Little Brother

Clang, clang, clang, clang! Within the corridor, the ceaseless shriek of bullets biting iron rang without end. Yaxiu turned sideways to face the enemy, minimizing his exposed profile as much as possible. His sword danced like a shield, stubbornly protecting him amid the storm of gunfire! After the earlier trials, Yaxiu had gained a bit of confidence, but the moment the second day's trial began, it dealt him a blunt head-on blow— Phantom Annan! A mobile sorcerer specializing in gun arts! In theory, without the assistance of sorcery power and sorcery spirits, he had absolutely no way to parry bullets. Otherwise, gun sorcerers would never have earned the reputation of possessing the "most formidable offensive arts beneath the Sanctuary." Even a three-winged sorcerer had to rely on a Sanctuary to withstand it head-on before finally putting an end to the gun sorcerer's meta advantage. Yet for reasons unknown, although he couldn't use his sorcerer powers in this underground trial, his senses seemed to have been heightened. Air currents, scents, lines of sight, hostility, sounds... All these factors arranged and combined in an uncanny manner within his mind, coalescing into a far sharper intuition. If he had to compare it to something, it was quite similar to Concept Secret Poison. The side effect of this secret poison was that it occasionally allowed one to catch a glimpse of the world's underlying truth. An ordinary person's vision could only see reflected light, whereas those poisoned by Concept could perceive the traces of miracles—such as the Gospel's sky-blotting spiderweb. Curiously, despite having been in Senluo for so many days, Yaxiu had never seen any colossal miracle that used an entire realm as its stage. Though he occasionally glimpsed brilliant colors, they were nothing more than the Curtains erected by various factions to arm their cities. And Yaxiu's current sensation was like suffering from a permanent form of Concept Secret Poison. The world was no longer just a monotonous mix of light, vibrations, scents, and currents, but possessed something far more hidden, miraculous, and elusive... Crack! A bullet scraped past his blade, ricocheted over his forehead, and sheared away a patch of flesh and blood. Yaxiu looked toward the Phantom Purple Moth fifty paces away, only to see her void wings fully unfurled. Purple radiance gathered on the wings, materializing into four miraculous firearms. Coupled with the two submachine guns in her hands, she formed a barrage of fire in this narrow corridor that spelled utter despair! Miracle: Doran Family's Glory! That truly was its name, for it was Annan's exclusive miracle. Grounded in the gun arts faction, this miracle blended alchemy, illusions, pyromancy, and other sorceries. Moreover, the reason she could utilize her void wings this way was due to her Silver Blessing, Burning Wings, which permitted her to fuse sorcery spirits into her void wings and modify them! From this, one could also tell that the young miss Annan was truly an absurdly overpowered protagonist of a youth novel. Setting aside her family background, her inherent talent and fortuitous encounters were already on the level of a chosen daughter of destiny. Even without Yaxiu and the others meddling, she could have carved out a place for herself on the Future Board entirely on her own. When she was an ally, even if she wasn't a proper superior, the working environment had still been quite comfortable. Yet once she became an enemy, everything changed. The Phantom Purple Moth's twin guns had already been grueling enough to deal with, but now that she had unleashed her full firepower, Yaxiu had no doubt he would be blasted to mush like an apple pie in that hail of bullets! Just as the Phantom Purple Moth unleashed her miracle and prepared her battery, the Watcher suddenly leaped back and forth against the walls, rapidly closing in on the gun sorcerer's forbidden zone from above! Without question, the Phantom Purple Moth's muzzles immediately swung upward, cutting off all his avenues of escape! Da-da-da-da-da—! The deafening gunshots echoed through the corridor, building into a heart-wrenching roar from Hell. The assault on their eardrums alone was enough to send a sorcerer reeling in dizziness. Yet facing a floodgate-level torrent of gunfire, the Watcher kicked hard against the wall. His figure shifted unpredictably between fast and slow as he leaped back and forth overhead, skimming past bullets again and again like a butterfly in a violent storm! At that moment, the Phantom Purple Moth abruptly shifted her aim toward Yaxiu. In the brief seconds while the Watcher drew her attention, Yaxiu immediately slipped into the shadows to close the distance. His Observer's Countenance and Listener's Sorrow seemed to still have some effect. While utterly useless in a one-on-one duel, with someone else drawing aggro, he became an ignored bystander whom no one paid attention to! Da-da-da! Within seven paces, guns were both swift and accurate. Yaxiu only managed to deflect half the bullets; the other half he swept his arm to block. But how could mortal flesh halt cold steel? Yet Yaxiu hadn't actually planned on stopping bullets with flesh and bone. As the rounds penetrated his body and spun at high velocity—inducing a cavitation effect and bursting forth in star-shaped ruptures—bursts of bloody mist exploded from his limbs. With a swing of his arm, he splashed the blood toward the Phantom Purple Moth's eyes! Even so, it proved futile. The terrifying kinetic energy of the bullets was enough to arrest Yaxiu's charge. He only had time to fling out Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart, yet the Phantom Purple Moth merely tilted aside, effortlessly dodging Yaxiu's desperate gamble. But Yaxiu was not alone. From above, a figure spinning like a top plunged downward, effortlessly slipping through the disorganized barrage caused by the momentary loss of sight. The