The Strongest Operator

"Aurora's Dream Vault!" When Yaxiu opened the Void Realm Map, this new system had popped up ahead of everything else. Now appearing before everyone's eyes were a pair of gloves, a small coffin, and a ruby necklace. "Silver Collectible: Ogre Gauntlets: Increases strength in both hands by 100%." "Silver Collectible: Coffin of Sorcery Spirits: Confining any sorcery spirit of three wings or below within this coffin intimidates the other sorcery spirits in your possession, increasing their resonance critical strike rate. A one-winged sorcery spirit increases the critical strike rate by 10%, two-winged by 20%, and three-winged by 40%." "Gold Collectible: Crimson Blessing: Provides Sanctuary protection to the sorcerer. When encountering external harm, automatically triggers a Sanctuary lasting 3 seconds, with a 10-second cooldown. While carried, continuously increases the sorcerer's space faction experience." "These are..." Weise looked at the radiant glow emanating from these collectibles, a hungry light in her eyes. As they gazed at the collectibles, information about them flowed into their minds. The Truth Sorcerer instinctively reached out, but immediately drew her hand back, calmly analyzing, "They aren't sorcery spirits, nor are they miracles. They're closer to fantasy creations that seal miracles away... But how did you bring fantasy creations into the Void Realm and still have them function?" "Heh-heh, impressive, isn't it? But this is just a negligible sliver of our team's strength, nothing to make a fuss about!" Diya said in a pompous, worldly tone, as if she hadn't been the one whose jaw dropped upon seeing a sports car before. Sonia looked at the ruby necklace and asked, "Are these gifts?" "No, these are benefits we can receive for tonight," Yaxiu said. "Since this is also my first time using the Dream Vault, everything is still trial and error... According to the vault's rules, we receive three collectibles at the start of each night. Then, for every certain number of fleeting illusions we burst, we can gain new collectibles. The types of collectibles are random—besides gold and silver, there are even more powerful prismatic collectibles!" "Based on current intelligence, silver collectibles merely provide a slight boost to strength, gold collectibles can drastically reduce combat difficulty, while prismatic collectibles seem capable of causing a qualitative transformation in combat power, pushing our combat strength infinitely close to the limit of three wings." "But right now there are three collectibles," Diya counted heads, "and there are four of us. How do we divide them?" "Speaking of which, there's another resource to allocate," Yaxiu said. "I have two bottles of Lightless Sanctuary Potion, which allow users to directly complete Sanctuary construction. Add to that this gold collectible, 'Crimson Blessing,' and at least three people will gain the ability to explore the Void Realm tonight." Weise was somewhat surprised. "Haven't you constructed your Sanctuaries either?" "We smuggled our way into the Distant Sky Realm via the Seven-Colored Tail," Yaxiu said frankly. "We only went through our first Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Synchronization Forbidden Rite ten-odd days ago. We haven't even mastered the space faction, so naturally, a Sanctuary is still far off." "Either?" Sonia caught onto that. "Weise, did you also just recently become a Sanctuary Sorcerer?" At that mention, Weise gave a self-deprecating smile and shook her head. "I've been climbing the Distant Sky Realm for several months." "Even a Truth Sorcerer can't construct a Sanctuary within a few months?" Yaxiu clicked his tongue in surprise. He had thought that after becoming a Sanctuary Sorcerer, one could basically master basic job skills within a month; he hadn't expected this probation period to be quite so long. "According to the records I looked up, Sanctuary Sorcerers usually grasp the basics of the space faction after an average of five Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Synchronization Forbidden Rites. If talented, it can be shortened to three," Sonia said. "The forbidden rite doesn't inflict much soul damage on a sorcerer—at most half a month of rest—and as faction experience increases, soul damage gets lower and lower. Therefore, most sorcerers can construct a Sanctuary within three months." "A normal sorcerer takes three months, but I require far longer," Weise said with a bitter smile. "Due to a secret poison, my soul is much more fragile than an ordinary sorcerer's." Yaxiu recalled her dossier. "Is it the Phantom Mirror Dragon Secret Poison?" Weise nodded slightly. Although she had anticipated this, her wariness of Yaxiu deepened even further—sorcery spirits, miracles, secret poison, sorcery factions, even her true name, she was practically transparent before Yaxiu. If Yaxiu were a stranger she would never meet in this lifetime, that would be one thing. But he happened to be a pursuer locked in a fight to the death with her. Once she was exposed... In this instant, Weise even felt a twinge of regret over having used the Dragon Blood Cultivation System and provoking this unfathomable enemy. Yet in the next second, Weise extinguished those weak thoughts in her heart. One cannot fear; fear only makes the enemy stronger and oneself weaker. Do not flee; fleeing is equivalent to abandoning hope and giving up advantages. Reality is merely a fleeting illusion, and so all destinies are void; the Void Realm is the eternal future, and therefore all truths are permitted. This is not a crisis, but an opportunity. The line between hunter and prey has always been blurred. Countless thoughts raced through her mind, but not the slightest trace showed on Weise's face as she continued, "The Phantom Mirror Dragon Secret Poison causes my soul recovery speed and soul defense to be far below average. If I die once in the Void Realm, the recovery time is three to four times that of an ordinary sorcerer. After experiencing the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Synchronization Forbidden Rite several months ago, my soul has only recovered just now. I will need at least one more forbidden rite to construct a Sanctuary, but that would mean resting for several more months again." "A secret poison that only has negative effects?" Yaxiu asked. "Is the secret poison intelligence important, then? Is it helpful for our exploration of the Void Realm?" Weise