A God Descends!

Unlike Yaxiu and the others, who had harbored a sliver of wishful thinking, Weise had never expected from the very beginning that the Dream Demon would truly hand over the Nightmare Inheritance. She had long seen through the demon—or rather, the Nightmare Angel—and knew he possessed not a shred of sincerity. After all, she had been born and raised in the lawful evil Calamitous Fire Sanctuary. Although the Sanctuary engaged in production and commerce, it had never abandoned its ancestral trade of burning, killing, and pillaging. Truth be told, the Calamitous Fire believers were a deeply paradoxical religious group. They were ruthless and merciless to outsiders, yet strictly adhered to their own precepts, never indulging in lust or luxury. Most of the supplies they plundered were prioritized for ordinary folk rather than sorcerers. As for the sorcerer believers, they tended to cultivate the School of Asceticism and could survive on remarkably little. One could even say that in the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary, the treatment of sorcerers was worse than that of ordinary people. Precisely because they derived no personal profit from their pillaging, the Calamitous Fire believers never doubted the righteousness of their cause. They believed they were "committing minor evils to achieve greater good," killing and plundering not out of selfish desire. Perhaps it was this sense of moral sacrifice—bearing the weight of sin—that made the faith of the Calamitous Fire believers unimaginably devout. It was also how the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary could sustain a whole five grand laws, establishing itself as a first-rate sect on the Senluo Wasteland. Regardless of whether the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary considered itself righteous, one fact was beyond doubt: when it came to plundering, they were a team of consummate professionals. What was even more brilliant was that the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary did not simply plunder. They also provided armed escorts for merchant caravans, coaxing them into coming to the Sanctuary for business, only to disguise themselves as rival sects and raid those very caravans. Since the caravans belonged to various sects, this back-and-forth would stir up conflict between rival factions, further cementing the Sanctuary's dominant position... Back when Weise was only a Silver Sorcerer, her sharp intellect had earned her a place among the "Sin-Calamity Advisors," devising plots and stratagems for the Sanctuary. During that time, she not only mastered deceit, intrigue, and conspiracies, but also came to understand how the Sanctuary systematically dragged sect after sect into the abyss. One could say the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary was an industrialized, systematic, and devout syndicate of evil sorcerers. Later, she became the Silver Lantern Saintess, defected to the Four Pillar Cult, and honed her talents as an evil sorcerer to an even higher level of perfection. Had Mercury Trojan not flipped the table and attempted to assassinate her, she was confident she could have gradually hollowed out his authority and subverted the cult from within. This was where Yaxiu, Sonia, and Diya fell far short of her: Weise was a trained, battle-tested, and proven evil sorcerer! The moment the Dream Demon wrote them a rubber check and bound them with Same Bed, Different Dreams, Weise realized they already had one foot in Hell. Simple though the Dream Demon's tactic was, it remained ruthlessly effective even after thousands of years: it only needed to take a single hostage, and the rest would be forced to submit! Moreover, Weise harbored deep doubts about whether the Dream Demon truly required a hostage to cast Same Bed, Different Dreams in the first place. An evil sorcerer never played all their trump cards at once. They would even feign weakness deliberately, waiting until the victim thought they saw a chance to strike back before flashing a savage grin, revealing their hidden hand, and utterly shattering the victim's psychological defenses. Thus, if they wanted to escape, their very first step had to make the demon hesitate to act out of fear of collateral damage, ensuring it not only dared not harm them, but was actually forced to protect them. So Weise set her sights on the concept of entering dreams. The entering dreams concept was an irreplaceable component in the ritual for the Nightmare God's birth. As long as they could control it, the Dream Demon, single-mindedly devoted to creating the Nightmare God, would become a force they could exploit. That was why the four had labored so tirelessly to construct the virtual godhead—only upon its completion would the Dream Demon hand over the concept of entering dreams. Even if Weise's Misplaced Love miracle proved ineffective on concepts, simply taking the entering dreams concept hostage would still be enough to threaten the Dream Demon. Yet that was merely the first step. Though the Nightmare Angel had been an evil sorcerer from millennia ago, his calculations remained flawlessly effective today. The Nightmare Inheritance would only activate when the Kingdom of Dreams was on the brink of destruction. By then, the kingdom would be beset by perils both within and without. If the inheritors fled the golden hall guarded by the Dream Demon, they would inevitably be spotted by the outside sorcerers. He had ingeniously exploited the dire circumstances to trap any future inheritors thousands of years later in an impossible dilemma: refuse to forge the god, and the Dream Demon would kill them; run, and they would be besieged by covetous outer sorcerers. Whether for the greater good or simply to save their own necks, the only path open to the inheritors was to complete