Inside Kaleidoscope Black Robe Town, in the largest Fox Lantern Ice Parlor at the town center, pleasant chatter and animated voices filled the air.
"Yesterday, three more common inheritances were claimed in the Eternal City. I wonder who the lucky bastards were."
"They're just common inheritances. Above them are Flowing Gold Inheritances and Peerless Inheritances!"
"Flowing Gold and Peerless Inheritances are meant for true prodigies. Chances are, those two-winged sorcerers whose sorcery attainments have already surpassed Gold and reached Sanctuary are all lingering on the Time Continent to contest the seat of the King of Time. I'm certainly not arrogant enough to compete with people like that... If I can wrest a common inheritance from among thousands or tens of thousands of competitors and hold a resource node for a year, I'll be more than satisfied."
Just then, the female manager leaning against the counter—a woman ripe as a honey peach—suddenly struck a golden bell. Once everyone's attention had gathered on her, she leisurely uncapped an ink pen and wrote a piece of intel across the whiteboard behind her:
"96: In the Spectre Inheritance, a 'Spectre Secret Key' is guaranteed to appear every twenty cleared trials. The secret key can be used 3 times to leave the inheritance at any moment."
Finishing her strokes, the manager called out, "Table thirteen is on the house!"
In an instant, the glamorous young women throughout the ice parlor all turned toward the party of six at table thirteen. The most conspicuous among them was naturally Black Crow, cloaked entirely in jet-black disguise, followed by a tall, masked beastkin girl. The remaining four looked comparatively normal: a cool blonde girl wearing glasses, a quiet blue-haired maiden, a red-haired girl devouring a Lalafell, and a curly-haired, dark-skinned loli with shackles around her wrists.
The crowd nodded silently at them with respectful gratitude.
After all, those capable of providing intel on the Spectre Inheritance right now could only be Sanctuary sorcerers. Even though sorcerers were flocking into Black Robe Town, Sanctuary sorcerers were still a minority among minorities. This was readily apparent from the sharing board—out of ninety-six pieces of shared information, fewer than ten pertained to the Spectre Inheritance.
Still, the crowd only lingered on them for a brief moment before returning to their discussions regarding the Lake Light Inheritance and the Eternal City. The red-haired girl signaled for another serving of Blazing Lalafell, while the dark-skinned girl asked, "Since the meal is free, can we bring Alice over to freeload a bite?"
"Technically yes, but what would Alice eat?"
"There ought to be roaches here, right? If all else fails, they've got to have rats."
"Keep talking like that, and the manager might pay out of pocket just to send you over to the restaurant next door."
The party granted the free meal was, naturally, Yaxiu's group of six.
Ever since departing the Dead City, Yaxiu had been evading the Four Pillar Cult while hunting for the Grey Fox legacies. The two companions they had picked up in the Dead City—the beastman Chikala and the star sorcerer Gwen—had also joined the group as temporary teammates.
Ordinarily, Chikala was bound by a slave contract, which was fine; he possessed Sanctuary combat power, and throwing him to the rear guard in moments of danger was exceptionally convenient. Gwen, on the other hand, had mediocre combat strength and had previously served as the advent vessel for the Mercury Trojan. Refraining from slaughtering her on the spot was already practically an act of sainthood on Yaxiu and his companions' part. Keeping a ticking time bomb like her around seemed almost as though they thought their adventures weren't difficult enough.
However, Gwen had also used the "Shelter: Zero-Hour Hourglass," so the mercury inside her had presumably been thoroughly cleansed; she would not turn into the Trojan again. Furthermore, having once held high office within the Four Pillar Cult, she was privy to a great deal of valuable intelligence—making her an ideal asset for adventurers like Yaxiu's crew, who had lost their logistics and were forced to rely on raiding.
More importantly, Gwen refused to leave and simply trailed behind them from a distance.
