'Netherworld Search, Soul Theft' Event Recruitment

"Seventy-three source crystals, two hundred and thirty-two points..." Inside their inn in Black Robe Town, Yaxiu opened *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* to take stock of his inventory. Source crystals were accumulated through daily sign-ins, while points were earned by depositing sorcery spirits into the game. It was worth mentioning that after his rainbow void wings condensed past the halfway mark, a three-winged sorcery spirit could only be exchanged for twelve points, a two-winged for five points, and a one-winged for two points. Yaxiu was thoroughly numb. A three-winged sorcery spirit was only worth twelve points—equivalent to two source crystals, not even enough for a single gacha pull. Still, Yaxiu knew this was the handbook dynamically reducing his earning efficiency. Back when he had been a complete newbie, a single one-winged sorcery spirit could be exchanged for ten points. With Yaxiu's current strength, getting his hands on hundreds of one-winged sorcery spirits would be child's play. If the handbook hadn't adjusted the exchange rates, he would have broken its microtransaction system long ago. In theory, he should have been able to save up far more points. Although battles in the Distant Sky Realm were of higher intensity, the rewards were correspondingly richer; nearly every night yielded two or three three-winged sorcery spirits. More importantly, Sword Princess no longer needed sorcery spirits to subsidize her living expenses. In fact, back when the Witch joined the team, Sword Princess had already begun taking only higher-priced sorcery spirits to sell. After Weise joined, she stopped asking for the valuable ones altogether, keeping only those she could use herself. Aside from no longer lacking money in the real world, she also had to consider everyone else's opinions. During their romantic tug-of-war, Sword Princess had wanted extra care and tilted resources to feel secure, subtly fishing to see if he liked her. But now that the two of them could occasionally find opportunities to indulge in an underground office romance, Sword Princess naturally wanted to draw a line with Yaxiu in public, telling everyone, "I don't actually like him." Besides, mixing financial interest into emotions always felt off. Not that Sword Princess believed feelings had to be purely immaculate, but accepting a few sorcery spirits from him felt like she was being kept by him. That was far too cheap—she'd be getting the short end of the stick! She was a Sanctuary Sorcerer now; a handful of sorcery spirits couldn't satisfy her appetite! Better to refuse them outright. That way, she would have all the moral high ground whenever she argued with Yaxiu in the future! Yet after some discussion, the group realized selling sorcery spirits through Sword Princess was still the fairest and quickest route. The Witch didn't lack money, and both Yaxiu and Weise were in places where commerce was poorly developed. Sword Princess was the only one with access to an extremely flourishing sorcery spirit trading market. Not only could she sell directly to her university, but she could also consign them for platform auctions. If she was willing to wait a few days for the bidding process, a rare three-winged sorcery spirit could often fetch thousands, or even tens of thousands, of gold coins. Yaxiu hadn't claimed he was giving them to her as gifts either. Instead, he told her, "You'll manage the team's assets. Once we find a way to trade across the Void Realm, we'll ask you for the money." And so, Sword Princess reluctantly accepted the job. Every night before logging out of the Void Realm, she would find time to brief him on details like how much money the team currently had saved, which conservative funds she had invested in, and what high-risk financial products she had bought with their shared portion. So even though Sword Princess no longer needed sorcery spirits to cover daily expenses, most spirits were still handed over to her to budget for their future household. However, after participating in the Ghost Inheritance, their spirit-acquisition efficiency had plummeted. The Ghost Inheritance rarely awarded sorcery spirits, and whenever it did, they were almost always soul-type spirits tailored for their own use, which they had no intention of selling. Yaxiu had kept an inventory of sorcery spirits himself, mostly types he could make some use of. Naturally, these reserve spirits weren't fed to fullness; they were merely kept alive on one gold coin every three days. He had considered depositing them into *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* for points, but over the past few days, all his spare sorcery spirits had been sold off in Black Robe Town. Not just his, either. Igola, Harvey, Qikala, and Gwen—all the sorcerers had sold off every spirit they could spare. The reason was simple: they needed to stockpile gold coins. Back when they were rampaging across the wasteland, they had the financial backing of Mercury Trojan. They could naturally treat money like dirt, feeding their spirits six full meals a day if they pleased. But now that they had cut ties with Mercury Trojan and hadn't joined a new cult, they had to be self-reliant. Although they had previously looted several warehouses belonging to the Four Pillar Cult, their spatial cards had limited storage capacity and had to hold other survival supplies. In total, they had only carried away around ten thousand gold coins. A three-winged sorcery spirit consumed three gold coins a day, or ninety a month. The party currently possessed fourteen three-winged sorcery spirits among them, meaning a monthly consumption of 1,260 gold coins. Leaving aside daily living expenses, ten thousand gold coins would only last them ten months! Those fourteen three-winged spirits were distributed among them: Yaxiu had four, Igola two, Harvey two, and Qikala six! Qikala was a veteran Sanctuary Sorcerer who had advanced nearly a decade ago, so having that kind of foundation was entirely normal. But seeing a slave consume more gold coins every day than his masters made Igola want to sell off all of the orc's three-winged spirits. Yet Qikala argued his case with righteous vigor. His sorcery