It was rather funny: although Sword Princess had always wanted Yaxiu to come to the Starry Kingdom, and Yaxiu had always wanted to come to the Starry Kingdom to see her, neither of them had ever discussed what they would actually do once they met. It was like a fairy tale where the prince and princess only needed to be together for the story to end happily ever after, with no need whatsoever to consider the mundane realities of daily life that followed.
The main reason was that both of them had assumed crossing between kingdoms was something far in the distance. Before inheriting the Thousand Wishes Heaven, they didn't even have a concrete idea of how to cross kingdoms at all. It was like not even having bought a lottery ticket; naturally, one wouldn't bother daydreaming about how to spend the jackpot.
Who could have anticipated that after they inherited the Thousand Wishes Heaven, there would be an explosion of the Empty Door concept and Empty Door sorcery spirits, leading Yaxiu and his companions to the Starry Kingdom purely by twist of fate?
Had this crossing occurred a few years later, Yaxiu wouldn't have harbored any doubts: by then, they would undoubtedly have long become peak Legendary sorcerers, capable of swaggering wherever they pleased by raw martial might alone. If the Starry Kingdom refused to yield, they could simply beat them until they did.
Had this crossing occurred a few months earlier, Yaxiu wouldn't have entertained overambitious thoughts either. Lacking the strength, he would have had no choice but to go with the flow, obediently being locked away in prison to await trial—where would he have found any room to resist?
Yet the crossing had happened precisely during Yaxiu's awkward transition as a newly minted Legendary sorcerer. If you said he was strong, organized sorcerer units and top-tier sorcerers could best him; if you said he was weak, only organized sorcerer units and top-tier sorcerers could actually best him.
Of course, if Yaxiu wished to resist, even if he couldn't destroy the world, he would have no trouble ravaging thousands of li and tearing straight through the Starry Kingdom. The problem was, he had come to see Sword Princess. Yaxiu had envisioned many possibilities for how he might appear in her life, but not one of them had him showing up on a wanted poster.
More crucially: after meeting Sword Princess, what then?
Take her away? But her connections, career, and family were all here in the Starry Kingdom. She had more and more friends; she was gradually becoming radiant and dazzling. Everything she loved, apart from Yaxiu, was in the Starry Kingdom. Would she truly be willing to abandon the past twenty years of her life just to start over for him?
Stay behind? To be honest, Yaxiu wasn't averse to that outcome. The moment he discovered this was the Starry Kingdom, he had begun pondering how to leverage his Legendary combat prowess to secure citizenship. Even if he couldn't permanently stay in the end, he could at least openly travel across the Starry Kingdom with her, go on a honeymoon or something along those lines...
He had never imagined there would be any difficulty in this. Even if the Starry Kingdom was hostile toward intruders, surely they wouldn't push away a Legendary sorcerer, right?
*What, the Starry Kingdom doesn't trust me? How about this: I'll marry a Starry citizen. Surely that will prove my sincerity!*
Yet Yaxiu hadn't expected that the Starry Kingdom left no green channel whatsoever for high-end talent sneaking across the border—all intruders must die!
That was why Yaxiu had begun hesitating over whether he should even meet Sword Princess at all. In this situation, unless she was utterly determined to elope with him, any contact with her would subject her to unnecessary risk.
Even so, Yaxiu was determined to meet her.
Even if it was just to keep their promise, just to feel each other's warmth, just to confirm each other's existence, he was willing to brave every danger to slip into Jialesi.
When he saw her, what should his first words be?
***
"So, is this our final journey?"
Hearing Harvey's question, Igola pondered for a moment before replying, "Though you make it sound like we're on the verge of death... you're not wrong. This probably is our final journey."
"Whether Yaxiu stays here or returns to Gospel, he definitely won't keep adventuring, and the same goes for you and me... In fact, back in Gospel, if we hadn't approached those vines sprouting from Yaxiu, we'd already be living a quiet life there."
"A quiet life..." Harvey murmured softly. "Sounds like something that has nothing to do with us."
"What do you two plan to do once you settle down?" Yaxiu looked toward Igola. "Gospel is already the kingdom of your niece, Lisi. You're not thinking of running some criminal syndicate, are you? Though if you want to be Lisi's dirty work operative, I'd certainly welcome it. By the way, you haven't forgotten that Anfeier is still waiting for you to give her a home, have you?"
"We'll see when the time comes," the deceiver replied. "However, I truly have no interest in returning to my old trade. As for what I want to do..."
"I want to become a photographer."
The cult leader and the necromancer both froze, then scratched their heads in unison.
Yaxiu ventured a guess, "Are you talking about being a psychic photographer—capturing the dirty secrets in people's minds and blackmailing them for money?"
"I'd guess a curse photographer, directly capturing people's wickedness so the photographs can be used as spellcasting materials for hypnosis, brainwashing, curses, and the like," Harvey offered his own thought.
"Just an ordinary photographer," Igola said, exasperated. "Photographing the starry sky, mountains, clouds at dusk, ancient ruins... photographing all kinds of natural scenery. Yaxiu, you know I don't actually like human society. I only drifted among them to make money. Now that I have the means, there's no reason for me to share foul, nauseating air with tens of millions of people."
Yaxiu asked, "Do you find it nauseating to share a room with us too?"
"How could I?" Igola shrugged. "We're all reeking of Alice's corpse stench. I stopped being able to tell the difference between the three of us long ago."
