"Ah, ah—we're finally out!"
The instant Yaxiu stepped clear of the mist, his knees buckled and he collapsed onto the ground. Because they were holding hands, the others tumbled down with him. Everyone gasped for air as though they had just returned to the land of the living, moved almost to tears.
They were by no means exaggerating. They had genuinely just endured the most nauseating trial yet—the Blindsight Trial constructed by the Grand Law of Blindsight.
To this moment, they still had no idea what the main theme of the Blindsight Trial was, but they had experienced its curse firsthand and with absolute clarity: sensory deprivation!
One might wonder: didn't they have Sanctuaries? Couldn't they just resist it with that?
They really couldn't!
No matter how all-encompassing a Sanctuary's defense was, it still had to permit light and air inside; otherwise, a sorcerer would be no different from someone blind and deaf anyway. And the terrifying part of the Blindsight curse was that it relied precisely on those two media: light and air. Even with your Sanctuary deployed, you would still fall victim to it.
After being struck blind and deaf, they had no choice but to advance hand in hand to avoid losing companions along the way. Yet the ground was riddled with obstacle traps, and only by relying on the protection of their Sanctuaries could they stumble forward. They had considered taking flight, only to find even more obstacles in the air...
Toward the end, they lost all sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch completely. They couldn't even control their own bodies; their consciousness felt imprisoned in a dark urn. But this time, Alice made a monumental contribution—she was completely unaffected, so Harvey simply had Alice drag all of them out.
"No wonder the Mercury Trojan didn't leave any traps behind." Igola exhaled a heavy breath of foul air. "These trials alone are enough to hold back an army of thousands—even if the Harp Sun Alliance took the Giant Vine City, they wouldn't be able to penetrate deep into the Silent Spiral."
"Speaking of which," Yaxiu recalled something, "we've already gone as deep as the ninth floor. Why haven't we run into a single Four Pillar Cultist?"
The first five floors of the Silent Spiral had been very easy to pass because they were trials constructed by the Grand Laws of Calamitous Fire. Holding fast to the main theme of 'Supreme Truth', even if they had been scorched once or twice by the Calamitous Fire along the way, overall it had been free of major danger. But once they reached the unfamiliar sixth floor, their pace had slowed dramatically.
On the sixth floor's Gyrolight Trial and the eighth floor's Nature Trial, although they couldn't grasp the main theme, they had at least pushed through by maintaining their Sanctuaries.
However, the seventh floor's Bronze Law Trial had delayed them considerably.
The curse of the Bronze Law Trial was utterly bizarre: it didn't harm the trial-takers and even granted them infinite chances—it simply teleported them straight back to the starting point!
Yaxiu and the others had been sickened to death by it; it was like playing a hardcore game where a single mistake sent you all the way back to the beginning. It took them quite a while to figure out the main theme of the Bronze Law Trial, thinking it had to be the most disgusting stage possible, only for the ninth floor's Blindsight Trial to promptly slap them across the face.
Yet along the way, they had also witnessed new worlds constructed by nine Grand Laws. The five Grand Laws of Calamitous Fire shared the same ideal, but their details differed: Dust Calamitous Fire was gentle, Killing Calamitous Fire was aggressive, Myriad Calamities Fire was lofty, and so on;
The Grand Law of Nature constructed a flourishing wilderness where wind, rain, thunder, mountains, seas, forests, trees, the sun, and the moon were all transformed human beings, no longer mortal men, but new life coeval with heaven and earth, enduring for eternity;
The Grand Law of Bronze Law constructed a society permeated with discipline, where every person was biologically incapable of breaking the rules and 'evil' was thoroughly eradicated, which brought back fond memories of Shattered Lake Prison for Yaxiu;
The Grand Law of Blindsight constructed a nihilistic new world where people lost all their senses and melted directly into the world.
Yet after nine trials, they still had not spotted a single Four Pillar Cultist.
"If it were you, would you stay in those trials?" Igola asked in return.
Yaxiu shook his head repeatedly.
"Even if the Four Pillar Church stationed guards along the way, they'd choose trials with main themes that are easy to adapt to and don't feature shifting scenes," Igola analyzed. "For instance, the Nature Trial or the Gyrolight Trial."
Not every trial featured intricate scene shifts like the Calamitous Fire Trials. The Gyrolight Trial and the Nature Trial each had only a single area, never changing scenery from start to finish. If one wasn't in a rush, resting inside and experiencing a new world would have been quite a pleasant sightseeing excursion.
"Rather than finding Four Pillar Cultists, I'd much rather find Mr. Tamashi," Chikala howled in all earnestness. "Mr. Tamashi, where are you? Come out already!"
"Stop shouting," Igola said, stepping into the next fog gate. "Let's keep moving."
The group stepped through the tenth floor's fog gate and arrived upon a serene expanse of grassland. Lush green grass stretched beneath a blue sky dotted with white clouds, the sky meeting the prairie at the distant horizon—reminding Yaxiu of a classic computer wallpaper.
"A trial related to nature?" Igola guessed. But after only two steps, their expressions changed drastically, and each hastily erected their Sanctuary!
"What's going on?" Yaxiu looked down at his feet. "It feels like someone's biting my toes!"
"Me too!" The orc lifted his foot. He was barefoot right now, and everyone could clearly see his toes bleeding from bites. He grimaced with a wry smile. "This curse sure has exquisite taste!"
