Departure

“What's happening?” Naturally, Niya was not about to listen to Yaxiu. Shoving his hand aside, she widened her eyes to see what was taking place on the mountain. Yet the spectacle that met her gaze made her pinch Yaxiu's cheek hard. “Am I dreaming?” “Pinch your own cheek...” Yaxiu turned his head. Atop the peak at the edge of the halo stood a crystal sword light piercing the sky, translucent, glittering, and shimmering with an azure luster. Even from such a distance, the edge of the sword light felt as if it were pressed directly against Yaxiu's pupils, sending prickling pains across his whole body. This was a miracle that only a sword sorcerer could create—a volcano formed of tens of millions of swords. Even the turbulent white mist bowed low before it, and the boiling black sea dared not churn up waves that might disturb it. Yet as a fellow sword sorcerer, Yaxiu instantly grasped the terror lurking beneath this breathtaking beauty. *Clang!* The sword light collapsed like a falling skyscraper. Every shattered shard struck out recklessly, howling as it swept across the mountains and strangled the sky! The hidden legendary sword sorcerer wanted to clear the board, unleashing an area-of-effect miracle of catastrophic proportions to attack every hunter—or rather, every prey—in the mountains! With the storm of silver feathers ended, the sorcerers' restraints were gone, and the other legends wanted to seize this chance to eliminate their rivals in the angel hunt! “Close your eyes!” Without caring whether Niya would resist, Yaxiu clamped a hand over her eyes and expanded his Sanctuary, his head spinning with dizziness. His sorcery mana was already hovering at the perilous ten percent threshold; dropping below ten percent meant the risk of soul shock at any second, knocking him unconscious no matter where he was. Enduring the splitting headache, he shrank his Sanctuary as small as possible to minimize his target area. To his surprise, Niya did not fight him. She let him hold her obediently, pressing virtually her whole body against his. Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief. If Niya had insisted on opening her eyes or making a fuss, he could only have resigned himself to death. Whether she was the Prime Angel or not, Niya was an “ordinary person” capable of triggering the mysterious chains. The moment she witnessed esoteric phenomena like a Sanctuary or miracle, Yaxiu could expect his sorcery mana to evaporate completely. Perhaps that legendary sword sorcerer had acted out of the same concern, which was why they had launched such a massive area attack—even if an ordinary person were present, they certainly would not be able to pinpoint the caster. Shards of sword light hailed down onto his Sanctuary. Fortunately, Yaxiu was far away; the collapsing sword light was mainly directed at the summit, and by the time it spread to his area, less than a tenth of its force remained. More importantly, Yaxiu was not the only sorcerer on this mountain. A fierce battle erupted atop the peak. Unfortunately, Yaxiu was simply too exhausted. Blood seeped from all over his body, and his head buzzed so hard he could black out at any moment, like a battered trash bag. Unable to pay attention to the intense clash on the peak, he could only catch vague glimpses of a blazing halberd swinging fiercely. She truly was the greediest scumbag Yaxiu had ever seen, and truly worthy of being the Spectre Prophet who gave even Divine Lords headaches. Vichy had to have only ten percent sorcery mana left, just like him, yet she actually dared to join the fiercest post-season showdown of the angel hunt instead of fleeing immediately. What a suicidal lunatic. Still, if Vichy knew that the reason Yaxiu had not contested the peak was that he was busy whispering sweet nothings with the Sword Princess, she would surely laugh at him for being a madman too. Sorcerers were just like that: each considered themselves a hero, and everyone else a lunatic. “What's going on?” Niya's voice was so soft that neither joy nor sorrow could be discerned in it. “Is it something I'm not allowed to know?” “I don't mean to keep secrets from you, but explaining it is too complicated,” Yaxiu said softly. “And I'm about to die of exhaustion right now.” “Mm. Then we'll talk about it later.” So obedient. Perhaps it was the sense of crisis, Yaxiu thought. Even though Niya hated him and usually carried herself with reckless abandon—blowing up a police department as casually as unlocking an achievement—she was not a bomb-wielding maniac rushing to restart her life. She still wanted to live. Since she possessed Sonia's swordsmanship, she naturally possessed Sonia's danger sense. Even if she