It was a noble silver that even the white fog could not obscure, a supreme white that even the Black Sea could not drown. It seemed less like something standing between heaven and earth and more like a pillar propping up the sky and anchoring the ground. As its feathers gently rustled, the sorcerers' breathing fell into sync with it, deeply stirred by the immense vitality radiating from the Silver Wing.
Its vitality had long surpassed the bounds of measurable terms, just as a star sorcerer could never count the stars, nor a water sorcerer the drops of water in the sea.
It was the primordial color of the world, an existence transcending all things.
Only now did Yaxiu finally grasp the Divine Lord of Stars' true ambition. At first, he had thought the Divine Lord of Stars was acting like a cannibal yearning to feast on roasted angel wings. Later, he had thought the Divine Lord of Stars merely wanted to thrash the property manager of the Void Realm. Now, he realized that no matter how highly he had estimated the Divine Lord, he had still underestimated Him.
What He was doing was no different from devouring the galaxy, monopolizing time, and reversing entropy! The Prime Angel was the very embodiment of the Void Realm; even a single one of its wings constituted a corner of the world!
Even when imprisoned, broken, and corroded, how could the Silver Wing be devoured so easily? Even if this cage had been crafted by the Divine Lord of Stars, the cage itself was still part of the world.
If being born required creating an account, then all living beings must have signed an unfair terms of service: over space, time, life, and energy, we possess only the right of use, never ownership.
Life had always belonged to the world; life did not own the world!
Thus, even when locked in the filthiest dungeon, an angel was merely returning to its coziest home. Because the Void Realm was the angel, and the angel was the Void Realm!
Yet sorcerers were a bunch of vile, shameless beings consumed by intense desires, and the Divine Lord was the most outstanding among these thieves.
Without defiling the purest color, how could one vent one's madness? Without tearing up the old canvas, where would there be room to paint anew?
The Divine Lord of Stars had succeeded, but not entirely. To consume the world's 'flesh' inside the world's 'body,' one first had to overcome the world's immune system.
Those Ruby Mountain-tier Void Realm creatures were the vanguard of that immunity.
And this Golden Fish was the commander in chief.
It felt like a silent mockery; Yaxiu even suspected the Silver Wing possessed its own consciousness. The Golden Fish had originated as a creature fabricated by sorcerers. Though a metaphor for secret poisons, it also reflected the greed and sloth of sorcerers seeking shortcuts.
Using a Golden Fish to deal with greedy sorcerers attempting to devour an angel was like beating a covetous merchant to death with bags of money, or having a Veela drain a shameless scoundrel building a harem until he dropped dead.
With an elegant flick of its tail, the Golden Fish swam around the Silver Wing. Whenever it turned in their direction, the sorcerers felt as though it were coldly glaring at them, rendering them momentarily afraid to make a move.
Yet while they did not move, everything else did.
The calm Black Sea suddenly began to boil. Conjoined Fishcleaver Dragons sporting hearts and arrows, albino fox-lantern dragons, and mudfish dragons dripping with blazing black oil—not just one or two, not eight or ten, but hundreds of them leaped out of the Black Sea together to assault Yaxiu. Everywhere he looked were fish dragons, as if fish were raining from the sky.
The waters roared and the air howled, as though the world itself were punishing madmen who dared desecrate the divine.
Miracle: Heart Pen!
Weixi and Feili pressed close behind Yaxiu, the miracle's might rewriting the world according to his will. Inky streaks swept across the sky, erasing flesh, bone, sound waves, light, and air—wiping away every tangible thing until only invisible, lethal sword marks remained.
Relying on this move, Yaxiu had slaughtered every monster he crossed paths with along the way; nothing had survived a second longer.
Yet what he faced this time was the frenzied struggle of an angel's wing.
The ink marks that formed a forbidden zone of death were rapidly fading. Hundreds and thousands of monsters charged at Yaxiu wave after wave, using their own flesh and blood to foul his masterpiece. Only now did Yaxiu realize that this place was the true stronghold of Void Realm creatures; the Black Sea probably held far more fish than water.
Heart Pen! Heart Pen! Heart Pen!
Yaxiu squandered his demigod trial power without restraint, yet the situation showed no signs of improvement. His sorcery mana steadily dropped, while the monsters showed no hint of waning, breeding faster than a swarm of Lalafell.
"I need some time," Yaxiu said.
"As you wish, Master." Weixi floated in front of him. "Please, make use of me."
With a darkened expression, Yaxiu reached out and gripped the handles at the dimples of her waist. To unleash the full might of a god, he had to make direct contact with their void wings. Watching them, Feili felt both a trace of envy and a wave of shyness. Remembering Weixi's suggestive description, she could not help imagining strange, scandalous scenes.
The moment Yaxiu took hold of Weixi's handles, the sword light coalescing from Heart Pen visibly doubled in size.