Unwilling to kill her yet unable to leave her unattended, Yaxiu tasked Igola with keeping an eye on her, ordering an immediate execution the moment she attempted to pass messages or displayed any suspicious behavior. Igola had no choice but to manage this new assistant with a scowl.
Yet it had to be said that with this turncoat's guidance, they had indeed bypassed ambushes by the Four Pillar Cult ahead of time on several occasions. They had even raided several secret vaults belonging to the cult along the way, ensuring they would not have to worry about feeding their sorcery spirits for the foreseeable future. Three-winged sorcery spirits demanded far more gold coins than two-winged ones; after Yaxiu and the others advanced their spirits to the three-winged rank, each spirit consumed three gold coins every single day.
Even in the wasteland where prices were steep, three gold coins was enough to cover an ordinary person's food expenses for an entire month!
Fortunately, the four-winged sorcery spirit Round Cicada could be sustained by the waters of the Flowing Gold River without requiring extra meals; otherwise, Yaxiu would have been driven straight into bankruptcy.
They had journeyed to the Harp Sun Alliance to pursue legacy clues, but the situation across the wasteland had deteriorated drastically. Even disguised under the identity of "traveling merchants," they were constantly surveilled and even threatened with deportation, nearly coming to blows within the Bronze Law Sect's territory.
Coupled with the great upheaval in the Void Realm six days prior, Yaxiu and the others decided to settle down temporarily to gather intel, leading them back to Black Robe Town. Amid the broader climate of holy wars of faith, only trade towns would tolerate "unbelievers" like them.
Upon arriving in Black Robe Town, Yaxiu and his companions discovered that the floating population had doubled. On their last visit, they could still secure a room for each person, but now all six had to squeeze into three rooms. Still, since everyone turned into beautiful girls at night, it hardly mattered.
The foremost reason for the sudden surge in visitors to Black Robe Town was that the War Sanctuary had been obliterated by the Four Pillar Cult, and Black Robe Town was nominally under the War Sanctuary's direct jurisdiction.
When the War Sanctuary collapsed like a landslide, multiple surrounding sects immediately moved into Black Robe Town—both to protect and to contest this commercial hub.
The secondary reason, however, was that the inheritances appearing in the Void Realm had drastically inflamed sorcerers' desire to share information.
Unlike the Blood Moon or Gospel, the realm of Senluo lacked any online channels of communication. Normally, sorcerers could only converse within their respective sects. In ordinary times, this was of little consequence; they had nothing to say to heretics anyway, and different sects focused on different branches of sorcery, so there was minimal desire to interact.
Now, however, things were different. The Lake Light Inheritance in the Sea of Knowledge and the Eternal City on the Time Continent had become trending topics across the entire world. Sorcerers burned with the urge to exchange notes, analyze gains and losses, and push further into the inheritances.
Consequently, the sorcerers of Senluo gathered voluntarily at trading centers, actively seeking to exchange intelligence.
The Fox Lantern Ice Parlor had originally been a restaurant. But because the sorcerers of Senluo frequently gathered there to converse, the quick-witted manager introduced a policy: "Provide inheritance intel for a meal on the house." She wrote every contribution onto the whiteboard behind her for all to see, turning the parlor into the intelligence hub of Black Robe Town.
Some might wonder: why would sorcerers ever openly discuss confidential intelligence regarding angelic inheritances instead of keeping it to themselves?
Yet intelligence came in many forms. Naturally, no one would divulge "premium intel" that granted an edge over others. But there were plenty of peculiar anecdotes and curious findings that offered no competitive advantage yet made for splendid discussion, and those formed the bulk of the parlor's conversation.
Furthermore, one should never underestimate a sorcerer's desire for expression.
Every sorcerer had surely received legacies from predecessors and ancient sages in the Void Realm. This natural atmosphere of inheritance meant that sorcerers were never averse to communication. Moreover, for a group that constantly took in new knowledge, regularly outputting thoughts was essential for mental and emotional balance.
