Don't Say Another Word

Step. As Yaxiu and the others stepped into the mist, they also stepped into water. The deep black current was constantly spreading and rising, as if what lay before them was not a city shrouded in thick fog, but a boundless ocean. Moreover, this ocean did not expand due to the ebb and flow of tides; the overflowing swell of water looked as if something inside the dense mist was melting, and the current was merely the blood shed from its liquefaction. Yet in this white fog so thick one couldn't see one's own fingers, and this pitch-black ocean, no matter how many unknown dangers lurked within, the sorcerers felt only an overwhelming sense of familiarity and intimacy. Splash, splash, splash! The sorcerers in the white mist looked back to see the newly arrived blond demon struggling in the water. Yaxiu reached out to haul the drenched creature up, compelled to support her soaking-wet waist as he asked, "Why aren't you flying?" "I... I..." Looking at the sorcerers hovering above the water, the little lamb wanted to cry, but no tears came. "I don't know how to fly!" Yaxiu glanced blankly at the pitch-black wings on her back. "You have three wings just like me! Can't you control them?" Feili flapped the wings behind her forcefully. "I can control them, but I don't know how to fly!" "Isn't it very simple? Just flap up like this, press down, make use of the profound mysteries of fluid dynamics, and repeat the cycle to fly." Yaxiu swept Feili into his arms and executed three and a half aerial spins on the spot. "See? Isn't it super simple?" It's not simple at all, okay?! Feili was spun so dizzy she almost threw up, clinging to Yaxiu out of sheer terror like a sloth. But seeing that none of the others refuted Yaxiu's words, as though flying were an innate human instinct, she could only force herself to say, "I'll try!" "I'll hold one of your hands. Try using your wings to get airborne," Yaxiu said. Feili willed the wings behind her to flap, discovering that the reaction force from the air really could offset gravity. Yaxiu said, "See? Isn't it simple and fun? Now I'm letting go..." Splash! Falling back into the water, the blond demon didn't struggle this time. She tried paddling a bit and cautiously asked, "How about I just swim?" Although Feili had never learned to swim, she found herself remarkably well-adapted to this aquatic environment. She wasn't surprised, though—because she occasionally dreamed of swimming in the sea. Just like when she dreamed of practicing swordsmanship, whenever she dreamed of doing something, she inevitably possessed talent in it. "Mobility in water is far too poor and slow, and it drains a lot of stamina," Yaxiu said, scratching his head. "Besides, having no choice in the past was one thing, but swimming here when we have the ability to fly is just too wasteful." Not only Igola and Harvey, but even Weixi nodded in agreement. Looking into the depths of the white mist, an excitement and nostalgia beyond the comprehension of ordinary people welled in their eyes. For no other reason than—this place was far too much like the Knowledge Sea! No matter whether you later became a Divine Lord or an angel, back in the Knowledge Sea, you could only condense silver illusory wings, bound to swim ten thousand li through the waters, bound to be weak and powerless. To all sorcerers, the Knowledge Sea had witnessed far too much of their greenness, frustration, bravery, and helplessness: drowning for the first time, being killed by a fish-slaying dragon for the first time, encountering special Void Realm mechanics for the first time... If romance were used as a metaphor, the Knowledge Sea was the awkward first love encountered when a sorcerer was at their most powerless; the Time Continent was the romance sprint just as one matured; reaching the Distant Sky Realm was the dream bubble of countless one-night stands after achieving success and fame; while Ruby Mountain was the harbor where all sorcerers grew old in solitude. Most infuriatingly, even Weixi on her Second Cycle, or Yaxiu with his cheats, couldn't gain much of an advantage in the Knowledge Sea. The Knowledge Sea strictly capped power; only weak Silver Sorcerers could linger there. The moment you weren't weak enough, you'd be kicked to the Time Continent to suffer! Just as rebirth novel protagonists always want to return to their high school campus to show off, which sorcerer wouldn't want to return to the starter village of the Knowledge Sea to strut their stuff? However long they had soaked in the Knowledge Sea back then, the thrill of flying above it now was just as intense—come on, have a fish-slaying dragon leap out of the water to bite me to death if you dare! So seeing Feili have wings but choose to swim, Yaxiu and the others felt as though they were watching someone insist on using their fingers when toilet paper was right there... At this moment, the maid drew close to Yaxiu and reminded him, "Feili might truly not know how to fly and only know how to swim." Yaxiu started, instantly grasping Weixi's subtext—Feili's true body in reality might only be at the level of a One-Wing Sorcerer, or a Two-Wing Sorcerer who had yet to