Underfoot was the sluggish Flowing Gold River; behind them was the Square-Round Cicada.
Sometimes, there was no way to keep living without hurting others.
"Your Gate of Truth never opened at all," Weise said. "You're the only sorcerer who hasn't released the Flowing Gold River."
"As long as we die, the Flowing Gold River will completely run dry, and you'll be able to escape alive."
"Even Legendary Sorcerers like them couldn't seal their own Gates of Truth," Yaxiu said, his voice raspy. "What makes you think I could manage to stay untouched?"
"Except you really didn't open your Gate of Truth. I saw it."
"Aren't you suspicious that your eyes played tricks on you? Every sorcerer has a Gate of Truth, and becoming a divine fire seed triggers resonance with the Void Realm, making it impossible to close the Gate of Truth—"
"There's no way I was mistaken," Weise said. "I've been watching you the entire time."
Weise's knowledge that Yaxiu lacked a Gate of Truth had actually come from casual chatter in the Void Realm. Yaxiu had once mocked himself for being a Sanctuary Sorcerer who didn't even possess an autonomous sorcery spirit capable of opening a Gate of Truth.
Still, she hadn't lied.
Yaxiu turned his head to look at her. She met his gaze placidly, a peculiar light rippling in her eyes behind the fox mask.
"Are you trying to deny the truth first to lower my guard, and then find an opening to strike? There's no need," she said. "I'm not like you. If I knew I was about to march toward eternity, I wouldn't insist on dragging someone else along. For this final leg, I must be alone."
"The outcome now is simply either you survive or neither of us survives. Since you still want to indulge in illusions, what reason do I have not to satisfy you?"
Yaxiu lowered his gaze and sneered. "I don't recall Silver Lantern being a good person. Is your conscience finally speaking up because you're about to die?"
"Hardly." Weise showed no offense. "If it were anyone else, I'd definitely kill them first to keep them from killing me, and then hold on until the very end, waiting for some unknown miracle."
"Only with you will I satisfy whatever you ask." Her footsteps sent splashes through the Flowing Gold River as she moved toward the nonexistent destination step by step.
"Why? Am I not the avenger who's been hunting you down all along?"
"Right, an avenger." Weise seemed to recall something. "Then feel free to choose whichever death you prefer. Do you want a clean, decisive sword strike to save me any pain, or do you want to torture me bit by bit until I die in agony? Strangled to death, gutted, beheaded, or drawn and quartered? Though this environment hardly suits an execution, as long as you want someone to suffer, you can always make it happen. When it comes to cruelty, every sorcerer is a genius."
She grabbed Yaxiu's hand and shoved it toward his sword hilt. "Come on. Avenge what happened to you; avenge your justice. Do you want me to give up all resistance, or must I struggle a little to satisfy your desires—"
"Stop messing around! I'm not like you!"
Yaxiu violently shoved her hand away. Weise stumbled and nearly fell, but Yaxiu's quick hands caught and steadied her immediately.
"I don't torture people." A faint trace of amusement actually crept into Weise's voice. "Whenever I kill someone, I make them think it was merely an illusion before waking up."
"How many people have you killed?"
"If we're talking about doing it with my own hands, not really that many. But if we include indirect methods like wiping out other cults, destroying Nightfall's surface city, scheming to throw rival cults into endless death matches, and the Dragon Blood Cultivation System..." Weise said placidly, "it reaches several hundred thousand."
Feeling the sudden surge of strength in his grip, Weise glanced sidelong at him, the corners of her mouth curving slightly upward behind her mask.
She knew very well that telling a lie and playing pathetic was the best option here.
Yet for some reason, she simply wanted to lay herself bare with reckless abandon, acting completely unlike her usual self.
Even before summoning the Illusion sorcery spirit, she had already learned to hide herself, presenting only her brilliance, kindness, warmth, consideration, and myriad other virtues, appearing entirely without flaw. After obtaining the Illusion sorcery spirit, she had even concealed her own name. Before defecting from the Calamitous Fire Cult, every living soul had been captivated by her wonderful first impression, as though she were an unstained lotus.
Yet before Yaxiu, she couldn't wait to rip up the tangled roots she had buried deep underground and drag them into the light. She had no idea what she was expecting, but she just wanted Yaxiu to see it.
Yaxiu fell silent. Neither of them spoke another word, grinding through the last dregs of their strength as they trudged through the Flowing Gold River. Though they exchanged no words, Weise seemed able to sense Yaxiu's thoughts through their body heat—he would make his decision before reaching the slope.
The closer they got to the end, the greater the river's resistance grew, and the slower their movement became. Every drop of the Flowing Gold River was like the strike of a giant bell hammer, rattling their souls and shattering their thoughts.
Worse yet, they already knew that reaching the slope would not bring an end. Losing the promise of an endpoint made the trial on their willpower all the more severe. Every cell urged them to give up quickly, to yield to the torrent of history and accept their fate.
Yet Weise walked with growing steadiness. Though she had nearly been washed away earlier, from then on, the Flowing Gold River never affected her again.