Just as eating led to excretion, and finishing a thought-provoking film or a wonderful book prompted one to write a review... seeking emotional resonance was an instinct of living beings, while pursuing the collision of knowledge was the innate nature of sorcerers.
The reason Yaxiu had taken the initiative to share that piece of intel regarding the Spectre Inheritance was simply that he had heard and seen plenty of fascinating information here. Returning the favor to the community while securing a free meal to save some coin was a win-win.
First of all, just as Yaxiu had obtained the *Spectre Manual*, the Lake Light Inheritance and the Eternal City had successively yielded the *Lake Light Manual* and the *Time Manual* as rewards. This suggested that leaving behind half a sorcerer's manual was perhaps a tradition of angelic inheritances, and further implied that the Lake Light Angel and the King of Time had both ascended the Void Realm along the Path of Origin, which was why they encountered angels of Ruby Mountain and authored sorcerer's manuals during their mortal lives!
One angel might be a coincidence, but when all three angels had walked the Path of Origin, sorcerers naturally began to wonder: in the distant past, was walking the Path of Origin the most lucrative, supreme method of advancement?
Was the modern approach of relying on faction attainments merely an inferior path of lesser yield?
The contents of the *Lake Light Manual* and the *Time Manual* gradually corroborated these suspicions. It was worth noting that the era of the Lake Light Angel appeared to be the most ancient, followed by that of the King of Time, with the Spectre Prophet being closest to the modern era.
Back when the Lake Light Angel was still a silver sorcerer, the Sea of Knowledge harbored shallow-sea kingdoms composed of silver-scaled fishmen. Within these kingdoms existed a special mechanism known as the "Silver Wing Trial." As long as a sorcerer passed the trial, they could obtain a second silver wing, enabling them to find the Golden Fish and reach the Time Continent.
The pass rate for the Silver Wing Trial was one in ten thousand, passable only by prodigies. Thus, the Lake Light Angel had taken considerable pride in clearing it. Judging from her writings, relations between sorcerers and silver-scaled fishmen had been fairly harmonious back then.
By the era of the King of Time, however, the Sea of Knowledge had become a hunting ground of war between sorcerers and silver-scaled fishmen. Finding the Golden Fish was reduced to a single method: slaughtering enough silver-scaled fishmen and stripping their scales to forge one's second silver wing!
Silver-scaled fishmen generally possessed combat power equivalent to one-winged sorcerers, with some even matching two-winged sorcerers. They typically swarmed in reckless packs, making the difficulty of hunting them readily apparent.
By the time of the Spectre Prophet, only a tiny remnant of silver-scaled fishmen remained, and the Spectre Prophet wiped them out entirely, bringing a permanent end to the second silver wing.
Regarding the Time Continent, the Spectre Prophet's understanding differed little from that of the present day, recording merely two additional color mechanisms.
Yet the accounts of the Lake Light Angel and the King of Time completely overturned modern sorcerers' worldviews—in the past, a true kingdom had existed on the Time Continent!
Back then, the Time Continent had not been called the Time Continent, but the "Concept Continent." The native denizens of the Concept Continent referred to themselves as the "Essences of Concept, Spirits of Law," while sorcerers called them elves!
They were born sorcerers, capable of regulating the Flowing Gold River, commanding creatures of the Void Realm, and developing continental resources. Blessed with vast lifespans, they built a magnificent sorcerous civilization despite their sparse numbers!
The resource nodes still operating on the Time Continent today were relics of that very era!
Evidently, the elves of antiquity belonged to a different breed from modern elves. To distinguish between them, sorcerers termed them ancient elves.
During the era of the Lake Light Angel, friction had already broken out between sorcerers and ancient elves, culminating in the "Sky Turmoil"—ancient elven sorcerers mounted on wyverns hunted foreign sorcerers everywhere, provoking bitter grievances and fierce conflict among human and other races.