shook her head. "It's only information regarding the Phantom Mirror Dragon, but it's virtually impossible for us to encounter a Phantom Mirror Dragon in the Void Realm." Yaxiu said, "Then see if you can contract the Golden Fish Secret Poison and the Seven-Colored Tail Secret Poison." As expected, although Weise looked surprised, she still couldn't contract these two secret poisons, just like the Witch back then. For creatures as greedy and suspicious as sorcerers, unless they saw it with their own eyes, they could never completely believe oral accounts from others, and this was even more true for a Truth Sorcerer. Selfless trust was a sorcerer's most precious luxury. "In other words, none of the four of us have a Sanctuary, but there are only three items that can construct a Sanctuary..." "No, don't factor me in," Diya said. "I can already construct a Sanctuary." As if afraid they wouldn't believe her, Diya raised her hand slightly, and a rising transparent Sanctuary encompassed both her and Yaxiu. "You can construct a Sanctuary after only going through the rite once?!" Yaxiu was dumbfounded. "Your spatial talent is almost catching up to the orcs!" "Amazing!" Weise exclaimed in admiration. "Senior Witch's talent is truly incredible!" "Hehe." Diya felt a little bashful. In truth, she hadn't relied on talent at all, but on the omniscience and omnipotence of the Gospel god to forcefully break into the space faction. Although the Gospel god was a blade hanging over her head, it was also a bottomless treasure trove. She could now enter a 60-second state of omniscience and omnipotence each day. Under this state, she could drastically advance existing faction realms—she could even deeply study factions she had never touched before, like destiny prophecy, though the efficiency between the two could differ by thousands or tens of thousands of times. Factions like space already had a foundation from the forbidden rite, so grasping the basics took just a few days, whereas for a faction like destiny, it would probably take an entire year just to touch its edges. Sonia stared blankly at the Witch, then glanced at Weise, lowering her head as nobody knew what thoughts were running through her mind. "Then it's easy to divide: two bottles of Lightless Sanctuary Potion and one Crimson Blessing," Yaxiu said. "However, the Lightless Sanctuary Potion has a drawback: it doesn't increase faction realm, but directly completes Sanctuary construction... The Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Synchronization Forbidden Rite was originally a tempering ordeal to help us enter the space faction. Skipping this step means one might never grasp the basics in their entire life. "Crimson Blessing doesn't have that flaw, and it even helps grow faction experience. It's practically a beginner's gift custom-made for new Sanctuaries." He paused, then pulled out the two potions. "I don't care about faction realm, so I'll drink one. As for the other potion... "Weise, you're in a hurry to construct a Sanctuary. You take it." Weise had no objection. Just as she was about to reach out and take the potion, her wrist was suddenly caught. It was the Sword Princess. "Let me drink it," Sonia said. "My talent is basically all in swordsmanship. Even if I wear the Crimson Blessing tonight, I might not necessarily grasp the space faction. On the contrary, Weise is proficient in over twenty sorcery factions; her talent is far greater than mine. Using this collectible, she will definitely be able to construct a Sanctuary." Weise looked at her in surprise. Although the Sword Princess's words sounded somewhat reasonable at first glance, Crimson Blessing was superior to the Lightless Sanctuary Potion in every way no matter how one looked at it, and she herself coveted this gold collectible more. While there was a chance of taking the collectible and still not mastering the space faction, the worst-case scenario was just undergoing the forbidden rite again; the Sword Princess wasn't infected with the Phantom Mirror Dragon Secret Poison, so she could re-enter the Void Realm in half a month at most. The Watcher's approach was clearly to give priority to the veteran team member, and Weise found that perfectly reasonable. Why would the Sword Princess decline it? Yaxiu was also somewhat surprised. He gestured for the Sword Princess to step aside with him and asked, "Are you serious? You know how important the space faction is, right?" "Mhm." Sonia nodded. "But if I fail to construct a Sanctuary, I'll have to undergo the forbidden rite tomorrow night." "Then undergo it. That was originally a trial sorcerers have to endure; we only skipped it through a shortcut." "If I die in the forbidden rite, I won't be able to enter the Void Realm for days..." "What does that matter?" Yaxiu laughed. "Setting aside the fact that I have Blazing Soul Essence Special Drink to help speed up your recovery, as you said yourself, the more spatial experience you have, the less soul damage you take. You'll probably recover in just a few days. Isn't spending that little bit of time to step into the space faction totally worth it?" "But I'm not like the Witch or Weise. My spatial talent isn't high." Sonia fingered her hilt, feeling uneasy. "It might take four or five times, maybe even six or seven times before I can grasp it..." "Then six or seven times it is. At most, it'll take a month or two," Yaxiu said. "What's the rush?" The head of the Paw Stretching Club didn't answer. She only looked up, eyes wide and lips pouted, staring at him. Yaxiu pondered for a moment and finally understood. "A new member just joined, and if you're absent on the other hand, you're afraid the new member will take your place and lower your standing in the team." In fact, it wasn't hard to understand the Sword Princess's worry. It was like when you often play games in a party with someone, and suddenly you can't log on due to an errand, only to find a few days later that they've found a new teammate, leaving you feeling like an outsider who can no longer fit in. "You said before," Sonia said faintly, "that an operator's place in your heart depends on their strength." "Did I? Did I really say that?" Yaxiu blinked. "Well, I still think that way now." "So..." With a casual motion, Crimson Blessing appeared in Yaxiu's hand. He fastened the necklace around her neck and smiled. "If you don't even step into the space faction, how are you going to become the strongest operator?"