condense golden illusory wings. If so, not having unlocked the flight skill was completely normal. Even Yaxiu and the others had steadily honed their flight proficiency in the Distant Sky Realm; after all, humans were not born with illusory wings, and an innate animal flying instinct simply did not exist. Even among Two-Wing Sorcerers, very few were proficient in flight; only Sanctuary Sorcerers treated it as a default, basic ability. Moreover, judging by her age, Feili could never be a Sanctuary Sorcerer. Setting aside a freak like Yaxiu, Igola and Harvey were several years older than Feili, and barely half a year ago they were still One-Wing Sorcerers. "Then Igola will just have to carry you," Yaxiu told Feili. Igola immediately objected: "Why me?" "Because I don't want Weixi touching her," Yaxiu said, pushing away the maid's pretty face as she leaned in. "As for Harvey, do you think he's a qualified conveyance? I'm afraid Feili would vomit on his neck." "And I look like a qualified conveyance?!" the deceiver retorted. "Besides, isn't there you? You were always Black Crow's mount before!" "Black Crow? The one I met in the Silent Spiral?" Weixi said in shock. "I never imagined you had such an unhealthy relationship... can I be included?!" Yaxiu said matter-of-factly, "Because Feili is a girl, and I'm a guy. It's not very appropriate." Igola pointed at himself, his face full of question marks. "In your eyes, do I not even count as a man?" Yaxiu and Harvey exchanged glances, hesitating, words caught in their throats. "Hey, hurry up and refute him! We've taken baths together!" "But sometimes I wonder whether the you in the bath was just some illusion..." Yaxiu mumbled. Harvey nodded repeatedly in agreement. "You two..." Trembling with rage, Igola's eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait, Feili is so important, shouldn't the person with the best flying skills protect her? Yaxiu, between you and me, whose flying technique is better?" Yaxiu clicked his tongue. "You have a point. The gap in our flying skills is just as massive as the gap in our looks." Seeing Yaxiu suddenly fly down into the sea, the little lamb blinked, and then Yaxiu scooped her up onto his back from the water. "Hold on tight." Yaxiu shook his body, flicking off all the water. This was a technique learned from Tamashi—like a dog shaking off water, exerting force through the entire body to shed every drop. "S-sorry to trouble you." Feili buried her head against the nape of his neck, her soaked body pressed flush against his back. Yaxiu blinked and evaluated, "Quite a bit heavier than Black Crow." Compared to not knowing how to fly, this remark made the little lamb feel even more mortified. But Yaxiu added, "Black Crow relies on exerting force to counter gravity, but at most he can only stay airborne briefly—nowhere near true flight. His greatest regret was having no wings, unable to soar through the sky and fight alongside us, forced to rely on me to airdrop him into the battlefield." Although she didn't know what exerting force meant, it was probably some sort of superpower, Feili thought. "I can carry you now, and I wouldn't mind carrying you all the time in the future either. But if you want us to entrust you with heavy responsibilities, you must master the skill of flight. That will also greatly increase your survival rate," Yaxiu instructed. "You can start by lightening your weight. Puff out your chest, pull in your belly, and try not to press your entire weight onto my back." Feili nodded, no longer pressing against Yaxiu, and clumsily practiced flapping her illusory wings. At that moment, Weixi noticed Yaxiu visibly sigh in relief. At the sight, she couldn't help frowning slightly, her gaze meeting the deceiver's. The two wicked souls exchanged a glance, instantly sharing a common understanding. "The recovery speed of silver sorcery power is five times normal," the necromancer suddenly said. "This place is more like the Knowledge Sea than the Knowledge Sea itself." Sorcery power recovery speed was closely tied to the layers of the Void Realm. If normal recovery speed in reality was set at 1, then the recovery speed of silver sorcery power in the Knowledge Sea was 3, golden sorcery power in the Time Continent was 3, and iridescent and colorless followed suit. But the recovery speed of silver sorcery power in the Time Continent was only 1, scarcely different from reality. It was generally believed that recovery speed was influenced because spectacles such as the white fog and inverted golden rain were the primary sources of sorcery power. If a sorcerer was in reality or other layers of the Void Realm, they had to open a Void Realm passage to replenish sorcery power, but replenishing a specific color of sorcery power in its place of origin meant no middleman taking a cut. Thus, this white fog strange realm not only looked like the Knowledge Sea, but the white mist could indeed aid in condensing silver illusory wings—it was practically a miniature Knowledge Sea! If a Silver Sorcerer explored this place, it could even accelerate their illusory wing condensation! Of course, a Silver Sorcerer managing to reach Ruby Mountain was far more