You're Far Too Despicable!

Ruby Mountain was unlike any previous layer of the Void Realm. As a sorcerer traversed Ruby Mountain, their sorcery power would not increase by even the slightest fraction. Because the fourth pair of void wings was composed of the sorcerer's own color, unlike the first three pairs which could be sought from the Void Realm, a sorcerer could only search within. To put it simply, a sorcerer had to rely on their own knowledge to resonate with the Void Realm and derive innate-color sorcery power. The specific method was to engage in combat and labor on Ruby Mountain, driving sorcery spirits to unleash miracles. This was why the vast majority of Legendary sorcerers could only obtain composite-color void wings; after all, relying solely on sorcery spirits from a single faction in combat was far too difficult for a Legendary sorcerer. Furthermore, ordinary combat would not suffice; if a Legendary sorcerer failed to "advance valiantly" and "attain insight" in battle, they could not generate innate-color sorcery power either. Fights where one crushed an opponent or was utterly crushed yielded no lessons and could not increase any experience. A Legendary sorcerer had to continually push their limits to shake the Void Realm and receive feedback. Yet even with all this trouble, combat was not something a Legendary sorcerer could engage in whenever they wished. Void Realm creatures and sorcerer projections existed on Ruby Mountain as well, but... they depended on the angel's mood. Indeed, the weather dramatically influenced the spawning of Void Realm creatures and sorcerer projections. Violent storms and torrential downpours would draw out creatures like Rain Elder Dragons, Ragecleaver Dragons, Thunderroar Dragons, and Wind-Water sorcerer projections; scorching weather was prone to spawning Fire sorcerer projections; pitch-black nights spawned dangerous entities such as Dark sorcerer projections and Shadow Evil Dragons... It could be summed up in a single sentence: the worse the weather, the more dangerous the foes that appeared. Even so, Legendary sorcerers could have accepted this. The problem was that, much of the time, Ruby Mountain spawned no monsters at all; only Legendary sorcerers existed across the entire mountain. Take this past month of starry skies: Micah hadn't encountered a single monster on Ruby Mountain. So long as the starry weather persisted, Legendary sorcerers could not increase their sorcery power by a single day's worth; everyone was stuck in place. In the boundless era before the Epoch, Ruby Mountain was just this terrible, with endless accidents standing as obstacles before sorcerers. After the Epoch, however, sorcerers resolved the problem—or rather, the solution had existed all along: since Ruby Mountain had no other enemies, couldn't sorcerers become enemies to each other? This solution had an unavoidable pain point: Ruby Mountain was infinite. Upward, downward, left, or right, the body of Ruby Mountain extended without end, making it exceptionally difficult for Legendary sorcerers to cross paths. Thus, at the turning of the epochs, a critically important concept was born into the world of sorcery: the Gospel. Gospel was a concept rooted in the Void Realm. By leveraging the Void Realm to connect all sorcerers, it naturally connected Legendary sorcerers as well. Ruby Mountain had been thoroughly transformed by the Gospel concept: a Legendary sorcerer needed only to crush any ruby to summon the sorcerer list and inspect the status of every Legendary sorcerer, whether they were in the Void Realm or not. Naturally, the sorcerer list did not display names, only color codenames that hinted at a sorcerer's strength. Using the sorcerer list was simple: as long as you infused sorcery power into a color codename while the target was in the Void Realm, it would guide you to them. During this process, Ruby Mountain would not expand between the two of you, ensuring you could meet and fight. Arranging duels was the original purpose of the sorcerer list. Yet after so many years of development, many new concepts were born one after another, further enhancing the user experience of the sorcerer list and branching into many functions that addressed specific pain points. For example, the investment mechanism born from Paradise's "sharing concept." As long as you infused a certain amount of sorcery power into any target, you could form an "investment pact" with them. Whenever the other party honed their knowledge and craft, a portion of pure knowledge would flow into your mind; at the same time, your pure knowledge would also be acquired by them. However, the investment pact strained a sorcerer's connection to the Void Realm. In other words, if you chose to invest in other sorcerers, the Void Realm would reduce its investment of inspiration in you. The investee suffered no such inconvenience. If you invested in many sorcerers, the Void Realm would essentially shut you out. The few Legends at the very top of the sorcerer list encompassed nearly all the investors. Every time they made the slightest progress, they could harvest tens of times as much knowledge from dozens of Legends. Therefore, whether to be an investor or an investee was a question every Legendary sorcerer had to ponder. Beyond that, there was the wager mechanism born from the Blood Moon's "necrophagy concept." Likewise, by infusing a certain amount of sorcery power into any target and forming a "wager pact," if you failed to enter the