Boom!
In the golden palace, as a burst of light exploded before his eyes, Yaxiu trembled all over as if hammered by a heavy blow.
Even though a soul body could not bleed, he felt a wave of dizziness. It was as though five hundred Lalafells were squealing in his ears, and double images crowded his vision.
Six Four-Wing sorcery spirits dropped to the ground, visibly withered and exhausted, lacking even the strength to take flight. The failed spirit gathering just now had not only dealt Yaxiu a heavy blow, but had also severely overwhelmed the sorcery spirits.
In the palace, aside from Weise who was in slightly better shape, the others looked like they had barely slept, their expressions groggy and dazed, like dolls. Even though they remained as beautiful as ever, they exuded an aura of withering.
They had already been working continuously for twelve hours.
Having actually begun the work of god-making, they immediately understood why only a Truth Sorcerer had any hope of completing a virtual divine personality.
The method of creating a virtual divine personality could be called simple, yet it was also excruciatingly difficult, because it consisted of only a single step: spirit gathering.
As mentioned before, while there were single-faction sorcery spirits like 'Slash Sword,' most were multi-faction spirits similar to 'Wave Sword'—belonging to swordsmanship while also containing factors of various factions such as light sorcery or wind sorcery, differing only in proportion.
So-called spirit gathering was extracting factors of the same faction from different sorcery spirits and then assembling them into fragments of the virtual divine personality!
The Dream Demon had cast 'Same Bed, Different Dreams' on them not purely to coerce them; saturated with nightmare corruption, 'Same Bed, Different Dreams' elevated their sensitivity to nightmares, allowing them to clearly distinguish the nightmare power within various sorcery spirits.
To draw an analogy, they were like fresh graduates who had suffered through a sweatshop company; when looking for a new job, seeing buzzwords like "young and vibrant team," "afternoon tea, snacks, and gym provided," "fast-paced environment," and "salary negotiable" was enough for them to immediately know how much of a nightmare the company would be.
Yaxiu and the others needed to manipulate multiple sorcery spirits simultaneously, separating out the nightmare factors one by one, melding them into fragments, and slotting them into the virtual divine personality maintained by the Dream Demon. It sounded like just tedious, meticulous labor, but the problem was that a single shard was often composed of several, a dozen, or even dozens of smaller fragments!
Separation was already exhausting to one's mind, and if the extraction was not pure enough and contained impurity factors, it would trigger a spirit-gathering explosion! Yet if too few factors were extracted to form a shard of adequate scale, they would also have to start over from scratch!
In essence, spirit gathering was equivalent to a miracle composed of multiple sorcery spirits; a failed spirit gathering amounted to a miracle backlash, so suffering severe trauma was hardly surprising.
The core capability demanded by spirit gathering was naturally computational processing power. Not only did Truth Sorcerers excel at this, but their sensitivity to sorcery spirit factors was far higher than that of other sorcerers. Yaxiu and his companions had triggered dozens of spirit-gathering explosions due to impure extractions, whereas Weise had only triggered two!
One had to know that Yaxiu and the others could only handle fewer than ten fragments at a time, while Weise consistently handled large fragments composed of ten or more, with an efficiency more than four times theirs—demonstrating just how uniquely blessed Truth Sorcerers were in this regard.
Though grueling in the extreme, this precious experience gave them a rudimentary understanding of the wonder of the virtual divine personality path. Put simply, it was like stacking building blocks. The sorcery spirits were the blocks, the factors were the block colors; assembling them together built the divine personality, and by subsequently inserting a concept, one could bring it to life, creating a god identical to the assembled blocks. The principle was not complex, but how to design the blueprint and what sorcery spirits were needed were mysteries probably only sorcerers who had stepped into the divine realm could fathom.
Yet compared to the soul divine personality path, the virtual divine personality path was truly superior: first, it could be completed by a single person; second, it placed no strict requirements on materials, as all sorcery spirits could be substituted with equivalents; third, it avoided the Void Realm's curse!
As could be seen from the final step of the God of Stillness ritual, which required spending a cycle in the Domain of Stillness, the Void Realm curses encountered by the soul divine personality path were natural disasters ordinary sorcerers simply could not survive—in fact, one wouldn't even get the chance, since the Domain of Stillness was exclusive to the Time Continent.
Setting aside how difficult it was for a demigod to return to the lower layers of the Void Realm, one knew from the Nightmare Angel's experience that if you wanted to create a god in the Void Realm, the greatest obstacle was other sorcerers!
