Harvey drew back the curtain and peered at the street outside the inn.
Even though the night was already deep, the entire town was pitch-dark, void of both candlelight and lamplight. One had to rely on sorcery spirit miracles to gain night vision just to navigate the darkness. Even so, surprisingly many people were strolling along the streets or even conducting trade, the shadows filled with endless murmurs of conversation and soft footsteps.
Blind Town, headquarters of the Blindsight Cult, was also one of the most famous commercial hubs in the Harp Sun Alliance.
The town's defining rule was that everyone had to pretend to be blind and could not produce any source of light. Even during the day, a barrier outside blocked out the sunlight, leaving the inside steeped in pitch darkness no matter the hour...
Dark and lightless though it was, as a cult's sanctuary it naturally repelled the Strangling Green of the night. In fact, due to the peculiar nature of Blind Town, even the Green Calamity dared not approach it. Even with crowds bustling through the streets, no sorcerer dared fight here. In safety, it ranked among the top five in the Harp Sun Alliance, and in prosperity, it was second only to Black Robe Town.
The rules of Blind Town could not be broken. The moment you revealed you weren't blind or produced a source of light, then... you would become genuinely blind, permanently losing your sight beyond the repair of any miracle. You would even forget what "eyes" were, and the sockets where your eyes once were would be smoothed flat over flesh.
The reason, naturally, was that a Grey Fox legacy lay hidden within Blind Town. Uncannily enough, it was once again connected to Grand Law Wubainian.
After all, Grand Law Wubainian had once pursued bodily enhancement and conducted numerous experiments, one of which asked: "If a sense is lost, can other talents be permanently amplified?"
The outcome of that experiment remained unknown, but the Blindsight Cult had branched out from it. What they pursued was "the total loss of all senses to merge as one with the world and attain immortality." Their devotees were all residents of Blind Town who voluntarily forfeited their sight, and every single Blindsight devotee, provided they lived to adulthood, became a sorcerer without exception.
Without exception—not even a single fool among them.
Yet the Blindsight Cult could hardly be counted among the dominant cults, precisely because self-mutilation was rampant among them. For instance, right now Harvey saw someone out on the street grinding their hands down, grinding until the wrist bones were exposed—such a waste that it made even Harvey's heart ache for the material.
The Blindsight devotees did not pursue pain; they pursued "reduction of information." As if providing theoretical backing for "losing all senses," the Blindsight Cult posited the doctrine of "Emptiness is Bliss"—namely, that human suffering stemmed from what one knew and acquired; so long as one received no information at all, one would become "empty," thereby attaining peace of mind.
Simple sensory mutilation was meaningless; what they sought was to "forget the senses." Just as Blind Town made them completely forget what eyes were, Blindsight devotees constantly searched for other ways to make themselves "forget sensation." They even regarded "forgetting oneself" as their ultimate pursuit, styling it as "forgetting both self and world, becoming one with nature."
And because Blindsight devotees only "sought inward," they never paid attention to outsiders visiting Blind Town. As long as you didn't state that you could see or create light, they would ignore you. If you wished to become a Blindsight devotee, all you had to do was make some light.
Furthermore, due to these rules, sorcerers in Blind Town dared not fight at all—after all, a stray bump or clash could easily strike a spark. As long as you had no desire to join the Blindsight Cult, you had to behave yourself in Blind Town. This satisfied the crucial requirement for a marketplace in the Senluo Wasteland, making its rise as a trading hub completely natural.
For Harvey, however, the greatest benefit of Blind Town was that he could keep Alice by his side without having to apply makeup to her every day. Harvey was actually quite a considerate necromancer; to spare his teammates' feelings, he maintained Alice almost daily. After all, "Corrosive Aura," "Terrifying Dread," and "Negative Energy Incursion" were innate talents of every undead, and only careful makeup could neutralize these passive combat effects. Whenever others caught sight of Alice without makeup, they fumed inwardly but dared not utter a word.
As for Yaxiu and the others, they had gradually grown numb to it through sheer habit.
"He's not back yet?"
The sound of a door opening echoed in the darkness. Yaxiu and Igola stepped into the room, accompanied by the fluttering of wings.
Seeing Harvey and Alice in the room, both of them subconsciously shifted their gaze slightly until all-natural Alice was out of their field of view.
They had grown accustomed to looking slightly aside so that neither Harvey nor Alice would notice.
"Not yet," Harvey said. "Maybe he finally decided to become a blind crow."
Five days had passed since they left the Twin Cult.
After rescuing Yaxiu, the quartet fled at first light without daring to stop for breakfast. The Dark Serpent Twins had revealed the cult's core Nightfall control console to Igola, and in return, Igola had caused the Twin Abyss to completely collapse—truly a case of repaying a drop of kindness by wiping out the entire household.
Naturally, they rushed outside the city to dig up their motorbikes, wishing they could slap wings onto them.
"Could he have run into pursuers from the Twin Cult?" Yaxiu worried aloud. "Relying solely on Tamashi to gather intel really is pushing it..."