Void Realm for ten consecutive days (our defeat), the essence of your knowledge would flow into the opponent's mind, equivalent to consuming dozens of Experience Orbs. Conversely, if the other party failed to log into the Void Realm for ten days (enemy defeat), their essential knowledge would belong to you. This massive transfer of knowledge similarly impacted a sorcerer's connection to the Void Realm. Win or lose, the Void Realm's investment of inspiration would plunge to the absolute minimum for some time afterward. Moreover, losing large amounts of knowledge had severe negative repercussions on a sorcerer, potentially even causing their realm to regress. The sorcerer list had many other functions, but the most commonly used were investment and wagers. It was worth noting that the effects of the sorcerer list were compulsory: whether you were willing or not, whether you were on Ruby Mountain or not, so long as someone initiated an investment or a wager with you, you had no choice but to accept. From its inception, the sorcerer list had nothing to do with words like "peace," "freedom," or "compromise." It was a tool of forced combat. If you fled from battle, battle would come looking for you. How could it possibly negotiate with you? This was why the vast majority of Legendary sorcerers lived in seclusion and paid no heed to worldly affairs, and why Micah, an accomplished member of the Blood Saint clan, still had to enter the Void Realm every single day—because the intensity of competition on Ruby Mountain was far more terrifying than in the first three layers. No matter what immense setbacks you faced in the first three layers of the Void Realm, the worst you could do was exit the Void Realm and slack off; after all, no matter how powerful the enemies in the Void Realm were, they could not affect you in reality. Ruby Mountain was different. If you remained in reality indefinitely, other Legendary sorcerers would soon hollow out your knowledge through wagers and other means until, one day, you suddenly discovered that your faction realm had fallen. At first, Legendary sorcerers could not stomach the compulsory, high-pressure nature of the sorcerer list, but everyone soon grew accustomed to it, and in the end, they even felt fortunate to live in this finest of eras. Because there was not a single Legend who did not wish to keep exploring the peak of sorcery. It was just that the road ahead on Ruby Mountain had ended. If they wanted to forge a new path forward, they had to hack through the thorns themselves. Yet the strength of an individual was far too limited, while knowledge was boundless. Forcing a Legendary sorcerer to study other sorcery factions from scratch could consume an entire lifetime. The significance of the sorcerer list lay in making the efficient circulation of knowledge possible. In the past, a top Legendary sorcerer could master at most one Legendary sorcery and one Sanctuary sorcery; now, a peak Legend could master two Legendary sorceries and three Sanctuary sorceries! Compared to the lifeless Ruby Mountain before the Epoch, this fiercely competitive Ruby Mountain was far more likely to grant Legends a glimpse into the realm of demigods. Of course, sorcerers had another path: finding the Ruby Angel to initiate the Divine Trial. But just as modern sorcerers had long ceased pinning their hopes on the Golden Fish, the Rainbow Tail, or the Colorless Dream, Legends would rather place their hopes in competing against one another than fantasize about one day receiving an angel's favor. As an extremely cautious member of the Blood Saint clan, Micah rarely acted rashly, whether in wagers or investments. But this time, upon seeing those three drab lines of color, he immediately infused sorcery power to initiate a "wager pact" against one of them and pursued the target's current position without delay! When such a windfall fell from the sky, if you didn't grab it immediately, it would be too late! Colors served as codenames on the sorcerer list and were the clearest reflection of a sorcerer's strength. Drab colors composed only of black, white, and gray meant the other party's faction realm had not reached Legendary at all! Who knew whether these three were newcomers or veterans who had lost everything? Every so often, gray-toned Legends would appear on the sorcerer list. These people were usually losers who had lost everything in wagers: not only had they died, but their sorcery spirits had also been plundered, and their faction realms had fallen below Legendary, forcing them to start over from scratch. Some managed to rise again, while others were utterly crushed and sank into oblivion. But Ruby Mountain was cruel in this way: you had to tread upon Hell to become an angel! If Micah initiated a wager with the target and successfully killed them, he would obtain double the pure knowledge! Bolstered by a movement miracle, Micah soon traced his way to the target's location and heard an exhilarating sound—the other party was already locked in battle! He transformed into a pool of blood that flowed across the ruby ground. Moving closer to the battlefield, he discovered three sorcerers engaged in a chaotic melee: one man and two women. The man in the dark red trench coat was a ranged sword sorcerer; sword mark traps woven from Heart Swords filled the entire battlefield. The red-haired woman was a traditional sword sorcerer, her Wave Sword miracles sweeping across the field. The other woman, whose hair was an unruly mix of black and white, shot deadly hanging wires from the ten fingers of her hands, unleashing attacks that were near impossible to guard against. Micah observed for a moment, feeling somewhat puzzled. Although their methods of attack were somewhat monotonous, the destructive power of their attacks was far higher than he had imagined. He had assumed these three were the bottom three on the sorcerer list, but aside from his chosen wager target, the power of the two women's miracles was already enough to squeeze into the mid-tier of Ruby Mountain, which meant the sorcery power they used to drive their sorcery spirits was close to pure-colored. *Could they also be here to pick up an easy bargain?