Void Realm, the Sea of Knowledge.
"You spent the entire day and couldn't find a single accomplice willing to break out with you?"
Sonia cleaved forward with force. The rippling sword energy split into several spinning rings that gnawed ceaselessly at the earthen barrier before them like buzzsaws—precisely her newly learned miracle, 'Ripping Wave Slash.'
"Yeah."
Yaxiu sighed, forming a sword gesture with two fingers to guide the Heart Sword through the rampart. Yet as soon as it pierced one layer, another arose, as if endless.
"Not even one?"
"Not completely none. But aside from Igola, who's bound to me by the Contract, nobody else is willing... or rather, they just don't believe it."
"If Shattered Lake Prison has never had a single jailbreak in the past, they certainly have reason to doubt you."
"It's more than that," Yaxiu sighed. "Rather than saying they don't believe it for objective reasons, it's more accurate to say that emotionally, they refuse to believe it."
The entire day, Yaxiu had accompanied Igola to lobby other formidable inmates—figures like 'Diamond' Taige, 'Black Beast' Tuke, and 'Lark' Jewel. Every one of them had been an atrocious sorcerer before their imprisonment, their criminal records harrowing enough to fill a thriller novel.
Yet each had flatly refused to take part in the escape.
Honestly, Yaxiu wasn't surprised by this. Under Shattered Lake Prison's heavy-handed rule and its near-absolute isolation as an island, it would be abnormal if death row inmates instantly believed they could break out. Suspicion was only reasonable.
The issue, however, was that the attitude the convicts displayed wasn't doubt, but resistance.
They resisted the very idea of escaping prison.
Keep in mind that the negotiator wasn't Yaxiu, but 'Fair Beast' Igola, who was something of a celebrity even inside the prison. Though a Swindler, Igola enjoyed a stellar reputation. He rarely lied and was even one of the prison's few information brokers, boasting remarkably good rapport with everyone.
In his own words: 'Lying is a Swindler's taboo, credibility is a Swindler's honor, and honesty is a Swindler's most vital quality. The greatest failure for a Swindler is when others refuse to talk to him.'
Thus, what Igola had to say carried substantial weight. Even if the death row inmates didn't believe it, they should have pressed him for more information to make a better assessment.
Yet they didn't.
Even when Igola mentioned that he 'might have a way to disable the chip restrictions,' no one followed up with questions like 'How?' or 'Really?' Instead, their expressions conveyed an exasperated 'Give it a rest,' before they brushed past the topic or simply turned and walked away.
In a prison this vast, not a single accomplice willing to escape could be found. Yaxiu was almost tempted to declare this the worst batch of criminals he had ever seen.
Igola, however, had seen this coming from the start.
During dinner, a single sentence from him had unraveled Yaxiu's confusion:
"They aren't who they used to be. Leave shit sitting long enough, and it turns into fertilizer."
If time was the deadliest poison, Shattered Lake Prison was undoubtedly the supreme septic tank. Toxic or hazardous, once you were inside, you were turned into nutrients whether you liked it or not.
An ordinary person could change dramatically in just a few years. Having been locked up in prison for so long, how could these death row inmates still remain the bloodthirsty monsters they once were?
Looking back on their past crimes, many convicts even felt sincere remorse, realizing how childish and reckless their former selves had been. Even if they had no regrets, they gradually lost all anticipation for the outside world, having found their true home within Shattered Lake Prison.
One thing Igola said was completely true: Shattered Lake Prison really was an idyllic utopia. All crime was banned here. There was no racial discrimination, no profanity, no fighting, and not even queue-jumping or public urination could ever occur.
As long as you followed the rules, you could live with immense freedom. You never had to walk on eggshells around anyone else, because no one could harm you or compromise your interests. It was, in every sense, true equality for all.
The reason these convicts had committed heinous crimes out of greed, malice, or impulse ultimately boiled down to the fact that they had grown accustomed to a crime-ridden way of life. Only that lifestyle made them feel secure.
And Shattered Lake Prison was a place that forcibly altered their way of life—while still making them feel secure.
Peace of mind was addictive.
When someone stayed in this environment for an extended period, severed from complex social relations and withdrawn from the fiercely competitive outside world, then no matter how much they cursed the prison's myriad restrictions, the prospect of leaving prison and reentering society filled them with bewilderment—especially when they could lead a quiet, peaceful life inside.
Many of them couldn't even manage to wake up early, let alone voluntarily step out of their comfort zone.
Viewed from this angle, Shattered Lake Prison's reform of these death row convicts was astonishingly successful. Without any hard labor through reeducation or physical punishment, it relied strictly on prohibitions, KPI performance assessments, and elimination of the lowest performers to mold them into model corporate slaves who willingly worked overtime. They obediently contributed their surplus value to the prison, and if they had none left to offer, they could earn money by participating in the live trial broadcasts. There was always a job suited to a death row inmate.
Yaxiu and Igola's recruitment was the equivalent of inviting them to launch a startup: murky prospects, insufficient funding, and requiring them to invest out of their own pockets.
Worst of all, if the venture failed, that was one thing; but what if it succeeded? Wouldn't they be forced back into a society where they had to fight tooth and nail for everything on their own?
