“You absolutely must not have any contact with the Four Pillar Cult.”
Yaxiu stared at Sonia and warned earnestly, “No matter what terms they offer, do not be tempted under any circumstances. The greatest strength of the Four Pillar Cult lies not in their violence or resources, but in their ideology—it is a sweet abyss that lures people into depravity.”
Previously, Yaxiu had always felt that the Four Pillar Cult was clearly nothing good, so why were there so many fools who believed in it? But after witnessing the Four Pillar Cult in Senluo during its rapid expansion, he realized the fool was actually himself.
The Lord of Countless Radiance’s ‘bravery,’ ‘wrath,’ and ‘bloodthirst’ were actually the ‘spirit of rebellion’ against suffering. He did not demand that you win people over with virtue, convince people with reason, consider the bigger picture, or heed worldly conventions. Instead, whoever crossed you, you slaughtered their whole family; whoever made you displeased, you vented until you were thoroughly satisfied. In this life, who hadn’t endured grievances? Who hadn’t thought about breaking their shackles?
The Monarch of Wind, Rain, and Snow’s ‘curiosity,’ ‘knowledge,’ and ‘reflection’ were actually everyone’s purest ‘desire for exploration’ from childhood. He would not curb your thirst for knowledge—even if you wanted to know what would happen if a ceiling fan fell, what jumping off a building felt like, how gouging out an eyeball felt, or what would happen if a group of people were fed aphrodisiacs and locked in a basement... No matter how taboo the experiment, all was permitted.
The Ever-Burning Heart’s ‘life’ and the Soul of Phantasmal Freedom’s ‘pleasure’ were even easier to understand. Who didn’t want to be free of illness and misfortune, live forever without dying, indulge in every desire, and be perpetually happy?
The doctrines of the Four Pillar Cult weren’t evil in the slightest; every sentence struck straight at the most fundamental desires of the human heart. That was why Yaxiu knew nobody could resist the Four Pillar Cult—because the Four Pillar Cult was genuinely and sincerely looking out for you.
Hearing that the Four Pillar Cult had actually tried to recruit the Sword Princess multiple times, Yaxiu felt a surge of lingering fear. Aside from the Monarch of Wind, Rain, and Snow, the Lord of Countless Radiance’s ‘spirit of rebellion,’ the Ever-Burning Heart’s ‘life,’ and the Soul of Phantasmal Freedom’s ‘pleasure’ were practically lethal blows tailored for her!
She was precisely the kind of person who had a big temper, held petty grudges, loved beauty, and was vain!
Thinking about it this way, her classmate Felix trying repeatedly to persuade and recruit her was truly a wise choice—after all, the Sword Princess really looked like the type who would fall into depravity very easily!
Hearing Yaxiu’s concern for her, Sonia instead rolled her eyes. “A sweet abyss that lures people into depravity... No wonder you were once the leader of the Four Pillar Cult.”
Yaxiu blinked. How did she even connect those two things?
Growing a bit anxious, he said, “I’m not joking around. If you underestimate them—”
“How could I underestimate the bastards who made you suffer so terribly?”
Sonia gave a soft huff. “Don’t worry, I won’t let Felix near me again. It’s just that they might not let the matter rest... Still, as long as I stay hidden in Sword Flower University, they won’t be able to do anything to me even if they have designs. On the other hand, Felix doesn’t know I’ve seen through their secret background. If I keep a closer eye out, I might even be able to ferret them out.”
Yaxiu wanted to say something, yet found himself at a loss for words. After all, running away was no solution. A thief could plot for a thousand days, but who could stay on guard for a thousand days? If you wanted peace and stability in your life, your best option was to kill everyone disrupting your life, rather than living perpetually in vigilance and unease.
When the Sword Princess ascended to the Sanctuary realm, she was destined to encounter greater challenges and turbulent waves: the Four Pillar Cult, the Starry royal family, nobles... In this world, greater ability often meant greater risk. If you wished to stand atop the mountain peak, you had to be wary of falling off the cliff...
The Age of Gods in Senluo, to be sure, had been free from clashes of self-interest; society was advanced, people inclined toward goodness, and everyone received the finest education and the finest resources—but the price was surrendering governance over your own mind.
Although Yaxiu wanted to urge the Sword Princess not to take risks and not to try going against the Four Pillar Cult, he had no right to say so—he didn’t want to court danger either, yet since transmigrating, he hadn’t spent a single day in peace.
Fate was never gentle. One could seek refuge for a time, but not for a lifetime; only facing hardship head-on was the true path of life.
“Then I’ll wait for you to avenge me,” Yaxiu could only say in the end.
“Who said I’m going after them for your sake?” Sonia stuck out her tongue and made a face at him. “Besides, I’ll only be keeping a slight eye out. At most, I’ll report them anonymously. I definitely won’t put myself in danger... I cherish my life very much.”
Diya spoke up. “But if what they said is true, then Sword Princess, you can’t continue searching for a way to cross national borders either.”
