Sonia's pupils shrank.
After a moment of silence, she climbed into the back seat of the car and said, “You really do pay close attention to me.”
“You haven't adjusted to your change in status yet,” Felix said. “You're no longer that obscure schoolgirl, nor are you merely a Two-Winged Sorcerer who put up a decent showing in the Meteor Tribulation. You're a Sanctuary Sorcerer harboring secrets.”
“Who you like, what flowers you like, where you've been, who you've met—your every move is under the spotlight. All your actions are scrutinized under a magnifying glass for hidden meanings, yet you still dare to search so openly for a way to cross national borders... You ought to cherish your life more.”
Sonia frowned and asked, “What do you mean? Could I be in danger?”
“If I hadn't helped tamper with your library borrowing records, you would probably already be on the Throne Room's priority watch list, monitored by at least one Star Flinger Warrior.”
The Throne Room?!
The village girl had never imagined that she would ever get involved with an agency directly under the royal family—the Throne Room.
What citizens of the Starry Country knew of the Throne Room began and ended with the dashing and formidable Starflick Guard under its command. As for what work the agency actually did, they knew next to nothing.
Although the people of the Starry Country gleaned their understanding of government bodies largely from movies and dramas, neither the Throne Room nor the Starflick Guard had ever appeared in any production, which was ample proof of this shadowy department's influence.
“How could I possibly be targeted by the Throne Room?” Sonia was not entirely inclined to believe Felix's claims. “Leaving aside doing any harm to the nation, I've kept a low profile all this time. What reason would it have to keep tabs on me?”
“You should know that every book you browse in the library is tagged with indexing keywords, and over the past two months, you've read a vast number of books tagged with 'other realms,' 'crossing borders,' and 'foreign accounts,'” Felix said. “If you were an ordinary person, reading those books wouldn't matter in the least. If you hadn't read them, the Throne Room wouldn't pay any attention to a newly ascended Sanctuary Sorcerer like you, either.”
“Yet you happen to be a Sanctuary Sorcerer who has gained initial insight into the truths of the world and can already disregard social systems, and on top of that, you've been reading books containing those taboo keywords. You practically threw yourself into the Throne Room's crosshairs.”
Sonia couldn't understand. “Why would researching how to cross borders draw the Throne Room's attention? If crossing borders is truly taboo to the Throne Room, why haven't they purged and banned all related books instead of leaving them there for us to read...?”
As she spoke, the village girl's voice trailed off.
Felix said, “You've figured it out, haven't you? As long as a place of inheritance like the Void Realm connects all sorcerers, monopolizing knowledge is an impossibility. On the contrary, the more the royal family tries to ban something, the more people will seek out taboo knowledge—sorcerers are adventurous creatures perpetually trapped in their rebellious phase.”
Within the Void Realm were wild sorcery spirits, sorcerer manuals, and all manner of realm mechanisms. Even an uneducated sorcerer could obtain the legacies of countless predecessors through opportunity after opportunity.
Any attempt to monopolize knowledge might succeed for a year, or even a decade, but it could never succeed for a century. Even if you could control the living, could you control the dead?
Not to mention that simply by browsing through other people's sorcerer manuals, everyone naturally learned that other countries existed. Knowing led to curiosity, and curiosity sparked exploration. In such an environment, how could anyone possibly extinguish a sorcerer's desire to cross into other nations?
Felix lightly tapped the steering wheel. “Rather than pointlessly trying to obstruct the flow of information, it's better to leave the materials out in plain sight for anyone to see. But the moment a Sanctuary Sorcerer consults them repeatedly, extensively, and frequently, it triggers the Throne Room's tripwire mechanism, expediting them straight onto the surveillance list.”
Having heard this much, Sonia was already half convinced, yet she still didn't understand. “Why would the Throne Room be wary of Sanctuary Sorcerers who want to cross borders? Is crossing into other countries a taboo?”
Felix shook his head.
“No. Among the six great nations, none of the other five treat it as a taboo. After all, crossing between countries is as difficult as ascending the heavens. If Sanctuary Sorcerers devote their efforts to it, at most they make gains in the space faction or invent other miracles—many miracles are stumbled upon by accident like that. But they will find it nearly impossible to develop a miracle that actually crosses borders, or else you wouldn't have failed to find even a single lead.”
“Therefore, 'crossing borders' is not a taboo in the other countries. Even if it is an elusive goal, the process of pursuing it allows sorcerers to discover new horizons and gain fresh insights.”
“Only in the Starry Country will any Sanctuary Sorcerer interested in crossing borders be placed under surveillance by the royal family and the Church.”
Sonia suddenly realized something, an unusual gleam flashing in her ruby eyes.
Felix caught sight of the village girl's glowing eyes in the rearview mirror and chuckled softly. “I know what you're thinking—you probably assume that other countries don't forbid crossing because it's difficult, so conversely, if the Starry Country is wary of it, does that mean there's an easy way to cross from the Starry Country to other places?”
“I can tell you plainly: no. Whether you wish to enter or leave the Starry Country, the difficulty is just as immense. In the sorcerer travelogues you read, the authors almost all reached other nations via Void Realm passages, because that is the only regular route linking all the realms, even if the route itself is random.”
“What the royal family and the Church truly fear is not whether a Sanctuary Sorcerer can devise a 'method' to leave the Starry Country, but rather the 'thought' of a Sanctuary Sorcerer attempting to leave.”
