She's Just a Veela Anyway

"Has the angel's mood been this stable all month?" Micah, director of the Blood Prison Research Institute, sat atop a mound of rubies. Looking up at the starry sky, he recalled the torrential downpour he had encountered on his very first day arriving at Ruby Mountain. Ruby Mountain possessed a "gravity accumulation phenomenon." Gravity was at its lowest on the mountain's surface, but once one left the ground, it increased exponentially. The higher one climbed, the heavier it became. In fact, rising a mere three meters above the ground was enough to send a sorcerer's void wings crashing downward. That sensation was akin to being crushed beneath an immense, invisible horror. This phenomenon did not apply solely to sorcerers. Every natural event on Ruby Mountain was subject to gravity accumulation: a breeze would build into a bone-piercing gale; hailstones fell like a barrage of explosive shells; sunlight intensified into searing venom; and rain turned into a soul-dissolving deluge. When Micah first ascended Ruby Mountain, he had been far too excited. Mistaking the tempest for some trial mechanism, he hadn't even deployed his Sanctuary and tried to tough it out directly. As a result, nearly half his soul was corroded away before he realized something was wrong. After returning to reality, it took him a full three years of recuperation to recover. Ruby Mountain, yearned for by billions of sorcerers throughout history, was nothing more than an exquisitely forged cage. Yet sorcerers still climbed it in wave upon wave, standing at the summit of the Void Realm to gaze up at the sky. Their vision was not blocked by silver mist, nor veiled by reverse golden rain, nor filled with dream bubbles. They could see everything with utter clarity, yet they could not see... a path forward. Micah had long since condensed his blood-gun colored void wings in a flawless ratio of seven parts gun to three parts blood. As an ancient gun sorcerer, pure gun color was too extreme, while pure blood color did not suit him; only a composite could properly bring out his full strength. By all logic, having already reached the theoretical limit of a sorcerer, there was no need for him to keep striving, yet he still made a point of logging into the Void Realm no matter how foul the weather. No one knew how the weather on Ruby Mountain actually formed. Even the most brilliant weather sorcerers could find no clue. Legendary sorcerers jokingly claimed the climate was tied to the Ruby Angel, whose temperament was notoriously erratic—sunshine one moment, gloom the next; weeping bitterly one second, howling with fury the next, just like a heartbroken little girl. Thus, after gazing at an uninterrupted starry sky for an entire month, Micah vaguely sensed that something was transpiring somewhere beyond his sight. The weather on Ruby Mountain might have nothing to do with the Ruby Angel, but when a chaotic climate system suddenly stabilized, it was clearly a herald of some drastic upheaval. Still, he wasn't terribly worried. No matter how the Void Realm changed, it wasn't as though it could go out of business and close down. Besides, the focal point of Micah's life had long shifted away from the Void Realm. Compared to the starry skies of Ruby Mountain, he cared far more about the upcoming annual financial meeting. With the sudden explosion of the empty door concept, the research focus across all institutes in Blood Moon Country would inevitably center on unlocking its potential. However, Empty Door sorcery spirits were a scarce resource, making the resource tilting and national support decided at the financial meeting particularly crucial. As director of the Blood Prison Research Institute, Micah's rivals were naturally the other four institutes. Among them, the Blood Crime Research Institute was hardly a concern; after all, its deputy director, Baiyu, had performed abysmally in the Spectre Inheritance, utterly disgracing them. The only one that posed a real headache for Micah was the Blood Weep Research Institute—primarily because Blood Weep had produced an Empress candidate: a prodigy who had shot straight from Silver to Sanctuary in under half a year, Xifulin Gewen! Even though the Blood Saint clan cultivated at absurdly rapid speeds early on, progressing this fast was completely unheard of. Because Xifulin's Blood Embrace ceremony had taken place inside Shattered Lake Prison, the various institutes had spent the past few months stuffing healers into the prison, hoping to replicate the birth of such a genius. Xifulin's healer number, "222," had become a sought-after designation, to the point where the number of healers in Shattered Lake Prison once surpassed the inmates. Geniuses were always granted preferential treatment, and those around them benefited as well. Not only were living legends like Micah stirred, but even pre-epoch relics sat up from their coffins. Everyone conducted a thorough background check and found that, aside from the minor indiscretion of once letting a death row inmate escape, she had no real issues and was, on the whole, a fine young woman. Not to mention, Xifulin was the direct disciple of the Blood Weep director. When she underwent investigation, Deputy Director Selei had accompanied her the entire time, demonstrating Blood Weep's fiercely protective stance. When the old relic finally lay back down, he repeated three times, "Blood Weep did well," his