"Same here." Harvey squatted down and removed Alice's boots. "Alice doesn't have any, though."
Igola and Gwen nodded slightly, indicating their toes were also being bitten. Worse, Sanctuaries couldn't block this assault; at most, they mitigated it slightly. The attacks on their toes continued unabated!
How bizarre—what kind of curse had a craving for toes? Sandworms?
"Hurry and cross this floor, and don't make a ruckus," Igola said, casting a mind miracle to reduce their presence before leading the group stealthily across the grassland. Though their toes were constantly being injured, it didn't hinder their mobility too much.
Until they spotted someone sitting on the grassland in the distance.
A person gnawing on his own foot as if it were a chicken claw, chewing until blood flowed freely and jagged bone fragments were exposed.
A person whose hands had already been gnawed down to bare skeletons.
A person whose name they had known for a long time, but whom they had never met!
"Am I seeing things!?" Chikala kept his voice down, yet his words came out in a near-roar. "Olewa Warcraze actually has a fetish like this!?"
Indeed, the man mutilating and devouring himself on the grassland was none other than one of the Senluo Wasteland's only three legendary sorcerers, former head of the War Temple and now the Four Pillar Cult's pinnacle combatant—'Extinction Pope' Olewa!
Yet how did he possess any of the nobility or domineering aura befitting a legendary sorcerer right now? His hair was disheveled, his entire body smeared in blood and filth, saliva dripping down as he bowed his head and frantically gnawed his foot—he looked far worse than a beggar!
A chill rose in Igola's heart. "Let's circle around him and cross this floor. Don't draw his attention!"
Everyone nodded. But just as they moved to take a detour, Igola's foot landed on the turf with a crisp snap.
Looking down, they found countless transparent ice crystals concealed among the green blades of grass. Simultaneously, across the brightly sunlit tenth floor, a blizzard suddenly whipped up.
Miracle: Sword Body Barrier!
Yaxiu instantly erected a massive defensive barrier capable of withstanding any Sanctuary miracle, but in the next second, an ice spear shattered it completely! To their horror, even with their Sanctuaries raised, vicious ice crystals still pierced straight through their bodies, showering them in spurts of blood!
"The moisture inside our Sanctuaries!" Igola shouted as he retreated. "He's directly condensing the moisture within our Sanctuaries to attack... Shrink your Sanctuaries as close to your skin as possible!"
With full concentration, compressing a Sanctuary into a Sanctuary combat outfit wasn't difficult, but doing so in the midst of combat required years of accumulated Sanctuary experience—and time happened to be their greatest weakness!
"It's useless!" Chikala yelled, clutching his bleeding chest. "I already coated my skin with my Sanctuary just now, but I still got hit!"
At that moment, they finally got a clear look at the wasteland's renowned legendary sorcerer—Olewa was facing the sky with his back to the earth, crawling toward them on all fours like a grotesque spider. When his turbid eyes swept over them, a sinister, bloody light gleamed within.
The blizzard intensified, threatening to freeze their Sanctuaries solid and further impeding their movement!
"Wait!" Chikala's eyes lit up. "This is his Ice-Snow Sanctuary—his Sanctuary completely blankets us!"
When a sorcerer immersed themselves in their Sanctuary for long enough, it was possible to fuse sorcery into it. For instance, Chikala could unleash a Flame Sanctuary, causing anyone stepping into it to spontaneously combust without fire.
It seemed formidable, but in reality, it was rather useless: if you spread your Sanctuary over the enemy, you left yourself without Sanctuary protection!
Thus, such sorcery Sanctuaries were only useful when thrashing two-wing sorcerers. In battles among Sanctuary-tier or even legendary-tier sorcerers, they would still obediently wrap their Sanctuaries around themselves.
Which meant—
Miracle: Angry Sword!
Miracle: Visualization Superposition!
Miracle: Black Flame Fleeting Extinction Arrow!
Miracle: Alice Ten-Finger Barrage!
Miracle: Spark Fall!
Simultaneously, all the sorcerers launched ranged attacks at Olewa! Even though Olewa dodged in time, many attacks still landed on him—
"Guh-blegh!"
Yaxiu's body violently shuddered. It felt as though his internal organs had been twisted into a knot. Clutching his mouth, he couldn't stop blood from spilling past his lips.
Looking around, he found that the others had also suffered severe injuries and were teetering on their feet. Understanding dawned upon him, and he instantly shot out several Joy Swords to heal everyone, shouting, "Damage Chain—we're all under a Damage Chain!"
No wonder their toes had been constantly injured.
No wonder ice crystals had pierced Chikala's chest even after he pressed his Sanctuary tight to his skin.
The curse of the Silent Spiral's tenth floor was none other than Damage Chain—as long as one person was injured, everyone else suffered the exact same wound!
"This place," Gwen panted, catching his breath, "might be a new world constructed by the Grand Law of War."
"The Grand Law of War pursues peace, and the means to achieve it is the destruction of all war."
Realization struck Igola. "If everyone shares a Damage Chain, then truly no one would start a war. After all, harming others is equivalent to harming oneself."
"Except that conclusion only holds on one premise..." The Swindler offered a bitter smile. "...that no one is insane."
Crack!
Olewa's head twisted around at a spine-chilling angle. Uttering a nearly inhuman roar, he swept toward them, carrying an endless tempest of frost!
Chapter 703