“Just as Guard Nobles must not harbor notions of corruption and dereliction of duty, and Court Nobles must not possess the desire to vie for power, what you have committed, Sonia, is a thoughtcrime.”
Sonia pondered for a long time. She gazed at the distant grand athletic field, where dazzling ribbons of light painted the night sky. Tonight was cloudless, the stars shining brilliantly, as if draping all creation in a sheer silver veil.
“You mean that the mere existence of such a thought makes me suspected of having rebellious inclinations toward the Starry Country?” Sonia surmised. “It's true—if a normal sorcerer is living well, why would they want to leave their own country? Even if a Sanctuary Sorcerer grew curious about foreign lands, they would naturally give up after repeatedly hitting walls in their research and finding the difficulty insurmountable.”
“If I persist in researching a way to cross borders, the Throne Room will assume I harbor discontent toward the Starry Country? They might even think I have no loyalty to the country and only want to flee to another land to advance my career?”
Yet Felix did not answer her directly. Instead, he asked, “In that case, I can still be of some assistance to the Paw-Stretching Sword Saint, wouldn't you say?”
Felix's underlying implication was thinly veiled—everything up to this point had been free public content, but what followed was the VIP paid chapters.
Sonia still wanted to freeload. “You're merely a Two-Winged Sorcerer. How do I know whether these hidden secrets you're telling me are true or false?”
“To be honest, I don't know whether they're true or false either,” Felix admitted candidly. “I'm just a sorcerer who hasn't even set foot in the Distant Sky Realm. Even if I were interested in crossing borders, the Throne Room wouldn't bother with me.”
“However, my intelligence comes from our mutual-aid society, which has quite a few Sanctuary Sorcerers. Among them is someone who was placed under Throne Room surveillance precisely for researching how to cross borders. A dignified Sanctuary Sorcerer has lost all personal freedom, essentially under house arrest.”
“You're free to disbelieve me and continue your research, but my help ends here. The next time you search for books tagged with 'crossing,' find your own way to wipe your borrowing records.”
Sonia finally understood why Felix was so confident—if his previous enticement was 'what you can gain by joining us,' the condition he offered this time was 'what you will lose by not joining us'!
As long as Sonia still attempted to find a way out of the Starry Country, she would inevitably draw the attention of the Throne Room, followed by suppression, warnings, and house arrest!
The timing of Felix's approach was also quite clever. It happened right as Sonia had finished searching the Forest Hall and Flower Hall at Sword Flower University and was about to head to other university collections in search of more materials.
While Sonia could try to find ways to cover her tracks, she lacked experience in such matters, making the risk of exposure immense. Furthermore, she was psychologically unprepared.
Deep down, Sonia was still just a cautious little village girl who steered clear of anything illegal or criminal. The most wicked deeds she had ever committed were pretending to accidentally stomp on someone's foot with high heels and exploiting a system glitch to take unlimited hot showers in her dorm.
The mere thought of offending the royal family and the Church made her chicken out—who was she, just a little Sword Princess, to pick a fight with them?!
It wasn't that she lacked courage, but turning against the Starry Country solely over 'researching border-crossing methods' was as absurd as beating someone to death in an argument over whether or not to dip Lalafell in vinegar!
On the other hand, Felix's proposition didn't actually hold much leverage on its face. After all, a normal person's reaction would be to abandon research on crossing borders entirely to avoid being targeted by the Throne Room. Why would anyone join them just to keep researching it?
Yet Felix was brimming with confidence. For no discernible reason, he was certain that 'crossing borders' was of paramount importance to Sonia!
It was precisely for this reason that he had gathered a wealth of intelligence on crossing borders from within the organization beforehand, all to present an offer that Sonia could not refuse!
Sonia finally asked, “Do you have a way to cross borders?”
“Not at the moment, because that isn't our primary project, but we do have considerable data—covert information you would never find even if you turned every library in Jialesi upside down,” Felix said. “Moreover, we have no shortage of sorcerers well-versed in the space faction. Researching alongside them is far better than buzzing around aimlessly like a headless fly.”
“Even in the worst-case scenario, if there are no breakthroughs, we still have ways of locating Void Realm passages. Although Void Realm passages are random, many appear every year. No matter where you wish to go, as long as you're willing to wait patiently, you'll reach it sooner or later.”
Felix had finally revealed his trump card: on top of resources, he had a safety net!
If Sonia wanted to research crossing methods in depth, he had ample connections and research resources; if Sonia merely wanted to achieve her goal, he also offered a fail-safe measure guaranteed to succeed!
As long as crossing borders remained a non-negotiable goal in Sonia's heart, she could not possibly refuse the terms he offered!
Sonia pressed her lips tight. Only when the sounds of laughter from the grand athletic field drifted over again did she ask, “Who on earth are you people? Don't bother repeating that line about a sorcerer mutual-aid group.”
“Until you join, I still cannot tell you. However, I can give you a small demonstration of our foundations...”
Felix clamped his fingers around the white glove and pulled it off, revealing a fair-skinned, slender-fingered left hand, and—a ghastly circular hole right in the center of his palm.
Felix covered his eyes with his left hand. Through the circular hole in the palm, Sonia could see his eye. Yet this eerie composition gave the village girl a profound sensation of stunning beauty, like gazing upon a sublime painting or a masterpiece of divine craftsmanship!
Huh?!
Sonia suddenly discovered that her body could not move, and her sorcery power was utterly frozen!
******
Chapter 635