"Don't mention it," Harvey said. "The necromancy faction is always surprisingly useful, isn't it?"
"Sounds great, but you, a photographer..." Yaxiu gnawed on his fingernail. "Even if the mastermind organization manipulating the world turned out to be called the 'Photographers' Guild,' I wouldn't even be surprised."
"What about you, Harvey?" Igola asked. "Still the Corpse Disposal Division, right?"
"Of course. That has always been the research facility of my dreams," Harvey said. "However, I plan to expand my scope of practice slightly, moving my work node up from 'post-mortem' to 'pre-mortem.'"
Yaxiu and Igola exchanged a glance. Then Yaxiu asked solemnly, "Do you mean you want to become a hitman, a warmonger, or simply a serial killer?"
"Hospice care," Harvey said. "I've always been deeply fascinated by mortals stepping into death. With hospice care, not only can I watch the living cross the veil of death step by step, but if I can help them embrace the arrival of death with peace of mind, I'll definitely obtain better corpse materials... Chikala pointed out a brilliant path for me."
"He was a qualified hospice worker and a qualified necromancer. I will fulfill his latent potential."
Yaxiu blinked, then turned to Igola. "Were you inspired by Gwen?"
Igola looked out at the sky full of stars beyond the window and said softly, "Perhaps."
Gwen and Chikala had departed far too abruptly and swiftly. Immediately afterward, Yaxiu and the others were thrown into the Gate of Thousand Wishes, Vichy's ambush, crossing into the Starry Kingdom, and so on, leaving them no breathing room to pause. Moreover, so many people of Senluo had perished that it was easy to grow numb. Furthermore, the three of them were inherently neurotic freaks who bottled everything up; an outpouring of emotion felt shameful to them.
Yet leaving it unsaid did not mean they had forgotten. There had only been three of them when they entered Senluo, and only three when they left. But certain invisible, indescribable things had already been quietly etched into the depths of their souls, becoming their armor as well as their vulnerability.
"What about you, Yaxiu?" Igola asked. "Aside from eating, sleeping, and playing games, what are your plans?"
"Let me clarify one thing first: as a sorcerer, I don't sleep," Yaxiu said. "Unless the 'sleeping' you're referring to is a sport involving two or more people."
"If I can stay or take her with me, then there are only two things I want to do: figure out a way back into the Thousand Wishes Heaven—I'm not worried about Tamashi breaking it, I'm just afraid she'll starve inside—and after that, I have to make a trip back to Senluo."
"Senluo has already been destroyed," Harvey said. "Going back is dangerous."
"I know," Yaxiu said. "But there's something I must retrieve."
Igola froze, then sighed softly. "Silver Lantern?"
"If Legendary isn't enough, then I'll step into the divine realm; if one year isn't enough, then three years, or five," Yaxiu said earnestly. "I won't leave Silver Lantern in the dark."
Igola fell silent for a moment before asking, "Do you actually like her, or do you just like everything she sacrificed for you?"
Yaxiu threw up his hands and chuckled. "Do I value the two of you, or do I just value everything you've sacrificed for me?"
"At this point, it's a tangled ledger between all of us, impossible to settle. She saved me from death, so I must pull her back from the dark."
"Some people claim they want to slack off, yet their ambitions turn out grander than anyone's." Igola shook his head. "Let's not talk about things so far away. What do you plan to do after entering Jialesi?"
"First, find a local to help us blend into the city," Yaxiu mused. "Preferably someone with moral flaws. Whether through hypnosis or threats, we can stay in their house, eat their food, and use them to gather intel and pass messages along the way."
Igola remarked, "If there are gangs, that'll make things much easier..."
While they were conferring, a sudden gust of gale-force wind blew through the door between the carriages, swiftly filling the entire car.
*Mind Miracle: Inner Mind Barrier.*
*Swordsmanship Miracle: Self-Severance in Progress.*
*Fire Miracle: Internal Desolation.*
At a glance, they recognized it as a wind sorcery miracle. Since a Sanctuary could not entirely stop the flow of air, each of them deployed defensive miracles to ward it off. The few other passengers in the carriage slumped over asleep one after another. Yaxiu's trio exchanged glances and pretended to fall unconscious as well.
Right at that moment, a handsome blond man suddenly rushed into the carriage—the very one Harvey and Igola had been critiquing earlier. Looking around, his eyes lit up upon seeing Yaxiu's group sitting together. First, he released a gust of wind to blow open the door to the next carriage, then transformed into a current of air, slipped into the seat, and squeezed in between Yaxiu and Igola. Slender as a shadow, and aided by the cover of the airflow, he concealed himself naturally among the three of them.
Just then, several masked individuals burst into the carriage. Carrying firearms and melee weapons, they wore bizarre masks with six lamps mounted on them, walking without making a sound. First, they looked around to observe the passengers, then glanced ahead at the pushed-open door.
Just as they were about to charge through the doorway to pursue him into the next car, the foremost Six-Lamp Guest suddenly halted and said, "No footprints revealed—he's in this carriage!"
*Thump!*
Yaxiu could practically feel the violent pounding of a heart right beside him.
"Second Young Master, the chase is over. You've lost."
Gazing upon the slumbering passengers in the carriage, the Six-Lamp Guest said coldly:
"Come out, Felix Vosroda. This is the end of the line for you."
Chapter 759