Affixes

Though it was somewhat hard to believe, Diya was indeed the one with the greatest need for strength. Her 'Water-Born Line' miracle was an extension of the fist-and-claw faction and inherently required immense physical power as a foundation, whereas Yaxiu's and Sonia's swordsmanship placed greater emphasis on skill and speed. As such, Diya took the Ogre Gauntlets. The Coffin of Sorcery Spirits could have gone to anyone. In light of Yaxiu's blatant favoritism toward the Sword Princess in full view of everyone, he yielded this collectible to Weise. After downing the two Lightless Sanctuary Potions, both Yaxiu and Weise could now expend sorcery power to condense a Sanctuary. But how to put it? Unlike sorcery spirits or miracles, the Lightless Sanctuary was practically a black box. Yaxiu had no understanding of its underlying principles, knowing only that channeling sorcery power into it would raise the Sanctuary. Unless they stepped into the space faction later on, their Sanctuaries would remain stuck at this rudimentary stage. Now that everyone was fully prepared, their exploration of the Void Realm officially began! "...Having said that," Yaxiu glanced around at the surrounding streets, "how exactly do we explore the Distant Sky Realm?" "Discover the traits of the world and summarize the corresponding affixes!" Having consulted countless reference materials, Sonia immediately explained, "Every dream bubble has different affixes. If a sorcerer wants to obtain knowledge, sorcery spirits, sorcery power, or other resources, they must find a way to discover these affixes!" Unlike the Sea of Knowledge and the Time Continent, now that a sorcerer's 'journey' was no longer tested, the Distant Sky Realm set forth a new evaluation criterion for sorcerers: researching the world. "Although dream bubbles are rooted in reality, the world laws within each dream bubble become distorted depending on the dreamer—such as water flowing upward, bugs raining from the sky, or people bleeding pink or green blood..." Sonia said. "As long as sorcerers discover the distorted laws and summarize the corresponding affixes, they can steal the power of the dream bubble. "If all the affixes in a dream bubble are deduced, it becomes completely stabilized, and there's no longer any danger of it suddenly bursting—it will only vanish once all the sorcerers have departed." "Then how do we discover the world's traits?" Yaxiu glanced at the town buildings around them. "By studying it slowly?" "Generally, there are two methods. The first is relying on scouting miracles to quickly identify the differences between the dream bubble and the real world," Sonia said. "However, the efficiency of that is very low, because many affixes do not take effect on the external environment, but rather act upon sorcerers or even sorcery spirits. As for the second method..." "Wreaking havoc." Diya pulled out a Water-Born Line. "Inside a dream bubble, aside from these bystanders, there are also Void Realm creatures and sorcerer projections. As long as we cause enough destruction to flush them out and defeat them, affix information will drop." "Huh?" Yaxiu was taken aback, looking at the bakery clerk bustling not far away. "Isn't that a bit bad?" "What's bad about it?" Weise suddenly reached out and shoved a passing young man. The young man tumbled to the ground, but he didn't even look at them, immediately getting back up and continuing on his way. "This is merely a dream. Everyone here is a meaningless projection, and this dream could shatter at any second, making everything disappear," Weise said. "In a dream, fate is an illusion; truth is permitted. The Distant Sky Realm requires us not only to understand the boundlessness of space, but also to see through the illusion of dream bubbles. Any sorcerer who cannot see past this will be unable to progress." So everyone is just an NPC... Yaxiu exhaled, tightening his grip on his longsword. "Understood. Is there anything else we need to look out for?" "Oh, right," Diya added. "The first dream bubble where sorcerers descend is almost always a peaceful scenario, meaning the surrounding people won't show malice toward us. But in many dangerous scenarios, the moment a sorcerer behaves out of place with their surroundings, Void Realm creatures will awaken and trigger a battle. "Even in a peaceful scenario, staying here too long might draw an ambush from Void Realm creatures—" Boom! From the second floor of the building behind them, a Ragecleaver Dragon covered in molten scales burst forth, hurtling straight down at them! Simultaneously, a passing hooded figure suddenly thrust an open palm toward them, instantly draining the air around them to create a vacuum trap that ensnared them, while a transparent barrier rose around the cloaked figure! A Molten-Scaled Ragecleaver Dragon! A mature mutant of the Fishcleaver