spirits were all top-tier specimens, either Fire or Space. His six three-winged spirits could unleash powerful miracles across offense, defense, healing, reconnaissance, and movement; keeping them was undeniably worth the investment. This reminded Igola of the orc's unique forte, and he promptly ordered Qikala to craft spatial equipment. Party A, Igola, requested three spatial rings of ten cubic meters each. Party B, Qikala, pleaded that the workload was excessive and that even working without sleep for a month would only yield a single five-cubic-meter ring. Party A showed immense understanding toward Party B's difficulties, generously extending the deadline to six months. After group deliberation, they decided to sell off all spare sorcery spirits to hoard as much gold as possible, while cutting the rations of the three-winged sorcery spirits from three coins a day down to two. The consequence of underfeeding a sorcery spirit was much like a person starving: performance dropped by fifty percent. If left unfed for an extended period, a spirit wouldn't die, but it would gradually nibble away at the sorcerer's soul. That was how death-row inmates in Shattered Lake Prison had been able to maintain their sorcery spirits. Even though ten thousand gold coins could still last ten months, everyone complied with Igola's orders. The War of Faith was far from over. As the war dragged on, the wasteland's already fragile economic system would collapse completely. First, gold coins had to be refined from gold mines, and gold mines were prime resource points contested between the Harp Sun Alliance and the Four Pillar Cult. Once fighting erupted, mining efficiency would inevitably plummet. More importantly, both the Four Pillar Cult and the Harp Sun Alliance would tighten the circulation of gold! The difference between a spirit being underfed and adequately fed had already been established, but there was another scenario—what if a spirit was given extra rations? Take a three-winged sorcery spirit: if fed six gold coins a day, its performance could be boosted to one hundred and twenty percent! In peacetime, sorcerers certainly wouldn't double their spending just for a twenty-percent boost. But in wartime, when an area-of-effect strike could obliterate them in the next second, who would scrimp on money? Declining gold production, surging gold consumption, and major factions actively hoarding strategic supplies meant that circulating currency would sharply decline for the foreseeable future, a trend that would likely persist even after the war. Hoarding money now was preparing for the future. Of course, Yaxiu and his companions had another option: robbery. Four Sanctuary Sorcerers, one two-winged sorcerer, and a black crow—they were a top-tier criminal syndicate by any standard. But they had already offended the Four Pillar Cult. If they robbed the Harp Sun Alliance as well, there truly wouldn't be a single corner left in all of Senluo to harbor them. They could also venture deep into Four Pillar Cult territory to raid supply convoys, but Mercury Trojan was waiting for them there. One couldn't forget that Mercury Trojan could now command a Legendary Sorcerer. If Mercury Trojan caught an opening, their entire group would be wiped out. For safety's sake, they could only tighten their own belts. Unable to afford "A Chest of Source Crystals" priced at 648 points, Yaxiu was nonetheless reluctant to close the game. Instead, he navigated to the "Operator Recruitment" interface. A murky, ash-gray recruitment screen swarming with souls of despair appeared before his eyes! ['Netherworld Search, Soul Theft' Event Recruitment] [Rate UP for Limited Items: 'Soul Theft Manual', 'Netherworld Search Ring', 'Annihilation Pupil'] [Rate UP for Limited Costumes: 'Life-Taking Demonic Soul · Watcher', 'Secret Nether Hunter · Watcher', 'Blood-Stained Wedding Dress · Watcher'] [Ends at 00:00, September 3rd] Yes, a new event recruitment! Yet there had been no notification from the system—not a single whisper of news. Yaxiu had only noticed this recruitment banner yesterday, otherwise he would have scrambled to scrounge up cash to pay into it! Yaxiu had wondered whether this was linked to the Ghost Inheritance, though he had no way of confirming it. Now was his last chance to pull. Reason dictated that Yaxiu should hurry and buy points, but he felt hesitant. First, the only top-up option that still retained the first-purchase double bonus was "A Chest of Source Crystals" for 648 points. Yaxiu wanted to save enough points to buy that, but he was far from the threshold. He could only buy "A Bag of Source Crystals" for 198 points at regular price, which he was reluctant to do. Second, this event recruitment offered no rate-up for operators! If there were a new operator, Yaxiu wouldn't have hesitated to empty his pockets completely! Even if it were a costume like 'Bridal Sword Princess', Yaxiu wouldn't have skimped on his savings. Yet not only were there no new operators, but the costumes were exclusively an all-Watcher showcase—who on earth wanted to pull costumes for themselves?! The only valuable items were those three limited gadgets. This was the first time Yaxiu had seen an event recruitment headlined by items. Was it really worth blowing all his savings for a few items? After agonizing over it, Yaxiu went to wash his hands, then spent seventy-two source crystals to recruit twenty-four times. Indeed, he planned to stop once his source crystals were depleted, without putting in extra money. If he didn't pull anything, so be it. The limited items didn't even come with preview details; they held little appeal for him. If he spent money only to end up pulling the complete set of Watcher costumes, he feared he would be so depressed that he'd need psychological counseling from Igola. First came eighteen beams of white light cluttering the pool: Stamina Potions, Experience Potions, and Career Potions, all destined to be refined into materials later. Then four beams of purple light: two bottles of 'Lightless Sanctuary Potion', one bottle of 'Pure Spiritual Light Special Drink', and a new item, 'Soul Seal'. Finally, two beams of gold light! 'Life-Taking Demonic Soul · Watcher'! 'Soul Theft Manual'! He had actually pulled a limited item!