the Nightmare God and reconstitute the Kingdom of Dreams. Only then would there be a slim chance of survival! Of course, that slim chance of survival had never truly existed. Weise did not know the Dream Demon's real plan, nor did she believe the Spectre Prophet's dire warnings were genuine. But she knew full well that the Nightmare Angel had not painstakingly orchestrated this millennium-long scheme just to bestow blessings upon future generations! If the four of them truly completed the Nightmare God, death might well be their kindest outcome. Though they appeared to have broken free of the Kingdom of Dreams through a string of coincidences, they remained in grave danger. Returning to reality from the Distant Sky Realm took at least thirty seconds. Yet in just over ten seconds, the sorcerers inside the Kingdom of Dreams could swarm out, and those waiting outside would hardly stand by and watch them leave. The sorcerers only needed to strike the four from afar with a single miracle to disrupt their return! Even if they discarded the entering dreams concept this very second, their experience in god-forging was a treasure that even Divine Lords would covet. In essence, while Yaxiu and the others had escaped the birdcage of the Kingdom of Dreams, they had merely stepped into a far more perilous prison. However, ever since learning that the Dream Demon possessed the entering dreams concept, Weise had harbored an audacious idea. Later, during the Yearned for in Dreams ritual, after obtaining the detailed procedure for the God of Stillness from someone else, her plan had taken full shape. The foundation of this plan rested on what the Dream Demon had once called the "concept aggregation phenomenon": when the laws of the Void Realm matured, a concept would automatically aggregate various materials and undergo metamorphosis into a god. When she first heard this, Weise had found it slightly odd: Did a concept possess an ego, actively seeking out materials on its own? She soon realized the truth—it was not that the concept sought out materials, but that the environment of the Void Realm continually evolved, delivering those materials to the concept's side! Were there other examples of a concept consuming materials to metamorphose into a god? Naturally. One example was the secret ritual for the God of Stillness that Weise and the others knew of. But beyond that, there was another ritual that every sorcerer below the Legendary rank had recently learned about! The Colorless Dream! As recorded in the Lake Light Manual, Time Manual, and Spectre Manual, by feeding Wound of Wind, Whisper of Flowers, Scattering Brilliance of Snow, and Crystal of the Moon to an entering dreams sorcery spirit, one could obtain a Colorless Dream sorcery spirit! This was practically identical to a god-forging ritual! Did they have an entering dreams sorcery spirit? No, nor did they know how to create one. An entering dreams sorcery spirit would likely only be produced by the concept when the Kingdom of Dreams was fully intact. However, they could grasp the entering dreams concept itself! Thus, a wild, whimsical idea struck Weise: to create a Colorless Dream God! To forge a brand-new god that had never existed before, one that no one even knew was possible to create! Yet the only ritual step they were certain of was that the entering dreams concept required Wound of Wind, Whisper of Flowers, Scattering Brilliance of Snow, and Crystal of the Moon. Those ancient materials had long vanished in the shifting tides of the Void Realm. Even so, those materials could be substituted by sorcery spirits. But the substitutes were Four-Wing rank sorcery spirits—did they possess any? Of course they did not. But the Dream Demon had granted them an opportunity to steal sorcery spirits from the Void Realm: the divine miracle Yearned for in Dreams! Yearned for in Dreams was the most absurd auxiliary miracle they had ever seen, allowing them to freely steal any Four-Wing sorcery spirit. Yet upon closer reflection, it was a miracle cast by a demigod, and required killing a Sanctuary sorcerer—or at least leaving them bedridden for a year. Looking at it that way, the cost seemed almost reasonable. And so, Sonia, Diya, and Weise had stolen the four sorcery spirits—Wind Formation, Flower Abiding, Snow Ruin, and Moon Void—and dispersed them across their three souls to prevent the Dream Demon from noticing anything amiss. Weise believed the Nightmare Angel had known about this ritual as well. Perhaps the Void Realm's environment had not been mature enough in his era, or more likely, he simply had no need for a Colorless Dream God, which was why he had turned to researching the Sweet Dream God and the Nightmare God instead. With the material problem resolved, another formidable obstacle stood before the sorcerers: what Void Realm curse was required for the birth of a Colorless Dream God? After all, the God of Stillness required the Domain of Stillness curse to be born, so a Colorless Dream God would naturally demand its own specific rite. Yet Weise did not even need to speak. Once Yaxiu and the others caught on to her intentions, their thoughts turned simultaneously to the most vital mechanism in the Distant Sky Realm: The Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite! The equalizing mechanism that humbled every modern sorcerer who ascended to the Distant Sky Realm! The perilous trial every Three-Wing sorcerer had to endure to master their Sanctuary! A Void Realm phenomenon that everyone knew of, yet had grown accustomed to! Thousands of years ago, even in the era of the Spectre Prophet—the closest of the ancient figures to their own time—the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite had not yet formed. Now that it had become a universal law of the Distant Sky Realm, could it be understood as the Void