Dragon; every single scale could trigger a localized explosion, and a strike from its tail was a double critical hit of explosion and slicing! A Wind Sanctuary Sorcerer! Although the vacuum trap created by draining the air could only restrict them for a moment, within the span of those few breaths alone, the Wind Sanctuary Sorcerer could lay down a dismembering wind field capable of slicing them to ribbons... No, Yaxiu and the others discovered in shock that while the Wind Sanctuary Sorcerer had merely evacuated the air from the area, the rushing backdraft was actually cutting into their soul bodies like razor-sharp blades! Had they not all been capable of activating a Sanctuary, this single move would have been enough to kill them instantly! In an instant, the sorcerer squad was plunged into a desperate crisis! Even though Yaxiu had expected to encounter Sanctuary-level enemies in the Distant Sky Realm, he hadn't anticipated such a ferocious onslaught! Yet this was only natural. Two-winged sorcerers could still potentially be unsuited for combat, since one could still skip classes on the Time Continent—they could simply absorb sorcery power without troubling gregarious creatures. However, judging by the mechanics of the Distant Sky Realm, there were no longer any shortcuts to exploit. If a Sanctuary Sorcerer wanted to acquire resources in the Distant Sky Realm, they had to slaughter their way through the dream bubbles! After enduring such high-intensity battles, Sanctuary Sorcerers without exception became tactical weapons! Consequently, the sorcerer projections left behind in the Distant Sky Realm were naturally Sanctuary brutes, every last one! Compared to Yaxiu, who was still caught off guard, the others had anticipated this long ago. Weise's notebook flipped open automatically. She had long since placed a psychological suggestion upon herself: the moment she suffered an unforeseen curse or ambush, she would immediately activate the defensive miracle recorded in her notebook. The Truth miracle centered around the illusion sorcery spirit—"Nothing Happened"! The moment it was activated, the vacuum trap ceased to pull at her. After a brief hesitation, she cast this miracle upon Yaxiu and the others as well. This was the formidable might of "Nothing Happened": the miracle induced an illusion, making it as though one were completely unaffected! Not only could it nullify the vast majority of external influences, it could even deceive death, allowing one to move normally despite suffering fatal wounds! Two days ago in the food factory town, when she had stepped into the mind sorcerer's trap and Crow Slaughterer found an opening to pierce her heart, she would have died right then and there had it not been for the death protection of "Nothing Happened"! With the aid of "Nothing Happened," Sonia swiftly regained her footing. Stepping forward to meet the diving Molten-Scaled Ragecleaver Dragon, streams of water threads emerged around her. Miracle: Meteor Tribulation! The moment the Molten-Scaled Ragecleaver Dragon touched the threads, trans-spatial strikes from unseen blades sliced it in two! At the same time, Diya gave a tug toward the Wind Sanctuary Sorcerer, and her Water-Born Lines instantly bound him! Within this team, Diya possessed the most complete sorcery spirit build—she was, after all, the Empress of the Gospel Country, with the entire nation's resources at her disposal! Over the past few days, Diya had meticulously assembled a suite of sorcery spirits for herself. Although Water-Born Line remained her primary means of attack, she had added three core sorcery spirits: 'Sight,' 'Soul Suppression,' and 'Void Cleave.' The 'Sight' sorcery spirit allowed any of her miracles to strike along her line of sight. She no longer needed to cast Water-Born Lines forward at all; as long as an enemy was within her vision, the lines would sprout straight from their eye sockets, mouth, earlobes, heart, and other body parts! The 'Soul Suppression' sorcery spirit exerted a powerful suppressing effect on soul bodies, manifesting as dizziness, blindness, sluggishness, loss of thought, and more. In reality, such a sorcery spirit might not be particularly useful since sorcerers were shielded by physical bodies, but in the Void Realm, it was an undeniable weapon of mass slaughter! The 'Void Cleave' sorcery spirit gave Diya the means to slice open Sanctuaries. Combined with 'Sight' and 'Soul Suppression,' she could subdue a Sanctuary Sorcerer projection in an instant! Though they did not belong to the mystery faction, 'Sight,' 'Soul Suppression,' and 'Void Cleave' were exceptionally rare even within the Yisu Treasury. They brought about a qualitative leap in Diya's combat strength—her attack range surpassed that of a gun sorcerer, and her destructive power exceeded that of a sword sorcerer! Coupled with the acceleration