The sheer thought was terrifying. Better to quickly buy a toy gun, rob a bank, and wait for the Sin Hunting Hall to bring them back home.
Even Igola likely wouldn't have participated in the escape if Yaxiu hadn't rebounded the Contract to bind the two of them together. To be sure, he could live better outside, but his fear of the Sin Hunting Hall would leave him constantly anxious and frayed with nerves.
Here, even a Swindler felt at peace.
Were it not for Professor Xilin and the Blood Moon Trial, Yaxiu felt that Shattered Lake Prison would make a fine vacation resort. Not only could one enjoy the scenery, but one's soul was forcibly purified—so much so that after leaving, one could never fart under the blankets again, feeling compelled to run to the toilet instead.
As a result, Yaxiu felt like an arch-villain forcing virtuous souls into prostitution, constantly trying to drag these reformed, clean-living convicts back into the muck. Igola was like an innocent maiden whose blackmail he held—someone who just wanted to live a peaceful, law-abiding life, but was now forced to become Yaxiu's star parlor technician...
*Smack!*
With a dull thud, the earthen rampart that Yaxiu and Sonia had pounded away at for a good ten minutes finally burst apart, revealing the elderly sorcerer hidden within. Before the projection could utter a word, an Evil Light Slash and a Heart Sword blew it apart, dropping three sorcery spirits and a sorcerer manual.
This was the finest sorcerer legacy Yaxiu had encountered since entering the Void Realm.
Because this sorcerer was not a combat-oriented sorcerer.
He had no combat skills whatsoever, capable only of ceaselessly creating earth walls to defend himself. At first, Yaxiu had been slightly worried that a spike might suddenly jut out of the ground to give him an uninvited rear massage, but nothing happened. The sorcerer projection had cowered inside the rampart the entire time, as though this legacy existed solely as a DPS check.
"Sorcerers like this are actually the mainstream," Sonia said. "Or rather, sorcerers who specialize in combat are the minority. Most sorcerers study productive factions that can land them good jobs, and then pick up a bit of combat on the side. Many sorcerers never even own a combat-type sorcery spirit in their entire lives and rarely have opportunities to fight anyone—like healers, meteorologists, architects, agriculturalists..."
She grumbled under her breath, "If you hadn't insisted on me learning swordsmanship, I might have become a hydro-healer by now, far removed from combat."
Yaxiu found that odd. "Still, they can't forgo combat altogether, can they? Even if they don't need to fight in reality, it's not like the knowledge creatures in the Void Realm are going to check their IDs and just let them pass."
"Combat isn't the only way to deal with knowledge creatures. Fleeing, defending... sorcerers have plenty of tricks."
"But if they never fight, how do they obtain new sorcery spirits?"
Sonia smiled. Picking up the slumbering sorcery spirit from the ground, she said casually, "By studying! Cultivating! Researching!"
"People like us who harvest gains in the Void Realm every single day are exceedingly rare. The way most sorcerers acquire sorcery spirits is by deepening their understanding of their chosen factions to trigger resonance with the Void Realm, allowing knowledge to give birth to new sorcery spirits."
"One's level of knowledge is a sorcerer's true foundation, and diligent study is the orthodox path. Fighting and adventuring like we do is actually unorthodox. Academy sorcerers who advance step by step usually develop a complete, well-rounded set of sorcery spirits, whereas adventure sorcerers like us end up with a chaotic, mismatched assortment that's far less versatile."
"And we can't cut class forever either. Once our Silver Wings are fully formed, we'll have to go back and make up for what we missed, elevating our mastery of the factions. Without gold-tier knowledge in a faction, we won't be able to summon two-winged sorcery spirits, and we'll spend our whole lives swimming in circles in the Sea of Knowledge, never setting foot on the Time Continent!"
Production was the royal road, while combat was the unorthodox path?
Yaxiu sighed inwardly. This sort of supernatural progression system demanding all-around well-rounded excellence was what he dreaded most. He knew his own limitations: he was just an ordinary guy, with zero athletic talent and an inability to memorize academic papers. Apart from getting paid to poop, he didn't have any special skills. If he hadn't latched onto the Sword Princess's coattails through *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook*, he wouldn't have stood a chance at becoming a sorcerer.
Wasn't there a supernatural system where you could just chug a potion, digest it, and advance?!
"Speaking of which, Sword Princess, didn't you mention before that there's a Golden Fish in the Void Realm, and finding it lets you reach the Time Continent?"
"Just a rumor. Besides, if even you don't know where the Golden Fish is, Watcher, how could I?" Sonia picked up the sorcerer manual and flipped through it quickly, teasing, "You're not pinning your hopes on the Golden Fish, are you? In that case, you might as well hope a prison riot breaks out tomorrow so you can slip away in the chaos... Mmh?!"
Yaxiu looked at Sonia as she made the strange noise. "What is it? Another sorcerer manual that offends your morals?"
"How should I put this... I think you'd better prepare yourself well once you leave the Void Realm."
"For what?"
"Because a prison riot might actually break out!"
Excitedly, Sonia squeezed beside Yaxiu and turned to a page in the middle of the sorcerer manual to show him.
There, written upon it:
*I found the Golden Fish.*
Chapter 73