Back then, sorcerers were utterly suppressed by the ancient elves. After all, foreign sorcerers on the Time Continent were merely two-winged, whereas ancient elves had their physical bodies anchored directly to the Time Continent. Even if their strength reached the Sanctuary or Legendary rank, they could continue lingering on the Time Continent!
One could easily imagine the misery of foreign sorcerers during the Sky Turmoil. They were pitted not only against swarms of ancient elven sorcerers, but also against Sanctuary and Legendary powerhouses far beyond their level! It was tantamount to grown adults mercilessly beating children!
The Lake Light Angel had specifically noted that she had once been hunted by an ancient elven Sanctuary sorcerer!
Reading the *Time Manual* after the *Lake Light Manual* brought a rather comedic realization.
For the King of Time was himself an ancient elf!
Yet by the King of Time's era, the ancient elven kingdom had declined sharply. Virtually all external cities had been lost, forcing them to make a final stand in the "Unfading Afterglow," the Eternal City.
In the *Time Manual*, he explicitly pointed out the reason behind the ancient elves' decline—godly lords such as the Blood Moon and Many Stars had employed despicable means to slaughter the high-ranking ancient elves, relentlessly suppressing their kingdom!
Regarding the Seven-Colored Tail, the descriptions by the Lake Light Angel and the King of Time were nearly identical: once seven colors were gathered, one could seize the Seven-Colored Tail. Evidently, in their eras, all seven colors were still discoverable.
By the Spectre Prophet's time, only three colors remained.
In the modern era, only the Flowing Gold River was left.
As for the Distant Sky Realm and the Colorless Dream, during the Lake Light Angel's era, one could enter the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams at will, where all four materials—Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon—could be freely found.
By the King of Time's era, the material "Wound of Wind" had disappeared, though it could be substituted using miracles.
By the Spectre Prophet's era, missing materials could no longer be substituted, and even the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams had been seized by the Dream-Turning Angel.
In the modern era, not only were the four materials gone, but the Kingdom of Heaven in Dreams itself had shattered.
Taken as a whole, although all three angels had reached Ruby Mountain via the Path of Origin, the Lake Light Angel had maintained clear objectives with plenty of challenges but zero confusion; the King of Time had faced far greater hardship, needing to improvise and fill in many gaps on his own; and by the Spectre Prophet's era, the Path of Origin had theoretically been severed. Had he not been a second-cycle sorcerer, he likely never could have trodden it.
Comparing the contents of these three manuals, the weight of shifting epochs practically leaped off the pages.
Yet among the three inheritances—the Eternal City, the Lake Light Inheritance, and the Spectre Inheritance—the most valuable turned out to be neither the Spectre Inheritance of the Distant Sky Realm nor the ancient Lake Light Inheritance.
It was the inheritance of the Eternal City!
For Lake Light and Spectre were merely the legacies of individual angels, whereas the Eternal City was the heritage of an entire civilization!
The Eternal City contained countless common inheritances. Securing just one granted a sorcerer authority over a resource node on the Time Continent for a duration of one year. As long as the sorcerer was in the Void Realm, they could collect the produced resources at any time!
For two-winged sorcerers, this was already a tidy fortune, to say nothing of the additional rewards contained within the common inheritances. Most tantalizing of all, whoever became the successor to the King of Time would effectively become the master of the Eternal City!
That was the civilized legacy of the ancient elves, an Eternal City acknowledged by the Void Realm itself!
Its value was simply unimaginable—not even the most wildly ambitious sorcerer had ever dreamed of staking out territory and claiming kingship within the Void Realm!
Yaxiu had heard from the Sword Princess that two-winged sorcerers over in Many Stars were practically losing their minds studying and researching it. The royal court of Many Stars had even offered a real-world reward for the King of Time's inheritance: a ducal seat!
After all, inheriting the Lake Light or Spectre legacies benefited only oneself, but becoming the lord of the Eternal City meant being able to shelter other two-winged sorcerers in the Void Realm, bolstering the foundations of an entire nation!