Greater Heart Pen!
As a colossal arc of ink swept in a full circle, the area around Yaxiu turned completely into an ink-streaked death zone. Seizing this brief window, he looked toward the Silver Wing and the Golden Fish on the distant ridge, tightened his grip on Weixi's waist handles, and launched a sacrilegious charge straight at the angel!
Vast, inky sword light sliced across the vault of heaven, like a brush sweeping across the world!
All of this was reflected in the Golden Fish's eyes. It continued swimming in silence, as if nothing could disturb the tranquility it guarded.
Before Yaxiu's eyes, the straight ink stroke suddenly slowed and bent, warping until it compressed into a tight clump, before abruptly accelerating and shooting off toward the opposite side of the mountain ridge.
Just as Yaxiu stood stunned, he saw several jet-black wraith pulses shoot toward the Silver Wing from afar. Yet under the Golden Fish's gaze, those pulses suddenly shifted course, bunched together into a massive sphere, and hurtled straight toward Yaxiu!
"Son of a—!" Yaxiu could not help cursing. It wasn't that he couldn't handle the wraith pulses, but aside from those pulses, attacks were raining down on the Silver Wing from every direction! Distorted by the warping of time and space, these attacks compressed into dense clusters, losing none of their power while redirecting toward him even faster and more fiercely!
Even though not all of these assaults were directed at him, he dared not let his guard down. He hastily erected seven layers of ink barriers before him. By then, the fish dragons he had just cleared began surging forward again, their ear-splitting howls and hideous forms overwhelming his senses!
"This really is..." Weixi's expression turned grim as well. "A nuisance."
So far, the abilities demonstrated by the Golden Fish were nothing beyond time and space: slowing, advancing, or rewinding time, and distorting or relocating space. While these were undeniably formidable powers, it was unclear whether the fish was constrained or simply acting on pure instinct to protect the Silver Wing, as it did not use its space-time might to attack sorcerers directly.
The real trouble for the sorcerers stemmed from the Void Realm creatures catalyzed by the Silver Wing. Even though Yaxiu could easily obliterate them, his sorcery mana was ultimately finite, and Weixi and Feili could not unleash the might of gods indefinitely. Sooner or later, their mana would run dry.
If it were only this, it might still have been manageable. The problem was that other demon sorcerers were present!
Against these greedy sorcerers, the Golden Fish could not reflect their attacks back along their original paths, but it could redirect their strikes onto others—making them even faster and more devastating in the process!
The more people besieged the Golden Fish, the more miracle splash damage the sorcerers suffered. Unless they withdrew from the combat zone immediately, Yaxiu and his companions would be forced to face the dual threat of Void Realm creatures and rival sorcerers!
Any sane person would have backed down at this point. After all, no matter how hard one tried, all it achieved was making others take hits and taking hits oneself, while the Golden Fish serenely circled the wing, completely untouched... It was utterly insoluble!
Yet the demon maid was no ordinary person. She said coldly, "Yaxiu, don't hold back your mana. Bombard the Silver Wing with everything you've got!"
"This is the Divine Lord of Stars' cage. The Golden Fish's miracles are definitely not free; it's most likely expending the Silver Wing's own energy. As long as we exhaust its miracles, we might get a chance to take a bite out of that angel wing!"
"And what if our mana runs out first?" Yaxiu replied coolly.
"Then you two die here, and I resurrect using my soul phylactery." Weixi glanced back at him, hiding nothing.
Yaxiu exchanged a look with Feili. At that moment, the Golden Fish redirected several more miracles their way; evidently, the demon sorcerers in other directions had made their choice.
"Twenty percent," he said, shaping his arts. "The moment my sorcery mana drops to twenty percent, I'm pulling out immediately. I may covet power, but I'm no slave to it. I fight for happiness, not for some mad dream."
"Master, I like you best of all." The maid broke into a radiant smile. "You may not be a slave to power, but I'll gladly be your slave for life."
"Much as I'd hate to deal with you, I sincerely hope you spend your whole life doing community service under my orders."
"In fact, we have a massive advantage," Weixi said. "Don't forget, we don't just wield demigod-level combat power—I am a genuine, bona fide demigod! Even if those other demon sorcerers manage to boost their power to demigod level, at their core they're still just legendary sorcerers, clumsy as children trying to steer a heavy carriage."
"We're different. I'm a heavy carriage who will actively cooperate with you, so our miracles will easily crush their offensives. We might even wipe out all our potential competitors in the process!"
"Stop being unhinged."
Inside Yaxiu's soul, sword-colored sorcery mana surged violently. He gripped the handles at Weixi's waist, while Feili quietly supported his back. As their minds fused into one, a gargantuan stroke of ink slashed across the heavens!
Chapter 834