Her will was like an unpolished piece of jade: the more time eroded and carved it, the more dazzling her gaze became.
Yaxiu was already struggling immensely, but Weise kept dragging him forward. Looking at Silver Lantern's back, he seemed to see a madwoman capable of defying the wheels of history.
Placed in the Grey Fox God Era, she would have stood alongside those legends as an earthly saint exploring the boundaries of possibility. Placed in the wasteland of Senluo, she had risen above millions of believers to become the world-upending Silver Lantern Mirror Master.
She felt not the slightest guilt over harming so many people. Her rebellious will meant that as long as she lived, she would only continue executing her philosophy, advancing step by step toward the apocalyptic demise she envisioned.
If she died, the Flowing Gold River would stop flowing.
If she died, the story would end right here.
*Splash.*
Water splashed as golden drops landed on the slope and slid down.
Time had no end, but journeys had destinations. Holding Yaxiu's hand, Weise finally reached the slope.
This was their destination.
She stopped and suddenly turned around, seizing Yaxiu's Honeyed Words and Belly Sword to draw it swiftly. Throughout the process, her eyes remained fixed on Yaxiu, as if waiting for something.
Yet Yaxiu merely watched her with calm eyes. For two people who knew each other inside out, a blade could no longer affect their fight.
Finding it dull, Weise gripped the blade with a reverse hold and offered it back to him. Whether intentionally or not, the tip pointed straight at her throat. If Yaxiu grabbed it and thrust with force, no matter how fast she was, she would never react in time.
Yaxiu gripped the hilt without moving, then suddenly asked, "Didn't I lose a wager earlier and owe you a favor? Why didn't you use it here?"
"Using it here would be far too wasteful," Weise smiled.
*Then when are you saving it for?*
Yaxiu suddenly recalled Igola. When they departed Blood Moon through the Void Realm passage, Igola had stubbornly refused to use his wish to have Yaxiu save him, leaving Yaxiu still owing him a favor to this day.
*You people...*
He sighed inwardly and sheathed the sword.
"Even if the Flowing Gold River stops flowing, the Square-Round Cicada won't disappear," he said. "Its predatory instincts have already awakened. If I'm the only one left in the passage, will it just get full and let me walk away?"
In the end, their true threat was not the Flowing Gold River, but the Square-Round Cicada. Just as homework wouldn't leap up and punch you if you didn't do it—the ones who blamed you were your parents and teachers.
Solving the Flowing Gold River without resolving the Square-Round Cicada merely meant changing the cicada's dining room; it would still eat what it had to eat.
However, this reasoning only justified why he *could* refrain from killing Silver Lantern.
Silver Lantern said nothing, watching him quietly. Yaxiu averted his eyes, gritting his teeth as he asked, "Am I wrong?"
"You're very right," Silver Lantern chuckled softly. "By the way, didn't you ask me earlier why I'm willing to grant your requests?"
"I think it's just like how you chose not to stab me just now." She leaned closer to Yaxiu, as though wishing to see him more clearly. "Both come from the very same reason."
Yaxiu paid her no heed and turned his head toward the Square-Round Cicada behind them.
Because they had moved so slowly, the Square-Round Cicada had nearly finished off the supply right in front of it.
Several dozen legends from the Grey Fox Era—names prominent enough to represent that entire age. Yet here, they could satisfy the Square-Round Cicada's appetite for mere dozens of minutes.
Though the river water continued to batter their thoughts at every moment, at least they no longer had to press forward against the current. Yaxiu finally had some mental bandwidth left to ponder how to break through their present predicament.
Fighting was impossible. Within the Flowing Gold River, the Square-Round Cicada was practically a deity that governed time.
Fleeing was also impossible. Setting aside whether the cicada transformation chamber could take them back, reaching it meant slipping past the Square-Round Cicada, which seemed capable of turning anyone nearby into yogurt. Among the legends who had drifted downstream earlier, some had tried to get past the cicada to reach the chamber, but simply drifting past had caused them to freeze right by its mouthparts.
No matter how he looked at it, this was a dead end. Yaxiu racked his memory for items from *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*, but couldn't think of anything usable—mainly because with sorcery spirits sealed, he couldn't employ any sorcerer methods at all...
"Come to think of it," Yaxiu said suddenly, "is the Square-Round Cicada a sorcery spirit or a grand law right now?"
"It doesn't have to be one or the other," Weise replied. "As a most peculiar existence, it retains the traits of a grand law while also possessing the spellcasting nature of a sorcery spirit."
"What I mean is, since it's a sorcery spirit and we're sorcerers..." Yaxiu mused, "is there any chance we could control it?"
Yet the moment the words left his mouth, he shook his head, rejecting the possibility. "To dominate a sorcery spirit, you must at least make contact with it. But if we even draw near, we'll become its prey."
Weise, however, stared pensively at the feeding Square-Round Cicada. She gently scratched Yaxiu's palm, as if letting her hesitation spill over.
Yaxiu didn't press. After a brief wait, Weise said slowly, "I might have a way."
"You still remember that my blood isn't red, don't you?"
Chapter 598