Yet compared to claiming inheritances, more sorcerers merely lamented the loss of the Path of Origin, sighing that returning to ancient times would have allowed one to reach Ruby Mountain with ease, and so forth.
Chikala, for instance, had spent days grumbling, railing against ancient sorcerers for lacking environmental awareness and not leaving even scraps for later generations, forcing everyone into fierce, cutthroat competition...
Only Yaxiu faintly grasped that the risks of walking the Path of Origin far exceeded ordinary progression through faction attainments.
Because of the secret poisons!
Treading the Path of Origin meant contracting multiple secret poisons along the way!
In the era of the Lake Light Angel, even if the pass rate for the Silver Wing Trial and the seven-color collection was only one in ten thousand, centuries of accumulated cleared trials would still yield hundreds of successful sorcerers. The secret poison would undeniably have mutated into a deadly toxin!
At first, Yaxiu had assumed secret poisons did not exist in the past. But looking closely, none of the three manuals detailed the true nature of the Golden Fish, Seven-Colored Tail, or Colorless Dream. The angels had instinctively held back, recording only the specific processes while glossing over the end results.
Those angels were obviously no fools; the fool could only be Yaxiu himself. Secret poisons definitely held effects he did not yet understand, which was why angels had thrown themselves onto the Path of Origin one after another.
And precisely because they had omitted the results, Yaxiu still could not deduce the truth behind the Colorless Dream.
Ordinary sorcerers generally believed that the Golden Fish and Seven-Colored Tail referred to literal objects. Only someone like Yaxiu, who had actually traversed the Path of Origin, knew they were figures of speech. The Golden Fish referred to the fish-scale ripples across the golden ocean in the sky, while the Seven-Colored Tail was the spectacle formed when six colors converged into the Flowing Gold River.
Then the Colorless Dream had to be a metaphor as well. What was it a metaphor for?
"As expected, there's no intel regarding blank concepts," Igola murmured.
"It'd be weird if there were. So far, only the Thousand Wishes Illusion Lord has ever mentioned blank concepts, and that's a godly lord's inheritance on Ruby Mountain." Yaxiu wore a matter-of-fact expression. "Senluo only has three Legendary sorcerers. If there were intel on blank concepts here, it'd mean all three Legendaries left the front lines just to come to this parlor for its signature Lalafell—as if that could happen!"
"And who was it that suggested we come here to gather concept intel in the first place?" Igola ground his teeth, sorely tempted to rap Yaxiu over the head. But seeing Yaxiu's cute skin as a red-haired girl, he reluctantly dropped his hand.
"The Four Pillar Cult has halted its offensive and voluntarily contracted its defensive lines." Gwen set down the materials in her hands, which contained information she had compiled from various channels tonight. "The front lines are at a stalemate."
"Normal. Every sorcerer's primary goal right now is the angelic inheritances; even holy wars of faith have to take a back seat." Igola tapped the table lightly with his index finger. "Who would have guessed a war could be forced to a halt by something like this?"
The wasteland of Senluo was undoubtedly the place most heavily impacted by the angelic inheritances—in other nations, it caused heated social discussion at most, but in Senluo, it actually suppressed social unrest!
Yet on closer reflection, it wasn't surprising. Regardless of your nation, faith, or race, as long as you could log into the Void Realm, you were qualified to challenge the angelic inheritances.
Even if the Mercury Trojan and the Harp Sun Alliance disregarded the sorcerers' burning desire for the inheritances and demanded they keep fighting, wouldn't the sorcerers slack off, avoid combat, and conserve their energy during the day to await the nightly inheritance trials?
Unless one could prevent sorcerers from logging into the Void Realm, no cage in reality, however tight, could imprison a sorcerer whose heart yearned elsewhere.
Yaxiu asked, "Speaking of which, how far have you guys gotten?"
Igola replied, "Cleared trial fifteen last night."