Watcher landed, slicing off the barrels of the Phantom Purple Moth's twin guns in a single flash, and thrust his longsword forward to slit the beauty's throat. The Phantom Purple Moth collapsed with a thud, the light fading from her eyes as blood pooled beneath her. Two bursts of blazing flame drifted out from her body and descended onto Yaxiu and the Watcher. Following a violent tremor throughout his body, every bullet lodged in Yaxiu popped out. His wounds healed, his stamina returned, and even the cavitation channels caused by the bullets vanished without a trace. He sat up and looked at where his wounds had been, a trace of puzzlement on his face. "Did you dare charge to certain death like that because you were certain the trial would reward you with full recovery from your injuries?" the Watcher asked calmly, wiping the blood from his blade against his elbow. "Yeah," Yaxiu nodded. "After all, the first trial yesterday gave us that kind of reward, so there was no reason the second one wouldn't. Besides, in that situation just now, since you opened up an opening, I had to coordinate with you and charge." "What if there was no reward, or the reward wasn't enough to heal you, or you were killed outright? What would you have done then?" Yaxiu paused, then shook his head. "Things were so urgent, how could I have had time to think about all that?" The Watcher said nothing more and sheathed his sword. Yaxiu walked past the Phantom Purple Moth's corpse, glanced at the cut on her throat, and said, "Thanks." The Watcher paid him no heed and broke into a run down the corridor, with Yaxiu following close behind. From last night's experience, it was clear that as long as they had not reached the next hall, the trials would continue unabated. In other words, the longer they lingered in the corridor, the more battles they would have to fight. Moving faster would reduce the number of encounters. However, unless one was an ascetic sorcerer, the physical differences between sorcerers were minimal. Whoever designed this trial had surely taken that into account. Running slow was bound to put one at a disadvantage, but sprinting wouldn't necessarily offer much benefit either—excessive exhaustion from running might even lead to a disastrous failure in the middle of a trial. "Have you noticed?" Yaxiu suddenly remarked. "Today's 'reward' seems even more generous than yesterday's." "The reward from the first stage only healed our wounds and restored our stamina, but the reward from the second stage seems to improve our physical constitution as well. Though it's subtle, without the interference of sorcery power or sorcery spirits, I can definitely feel my senses growing sharper." "Actually, I felt something strange during the fight just now. Even though my swordsmanship has reached the Gold rank, it shouldn't be good enough to deflect bullets. Yet in this trial, not only were my various senses enhanced, but I could faintly trace certain marks that transcended reality. That was why I could place my blade along the bullet's path even before it left the muzzle." "My intuition wasn't nearly this sharp yesterday. Thinking back, yesterday's 'reward' must have taken root and sprouted inside me. In that case, how far will today's 'reward' nurture this seed?" Yaxiu rambled on for a while without getting any response, so he looked at the Watcher in puzzlement. After thinking it over, he asked, "Are you upset because girls like me?" The Watcher gave him a cool glance. Yaxiu patted the Watcher's shoulder and consoled, "You look identical to me, so people are bound to like you too! Even Harvey managed to get kissed by a little girl—could you really be worse than Harvey?" "Say, what do you think this trial is trying to do? It seals away our sorcery power, yet makes us stronger through each trial..." The Watcher finally spoke: "You've clearly already formed an opinion. Why seek an answer from me?" "Because I need you to validate my judgment!" Yaxiu said with a pumped fist. "Besides, if you're thinking along the same lines as me, doesn't that prove I'm right?" "Do you need others' validation that badly?" "Not just anyone's," Yaxiu said. "But you're my little brother." At this moment, even the Watcher—who had navigated the storm of gunfire with ease, crossed the Angel Graveyard, and faced great gods without a shred of fear—suddenly felt a string snap inside his heart. Over there, Yaxiu was still chattering away: "...Look, you were just born yesterday, you're younger than me, and you're weaker than me, so obviously you're the little brother and I'm the big brother. Then again, our family isn't big on seniority titles anyway; I always just call our older brother by his name. So there's no need for you to call me 'Big Brother Yaxiu.' After all, a grown man calling me that would be pretty embarrassing for me too..." "...Mm," the Watcher replied. "Though the point isn't really about being brothers," Yaxiu said. "It's because you care about my safety, so naturally I hope my decisions can earn your approval." "While I can't guarantee I won't have to risk my life again in the next fight, I will cherish my life more," Yaxiu said, looking at his twin. "And I'll trust in your abilities even more." Such familiar words, the Watcher thought. It felt as though he had once said something similar to someone. To whom was it? Still, the important thing wasn't who the listener had been, but how much sincerity and falsehood lay concealed within those words. "There's one thing, though, that genuinely puzzles me," Yaxiu said. "The way the trial reward heals us isn't reconstructive healing like Water Therapy. It's more like something I've heard of before, but can't quite place—" The Watcher said, "Bullets expelled, flesh restored, tissues returned to pristine condition—as if everything reverted to the state before being injured." "That is the effect of the time-reversal series of sorcery spirits. It is healing through the reversal of time."