Lisi?

Yaxiu should be fine. The Swindler skimmed across the Black Sea, spreading his wings to weave between crashing waves and bladed tails. He wiped away the blood trickling from his nose and the corners of his mouth. Even though he could be crushed at any moment by the gargantuan, ferocious malice behind him, he still had the spare mind to ponder what had become of the others. Yaxiu and Feili had their near-invincible Observer Mode. Even if they had taken a direct, solid blow from the nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon, Igola had clearly seen them vanish into thin air at the final instant—evidently retreating into Observer Mode. Harvey should be fine as well. One of his life-preserving miracles allowed a "family member" to die in his stead. He still had four "family members" left, meaning before his coffin lid was smashed to pieces, he still had four chances. So the only person truly in danger right now... ...was him. Seeing towering black waves whipped up by five bladed tails surging straight toward him, Igola's eyes turned bloodshot. Black blood trickled from the corners of his eyes, and warm-golden mind-colored sorcery power evaporated like seawater in an instant as his sorcery spirits scrambled onto the Swindler's shoulders, roaring as they charged! Miracle: Visualization Superposition! In Igola's visualization, a hundred Yaxius swung their swords down at once. In reality, the towering black surge was cleaved in two, and even one of the bladed tails was severed in half! Like a petrel dancing through a tempest, the Swindler fluttered through the white fog and churning waves, narrowly dodging the sweeping black waters. The persistent bladed tails chasing after him were enticed by his elegant choreography, tangling around one another in midair until they tied themselves into a dead knot. Yet right at that moment, an explosive roar erupted from the sea behind him. An enormous dark shadow blanketed the entire area where the Swindler was, resembling a storm cloud blotting out the sky or a tsunami sweeping away all in its path. Igola caught a familiar scent, causing distant shards of ice to drift up in the ocean of his memories. He remembered crouching silently inside a wardrobe, not daring to utter a sound while waiting for an assassin to leave. He remembered talking with silver-tongued eloquence under the barrels of dozens of long muskets, convincing a gang boss to give him another chance. This scent was called death. He was not surprised to smell death. In his twenty-odd years of life, at least half of that time had been spent hand in hand with death. He hadn't even dared to sleep in a bed, terrified that someone would slit his throat; he had insisted on sleeping beneath the bed or inside a wardrobe to grant himself a tiny buffer of time... Huh? Igola suddenly realized that lately, he seemed to have been sleeping in a bed... When had his habit changed? Boom! The nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon slammed down with crushing force, accompanied by a storm of blades forged from its nine slicing tails. Seawater surged into the air and crashed back down like a torrential downpour. Roar! The nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon suddenly let out a hysterical wail of agony as a plume of blood several fathoms high erupted from the middle of its body. The Swindler flew out from within, resembling a blood-soaked butterfly that had weathered countless ordeals. He clutched tightly at his ceaselessly bleeding right eye, while the vision in his left eye blurred as well. Forbidden Art: Visualization Superposition! As the crystallization of his wisdom over the past six months, the greatest merit of the miracle Visualization Superposition was that its power was practically limitless. He could visualize a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand phantom Yaxius fighting on his behalf. Once the Swindler fully perfected this miracle, he would reach the ultimate realm of a mind sorcerer: "what is thought is what is seen." The flaw of Visualization Superposition, however, was that in addition to being constrained by sorcery power, it placed tremendous strain on the eyeballs. Although there were many sorcery spirit miracles capable of strengthening eyeballs—and Igola had even tried having Harvey modify his eyes back in Senluo—the result had been that even the slightest alteration to his eyeballs caused the sorcery power consumption of Visualization Superposition to skyrocket exponentially. This wasn't a problem unique to Igola. Almost all body-related miracles required the sorcerer's body to be original and unadulterated. It wasn't hard to understand. To use painting as an analogy, a person's body was a sheet of blank paper, and modifications by sorcery spirits were like applying paint. If you painted different colors over the same spot one after another, could both colors possibly display with perfection? Obviously not; they would turn muddy and clash with each other. To resolve this issue, a sorcerer had to delve into the frailty faction and utilize their attainments in frailty to refine their miracles, making it possible to become immune to the physical toll miracles exerted on the body—much like blending two different colors into a flawless intermediate shade. Igola clearly possessed no attainments in the frailty faction whatsoever, so he had to be cautious of the durability of his eyeballs whenever he employed this miracle. Yet this nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon's resistances were far too high; it was no longer an ordinary Fishcleaver Dragon, forcing him to unleash the forbidden art to strike with full force. The so-called forbidden art was born from Igola realizing that if breaking through the impasse inevitably demanded damaging his eyes, he might as well sacrifice just one eye and visualize beyond all limits. That way, not only would the might of Visualization Superposition surpass all imagination, but he would "only" have to expend a single eyeball. In a single battle, he could use the forbidden art twice at most. Yet this was the Swindler's first time using the forbidden art, and he hadn't anticipated that even though he had only expended his right eye, the vision in his left eye would also drop drastically. It was solely because he had never studied human anatomy; otherwise, he might have foreseen this outcome and severed the connection between his left and right eyes in advance. Once I get back, I should dissect corpses with Harvey for a few days to study human anatomy... Igola