"White Dove · Pierce Qingji is an offensive god. His effects are divided into 'Pierce', 'Celebrate', and 'Dread.'
"'Pierce' goes without saying. 'Celebrate' is a mind rule effect that makes both the target under attack and all onlookers celebrate and welcome the god's thrust. In other words, without a specific defensive miracle, not only can you not resist the thrust, you will even actively throw yourself into it—just like how you opened your sanctuary on your own earlier to let the strike land.
"'Dread' is also a mind rule effect. When attacked by Pierce Qingji, you will plunge into an intense terror so overwhelming that you lose control of yourself. However, it only takes effect while under attack, so you hardly need to worry about it—if you're attacked by Pierce Qingji, you'll be dead before you even have time to feel afraid.
"Because White Dove governs both physical and mind rules, he is the only god you can harm with physical attacks. Aside from that, mental attacks will also work."
In the dense jungle on the eighteenth floor of the Silent Spiral, Yaxiu and Weise were rapidly retreating.
They did not dare take flight like Vichy. By staying grounded, at least they didn't have to guard against attacks from below. Nor did they need to worry about strikes from the front—with Weise as a "hostage," White Dove, Fire Cat, and Blue Bird didn't dare launch a frontal assault against Yaxiu.
Having heard Vichy's briefing on White Dove, Yaxiu was even more meticulous about keeping himself, Silver Lantern, and White Dove aligned in a straight line. He wished he could squeeze himself inside Silver Lantern's clothes, terrified that White Dove would thrust that cane forward again and pop his head.
White Dove, also known as Grand Law Pierce Qingji. In the Wasteland, descriptions of White Dove were sparse; Yaxiu only knew that he was the founder of the first God Era in the lands of Senluo, that his faction was called the Assassin Sect, and that his God Era lasted only a very brief time.
Grand Law Pierce Qingji's ideal had been to "unify Senluo and embrace peace." Because Grand Law Pierce Qingji took the form of a white dove, the white dove became a symbol of peace ever after.
Once the Assassin Sect unified Senluo and all living beings enjoyed several decades of peace, Grand Law Pierce Qingji ascended directly to godhood. Several decades later, a new grand law was born, and the lands of Senluo plunged once more into sectarian strife.
It was worth noting that while the Assassin Sect and the Wasteland's War Temple both pursued unified peace, their methods were completely opposite. The latter relied on even more violent warfare to eradicate war, whereas the former relied on assassination.
In scattered legendary records, the sorcerers of the Assassin Sect were masters of stealth and assassination. They averted all large-scale total warfare by directly assassinating enemy bishops and god-hosts, bringing wars to an end with minimal casualties.
Judging by the present situation, however, the legends were likely rife with errors. One could tell just from White Dove's effects: not a single one had anything to do with stealth. Instead, there was a brazen, imposing air of "stand still and let me kill you."
Yaxiu could almost envision it: fourteen hundred years ago in Senluo, while a bishop on a grand plaza's high platform rallied believers for war, an assassin clad in white descended from the sky and pierced the bishop's skull with a dagger. Whether the assassin escaped or died mattered not; the Assassin Sect merely wanted everyone to know that any zealot who dared incite war would be executed on the spot by White Dove in broad daylight before the public gaze. That was Pierce, Celebrate, and Dread!
Yet Grand Law Pierce Qingji, upon whom hundreds of millions of believers once pinned their ideals of peace, was already history from fourteen hundred years ago. What stood before them now was merely the Pierce Qingji God formed of rules!
Miracle: Heart Pen Splashing Ink!
With a shift of Yaxiu's intent, the Heart Sword shuttled relentlessly around White Dove, trying to draw blood. White Dove, however, swung his cane casually, appearing to exert no effort at all, yet every motion struck the Heart Sword dead center. In the span of tens of seconds and nearly a thousand clashes, Yaxiu had failed to graze White Dove's true body even once!