Even with night-vision miracles, moving around Blind Town still demanded immense courage. After all, if you accidentally kicked a pebble and struck a spark, you might end up completely blind. Tamashi had mentioned undergoing pitch-black training in the past, so the task of scouting outside was handed to him.
"I don't think the Twin Cult will hold us accountable," Harvey said.
"Why?" Yaxiu asked, puzzled. "We collapsed the Twin Abyss."
"Not we," Harvey corrected. "Igola did."
Yaxiu frowned with displeasure and pressed in a sharper tone, "Is there any difference?"
"Although the Abyss collapsed, the twin system might not have been destroyed," Igola said, shooting Harvey a glance. "The reason they haven't sent anyone after us is probably that they found a blessing in disguise and discovered a more efficient way to produce twin sorcerers."
"Could be," Harvey said noncommittally. He closed the window, drew the curtains tight, and looked at Yaxiu with wide eyes, an uncharacteristically human longing washing over the necromancer's face. "Hurry, hurry, hurry."
And so Yaxiu patted the cicada beside him, which slowly emitted a golden glow that illuminated the entire room.
Instantly, upon the walls, floor, and every blank surface, blood-red writing materialized: "Do not tell them you can see," "Do not create bright light," and similar warnings.
Yet Yaxiu and the others were already accustomed to this environment, and their tense expressions immediately softened.
Having stayed in darkness for so long, their bodies felt parched, desperately in need of light to nourish them.
In theory, nothing in Blind Town was allowed to emit light, including sorcery spirits. After all, a sorcery spirit was bound to a sorcerer's soul; if your pet dug up someone's ancestral grave, the owner would certainly be held accountable.
The Round Cicada, however, was different.
Because strictly speaking, it wasn't Yaxiu's sorcery spirit.
Unless a sorcery spirit was willing, a low-rank sorcerer could never accommodate a high-rank sorcery spirit. The Round Cicada clearly had no desire to be Yaxiu's pet; it had merely used Yaxiu to escape the miracle trap, nowhere near willing to commit itself to him.
Yet the Round Cicada hadn't fled after using Yaxiu either.
In its nascent, naive mind, an ideological imprint of "leaving a sorcerer means being sealed" had likely taken root, which was why it was willing to stay by Yaxiu's side.
After several days of observation, Yaxiu had roughly figured out his authority over the Round Cicada. First, invoking it did not require sorcery power from him (nor could his iridescent sorcery power sustain it anyway). But by the same token, the Round Cicada could only cast a spell for him three times a day. Its effect was "stealing the fate from three seconds in the past to replace the fate of the present moment"—a technique Yaxiu dubbed "Three-Second Cicada Slumber."
Simply put, he could escape any harm by reverting to three seconds prior.
This move didn't count as healing, since it did nothing for pre-existing injuries, and its timing was extremely strict—once three seconds passed, it became useless. As a result, Yaxiu had spent the past few days drilling "Three-Second Cicada Slumber"; as long as he could pull it off at a critical juncture, it was a life-saving miracle.
Thus, Yaxiu also knew that the Square Cicada taken by Silver Lantern likely had the effect of "stealing the fate from three seconds in the future to replace the fate of the present moment." Compared to the Round Cicada, the Square Cicada seemed even harder to use, but he knew that with Silver Lantern's intellect, the Square Cicada would inevitably become a trump card to turn the tables at some future moment.
The Round Cicada fed on the water of the Flowing Gold River. The flow of all things in the world generated Flowing Gold River water, meaning the Round Cicada was self-sufficient. Otherwise, Yaxiu wouldn't even know how to feed a four-winged sorcery spirit—if he had to keep feeding it gold coins, its daily consumption would bankrupt him at the speed of light.
One-winged sorcery spirits were fed silver coins, two-winged spirits were fed gold coins, and three-winged spirits could just barely be fed gold coins; for four-winged sorcery spirits, however, gold coins fell far short of satisfying their appetite. Fortunately, what he had picked up this time was the remarkably easy-to-rear Round Cicada. Had it been any other legendary sorcery spirit, Yaxiu wouldn't have been able to sustain it at all.
Since it neither siphoned Yaxiu's sorcery power, offered only limited spellcasting, nor even needed feeding, the Round Cicada naturally could not be counted as Yaxiu's sorcery spirit.
If anything, it was like a stray cat living nearby: it occasionally dropped by to let Yaxiu pet it and was willing to catch nearby mice, but it would never enter Yaxiu's home.
Therefore, its emitting light was akin to a stray cat caterwauling—no matter what, Blind Town's Grey Fox legacy could never trace the blame back to Yaxiu.
What was more, there was no way it could make the Round Cicada go blind. And so, Yaxiu and his companions were able to bathe in light within Blind Town.
The three Sanctuary Sorcerers squinted, gathered around the golden-glimmering Round Cicada.
Only when something was lost did one realize how precious accustomed comforts truly were.
Chapter 602