Miss Anfeier have two or three rankings, so they are pursued by two or three vines. Annan, you and the others may only have two rankings, but each of you earned a first-place honor, which is why the vines crave you the most.
"Compared to me, though, you're merely bonus gifts," Yaxiu said. "This summoning divine miracle was aimed at me from the very start. Right now, it's just checking if it can snatch a few extra Resonators recognized by Gospel while it's at it."
"There's a problem with that." Harvey grew slightly out of breath after jogging just a few paces, looking frail enough to collapse in a stiff breeze. "Yaxiu, you didn't get any rankings on the Weaving boards at all."
"But I once held the most valuable ranking in the Weaving Ceremony."
Yaxiu narrowed his eyes, a trace of resentment coloring his voice. "That's why to these vines, I'm the most valuable prey—the First Gospel, Yayin!"
Diya had slumped to the ground, staring blankly at the scene.
The mocking voice of the Bell-Listening Angel echoed in her mind: *Will you end up as the witch in fairy tales who never gets what she desires, or the happy, blissful princess?*
Back then, she had thought it was a question. She never imagined it was an answer.
Everything had been deliberate.
The Secret Incarnation, the Gospel god, the angel's wish, the summoning divine miracle... Even if Diya's own mind was overwhelmed, once the White Queen and the Black Butler pieced these clues together, they realized they had never escaped the closed loop woven by Gospel.
Perhaps from the moment Yaxiu obtained the Secret Incarnation, the Weaver had already spun an exclusive web for him. First, with Yaxiu in the Gospel Country, there was no way the Weaver would simply let him carry it away. So who would be relied upon to retrieve the Secret Incarnation?
The answer was almost inevitable: the next First Gospel.
Or rather, whoever held the Secret Incarnation was the First Gospel. Though Diya had briefly reclaimed the position of First Gospel with the help of the Sleeping Beauty and the Bronze Dragon's blessing, that would only prompt Yaxiu to hand the Secret Incarnation over to her willingly.
They had never flown out of the Weaver's web.
Yet even that had not been enough.
Whether it was planned long ago or decided on a whim, the Weaver actually intended to 'sell out' the First Gospel—for how could this summoning divine miracle attack Yaxiu through the Book of Gospel without the Weaver's permission? The Book of Gospel was an extension of the web in the All-Knowing Heaven!
However, while the Weaver had sold out the First Gospel, she had only sold out a fraction.
The Weaver had never planned on honoring a fair deal. After all, the true First Gospel possessed both a god and the Secret Incarnation, serving as the cornerstone of the Gospel Country's civilization. There were far too many reasons not to part with her.
Conveniently, this Weaving Ceremony provided her with an opportunity to sell counterfeit goods—there were two First Gospels this time around!
Diya could even guess the Weaver's train of thought: the buyer wanted the First Gospel, but hadn't specified which one. So she would pick whichever she pleased, guaranteeing it was ripe and sweet.
Yet now, the Gospel god and the Secret Incarnation were with Diya. Yaxiu was merely an empty husk with the title, but he met the transaction's criteria and could fetch a high price. How could the Weaver pass up the chance to pass off an inferior substitute as the real thing?
There was even another possibility—the moment the Gospel Board was released, the Weaver had already sold the product named 'Yayin.' The other party hadn't suspected anything; who would guess that inspecting the goods a day later would reveal a catastrophic quality issue?
Thinking about it this way, Yaxiu's brief stint as the First Gospel on the Gospel Board was just like dipping crabs into a famous lake to label them authentic, or slapping designer tags on ordinary clothes—a disguise to inflate his value in preparation for the fraudulent transaction that followed!
Yet that still hadn't been foolproof, which was why they had encountered the Bell-Listening Angel in the All-Knowing Heaven, and why the Bell-Listening Angel had so generously gifted Diya an angel's wish.
She had helped Diya conceal both the Gospel god and the Secret Incarnation!
At the time, Diya had thought that despite Bell's foul personality, she still retained a shred of human kindness. In truth, that had been part of the scam all along—even if Diya hadn't wished to keep the secret, the Bell-Listening Angel would have taken the initiative to conceal her sorcery spirit profile anyway!
A god had far too great an impact on a sorcerer. If the Gospel god inside Diya's soul had not been hidden away, it likely would have been discovered prematurely during the transaction... Therefore, the angel's wish was an inevitable coincidence engineered solely to erase any apparent disparity between her and Yaxiu!
Only that could explain why the vines ignored Diya—in the perception of the summoning divine miracle, Diya was just an ordinary little girl, naturally not worth the energy required to summon her.
Still, one could deceive for a moment, but not forever. Anyone capable of trading with the Weaver had to be a great being on par with her. Wasn't the Weaver afraid the other party would fly into a rage?
None of that mattered anymore.
Diya took a deep breath. After quickly conferring with her sisters and reaching a consensus, she gathered her sorcery power into the 'Fairy Tale' sorcery spirit within her soul.
Inside the 'Fairy Tale' garden, the Gospel god seemed to notice something. Setting down the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit, it waited quietly for its host to issue her resolve.
Just as Diya was about to tear open this newly formed fairy-tale world and fully expose the Gospel god, Yaxiu's voice suddenly reached her: "Lisi, I must be taking your place as the Weaver's summoning target, right?"
Diya froze, then quickly replied, "Yes! But I've already figured out a solution—"
"Is it a way for both of us to stay?"
Diya parted her lips slightly, but could not say a word.
"In that case, I have a suggestion: stay in the Gospel Country, find a way to master Gospel completely, and then come find me," Yaxiu said with a smile. "Then we'll march on the All-Knowing Heaven together and burn every strand of the webs of fate for revenge. How does that sound?"
Chapter 510