It was worth mentioning that Yaxiu had unwittingly found himself initiated into the truth faction. Evidently, the labor of spirit gathering accumulated truth experience, and the others shared a portion with him; moreover, Weise had been continuously sharing her experience with him as well, making his progression to Silver rank a natural development.
Yet this was already the limit.
Yaxiu exchanged glances with the operators and said, "Dream Demon, we have to rest. Even if our soul energy is restored, we can't keep going like this."
Sonia, Diya, and Weise all stopped what they were doing and looked quietly at the Dream Demon.
The Dream Demon had naturally been restoring their soul energy the entire time; otherwise, their energy would have run dry long ago, and they would have been booted out of the Void Realm. But restoring soul energy was not a cure-all. Twelve straight hours of intense, monotonous labor without a single break was enough to induce severe psychological distress.
Their souls remained strong, but the light in their eyes was dimming bit by bit.
Yet faced with such a reasonable request, the Dream Demon shook his head resolutely. "No. Maintaining the virtual divine personality consumes source crystals and cannot be paused halfway through. Your resting would cause tremendous waste. Of course, my original body prepared a miracle for you to restore your mental state—"
"But I need to return to reality for a moment," Diya said. "I'll just handle a few matters and come right back—"
"Not. Permitted."
Suddenly, as if their entire bodies had been stuck with needles and then rolled across the ground, an intense, piercing pain shot through their souls, causing them to double over and gasp for breath, nearly losing consciousness!
"Leaving here is forbidden; returning to reality is forbidden," the Dream Demon said, enunciating every word. "Until the god-making is finished, no one is permitted to leave."
Yaxiu glanced at the operators, then stared fixedly at the Dream Demon. "But we bear the curse of Same Bed, Different Dreams. I will stay behind as a hostage. Even if they don't return, you can still—"
"Yet you might leak secrets to the outside, causing the god-making to fall short at the final hurdle," the Dream Demon said. "The mistake my original body made must never be repeated.
"As for your lack of focus and related issues, I shall resolve them for you immediately."
The Dream Demon pointed at Diya. Boiling ripples surged across her body, and currents of air flowed along the connection of Same Bed, Different Dreams into the other three.
Yaxiu felt with absolute clarity a burst of ideas exploding in his mind, his spirits soaring into hyper-excitement as though the entire world had become crystal clear.
The price, however, was that the Witch collapsed nearly to her knees, her shoulders trembling violently in pain!
"Stop!" Yaxiu rose, stepping between the Dream Demon and the Witch, and roared, "What are you doing?!"
"A variant procedure of 'Same Bed, Different Dreams,'" the Dream Demon replied. "This technique can link enemies, allies, or even enemies and allies together. When linking allies, it can consume one person's soul to grant a powerful buff to all allies.
"In essence, it drains the target's maximum soul capacity to increase the maximum soul capacity of the others, which is why the target's soul cannot temporarily return to normal. However, sacrificing one to replenish everyone is cost-effective."
Sonia went over and embraced the Witch, lowering her head to conceal the fury in her eyes, and said coldly, "Then we'll just get back to work, all right?"
"No," the Dream Demon replied. "Even if you had not spoken up, once the Truth Sorcerer entered a period of fatigue, I would have activated this miracle to buff her soul. Your purpose was always to enable the Truth Sorcerer to endure until the very end."
"Stop," Yaxiu said. "Take me instead."
Diya gritted her teeth, her voice trembling. "Watcher, I... I'm not—"
"Are you certain?" the Dream Demon asked. "I only gave her priority after confirming she possesses the highest maximum soul capacity among you."
It was no surprise that the Witch had the highest maximum soul capacity; honed day and night by her multiple personalities, she had possessed a twenty-five-man soul upon first entering Sanctuary, and had now reached a forty-man soul.
"Certain."
Yaxiu quickly expended 30 points to purchase a set of source crystals, equipped the Soul Theft Manual, and activated the effect: Burning Soul Diagram!
With a roaring gale that burst outward, his soul surged instantly from a thirty-man soul to a three-hundred-man soul! The skyrocketing maximum soul capacity made his soul body much more condensed and distinct, down to individual strands of hair.
The Dream Demon showed no surprise at all; he merely nodded and pointed at Yaxiu.
Boom!
Enormous pressure bent Yaxiu's waist in an instant, and agony akin to being sliced by countless knives saturated his soul. Were it not for the fact that a soul body could not sweat, he would surely be dripping with it!
He covered his mouth, trying to endure it, straightening his back to resist, but doing so only made the torment all the sharper.
Soon, his consciousness began to scatter, and his mind turned blank. Taking its place was a bone-deep, cold-blooded serenity, along with countless colliding thoughts.