Harvey said, "Still on trial twelve."
"I only hopped in on the first day to fool around, and didn't bother going back after that." Chikala scratched his head.
"Why not?" Everyone looked surprised. "This is an angelic inheritance."
"I'm neither interested in nor talented with the soul and prophecy factions." Chikala shrugged. "My Seven-Colored Wings are fully condensed too, so there's not much benefit for me in the Spectre Inheritance. I'd rather keep exploring phantoms."
"Maybe the Void Realm takes special care of an honest kid like me, but I ran into an affix bubble last night and scored an ultra-rare sorcery spirit!" proclaimed the beastman Sanctuary sorcerer, whose specialties were robbery, murder, and arson.
Igola feigned astonishment. "Really? Such great luck? I'm so jealous."
Chikala thumped his chest proudly. "This wasn't luck—it's the inevitable fruit of my years of diligent cultivation!"
"Then when morning comes, hand that ultra-rare sorcery spirit over to me."
"Huh? On what grounds?! That's mine!"
"Have you forgotten? You're our slave right now," Igola said mercilessly.
"No way—!"
Watching the beastkin girl clinging to the blonde bespectacled maiden in wheedling despair, Yaxiu thought to himself that this trip to Black Robe Town had not been in vain; otherwise, it would have been near impossible to witness such a spectacle...
Still, Yaxiu and the others quietly bumped their evaluation of Chikala up a notch.
For Chikala to become a Sanctuary sorcerer, he could by no means be an idiot. He had recognized that the angelic inheritance offered him no benefit and decisively cast aside a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. Such restraint and decisiveness far surpassed other Sanctuary sorcerers.
In truth, his unhesitating surrender in the Dead City had already demonstrated that he was immune to honor, greed, or wishful thinking. He approached everything from his own practical needs: if he needed it, he acted; if he didn't, he discarded it, never faltering or second-guessing himself.
It was hard to judge what the future held for someone like Chikala. Perhaps he would soar to greatness through sheer decisiveness, or perhaps he would languish due to shortsightedness, but one thing was certain: he was deeply enviable.
Never doubting oneself, never regretting one's choices, never blaming oneself for anything and preferring to point fingers at others instead—if one could live like Chikala, life would be vastly happier.
"Compared to blank concepts, I'm more interested in the rewards of a godly lord's inheritance." Harvey held a French fry between his fingers, mimicking the gesture of smoking a cigarette. "A Kingdom of Heaven... does obtaining a Kingdom of Heaven mean a sorcerer can become a godly lord?"
"If a two-winged sorcerer somehow came into possession of a Sanctuary, would that turn them into a Sanctuary sorcerer?" Yaxiu countered. "While the comparison might not be entirely analogous, I doubt the Void Realm would permit sorcerers to exploit such a loophole. Still, gaining a Kingdom of Heaven and a godly lord's inheritance would certainly make breaking the mortal limit far easier."
"Though, the Kingdom of Heaven left behind by the deceased Thousand Wishes Illusion Lord..." he murmured thoughtfully. "So godly lords can die after all...?"
Igola's heart gave a jolt. He studied Yaxiu intently, and only after confirming that Yaxiu hadn't made any malicious associations in other directions did he heave a sigh of relief, quickly changing the subject: "Yaxiu, is there anything else you want to eat?"
"Let me see..."
Looking over the menu, Yaxiu suddenly noticed that the milk tea in front of Black Crow had remained untouched. Looking closer, Black Crow hadn't even taken off his mask. Remembering that they had been discussing topics regarding the Void Realm—a subject Black Crow knew nothing about—Yaxiu felt a slight tug at his heart.
He set down the menu and said, "I'm tired of the food here. I'll go buy some street snacks outside. Tamashi, come give me a hand carrying the stuff."
Black Crow froze momentarily, then stood up and followed behind him. Igola glanced at their departing figures, shook his head, and used his foot to shove Chikala's face away.
Chapter 643