At the mention of this, Sonia’s expression turned somewhat grim. She nodded and said, “Felix has no reason to lie to me about this. Even though I don’t know why the Starry royal family is so averse to it, I really can’t investigate anymore. What’s more, if even the mysterious Four Pillar Cult doesn’t possess a method to cross national borders, anything I look for probably won’t yield any results.”
Crossing national borders undoubtedly demanded attainments in space, but Sonia’s own space faction was merely at the silver level. She couldn’t possibly create her own spatial miracle, so her earlier intention had been to see if she could find a ready-made method.
This was also why Sonia had rejected the Four Pillar Cult so decisively—even the Four Pillar Cult didn’t have anything ready-made and wanted Sonia to research it herself!
I came here to copy homework, and you want me to do the homework myself?
Weise looked toward Yaxiu. “Watcher, didn’t you arrive at Thousand Island Lake of the Bronze Law Cult the day before yesterday to seek a Grey Fox legacy suspected of crossing space? Did you find anything?”
Yaxiu shook his head. “Don’t get me started. We hadn’t been searching for long before the Four Pillar Cult attacked. The Four Pillar Cultists even deliberately leaked our information, making the Bronze Law Cult think we were also Four Pillar Cultists... If we hadn’t backed down and left on our own initiative, we almost ended up in a brawl.”
Half a month had passed since that night in the Dead City.
Yaxiu and the others were no longer hunting down Silver Lantern, nor did they have any interest in entangling with the Four Pillar Cult. They focused single-mindedly on investigating legacies that could cross national borders. Yet Mercury Trojan had no intention of letting them go—now that all pretenses had been completely shattered, she had no reservations left.
Without holding these two and a half feelers firmly in her grasp, she could never rest easy!
Yaxiu and his companions had managed with great difficulty to escape the Four Pillar Cult’s sphere of influence, yet the Four Pillar Cult had actually launched a massive offensive, aggressively invading the Harp Sun Alliance.
Originally, Yaxiu had thought this was Mercury Trojan’s madness before destruction. After all, the Four Pillar Cult only had a few Sanctuary Sorcerers left—not even enough manpower to defend their strongholds. Wouldn’t launching an active assault be courting death?
However, the outcome left Yaxiu and his party completely dumbfounded—in just half a month, several Sanctuary Sorcerers defected from their cults one after another to join the Four Pillar Cult, including a Legendary Sorcerer from the War Temple!
That was one of only three Legends in all of Senluo, the head of the War Temple, hailed as the strongest combat force in Senluo!
Almost in an instant, the Four Pillar Cult swallowed the War Temple whole, its total combat strength nearly overwhelming the Harp Sun Alliance. At this point, the Harp Sun Alliance finally realized that if they didn’t unite, they would be crushed to death. They dispatched god-hosters one after another to resist the Four Pillar Cult, and even the Transcendent Cult, who usually stayed holed up underground, mobilized their production machinery to support the front lines!
Back in the Dead City, Igola had predicted that a holy religious war would inevitably erupt across Senluo, but they had all assumed it would be the Harp Sun Alliance launching a crusade against a declining Four Pillar Cult. Now, it looked more like a war of unification waged by the Four Pillar Cult!
In the midst of such a world war, when ‘faithless’ outsiders like Yaxiu and his group entered Thousand Island Lake of the Bronze Law Cult, no matter how they pleaded their case, the Bronze Law Cult would never take the risk of letting them stay—not to mention the Four Pillar Cultists spreading rumors and smearing them.
If they hadn’t voluntarily backed off, the Bronze Law Cult would have sent god-hosters to hunt them down.
The religious war had reached a fever pitch, leaving no room whatsoever for neutrals to survive.
“However, the Bronze Law Cult’s Grey Fox legacy is probably just a large-scale teleportation device,” Yaxiu said. “It has nothing to do with crossing national borders.”
Unlike the legacies in Black Robe Town, Blind Town, and the Dead City, which took effect on everyone, the Grey Fox legacy at Thousand Island Lake was controlled by the Bronze Law Cult and only took effect on their own sorcerers. Yaxiu and his companions didn’t know the exact name, tentatively calling it ‘No Bounds.’
Within the area of effect of ‘No Bounds,’ any sorcerer with permission could teleport at will, without cooldown and without any consumption. Wherever their thoughts went, the world had no bounds.
On the day their identities were exposed, several hundred sorcerers suddenly surrounded them. If they hadn’t raised their Sanctuaries immediately, they probably would have been submerged under countless sorcery miracles.
He strongly suspected this legacy was the top-tier version of the Grey Fox sorcerers’ public transportation—after all, zero commute time truly increased a working person’s happiness.
“There are so many wondrous Grey Fox legacies, you’ll surely find one,” Weise comforted him. “Since you mentioned the Harp Sun Alliance and the Four Pillar Cult are at war, they will definitely bring out their treasured Grey Fox legacies. Maybe there will be clues then.”