Vichy continued his explanation: "Fire Cat · Knowing and Guarding Fire is a functional god. Her effects are divided into 'Knowing Fire' and 'Guarding Fire.' Although she is not adept at offense, she can still employ all general fire rules, and even ordinary flames released by her carry the power of a Four-Wing sorcery spirit. You already know the effect of 'Guarding Fire'—anything illuminated by the flame cannot escape its guarded boundary. The effect of 'Knowing Fire' is to gather information on everything within the illumination's reach, including your physical bodies, souls, sorcery spirits, and so forth, equivalent to a scouting divine miracle. But without a sorcerer to command her, the god acts almost entirely on instinct, so no matter how much intelligence she gains, it won't change much.
"'Knowing Fire' belongs to prophecy rules, while 'Guarding Fire' belongs to truth rules. It's essentially impossible for you to harm her through either of those rules. Fortunately, she has an obvious weakness: fire. Just counter her directly with water arts."
Fire Cat leaped about in the jungle. Before long, she seemed to have forgotten that she had shrunk, returning to her high-spirited, energetic self. She did not scatter flames wildly—otherwise the entire jungle would have caught fire—yet her hair continued to blaze. The light of Knowing and Guarding Fire kept everyone bound to the eighteenth floor of the Silent Spiral.
Fire Cat was likely the god Yaxiu and the others were most familiar with. The Fire Cat God Era's influence on Senluo's people was immeasurable; even Blue Bird and Grey Fox, which were closer to the modern era, could not compare. She was the white moonlight and red rose of all Senluo people, praised by countless voices and romanticized in countless texts. Groups like the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary were essentially die-hard fanatics yearning for the Fire Cat God Era.
What did that mean in practice? To make a simple analogy, it was like a group of historical dynasty fans forming a political party to run for government on a platform of restoring the glory of a bygone empire—and actually winning a huge share of the vote...
Never give up, stay endlessly passionate, never say impossible, always on the road. Though Yaxiu had never imagined Fire Cat's appearance before, seeing this spirited cat-fire girl, he felt this was exactly how Fire Cat ought to be.
Yet sadly, she was no longer that researcher grand law who had dedicated herself entirely to enabling ordinary people to wield sorcery spirits.
Sorcery Spirit: Rushing Torrent!
Spotting an opportunity, Weise activated the Rushing Torrent sorcery spirit toward Fire Cat. A surge of water abruptly burst out of thin air, poised to drench Fire Cat from head to toe, but two meters away from her, the stream was instantly vaporized into steam, without a single droplet landing on her!
Fire Cat puffed out her chest, looking proudly at Weise with an indignant snort.
A god acted on instinct, but having instinct meant she knew fear! Having been doused by water once already, how could she fail to be on guard?
"Blue Bird · As Desired is a support god." Here, Vichy's tone turned somewhat peculiar, as if he wanted to laugh yet felt a bit thrilled, like someone biting into a wife cake and actually finding a wife inside: "She can bring about almost any effect, but it requires a will to drive it. Which means that without a sorcerer controlling her, she's essentially a blank slate and won't even hurt you.
"She belongs to mind rules, so mental shocks work on her as well."
Hearing this, Yaxiu and Weise couldn't help glancing at Blue Bird, but quickly turned their attention back to White Dove and Fire Cat. Interestingly, they weren't particularly surprised by Blue Bird's effects.
The Blue Bird God Era was also known as the Relaxed Era, the Era of Happiness, or the Brave New Era. Blue Bird's ideal had an intensely fairytale quality, almost like something only a child would say: "Make everyone happy."
This wasn't some scumbag proclamation from a harem protagonist; it genuinely sought happiness for every single person in Senluo.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible for Blue Bird to preside over a God Era. But the Fire Cat sorcerers had created the Divine Fire system, meaning the succession of God Eras no longer relied on war but on election votes. Furthermore, after nearly five hundred years of "high-intensity nation-building" during the Fire Cat God Era, society as a whole was utterly exhausted.
After five hundred years of working to the bone, it was finally time to enjoy life.
Thus, aside from Blue Bird, the other grand laws of that era were welfare-oriented ones like "Mist White Thought," designed for "high-quality lifespan extension." In terms of offensive threat, the god named "As Desired" was naturally the lowest among the three; even when pierced multiple times by Yaxiu's Heart Sword, she barely reacted.
