You Are Lying

Though the process was long, it was well worth the wait. As the Silver Dragon Blood gradually replaced her mortal blood, Silver Lantern clearly felt an unprecedented surge of joy spreading through her body, and her soul burned ever more brightly. It was a vitality she had never experienced before, having been frail and sickly since childhood... A soul and its body had always enjoyed an interdependent relationship. Even if ordinary academic sorcerers did not cultivate their physiques, as long as they continually refined their souls within the Void Realm, their physical condition would progressively improve. A powerful soul naturally forged a formidable physique. Conversely, a robust body could also nourish the soul in return. The relationship between body and soul was not that of a drifting boat and its passenger, but rather of ocean and sky—fulfilling each other, mirroring each other, with consciousness being merely the ripples born of their embrace. Among all sorceries, the ascetic path stood unmatched when it came to tempering the flesh. And the Dragon Blood Cultivation System was the pinnacle masterpiece of the Grey Fox ascetic sorcerers. The ascetic faction had two main branches. The first was prosthetic augmentation—reconstructing one's body using sorcery spirits related to minerals, machinery, vegetation, and the like, yielding forms such as the Diamond Body, Oak Physique, or Enemy of Machines. This path was agonizingly painful, entailing not merely physical cruelty, but a psychological flaying of the mind. Those who had never lost their flesh could scarcely imagine how vital an intact body was to one's persona. To evade the Strangling Green after losing their grand laws, some sorcerers transformed themselves entirely into mechanical beings. Although they successfully escaped the green corruption, without exception, they all developed severe psychic deformities. They despised the living even more than the Strangling Green's beasts did, and their sorcery realms stagnated or even regressed. Neither truly alive nor dead, these ascetic sorcerers were like the stench of rot festering in a mire. Yet the ascetic faction was not without its merits. First and foremost was their astonishing defensive power, and nearly all of them possessed the capacity to substitute sustenance: stones, mud, electric currents, sunlight, and wind could all serve as their nourishment. For this reason, Senluo was home to many ascetic sorcerers. Within the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire, for instance, many could survive on stones alone; Silver Lantern herself had eaten them in the Silent Spiral. Undoubtedly, in a society abundant in resources, no ordinary person would ever cultivate the ascetic faction—a fact Senluo's people could deduce even without having traveled to other nations. The Grey Fox Divine Era had unquestionably been an era of immense plenty, where by all rights the ascetic faction should have occupied the very bottom of the food chain, ignored by all. However, during the Grey Fox Divine Era, there lived a grand law named Wubainian, a follower of the grand law Fangyuancan from the Fire Cat Divine Era. Fangyuancan's ideal was immortality, while Wubainian's ideal was not merely longevity, but living life filled with passion, striding proudly forward in pursuit of one's aspirations. This alone revealed why the grand law Wubainian had emerged as one of the ultimate victors: its ideal conflicted with almost no other grand law and even complemented them. Thanks to the presence of the grand law Wubainian, the ascetic faction successfully stepped into the limelight of the Grey Fox era. Consequently, the Grey Fox sorcerers created a second path for the ascetic faction: evolution! The flesh was weak, so it had to be replaced with minerals, plants, and machinery to navigate this painful reality. But those magnificent creatures—angels, Void Realm dragons, Abyss lords—their flesh was by no means weak! Of course, this did not mean directly replacing a sorcerer's body with parts from higher beings, which would be indistinguishable from prosthetic augmentation. If augmentation was forcing immortality into mortal flesh, then evolution was drawing the ordinary closer to the legendary. The Grey Fox sorcerers' concept was to prompt the sorcerer's body to evolve spontaneously, preserving physical integrity while causing the physique to gradually approach that of those great creatures! Was there a medium that could stimulate the entire body and transform it without compromising its wholeness? The answer was obvious: blood. As long as a sorcerer was injected with compatible high-ranking blood, it would naturally drive the comprehensive evolution of their physique! Yet higher beings did not exist in reality, and the flesh of Void Realm creatures could hardly be brought out into the world. How, then, could high-ranking blood be acquired? This did not confound the Grey Fox sorcerers either. The Dragon Blood Cultivation System was their answer—directly purifying the flesh and souls of lesser creatures into high-ranking blood to execute a complete transfusion for the user! It was the answer of an era, and an extravagant final flourish. The system had not appeared out of thin air; Grey Fox sorcerers had sealed hundreds and thousands of miracles within the Void Realm in advance. When someone used the key to activate the Dragon Blood Cultivation System, these miracles would automatically trigger to serve the user. Moreover, these miracles were all at least of Sanctuary rank. Silver Lantern did not know how many miracles remained sealed in the Void Realm, nor how many Sanctuary legends had spent countless days and nights perfecting this system simply to follow the grand law Wubainian's ideal. What she beheld was a feast of miracles spanning hundreds of years; what she heard was the final echo of that wondrous age. "Task progress has reached 90%. You may move freely. The remaining 10% will continue to run via the subsystem 'blood seed' until the very last drop of dragon blood is extracted." "Service successfully concluded. If you have any feedback regarding