could not see, she understood she was in imminent peril, and the only person who could protect her was Yaxiu, whom she despised. As long as she did not want to die, she would not cause trouble for him at a time like this. Still, it was a bizarre experience. He had just held her body a moment ago when Sonia was manifested, yet his feelings were entirely different. Even with Niya being this quiet, Yaxiu could not find a trace of Sonia in her. If Sonia was an elegant domestic cat that constantly groomed herself, loved cleanliness, and pretended to be an aristocratic Scottish Fold, then Niya was a filthy stray cat—so vicious that no one dared approach. “Yaxiu!” Yaxiu looked up. With the storm of silver feathers dying down, visibility on the mountain had naturally returned to normal. Not far away, a blonde girl crawling on the ground to dodge shards of sword light looked at Yaxiu in delighted surprise. But Yaxiu's face changed drastically. “Roll left!” Even though Feili obeyed the command without hesitation, a shard of sword light still slashed across her back. Tears welled up instantly from the pain, and she only dared to inch forward across the ground. “Who is it?” Niya heard it too. “Feili, my assistant. She used to be your classmate,” Yaxiu said. “I need to go save her. Can you keep your eyes closed the whole time?” “Okay.” “Pardon me.” Yaxiu scooped Niya up into a bridal carry, wrapping his arms around her waist and thighs. Niya kept her head down the whole time, but she wrapped her arms around Yaxiu's neck and shifted her center of gravity to make it as easy as possible for him to carry her. Hurt and terrified, Feili saw Yaxiu jog over and crouch down in front of her. “All aboard! Yaxiu's private express at your service. Have you learned to fly yet?” Like an experienced knight, Feili deftly mounted Yaxiu's back, clamping her long thighs tight around his waist. “Not yet,” she said in shame. Then she tilted her head to look at the red-haired girl with bowed head in his arms. “This looks like...” “Save the reunion with an old friend for after we leave,” Yaxiu said weakly. “Feili, become my demon.” The little sheep could also tell Yaxiu was in terrible shape. “Okay.” *Boom!* A second crystal sword light towered once more between heaven and earth. The black sea and the monsters turned violent together, surging up the mountain, while the dense white mist dissolved into torrential rain, washing over all things. This hunting ground was collapsing. The Divine Lord of Stars was definitely the type who never put away his toys after playing with them as a child. He set up this grand hunt, and once he was done and bored, he just walked away. Then again, He had treated millions in Canaan City as sacrifices; why would He care about the mess left behind? When one had had their fill at a feast, it was time to leave the table; who would volunteer to do the dishes? “We're leaving. Niya, you can open your eyes.” Once Yaxiu entered the demon attendant state, he was naturally no longer afraid of the mysterious chains. “But we need to notify them... Feili, can you direct the Heart Sword to circle around the mountain?” “I'll try!” Feili had duplicated Yaxiu's complete set of sorcery mana and sorcery spirits, but she had no idea how to use them, let alone fight. Niya opened her eyes just in time to see a ray of sword light shoot from Feili's fingertips, circling once around the mountain. If the others saw this ray of sword light, they would understand that Yaxiu was slipping away. Yaxiu spread his wings and carried them away, no longer worrying about Vichy, Igola, or Harvey. After all, aside from Vichy, he could not even confirm if the other two were nearby. If they were still alive, they would certainly realize the angel hunt was over by now. They knew enough to take shelter when it rained; they would definitely know to run now. “Wait.” Niya suddenly drew the longsword at her waist. Just as Yaxiu was thinking she was finally going to stir up trouble, he saw her flick her sword tip, scooping up two golden fish scales from two puddles of golden water on the ground. Those two pools of golden water were what remained of the golden fish's corpse. Niya was simply claiming her spoils, so Yaxiu said nothing. Once she sheathed her sword, he flew the two girls away from the mountain, evading the collapse of the second wave of crystal sword light. The black sea that had been spilling outward earlier now surged violently back toward the core area, as if a plug had been pulled from a drain. The thick fog coalesced into a rainstorm, accompanied by intermittent flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder—resembling both an apocalypse and the weeping of the