Realm itself urging the birth of the Colorless Dream God? Viewed from this perspective, the concept aggregation phenomenon had already occurred long ago. It was only because the Kingdom of Dreams and the Nightmare Inheritance had kept the entering dreams concept sealed away that the Colorless Dream God had been delayed for so long. Now, Weise and her companions had brought the entering dreams concept out of the Kingdom of Dreams. They had dispersed their Sanctuaries, opening their souls to receive the baptism of the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite! Yet there was a contradiction here: an ordinary sorcerer would perish upon enduring the Tuning Forbidden Rite. Leaving aside whether the god-forging failed, if they were reduced to mere remnant souls, they would still have to wait thirty seconds to return to reality. If another sorcerer possessed a soul-controlling miracle at that moment, they would be powerless to resist. Would they die under the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite, though? It was hard to say for Yaxiu and Weise, but Sonia and Diya almost certainly would not. The two of them had mastered their Sanctuaries through their own strength, having completely passed the trial of the Tuning Forbidden Rite! Yaxiu and Weise, on the other hand, were phonies who had rushed their Sanctuaries by drinking the Lightless Sanctuary Potion, leaving them incapable of resisting the rite on their own. It seemed the old adage of the Void Realm held true: every class you skipped, you would eventually have to make up for. Yet the apocrypha they had acquired from the Spectre Inheritance allowed Yaxiu and Weise to cheat on their makeup exam once again! The Soul Merging miracle! Not only did this miracle unite them as one, preventing the Dream Demon from activating Same Bed, Different Dreams, but when enduring the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite, the Sword Princess and the Witch could help Yaxiu and Weise cheat, weathering the storm together! Now, the rite began! Whoosh. A whisper of wind, barely audible, pierced through their souls. Every inch was decomposed into nothingness as the four swiftly dissolved and disintegrated. The wind tore their souls to shreds with effortless ease, carving out new voids within every speck of their spirit forms. Yet under the guidance of the Sword Princess and the Witch, their souls scattered without collapsing, showing faint signs of reassembling! Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite: Wind Formation. At the same time, the little fox snatched the Wind Formation sorcery spirit from Weise's soul. The Wind Formation spirit looked like a balloon that might drift away at any moment. The little fox rolled around clutching it, and finding it difficult to keep hold, plucked out a strand of its own fur, poked it into the balloon to serve as a string, and gripped it tightly with its paw. Then, their scattered spirit forms began to assemble piece by piece, gathering once more to reconstruct their likenesses. It was as exquisite as petals reforming their bodies, while the void within their spirit forms coalesced entirely, forming a brand-new, independent space identical in size to their physical forms. Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite: Flower Abiding. The little fox leaped into the Sword Princess's soul and pinned the Flower Abiding sorcery spirit—which looked like a flower petal—onto its own head, resembling a little girl dressing up. Soon, the crude spaces within their bodies began to collapse inward, splintering from a single whole into fragments and specks once more. Yet under the guidance of the Sword Princess and the Witch, their shattered souls remarkably began to reconstitute themselves! Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite: Snow Ruin. This time, the little fox arrived in the Witch's soul, gently passing through the Snow Ruin sorcery spirit, which resembled a snowflake. The snowflake dissolved over the little fox, wrapping around it like a cloak. Finally, their souls converged once more, forming new spherical spirit forms like tiny bubbles. Ordinarily, the soul bubbles would swiftly perish at this stage. Yet thanks to the efforts of the Sword Princess and the Witch across the first three steps, their soul bubbles grew remarkably sturdy, on the verge of restoring their original appearances! Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite: Moon Void! The little fox returned to Weise's soul and found the final sorcery spirit, Moon Void. It resembled a blank glass orb. Clutching Wind Formation, pinned with Flower Abiding, and draped in Snow Ruin, the little fox dove headfirst into the glass orb! In an instant, iridescent waves surged within the orb, and fine cracks fractured across its surface—a sublime entity could no longer wait to be born! Outside, Yaxiu and the other three had reached their limits. If they did not deploy their Sanctuaries now, the second cycle of the Wind, Flower, Snow, and Moon Tuning Forbidden Rite would utterly destroy their souls! Sanctuaries, deploy! Simultaneously, the glass orb shattered completely. A graceful, sacred figure leaped lightly from their souls, brazenly proclaiming its arrival to the world! It took the form of a five-year-old girl, with floppy fox ears poking through short peach-pink hair. She wore a snow-white and light-blue dress, white stockings hugging her legs, and held an emerald staff wrapped in swirling gales. From beneath her skirt swished five fluffy tails! Adorable though she appeared, everyone who looked upon her—save for Yaxiu's group of four—trembled down to their very souls, be it the Spectre Prophet or Sanctuary sorcerers like Baiyu. The sorcery spirits within their bodies shivered uncontrollably, daring not show the slightest insolence! A god had descended!