A whole half minute had passed since the miracle Slumber Under the Overcoat was deactivated, but seeing no sign of the two female sorcerers in his embrace waking up, Yaxiu had no choice but to lightly pat their cheeks. "Wake up, time to get up and go to work."
Sonia opened her eyes reluctantly, but when she saw that the Witch was still trying to keep up the act, she closed her eyes again to continue feigning sleep, wrapping her arms around him even tighter.
These past few days, they had been continuously exploring the Spectre Inheritance. The subterranean hall was only so big, visible in its entirety at a glance, leaving Sonia no opportunity at all to carry on an underground romance with Yaxiu. Having gone several days without absorbing any Watcher energy, she had even been a little distracted during her daytime sword practice. Naturally, now that she had found an opening, she wanted to soak up as much as she could.
"Hey, Weise is still right here!"
"Oh, don't mind me," Weise said placidly. "I was just planning to reread and study the *Spectre Manual* carefully. It'll take me at least three minutes, so take your time. Would you like me to put in earplugs?"
As an Empress, Diya was somewhat thinner-skinned after all. Hearing Weise say this, she flushed and opened her eyes. But Sonia was thick-skinned, stubbornly hugging Yaxiu without letting go.
Amused by them, Yaxiu chuckled, reaching out to ruffle the Witch's hair before wrapping both arms around the Sword Princess's waist. As a body sorcerer, the Sword Princess had a surprisingly slender waist. While that might affect her maximum power output, Yaxiu certainly didn't mind in the slightest—it was delightfully supple and wonderfully firm to hold. Still, Yaxiu only gave her a brief, gentle squeeze before whispering into her ear, "Satisfied now?"
Sonia opened her eyes and gave a feigned haughty huff, though the corners of her lips curved upward uncontrollably. Her ruby-red eyes darted flirtatiously at Yaxiu, the joy in her brow mingled with a trace of soul-stirring coquetry.
Yaxiu thought to himself that even if the Kaleidoscope could transform him into the Sword Princess's likeness, he could never capture even a tenth of her beauty.
Sonia quickly composed herself, however, and took the initiative to say, "Weise, I'm sorry."
It was one thing for Weise to know, but showing off affection right in front of her was another matter. Moreover, they were currently inside the Spectre Inheritance, where danger could strike at any second. Calming down now, Sonia realized that she had been acting rather unreasonably.
"There's no need to apologize," Weise said casually as she closed the Spectre Manual. "I can understand."
The rewards for Stage 34 were "Soul Restoration," "Temporary Sorcery Spirit: Wandering Soul," and "Moderate Soul Experience." The first option was practically never chosen. The Wandering Soul sorcery spirit was a movement spirit of the soul faction that increased movement speed and granted the ability to float, making it suitable for either the Sword Princess or the Witch.
However, after a brief discussion, they decided to let Weise choose "Moderate Soul Experience."
As Stage 34's "Soul-Tethering Dream" made evident, the further they progressed, the higher the Spectre Inheritance's requirements for a sorcerer's soul faction attainment became.
In fact, Soul-Tethering Dream didn't necessarily require a Soul Refining sorcery spirit to crack. If a sorcerer's soul faction attainment was high enough, even choosing sorcery spirits like Battle Soul, Sword Soul, or Evil Soul would likely allow them to counter Soul-Tethering Dream by reshaping their soul. For instance, the Sword Soul sorcery spirit naturally had the effect of condensing the soul to forge sharpness, but the Sword Princess's attainment simply wasn't sufficient to deeply reshape her own soul.
The later stages would only get harder and harder, so they had to cultivate a soul sorcerer of high attainment; otherwise, let alone clearing the stages, they might accidentally die in the inheritance's trials. And as a Truth Sorcerer who was proficient in over twenty schools of sorcery, when none of them possessed an overt talent for the soul faction, Weise was naturally the most suitable candidate to cultivate.
Arriving at Stage 35, Yaxiu and his three companions couldn't help but brace themselves.
In the Spectre Inheritance, every fifth and tenth stage offered significantly richer rewards—for instance, the Spectre Secret Key had dropped at Stage 20—but at the same time, the difficulty spiked drastically, where a single misstep could severely damage one's soul.