The proper way to use Same Bed, Different Dreams was probably to link enemies with oneself, then trigger Different Dreams upon oneself to drag the enemy into the nightmare curse as well—yet evidently, the Nightmare Angel was immune to nightmares...
The reason the Nightmare Angel failed was betrayal; that was why the programming he left behind for the Dream Demon placed such heavy emphasis on forbidding anyone to leave the Void Realm...
The Dream Demon had never attacked before, which meant that a trigger word like "leave" had likely activated his built-in programming. Consequently, there were bound to be other dangerous or even lethal keywords...
Watching Yaxiu's profile transition from unbearable agony to serene calm, his shoulders ceasing to tremble, the corners of his mouth curving faintly upward, and the light in his eyes turning deep and inscrutable, Weise immediately recognized that this was the Watcher Yaxiu she had once dreamed of:
A being more cold-blooded, more calm, and more perfect than herself!
Weise had never imagined that the hope she had all but abandoned would appear before her eyes once more. Almost subconsciously, she could not help thinking—what if Yaxiu truly changed?
In the Void Realm, with a perfect Watcher Yaxiu leading the team, the gains would easily be double or even tenfold what they had been! No one knew better than Weise how powerful a perfect Yaxiu was; in his normal state, he barely tapped into his true potential!
In reality, if Yaxiu changed, she wouldn't need to worry about his emotional threshold. She could simply be candid with him, and he would become her ally. Moreover, while he wouldn't love her, neither would he love the Sword Princess or the Witch. As long as she could tie him to her side... as long as...
Weise's breathing turned shallow and rapid. But then her eyes hardened, her lips pressed tight, and she stood up, walking toward Yaxiu.
Even though the present Yaxiu was far less afraid of pain and far more powerful than before, Weise felt a bitter ache in her heart. No amount of logic could suppress that utterly irrational thought—
Don't you change!
Change back!
And so she rushed over, reaching out her hand—
"Watcher!"
Sonia took Yaxiu into her arms, whispering softly into his ear and nuzzling his cheek intimately. Diya, having recovered from the earlier pain, could only hold Yaxiu's hand, so anxious she didn't know how to help.
Weise, having arrived a step too late, froze on the periphery. Watching Yaxiu's expression gradually regain life, even tinged with a hint of bittersweet relief, the realization finally struck her:
Right.
Yaxiu's experiences in the Blood Moon and the Gospel were no safer than in Senluo—in fact, they were even more cruel and bloody. In Senluo, Yaxiu was at least a Sanctuary sorcerer, but in the Blood Moon he had been a death-row inmate, and in the Gospel, a slave.
He had had far too many reasons to change for the worse in the past; if he were going to change, he would have changed long ago.
Yet just as he had held back the falling Sword Princess and protected the maddened Witch, the Sword Princess and the Witch likewise pulled him back from the brink of the abyss.
Theirs was an established relationship of mutual salvation; there was no room left for anyone else to step in.
To think she had believed she could tear Yaxiu away from them...
Suddenly, Weise saw the Sword Princess beckoning to her. When she walked over, the Sword Princess held her hand firmly, as if seeking in this way to demonstrate that they were of one heart and mind.
*That hand of yours was just touching Yaxiu's face...*
Just as Weise's mind wandered for a moment, she realized the Sword Princess was tracing words on her palm.
It was the character for "Danger."
Weise looked toward Yaxiu. Enduring the pain, Yaxiu rested his head against the Sword Princess's bosom and shot her a glance.
The Nightmare Inheritance carried immense peril.
Although Yaxiu had slipped out of the long-absent Spectator state, the thoughts formed while in that state had not dispersed. He suddenly realized a critical problem: the Nightmare Angel was an evil sorcerer!
Look at the other two evil sorcerers, the King of Time and the Spectre Prophet. While the former opened the Eternal City without banning sorcery spirits or sorcery power, he introduced a new rule: sorcerers inside the Eternal City could not destroy their sorcery spirits, nor could they exit the Void Realm.
Put simply, even if a sorcerer obtained the Time Inheritance, they had to retrace their steps out of the Eternal City to return to reality. If they died along the way, the drop rate was one hundred percent; they couldn't even destroy their own sorcery spirits to spite their enemies!
One could easily imagine how vicious the mutual slaughter inside the Eternal City was, not to mention that the Eternal City was inherently challenging. In this past month, a conservative estimate put the death toll at nearly ten thousand Two-Wing sorcerers!