* Micah couldn't help wondering. Observing more carefully, he indeed spotted further clues. First, the man in dark clothes was unquestionably the weakest, barely holding on in the chaotic brawl. Whenever the red-haired woman or the black-and-white woman got an opening, they would pour miracles down upon him to beat him senseless, yet the moment one saw the other attacking him, she would immediately pivot to attack the other woman instead. Clearly, both women wanted to claim all the benefits from this man for themselves and refused to let the other succeed. Precisely because of this, the man in dark clothes managed to survive the alternating onslaughts, with the three forming a delicate balance. A triangle truly was a stable structure. Yet the situation was exceedingly favorable for Micah. He saw that the two women had fought their way into a true fury, their attention entirely fixated on their rival. The man in dark clothes had caught a momentary breather, but this was also Micah's golden opportunity! This glorious bundle of experience was fated to be his! After a brief buildup, Micah abruptly shifted from blood back to his true form, pulling out an archaic flintlock pistol and aiming it at the head of the man in dark clothes! The moment the flintlock appeared, it was as if thousands of soldiers and horses had descended; an imposing military might pinned the opponent on the spot, and the sound of the round firing was akin to a heavenly god's judgment! Even though all of them were bloodless soul bodies, blood poured from the man's seven orifices, and blood vessels ruptured across his entire body! Miracle: Bloody Judgment! All targets aimed at possessed a soul with a heart, and thus could be awed; all targets aimed at were beasts with blood, and thus could be brought to a boil! When the projectile flew, Sanctuaries could not block it, and soul beasts would all be pierced through! As long as Micah closed within a certain distance, let alone a Sanctuary sorcerer, he was confident he could kill even a Legendary sorcerer in a single strike! The bullet would find its home! At the very instant the bullet left the barrel, the black-and-white woman and the red-haired woman both looked over. And then— Miracle: One Three-Thousand-Six-Hundredth of a Second! Water of the Flowing Gold River was consumed at a furious rate as the power of the Time sorcery spirit was pushed to its utmost limit. A single second was dilated three thousand six hundred times, giving Diya ample time to clearly see the bullet's trajectory! Miracle: Empress's Gaze! Using her gaze as a medium, Diya coiled ten hanging wires around the bullet tearing through the air, forcefully stretching the 0.01-second shot into 0.5 seconds! Yet that was more than enough. Sonia stood before Yaxiu, leveling her longsword as countless threads enveloped her body. The moment the bullet touched her, she began to dance with incredible speed like a disturbed venomous spider, the Secret Blade of the Hidden Hand tracing back along the bullet's path— Miracle: Meteor Calamity! Micah felt a sharp blade violently pierce his chest, his Sanctuary offering no defense whatsoever! Grunting in pain, he unfolded his void wings to retreat swiftly. Most of his sorcery power had been spent establishing the wager pact, leaving him with no reserves for prolonged combat! This was the cost of initiating a wager: the initiator had to battle the opponent in a compromised state! If one won, fine, but if one lost, it was reaping what one sowed and courting one's own demise! But could Micah leave now just because he wanted to? Witness sorcery spirit, Torrent sorcery spirit, Spiral sorcery spirit, Chrono-Tremor sorcery spirit... Diya crossed her hands and gripped the air. Ten threads extended from her fingertips, swelling in thickness until they were as thick as fingers, turning into countless whips enveloped in surging torrents that lashed violently against Micah's Sanctuary. They not only shattered many of Micah's defensive miracles, but also stunned him for three full breaths! Miracle: Empress's Lash! A substitute identical to Yaxiu was hurled over, crashing directly into Micah's Sanctuary and splashing ink marks across the entire space! Those ink marks not only damaged the Sanctuary, but also drastically slowed Micah down! Miracle: Substitute Ink Splatter! Micah turned his head and saw Sonia gripping a scarlet sword light that seemed as immense as Ruby Mountain itself, piercing heaven and earth and cleaving the world in two! When she brought the sword light down, it was as if lake waters poured out and the Blood Moon capsized! Miracle: Blood Moon Shattered Lake! "A trap!" Micah roared the moment before his Sanctuary shattered. "You're far too despicable—!" The bloody light fell, drowning this Blood Moon Legend completely.