Yaxiu offered a bitter smile. In his heart, he actually harbored little hope for this.
If Senluo’s Age of Gods had been an earnest, genuinely developed civilization, that would be one thing, but the problem was, they were a private-server civilization built upon an idealistic world!
Leaving aside whether Grey Fox sorcerers had ever researched crossing national borders, even if they had figured it out, it would most likely be useless. After all, a phantasm creation for crossing national borders was like an online multiplayer item; it needed to establish a spatial channel between Senluo and other countries simultaneously.
Yet those absurd phantasm creations in Senluo could only work inside Senluo!
While there might be exceptions, the probability was too low. It was better to pin hopes on a Void Realm passage.
Diya remained silent, her expression rather downcast. She was naturally the first to support Yaxiu’s desire to cross national borders, wishing he could return to Gospel tomorrow. But she had also asked the Gospel god how to cross national borders, and had received only one answer: below divine miracles, only the Void Realm.
Short of a divine miracle, anyone wanting to cross national borders had to pass through the Void Realm!
The Witch had also asked the Gospel god if it could help with crossing, but Gospel could only provide one solution: it could search for a Void Realm passage leading to a specific country. As for when this passage would appear, that depended on when the Void Realm leaked.
However, this plan could only take her from Gospel to Senluo; it couldn’t bring Yaxiu back from Senluo unless she could provide exact coordinates for the Void Realm passage and Yaxiu could rush there before it dissipated.
More importantly, Void Realm passages had level restrictions.
For example, the Rank 2 Void Realm passage Yaxiu and his companions used to travel from Blood Moon to Gospel only allowed up to Two-Winged Sorcerers to enter. Because of this, the white-haired hunter Gerard, who was already a Sanctuary Sorcerer at the time, couldn’t pursue them into the channel.
In other words, if Diya wanted to help Yaxiu return, she would have to wait for a Rank 3 Void Realm passage connecting Gospel to Senluo. And according to the Gospel god’s statistical data, passages of Rank 3 or higher had only appeared seven times in the past hundred years, and only one of them had pointed to Senluo.
A once-in-a-century probability.
Unless Diya was willing to fast-forward a hundred years, she couldn’t count on the Gospel god to help.
“Alright, alright.” Sensing that the atmosphere in the team had grown somewhat gloomy, Yaxiu smiled. “No need to be so pessimistic. Even if we can’t find a way to cross national borders, it doesn’t matter. As long as our strength increases, we’ll find a way sooner or later.”
“Our prismatic void wings are already half-condensed. Our current task is to finish condensing them as quickly as possible, and then find a way to smuggle ourselves into Ruby Mountain. Who knows, maybe once we become Legendary Sorcerers, we’ll have a solution.”
Regardless, increasing strength was never the wrong choice. Besides, with war looming over Senluo right now, Yaxiu perhaps needed to think about how to stay alive before worrying about how to leave the country.
“Sword Princess, you’d better keep a low profile lately. If something happens to you in reality and you can’t enter the Void Realm, I’ll definitely blame you if I can’t advance to Legend.”
Sonia curled her lip. “I’m not your only teammate. Why blame only me?”
“Because I don’t like listening to reason either. I’ll just blame you,” Yaxiu huffed playfully.
Then he turned to look at Weise. “Thanks for all your trouble these past few days as well.”
These past few days, Weise had constantly helped them organize all sorts of intelligence and suggested various possibilities for crossing national borders. Yaxiu had always felt quite embarrassed about this. After all, it was just his personal affair; troubling the Sword Princess and the Witch was one thing, but making the new team member Weise worry as well felt excessive.
“It doesn’t matter. I have benefited greatly from this team, and helping the captain is only right,” Weise said calmly.
Yaxiu said, “Then if you run into any trouble, you can tell us too. Although we can’t help you in reality, we can think of solutions together.”
Weise smiled faintly. “All right.”
Yaxiu looked at Diya. He raised his hand, hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and affectionately patted the Witch on the head. “Don’t be downcast. I never expected you to be able to help in the first place.”
The Witch sisters: “...” Was that supposed to be comforting?
“Still, seeing you so worried about me makes me feel very gratified,” Yaxiu sighed. “It’s like seeing my daughter grow up...”
Diya grew flustered. “I’m not your daughter!”
“Alright, alright. Let’s begin tonight’s exploration. First, let’s see what initial collection items the vault has...”
To lighten the mood, Sonia took the initiative to bring up another topic: “By the way, our Starry Country has already issued a ‘Time Continent Red Warning.’ It says a war broke out among the Heroic Spirit Legions on the Time Continent recently, so no Two-Winged Sorcerers should enter the Void Realm. Lately, many sorcerers have had their souls severely injured...”
Boom!
Suddenly, everyone felt a strange tremor!
Moreover, this tremor did not come from a dream bubble or the ground; it felt more like...
The entire Void Realm was violently shaking!
Chapter 637