And that was precisely what the King of Time wanted—he was not a race of the mortal realm, but an ancient elf who harbored deep hatred for sorcerers. Though no one knew why he had left behind an inheritance, in his heart he undoubtedly wished for heavy casualties among mortal sorcerers!
As for the Spectre Prophet, he was even more blatant: feigning generosity by offering escape items like the 'Spectre Secret Key,' only for sorcerers who grew emboldened and pushed deeper to run into lethal trials like 'Soul-Tethering Dream' and 'Return of the Soul to Youth,' where escape became completely impossible!
The Spectre Prophet knew that Sanctuary sorcerers were all shrewd veterans. In order to lure them into venturing deeper, he placed sweet bait at the start—all to ensure that future sorcerers met grisly ends.
This was an entirely normal train of logic: they were evil sorcerers who harmed others to benefit themselves in the first place. If their lifespans hadn't been nearing an end without successors, why would they ever leave an inheritance behind? Even so, they would never make things easy for later generations; even for the successor capable of claiming their legacy, they would most likely set deadly traps.
The reason boiled down to three simple words: Why should you?
Why should I have to die while you get to inherit my life's legacy?
Yes, I am forced to leave it behind, but if I don't make you suffer through torment, how could I ever vent my bitter resentment?
By comparison, the Nightmare Inheritance appeared astonishingly lenient!
There were no trials; showing up was pure profit, and it even gifted a god and a heavenly realm—not even a biological child could ask for more. Though 'Yearned for in Dreams' was somewhat brutal, that was toward outsiders after all; one couldn't expect too much from the Nightmare Angel.
Just as Yaxiu was wondering whether the Nightmare Angel had experienced a pang of conscience before dying, the Dream Demon's actions just now completely shattered that wishful thinking.
Setting torture trigger words and draining their souls to sustain the Truth Sorcerer's stamina—these actions proved that right up until his death, the Nightmare Angel was still rotten to the core. He couldn't stand seeing younger sorcerers fare well, resorting to torment and slaughter at the slightest whim!
If the Nightmare Angel were a good person, even if Diya said something wrong, a warning would have sufficed—why resort directly to torture? If the Nightmare Angel were a benevolent elder who merely retained the quirks of an evil sorcerer, he could have captured someone from the Spectre Inheritance to serve as a soul refueling station, rather than treating them straight up as expendable consumables!
Most importantly, from beginning to end, the Dream Demon had never treated them as heirs. He saw them only as a Truth Sorcerer and expendable tools; they couldn't even smell the empty promises he dangled!
Since the Nightmare Angel was evil, yet so generous in handing over his legacy, it could only prove one thing: this inheritance held a sinister trap.
At the very least, they were by no means the true beneficiaries of the Nightmare Inheritance!
Only this could explain the Nightmare Angel's paradoxical generosity and brutality: when dealing with tools, of course one would generously provide the tools, and brutally drive them to work!
If they obediently proceeded with god-making, at best they would end up working for nothing, and at worst the Dream Demon would cut them down to the roots!
Yet Yaxiu could not state this openly. The Nightmare Angel had most likely set corresponding keywords; the moment they tripped one, the Dream Demon would certainly destroy them.
Weise pondered for a moment, glanced at Yaxiu's hand resting on the Sword Princess's thigh, and in the end wrote several words on the Sword Princess's palm.
Sonia was slightly puzzled, but still passed the message to Yaxiu.
Yaxiu frowned slightly, but his brow soon relaxed, and he extended a hand toward Weise.
The two held hands tightly. Sitting between them, Sonia placed her hand over theirs as well. Diya found it amusing and piled her hand on top too.
A moment later, the Dream Demon suddenly spoke: "Five minutes have passed. Resume work."
Sonia looked down at Yaxiu in her arms, her ruby-red eyes radiating a silent question: *Little boy, what's going on with you? Did the pain stop five minutes ago?*
Yaxiu, shameless as ever, hugged her tightly and took a deep breath against her neck.
This was the first time they had engaged in such intimacy in front of everyone. The Claw-Extending Sword Saint blushed with slight embarrassment, but wrapped her arms around him in return nonetheless.
However, when she saw Yaxiu turn around and hug the Witch as well, the smile on the village girl's face faded instantly.
Just then, the golden palace suddenly shuddered.
Everyone looked up at the ceiling, their expressions shifting dramatically. The Dream Demon possessed no facial expressions to speak of, merely urging again, "Begin work."
Outside, having rested, Igola returned once more to the Distant Sky Realm.
Watching the dense cluster of black dots swarming around the golden bubble, his expression turned grave:
"Could it only be stalled until now...?"
Chapter 667