sky. “Feili, what happened to you after we got separated?” His mana depletion was more severe than Yaxiu had anticipated. After all, he rarely drained his sorcery mana completely. It was like a virgin with zero experience and zero foundation suddenly being ambushed by a long-celibate Veela—facing the final boss before even doing the tutorial quests. Naturally, it was a torment bordering on the edge of life and death. Yet the two girls with him depended on him to get them out, so he had to find ways to keep his focus sharp. “I—the first thing I did was look for you and Sister Vichy,” Feili said. “But those feathers were so annoying, and I couldn't hear your voices, so I kept shouting while walking up the mountain.” Only then did Yaxiu notice Feili's voice was a bit hoarse. He smiled. “You're brave. I thought you'd be bawling your eyes out.” Feili blushed. She really had been crying while shouting, and what she had shouted was: *Yaxiu, don't leave me behind!* ... But that was completely normal! She had suddenly been dropped into a strange and dangerous place with no one around, in a situation far more perilous than wilderness survival. At the time, she had almost thought Yaxiu was pranking her! “Then I just kept walking, kept walking, until I reached the mountain peak.” “Mm... wait, what?” Yaxiu froze, then turned to stare at Feili. “You reached the peak?! Without running into anyone else or facing any danger? But that makes no sense—Vichy was clearly ahead of us!” “Actually, I'm pretty fast at climbing mountains?” Feili tilted her head. “And you didn't run into any monsters? Like a golden fish or something?” “Nope.” *So that damned fish really was gunning for me,* Yaxiu thought. Evidently, the golden fish that attacked Yaxiu was the one guarding the silver wings, not some mass-produced monster. As for why the mountain clearly had sorcerers who deserved to die far more, like Vichy, yet the golden fish insisted on attacking Yaxiu—who, romantic relationship problems aside, was completely blameless—excluding the possibility that this was a fish of pure romantic devotion, the only reason was obviously that Yaxiu was a feeler of the Four Pillar Gods. After all, the golden fish had kept muttering “you four.” It seemed that not only did the Four Pillar Gods want to kill the Prime Angel, but the Prime Angel's wings also desperately wanted to kill the Four Pillar Gods. Then why don't you two fight each other? Why come after me? “So what did you find at the mountain peak?” “Um...” Feili pondered how to describe it. “I saw something like a silver holy grail made of liquid, and feathers kept flying out of it.” “A silver holy grail?” Yaxiu said. “So it wasn't a chicken wing... And then?” “I remembered you all wanted to take whatever the angel left behind, so I reached out to grab it. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't touch the grail. Just then, noises came from another direction. I panicked, and since the silver holy grail was made of liquid, I gave a hard slurp—” “And sucked down a small sip of the silver holy grail.” The refreshing effect was immediate. Yaxiu was completely dumbfounded, his drowsiness vanishing without a trace. “You sucked up the silver holy grail? Does your stomach hurt? Do you feel sick?” “Nope.” Feili shook her head repeatedly. “It felt like having a sip of jelly.” Yaxiu nodded as he listened, unable to resist glancing at Feili's small mouth. “It sounds like you sucked up the silver holy grail across empty air. Feili, your suction power did wonders!” There was nothing wrong with what the man said; the issue lay in an adolescent girl's mind combined with the maid's wicked whispers. The moment she remembered the bizarre bedroom antics Vichy had told her about, Feili felt as though Yaxiu were hinting at something, blushing so hard she momentarily forgot the pain in her back. Yaxiu did not mind Feili taking a piece of the angel's remains. From the moment he decided to squander time on Sonia's brief stay, he knew he was out of the running for dividing the spoils in this angel hunt. Feili taking a bite was pure profit—better than having the whole thing swallowed by Vichy or the other competitors. “Still, if that's the case, Vichy probably got a bite too,” Yaxiu mused. “Is there any way to make her spit it out...” Feili's perky rear clenched tight at his words, and she whimpered, “I've already swallowed it, I can't spit it out! At most... at most I can only...” “Ah, you're fine. If you ate it, you ate it,” Yaxiu said. “And then you ran back down?” Feili nodded. “When I left, I heard what sounded like fighting on the peak, so I ran even faster. I even tripped and fell several times. Going downhill was way harder than climbing up.”