gaze upon Xifulin brimming with doting fondness—clearly ready to extend that affection to everything associated with her. Although Micah's Blood Prison Research Institute hadn't suffered a humiliation like Blood Crime's, it was noticeably eclipsed by the glory Blood Weep was basking in. If Blood Weep gained more, Blood Prison would naturally receive less. If Blood Weep used this momentum to establish dominance over empty door research, the institutes might well shift into a landscape of one superpower towering over the rest. A genius's appearance was a black swan event born of pure chance, and Micah could only curse his bad luck for running into one. However, he was not entirely out of options. Because he had discovered that this genius was no accident. Amusingly enough, the only reason Micah had spotted the flaw was precisely because of Blood Weep's overprotectiveness. While Blood Weep agreed to let everyone inspect their genius, they also demanded compensation: the Blood Moon vault had to be opened to reward Xifulin. No one had objected, but Micah kept a keen eye out. When he checked the reward requisition list Xifulin submitted, he noticed an exceedingly bizarre detail—she had actually requested a Three-Wing mind sorcery spirit! Although the Blood Saint clan excelled across multiple factions, including blood, mind, and illusion, the investigative reports clearly stated that Xifulin was a pure blood sorcerer. Of course, that alone didn't prove anything. Her senior sister Selei was a mind Sanctuary, and while Xifulin's mentor did not specialize in the mind faction, he possessed a Sanctuary cultivation in it as well. Mind arts were an indispensable tradition of their lineage, so it was perfectly reasonable for Xifulin to pursue it on the side. What was more, even if she didn't cultivate the mind faction, she could still make use of mind sorcery spirits. Even if she simply wanted it for fun or intended to feed it to something, Micah had no right to interfere. Yet the matter reminded Micah of a minor detail: Xifulin had a Veela subordinate, and that Veela happened to be a Two-Wing mind sorcerer. He had done a little digging and found that this Veela was rather extraordinary herself, reaching Two-Wing from scratch in half a year. Compared to a Blood Saint, such progress was uncommon but not particularly eye-catching. After all, a Blood Saint's peak efficiency at absorbing sorcery power in the Sea of Knowledge was 830% of an ordinary sorcerer's; even without encountering a Vortex, a Blood Saint could amass silver sorcery power with astonishing speed. Micah himself had taken only seven months to reach the Time Continent from scratch, and he had even been bitten to death once by a Fishcleaver Dragon along the way. Birds of a feather might flock together, but two sorcerers who cultivated at such freakish speeds being inseparable friends naturally gave Micah food for thought—could that Three-Wing mind sorcery spirit be a gift from Xifulin to her Veela? It couldn't possibly be preparation in advance. Who could ever guarantee when they would attain Sanctuary? Micah had grown sick of hearing stories about prodigies advancing by leaps and bounds early on only to remain stuck before the threshold of Sanctuary for the rest of their lives a century ago. Granted, it was possible that Xifulin had fallen head over heels for the Veela and made a wild gesture of affection—pillow talk worked just as well on women, after all. But Micah was far more inclined to believe another, crazier possibility: the Veela was actually a Sanctuary sorcerer as well. The two of them shared the secret of rapid advancement. If this was brought to light, it would undoubtedly force headquarters to reopen the investigation. Once a secret reached a certain level of importance, even a genius was a sacrifice they wouldn't hesitate to make. Micah wasn't hesitating over whether to offend Blood Weep; he was hesitating over whether expending such a trump card merely on an annual financial meeting would be a waste. Furthermore, he hadn't yet confirmed the truth. If he raised it rashly only for it to turn out to be a misunderstanding, it would be Blood Prison's turn to lose face. *Better to quietly capture the Veela first,* Micah thought. If she resisted using Sanctuary power, she would expose the secret. If she didn't reveal Sanctuary power, it would mean she was hiding the secret deep within. She was just a Veela anyway. As he pondered, Micah suddenly felt a faint tremor ripple through the ground. Ruby Mountain's gravity was linked to the number of sorcerers present. Whenever a sorcerer entered, the shift in the gravity coefficient caused the mountain itself to tremble. He casually picked up a ruby and crushed it. A list manifested before him. There were no names on it, only row upon row of colors. Some gleamed brightly while others were dim; the higher a row ranked, the more vivid its color, whereas the lower rows grew increasingly drab. Micah brushed his right hand across it, and names promptly appeared over roughly one-tenth of the colors. Aside from a rare few true names, the vast majority were titles, such as "Starry Alchemy King," "Gospel Flame Dragon," "Paradise Curse Binder," and so forth... "Hm?" He swiped down the list and discovered three exceedingly pale rows of color at the very bottom. They formed a stark contrast with everything above them, making Micah's eyes light up. "Newcomers? Or just weaklings?"