incredible than accelerating illusory wing condensation... "Is this the might of a Divine Lord?" Yaxiu marveled. "To actually fabricate an entire Void Realm layer out of nothing?" "This isn't the might of a Divine Lord, but that of a Source Angel," Weixi analyzed. "If I'm not mistaken, these mist anomalies are stress reactions produced by the Angel's Crippled Husk resisting digestion. Even locked in a cage, it remains the spine of the Void Realm that has stood atop Ruby Mountain for hundreds of millions of years. For the Divine Lord of Stars to turn it into nutrients, she'll have to break her teeth trying!" "Angel's Crippled Husk?" Harvey murmured. "Just a portion of its corpse can create a Void Realm?" "Naturally. The Source Angel possesses far more than Silver Wings," Weixi said. "This time, the Divine Lord of Stars is merely trying to digest its softest bone." "Right," Yaxiu suddenly recalled. "Weixi, didn't you see the angel before? What does it look like?" "It didn't enter the Nation of Stars in its true body; its appearance here has nothing to do with its true body outside." "We're curious." Weixi shot Yaxiu a glance. "I can't describe it. After all, its appearance exceeds the realm of human aesthetics. Master, you only need to know that it has eight wings, and it is extremely... terrifying." "Terrifying?" "Every sorcerer who walks the Path of Origin leaves behind half a Sorcerer's Manual. Do you think we do that out of public charity?" Weixi said crossly. "Even though I've seen many demigods, and even seen Divine Lords from afar, no sorcerer ever placed as immense a pressure on me as the Source Angel." "Still, that's only natural," the maid added meaningfully. "After all, it is truly bearing the weight of the world." "Then what can we do?" the blond demon asked nervously. "Are we going to eat the angel too?" "If possible, that would naturally be best, but the probability is low," Yaxiu mused. "Our primary goal is to see if we can snatch the angel's token, then find a way to locate the angel's true body and kill it directly." "Confronting a Divine Lord and an angel in the Knowledge Sea," Igola drawled leisurely. "Harvey, Harvey, our daily quest today is quite interesting. Shouldn't we thank Yaxiu?" "I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but being able to fly above the Knowledge Sea leaves me with nothing to complain about," Harvey said. "If I could slaughter another fish-slaying dragon, today would squeeze into the top five luckiest days of my life." Feili asked curiously, "Does flying here mean that much to you?" "A tremendous amount," Weixi said. "Because we went to a similar place before, but back then nobody could fly—even I could only swim in the sea. Since they're so excited now, you can understand it as a form of childhood compensation." "Actually, it wasn't completely impossible to fly," Yaxiu said suddenly. Everyone immediately looked back at him. Weixi frowned. "Did a One-Wing flight sorcery spirit appear in this era?" "No, just using illusory wings." "But a One-Wing Sorcerer has only a single illusory wing. How could you fly?" "Can't two people do it together?" Yaxiu tilted his head to the little lamb behind him. "Feili, try flapping only your right illusory wing." Feili nodded, and their speed dropped sharply. Yaxiu took charge of the left illusory wing, while Feili handled the right. Wobbling and tilting, the two accomplished a cooperative flight. Although the blond demon was terrified and clung tightly to Yaxiu's neck, she still couldn't hold back her delight: "We're flying! I can fly too!" Igola scoffed. "You can cooperate with Feili now, but back in the Knowledge Sea, could you have found someone to fly with you?" "Yes," Yaxiu said. "The first time I flew was with Sword Princess." Everyone blinked. The air suddenly fell silent. Yaxiu wore a nostalgic expression. "Back then, both of us had only Silver Wings. To fly, we could only hold hands and flap our illusory wings together." He couldn't help smiling. "That was on the eve of our prison break. I've always felt that the reason I could make up my mind to break out of prison was because Sword Princess supported me. Compared to illusory wings, I think she was the wings that let me fly toward freedom." "We almost fell several times along the way, but in the end, supporting each other, we crossed the vast white fog..." The maid suddenly pressed a finger against Yaxiu's lips, saying earnestly, "Stop. Master, don't say another word." Yaxiu caught on as well. "Right. If I keep going, you'll be infected with secret poison." No, I'm afraid that if you keep going, the little lamb will be so moved by your love story that she'll wallow in self-pity and inferiority... Weixi glanced at Feili, who was covering her mouth with tears welling in her eyes, a wave of helplessness rising in her heart. She understood now. The real hazard wasn't the outsider Feili, but the backbone of this team—pronounced 'Master,' written as 'Yaxiu,' and in reality an absolute idiot! Just at that moment, an abnormal sound of bursting bubbles suddenly came from the waters ahead. When they looked over, a massive, ferocious silhouette leaped out from the surface of the sea.