the Dragon Blood Cultivation System, please send an email to the [Blood of the Immortal] Research Institute. Professor Paracels · Blood Saint · Wubainian looks forward to your valuable suggestions." A double surname? Silver Lantern cast another glance at the system creator's name. Senluo had no tradition of middle names; whatever followed the given name was both a surname and the name of a grand law, just as her own former surname had been Dust Calamitous Fire. There didn't seem to be any grand law named Blood Saint during the Grey Fox Divine Era... Swoosh. The instant she heard the whistling through the air, Silver Lantern tilted her head aside. Even so, the sharp gale from the flying pebble grazed her tender cheek, cutting a shallow furrow and drawing silver blood. "Your blood isn't red." The word "Your" sounded twenty paces away; by "red," he was already right before her. Along with that final syllable came an ear-splitting crack of thunder. And a shockwave wrapped in white mist! A supersonic strike! Even though Silver Lantern raised her defensive miracle, Sky-Burning Shield, at maximum speed, it failed to dissipate any of the impact! Fortunately, having been strengthened by the Silver Dragon Blood, her physical reactions were far faster than before even without the reinforcement of sorcery spirits, allowing her to twist her heart out of the way. The blow only punctured her shoulder! Miracle: Flame Stream! Silver Lantern dissolved into a pool of flames and swiftly surged several dozen paces away. Three seconds later, however, she was forced to revert to human form, her skin scalding hot, unable to use Flame Stream again anytime soon. Yet her injury had mended in the process, the hole in her shoulder plugged and repaired by silver blood. She had never excelled at flight or direct defense. Normally, a Sanctuary would have covered this flaw, but the secret poison of the Illusion Mirror Dragon had left her soul exceedingly fragile. Three months ago in the Void Realm, she had undergone her first Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Synchronization Forbidden Rite, and she had yet to recover from it. She estimated she would need one more before she could construct her Sanctuary. This was also one of the reasons Silver Lantern had defected so decisively: without a Sanctuary, she was forced to rely on the protection of the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire or the Four Pillar Cult. But now she was on the verge of becoming a Sanctuary Sorcerer, no longer needing an organization to mask her vulnerability. Moreover, since the Silver Dragon Blood could fortify the soul, she could undergo the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Synchronization Forbidden Rite without fear. As expected, the gods never let us enjoy sweet dreams... Silver Lantern took in the appearance of her attacker, raising an eyebrow. "Now that you've lost your grand law, are the followers of Kill-All-Crows no longer satisfied with punishing the wicked? Must you slaughter every living person to sate your pleasure?" Black Crow stood beside the bonfire, the fierce flames licking at his grotesque mask. "First of all, you don't look like a good person." "And what if I am?" "Secondly, as long as I haven't heard your defense, you will die as a wrongdoer even in death," Black Crow said flatly. "Now, please halt this ritual immediately. My friends are suffering immense torment, and the night is drawing near." Silver Lantern shook her head. "I cannot." "Your reason?" "This is not my power, but a legacy of the Grey Fox Divine Era. Once activated, everyone in the camp will be drained and extracted until they wither and die," Silver Lantern explained. "I am deeply sorry for what is happening to your friends. The only consolation is that this manner of death should be painless, just like drifting to sleep. By the way, why are you unaffected?" Black Crow said, "You are lying." Silver Lantern countered, "I am no—" "This is indeed a legacy of the Grey Fox Divine Era, and it is indeed unstoppable until everyone is drained," Black Crow said. "However, saying you are deeply sorry is a lie. You don't feel a shred of remorse. I've seen far too many people like you. The greatest difference between a wicked crow and a good crow is that the wicked can apologize so easily. A good crow's apology bears the weight of a guilty conscience, but you have no conscience at all. Your apology is no different from passing wind—all I can smell is the stench of rot. "Furthermore, the essence extracted from those victims is that silver substance, isn't it?" Black Crow stared at the cut on Silver Lantern's face. "Silver blood—this is my first time seeing it, too. "You are the beneficiary of this ritual. As long as I kill you, the ritual will have to end." Silver Lantern shook her head. "Do you have evidence proving I am a bad person? I merely activated this device by accident, never expecting this outcome. I didn't set out to become its beneficiary. Surely you wouldn't harm an innocent person just to save others, would you?" Black Crow suddenly chuckled. "Back in the Kill-All-Crows Cult, that question of yours was something we discussed every single week: 'When you encounter someone who appears wicked, but you lack evidence of their crimes, do you let them go or execute them?' "There were radicals who believed it was better to kill by mistake than let anyone slip through. There were conservatives who advocated imprisoning them first to investigate thoroughly. My mentor was a moderate, proposing we break the target's limbs first; if the investigation cleared them, we would mend their bones, apologize, and pay compensation. "And my view—" Black Crow leaned slightly forward. "If I am mistaken, I am willing to endure a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million times your agony in Hell. You may wait for me there, brimming with hatred. I have looked forward to it for a very long time. "When all the crows have been slaughtered and Hell is packed to the brim, it will be my turn to suffer in the depths of Hell. "But before then— "My duty is to send all of you to Hell!"