thought. If he could make it back alive, that was. Roar! The nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon possessed terrifying agility that defied its colossal bulk. Its injured parts healed in mere breaths, and its massive frame crashed down toward the Swindler like a tidal wave. Compared to this towering, mountain-like black shadow, Igola was like an insect fleeing a colossal man-eating flower; even straining with all his might, he could not pry open a crack in the jungle of fate. He couldn't escape. From the moment the nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon chose to pursue him, his fate had been sealed. No one could deal with the nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon, not even Yaxiu. The monster's extraordinary regenerative speed and devastating onslaught were practically the Prime Angel's finest proclamation warning mortals against blasphemy. When any attribute was pushed to its absolute extreme, it became a divine might surpassing the legendary realm. Fate was wondrous and beyond comprehension. A sudden parting had turned out to be an eternal farewell, leaving Igola without even enough time to impart any final words. Perhaps this was reality: precisely because fate loved to ambush from behind, this world held so many regrets. Yet rather than regret, Igola felt more relief. Relief that no one would witness the state of his corpse. His greatest disagreement with Harvey was that the necromancer considered corpses beautiful, whereas Igola refused to accept that view. No matter how gorgeously one died, a corpse was hideous—and what Igola could least abide was becoming hideous himself. In that regard, he had to admit he was influenced by his Veela bloodline—for rejecting ugliness was the traditional mindset of the Veela. That was why Igola was so fond of cats. When a cat realized it was about to die, it would quietly slip away to die where no one could see. He had no desire for Harvey to collect his corpse, and even less for Yaxiu to lay eyes on it. Allowing his hideous, pale, dull corpse to become their lasting final memory of him was completely unacceptable to the Swindler—it would be a second death. Being chewed to bits by the nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon, digested, and reduced to unrecognizable mincemeat was practically Igola's favorite kind of funeral. That way, no one would see his corpse; he would die without a sound, leaving behind no trace of his existence except for sorcerer handbooks and the memories of those who had known him. What did he have to complain about? If he truly had to name any regrets, Igola deeply regretted not beating Harvey to a pulp. The mere thought of having eaten bread spread with corpse-oil jam made his fists clench with rage. And the last time they had soaked in the baths together, Yaxiu had kicked water all over his face before leaving, and he hadn't found an opportunity to hold Yaxiu's head underwater. And... He hadn't been able to see the starry skies of the six countries for Gwen. The Swindler looked up, but above him was only endless white fog. Forget stars—he couldn't even see the night sky. "Determined to send me to Hell brimming with regrets, are you?" he scoffed coldly. Thud! The nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon surged forward abruptly. The spiraling storm formed by its nine bladed tails was like the gaping maw of a man-eating flower, sealing off every avenue of evasion for the Swindler. Dense rows of serrated teeth could hardly wait to tear the blond beauty to shreds! With his right eye blind and the vision in his left eye drastically impaired, Igola could no longer see the dragon's attack clearly. On the verge of being swallowed by the sea, his expression became serenely calm, and he slowly parted his lips! Hum— A silent shriek rippled outward around him like shockwaves. Even without eyes, he could rely on the acoustic feedback to survey his surroundings! As the gaping maw of bladed tails began to snap shut, Igola seemed too late to break out of the encirclement. But at that moment, his physical body suddenly plummeted through the air, moving a notch faster than before! If Yaxiu were present, he would have recognized the rapid-descent technique he had once taught him! Miracle: Visualization Superposition! Yet this time, Igola didn't visualize phantoms to attack for him—with his eyesight, he couldn't visualize anything far away anyway—instead, he visualized phantom Yaxiu and phantom Harvey pulling him along to accelerate! The whole reason Igola had developed this miracle in the first place had been to visualize these two bastards working like beasts of burden for him! Roar! With a roar from the nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon, Igola narrowly burst through the gap, the jagged edges of the tails scraping against his Sanctuary and sending ripples cascading across it. Looking at the two phantoms before him, the corners of the Swindler's lips curled upward uncontrollably. "Looks like before I get my revenge on you two, I can't just—" Hum— The mouthparts of all nine bladed tails opened at once, and hundreds of silent shrieks detonated simultaneously in the white fog. Even though Igola had raised his Sanctuary's sound dampening to the absolute maximum, the sonic blast still struck his mind completely blank—air was also a medium for transmitting sound, and he couldn't block it out entirely! Moreover, this silent shriek... was identical to his Mind Shriek! As long as you realized you were hit by Mind Shriek, you couldn't avoid it even if you punctured your eardrums! This nine-headed Fishcleaver Dragon could absorb and imitate sorcerers' miracles to evolve! Relying on his realm in the mind faction, Igola maintained a final spark of lucidity to fly forward, but he was entirely unable to recover from the dizzying vertigo. In a daze, the Swindler slowly closed his eyes. Yet before his inner sight lay not complete darkness, but a starry sky, Shattered Lake, and— Boom! He faintly heard an immense roar, and then he splashed down onto the Black Sea with a smack. By the time Igola finally regained control of his senses, he heard a soft, cute, unfamiliar female voice speaking beside his ear: "Don't move. I haven't finished healing you yet." Startled, Igola immediately tried to fly back, but the moment he moved, a pair of hands pressed down on his shoulders. "Even stray cats aren't as disobedient as you." The Swindler opened his left eye. Blurry as his vision was, he made out a figure and froze on the spot. "Lisi?"