Drawing Cards!

Looking at the nine sorcery spirits before him, Yaxiu had to do a routine of calisthenics on the spot just to ease his excitement. During their Void Realm exploration last night, they had harvested a full twelve sorcery spirits! Three of them were said to fetch a good price and were taken by Sword Princess, but even so, Yaxiu's haul from that single night was almost enough to match everything he had earned over the past few days combined! Not to mention they had also obtained two Experience Orbs! Yaxiu felt that unless he pulled another godly artifact for Void Realm exploration, he would be hard-pressed to replicate last night's feat before his Silver Wings fully unfurled. And last night's experience had thoroughly vindicated the life philosophy he had formed as an office worker: working a job was worse than slacking off, slacking off was worse than exploiting others, and exploiting others was worse than poaching the fruits of someone else's labor... When they discovered a stray sorcerer nearby on the Void Realm map, Yaxiu and Sword Princess's immediate reaction had been to get away as fast as possible. It wasn't that their consciences had stirred, or that they were benevolent souls unwilling to rob a stranger they had never met; they were simply afraid that even together, the two of them wouldn't last against one of the stranger's hands! That was right—Yaxiu was dead certain that the two of them combined couldn't beat that person! They had a painfully clear assessment of their own strength: whether it was Sword Princess or himself, both had reached their current level through artificial, rushed growth. They barely knew any miracles, and their combat systems were virtually nonexistent. Sword Princess was a bit better off; after all, her talent was plain to see, and she only needed a little time to catch up. Yaxiu, on the other hand, was purely riding her coattails. Aside from basic attacks, all he could do was summon his Substitute to throw away its life. Calling him the "weakest of his rank among combat sorcerers" was by no means an exaggeration. Bullying the sorcerer projections on legacy islets or pummeling knowledge creatures was already their limit, and even that pushed them to their utmost. In particular, after condensing more than half of their Silver Wings, the intensity of their battles had jumped a whole tier; they had to exhaust their sorcery power nearly every single time, barely managing to defeat their foes. Sorcerers like Yaxiu and Sword Princess were unquestionably anomalies in the Sea of Knowledge. After all, it had only been seven days since they became sorcerers. Compared to normal sorcerers, they were complete novices who hadn't even left the starter village, still fumbling through the game's mechanics! Meanwhile, the sorcerer who had appeared near them had undoubtedly condensed more than half of their Silver Wings as well, and had definitely spent over a month in the Void Realm—maybe even half a year, or a full year! At this stage, the advantage of time was enough to create a massive gap. To use a gaming analogy, Yaxiu and Sword Princess were like players who had power-leveled using cheats without doing any class quests, main quests, or side quests, incapable of executing even a single combo. And because their level had increased, the Gate of Truth would only teleport them to high-level mob areas! Fortunately, the two of them were bound in a party. If any solo sorcerer had gone through what they did, they would have been slaughtered by the high-level knowledge creatures long ago and sent straight to the afterlife. A normal sorcerer, on the other hand, had to condense their Silver Wings step by step. Their faction attainment, combat systems, and mastery over miracles far outclassed two cheaters like Yaxiu and Sword Princess. Not to mention, the stranger almost certainly had experience fighting other sorcerers and would likely realize after a single clash that Yaxiu was an easy mark to pick on. Although Yaxiu could gamble on the stranger not being a combat sorcerer, there was no need. His physical body was still sitting in prison waiting to be fed; if either he or Sword Princess died, crying "I quit, give me my life back" wouldn't do any good, and he would have no choice but to meekly await the punishment the Blood Moon Trial dealt to gamblers. So when he saw the other party seemingly approaching, Yaxiu immediately steered the boat away. Due to the thick white mist, however, the stranger couldn't spot their boat from a certain distance. It was then that Sword Princess suddenly whispered in his ear, proposing a rather thrilling and wicked idea. "Whoa, you're awful. But I like it." "Hmph. As if you're any saint yourself." And so, the two of them stealthily circled ahead of the stranger, located an area marked "A Bit Troublesome" on the Void Realm map, and tossed pebbles to lure the stranger toward it. Based on their experiences over the past few days, areas marked "A Bit Troublesome" were mostly habitats of knowledge creatures, and primarily those in their growth phase—massive, possessing staggering combat prowess, and capable of putting sorcery spirits to active use. Even if a sorcerer managed to defeat one, they would never be able to keep it from escaping. Sure enough, Yaxiu watched on the Void Realm map as the stranger fought. The yellow area marked "A Bit Troublesome" gradually turned into a green area marked "Go Snatch the Loot", and the green area was constantly moving—evidently, the knowledge creature was fleeing. And Yaxiu's little boat was lying in wait right along its escape route! Predicting which way a knowledge creature would flee was actually quite simple. Unlike sorcerers who were completely blind in the fog, knowledge creatures were intimately familiar with the surroundings of their habitats, allowing them to flee toward safe areas every time rather than blundering into another knowledge creature's territory to fight for dominance. All Yaxiu had to do was look around and eliminate paths leading to areas marked "Worth a Visit" or "A Bit Troublesome"; the remaining routes were the ones the knowledge creature was most likely to take. Even if there was a slight error, Yaxiu could monitor the Void Realm map and make course corrections on the fly, teaching the young knowledge creatures every single time what it meant to have "misfortunes never come singly" and that "running away is shameful and useless." Relying on this method, Yaxiu lured the stranger toward the habitats of knowledge creatures, then waited nearby. Once the knowledge creature was battered and in full retreat, he would swoop in to poach the kill and reap the spoils without lifting a finger. Not only was the harvest bountiful, but safety was high as well. A fleeing knowledge creature's combat strength plummeted, making it easy to stun with an ambush—like suddenly stepping on a banana peel while being chased by a ghost; anyone would shut down. By the time the stranger had drained too much soul energy and couldn't hold on any longer, forced to log off, Yaxiu and Sword Princess were still left wanting more. They had slain five knowledge creatures in total, harvesting twelve sorcery spirits and two Experience Orbs. Especially those two Experience Orbs—in Sword Princess's words, "We've earned half a year's income for an ordinary sorcerer in a single night." More importantly, among the nine sorcery spirits Yaxiu received, one was the third sorcery spirit needed for the Severing Self miracle! It looked like a swirling sphere of water with a tiny wing made of water. Trembling slightly in his hands, it looked remarkably cute. [Transference] [One-Winged Sorcery Spirit] [Restriction: Affected targets must have water within their bodies.] [Basic Effect: Transfers all effects received by the primary target (instant damage, continuous effects) to the secondary target. The rate of transference varies based on factors such as distance between the two targets.] [Passive Effect: Reduces physical impact suffered when liquid is present inside the sorcerer's body.] ['Water flows downhill.'] Having gathered Substitute, Heart Sword, and Transference, Yaxiu now met all prerequisites to cast the Severing Self miracle! Now all he needed to do was quickly master the sorcery spirits until he could trigger Void Realm resonance from inside the prison, and then he could attempt to cast the miracle even while sorcery power was suppressed! Stowing the Transference sorcery spirit away, Yaxiu opened Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook and chose to convert all eight remaining sorcery spirits into points! One sorcery spirit was worth 8 points, so eight spirits yielded 64 points. Added to his previously saved 40 points, Yaxiu now had a massive sum of 104 points, enough to purchase "A Pile of Origin Crystals"! Purchase successful! Obtained 20 origin crystals! Then, triggering the first-purchase double bonus, received 40 origin crystals! Plus the 4 origin crystals from the past three days' check-ins, that was 44 origin crystals in total, enough to perform 14 searches! It's my turn—draw!