from her time sorcery spirits, she could tear any enemy to shreds in an instant! Boom! Slash! Just as Yaxiu regained his senses, the Molten-Scaled Ragecleaver Dragon had already been bisected, and the Wind Sanctuary Sorcerer was in an even more pathetic state—the stir-fried Lalafell Yaxiu had eaten today was in better shape than he was. Moments later, the Molten-Scaled Ragecleaver Dragon dissolved into wisps of smoke, leaving behind an Experience Orb and a two-winged sorcery spirit. The Wind Sanctuary Sorcerer had unexpectedly dropped nothing more than a sorcerer manual—the drop rates here were evidently quite low. However, Yaxiu and the others did not immediately collect their spoils. Instead, their eyes were fixed on the two lines of text formed by the wisps of smoke: "All things are unstoppable." "Even a goose feather can slice through steel." "These are the hints left behind by the Void Realm creatures," Sonia said. "We have to analyze the true affixes of this dream bubble from these hints. If they aren't enough, we'll need to keep seeking out other Void Realm creatures in this dream—" "It's space." Weise suddenly spoke up. "That vacuum trap earlier should have only restricted our movements, yet the airflow was able to harm us. I was wondering if it was some miracle... but now it seems it was the affix's effect. "In this world, every impact produces a spatial cutting effect." Whoosh. As if time were flowing backward, all the damage caused by the battle was restored to its original state. The bystanders torn apart by the battle's aftershocks were revived unharmed, and everyone resumed their activities as though nothing had happened. Only a stream of information flowed into the sorcerers' minds: "Trails of the Void: Glass cannons are a thing of the past; now it's glass space annihilation cannons. All attacks penetrate space." "Affix Identification Reward: Small amount of space faction experience, small amount of sorcery power." "Limited Affix Privilege: Your next attack is guaranteed to trigger Trails of the Void." Watching the tiny traces of seven-colored void wings condensing on their backs, Yaxiu and the others finally understood the method of exploring the Distant Sky Realm—slaughter! Slaughter their way through every dream bubble, and conquer every world affix! In the first and second layers of the Void Realm, sorcery power could at least be gained simply by traveling. In the third layer, however, if you didn't identify the world affixes, you couldn't even condense sorcery power! If before they were wage earners who received a base salary and could slack off, now they were freelance creators whose income depended entirely on their output! Even if you were a shut-in Sanctuary Sorcerer, by the time you could fully condense the Seven-Colored Wings, you would inevitably have become a battle-hardened tactical weapon who had seen countless affixes. Yaxiu sighed. "I still prefer the carefree exploration style of the Time Continent." "Mm-hmm!" Diya nodded repeatedly. "Every dream bubble is different. The Distant Sky Realm feels like it's going to be exhausting." "The sorcerer's path is getting harder and harder," Sonia couldn't help saying as well. Watching these bastards sigh and complain, Weise thought to herself that any other Sanctuary Sorcerer caught in that ambush would have had to fight a protracted, grueling battle. Here they were, having won so effortlessly, yet complaining it wasn't easy enough. She couldn't resist asking, "Were your battles on the Time Continent really even easier than that?" Yaxiu: "On the Time Continent, we had a car. We could run over sorcerer projections and kill them." Sonia: "We ran over quite a few Void Realm creatures, too." Diya: "It's not like we haven't run over and killed a Heroic Spirit Commander either." Weise: "Are you talking about a car or some kind of weapon of war?" "Honestly, it's pretty much a weapon of war already," Yaxiu said. "If I keep upgrading that sports car..." "Punching straight through a Heroic Spirit Legion won't be much trouble at all." ... Void Realm, Time Continent. With the screech of tires from a sudden brake, the sports car drifted in a donut arc and came to a halt. At the front of the car were gruesome blades dripping with blood; at the rear was thick, poisonous fog. Beside the car lay a battlefield strewn with corpses. With one final charge, a tottering purple silhouette was once again sent flying. Standing up inside the car, the Veela poked their head out to inspect. "Looks like it's dead." "Really dead?" the Blood Saint asked. "That was a Heroic Spirit Commander! The number one natural disaster on the Time Continent! The despair my master repeatedly warned me never to approach!" "His shoes even flew off, and sorcery spirits dropped," the purple moth said. "We..." "Really crushed an entire Heroic Spirit Legion just using this car."