Yet compared to the three gods, Yaxiu and Weise were currently paying closer attention to Vichy. Ever since he appeared, the strength Vichy demonstrated had not exceeded that of a Three-Winged Sanctuary, but his grasp of intelligence far surpassed the horizon of any Sanctuary sorcerer.
"Mr. Vichy," Yaxiu said, "is there any other critical information?"
"None. That's all I know, my apologies."
"It's already plenty," Weise said. "Beyond White Dove and Fire Cat, you've even figured out Blue Bird, who hasn't struck once. It's truly... quite a surprise."
To be honest, Yaxiu and Weise could vaguely guess most of White Dove's Pierce Qingji and Fire Cat's Knowing and Guarding Fire. But Blue Bird's As Desired had been slacking off ever since she showed up, seeming as if she were merely there to make up the numbers. How did Vichy know her abilities?
Add in that Vichy knew how to harm gods, and it felt even more bizarre to Yaxiu and Weise. It was as though he had come specifically to deal with them.
Yet how could he know that three gods would appear on the eighteenth floor of the Silent Spiral?
Yaxiu and Weise exchanged a look and saw mutual bewilderment, confirming that this uninvited guest was not an acquaintance of Silver Lantern or the cult leader. Since Vichy had no ties to them and had come to deal with gods, was he a hidden card planted by the Senluo Azure Lord? Or perhaps of some other Divine Lord...?
"Oh." Vichy held up his index finger and thumb, pinching them together to indicate a tiny gap. "I only know a little bit of prophecy sorcery, which is how I know these gods' effects."
He wasn't lying. The reason he was here was that he had seen in a Prophetic Dream that Silver Lantern would come to the eighteenth floor of the Silent Spiral and encounter the three gods: White Dove, Fire Cat, and Blue Bird. The abilities of the three gods were also things Vichy had learned in advance from the Prophetic Dream.
Such was the might of a prophecy sorcerer. While everyone else played a first cycle, a prophecy sorcerer could play a Second Cycle, or even a Third Cycle.
Back then, the fall of the Spectre Prophet had required the combined scheming of multiple Divine Lords—a prophecy-system demigod was simply far too terrifying to leave unchecked.
The uniqueness of the prophecy system lay in the fact that you had no idea you had already been prophesied. Sometimes when disaster befell you, you wouldn't even know it was the result of a prophecy sorcerer plotting behind the scenes.
However, one detail felt rather odd to Vichy: in his Prophetic Dream, the situation had been completely different from the reality before him.
Although Yaxiu and Silver Lantern had both been present, there had been many others who reached the eighteenth floor alongside them, and it seemed as though even the Four Pillar Cult had become Silver Lantern's subordinates. Moreover, the Yaxiu in the Prophetic Dream had appeared much more sinister and calculating, so much so that Vichy saw a reflection of himself.
After Silver Lantern became the Senluo Dream Lord and the three gods manifested, the Four Pillar Cult engaged in a fierce battle with them, only to prove no match for the gods. Yet Silver Lantern and Yaxiu audaciously revealed their most vile trump card, driving the gods to the brink and ultimately achieving godslaying with mortal bodies!
Now, not only had Silver Lantern betrayed the Four Pillar Cult, but Yaxiu's personality had turned as soft as a Lalafell. They had neither the resources nor the ruthlessness from the Prophetic Dream.
Vichy remembered vividly that Silver Lantern hadn't had the courage to play that most vile trump card; it was Yaxiu egging her on and encouraging her at every turn that created the opportunity to slay a god.
Vichy hadn't wanted to reveal himself at all; he had thought he could reap the benefits as the fisherman while the snipe and clam quarreled, never anticipating that he would have to step onto the stage personally. He had given both of them a chance, but they were utterly useless!
Still, prophetic dreams inherently suffered from accuracy issues. Perhaps because his soul was severely fragmented, and because the subjects of the prophecy included gods and Divine Lords, such a massive discrepancy had arisen.
As for why Vichy was helping Yaxiu and Weise, it certainly wasn't to save the world, nor out of any far-sighted vision. Rather, it was quite simply, shallowly, and shortsightedly...
He wanted to seize these three gods for himself!
Chapter 724