Just then, the four walls of the hall were suddenly covered by a layer of white boards. Yaxiu waited a few seconds and, noticing no other movement, stepped closer to inspect it—this was precisely when a tank was supposed to do his job.
When he drew near to the whiteboard, his Nascent Soul sorcery spirit suddenly leapt out, constructing an extraordinary picture in his mind: on a sunlit suburban meadow, Igola wearing a bucket hat fishing by the riverbank; Harvey propping open his coffin so Alice could sunbathe; Lisi running across the grass flying a kite; Annan pushing a stroller where baby Banjie peered curiously at the kite; Yaxiu himself just finishing pitching a tent; the Sword Princess and the Witch barefoot in the downstream shallows catching fish for fun; Weise sitting on a tree stump reading a book; Black Crow gesturing for everyone to come over after finishing grilling skewers...
So that was it: the trial of Stage 35 was actually painting. Since no brushes were provided, they were clearly expected to paint using their souls, and whether they cleared the stage depended on how well they drew.
*But this puts me at a huge disadvantage! Why do I have so many people to paint?! There's no way everyone else has to draw something this complicated, right?!*
Yaxiu grumbled endlessly in his mind, but when he lowered his head, he noticed something else amiss—why was the ground so close to him?
Wait, something was wrong!
Staring at his pair of soft, chubby little hands, and then at his completely shrunken body, Yaxiu finally realized what was happening—he had turned into a child!
*Are you kidding me? This is how the Spectre Inheritance ramps up the difficulty? By turning our bodies into children? What a pointless trial. Even if my body got smaller, my mind is still as sharp as ever!*
Yaxiu turned his head to look. Sure enough, the Sword Princess, the Witch, and Weise—every single one of them had turned into children!
The Sword Princess wore an expression of bewildered shock. Gazing at this soft, pint-sized little Sword Princess, Yaxiu couldn't resist reaching out to pinch her cheek, giggling, "You look so adorable like th—"
*Smack!*
Yaxiu was sent flying by a punch. Before he could even get up, little Sword Princess had mounted him, raining blow after blow directly onto his face!
"What are you doing?! I was wrong, I was wrong! You don't have to be this mad!"
Only upon hearing him admit his fault did little Sword Princess stop. Grabbing Yaxiu by the collar, she lifted his head and snarled fiercely, "Do you still dare bully me?!"
"Huh?" Yaxiu was dumbfounded.
*Smack!*
Little Sword Princess punched him again, roaring like an angry baby dragon, "Do you dare or not?!"
"N-no, I don't dare." Though he had no idea what was going on, Yaxiu went along with her words for now.
"Hmph!"
However, looking around at their surroundings, little Sword Princess seized Yaxiu's collar once again, glaring coldly straight at him. "What is this place? Are you playing a prank on me?!"
"Wahhh!"
Little Weise suddenly rubbed her eyes and burst into heartbroken, inconsolable wails: "Vionet, Vionet! Waaaah, Vionet, where are you—"
At this moment, the little Witch came over, pulled little Sword Princess back, and calmly reasoned, "It probably isn't his fault. The four of us might have run into an unusual circumstance, like protagonists in fairy tales stumbling into an adventure, which is why we ended up in this place."
Yaxiu stared dumbfounded at the scene before him.
He finally realized the true difficulty of Stage 35.
In the *Spectre Manual*, the Spectre Prophet had mentioned witnessing a mind sorcerer's miracle that could regress someone to childhood, quite effective whether used offensively or for healing. However, he deemed it merely superficial, because a child's soul structure was fundamentally different from an adult's.
The greatest difference between a young child and an adult was the plasticity of talent. If one could completely regress to childhood, it meant new talents could be developed!
Yet even when reaching the Ruby Mountain, the Spectre Prophet had still not created a miracle that achieved full regression to childhood; he had merely named this concept "Return of the Soul to Youth."
Therefore, not only had the Sword Princess and the others' souls grown smaller, but even their memories and consciousness had regressed back to childhood!
Chapter 646